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1You have a TV show, and it's not very popular. Maybe it's on a low-profile channel, maybe it's on at a bad time, or maybe it's just not that accessible.
2
3And suddenly all that changes.
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5You get a full season order on a better channel, or the powers that be have dusted the old thing off, but for whatever reason, suddenly your show has popularity potential.
6
7Here's the thing, though--the old version has a lot of good material nobody saw. A scene you're proud of or a plotline you now have the resources to do better. So what do you do? Remake it for the new version, of course! Who's going to notice? No one. So you can see why this seems to be common practice.
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9Remaking the pilot or similar such things don't apply--the show had to have been an actual, watchable show during both versions for this to take effect.
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11----
12!!Examples:
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14[[foldercontrol]]
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16[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
17* The second season of ''Anime/CodeGeass'' was completely reworked because, being very popular, it was moved from the midnight slot to a much more mainstream time, and a lot of the edgy stuff had to be removed. This is arguably the main reason why ''R2'' had such hectic pacing. Pretty well confirmed by WordOfGod, as interviews have shown the staff felt beholden to do an introduction for the new viewers, which resulted in the infamous "vague rehash" in the first few episodes[[note]]Namely, the way the first four or so episodes of ''R2'' mirror the equivalent episode from the first season[[/note]].
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20[[folder:Comic Strips]]
21* There's a general tendency for a college newspaper comic that gets syndicated to simply redo old college material until the strip finds its feet. ''ComicStrip/BloomCounty'' borrowed a lot from ''The Academia Waltz'', and ''ComicStrip/{{Doonesbury}}'' also reused Yale-era gags for its early years. It's also common for an AnimatedAdaptation of a newspaper comic to recycle jokes from its source material.
22* Charles Schulz borrowed a lot of the early gags in ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' from its predecessor strip ''ComicStrip/LilFolks''.
23* Most of the first few gags in ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'', including the very first one, were recycled from ''ComicStrip/{{Jon}}'', a strip that Jim Davis did for the Pendleton Times in 1976-78 before ''Garfield'' came to be.
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26[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
27* ''WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut'' features Cartman singing a reprise of "Kyle's Mom's a Bitch" from the first season episode [[Recap/SouthParkS1E9MrHankeyTheChristmasPoo "Mr. Hankey, The Christmas Poo"]]. Given that the film had a much larger budget than the TV series, it's lavishly animated this time and features a full orchestra.
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30[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
31* ''Film/TenaciousDInThePickOfDestiny'' recycled many of the gags/themes of the HBO series.
32* As did ''Film/TheNakedGun'', derived from the short-lived television series ''Series/PoliceSquad''.
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35[[folder:Literature]]
36* The first published ''Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian'' story, "Literature/ThePhoenixOnTheSword" was a rewrite of an earlier, unpublished Literature/{{Kull}} story, "By This Axe I Rule!", with Conan repeating some of Kull's dialogue line by line.
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40[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
41* When ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' made the jump from local low-budget KTMA to the cable station Comedy Channel, they revisited movies from the KTMA era and reused some host sketches in their first season. Around season four they exhausted their stock of affordable KTMA-era films, and the repeat host sketches stopped by the second season.
42* ''Series/TheAdventuresOfPeteAndPete'' was a series of advertisements for Nickelodeon before becoming a series. Many of the one-minute shorts were expanded into half-hour episodes throughout the show's run.
43* When ''Series/TheAvengers1960s'' market expanded to the US (it was previously an exclusively British show), many UK-only-era episodes were redone. For example, "The Joker" is a creepier version of the earlier story "Don't Look Behind You", and "The £50,000 Breakfast" is a remake of "Death of a Great Dane".
44[[/folder]]
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46[[folder:Music]]
47* Music/AlienAntFarm's first single was "Movies," but no one paid them any attention until they released their cover of Music/MichaelJackson's "Smooth Criminal." So afterward, they... shot a new music video for "Movies" and released it again. The single flopped again, and Alien Ant Farm remained known as a OneHitWonder.
48* Music/{{Nirvana}} recorded and released a low budget music video for "In Bloom" while they were still with Creator/SubPop. "In Bloom" was later re-recorded for ''Music/{{Nevermind|Album}}'', and a new video was released after the success of ''Nevermind''.
49* Music/ZacBrownBand's BreakthroughHit "Chicken Fried" was originally included on one of the band's early independent albums, and was re-recorded for their first Creator/AtlanticRecords album ''The Foundation''.
50* Similarly, Music/GinBlossoms re-recorded "Hey Jealousy" (a song from their first independent release) for their major label debut.
51* Music/TobyKeith had originally recorded "Does That Blue Moon Ever Shine on You" independently in TheEighties. After getting axed from both his first ''and'' second albums at the last second, it was included as the title track to 1996's ''Blue Moon'' and released as a single.
52* Music/BrothersOsborne originally included "Stay a Little Longer" on a digital EP. The song was re-recorded for their debut album, and this version was sent out as a single, becoming their BreakthroughHit.
53* Music/DavidBowie first recorded "Strangers When We Meet" for his 1993 studio album ''Music/TheBuddhaOfSuburbia'', which expanded on ideas from his soundtrack to the eponymous BBC miniseries. However, the album was labeled the actual OST album despite only including one song from the show, and flopped so badly that it was deleted from Bowie's discography for 14 years. Bowie, however, loved the album, and re-recorded "Strangers When We Meet" in 1995 for the much better-selling ''[[Music/{{Outside}} 1. Outside]]''.
54* When ''Film/TheWarriors'' was released in 1979, Joe Walsh recorded "In The City" for the soundtrack. Although the movie was reasonably successful, the soundtrack fizzled. Walsh's bandmates in Music/TheEagles liked the song and encouraged him to record a new version for the group's sixth album, ''The Long Run''. It has since become a popular album cut and a live staple.
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57[[folder:Radio]]
58* Around the time of its eighth season, ''Radio/TheGoonShow'' remade a number of fourth-season episodes specifically for overseas sales, because the show was becoming successful in that market and the original recordings [[LostEpisode no longer existed]].
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61[[folder:Video Games]]
62* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' is a RecycledScript based on ''VideoGame/MetalGear2SolidSnake'', a 2D game from eight years prior that was released [[NoExportForYou in Japanese alone]] for a computer system that was not that popular to begin with and was already obsolete at the time of the game's release. The plot is cosmetically different (different enough that ''Metal Gear 2'' is still in continuity with the rest of the series), but the games share similar level design, gameplay obstacles and even a few identical puzzles.
63* ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'' borrows elements from VisualNovel/RadicalDreamers, originally released in Japanese for the Satellaview add-on. Website/TheOtherWiki states that [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_Dreamers#Fan_translation_and_notability director Masato Kato did Chrono Cross as an attempt to "redo Radical Dreamers properly."]]
64* The concept of ''VideoGame/WarioWare'' was based on ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40GhbBZGYZY Sound Bomber]]'', which was a side mode in ''VideoGame/MarioArtist: Polygon Studios'', an obscure title for the short-lived, Japan-only Nintendo 64DD. [[DolledUpInstallment Dolled-up versions]] of all eight ''Sound Bomber'' microgames are present in the first ''[=WarioWare=]'' game.
65* This can sometimes be the motivation behind {{Polished Port}}s and {{Updated Rerelease}}s; if a game first comes out on a system that's not very successful, its publisher may decides to rerelease it on other, more popular platforms in the hopes of gaining a wider audience.
66** After discontinuing the Platform/{{Dreamcast}} and leaving the console business to become a third-party developer, Creator/{{Sega}} released ports of or sequels to numerous Dreamcast games on other sixth generation consoles.
67** Nintendo rereleased many Platform/NintendoGameCube games on the Wii under the "New Play Control!" label, with added support for widescreen graphics and motion controls.
68** The "Capcom Five" were 5 games[[note]]''VideoGame/PN03'', ''VideoGame/ViewtifulJoe'', ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'', and ''VideoGame/Killer7''. The fifth game was ''Dead Phoenix'', which was canceled without being released at all[[/note]] that Capcom initially announced as exclusives for the Platform/NintendoGameCube. However, after the games sold relatively poorly and failed to increase [=GameCube=] sales, all but one of the released games were eventually ported to the much more popular Platform/PlayStation2.
69** ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'', originally released for the [=GameCube=], got an UpdatedRerelease on the much more popular Platform/PlayStation2. This rerelease didn't leave Japan until it was ported to Platform/PlayStation3 in HD.
70** ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia'' was initially developed for the Platform/Xbox360 due to that system being easier to develop for; however, the [[AmericansHateTingle unpopularity of Xbox consoles in Japan]] prompted Namco to make an UpdatedRerelease for the Platform/PlayStation3 one year later. Unfortunately, this rerelease and the content it added [[NoExportForYou never left Japan]] until the ''Definitive Edition'' released during the following console generation.
71** With the very successful Platform/NintendoSwitch coming after the disappointing sales of the Platform/WiiU, Nintendo ported most of their first-party Wii U titles to the Switch in order to ensure that they get the wider exposure they couldn't before.
72** Many games that were once exclusive to the Platform/PlayStationVita later found their way onto other platforms, including the [[Platform/PlayStation4 PS4]], Switch, or PC.
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75[[folder:Web Original]]
76* When Linkara transitioned ''WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall'' from text reviews to video reviews for Website/ChannelAwesome, boosting his popularity tenfold, many such video reviews were simply him performing the text reviews.
77* When ''WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries'' began to hit its stride after the first few episodes, some of the older episodes were redone, making LK's VocalEvolution very noticeable. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw5FXSZ61SU He even did a live performance of the entire first episode from memory.]]
78* What did Team Four Star do after finishing the first season of ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged''? ''They abridged it again. '' Cue ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo5Rhn8zuPA Dragon Ball Z Kai Abridged]]''.
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81[[folder:Western Animation]]
82* ''WesternAnimation/MakingFiends'' remade the first episode as well as the "Vegetables" and scissor-puppy episodes when it became a show on Nicktoons Network, retaining most of the more memorable gags while otherwise restructuring them to fill seven minutes.
83* A fair amount of {{Cutaway Gag}}s from the first season of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' were recycled beat-for-beat from [[Creator/SethMacFarlane Seth MacFarlane's]] student film ''The Life of Larry'', which was pitched as a TV pilot four years before he created ''Family Guy''.
84* A few of the early ''WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse'' gags (such as the "musical goat" from ''WesternAnimation/SteamboatWillie'') were repurposed from Disney's earlier series ''WesternAnimation/OswaldTheLuckyRabbit''.
85* ''WesternAnimation/BeeAndPuppyCat: Lazy in Space'' remade the original [[Creator/FrederatorStudios Cartoon Hangover]] episodes when it became a show on Creator/{{Netflix}}. These three episodes were made specifically for Netflix; ''Lazy in Space'' was originally made with the more obscure service Creator/{{VRV}} (which had the original version at the time) in mind.
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