History Main / RecycledPremise

* ''Film/{{Stargate}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/AtlantisTheLostEmpire''.

* Many people have accused ''Anime/Pokemon4Ever'' of ripping off ''Anime/PrincessMononoke''.

* Many people have accused ''Anime/{{Pokemon}} [=4Ever=]'' of ripping off ''Anime/PrincessMononoke''.

* The role-playing game ''Rotted Capes'' is pretty clearly meant to be ''ComicBook/MarvelZombies'', but with a homebrew superhero world overrun by the undead because the developer obviously couldn't afford to license the Marvel Universe.

* A lawsuit happened over similarities between the big-budget Creator/MichaelBay film ''Film/TheIsland'' and an earlier B-movie, ''Film/{{Clonus}}''.

* The early ''Metal Hero'' shows (''Gavan'', ''Sharivan'', ''Shaider'', and ''Spielban'') were pretty much identical to each other cast wise. ''Sharivan'' and ''Spielban'' even had the same actor playing the hero. Also, the Space Sheriff Trilogy (the above, minus Spielban) had the evil organizations acting exactly the same and the hero working for the same organization, with some of the same supporting cast. Basically, new actors were plugged into essentially the same roles.

* ''Series/FamilyFeud'''s premise was derived from the end game of the original ''Series/MatchGame'' (1962-69--"Name a type of car college students would drive").

* Goodson-Todman took the premise of ''Series/ThePriceIsRight''--to not exceed the value of merchandise--then pared the contestants down to two and called it ''Say When!!'' in 1961. Fourteen years later, Bill Carruthers took the premise of ''Say When!!'', added a spinning arrow and called it ''Series/GiveNTake''.
* A TV producer named Wilbur Stark mixed ''Series/{{Password}}'' with ''Series/YouDontSay'' and came up with ''The Object Is'' (1963), the first game show hosted by Dick Clark. Conversely, Goodson-Todman cribbed from ''Password'' and ''You Don't Say!'' themselves and came up with 1964's ''Get The Message''.

* ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'' is essentially "''Series/{{The Office|US}}'' in the public sector with a female lead," but quickly distinguished itself.

Compare with GenderFlip, FollowTheLeader, SettingUpdate, JustForFun/XMeetsY, ThisIsYourPremiseOnDrugs or BetterByADifferentName.

* A lawsuit happened over similarities between the big-budget Creator/MichaelBay film ''Film/TheIsland'' and an earlier B-movie, ''Film/PartsTheClonusHorror''.

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* If you're a ''Series/DoctorWho'' fan, you may find some aspects of ''Film/ManOfSteel'' oddly familiar. Once the movie gets over its obligatory OriginStory, it's essentially just the story of a hero who's TheLastOfHisKind unexpectedly finding [[ThereIsAnother a group of survivors from his home planet]], then being forced to turn against them to stop their leader from wiping out the human race in a bid to resurrect his doomed species. In the process, he must face the idea that [[HeWhoFightsMonsters the threat of extinction turned his people into a race of militaristic xenophobes]], and that they don't deserve another chance. In other words...it's [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime "The End of Time"]] with Kryptonians instead of Time Lords.

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* In 1898, Creator/HGWells published ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds'', which tells the story of how humanity was almost vanquished by a technologically superior AlienInvasion force, but said invasion was halted by the fact the Aliens were [[DeusExMachina susceptible]] to [[BiologicalWeaponsSolveEverything germs]], and was adapted to big screen [[Film/TheWarOfTheWorlds two]] [[Film/WarOfTheWorlds times.]] In 1996, ''Film/IndependenceDay'' was released, which tells the story of how humanity was almost vanquished by a technologically superior AlienInvasion force, but said invasion was halted by a gifted electronics engineer who [[HollywoodHacking uploaded a computer virus into the alien ships' computers,]] and then blew up the mother ship.

** ''Anime/StarTwinklePrettyCure'' is similar to ''Anime/MahouTsukaiPrettyCure'', as both series involve an imaginative pink lead obsessed with the season's theme who meets a person from a world dedicated to that topic and goes on trips there with her. Both series also have a unique concept with the TransformationTrinket [[note]] For ''Mahoutsukai'', they used the actual mascot Mofurun as the item rather than having her become another object like in past ''Pretty Cure'' series, while in ''Star Twinkle'', the girls sing a song that goes along with the transformation.[[/note]], use a smartphone item to take care of the mascot that looks like a book, and have a SixthRanger [[spoiler: who comes from the alternate world they go to]], with ''Mahoutsukai'' having [[spoiler: Haa-chan become Cure Felice]] and ''Star Twinkle'' [[spoiler: having Yuni, who used to be the Phantom Thief Blue Cat, become Cure Cosmo]].

* After Hanna-Barbera made ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'', a sitcom (more specifically ''Series/TheHoneymooners'') set in [[OneMillionBC the Stone Age]], they eventually went on to make ''WesternAnimation/TheJetsons'', a sitcom set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, and ''WesternAnimation/TheRomanHolidays'', a sitcom set in UsefulNotes/AncientRome.

** ''Anime/SmilePrettyCure'' is a LighterAndSofter version of ''Anime/YesPrettyCure5'', as both have a FiveManBand team with the same colors and a fairytale theme.

** ''Anime/HugttoPrettyCure'' is similar to ''Anime/DokiDokiPrettyCure''. Both series have a baby the characters have to take care of [[spoiler: who came from the world that was in danger]], use a smartphone-like item for the TransformationTrinket, have a white and pink wand-like item decorated with hearts used for the Cures' second attack, have [[spoiler: an elementary school Cure on the team]] and use [[spoiler: a smart tablet-esque device for the final attack used in the show]].

** ''Anime/FutariWaPrettyCureSplashStar'' and ''Anime/HealinGoodPrettyCure'' both involve the characters saving the spirits of nature. It also reuses the "girls have their own unique fairy partner to transform with alongside another main fairy" element from ''Doki Doki! Pretty Cure''.

* From the advertisements, at least, ''Series/{{Fringe}}'' looked suspiciously similar to ''Series/StrangeWorld''.

** ''WesternAnimation/TheHoundcats''combined elements from ''Series/TheWildWildWest'', ''Series/MissionImpossible'' and the short-lived ''Series/{{Bearcats}}'' with TigersAndLionsAndHumansOhMy; the heroes are the only {{Funny Animal}}s in an otherwise human world.

* ''Series/JayceAndTheWheeledWarriors'' borrows liberally from ''Franchise/StarWars'': a youthful, inexperienced hero, his RobotBuddy, a powerful wizard, and a JerkWithAHeartOfGold mercenary pursue a BigBad and his forces across space. The major difference is that the Princess Leia equivalent is a little girl.

** And then they made ''WesternAnimation/WaitTillYourFatherGetsHome'', a sitcom set in... modern times (for 1972, anyway).

* The first set of toys for ''WesternAnimation/VorTechUndercoverConversionSquad'' were recycled from Creator/{{Kenner}}'s ''WesternAnimation/{{MASK}}'' series.

* Prior to ''Series/ILoveLucy'', Lucille Ball played a scheming, nutty housewife in a radio show titled ''My Favorite Husband'', wherein her character was married to a dull, inoffensive, American banker. Execs wanted to adapt the series almost wholesale because it tested so well, whereas Ball and Arnaz wanted to take things in a different direction and avoid paying royalties to the original book the radio show was adapted from. Even though the shows have different characters, some episodes of ''I Love Lucy'' reused storylines and gags from the radio show, since they shared three writers (Bob Carroll, Madelyn Pugh, and Jess Oppenheimer). After ''I Love Lucy'' became a hit, Creator/{{CBS}} tried to make lightning strike twice by adapting ''My Favorite Husband'' itself as a TV show (with a different cast and crew), but that show went nowhere and was soon forgotten.

* Prior to ''Series/ILoveLucy'', Lucille Ball played a scheming, nutty housewife in a radio show titled ''My Favorite Husband'', wherein her character was married to a dull, inoffensive, American banker. Execs wanted to adapt the series almost wholesale because it tested so well, whereas Ball and Arnaz wanted to take things in a different direction and avoid paying royalties to the original book the radio show was adapted from. Even though the shows have different characters, some episodes of ''I Love Lucy'' reused storylines and gags from the radio show, since they shared three writers (Bob Carroll, Madelyn Pugh, and Jess Oppenheimer). After ''I Love Lucy'' became a hit, CBS tried to make lightning strike twice by adapting ''My Favorite Husband'' itself as a TV show (with a different cast and crew), but that show went nowhere and was soon forgotten.

** The 1982 Coy and Vance-era episode titled -- appropriately enough -- "Coy vs. Vance" uses the same premise as an episode from two years earlier, "Carnival Of Thrills." Both episodes were about one of the Duke boys (Bo in the earlier episode, Coy in the newer show) falling for the voluptuous operator of a stunt show, the other Duke cousin learning that the new girlfriend has a dark secret to hide about the show (in both cases, the mechanic directed to sabotage the vehicle used in the main event stunt to cause an accident and the show to collect insurance), Bo/Coy refusing to believe them to the point where a fistfight breaks out ... and Bo/Coy learning in the end Luke/Vance were right and then teaming up to either successfully perform the stunt and/or expose the scheme and bring the stunt show operator and her henchmen to justice.

* Australian actress Magda Szubanski recently released a series of children's books called ''Timmy the Ticked-Off Pony'', which is essentially a child-friendly version of ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman''. Like his predecessor, Timmy is an anthropomorphic equine with terrible people-skills who is obsessed with fame and fortune, yet always manages to humiliate himself. The difference being that while Bojack is shown to be a complex protagonist that the audience is meant to see as neither hero nor villain, Timmy is simply an UnsympatheticCOmedyProtagonist whose mishaps are played entirely for laughs.

* Creator/MichaelCrichton wrote the scrip for the 1973 film ''Film/{{Westworld}}'', which was about a bunch of tourists who go to the eponymous western themed amusement park, the animatronics gain sentience and start hunting down the park attendees. In 1989 his book, ''Literature/JurassicPark'', was published, and tells the story of a group of tourists who go to an island populated with cloned dinosaurs, which through a series of events, escape from their enclosures and proceed to eat the attendees.

* ''Film/{{Booksmart}}'' is, in broad strokes, a GenderFlip of ''Film/{{Superbad}}'': Two relatively unhip teens who are about to graduate have various adventures trying to attend a WildTeenParty and meet up with their respective crushes, only to be forced to reconcile with the fact that one of them is leaving after graduation and breaking up the friendship. Fittingly, Beanie Feldstein plays the equivalent role that her brother Creator/JonahHill plays in ''Superbad''.

* The direct sequels to both ''Film/TheFly1958'' and ''Film/TheFly1986'', ''Film/ReturnOfTheFly'' and ''Film/TheFlyII'' respectively, are about the SpinOffspring son of the predecessor's ill-fated scientist who revives their father's work and ends up undergoing much the same transformation they did -- much to the despair of his girlfriend, and no thanks to a seemingly supportive figure (an assistant in the former, a CEO/father figure in the latter) who wants to steal the teleportation technology. He goes after the villains, [[spoiler: and gets the happy ending his father could not]]. The main differences lie in the nature of each protagonist's transformation -- with Phillipe in ''Return of the Fly'' it's another TeleporterAccident; with Martin in ''The Fly II'' it's a natural {{Metamorphosis}} due to being born as a mutant -- and the level of gore involved as the third act gets underway. Someone in 20th Century Fox's marketing department must have noticed this trope because the final trailer for ''The Fly II'' opens with a spiel involving the sound of a buzzing fly and the audience being asked if they can hear it -- a verbatim lift from the ''Return of the Fly'' trailer!

* Creator/SylvesterStallone stars as a jaded, reclusive ProfessionalKiller who generally goes after [[HitmanWithAHeart evil individuals]]. He is eventually contracted to protect a woman (played by an up-and-coming actress) from a less moral hitman who he used to work with in the past, and whose friendship ended unamicably years earlier. The film ends with a confrontation between the heroic hitman (and the woman) facing off against his old rival in an abandoned warehouse. Now, are we talking about 1994's ''Film/TheSpecialist'' or 1996's ''Film/{{Assassins}}''?