How many times has this sitcom plot been used?

[SrslySirius]

When I was a kid I noticed an oddly specific plot being recycled on sitcoms and thought it was really weird. I believe I saw it used on three different shows. It goes as follows:

Male protagonist has an old friend coming to visit. Old friend is getting married again and is bringing the new fiance to dinner. When they arrive, male protagonist looks surprised and behaves awkwardly. His wife pulls him to the side and asks him what his problem is. He explains that he's seen this woman before at a bachelor party. She was a stripper that jumped out of a cake. Wife is skeptical. Male protagonist says he can prove it because that stripper had a unique laugh. He proceeds to tell awful jokes in an attempt to make the fiance laugh, but fails. Someone else casually says something funny and the fiance does her weird laugh. Male protagonist and wife look at each other knowingly.

From there the plot diverges, but usually involves the two friends having a big argument and later reconciling.

Do sitcom writers shop their scripts around and resell them? I've never seen a reused story besides this one. How many other shows have used this horse laugh stripper plot? Are they still doing it? I don't watch them anymore.

Druff, you seem to be a big fan of 70s and 80s sitcoms. Does any of this sound familiar to you?

[Henry]

[BCR]

I recall Happy Days episode where Fonzie was supposed to get married but your plot happens, right down to distinctive laugh.

thats first one that popped into head

[JoeD]

Three's Company had 172 episodes so I'm going to estimate that it accounts for at least 160 times that some variation of the plot you described was used.

[SrslySirius]

I recall Happy Days episode where Fonzie was supposed to get married but your plot happens, right down to distinctive laugh.

thats first one that popped into head

Nice. I haven't seen that episode, but that makes it the earliest known example. IMDB says that that Happy Days episode was written by Garry Marshall, Lowell Ganz, and Mark Rothman. None of those guys ever wrote for Family Matters, according to IMDB, which is one of the shows that used this plot. Weird.

I guess this could just be a tradition of people blatantly ripping off Happy Days, but why just that one episode in particular?

[Crowe Diddly]

What other shows have used this plot?

[SrslySirius]

What other shows have used this plot?

Step-By-Step (awful show, even by sitcom standards), and Family Matters, which I already mentioned. I don't recall the third one, but it was also a late 80s to mid 90s sitcom.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0709962/...?ref_=tt_ov_pl

http://familymatters.wikia.com/wiki/Midterm_Crisis

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0596203/

[abrown83]

It's more likely that the same writer cycled through multiple shows and kept pitching the same story line.

[SrslySirius]

It's more likely that the same writer cycled through multiple shows and kept pitching the same story line.

If that's the case, he was uncredited, as none of these episodes have any writers in common.

EDIT: However, Michael Warren and William Bickley were producers on all three shows.

[GrenadaRoger]

don't recall any sitcoms, but I've see that on old western/detective shows that recycle scripts -- Paladin>>Rockford Files>>Magnum PI all had the same producers

[gut]

Most family sitcoms from the 80's-90's were unoriginal ripoffs of each other and/or older shows. Step-by-step was simply The Brady Bunch part 2. I bet if you ran through plot synopsis' of like...step-by-step, full house, family matters, home improvement, who's the boss, roseanne, etc etc, and just removed the character names that would give away which show is which, they would be quite indistinguishable from each other.




Married with Children was the GOAT though.

[SrslySirius]

Most family sitcoms from the 80's-90's were unoriginal ripoffs of each other and/or older shows. Step-by-step was simply The Brady Bunch part 2. I bet if you ran through plot synopsis' of like...step-by-step, full house, family matters, home improvement, who's the boss, etc etc, and just removed the character names that would give away which show is which, they would be quite indistinguishable from each other.

There are certainly reoccurring tropes in all of these shows. But this is the only example I know of where a specific plot is exactly copied beat for beat.

[gut]

Most family sitcoms from the 80's-90's were unoriginal ripoffs of each other and/or older shows. Step-by-step was simply The Brady Bunch part 2. I bet if you ran through plot synopsis' of like...step-by-step, full house, family matters, home improvement, who's the boss, etc etc, and just removed the character names that would give away which show is which, they would be quite indistinguishable from each other.

There are certainly reoccurring tropes in all of these shows. But this is the only example I know of where a specific plot is exactly copied beat for beat.

My guess is that type of plot was a way to get a "young-hot-model-trying-acting" into a guest spot on a family show.

I bet you could find other almost identical stories that go like this: the family dad has a new coworker, and its a SMOKING HOT CHICK! Wife happens to notice how googly-eyes husband gets when around the new coworker, and said coworker is being quite forward with husband, leading to some tension at home! But in the end, husband knows he already has the love of his life right at home already.

I swear I've seen that like 3 times as well on different shows.

[SrslySirius]

My guess is that type of plot was a way to get a "young-hot-model-trying-acting" into a guest spot on a family show.

I bet you could find other almost identical stories that go like this: the family dad has a new coworker, and its a SMOKING HOT CHICK! Wife happens to notice how googly-eyes husband gets when around the new coworker, and said coworker is being quite forward with husband, leading to some tension at home! But in the end, husband knows he already has the love of his life right at home already.

I swear I've seen that like 3 times as well on different shows.

This one lacks the detail of the weird laugh stripper plot, but it's a good point. I have seen that a lot too. Simpsons did it twice!

[Dan Druff]

I didn't watch Step by Step or Family Matters.

There was a similar (but not identical) plot on "Gimme a Break!", where the chief's previously unseen, unmentioned (and obese) brother is all excited that he has met the woman of his dreams, and it turns out to be a hooker that the chief was using as an informant.

"All in the Family" also had two different episodes where a previously-unseen character (brother & friend, respectively) show up with a fiancee with whom there is some kind of surprise or past history. In one case, it was an ex of Archie's, and in the other, it's a girl who is barely legal.

[Dan Druff]

Sometimes writers also lift plots (knowingly or unknowingly) from others shows they watched growing up in the past.

For example, there have been a few Miami Vice plots which have recently shown up on the new Hawaii Five-O.

[herbertstemple]

There was a Good Times episode like this sort of. Wilona(the hot next door neighbor) had a boyfriend or fiance that was a loser that one of the family was aware of.

[Wiganer]

The modern version will be that the woman is really a man, and then the reaction ends up being so what.

Mind you, didn't they use that in Some Like it Hot?