Same plot, different cartoon

[stephane dumas]

I thought it was Officer Dibble.

you're right, it's Dibble. I may had confused with another character

 

[Anthonynotes]

What about these recycled plots:

The "Gremlin" Plot: Cute, innocent new pet turns into a monster.


The "New Best Friend" Plot: New character is introduced and becomes friends to one of the characters. Old friend feels left out as their friend spends more time with new character (who seems to "better" then the Old friend). Old friend finds out the new character is evil and trys to warn their friend, only to be accused of being jealous by their former friend.


The "Team Up" Plot: Main Character is trapped along with usually mean rival character and must learn to work together in order to get out of their current situation, learns rival may not be as bad as they thought, although relationship with rival will return to the status quo by the end of the episode.


"The Most Dangerous Game" Plot: Big game hunter decides he needs a new challenge, and decides to hunt the main characters, only to end up becoming the hunted himself.


The "A Christmas Carol" Plot: Charles Dickens' story retold using show's main characters.

Think just about every comedic show with a Christmas special seems to wind up doing "A Christmas Carol" in some form or another---including the Flintstones (as a TV-movie, and managed to be rather faithful to the original Dickens story, the rock-puns aside...).

-B.

 

[STARTOUNZ]

Think just about every comedic show with a Christmas special seems to wind up doing "A Christmas Carol" in some form or another---including the Flintstones (as a TV-movie, and managed to be rather faithful to the original Dickens story, the rock-puns aside...).

-B.

This was also done on The Jetsons with the episode "A Jetson Christmas Carol" with Spacely in the role of Scrooge.

 

[The Huntsman]

This was also done on The Jetsons with the episode "A Jetson Christmas Carol" with Spacely in the role of Scrooge.

Well, as has been mentioned, such a plot has been done for countless animated programs. Hell, even an episode of “101 Dalmatians: The Series” had that plot, which really didn’t make much sense in the grand scheme of things. Fortunately, more animated programs have been having original Christmas episodes over the past couple of years, so such plots are becoming less common.

 

[stephane dumas]

Well, as has been mentioned, such a plot has been done for countless animated programs. Hell, even an episode of “101 Dalmatians: The Series” had that plot, which really didn’t make much sense in the grand scheme of things. Fortunately, more animated programs have been having original Christmas episodes over the past couple of years, so such plots are becoming less common.

the Kappa Mikey Christmas episode menaged to get a mix of a "Christmas Carol plot" with Ozu acting as Scrooge and the "It's a Wonderful life" plot when Mikey tells to an angel what happened if he didn't starred in LilyMu. But they menaged to spoof the "Christmas Carol plot" by letting Ozu convincing the ghosts of Christmas past and present to sabotage Christmas until the ghost of Christmas future arrives.

 

[radioflyer]

How many cartoons have done the "evil twin" thing?

Actually, I think it would be easier if we made a list of cartoons that haven't done the "evil twin" thing.

Or who haven't recycled other plots from other shows, over and over.

 

[radioflyer]

How about the one where the character gets a criminal arrested, only to have him escape from prison and vows revenge, leading all the main characters to go into hiding, where the criminal finds anyway, but saved at the last second.

It was used in "Flintstones" and also in "Family Guy." This isn't animated, but "Kenan and Kell" did this plotline as well (although they didn't go into hiding)

Spongebob did it too. Very funny episode.

 

[Kryten]

"Flowers for Algernon": A formerly dumb character suddenly gets super-intelligence. At which point: 1) his friends can't relate to him/her anymore and want the status quo restored; b) the character finds him/herself unhappy and wants the status quo restored; c) The change is only temporary, and the status quo is restored; or d) it turns out it's all a big coincidence, and... you guessed it... the status quo is restored.

Shows where this has been done: Ed, Edd n' Eddy, Doug, Spongebob Squarepants, The Simpsons, Kim Possible, Chowder (with the twist that Chowder actually winds up so smart he shatters the fourth wall), NewsRadio (not animated, but still hilarious), and I'm sure loads of others.

 

[Silverstar]

"Flowers for Algernon": A formerly dumb character suddenly gets super-intelligence. At which point: 1) his friends can't relate to him/her anymore and want the status quo restored; b) the character finds him/herself unhappy and wants the status quo restored; c) The change is only temporary, and the status quo is restored; or d) it turns out it's all a big coincidence, and... you guessed it... the status quo is restored.

Shows where this has been done: Ed, Edd n' Eddy, Doug, Spongebob Squarepants, The Simpsons, Kim Possible, Chowder (with the twist that Chowder actually winds up so smart he shatters the fourth wall), NewsRadio (not animated, but still hilarious), and I'm sure loads of others.

Among them: Stunt Dawgs ("Half-A-Mind Over Matter"), Action League Now!, Aqua Teen Hunger Force ("Dumber Days") and Kappa Mikey ("Gonard Hunting") have also tackled this premise. Another live-action example was Night Court.

 

[Anthonynotes]

This was also done on The Jetsons with the episode "A Jetson Christmas Carol" with Spacely in the role of Scrooge.

Yeah, but the Jetsons' version sucked. (Spacely and George knowing each other as *kids*?! Astro, despite two acts' worth of melodramatics over his possible doom, being easily cured by the doctor in a way Alka-Selzer, or its futuristic equivalent, could've resolved?! Meh...)

The Flintstones' version was presented in the context of Fred playing Scrooge in a Christmas play (though the role wound up affecting his real life, natch), with the rest of the Flintstones cast as the other characters...

-B.

 

[Antiyonder]

Yeah, but the Jetsons' version sucked. (Spacely and George knowing each other as *kids*?! Astro, despite two acts' worth of melodramatics over his possible doom, being easily cured by the doctor in a way Alka-Selzer, or its futuristic equivalent, could've resolved?! Meh...)-B.

True, but I found it amusing that they chose to sue Mr. Spacely (which hasn't been done in most Christmas Carols).

 

[DarthGonzo]

"Flowers for Algernon": A formerly dumb character suddenly gets super-intelligence. At which point: 1) his friends can't relate to him/her anymore and want the status quo restored; b) the character finds him/herself unhappy and wants the status quo restored; c) The change is only temporary, and the status quo is restored; or d) it turns out it's all a big coincidence, and... you guessed it... the status quo is restored.

Shows where this has been done: Ed, Edd n' Eddy, Doug, Spongebob Squarepants, The Simpsons, Kim Possible, Chowder (with the twist that Chowder actually winds up so smart he shatters the fourth wall), NewsRadio (not animated, but still hilarious), and I'm sure loads of others.

They also did this on Jimmy Neutron with Sheen and on Ducktales with Bubba. In fact Tiny Toons did this as well with Dizzy Devil. And wouldn't you know it, Pinky and the Brain did this too.

 

[Brandon Pierce]

They also did this on Jimmy Neutron with Sheen and on Ducktales with Bubba. In fact Tiny Toons did this as well with Dizzy Devil. And wouldn't you know it, Pinky and the Brain did this too.

Angry Beavers KINDA did that too in "Moronathon Man", with Daggett becoming smarter, and Norbert becoming dumber.

 

[FlooterFlatter]

There's a similar variation of "dumb characters becoming smart for one episode" where a wimpy kid decides to be more tough, to the point that he comes a bully.

Examples I could think of includes "Hey Arnold" and "Pepper Ann"

 

[Brandon Pierce]

Oh! Just thought of another one.

There's an old Looney Tunes short called "Pigs is Pigs", about a pig who is lectured by his mother about overeating. That night he has nightmare about a scientist force-feeding him. The next morning, the pig doesn't learn a thing and continues overeating.

There was an episode of "Garfield & Friends" (the title escapes me) where Jon warns Garfield about overeating, and he'll have a nightmare. Sure enough, Garfield has a nightmare about overeating, he becomes a giant cat, and is taken by an alien spaceship who want him for lunch.

 

[cyde]

Think just about every comedic show with a Christmas special seems to wind up doing "A Christmas Carol" in some form or another---including the Flintstones (as a TV-movie, and managed to be rather faithful to the original Dickens story, the rock-puns aside...).

-B.

Let's not forget the It's A Wonderful Life plot in which the character loses faith in life and wishes he/she had never been born, only to see that the world would be much worse without him/her. and changes his/her mind, and all's well again. Also, in regards to the The "Team Up" Plot, there HAVE been some cases in which the rival DOES change for good.

 

[Goldstar!]

And let's not forget the old standby plot where villains/antagonists from past episodes decide to team up in order to defeat the hero/protagonist. I've seen this plot device used on Challenge of the Super Friends, Darkwing Duck, Swat Kats, Beetlejuice, Johnny Test and scads of others.

 

[Cartman]

Oh! Just thought of another one.

There's an old Looney Tunes short called "Pigs is Pigs", about a pig who is lectured by his mother about overeating. That night he has nightmare about a scientist force-feeding him. The next morning, the pig doesn't learn a thing and continues overeating.

There was an episode of "Garfield & Friends" (the title escapes me) where Jon warns Garfield about overeating, and he'll have a nightmare. Sure enough, Garfield has a nightmare about overeating, he becomes a giant cat, and is taken by an alien spaceship who want him for lunch.

That overeating bit was also used in a "Simpsons" Treehouse of Horror episode.

 

[Brandon Pierce]

Let's not forget the It's A Wonderful Life plot in which the character loses faith in life and wishes he/she had never been born, only to see that the world would be much worse without him/her. and changes his/her mind, and all's well again. Also, in regards to the The "Team Up" Plot, there HAVE been some cases in which the rival DOES change for good.

The Angry Beavers' episode "It's a Spootiful Life" did their own version of that, only Daggett finds out that if he had never been born, everyone's lives would actually be better!

 

[Lonestarr]

The Angry Beavers' episode "It's a Spootiful Life" did their own version of that, only Daggett finds out that if he had never been born, everyone's lives would actually be better!

That twist in the tail went over like a lead balloon when they tried it on "Fairly Oddparents". I guess it's all in the writing...and "Angry Beavers" had great writers.