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Dueling Works Live Action TV / Sitcom

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Dueling Works — Live-Action TV
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  • Initiators / Followers
    • Capsule Pitch Description: Description
    • Implementation: Implementation
  • The Addams Family (1964) / The Munsters (1964)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: Sitcom about an altogether ooky family of freaks.
    • Implementation: Premiered six days apart. While the Addams were extremely eccentric while viewing themselves as ordinary (and the world around them full of weirdos), very little was explicitly supernatural about them; though it was implied they had a witch ancestry. The Munsters, meanwhile, were a couple of vampires, a wolf-boy and a Frankenstein's monster, and considered themselves normal people but unable to understand why their neighbours didn't accept their attempts at friendship. The Addams were portrayed as well-to-do and as having been in America for several generations, while the Munsters seemed to be more working-class and recent immigrants. The Addams satirised the wealthy, white elite that came from old money and met the status quo; the Munsters were a response to the Civil Rights movement that had been occurring at the time, and were allegories to real minorities facing unfair prejudice. Additionally, The Addams Family generally had the odder storylines and a more macabre sense of humor, while The Munsters was played more as a traditional Sitcom.
  • The Brady Bunch (1969) / The Partridge Family (1970)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: Two squeaky-clean Dom Coms about an atypical (for the 60s) but loving large family (the former being a blended family due to the parents' remarriage while the latter being a family with a single mother).
    • Implementation: Although both series were primarily comedies surrounding a family and their daily lives, The Partridge Family were also a musical band (having been inspired by the real-life family band The Cowsills). Also, the older children from both shows were teen idols/sex symbols that brought extra attention to their respective shows.
  • Delta House (1979) / Brothers and Sisters (1979) & Co-Ed Fever (1979)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: Campus comedies inspired by Animal House.
    • Implementation: Animal House was a box-office smash in 1978, so there is no surprise it inspired a TV series or two.
  • Yes (Prime) Minister (1980) / The New Statesman (1988)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: Politically oriented sitcoms depicting the lives of UK Members of Parliament, airing on The BBC and ITV respectively.
    • Implementation: Yes Minister (and its follow-up, Yes Prime Minister) depicted a good if naive politician trying his best in the face of an obstructive civil service, while The New Statesman featured a cartoonishly evil Conservative MP trying to subvert the system.
  • 'Allo 'Allo! (1982) / Fairly Secret Army (1984)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: Brit Com parody of the World War II drama Secret Army.
    • Implementation: 'Allo 'Allo took the same basic premise as Secret Army (a café in German-occupied territory during World War II aiding the local resistance and helping downed Allied airmen evade German capture) but played it entirely for laughs. Fairly Secret Army inverted the formula by changing the setting to contemporary Britain and the "resistance" consists of an inept unemployed former army officer and his equally inept cohorts attempting to "save" Great Britain from "Marxists". Fairly Secret Army had considerably drier humor (with no studio audience or laugh track) and more politically-charged jokes.
  • Family Ties (1982) / The Cosby Show (1984) & Growing Pains (1985)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: 1980s family sitcoms that showed generally well-to-do parents contradicting their strong-willed children.
    • Implementation: The Cosby Show showed a wealthy African-American family which was totally new for the world of television while Family Ties showed the return to conservatism in the 1980s from the liberalism of the 1960s. Growing Pains showed the role reversal of stay-at-home dad (he's a psychiatrist however) and a working mother who's an anchor. The former two aired on NBC while the latter air on ABC
  • The Golden Girls (1985) / Designing Women (1986)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: Sitcoms about the lives of groups of four older women. (Designing Women in their 30's and 40's, The Golden Girls were 50+.)
    • Implementation: Designing Women was more work com, with the ladies running an interior design company together. Golden Girls was more dom com, with the focus on their lives at home.
  • Full House (1987) / My Two Dads (1987)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: Sitcoms with heterosexual males raising daughters.
    • Implementation: Full House aired on ABC and centered around widowed father Danny Tanner and his three daughters DJ, Stephanie and Michelle. His brother-in-law Jesse and best friend Joey helps raise the girls. My Two Dads aired on NBC and has Michael Taylor and Joey Harris, two men who had a relationship with a woman in the 1970s. 12 years later, the woman dies, leaving behind a daughter, Nicole. One of the men is their biological father and both are awarded joint-custody of her.
  • Full House (1987) / Blossom (1991)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: Sitcoms with families consisting of 3 kids and their father.
    • Implementation: Full House aired on ABC for 8 seasons from 1987 to 1995. The father in this show was a Neat Freak with 3 daughters and had help from his cool brother-in-law (who was the lead) and his goofy best friend after his wife died in a car accident. Blossom, on the other hand, aired for 5 seasons on NBC from 1991 to 1995. The wife of the father in that show left for reasons unknown, and he is stuck raising his perky titular daughter and her two half-wit older brothers. Also, Blossom focused on the titular daughter whereas Full House kept the spotlight on the entire family.
  • Blossom (1990) / Molloy (1990)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: Sitcoms about a teenage girl with an unconventional family.
    • Implementation: Both shows premiered at the same time and, unusually, featured the same star - Mayim Bialik played the title character in each.
  • The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990) / The Nanny (1993)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: Sitcoms about a middle-class character becoming part of an upper-class household.
    • Implementation: Fresh Prince is set in Los Angeles, The Nanny is set in New York City. Both shows prominently feature a Servile Snarker in their ensemble casts (Geoffrey from Fresh Prince, Niles from The Nanny). Additionally, The Nanny was more of a romantic sitcom.
  • Living Single (1993) / Friends (1994)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: A group of twenty-something friends/roommates living in New York City
    • Implementation: The most obvious difference was the main cast: Single's black, female-dominated cast vs. Friends ' white, gender-balanced cast. Living Single also tended less soap opera-ish and slightly more reality-based and avoided Friends' mass-Flanderization.
  • Spaced (1999) / Black Books (2000)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: Eccentric Channel 4 Brit-coms featuring eccentric characters, with little in the way of sets or budgets. Both co-written by its stars. Turned into Duelers by their side-by-side broadcasts on 4.
    • Implementation: Spaced had the larger and younger cast and had more in visual gags and fourth-wall breaking; Black Books relied more on dialogue.
  • The IT Crowd (2006) / The Big Bang Theory (2007)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: Socially awkward nerds befriend a woman who knows nothing about technology or geek culture.
    • Implementation: The Big Bang Theory is a fairly straight American Sitcom. The IT Crowd is a surreal British Work Com more along the lines of Graham Linehan's previous series Black Books.
  • The Big Bang Theory (2007) / Community (2009)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: American sitcoms about an ensemble cast of seven close friends (both composed of four men and three women) that rely heavily on geek humor. Both shows' most popular characters are also their biggest geeks.
    • Implementation: The Big Bang Theory, which airs on CBS, is more of a Work Com, as all of its main characters have full-time jobs, while Community, which airs on NBC, features a cast of characters who (up until the end of Season 4) are still attending community college. Community’s characters are more widespread in age, while Big Bang Theory’s are all around the same age (late twenties to early thirties). Pop culture references in BBT are also more heavily restricted to fantasy and science-fiction; Community is arguably the nonpareil in terms of metafictional humor, though.
  • Glee (2009) / Community (2009)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: American Post Modern sitcoms about a diverse Ensemble Cast that ran from 2009-2015.
    • Implementation: Glee, which aired on Fox, is originally a (high) school club story until Season 5, while Community, which originally aired on NBC then Yahoo! Screen, features a cast of characters who (up until the end of Season 4) are attending community college. Community’s characters are more widespread in age, while Glee’s are mostly around the same age (mid teens at the beginning of the show). Glee is mainly a musical show; Community is mostly a metafictional comedy show. In a rather unfortunate coincidence, the third episode of both shows' fifth season featured a major Character Death.
  • Modern Family (2009) / Parenthood (2010)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: Comedy series about the different kinds of families in the 21st century (straight, gay, step, single-parent, interracial, young, experienced), all found under one extended family headed by classic TV patriarchs Al Bundy and Coach (Mr. Incredible or an redemption-seeking ice-skating coach to you young'uns), respectively.
    • Implementation: Parenthood had the undignified burden of being the first 10pm show to try to fix the damage Jay Leno wrought on the NBC schedule, but has the credentials of Ron Howard producing and a who's who of the best actors and actresses of the last three decades; Modern Family has Ed O'Neill returning in front of the camera (ironically, playing a role originally intended for Craig T. Nelson who now stars in Parenthood, Frasier alumni Scott Levitan and Christopher Lloyd (no, not the guy who played Reverend Jim on "Taxi" or Doc Brown in the "Back to the Future" movies) behind it, rave reviews so far and having two if its stars in the Maxim 100 (including Sofia Vergara being on it for three years straight).
  • Raising Hope (2010) / Baby Daddy (2012)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: Sitcoms involving a young man who ends up caring for the infant daughter of a former girlfriend.
    • Implementation: Raising Hope is on FOX, while Baby Daddy is on ABC Family.
  • Jane by Design (2012) / The Carrie Diaries (2013)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: Teen dramedies about a teenage girl who has to juggle between the her normal, high school life and her secret job in the fashion world.
    • Implementation: The former is about a teenager in then-present early 2010s who lands a job at a prestigious fashion house, but no one from her work has no idea that she's actually still in high school, while the latter is about the days of a 16-year-old Carrie Bradshaw in The 80s who secretly part-times at Interview magazine, as opposed to the law firm she's supposedly interning. The Carrie Diaries is an adaptation from a novel and a prequel to Sex and the City, while Jane By Design is an original work.
  • Instant Mom (2013) / Trophy Wife (2013)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: Sitcoms where a single woman marries a man who has children.
    • Implementation: Both series premiered around the same time, but although Instant Mom was green-lit first, Trophy Wife was the first to air.
  • A to Z (2014) / Manhattan Love Story (2014)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: Two shows that begin by establishing the Official Couple before they even get together, each with a unique spin on narration.
    • Implementation: A to Z has the gimmick of the framing device establishing exactly how long the couple will date, as well as a Lemony Narrator. Manhattan Love Story's gimmick is that audiences can hear the internal thoughts of the main characters. Both ended with a Relationship Upgrade after a New Old Flame upsets the status quo.
  • Survivor's Remorse (2014) / Ballers (2015)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: Sports Entourage
    • Implementation: Survivor's Remorse airs on Starz (whose CEO, Chris Albrecht, greenlit Entourage when he was working at HBO), LeBron James is a producer on the show, which focuses on a Basketball player moving to Atlanta. Ballers was created by a former Entourage writer and stars Dwayne Johnson as a former Football player turned financial advisor.
  • Hindsight (2015, VH1) / Younger (2015, TV Land)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: Comedy-drama shows about New York dwelling women getting second chances in life while learning how different one generation is from the next.
    • Implementation: The slightly darker Hindsight has a woman magically going back to 1995 and actively trying to correct what she sees as mistakes where her life went wrong, whereas the more light-hearted Younger is about a 40-year-old woman returning to work after raising her children and lying about her age to fit in at a company filled with 20-somethings.
  • High Maintenance (2016) / Mary + Jane (2016)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: Sitcoms built around characters who deliver marijuana to oddball characters in major cities (New York City for Maintenance, Los Angeles for Jane).
    • Implementation: High Maintenance is based off the successful web series of the same name and has a male lead, while Mary + Jane is more inspired by Broad City, to the point of Follow the Leader (Both series are about two female stoner best friends).
  • Damage Control (2016) / Powerless (2017)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: Work Com where normal people have to deal with logistical fallout from superhero battles.
    • Implementation: Powerless deals with a security company set in the DC Universe, while Damage Control is a salvage and construction firm in the Marvel Universe. Also, Damage Control is an adaptation of an actual comic series, while Powerless has an original concept and characters.
  • Son of Zorn (2016) / Imaginary Mary (2017)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: Single camera sitcoms with a mix of live action and animation
    • Implementation: Son of Zorn is about a He-Man-esque warrior who moves to Orange County to reconnect with his ex-wife and teenage son, while Imaginary Mary is about a woman whose imaginary friend from her childhood reappears where she is now a PR executive falling in love with a single father of 3 kids. Both the shows' titular animated characters are voiced by former Saturday Night Live alumni, Jason Sudeikis voices Zorn on the former, while Rachel Dratch voices Mary on the latter. Zorn is traditionally-animated while Mary is CGI.
  • The Goldbergs (2013) / The Kids Are Alright (2018)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: Both are ABC sitcoms that are based on the childhood of the show's creator, and include many nostalgic references to the decade in which they are set in.
    • Implementation: While both series have nearly identical premises, The Goldbergs is set in the 1980s and focuses more on the popular culture of the decade, while the 1970s-set The Kids Are Alright focuses on the political and social issues of that decade, and how they affect the Cleary family.
  • Fuller House (2016) / Raven's Home (2017)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: Continuity Reboots of popular sitcoms featuring the main character as a single mother who moves in with their best friend and their child.
    • Implementation: TBA
  • Ted Lasso (2020) / Emily in Paris (2020)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: Comedies about a cheery, optimistic American brunette who is sent to do a job in an European country, while being completely clueless to its culture. Both titular main characters are from the Midwest.
    • Implementation: Ted Lasso focuses on an American football coach from Wichita, Kansas, who's hired as a new coach for an English football (soccer) team, while having no clue at all about both soccer and British culture, while Emily In Paris is about a twenty-something marketing executive from Chicago who takes on a new job in Paris, after her pregnant boss is unable to do it, while having no single idea about French culture....and language. The former has more in common with the typical sitcoms, while the latter is more of a rom-com.
  • Mr. Mayor (2021) / Loot (2022)
    • Capsule Pitch Description: A Work Com about an out-of-touch, insanely rich person who suddenly finds themselves in a position of power that can possibly improve the lives of the people of Los Angeles. Each show has a sassy gay Asian assistant; a funny, lovable, chubby guy; and a more experienced second-in-command who's very passionate about their causes.
    • Implementation: The former centered on a retired wealthy billboard executive who's recently been elected as the unexpected new mayor of L.A., while the latter is about a recent multi-billionaire divorcée who discovers that she apparently founded a charity organization, thus she decides to start her new life by actually getting involved in its causes.

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