History Main / RecycledScript

* Vivian Vande Velde's ''Dragon Bait'' and ''Companions of the Night'' tell virtually the same story: a teenage female protagonist with a MissingMom suffers a false accusation due to coincidental circumstances, and subsequently both her and her father's lives are endangered. Enter a TallDarkAndSnarky ReallySevenHundredYearsOld supernatural male lead who offers to guide the heroine in her quest for vindication. Despite the man's general dangerousness and untrustworthiness, the heroine accepts because she has no one else to turn to, and she quickly finds herself growing attached to him as he leads her around. This culminates in the capture of both the male lead and the heroine by the main villain. The villain is killed in such a way that the heroine is not (fully) responsible. The heroine then saves the male lead from his one weakness - daylight - and the books end on an ambiguously positive note. The difference? The male lead in ''Dragon's Bait'' is [[OurDragonsAreDifferent a dragon]]; in ''Companions of the Night,'' he's a much more marketable vampire.

* ''ComicBook/CivilWarII'' is, blow-by-blow, the very same thing as the original ''ComicBook/CivilWar'' with the situation, the heroes involved and the characters killed changed around.

* In ''Film/OnTheBuses'', Olive is briefly employed as the canteen's cook, a plot point that had been used two years prior in the [[Series/OnTheBuses TV series]] episode, "The Canteen". The gag about Olive melting a hole in the bottom of the saucepan comes directly from that episode too.

* ''Film/PhantomOfTheParadise'' has so many striking similarities with ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'' (even though it could have only been inspired by the stage version of Rocky - RHPS was still filming when Phantom hit theaters) that some fans consider it part of the same series. Likewise, Rocky's bastard-sequel ''Film/ShockTreatment'' has a number of striking similarities to Phantom; possibly a case of Creator/RichardOBrien subtly reclaiming his own work.

* It must have been made in large part as an homage, since the game ''Titan Quest'' has innumerable similarities to ''VideoGame/Diablo2'' – taking it much further than even most Diablo clones do. Consider the following...
** The first world of each game: In ''Diablo 2'' is mostly grasslands ending in a dungeon crawl, in ''Titan Quest'', it is the grasslands of Greece ending in a dungeon crawl.
** The second worlds: in ''Diablo 2'' you are off to the desert where amongst other things, you fight through a valley with several large tombs only one of which contains the boss. In Titan Quest, you are off to the deserts of Egypt where at one point you find yourself in a valley with several tombs only one of which contains the boss.
** The third worlds: In ''Diablo 2'' you go to a world of mainly forests. One quest has you searching for a jade idol. In Titan Quest, you go to China and mostly fight through forests (and heavily forested mountains). One quest involves finding a jade idol.

* ''Film/DoctorAtSea'': Wendy's advances on an uncomfortable Dr. Sparrow are taken from [[Film/DoctorInTheHouse1954 the previous film]], with Wendy in place of Milly.

** The anime tends to recycle scripts quite often in ''Anime/PokemonTheSeriesDiamondAndPearl, usually Kanto and Johto plots.

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'':
** The anime tends to recycle scripts quite often in the ''Diamond and Pearl'' seasons, usually Kanto and Johto plots. Notably, [[spoiler:Jessie's Dustox's]] release, Pikachu getting beaten by a Raichu and Ash asking if it wanted to evolve, and Dawn's Swinub refusing to listen to her after evolving to Piloswine, then almost immediately evolving again and continuing to disobey her, just like Charmander did.
** Dawn's first episode has been rehashed two or three times at this point. All with Ariados as antagonists who trap Piplup in a web.
** To wit, Axew has been kidnapped or lost no less than 5 times.
** One notable example used once every series until and including "Best Wishes" is an episode where the majority of the cast and/or their Pokémon get paralyzed with Stun Spore, and the unaffected cast must search for the only plant that can cure the ailment. This usually also leads to the focus Pokémon of that episode (always a Water-type) either joining the cast or learning a new skill and overcoming its own problem.

** One Sinnoh episode has James pretending to be Jessie and entering a contest because Jessie was too sick to do so. Years later, a Kalos episode has Serena pretending to be Ash and battling with a trainer because Ash is too sick to do so.

* ''[[VideoGame/DeathEndReQuest Death end re;Quest 2]]'' is best described as ''Manga/DollsFall'' with a few names swapped around, a few roles [[CompositeCharacter consolidated]], and a setting that fits within the world of the first game. It's especially blatant since ''Dolls Fall'' is a pure horror story centered around an OrphanageOfFear while the first ''Death end re;Quest'' is a virtual-reality TrappedInAnotherWorld plot, necessitating a tonal shift and numerous {{Hand Wave}}s to explain away the gameplay mechanics that were created to work with the first game's [=MMO=] theme.

* A probably coincidental instance in animated series based on video games: The ''WesternAnimation/SuperMarioWorld'' episode "Rock TV" has Bowser giving television sets to all the cavepeople and then hypnotizing them into turning against the Mario Bros. Ten years later, the ''Anime/KirbyRightBackAtYa'' episode "Un-Reality TV" has King Dedede giving television sets to all the Cappies and then hypnotizing them into turning against Kirby.

** Both ''[=MG2=]'' and ''[=MGS1=]'' feature, respectively, a with pluzzle with a key that changes shape at different temperatures, which requires backtracking to activate.

* The Website/GoAnimate "X Gets Grounded" videos have such a high level of this within them (likely due to the webiste's users simply wanting to make their own version of another person's grounded video while neglecting to put their own spin on it) that [[RecycledScript/GoAnimate there's a whole page dedicated to these frequently repeated plot-lines]].
* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'': The early cartoon "A Jumping Jack Contest" is basically a remake of ''Literature/TheHomestarRunnerEntersTheStrongestManInTheWorldContest'', except with doing jumping jacks instead of holding up grapes, and Pom Pom is the one who throws the match to uncover Strong Bad's cheating instead of Homestar.

* ''Series/SesameStreet'' had two different episodes where every instance of a certain letter vanished from street. In Episode 3907, all the letter T's run away from the Street until the gang are able to entice them back. A year later in 2001, Episode 3972 had Mumford make all the letter S's vanish from the street.

* [[Wrestling/ImpactWrestling TNA]] has done this with [[Wrestling/KenAnderson Mr. Anderson]] and [[Wrestling/TheDudleyBoys Bully Ray]] in recent years. First, a frustrated Anderson would join the heel stable of the year, with Bully either being the field general or the outright leader. It would start off great until Anderson eventually hits a couple snags, at which point Bully would begin to question and antagonize him. Inevitably the tension would lead to Bully getting the group to betray and forcibly kick out Anderson. Finally, after a short time away, [[TheDogBitesBack Anderson would return primed for vengeance, getting through everyone he has to in order to beat Bully down]]. Specifically, the two stables were Immortal in 2011 and the Wrestling/AcesAndEights in 2013—and with the latter, Anderson's victory over Bully would even force the club to disband.