History InNameOnly / LiveActionTV

* In ''Series/SpiderManJapan'', the eponymous hero looks like Franchise/SpiderMan and has the same powers, but he is more a {{toku}}satsu superhero (in fact being '''the''' predecessor for ''Super Sentai'''s HumongousMecha elements) than a comic book superhero. He has a wrist-worn transformation device (although it merely stores the Spider-Man suit in this case), a Spider-Car (technically the comic had one too, but it was totally different and short-lived), his webshooters are voice-activated (he would shout ''Spider String!'') and last but not least, he has a ''HumongousMecha''. Yeah. Imagine Peter "constantly strapped for cash" Parker being able to buy, repair, refuel and run general maintenance on a robot the size of a skyscraper.\\

* A decade and a half after ''WesternAnimation/{{ReBoot}}'' ended on a {{Cliffhanger}}, Creator/RainmakerEntertainment decided to, well, [[JustForPun reboot]] the franchise with ''Reboot: The Guardian Code'', a live action/CGI hybrid rather than the groundbreaking AllCGICartoon that was the original. It wound up abandoning the original story almost completely in favor of having TeenagersWithAttitude and their RobotGirl friend jack in into Mainframe to fight Megabyte and an evil, hoodie-clad hacker. About the only things it had in common were Megabyte appeared, CGI was used, and that it's a Canadian production. Fan reaction to the trailer was [[InternetBacklash acidic]], with plot and visual comparisons to Franchise/PowerRangers, Series/VRTroopers, WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko.

* The ManiacMansion TV show had basically nothing to do with the LucasArts PC game, beyond the fact that there were a bunch of maniacs living in a mansion and one of them was named Dr. Fred.

* ''Series/BaywatchNights'' which was still starring by David Hasselhoff as Mitch Buchannon, as well as a few other characters from the main series showing up, which was the only reason to keep the name since he was not a lifeguard anymore.
* ''Series/BoardwalkEmpire'' is supposedly inspired by Nelson Johnson's non-fiction History book ''Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times and Corruption of Atlantic City'', but is actually a fictional crime drama set in 1920s USA that follows a very fictionalized version of an historical character mentioned in the book.

* NBC's ''Series/{{Dracula}}'' is quite literaly ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'' in name only. The show was so unconnected to the original novel that you could have changed literally every character's name, even Dracula himself, and lost ''nothing''.
* Slightly averted case: In the 1980s, an American production company approached Creator/JohnCleese with the intention of remaking ''Series/FawltyTowers'' for an American audience. When he asked them about it, they told him they'd only made one slight change from the original; they'd removed the character of Basil Fawlty. They end up making it, without the Basil Fawlty character, but changed the name right before air. It was called ''Amanda's'' and it starred Creator/BeaArthur.

** "The Man Who Felt Queer" Simpson and the crew of the ''Justinian'' are rescued after it is sunk and absorbed into the ''Indefatigable'', leading to Simpson taking part in the raid on the ''Papillon''. Archie Kennedy has a seizure, and Hornblower must knock him unconscious to avoid giving away their presence. Simpson then casts loose the jolly boat and shoots Hornblower. Finch dives overboard to save Hornblower, who takes command of the ''Papillon'' in battle against French corvettes. Hornblower later accuses Simpson of trying to murder him and re-opens the duel. In the book, Simpson and the ''Justinian'' never reappear, it is a seaman called Hales who has a seizure, the jolly boat is lost in the course of battle and the ''Papillon'' is simply captured and not involved in a fight against the French.

* The ManiacMansion TV show had almost nothing to do with the LucasArts PC game, beyond the fact that there were a bunch of maniacs living in a mansion and one of them was named Dr. Fred.

* The upcoming ''[[ComicBook/TheDefenders Defenders]]'' Creator/{{Netflix}} show will not be based off the comic (which was about a secret group of heroes best known for their founding four -- Comicbook/DoctorStrange, [[Comicbook/IncredibleHulk The Hulk]], [[Comicbook/SubMariner Namor the Sub-Mariner]], and the Comicbook/SilverSurfer). Instead, it will feature a RagTagBunchOfMisfits consisting of Comicbook/{{Luke Cage|HeroForHire}}, [[Comicbook/ImmortalIronFist Iron Fist]], Comicbook/JessicaJones and Comicbook/{{Daredevil}}.
* ''Series/TheElectricCompany2009'': This "revival" has almost nothing in common with [[Series/TheElectricCompany1971 its predecessor]] but its name! Bad enough they threw in a "they fight crime with superpowers" motif, that has little, if anything to do with phonics, but they even ruined the softshoe silhouettes. Why even bother calling it ''The Electric Company''?

* ''Series/LegendOfTheSeeker,'' while not technically bearing the same name as ''Literature/SwordOfTruth,'' is very much in the spirit of this Trope. The series is "based" on the first book, ''Wizard's First Rule'', but past the first half of the pilot episode, you can basically take everything you remember from the book and just stop expecting any of it to match. There are a ton of characters that share the same names but have completely different appearances, attitudes and role, and while there are a few episodes that are closer to chapters in the book than others, overall it bears little resemblance.

* The live-action version of Spanish children's books ''Manolito Gafotas''. The eponymous KidHero was DemotedToExtra, his [[EnsembleDarkHorse popular little brother]] even more so, and much of the plot centered on his parents and neighbours, most of which were bit players on the novels. In particular, Manolito's dad and his godfather became {{Ascended Extra}}s, getting even more role than ''Manolito himself'' at times. Oh, and the plots of the novels were all but ignored. In short, it was basically a generic Spanish SitCom with the names of the ''Manolito Gafotas'' cast.

* A European series called ''Katz And Dog'' turned into this when it was aired in America. It was renamed ''Rin Tin Tin:K-9 Cop'', presumably because the distributors hoped it'd sell better, but it had nothing to do with the original Rin Tin Tin franchise.

* Japanese ''[[Series/SpiderManJapan Spider-Man]]'': The eponymous hero looks like Franchise/SpiderMan and has the same powers, but he is more a {{toku}}satsu superhero (in fact being '''the''' predecessor for ''Super Sentai'''s HumongousMecha elements) than a comic book superhero. He has a wrist-worm transformation device (although it merely stores the Spider-Man suit in this case), a Spider car (technically the comic had one too, but it was totally different and short-lived), his webshooters are voice-activated (he would shout ''Spider String!'') and last but not least, he has a ''HumongousMecha''. Yeah. Imagine Peter "constantly strapped for cash" Parker being able to buy, repair, refuel and run general maintenance on a robot the size of a skyscraper.\\

Nevertheless, Creator/StanLee was actually involved in the production, and has said several times that he thought the series was excellent, even praising its creativity (and thus its deviance from the character ''he created''). There's an interview with him on the Japanese DVD box set. Apparently, Lee is not too familiar with Japanese media. While the [[HumongousMecha battle mechas]] would be seen as creative at the time, seeing how Spider-Man was the first to do that, everything else, from the transformation device to most of the plot, seems to be copied straight from ''Series/HimitsuSentaiGoranger'' and ''Series/JAKQDengekitai'', two show which were already released at the time. This was likely Lee's first exposure to Japanese Tokusastu as Marvel would later produce ''Series/BattleFeverJ'' and Lee would later attempt to unsuccessfully bring ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' to America.
* ''Series/StargateUniverse'' is ''very'' different from the [[Series/StargateSG1 previous]] [[Series/StargateAtlantis two]] series in the Franchise/StargateVerse, swapping out the GenreSavvy characters, theme of exploration, and CoolGate for {{Angst}}, [[DarkerAndEdgier grit]], and a million year old space ship that's ready to fall apart at the seams. Half the time the gate on the ''Destiny'' seems to serve only as a reminder that yes, this is Stargate (no matter [[DisContinuity how much SG1 and SGA fans disagree]].) Basically, it's a SoapOpera.
* ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' in Korea is named as Power Rangers instead of the ''Super Sentai'' names of the series that air there.
** Especially ''Series/BakuryuuSentaiAbaranger'' and ''Series/TokusouSentaiDekaranger'' which aired as ''Series/PowerRangersDinoThunder'' and ''Series/PowerRangersSPD'' (the same name as their Power Rangers counterparts) despite not actually being those series.

* In 2011, NBC made a pilot for a ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' TV series. [[Series/WonderWoman2011Pilot Their version]] of Wondy had more in common with {{Franchise/Batman}} than Wonder Woman, being a rich corporate executive who moonlights as a superhero. Little is made of her Amazon upbringing. Her Lasso of Truth is used only to snag enemies, and never to reveal the truth from anyone, [[JackBauerInterrogationTechnique or does it in a more mundane manner]]. The concept of using the Wonder Woman persona as a company symbol for the public also mirrors the premise of ''Batman Incorporated''.
* NBC just announced that they're planning a new version of ''Literature/OliverTwist'', but they're planning a "sexy, contemporary” version of the [[Creator/CharlesDickens Charles Dickens]]’ tale". The story will be about a 20-something young woman who “finally finds a true sense of family in a strange group of talented outcasts who use their unique skills to take down wealthy criminals.” WTF...

* ''Series/TheElectricCompany'': Its 2009 "revival" has almost nothing in common with its predecessor but its name! Bad enough they threw in a "they fight crime with superpowers" motif, that has little, if anything to do with phonics, but they even ruined the softshoe silhouettes. Why even bother calling it ''The Electric Company''?

* Creator/TheBBC's ''Series/LarkRiseToCandleford'' and ''TheParadise'' exported the setting and characters, but not the plot, from Flora Thompson's book and Emile Zola's ''Ladies' Paradise'' respectively.

* Many a PoorlyDisguisedPilot ends up being this in regards to the show it's being pitched during. The characters the series usually centers on barely have any screentime at all, if they even get any.
* The trend over the last decade to produce in-name-only remakes of 1970s-era series has led to new versions of ''Series/BionicWoman'', ''Series/{{McCloud}}'', ''Series/{{Ironside 1967}}'', and ''Series/{{Kojak}}'', that tended to port over character names but little else (including the formulas that made the original shows successes).
* The 2014 series ''Series/TheLastShip'' has a different premise, story, and setting than the original [[Literature/TheLastShip novel]]. While the name of the destroyer remains the same, the fact that the events take place in the 21st century means that the "UsefulNotes/ColdWar going hot" theme won't play out. The plot is, instead, a global pandemic that wipes out a sizable percentage of the world population, and the destroyer is the location of a lab by a scientist attempting to find the vaccine. With the world governments collapsing, the danger is still real, as the destroyer is soon attacked by a half-a-dozen Russian helicopter gunships (the Russian government has ceased to exist). Commander [[Series/GreysAnatomy McStea-]], sorry, Chandler, together with his XO [[Creator/AdamBaldwin Jayn-]], sorry again, Slattery has to keep his ship away from civilization, while a doctor tries to figure out the cure.
* ''Les petits meurtres d'Agatha Christie'' very loosely adapts plots from both the Poirot and Miss Marple series, but replaces both of the original detectives with policemen (Larosière in seasons 1-3; Laurence in seasons 4-6), alters storylines considerably, and resets everything in post-WWII France.
* The original ''Literature/TheLegendOfSleepyHollow'' was a comic tale involving a man playing a prank on a romantic rival. The television show ''Series/SleepyHollow'' is the story of a [[FishOutOfTemporalWater time-displaced]] [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution Revolutionary War soldier]] who [[TheyFightCrime teams up with a local cop]] to fight [[AllMythsAreTrue demons and supernatural entities]].

* The TV series based on the movie ''Film/{{Fargo}}'' is looking like this, as none of the film's characters (not even Marge Gunderson, the film's heroine) will be included and will instead be a different story with similar characters taking place in the same setting as the film.

* The ITV/AMC remake of ''Series/ThePrisoner'' bears only the faintest resemblance to the original -- it occurs in a place called The Village, the hero is called Number Six and the villain is called Number Two, and that's about it. The underlying premise is almost ''totally'' different.

* The series ''Series/IWasASixthGradeAlien'' (aka ''My Best Friend Is An Alien'') is ostensibly based on Bruce Coville's "Literature/MyTeacherIsAnAlien" books, except for the part where its main similarity is that aliens are involved. None of the characters make the transition, the goal of finding out if your teacher is an alien and/or winning a HumanityOnTrial situation is dropped, and the aliens are openly visiting Earth and even have an embassy rather than spying on us to see if we merit continued existence. In the series, Pleskit is the eponymous sixth-grade alien's name; in the books, it's the name of a foodstuff. Enough said.

** On top of that, its second season is such a complete ReTool that ''Nights'' ends up being ''itself'' in name only!

** ''The series itself'' undergoes a ReTool from CopShow to sci-fi, making season two ''Baywatch Nights'' in name only even ''more'' than season one was ''Series/{{Baywatch}}'' in name only.

* ''Series/LegendOfTheSeeker,'' while not technically bearing the same name as ''Literature/SwordOfTruth,'' is very much in the spirit of this Trope. The series is "based" on the first book, ''Wizard's First Rule'', but past the first half of the pilot episode, you can basically take everything you remember from the book and just stop expecting any of it to match. There are a ton of characters that share the same names but have completely different appearances, attitudes and role, and while there are a few episodes that are closer to chapters in the book than others, overall most fans of the book who watch it would be sorely disappointed. Anyone who hasn't read the book or just doesn't care about the changes might enjoy it, though... if they could get past the campy fantasy stereotypes.
** Given that the first book's BigBad is killed (rather anticlimactically and ''not'' by the protagonist) at the end of the first season, and the Zedd reveals the second wizard's rule at the beginning of the second season, it can be assumed that the show's creators hoped to have a book-per-season sort of deal. This leaves the viewers (even those who haven't read the books) wanting, when each season is quickly wrapped up in a single episode. Oh, and [[spoiler:Rahl]] gets better in the second season.
** Some of the changes were simply pragmatic. For example, the likeliest reason why [[spoiler:Darken Rahl is Richard's brother instead of father]] is that [[spoiler:Craig Parker (Rahl) is not much older than Craig Horner (Richard)]].
** Some of the differences from the book, at least, received some nods in the show, such as one of the biggest complaints by the fans of the books that Rahl doesn't have white hair in the show. The flashbacks in season 2 reveal that Panis Rahl, his father, had white hair.
* In the early nineties, a fifty-ish TerrenceHill starred in the Italian movie and following TV-series ''Comicbook/LuckyLuke'', about a gunfighter in TheWildWest with a BadassLongcoat, dressed entirely in white, who took up a job as sheriff in Daisy Town. The whole thing looked as if someone had read the back-cover of a Lucky Luke comic and based everything around that.

* ''Series/{{Merlin}}'': Take everything you thought you knew about Arthurian Legend and throw it out the window. Arthur is a Prince right from the start, there's a dragon under the castle, Merlin is Arthur's servant who is around his age rather than much older, magic is outlawed, Morgana is not a villain, Gwen is dark-skinned... Then again, the [[KingArthur Arthurian Mythos]] has been doing this with every iteration of King Arthur since before the written word, so it's tradition.
** As of series 3, Morgana is, in fact, a villain - and, to be fair about that, the seeds of her FaceHeelTurn were planted with the introduction of Mordred in series 1.
** For further deviations from previous versions, however, a number of the named Knights of the Round Table are killed off over the course of the series, well before the Round Table is formed. (EG: Owain and Pellinore at the hands of the Black Knight.)

** The character's extremely violent and unheroic behavior clashes with even the most DarkerAndEdgier portrayals of the comics characters (in the comics, when the ProudWarriorRace nature of the Amazons comes to take center stage, ThouShaltNotKill is averted in light of the fact that she is a soldier. A dark storyline might put her among enemies that really, ''really'' need to get dead. In such a case, Batman would move heaven and earth to find a way to TakeAThirdOption; Wonder Woman wouldn't. However, this doesn't mean that she is every bit as murderous and brutal as the worst of her villains; the show version ''very much'' is, to the point that no one who has seen it considers her the hero. Basically, there's a ''reason'' this never got past the pilot stage.)

* ''Ferris Bueller'', the 1990 sitcom. The protagonist is a teenager who can do virtually anything and often [[BreakingTheFourthWall breaks the fourth wall,]] he has a bratty sister and a suspicious principal who are constantly trying to bust him, and he has a neurotic best friend and a cute girlfriend. The similarities to [[Film/FerrisBuellersDayOff the film]] end there. The series takes place in L.A. instead of Chicago, the soundtrack is absolutely wretched, Ferris and Jeannie's ages are reversed, Ferris is regarded by his peers as a nerd, Cameron's characterization is reduced to [[{{Flanderization}} "He's a hypochondriac; laugh at him"]], and the whole general environment is [[WorldOfWeirdness wacky and over-the-top,]] ensuring that Ferris blends right in instead of standing out. Oh, and Ferris and company ''attend school'' in every episode.

** ''The series itself'' undergoes a ReTool from CopShow to sci-fi, making season two ''Baywatch Nights'' in name only even ''more'' than season one was ''{{Baywatch}}'' in name only.

* The trend over the last decade to produce in-name-only remakes of 1970s-era series has led to new versions of ''Series/BionicWoman'', ''Series/{{McCloud}}'', ''Series/{{Ironside}}'', and ''Series/{{Kojak}}'', that tended to port over character names but little else (including the formulas that made the original shows successes).

** "The Man Who Felt Queer" Simpson and the crew of the ''Justinian'' are rescued after it is sunk and absorbed into the ''Indefatigable'', leading to Simpson taking part in the raid on the ''Papillon''. Archie Kennedy has a seizure, and Hornblower must knock him unconscious to avoid giving away their presence. Simpson then casts loose the jolly boat and shoots Hornblower. Finch dives overboard to save Hornblower, who takes command of the ''Papillon'' in battle against French corvettes. Hornblower later accuses Simpson of trying to murder him and re-opens the duel. In the book, Simpson and the ''Justinian'' never reappear, it is a seaman called Hales who has a seizure, the jolly boat is lost in the course of battle, and the ''Papillon'' is simply captured and not involved in a fight against the French.

* TheNewMonkees, It's a musical/comedy starring a band, made up of four cute boys selected by the shows' creators; the similarities to [[Series/TheMonkees the classic series]] end there.

* The 2014 series ''Series/TheLastShip'' has a different premise, story, and setting than the original [[Literature/TheLastShip novel]]. While the name of the destroyer remains the same, the fact that the events take place in the 21st century means that the "ColdWar going hot" theme won't play out. The plot is, instead, a global pandemic that wipes out a sizable percentage of the world population, and the destroyer is the location of a lab by a scientist attempting to find the vaccine. With the world governments collapsing, the danger is still real, as the destroyer is soon attacked by a half-a-dozen Russian helicopter gunships (the Russian government has ceased to exist). Commander [[Series/GreysAnatomy McStea-]], sorry, Chandler, together with his XO [[Creator/AdamBaldwin Jayn-]], sorry again, Slattery has to keep his ship away from civilization, while a doctor tries to figure out the cure.