“Talent borrows, genius steals” is a line usually attributed to the genius (convenient!) Oscar Wilde. Cynical old devourers of popular culture like us may appreciate that there truly is nothing entirely new under the sun, but I was wondering whether we might reach some kind of agreement about what we believed was the most complete piece of appropriation. Music, I think, should be excluded as I’m confident there won’t be the teeniest bit of consensus in this contentious field.
Here’s a few suggestions:
Goober And The Ghost Chasers
A not-at-all fondly remembered and short-lived cartoon from the 1970s which decided to capitalise on the popularity of Scooby Doo by introducing us to a plucky bunch of youngsters who encountered ghosts as they traversed the countryside in their logo’d up vehicle with their talking dog.
Oh, and they had lots of “celeb” mates including famous basketball players.
Mind, there were a few touches to distinguish GATG. Firstly, the kids were journalists at “Ghostchaser” magazine who actively sought out ghosts and their vehicle was straight out of Gerry Anderson’s Century 21 designs (lucrative trade, ghost journalism). Also Goober, as per the ancient theatrical tradition, talked to us, the viewers in supposed-to-be-funny asides, but couldn’t communicate with his human companions. He also became invisible at random moments (Goober always wore a hat and scarf so, when he vanished, they remained suspended in mid air).
The show’s creators decided the thing that was wrong with Scooby Doo was the character of Shaggy, so Goober’s companions were the boring-ass Fred one, the ginger female and the one with glasses (who, instead of being a smart female was a dumb male).
That’s a helluva lot of seen-it-before, but where GATG loses points for unoriginality is the perhaps surprising fact that it was made by Hanna Barbera, the same people who made Scooby Doo.
Like, just repeat Scooby Doo, man – as Shaggy might say.
The Backwoods
A movie where townie people in the countryside back in the 70s find themselves wielding shotguns and besieged in the pelting rain by angry yokels having elected to protect someone the locals want to hurt, in the course of which a townie lady is sexually assaulted at gunpoint in a cottage, apparently because she briefly exposed a little too much of herself to these sex-crazed primitives.
You might think that sounds a tad similar to Straw Dogs but, rest assured, this film is about two couples in rural Spain, so that’s alright then. (And it only stars “A” grade talent Gary Oldman and Paddy Considine – hey, a job’s a job!)
Lockout
Oh no! The President’s daughter has become captive inside the world’s most secure (because entirely isolated) prison surrounded by the scum of the Earth. Someone must get inside and bring her back. But what sort of character could you send on such a suicide mission – why, some self-loathing, dry-quipping, authority-hating loose canon, of course!
Yep, that sound you hear is the bells of Saint Plagiarism ring-a-ding-dinging…
however, so much so, that John Carpenter and his co-writer were awarded a big wad of cash over similarities to his “Escape” movies. Also – once you get past the déjà vu – Lockout is actually pretty enjoyable.
So, put your thinking caps on and come up with something better. Please!
Riverdale, featuring a mysterious teen murder in a North American backwater where nothing is quite what it seems, has obviously borrowed much from a certain early 90s show, though in a somewhat knowing way, featuring some actors from the original show. It’s very good actually.
I vaguely remember Goober and the Ghost but the business model of creating your own competition was something I noticed with The Beano and The Dandy and several other titles from DC Thompson in Dundee, As a kid though I didn’t realise this as and was very loyal to The Beano. If a well-meaning relative bought me a Dandy I would have been mortified.
Does anyone remember ITV’s soap opera Albion Market? A late 80s wholesale copy of Eastenders. Also London-based – the characters might as well have been Meggy Pitchell, Bat Putcher and, erm, Dirty Den.
Did it have a monk called Pary?
The most blatant steal I can think of is the landscape of Jim Cameron’s Avatar movie, which was uncannily close to the artwork of Yes cover artist Roger Dean.
http://www.heavymetal.com/news/15-roger-dean-paintings-that-totally-didnt-inspire-avatar/
Excellent OP, Sewer, full of convincing examples.
Can I nominate Joss Whedon’s Firefly which owes rather a large debt to Han Solo and Chewi in Star Wars.
Unconventional, disillusioned, outlaw, mercenary space captain takes on lucrative assignments to line his own pocket in a version of outer space which bears great similarities to the Wild West. But deep down his heart is in the right place.
Having said that, I must point out that it is one of my absolute favourite TV series.
And one of the most enjoyable films of recent years, Guardians of the Galaxy, (fun-loving, unconventional, inter-galactic outlaws save the galaxy) riffs heavily on similar themes.
It’s not what you nick, it’s the way that you do it, that’s what gets results
Then there’s Jack Kirby’s Fourth World’s possible influence on Star Wars: Darkseid/Dark Side; the Source/ the Force; Apokalips – a big mechanical looking planet/ the Death Star; the big bad turns out to be the hero’s dad etc etc
Regarding Goober and the Ghost Chasers, Hanna-Barbera were quite open about their penchant for “borrowing” format ideas, and started quite early…The Flintstones was basically The Honeymooners in prehistoric times, The Jetsons was The Honeymooners in the distant future, Top Cat was Sgt Bilko, and so on…
Fine points, Mr S. I was pondering the qualitative difference between “Let’s do Bilko, but with alley cats” and remaking another cartoon currently still popular when I had a revelation: Scooby Doo is too Democrat. It asks us to like a beatnik pothead (scruffy, always has the munchies), features a smart, assertive woman who solves many of the mysteries and instead of actual ghosts, the villains are usually greedy businesspeople out to make money.
By way of rebuttal, Goober embraces Republican values. There’s no celebration of the alternative hippy lifestyle, the lone woman in this show knows her place and ghosts are real => spirits and the afterlife are real => solid Christian values.
And these employed kids make money from their ghost encounters, unlike the pesky Scooby Doo kids whose altruistic do gooder antics only thwart business folk trying to get an edge..
Too much for me to take in but I admire you all for your passion.
❤️
The Funky Phantom also trod similar ground. Groovy mystery solvers, this time in a beach buggy rather than a transit, with a cat rather than a dog, and an actual ghost along for the adventures. Metatastically they appeared in one of the many recent-ish Scooby series.
Then there was The New Schmoo, where the dog was replaced by The Schmoo, an, err, um, white thing.
On Hanna-Barbera recreating TV shows, they did a blatant Happy Days thing involving animals called “Heyyy it’s the King!” where a leather jacketed lion took the Fonzie role. It reeked *and* blew chunks.