Bionic Ripoff!!

[enyawd72]

Watched all three SMDM pilots last night and the first two episodes...all awesome!

However, the producers of this show and the Bionic Woman did something unbelievable. I just finished watching the first season of the Bionic Woman last week, and the first season BW episode "Fly Jaime" is an EXACT copy of the second SMDM episode "Survival of the Fittest"

Here is a breakdown of the episodes:

SMDM: Two guys are out to kill Oscar while he and Steve are on a plane.
BW: Two guys are out to kill Rudy while he and Jaime are on a plane.

SMDM: Plane encounters electrical storm and crashes on deserted island.
BW: Plane encounters electrical storm and crashes on deserted island.

SMDM: Steve explores island, surprises Oscar with bionic bag of coconuts.
BW: Jaime explores island, surprises Rudy with bionic bag of coconuts.

SMDM: Two guys get the drop on Oscar and shoot him.
BW: Two guys get the drop on Rudy and shoot him.

SMDM: Evil nurse in cahoots with bad guys tries to take out Steve.
BW: Evil nurse in cahoots with bad guys tries to take out Jaime.

SMDM: Med school dropout saves Oscar by cauterizing using Steve's finger.
BW: Med school dropout saves Rudy by cauterizing using Jaime's finger.

Seriously, almost 90% of the dialogue is EXACTLY the same. I can't believe they thought nobody would notice, even back then.

[jds1911a1]

one and done airing mentality. at best there might have been a thought of reruns but not till season 3 was in the can for 6mdm (the magic 100 episode theory)
even if it felt "familiar" when BW aired it wouldn't have felt any different from the typical rehashing of the formula for any action show.

in watching Emergency I saw some of the same "errors". In the pilot Roy and gage meet Jim reed and Pete Malloy at rampart. In mid season 1 they are watching adam 12 on tv and get a call and miss the end (and the adam 12 clips used actually were an episode that guest starred Marco Lopez) and it's driving them bonkers not knowing how Adam 12 turned out
then in a later Adam-12 season Roy and guage guest star meeting Pete and Jim again at Rampart

[megoapesnut]

Years ago, the Sci-Fi channel was running both series and they noticed it too, as they aired both of those episodes back to back. That was the first I had picked up on it and I got a good laugh.

[MIB41]

That's hilarious. Did Kenneth Johnson write both of those or was he just the producer? I think he needs to do a commentary on that revelation. Great find!

[Mikey]

That's pretty funny.

[Earth 2 Chris]

Star Trek kind of did that with TMP, which had essentially the same plot as the TOS epsiode, "The Changeling".

But they weren't THAT close, compared to this!

Chris

[palitoy]

I can think of incidents of shows ripped off plots directly from other shows (Space:1999 did it to Star Trek and Buck Rogers took from 1999) but this sounds like the most incestuous example I've ever heard of since the "New Odd Couple".

[Mikey]

I can think of incidents of shows ripped off plots directly from other shows (Space:1999 did it to Star Trek and Buck Rogers took from 1999) but this sounds like the most incestuous example I've ever heard of since the "New Odd Couple".

I kind of remember a What's Happening! episode dealing with this directly for the first time on TV.

Rog wrote a TV script about kids finding money and thought the Network ripped him off.

The Network explained the same story is used for a lot of TV show plots.

[GlobalObserver]

On several occasions, Aaron Spelling recycled old Mod Squad scripts and used them for Charlie's Angels.

[palitoy]

On several occasions, Aaron Spelling recycled old Mod Squad scripts and used them for Charlie's Angels.

Yeah, I remember that too.

[CrimsonGhost]

Wow, I can't believe I've never heard about all of this script reuse before. It seems like it would be common knowledge at this point.

[filmation batman fan]

I'd actually heard that throughout the Bionic Woman's run, some of the episodes were recycled scripts from episodes of the Six Million Dollar Man. The Claws episode of BW reminds me of the season 2 Taneha episode of the SMDM.
Cheers.

[Earth 2 Chris]

Comics have done this for years. Mort Wesinger constantly recycled plots in his Superman titles. Sometimes they'd run in the same title, just 5 or so years apart!

Chris

[jds1911a1]

On several occasions, Aaron Spelling recycled old Mod Squad scripts and used them for Charlie's Angels.

I'm sure he recycled plots from Swat into S&H and into TJ Hooker too

[knight errant00]

How about the Bewitched "Duelling Darrens" episodes?

TV Land ran those years ago -- basically the Bewitched producers took something like 3-6 scripts from the first B&W season and refilmed them in color in the last season. Of course, by then they'd switched out the Darren actor, so what the eps do let you do is compare Dick York and Dick Sargent playing the same scenes in the same story!