Television series:
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#
- Three Busy Debras is Heathers meets Aqua Teen Hunger Force.
- The unaired pilot 17th Precinct was pitched as Law & Order meets Harry Potter, as it was a typical police procedural...set in a world of magic, rather than science.
- 30 Rock is The Mary Tyler Moore Show meets NewsRadio
- Alternately Just Shoot Me! meets a documentary on the behind-the-scenes drama of working on Saturday Night Live.
- Or The Mary Tyler Moore Show meets a live action version of Family Guy.
- The 100 is Lord of the Flies (with teens) meets Fallout meets But What About the Astronauts?.
- The series was also billed as Lord of the Flies meets Lost.
- 1000 Ways to Die is Final Destination meets Jackass meets CSI, with the anthology structure of The Twilight Zone and a very big side order of Happy Tree Friends.
A
- A to Z is How I Met Your Mother meets (500) Days of Summer
- Adam Ruins Everything is Penn & Teller: Bullshit! meets The Magic School Bus.
- Airwolf was The A-Team (or MacGyver or Knight Rider if you prefer) in a helicopter.
- Akumaizer 3 = Kamen Rider + Jinzō Ningen Kikaider + Cyborg 009 + Devilman + The Three Musketeers
- Choujin Bibyun = Akumaizer 3 + Kikaider 01 + Ultraman Taro
- Alias is James Bond meets Felicity.
- Almost Human is Isaac Asimov's Lije Baley novels meets Ghost in the Shell
- Alphas is described by its creator as X-Men meets The Wire.
- Game Show Network's America Says is Family Feud mashed up with the question format of Match Game and the round robin system of the 1978 game Pass the Buck.
- American Auto is Superstore meets Gung Ho.
- American Horror Story is The Twilight Zone (1959) meets Tales from the Crypt.
- American Horror Story: Murder House is American Beauty meets The Shining.
- American Horror Story: Asylum is Shutter Island (with creepy nuns) meets The Exorcist (one of the nuns is possessed) meets The Silence of the Lambs (one of the doctors is a serial killer) meets either Communion or Fire in the Sky.
- American Horror Story: Freak Show is Freaks meets American Psycho.
- American Horror Story: Apocalypse is an After the End horror film meets The Office (US).
- American Horror Story: 1984 is Friday the 13th meets Sleepaway Camp.
- American Horror Stories is American Horror Story meets Into the Dark.
- "[The Americans] seems to be a stew made of Homeland (spy stuff), Mad Men (relatively recent period drama) and something like The Riches (a family of dissemblers), [or] Breaking Bad or Dexter or any other series in which the protagonist has a dark secret and will go to great, brutal lengths to keep it."
— Robert Lloyd, The Los Angeles Times - In 1987, one critic likened the controversial miniseries Amerika to "a marriage between Red Dawn and Dynasty."
- Andi Mack is technically Lizzie McGuire (Also made by the same creator, Terri Minsky) meets The Secret Life of the American Teenager. (A Kid Com with some Teen Drama elements)
- Andromeda is Star Trek: The Next Generation meets Blake's 7.
- Angie Tribeca is CSI: Miami meets Airplane!.
- As stated in the Dueling Shows page, A.N.T. Farm is literally Victorious meets iCarly.
- The Aquabats! Super Show!: Batman (1966) meets The Monkees as done by Sid and Marty Krofft with a hint of Yo Gabba Gabba!.
- Are You Afraid of the Dark?: For an episode example, "The Tale of the Midnight Ride" is The Legend of Sleepy Hollow meets Hocus Pocus.
- Argo's World is Doraemon meets Bill Nye the Science Guy meets Cyberchase with Medium Blending.
- Arrested Development:
- The Godfather meets Seinfeld.
- Or Community meets The Royal Tenenbaums.
- Another take on the series is that it's a Setting Update of The Oresteia to the Turn of the Millennium meets Malcolm in the Middle.
- "Larry David and Wes Anderson do a reboot of Soap" also works.
- Arrowverse:
- Arrow is Revengenote meets The Dark Knight Trilogy.
- The Flash (2014) is The Flash meets Smallville meets The Amazing Spider-Man.
- The A-Team was pitched as a combination of The Dirty Dozen, Mission: Impossible, The Magnificent Seven (1960), Mad Max and Hill Street Blues, with "Mr. T driving the car".
- Austin & Ally is Hannah Montana meets Friends.
- Automan is Knight Rider meets TRON meets Starsky & Hutch.
- Avenue 5 is Aniara meets Red Dwarf.
B
- Babylon 5 is Casablanca meets The Lord of the Rings IN SPACE''
- Bad Judge was Bad Teacher meets Night Court.
- Banshee is Cowboy Bebop meets Berserk with a side of The Raid.
- Barney & Friends is Wee Sing meets Sesame Street meets Dink, the Little Dinosaur
- The original Battlestar Galactica is basically Bonanza meets Star Wars, with a dose of Starsky & Hutch.
- The reimagined Battlestar Galactica, on the other hand, is original Battlestar Galactica meets Babylon 5, Blade Runner, and Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
- Beakman's World is Bill Nye the Science Guy meets Pee-wee's Playhouse.
- Bear in the Big Blue House is Barney & Friends meets Mister Rogers' Neighborhood meets Wimzie's House as performed by The Muppets.
- Bella and the Bulldogs is Friday Night Lights meets Life with Boys.
- Being Erica is Quantum Leap meets Peggy Sue Got Married.
- Bering Sea Gold is Deadliest Catch meets Gold Rush! minus the big payoff at the end of the season.
- Best Friends Whenever has been described as Laverne & Shirley meets Quantum Leap.
- Better Off Ted is basically a (slightly) more optimistic take on Dilbert as set in the SCP Foundation.
- Between the Lions is Sesame Street meets The Electric Company meets Reading Rainbow.
- Bewitched is I Married a Witch meets Bell, Book and Candle (the show's creators admitted this).
- Big Bad Beetleborgs is VR Troopers meets Masked Rider meets Juukou B-Fighter (and B-Fighter Kabuto) meets The Munsters.
- The Big Bang Theory is Friends meets Revenge of the Nerds.
- Or Friends meets Genshiken.
- Or Friends meets Real Genius.
- Big Little Lies is Rashomon meets Revenge
- Bima Satria Garuda is Kamen Rider BLACK + Kamen Rider Ryuki + Choujin Sentai Jetman + Seijuu Sentai Gingaman + Ultraman Tiga + Ultraman Gaia + Genseishin Justiriser + Madan Senki Ryukendo.
- Satria Garuda BIMA-X is Bima Satria Garuda + Kamen Rider BLACK RX + Kamen Rider Kuuga + Kamen Rider Gaim + Ultraman Dyna + Ultraman Nexus + Ultraman Ginga (and Ginga S) + Chousei Kantai Sazer X + Mobile Suit Gundam 00.
- The Bite is Connecting meets Fear the Walking Dead.
- Bizaardvark is mostly Sam & Cat (Two girls working together with a little boy helping them run it) for the YouTube celebrity crowd, with babysitting replaced by Youtube fame.
- Black Jesus is Trailer Park Boys meets The Boondocks in Compton.
- The Blacklist, as described in Entertainment Weekly: "You'll be reminded of Alias, The Silence of the Lambs, and a dozen other things".
- Black Mirror could be described as 1984 meets The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits (1995). However, Black Mirror discards any paranormal/supernatural elements from Twilight Zone and Outer Limits, in favor of presenting more Cyberpunk-influenced stories about modern and futuristic technology.
- Black Mirror: USS Callister is Black Mirror meets Sword Art Online and The Matrix, set inside a Virtual Reality game which heavily resembles Star Trek.
- Black Mirror: Bandersnatch is Black Mirror meets Donnie Darko and The Stanley Parable, in the form of an interactive film styled after Choose Your Own Adventure.
- Black Mirror: Striking Vipers is Black Mirror meets Moonlight (2016) and Ready Player One, set inside a Virtual Reality game which heavily resembles Street Fighter and Tekken.
- Black Mirror: Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too is Black Mirror meets Hannah Montana and other various Disney Channel shows/movies (yes, seriously).
- Black Sails: Pirates of the Caribbean meets Spartacus: Blood and Sand.
- Black Summer is Dawn of the Dead (2004) meets the "Rashomon"-Style.
- Blake's 7: Terry Nation pitched the series as "Robin Hood meets The Dirty Dozen in space". Alternatively, it's Star Trek: The Original Series and/or Star Wars with classic Doctor Who's production values.
- Blue Mountain State: Friday Night Lights meets Porky's meets Greek.
- The Bold Type is Psych meets The Mindy Project (with fashion models instead of detectives or nurses)
- Bonekickers:
- Adrian Lester described it as CSI meets Indiana Jones.
- Diamanda Hagan described it as "a cross between Torchwood and Time Team, minus random bisexuality and any semblance of self-respect".
- Boohbah is Tik Tak meets Teletubbies.
- The Book of Boba Fett is The Mandalorian meets The Godfather.
- Bosom Buddies is Laverne & Shirley meets Some Like It Hot.
- Bottom is Waiting for Godot meets Tom and Jerry meets The Three Stooges meets The Itchy & Scratchy Show.
- Bottle Boys was Confessions of a Milkman by way of On the Buses.
- The Boys (2019) is the original comic meets Preacher (2016), Kick-Ass, Watchmen, various DC and Marvel movies, The A-Team, Inglourious Basterds, and Breaking Bad, all made in the style of Gen Urobuchi.
- The Brady Bunch is Leave It to Beaver meets the 1968 film Yours, Mine and Ours.
- Brainiac: Science Abuse is Beakman's World meets Jackass.
- Breaking Bad (franchise):
- Breaking Bad (original series):
- The show's creator Vince Gilligan pitched it as being the story of how Mr. Chips becomes Scarface.
- Or Macbeth meets Scarface, No Country for Old Men, The Sopranos, Weeds, and The Big C.
- Better Call Saul is Breaking Bad meets a lawyer drama.
- Breaking Bad (original series):
- Bridgerton is a Jane Austen novel (A Regency romance) meets Gossip Girl (a mysterious observer publishes secrets and scandals while serving as the narrator).
- The Brittas Empire is Fawlty Towers meets The Office.
- Brooklyn Nine-Nine is Barney Miller meets The Office (US).
- Buckwild is Here Comes Honey Boo Boo meets Jersey Shore.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
- Joss Whedon refers to it as "My So-Called Life meets The X-Files."
- Alternately, it's Clueless meets Hellboy.
- Marti Noxon's vision for Seasons 6 and 7 was "Party of Five with monsters," which explains a lot.
- The Radio Times satellite section described the series as "a sort of Beverly Hills, 90210 meets The X-Files."
- Burn Notice has been described as Miami Vice meets The A-Team meets MacGyver (1985) meets James Bond.
C
- Camelot is Merlin (2008) meets Game of Thrones meets Spartacus: Blood and Sand.
- Campus PD (G4): COPS meets MTV's College Life.
- Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future is Terminator meets Blake's 7 by way of Power Rangers.
- Car Warriors: Overhaulin meets Iron Chef.
- Carnivàle is Harry Potter meets Twin Peaks meets Freaks meets The Grapes of Wrath.
- Carnival Row is Babylon Berlin meets Bright.
- Castle is Moonlighting meets Murder, She Wrote ("...having not really remembered Moonlighting and never seeing Murder, She Wrote," says star Nathan Fillion.)
- Celebrity Name Game is You Don't Say! meets The $10,000 Pyramid.
- Casualty 1906 has been described by one critic as "Cranford being overrun by zombies."
- Charlie's Angels was pitched by producer Leonard Goldberg as "The Avengers (1960s) meets Honey West".
- Charlie Jade is Fringe meets Film Noir with a touch of Continuum
- Charmed is Bewitched meets Charlie's Angels meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
- The 2018 reboot is the original series meets Rizzoli & Isles meets The Good Witch meets Girls.
- Chased By Dinosaurs and Sea Monsters is Walking with Dinosaurs meets either The Crocodile Hunter or The Jeff Corwin Experience.
- Cheers is Friends meets The Simpsons, ironically before either of them started.
- Chefs vs. City: The Amazing Race meets Man v. Food.
- Chernobyl is S.T.A.L.K.E.R. meets Bloodborne meets Shin Godzilla meets Barefoot Gen.
- The Chica Show is Elliot Moose meets The Sunny Side Up Show.
- Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is Riverdale meets American Horror Story
- Chips was Adam-12 meets Starsky & Hutch.
- Chouseishin Series
- Chouseishin Gransazer = Kamen Rider Kuuga + Kamen Rider Agito + Himitsu Sentai Gorenger + Dai Sentai Goggle Five + Dengeki Sentai Changeman + Choushinsei Flashman + Space Sheriff Gavan + Ultraman Tiga + Saint Seiya + Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon
- Genseishin Justiriser = Chouseishin Gransazer + Kamen Rider 555 + Taiyou Sentai Sun Vulcan + Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger + Space Sheriff Sharivan + Juukou B-Fighter + Ultraman Gaia + Ultraman Nexus + Akumaizer 3
- Chousei Kantai Sazer X = Genseishin Justiriser + Kamen Rider Hibiki + Choujuu Sentai Liveman + Mirai Sentai Timeranger + Jikuu Senshi Spielban + Ultraman Max + Choujin Bibyun
- Chuck: Jake 2.0 meets John Doe.
- An Amazon review described it as "James Bond meets The Office".
- Get Smart meets Psych at Best Buy is another way of looking at it.
- A Gender Flipped Full Metal Panic! meets Alias and/or The Man from U.N.C.L.E., set in Superstore
- Chosen is The Game (1997) (+ Leonine Contract, Sadistic Choice, and Deadly Game) Meets Nowhere Man.
- Class (2016) is Torchwood meets Skins meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
- Club de cuervos is Giant Killing meets Game of Thrones.
- Cobra Kai has been described by the show's creators as "Star Wars with karate."
- Alternately and more accurately, it's The Karate Kid meets The Breakfast Club meets Digimon Adventure tri. meets Berserk, with a dash of The Deer Hunter.
- Comedy Bang! Bang!: Space Ghost Coast to Coast meets Pee-wee's Playhouse.
- Community:
- Arrested Development meets Undeclared meets Recess.
- Or: Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide meets Degrassi meets Friends.
- Alternatively, The Office meets The Breakfast Club.
- Containment is basically Outbreak meets Atlanta (minus the humor), meets Under the Dome (except the dome is replaced by a barricade of high stacked freight containers).
- The Colbert Report is The O'Reilly Factor meets The Daily Show.
- Crash & Bernstein is Cousin Skeeter meets Just the Ten of Us .
- Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is Glee meets "Weird Al" Yankovic as a Seltzer and Friedberg spoof.
- Criminal Minds is Without a Trace meets Saw.
- Crownies can be described as Law & Order: Trial by Jury meets Grey's Anatomy.
- Crusade is Blake's 7 meets The Hobbit, set in the Babylon 5 universe.
- CSI is Law & Order meets Hollywood Science.
- Curfew has actually been described as The Purge meets The Fast and the Furious.
- Alternately, Land of the Dead meets The Cannonball Run.
- Cursed is Merlin (2008) meets The Witcher (2019).
D
- The Daily Show: CNN Headline News meets Weekend Update.
- Dance Moms (Lifetime) is Toddlers & Tiaras meets Bring It On.
- Dance Your Ass Off is The Biggest Loser meets Dancing with the Stars. I'm guessing that's probably how they sold it, too.
- The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance is The Dark Crystal meets Game of Thrones meets Berserk.
- Dark•Matter is Blake's 7 meets Space Cases
- Dave's Old Porn is Cheap Seats meets retro porn.
- Daybreak (2019) is The Last Kids on Earth meets Zombieland meets Adventure Time.
- or Mad Max meets Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
- Deadbeat is Ghost meets It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
- Death in Paradise was described by Ardal O'Hanlan as "Midsomer Murders meets Survivor meets Love Island".
- Death Valley is Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets COPS.
- The Deep End is Scrubs meets Boston Legal.
- The Defenders is Scrubs meets Boston Legal.
- Detroiters: Psych meets It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia as set in the Motor City.
- Dexter is CSI: Miami meets Saw meets The Punisher meets Johnny the Homicidal Maniac.
- Dexter: New Blood is Dexter meets Logan.
- Difficult People is Will & Grace meets Seinfeld
- Distraction is Jeopardy! meets Jackass.
- Doctor Who is Star Trek meets Peabody's Improbable History.
- The show from 2005 onward is more like Star Trek meets the serialization and drama of both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The X-Files with the humour and time travel of Legends of Tomorrow.
- Individual episodes are:
- "The Myth Makers" is The Iliad meets The Aeneid meets Troilus and Cressida meets A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.
- "The Daleks' Master Plan" is Dan Dare meets Flash Gordon meets The Avengers (1960s) meets James Bond.
- "The Macra Terror" is 1984 meets Hi-de-Hi!.
- "Robot" is I, Robot meets The Avengers (1960s) (specifically "The Mauritius Penny") meets King Kong (1933).
- "Planet of Evil" is The Tempest meets Forbidden Planet meets Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
- "The Seeds of Doom" is The Thing from Another World meets The Avengers (1960s) (specifically "The Man-Eater of Surrey-Green") meets The Day of the Triffids meets The Quatermass Experiment.
- "The Robots of Death" is Dune meets Ten Little Indians meets Isaac Asimov.
- "The Talons of Weng-Chiang" is Sherlock Holmes meets Fu Manchu meets The Phantom of the Opera meets Jack the Ripper meets Pygmalion.
- "Image of the Fendahl" is Quatermass and the Pit meets Chariots Of The Gods meets The Sirens of Titan.
- "Underworld" is Jason and the Argonauts meets Star Wars.
- "Revelation of the Daleks" is The Loved One meets Soylent Green.
- "Terror of the Vervoids" is Agatha Christie meets The Day of the Triffids.
- "Paradise Towers" is High Rise meets A Clockwork Orange meets 1984.
- "Delta and the Bannermen" is Hi-de-Hi! via Akira Kurosawa via Star Wars via Back to the Future.
- "Dragonfire" is King Solomon's Mines meets Aliens.
- "Ghost Light" was described by script editor Andrew Cartmel as "Alice in Wonderland meets the Marx Brothers".
- "The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit" was described by The Guardian as "Alien plus The Matrix divided by The Exorcist".
- "Planet of the Dead" was described by Russell T. Davies as "a great big adventure, a little bit Indiana Jones, a little bit The Flight of the Phoenix, a little bit Pitch Black".
- "The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People" was described by writer Matthew Graham as "Made in Dagenham meets The Thing (1982)". There's a bit of Blade Runner thrown in as well.
- "The God Complex" is The Shining meets Crossroads with a bit of Sapphire and Steel.
- "Cold War" is Alien meets The Hunt for Red October.
- "Robot of Sherwood" is Monty Python and the Holy Grail meets the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Q-Pid".
- "Mummy on the Orient Express" is Alien meets Murder on the Orient Express via Hammer Horror (specifically The Mummy (1959)).
- "Last Christmas" is Inception meets Alien meets The Thing (1982) meets Miracle on 34th Street.
- "Spyfall" is quite literally Doctor Who meets James Bond.
- "Eve of the Daleks" is Groundhog Day meets Die Hard.
- Kadokawa Publishing's western drama distribution branch (Doctor Who's distributor in Japan) described the Matt Smith era as Star Wars, or Star Trek meets Doraemon and James Bond.
- Dogengers = Kanpai Senshi After V + Tokusatsu GaGaGa + Gekisou Sentai Carranger + Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger + Kamen Rider Den-O + Ultraman Taiga + The Aquabats! Super Show!
- Donkey Hodie is Sesame Street meets The Pajanimals with influence from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.
- Double Dare (1976) (the 1976 CBS show) was 21 meets Jeopardy!.
- Double Dare (1986) (the Nickelodeon game show) was Beat the Clock meets Hot Potato meets You Can't Do That on Television.
- Doom Patrol (2019) is The Umbrella Academy meets Legends of Tomorrow.
- Drake & Josh is The Brady Bunch meets Brotherly Love with a little bit of Step by Step.
- Drive (2007) was Lost meets The Cannonball Run.
- Since Lost was pitched to ABC as a scripted show reminiscent of Survivor, Drive (2007) could also be seen as the analogue to The Amazing Race.
- Dual Survival is Survivorman meets The Odd Couple.
- Dusty's Trail was Gilligan's Island (right down to having Bob Denver in the title role) meets Wagon Train.
- Dino Dan is Go, Diego, Go! meets Land of the Lost
E
- Earth 2 is The Oregon Trail meets Robinson Crusoe meets Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. With a dash of Lost.
- Eerie, Indiana is The Adventures of Pete & Pete meets The Monster Squad, Are You Afraid of the Dark? and Twin Peaks.
- Eli Stone is Boston Legal meets Wonderfalls.
- Spanish sitcom Ella es tu padre was School of Rock meets Mrs. Doubtfire, with the main plot revolving around a divorced musician who poses as a woman to get a job as a music teacher at his children's school.
- Empire is Hustle & Flow meets The Lion in Winter
- The End of the F***ing World is Thelma & Louise meets Moonrise Kingdom.
- The Eric Andre Show is The Late Show with David Letterman meets The Tom Green Show.
- Or Space Ghost Coast to Coast meets Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!
- Or Jackass meets Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis.
- Euphoria is Degrassi with Larry Clark and Douglas Sirk as co-directors.
- Eureka is The Andy Griffith Show meets Dexter's Laboratory.
- The Event was often called a combination of 24 and Lost.
- Everybody Hates Chris is Good Times meets Family Matters, Malcolm in the Middle, The Wonder Years, and That '70s Show (but in The '80s).
- The Expanse has been described by at least one review as "Battlestar Galactica meets Game of Thrones".
- Alternatively, some other fans have described it as Battlestar Galactica meets Honor Harrington meets Firefly.
F
- Falling Water is Sense8 meets Inception.
- Falling Skies is Independence Day meets Jericho (2006).
- Faking It is G.B.F. meets Awkward., injected with heavy doses of South of Nowhere
- Family Ties is All in the Family meets The Brady Bunch.
- Farscape:
- Blake's 7 meets The Wizard of Oz meets The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
- SF Debris on the subject:
- Fate: The Winx Saga is Winx Club meets RWBY meets She-Ra and the Princesses of Power meets Kamen Rider Fourze meets Kamen Rider Saber meets Ultraseven X meets SSSS.GRIDMAN.
- Father Ted was described by co-creator Graham Linehan as having the farce of Fawlty Towers, the wit of Blackadder and the lunacy of The Young Ones.
- Fawlty Towers is Blackadder meets The Three Stooges.
- Filthy Rich & Catflap is The King of Comedy meets The Young Ones meets The Three Stooges meets Bottom.
- Firefly:
- Blade Runner meets Cowboy Bebop meets Star Wars.
- Or Star Wars meets The Searchers meets The Grapes of Wrath.
- Or The X-Files meets Star Trek meets your average western.
- Or Blake's 7 meets Outlaw Star.
- Food Tech (History Channel): Good Eats meets Dirty Jobs.
- Cinemax's Forbidden Science: Fringe + Abby and (a significantly younger) Ducky from NCIS + Lots of sex.
- Forever
- Castle meets New Amsterdam (2008).
- Highlander (minus the beheadings and swordfights) meets Sherlock.
- Freaks and Geeks is My So-Called Life meets The Wonder Years, with a bit of That '70s Show.
- FreakyLinks is The Blair Witch Project meets The X-Files.
- The Fresh Beat Band is The Wiggles meets High School Musical
- Fridays is best described as Saturday Night Live meets Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In meets early 1980s politics, pop culture, and some leftover cocaine, weed and pills found in a bathroom stall at a disco.
- Fringe has been described as The X-Files meets Altered States meets The Twilight Zone (1959) with heavy influences of Dark Angel.
- More like Eureka meets CSI meets Charlie Jade.
G
- Galavant: actress Mallory Jansen called it "the bastard child of Monty Python and The Princess Bride."
- Game of Thrones: Described by George R. R. Martin as "The Sopranos in Middle Earth."
- Or The Lord of the Rings meets Berserk.
- Many fans describe it as The Lord of the Rings meets The Wire, "ye olde The Wire" or "The Wire in Middle Earth", owing to its multiple characters, complex plot developments and struggles, and Deconstructor Fleet attitude towards their respective genres (Police Procedural for The Wire and High Fantasy for Game of Thrones).
- It could also be The Borgias or The Tudors in Middle Earth.
- And any combination certainly needs to include Shakespeare, particularly the Henry VI saga.
- House of the Dragon is The Accursed Kings meets King Lear. With dragons.
- Gamer's Guide to Pretty Much Everything is Kickin' It meets Video Game High School.
- Game Shakers is iCarly meets Some Assembly Required.
- Garrison's Gorillas is The Dirty Dozen meets Mission: Impossible.
- GCB is Desperate Housewives meets Mean Girls all grown up.
- Get Smart is James Bond meets The Pink Panther.
- The upcoming Fox comedy Ghosted is being described as Beverly Hills Cop meets Ghostbusters
- Ghosts (UK) was described by Guardian reviewer Stuart Jeffries as "a mashup of Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit and Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), not to mention the manifold sillinesses of Hammer Horror."
- The American remake tosses a bit of Beetlejuice into the mix.
- The Gifted (2017): Heroes meets Mutant X (with actual X-Men characters).
- Gilligan's Island is Robinson Crusoe meets the Sitcom formula.
- Girl from Nowhere:
- Season 1 is Tomie meets Black Mirror.
- Season 2 is Death Note meets Game of Thrones meets Othello meets Gone Girl meets Avengers: Infinity War meets Breaking Bad meets Joker (2019) meets The World of Kanako.
- Girl Meets World: Boy Meets World meets iCarly.
- Glee: Fame meets The Office (Or High School Musical meets The Office, for the younger set).
- It could also be described as "Every Teen Show" meets Blackpool, and does it 1000 times better.
- Or Election meets High School Musical (plus Dawson Casting).
- Or Fame meets Saved by the Bell meets Degrassi: The Next Generation.
- Godzilland: The Godzilla franchise meets Sesame Street meets Muppet Babies (1984)
- The Goldbergs is The Wonder Years set in The '80s meets the narrative direction of A Christmas Story.
- The Golden Girls: The original plan was for Rue McClanahan to be Rose and Betty White to be Blanche. Not only did the actresses feel better suited for the opposite characters, but Bea Arthur almost did not want to be involved for fear of the show only being "Maude and Vivian meet Sue Ann Nivens" (as White and McClanahan would resemble characters from their previous series).
- The Good Doctor: Doogie Howser, M.D. meets Monk.
- Good Eats is a Science Show mixed with a Cooking Show — or if you prefer specific show examples, Mythbusters meets Beakman's World meets Bill Nye the Science Guy mixed with Cooking with Science (the actual book series that inspired the show) mixed with Emeril Lagasse.
- Alternatively, Julia Child meets Bill Nye the Science Guy.
- Alton Brown has explicitly said he pitched the show as "Julia Child meets Mr. Wizard meets Monty Python."
- Alternatively, Julia Child meets Bill Nye the Science Guy.
- Good Luck Charlie is Clarissa Explains It All meets Full House.
- The Good Night Show is The Big Comfy Couch meets PJ's Bedtime.
- Good Omens (2019) is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy meets The Omen starring The Doctor and the Master.
- The Good Place is Parks and Recreation meets Afterlife (1996) meets Lost with thematic parallels to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The Wham Episode at the end of Season 1 reveals that it also meets No Exit.
- Gotham is Batman meets both CSI and The Godfather.
- The Great Space Coaster is basically what would've happened if The Muppets and Sid and Marty Krofft Productions created an Edutainment show together (more specifically, it resembles a cross between Sesame Street, The Bugaloos and Far Out Space Nuts).
- Grimm: Grimm's Fairy Tales meets Angel (with a bit of Supernatural thrown in).
- Guy's Grocery Games: Chopped meets Supermarket Sweep.
H
- H₂O: Just Add Water:
- Home and Away meets Charmed with mermaids.
- Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch meets Home and Away as a live-action series but minus the singing... at least until season 3.
- Bonus points: Indiana Evans, who would later play Bella in H20, had a role in Home and Away.
- Hannah Montana is Jem meets Unfabulous.
- Hannibal is what would happen if Sherlock got transplanted into Red Dragon.
- Hard Copy was pitched as 60 Minutes meets MTV.
- The Haunted Hathaways: The Brady Bunch meets Topper.
- The Haunting Hour episode "Scarecrow" is Storm of the Century with kids (or the Goosebumps book "The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight" with a Downer Ending)
- "The Hole" is The Ring meets The Amityville Horror (2005) and a little bit of the first Paranormal Activity movie.
- "Headshot" is The Picture of Dorian Gray meets the world of teen modeling.
- Hee Haw: Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In meets The Grand Ole Opry.
- Henry Danger is Batman (1966) meets Drake & Josh.
- Henshin Ninja Arashi = Kamen Rider + Kamen no Ninja Akakage
- Heroes: X-Men meets Lost.
- High School Heroes = Himitsu Sentai Gorenger + Kousoku Sentai Turboranger + Denji Sentai Megaranger + Kamen Rider 555 + Kamen Rider Fourze + Kamen Rider Ex-Aid
- High School Musical: The Musical: The Series is High School Musical and/or Glee meets Modern Family and/or Parks and Recreation.
- History Bites is Horrible Histories by way of The Red Green Show.
- Hogan's Heroes: The Great Escape meets the Sitcom formula.
- Stalag 17 meets The Phil Silvers Show also works (the similar setting and blatant Expies for a few of the characters led the writers of the original Stalag 17 play to sue the Hogan's Heroes producers for plagiarism, in fact).
- The Hour: Described by one review as Drop the Dead Donkey meets Spooks.
- House of Cards (UK) is Macbeth meets Richard III meets Yes, Minister.
- House of Cards (US) on the other hand is The West Wing meets Game of Thrones meets The Sopranos meets Richard III.
- House is Sherlock Holmes meets ER with a tasty sprinkle (for those who know it) of Black Jack.
- How I Met Your Mother is Cheers (the bar) meets The Wonder Years (the flashback) meets Friends (the group of friends) meets Arrested Development (the Lemony narration).
- Hustle is The Sting meets Ocean's Eleven meets Mission: Impossible.
- Hyperdrive is Star Trek: The Next Generation meets Red Dwarf.
I
- iCarly is Lizzie McGuire for the YouTube celebrity crowd.
- The 2021 Revival adds the 2019 revival of All That, Cobra Kai, Digimon Adventure tri., and Steven Universe: Future into the mix.
- I Didn't Do It is essentially Friends combined with the How We Got Here plot device.
- I'm in the Band is This is Spın̈al Tap meets Big Time Rush.
- In Living Color! is Saturday Night Live meets The Richard Pryor Show (or, if you're too young for both those references, an early version of Chappelle's Show meets a more tightly-written MA Dtv)
- Inai Inai Baa! is Sesame Street meets Barney & Friends.
- The Incredible Hulk (1977) was the Hulk comics meets The Fugitive
- The Inbetweeners is essentially Peep Show meets American Pie
- Intelligence (2014) is Mission: Impossible meets Ghost in the Shell
- Into the Badlands is Fist of the North Star meets Pirates of the Caribbean meets 70s Kung Fu movies.
- Iron Chef Japan: Julia Child + Professional Wrestling...In Japan!
- The It Crowd is Real Genius meets Father Ted.
- It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia can be loosely described as Seinfeld meets Peep Show on all the drugs.
- It's Worth What?? is The Price Is Right meets Deal or No Deal.
J
- Jackass is Dumb and Dumber meets South Park.
- JAG is A Few Good Men meets Top Gun.
- Jessie is The Nanny meets That Girl.
- Bunk'd is Jessie meets Salute Your Shorts.
- The Jews Are Coming is Horrible Histories meets Jewish history.
- Jikuu Keisatsu Wecker Signa = Voicelugger + Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon + Cutie Honey: THE LIVE + Mirai Sentai Timeranger + Jikuu Senshi Spielban + Kamen Rider 555
- Jinzō Ningen Kikaider = Kamen Rider + Tetsuwan Atom + Pinocchio
- Justified is NYPD Blue meets Walking Tall (1973).
K
- Kanpai Senshi After V = Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger + Cheers
- K.C. Undercover can be described as the marriage between two other Disney Channel shows: Kim Possible and Wizards of Waverly Place.
- Kickin' It is The Bad News Bears meets The Karate Kid - or at least that's how Jason Earles described it to Jimmy Fallon.
- Kids Incorporated is Kidsongs meets 80s MTV.
- The Kids Are Alright (2018) is The Loud House meets The Wonder Years with a touch of That '70s Show and The Goldbergs.
- Killjoys is Firefly meets Cowboy Bebop
- Kirby Buckets is Out of Jimmy's Head (or, in its third season, Sliders) meets Even Stevens.
- Kingdom (2019) is Sweet Home (2020) meets Train to Busan meets The Walking Dead (2010) in Feudal Korea.
- Knight Squad is Harry Potter meets Game of Thrones meets Wizards of Waverly Place.
L
- La Brea is Lost meets Land of the Lost.
- Lab Rats is The Six Million Dollar Mannote meets Wizards of Waverly Place, and, in its Lab Rats: Bionic Island incarnation, meets X-Men Film Series.
- Last Man Standing is All in the Family meets Home Improvement.
- The Last of Us is the original video game meets The Mandalorian meets Chernobyl meets Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.
- Last Week Tonight with John Oliver is The Daily Show meets Penn & Teller: Bullshit!.
- LazyTown is Sesame Street meets Power Rangers meets Mousercise.
- The League of Gentlemen is Monty Python's Flying Circus meets Coronation Street meets The Wicker Man (1973) meets Twin Peaks.
- The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse is all of the above meets Red Dwarf: Back to Earth.
- Legends of Tomorrow is Doctor Who meets The Avengers (2012) in the Arrowverse.
- Alternatively, it's Exiles meets Back to the Future in the Arrowverse.
- Legion (2017) is essentially the X-Men Film Series in the style of Neon Genesis Evangelion
- The Lets Go Show: The Good Night Show meets Dora the Explorer.
- Leverage:
- Burn Notice meets Mission: Impossible.
- Alternately, it's Ocean's Eleven starring the cast of Robin Hood.
- The Librarians 2014: Doctor Who meets Leverage meets Warehouse 13.
- Life on Mars is The Sweeney meets Back to the Future meets The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant meets Quantum Leap.
- Life's Too Short was pitched as Extras meets Curb Your Enthusiasm meets One Foot in the Grave with a dwarf.
- Lilyhammer is Goodfellas meets Fargo.
- Lion Maru G = GARO + Deuce Bigalow Male Gigolo
- Liv and Maddie:
- The Suite Life of Zack & Cody or Sister, Sister meets Good Luck Charlie minus the hotel and new baby, and the twins there are played by one person.
- With a teensy bit of Hannah Montana thrown in for good measure in Liv's case. In fact one of Hannah's episodes was about how far she'd go for a Z-Phone.
- Not to mention casting inspiration from The Patty Duke Show.
- The Suite Life of Zack & Cody or Sister, Sister meets Good Luck Charlie minus the hotel and new baby, and the twins there are played by one person.
- Lizzie McGuire is Clarissa Explains It All meets My So-Called Life (but in middle school).
- The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is Goblin Slayer meets Berserk meets The Shannara Chronicles meets Avatar.
- Lost: The Twilight Zone (1959) meets Gilligan's Island meets Lord of the Flies meets The Prisoner (1967).
- The writers were going for something more along the lines of Lord of the Flies meets The Stand.
- The show was actually pitched as Cast Away meets Survivor
- The last season in particular is The Stand meets Jacob's Ladder meets Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
- The easiest way to describe it would be Robinsonade meets The Twilight Zone (1959).
- Lost Girl is a Hotter and Sexier Grimm meets Anita Blake.
- Lost in Austen: Life on Mars meets Pride and Prejudice.
- Lost in Space (2018): The Swiss Family Robinson and Robinsonade meets Earth 2 meets Mass Effect: Andromeda.
- Los Luchadores is Batman (1966) meets Pro-Wrestling Star Aztekaiser.
- Lucifer is Sherlock meets Supernatural meets CSI meets Columbo meets Hellblazer meets Hotline Miami.
- Luther is Columbo meets Dirty Harry.
M
- Madan Senki Ryukendo is Kamen Rider Ryuki meets Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger meets Genseishin Justiriser.
- Mad Men is The Sopranos meets Freaks and Geeks if it took place in the 1960s.
- The Mandalorian is Star Wars meets Fist of the North Star meets the Dollars Trilogy meets Yojimbo meets Lone Wolf and Cub meets God of War (PS4) meets Goblin Slayer meets Berserk meets John Wick meets Breaking Bad.
- Manifest is The 4400 meets Lost meets Flightplan (2005).
- Manswers is Brainiac: Science Abuse meets The Man Show.
- Man v. Food is Diners, Drive-ins and Dives meets Competitive Eating.
- Man Vs Fish: Man vs. Wild meets Bill Dance.
- The Masked Singer: In an interview, Ken Jeong described it as "part American Idol, part The Voice, part Dancing with the Stars, and a little bit vintage What's My Line?." Others have noted the old game show Masquerade Party
as another obvious ancestor.
- The Mentalist is Monk meets Castle.
- Alternatively, The Mentalist is Monk meets Psych.
- Metal Heroes:
- Space Sheriff Gavan = Kamen Rider + Denshi Sentai Denziman + ROM Spaceknight
- Space Sheriff Sharivan = Space Sheriff Gavan + Kamen Rider V3
- Space Sheriff Shaider = Space Sheriff Sharivan + Kamen Rider X + Dai Sentai Goggle Five
- Kyojuu Tokusou Juspion = Space Sheriff Shaider + Kamen Rider Amazon
- Jikuu Senshi Spielban = Space Sheriff Sharivan + Kamen Rider Stronger + Ultraman Ace
- Chōjinki Metalder = Space Sheriff Gavan + Jinzō Ningen Kikaider
- Sekai Ninja Sen Jiraiya = Space Sheriff Shaider + Kamen no Ninja Akakage + Henshin Ninja Arashi + Highlander
- Kidou Keiji Jiban = Space Sheriff Gavan + J.A.K.Q. Dengekitai + 8th Man + RoboCop
- Tokkei Winspector = Space Sheriff Sharivan + Kidou Keiji Jiban + Thunderbirds + COPS
- Tokkyuu Shirei Solbrain = Tokkei Winspector + Jikuu Senshi Spielban
- Tokusou Exceedraft = Tokkyuu Shirei Solbrain + Taiyou Sentai Sun Vulcan
- Tokusou Robo Janperson = Chōjinki Metalder + Kidou Keiji Jiban + Robot Detective
- Blue SWAT = Kidou Keiji Jiban + Dengeki Sentai Changeman + Miami Vice
- Juukou B-Fighter = Space Sheriff Shaider + Blue SWAT + Kamen Rider Stronger + Choujuu Sentai Liveman
- B-Fighter Kabuto = Juukou B-Fighter + Kyojuu Tokusou Juspion + Kousoku Sentai Turboranger
- B-Robo Kabutack = Juukou B-Fighter + Ganbare!! Robocon + the Toei Fushigi Comedy Series, at least the ones with robot protagonists.
- Tetsuwan Tantei Robotack = Tokusou Robo Janperson + B-Robo Kabutack
- Massive Monster Mayhem is The Krypton Factor meets Power Rangers
- Miami Vice was supposedly funded and the pilot was produced after a brief meeting where it was described as "MTV Cops", with essentially no other details. This is true according to Brandon Tartikoff, who was the NBC executive that green-lighted the show.
- In terms of other works, Miami Vice is Hawaii Five-O meets Scarface (1983) and the more serious parts of Beverly Hills Cop.
- Midnight, Texas is True Blood meets Grimm.
- The Mighty Boosh is Monty Python's Flying Circus meets Flight of the Conchords on acid.
- Mighty Med is Batman (1966) meets Scrubs.
- Mighty Jack is James Bond meets Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea meets Thunderbirds meets Atragon. After its Retool into Fight! Mighty Jack, it becomes Ultraman meets all of the above.
- The Milkshake Show is Hi-5 meets Blue Peter
- Mirrorman is Ultraseven meets Return of Ultraman meets The Outer Limits (1995).
- Misfits is Heroes crossed with Skins.
- Mr. Robot is Fight Club meets Black Mirror.
- Mr. Student Body President is House of Cards (US) meets Election.
- Mock the Week is Have I Got News for You meets Whose Line Is It Anyway?.
- Monarch is touted as Empire meets Nashville meets Succession.
- Monk is Columbo meets Rain Man.
- Mopatop's Shop is The Noddy Shop meets Bear in the Big Blue House.
- Most Extreme Elimination Challenge is What's Up, Tiger Lily? meets Jackass.
- The Muppets (2015) is The Muppet Show meets The Office.
- Muppets Tonight was clearly intended to be The Muppet Show meets SCTV. The presence of several former SCTV scribes on the show's writing staff made it quite obvious.
- Murder, She Wrote: In episode 4x8, a secondary plot deals with the producer promoting a TV series idea, Undercover Urchins, about a multi-racial gang of destitute, orphan kids secretly working for the police. His manager describes it: "You're talking the DeadEndKids meet Mod Squad."
- My Favorite Martian is The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) meets The Donna Reed Show.
- Mystery Diners is Kitchen Nightmares meets To Catch a Predator.
- Mystery Science Theater 3000 was Pee-wee's Playhouse meets Fractured Flickers meets The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
- Bob Chipman described the look of the series as somewhere between classic Doctor Who and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and the humour as a mixture of Douglas Adams, Conan O'Brien, Weird Al and Mike Judge.
- The Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nóg is Power Rangers meets Irish mythology.
- Mythbusters co-host Adam Savage once described the show as "Jackass meets Mr. Wizard".
N
- Naked and Afraid is Man Woman Wild meets Naked Castaway.
- Nancy Drew (2019) is the book series meets Felicity meets Twin Peaks meets I Know What You Did Last Summer.
- The Nanny is (Mary Poppins + The Sound of Music - all the singing) meets I Love Lucy meets Who's the Boss?.
- Nashville is Dallas meets Country Strong.
- Nathan for You is Kitchen Nightmares meets Da Ali G Show
- NCIS: JAG meets CSI.
- NCIS: Hawaiʻi is NCIS meets Hawaii Five-0
- Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide is Saved by the Bell meets both Seinfeld and Malcolm in the Middle.
- Newhart: The Bob Newhart Show meets Green Acres.
- Nick Cannon's Wild 'N' Out is Whose Line Is It Anyway? meets In Living Color!.
- Nicky, Ricky, Dicky, and Dawn is The Suite Life of Zack & Cody (but with quadruplets) meets Last Man Standing.
- The Nightly Show is The Daily Show meets Politically Incorrect or Real Time with Bill Maher.
- Noah's Arc: Queer as Folk meets Girlfriends.
- The Noddy Shop is Noddy's Toyland Adventures meets Shining Time Station meets The Secret Life Of Toys.
- Noodle And Doodle is Doodle Doo meets I Can Cook.
- No Ordinary Family is The Incredibles meets Heroes.
- The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo is the Elmo's World segment of Sesame Street meets The Tonight Show.
- Nowhere Man:
- The X-Files meets The Fugitive.
- Or alternatively The Prisoner (1967) meets The Fugitive!
O
- The Object Is (an obscure ABC game show from 1964) is Password meets You Don't Say!
- Odd Squad is Codename: Kids Next Door meets Cyberchase.
- The Office (US) is The Office (UK) meets Don Quixote (in terms of Michael Scott's characterization as a Tragic Hero) meets Dilbert (in regards to the both Lighter and Softer and Denser and Wackier tone).
- You can also say The Office (UK) meets The Larry Sanders Show, which is another sitcom about a dysfunctional work environment centered around an Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist, done in a naturalistic style.
- Okaasan to Issho is Sesame Street meets Kidsongs.
- Once Upon a Time: The Disney Animated Canon meets Fables meets Kingdom Hearts meets other fairy tales/public domain stories e.g. meets Lost.
- Or Into the Woods meets Superman meets a Stephen King miniseries.
- One Way Out: David Blaine meets Jackass.
- Only In America with Larry the Cable Guy: Dirty Jobs meets Blue Collar Comedy.
- Orange Is the New Black is Oz meets Private Benjamin.
- The Order is Chilling Adventures of Sabrina meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets The Magicians filtered through a college comedy show.
- Our Flag Means Death is Pirates of the Caribbean meets Reservation Dogs.
- Out of Jimmy's Head is A Beautiful Mind meets Drop Dead Fred with the aesthetic of Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
- Out of the Wild: The Alaska Experiment: Survivor meets Survivorman.
- Out of This World (1987): TV Trash described it as "Suburban Commando meets Earth Girls Are Easy, if the creators dropped twice as much acid".
- Alternatively, it's My Favorite Martian gender-flipped and mixed with parts of Mork & Mindy and Starman.
- Outcast is Invasion of the Body Snatchers meets The Exorcist.
- Oz is The Shawshank Redemption meets GoodFellas.
P
- The Pack is The Amazing Race meets the Westminster Dog Show.
- Pair of Kings is Drake & Josh meets Gilligan's Island.
- Panda Bear Daycare is The Puzzle Place meets Barney & Friends.
- Parker Lewis Can't Lose is Ferris Bueller's Day Off meets Saved by the Bell
- Parks and Recreation is The Office (US) meets The West Wing.
- Passions is Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman meets Discworld.
- Paternity Court: Divorce Court meets Maury
- Peacemaker (2022) is The Suicide Squad meets Captain Scarlet.
- Person of Interest:
- Mission: Impossible meets The Equalizer.
- Alternatively, Batman meets Deus Ex meets Mission Impossible.
- Persons Unknown:
- Lost meets The Prisoner meets Survivors.
- Or alternatively, And Then There Were None meets Cube.
- Playdays is Play School meets Sesame Street
- Plebs was Up Pompeii meets The Inbetweeners. One of the characters even sports a haircut like Frankie Howerd.
- Pose is Tangerine meets GLOW (2017) and a bit of Angels in America (without the Angels), inspired by Paris Is Burning.
- The Pretender is Quantum Leap meets The Fugitive.
- Pretty Little Liars is Mean Girls meets I Know What You Did Last Summer.
- The Price Is Right on CBS (1972-present) is The Price Is Right on NBC (1956-63) meets Let's Make a Deal.
- The original Price was an auction house session with elements of blackjack.
- Prehistoric Park is Crocodile Hunter meets Jurassic Park with Time Travel.
- Prehistoric Planet is Walking with Dinosaurs meets Planet Earth.
- Primeval is Torchwood meets Jurassic Park (though it's not always about dinosaurs).
- Prison Break:
- The Bourne Series meets The Shawshank Redemption.
- Or, alternatively, 24 meets Oz. The second season, however, is more like 24 meets The Fugitive.
- The fourth season, on the other hand, is The Bourne Series meets MacGyver (1985)
- Top Gear (UK): Motor Week meets British humor.
- The challenges are the Handyman's Corner segments of The Red Green Show meets Fear Factor meets What Would You Do?.
- The Prisoner (1967): James Bond meets Samuel Beckett.
- Prodigal Son: Hannibal meets Psych and The Blacklist.
- Psych: Castle meets The Mentalist but Denser and Wackier.
- Punky Brewster is Little Orphan Annie meets Dennis the Menace. The reboot on the streaming service Peacock is Punky Brewster 1984 meets One Day at a Time.
- Pushing Daisies: Murder, She Wrote meets Amélie.
- The $10,000 Pyramid is Password meets Beat the Clock.
Q
- QI is a quiz bowl show meets a stand-up comedy set.
R
- Reaper is best described as Brimstone meets Clerks. Kevin Smith even directed the Pilot.
- ReBoot: The Guardian Code has been compared (and not very favorably) to Reboot meets Code Lyoko meets Power Rangers.
- Or Reboot meets Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad meets Zixx.
- Red Dwarf is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1981) meets Seinfeld.
- Repo Games: Cash Cab meets Operation Repo - Answer the repo man's questions correctly and you get to keep your car.
- The Red Green Show is Home Improvement meets Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In meets the Bob and Doug McKenzie skits of SCTV.
- Reign is The Tudors meets Gossip Girl.
- Reservation Dogs is Freaks and Geeks meets Stranger Things on a Creek Reservation.
- Resident Alien: Corner Gas meets The X-Files meets Invader Zim.
- Restaurant: Impossible is Kitchen Nightmares meets Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.
- Riverdale:
- Twin Peaks meets My So-Called Life.
- Dawson's Creek meets Without a Trace or The Killing.
- Clueless meets Veronica Mars.
- Archie's Weird Mysteries meets Skins.
- Les Revenants ("The Returned") has been described as Twin Peaks meets The Walking Dead (2010). The town itself is like Twin Peaks' French counterpart.
- Revolution:
- The Trigger Effect meets Jericho (2006), with swords.
- Alternatively, it's Dies The Fire meets The Dark Tower starring Katniss Everdeen.
- ABC's 1975 game show Rhyme and Reason is Match Game meets Lord Alfred Tennyson.
- The Righteous Gemstones is The Sopranos meets Fawlty Towers meets Schitt's Creek starring a family of Greedy Televangelists
- The River is Paranormal Activity meets Heart of Darkness, with a small dusting of Cannibal Holocaust as well.
- Rizzoli & Isles:
- Bones meets Cagney & Lacey.
- Word of God says: The Rockford Files meets Sex and the City.
- Rookie Blue is Scrubs meets NYPD Blue.
- Roswell: Dawson's Creek meets The X-Files.
- Round the Twist: One TV plug described it as The Swiss Family Robinson meets The X-Files.
- Goosebumps meets The Swiss Family Robinson
- Royal Pains:
- Burn Notice meets Northern Exposure.
- Or House meets MacGyver (1985) with a little bit of Magnum, P.I. sprinkled in.
- Russian Doll is Final Destination meets Groundhog Day.
S
- Sabrina the Teenage Witch:
- Bewitched meets Clarissa Explains It All.
- Or Bewitched meets My So-Called Life
- Sanctuary is Torchwood meets The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, albeit with less moral ambiguity, All Myths Are True, and having significantly less sexual content than Torchwood.
- Saturday Morning All Star Hits is Kablam and Club Mario meets Wayne's World, by way of Wonder Showzen combined with Bojack Horseman.
- Saturday Night Live: Lorne Michaels pitched the show as "60 Minutes meets Monty Python".
- The early seasons were more like Your Show of Shows and The Carol Burnett Show meet Monty Python's Flying Circus in the offices of National Lampoon.
- Saving Grace: Joan of Arcadia meets The Shield.
- Schitt's Creek is Arrested Development meets Green Acres, but Lighter and Softer from the former and with the latter updated to better reflect modern social values.
- In-Universe, Josh calls the eponymous musical town of Schmigadoon! "The Walking Dead (2010) [meets] Glee.
- The School of Rock TV series is the original movie meets A.N.T. Farm.
- Scott & Bailey is Law & Order: Criminal Intent meets Rizzoli & Isles.
- Scrubs is Grey's Anatomy meets Community.
- SeaQuest DSV is Star Trek but underwater.
- Search Party is Girls meets How to Get Away with Murder
- The Secret Circle is Sabrina the Teenage Witch meets The Vampire Diaries.
- See: Mad Max sequels meet Zatoichi meets Children of Men.
- Alternatively: Blindness meets Game of Thrones.
- Seiun Kamen Machineman is Space Sheriff Gavan meets Superman meets Zorro.
- Sesame Street is Mister Rogers' Neighborhood meets The Muppets.
- "Captain Kangaroo meets Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" was Joan Ganz Cooney's self-admitted starting point for the show.
- Sex Education is Skins if it had Big Mouth's optimistic and irreverent sex-positivity.
- Shake it Up is basically Hannah Montana meets iCarly.
- Shichisei Tōshin Guyferd is Kamen Rider meets Bio Booster Armor Guyver meets Fist of the North Star meets Street Fighter.
- Shake it Up is basically Hannah Montana meets iCarly.
- The Shield
- Touch of Evil plotted like CSI.
- Or NYPD Blue meets Touch of Evil.
- Silicon Valley is The Social Network meets The Big Bang Theory (minus a character who is like Penny).
- Slingers
looks to be Hustle meets Firefly as directed by Wong Kar Wai.
- Skins is Parker Lewis Can't Lose meets Kids.
- Smallville: Superman meets Dawson's Creek and Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets the Arrowverse retroactively.
- The Society is Lord of the Flies meets The Pied Piper of Hamelin, and modernized.
- Son of the Beach is Baywatch meets The Naked Gun meets Austin Powers.
- Sons of Anarchy is The Sopranos meets American Chopper meets Hamlet (it was described in some circles as Hamlet with motorcycles).
- Sonny with a Chance is So You Think You Can Dance meets 30 Rock.
- The Sopranos is GoodFellas meets Analyze This.
- Space Precinct is Blade Runner meets Hill Street Blues.
- Spaced was originally pitched by Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson as "a cross between The Simpsons, The X-Files, and Northern Exposure".
- Spartacus: Blood and Sand is Spartacus meets Gladiator meets 300 meets True Blood, with the latter sponsoring the sex contents.
- Splatalot! is Wipeout meets Whose Line Is It Anyway?
- Special Ops Mission (The Military Channel): Survivorman meets a Steven Seagal movie.
- Spectreman is Ultraman meets Planet of the Apes.
- Spitting Image is The Muppets meets Doonesbury meets Monty Python's Flying Circus meets MAD meets The Goodies.
- Sprout House is The Sunny Side Up Show meets Bear in the Big Blue House
- The Sprout Sharing Show is Zoom meets Play With Me Sesame
- Sprouts Wiggly Waffle is The Wiggles meet Musical Mornings With Coo meets Total Request Live
- Squid Game is Parasite (2019) meets Kaiji meets As the Gods Will meets Eyes Wide Shut meets The Prisoner (1967) meets Saw.
- Star Trek: The Original Series:
- Horatio Hornblower meets The Outer Limits (1963).
- Gene Roddenberry originally pitched it as "Wagon Train to the stars"
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is Star Trek meets Babylon 5.
- Or Star Trek meets The West Wing meets Mass Effect.
- More recently, it's been described as Star Trek meets Game of Thrones.
- Star Trek: Voyager is Star Trek meets Battlestar Galactica (or alternatively, Lost in Space).
- Word of God describes the Season 2 episode "Projections" as the TNG episodes "The Measure Of A Man" meets "Frame of Mind".
- The Star Trek: The Next Generation season 6 episode "Frame of Mind" is a combination of two Riker-centric episodes: "First Contact " (not to be confused with the film), where Riker goes on a undercover mission on an alien world which goes awry; and "Future Imperfect", where Riker finds himself inside a Dream Within a Dream. Coincidentally, both episodes were from season 4.
- SF Debris described the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "A Night In Sickbay" as Clive Barker directing a Jim Carrey comedy.
- Star Words, an unsold pilot for CBS in 1983, was Password meets Tattletales.
- Stargate Universe:
- Stargate-verse (more the movie or SG-1 than Atlantis) meets Battlestar Galactica meets The Last Starfighter meets Flight of the Phoenix meets Lost in Space.
- Stargate-verse: Animorphs meets Starship Troopers, with the Free Jaffa standing in for the Hork-Bajir, and the Tok'ra as a more sophisticated and organized Yeerk Peace Movement.
- In reviewing
the early Stargate SG-1 episode "Emancipation", SF Debris made the comment that early SG-1 was like "Star Trek by way of The Three Stooges", and thought it a good thing the show grew out of it.
- Step by Step is The Brady Bunch meets The Odd Couple.
- The Strange Calls is like Hot Fuzz meets The X-Files... in Australia.
- Stranger Things is a lot of different movies and shows from The '80s (especially various paranormal fiction and teenage dramas) mixed with the following:
- The series overall: The Goonies meets Super 8, The Monster Squad, Firestarter, The Host (2006), Twin Peaks, Supernatural, The X-Files, SCP Foundation, Elfen Lied, AKIRA, Higurashi: When They Cry and EarthBound (1994).
- Season 1: E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial meets IT (or according to
the Duffer Brothers: "What if Steven Spielberg directed a Stephen King book?")
- Season 2: Ghostbusters meets The Exorcist and Flowers in the Attic, with a bit of Jurassic Park thrown in near the end.
- Season 3: Red Dawn (1984) meets The Americans and Resident Evil.
- Season 4: Hell Raiser meets One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Metal Gear Solid.
- Stuck in the Middle is basically Malcolm in the Middle fused with The Loud House.
- The Suite Life of Zack & Cody is Sister, Sister meets Fawlty Towers. Sequel series The Suite Life on Deck replaces the latter with The Love Boat.
- The Sunny Side Up Show is Zoom meets The Today Show meets Play School meets Yo Gabba Gabba!.
- The Super Sproutlet Show is The Lets Go Show meets LazyTown.
- Supernatural is Angel meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Ghostbusters, Hellblazer, Scooby-Doo, and The X-Files.
- Survivor was described by Mark Burnett in his companion book for the first season of the show as "Gilligan's Island meets Ten Little Indians meets Lord of the Flies meets The Real World."
- Sweet Tooth: Bambi meets ICO
T
- Take It All, NBC's most recent prime time game show, is Give-n-Take meets Friend or Foe?.
- Tales of the Gold Monkey is Indiana Jones meets Sky King.
- Tattletales is The Newlywed Game meets I've Got a Secret. This could also apply to its beta edition, He Said, She Said.
- Going way back to its beta beta version It Had to Be You (which was piloted only in 1966 for NBC), that was Password meets The Newlywed Game.
- The forthcoming revival on HBO Max (now titled About Last Night) sounds to be the original Tattletales meets Beat the Clock.
- Taxi: Taxi Driver meets The Mary Tyler Moore Show
- Terra Nova:
- Jurassic Park meets Avatar. Guess who suddenly showed up to explain "Terra Nova Rules".
- It could also be described as Decision At Doona meets Primeval.
- With a dash of Earth 2.
- The Terror: Master and Commander meets The Thing (1982).
- That '70s Show is Happy Days meets Dazed and Confused.
- The original Teletubbies is basically Tots TV meets Brave New World, while the 2022 reboot is the original series meets Face's Music Party and CBC Kids.
- The original pitch for Terry Pratchett's The Watch was CSI: Ankh-Morpork.
- The Thick of It: Armando Iannucci described the series as Yes, Minister meets The Larry Sanders Show.
- Iannucci's other show, Veep, is The Thick Of It meets House of Cards (US) with some sprinkling of Seinfeld's Cringe Comedy.
- This Is Jinsy is The League of Gentlemen meets The Mighty Boosh with a side-order of Stanley Unwin and The Goons.
- The Thundermans is The Incredibles meets Wizards of Waverly Place.
- Three Sheets: The Thirsty Traveler meets Insomniac with Dave Attell.
- The Tick (2016) is Power Rangers S.P.D. meets Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency.
- Tikkabilla is Play School meets The Sunny Side Up Show
- Timeless has been described as Back to the Future meets Mission: Impossible.
- Tin Man is The Wizard of Oz as a Space Opera, but it's too much of a genuine Space Opera to be a mere Recycled IN SPACE!.
- Toei's take on Spider-Man = Spider-Man + the Toku genre.
- Tomica Hero Rescue Force = Madan Senki Ryukendo + Kyuukyuu Sentai GoGoFive + Tokkei Winspector + Tokkyuu Shirei Solbrain + Tokusou Exceedraft + Chousei Kantai Sazer X
- The Tomorrow People (2013) is Push meets Jumper.
- Torchwood, in series 1 at least, was often described as The X-Files meets This Life. (Angel meets Queer as Folk would seem more accurate.)
- The Troop is Persona 3 meets Power Rangers.
- Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell is The Daily Show meets The Soup.
- Truth Seekers is Grave Encounters meets Extra Ordinary (2019).
- 24 is Commando meets Dirty Harry meets The West Wing with more torture.
- True Blood is Interview with the Vampire meets Six Feet Under meets The Lost Boys.
- 2 Broke Girls is Laverne & Shirley meet Lady Gaga.
- Or Laverne & Shirley meets Two and a Half Men (and more generally, a Garry Marshall-style sitcom meets a Chuck Lorre-style sitcom).
- The Fresh Beat Band is The Wiggles meets High School Musical
- Topsy And Tim is Western Animation/Caillou meets The Suite Life Of Zack And Cody
U
- Ultimate Tag is American Gladiators meets Tag.
- The Umbrella Academy is X-Men meets The Royal Tenenbaums.
- Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is Seinfeld meets the work of Tim & Eric as filtered through the liberal viewpoints of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.
- Unfabulous is One Tree Hill and Lizzie McGuire.
- Upload is The Good Place meets The Diamond Age.
V
- V is It Can't Happen Here meets To Serve Man. The series was, in fact, originally intended as a straightforward adaptation of the former before the network convinced the creator to shoot it as a sci-fi story.
- The Vampire Diaries is Dawson's Creek meets Twilight meets True Blood meets Scream.note
- Van Helsing (2016) is Blade meets The Walking Dead.
- Victorious is a hybrid of High School Musical meets Saved by the Bell (and all its clones, like City Guys and California Dreams) thrown in.
- Vikings is Ragnar Lothbrok And His Sons meets The Vikings meets Game of Thrones meets Vinland Saga meets Northlanders garnished with the flavor of The Tudors and The Borgias.
- Vintergatan is Scooby-Doo meets Monty Python and the Holy Grail meets Star Trek.
- Vinyl is Mad Men meets Empire meets The Wolf of Wall Street.
- The Voice is American Idol meets Dragons' Den.
W
- The Walking Dead (2010): Night of the Living Dead (1968) meets a darker version of The Andy Griffith Show.
- Or Dawn of the Dead (1978) meets The Stand.
- Warehouse 13:
- Fringe meets Eureka with bits of Moonlighting filling in the cracks.
- Alternatively, it's Bones set in the SCP Foundation instead of the Jeffersonian.
- Some fans have instead described it as a Lighter and Softer take on The Laundry Files, relocated to the United States.
- Or, according to The Other Wiki, the series is The X-Files meets Raiders of the Lost Ark meets Moonlighting.
- The new BBC America fantasy series The Watch is described as Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) meets Game of Thrones. (And nods slightly at Discworld with a vague sense of recognition.)
- Wayward Pines is ultimately Twin Peaks meets The Prisoner meets Terra Nova (albeit with the time-travel conceit of Terra Nova inverted).
- Wednesday is The Addams Family meets Harry Potter meets Elvira, Mistress of the Dark filtered through The CW.
- Wellington Paranormal is What We Do in the Shadows meets Hunter: The Vigil.
- Werewolf (1987) is The Howling meets The Incredible Hulk (1977).
- Weaponizers (Discovery): Junkyard Wars meets BattleBots meets Twisted Metal.
- Weird Science is I Dream of Jeannie meets Beavis And Butthead.
- Westworld is Blade Runner meets The Adjustment Bureau meets The Dark Tower.
- What We Do in the Shadows (2019):
- Like with the original film, it's Interview with the Vampire meets The Office (US).
- Alternatively, it's True Blood meets Peep Show meets Flight of the Conchords.
- Either that, or it's Vampire: The Masquerade meets The Office (US) (albeit more as a Dom Com) with the surrealist Black Comedy undertones of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
- The 1979 game show Whew! is Jeopardy! meets Dungeons and Dragons. Materialwise, it's Jeopardy! meets Norm Crosby.
- Whiskey Cavilier is Leverage meets Mission: Impossible.
- White Collar is The A-Team meets Catch Me If You Can.
- Wilbur is Between the Lions meets U.S. Acres.
- Wilfred is Fight Club meets Harvey.
- The Wire is The Sopranos meets Scarface (1983) and Boyz n the Hood, as written by Charles Dickens.
- Wishbone is Masterpiece meets Wallace & Gromit.
- The Witcher (2019) is Game of Thrones meets The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt meets Berserk meets Dante's Inferno meets Bloodborne meets Man of Steel meets Outlander meets RWBY meets The Mandalorian meets Castlevania (2017) meets Spartacus: Blood and Sand.
- Wizards of Waverly Place is Harry Potter meets Hannah Montana.
- WKRP in Cincinnati has been described as The Mary Tyler Moore Show meets Three's Company. You might toss the early seasons of M*A*S*H in there too (Mr. Carlson as an Expy of Henry Blake is pretty obvious).
- Wolf Like Me is Splash meets An American Werewolf in London.
- Wonder Showzen is Sesame Street meets South Park.
- Or Meet the Feebles meets Spitting Image and Monkey Dust.
- The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss: is Dr. Seuss meets The Muppets.
X
- The X-Files was pitched as Kolchak: The Night Stalker meets The Silence of the Lambs meets JFK.
- However, it might better be described as Tales from the Crypt meets Project UFO with a shadow of JFK, and a main character inspired by Clarice Starling from The Silence of the Lambs.
Y
- Yellowjackets: Lord of the Flies meets Alive
- Yo Gabba Gabba!: Tweenies meets The Muppet Show.
- The Young Ones:
- La Bohème meets Bottom meets The Monkees.
- Or Monty Python's Flying Circus if it was a sitcom and flooded with late 1970s U.K. punk rock sensibilities.
- The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles is Indiana Jones meets Forrest Gump in the early 20th century.
- Young Sheldon is Sheldon Cooper starring in a version of The Wonder Years set in The '80s
- Or Sheldon fronting The Goldbergs meets Malcolm in the Middle.
Z
- Z Nation: Has been described as "The Walking Dead (2010) meets Mad Max".
- Or The Walking Dead meets Zombieland.
- Zeke and Luther is Drake & Josh meets Rocket Power.
- Zoey 101 is Lizzie McGuire meets Felicity meets Friends.
- Zone Fighter is Ultraman Ace meets Godzilla vs. Megalon.