TV Comedies And Dramas With The Exact Same Premise - But Drastically Different Execution

Television has long loved detective shows, especially when they have a unique gimmick. Two shows popped up with a similar gimmick around the same time - the fake psychic. First came Psych, centering on Shawn Spencer (James Roday), who passes off his preternatural observation skills as psychic powers while assisting the Santa Barbara Police department. Though technically a comedy-drama with an hour-long runtime, the humor is a major emphasis here, especially in Shawn's buddy dynamic with Gus (Dulé Hill). In 2008 came the possible-copycat show, The Mentalist. Despite a very similar conceit, with lead character Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) using his skills from being a former fake psychic stage performer to help solve crimes, the show feels distinct from Psych by leaning far more into the dramatic. Jane is driven by a tragic yet noble quest to catch the serial killer who murdered his wife and daughter. Both shows make effective use of their tonal differences, and both achieved popularity during their concurrent runs - though perhaps with a bit of resentment on Psych's part.

Suburbanites who take deep-dives down the drug dealing rabbit hole? Check. Decent parents driven to do increasingly more morally dubious things in an effort to keep their illicit business afloat, all because they’re desperate to provide for their families? Double check. Weeds and Breaking Bad have a shockingly similar basis - similar enough that the debut of the former a few years earlier almost stopped Breaking Bad from getting made. Fortunately, the creators and network execs were confident that the two shows could milk that concept for opposite tones. Weeds is more comedic by far, balancing out some basic drama in the life of Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker) by deriving humor in the uncomfortable situations she finds herself in while balancing her marijuana sales business with caring for her children. On the other hand, Breaking Bad takes an unlikely protagonist, terminally ill chemistry teacher Walter White (Bryan Cranston), and puts him though all the darkest aspects of the New Mexico methamphetamine trade, examining his own darker impulses along the way.

Scrubs and Grey’s Anatomy both managed to become early 2000s pop cultural phenomenons on their own terms, despite sharing a number of structural similarities. Shonda Rhimes's Grey’s Anatomy carved out a space in the medical programmer niche as a steamy, romance-infused soap, with storytelling priorities fell firmly on the side of relationship issues between its central team of doctors (rather than disease-of-the-week mystery like House). Scrubs is also highly concerned with the inner workings of its team of young medical professionals, with a heavy emphasis on the romance, albeit in a far more humorous fashion. The half-hour runtime also sets it apart, aiming to deliver consistent laughs through slapstick gags and voiceover narration by J.D. (Zach Braff) rather than high-tension melodrama like Grey's.

The cop drama is a TV standby that’s existed almost as long as television itself, and the 1993-2005 hit NYPD Blue is about as stellar an example of the art form as can be found. In many ways a predecessor to equally lauded programs like The Shield and The Wire, NYPD Blue pulls no punches in its committed dramatic storytelling. With 261 episodes in total, it held the crown for ABC's longest-running primetime drama for several years (until surpassed by Grey's Anatomy). Shaking up that classic format, there's the 2013 sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Taking the basic police procedural format but twisting it to sitcom conventions, the show features goofy detective Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg) bucking against his rule-stickler new captain Raymond Holt (Andre Braugher), among a zany ensemble. It's all about punchlines rather than punches, at times almost feeling like a parody of modern cop-drama formula of NYPD Blue.

AMC's Interview with the Vampire, the latest adaptation of Anne Rice's long-running fictional universe, examines the life of the vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson), especially as it intersects with the older and more enigmatic vampire Lestat (Sam Reid). The show builds off the popularity of the novels and previous film adaptations, finding new drama in a fresh backstory for Louis as a Black man from New Orleans, plus more explicit focus to the romantic relationship between the two men. Another explosive film-to-TV adaptation of the early 2020s is FX's What We Do in the Shadows, an adaptation of an identically titled film, created by comedy kings Taika Waititi and Jermaine Clement. Likewise “interviewing” vampires, the sitcom is ostensibly a documentary following four vamps who live together on Staten Island - Nandor (Kayvan Novak), Nadja (Natasia Demetriou), Laszlo (Matt Berry) and Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch) - along with their human familiar, Guillermo (Harvey Guillen). Both of these shows clearly revere their source material, and use it for great effect in their respective genres.

The 2004-2010 ABC hit Lost blew the minds of viewers everywhere upon its release, with its focus on “mystery box” storytelling style that unwound and rewound myriad plot threads in an existentially fraught grab-bag of science fiction and conspiracy thriller tropes. But most importantly, more than the cryptic string of numbers or the Smoke Monster, Lost is about the relationships between a group of disparate personalities, which is played for drama to great effect. Sound familiar? That's because the classic 1964-1967 sitcom Gilligan’s Island has the exact same premise, but played for laughs rather than drama. The ensemble cast frequently attempted to escape the island, with those attempts failing very often due to the involvement of Gilligan (Bob Denver). What could be a bleak situation - and would be, in reality - is made hilarious by taking it to a goofy extreme, as the castaways never lose their spirit to keep trying to get off the island. Just as Lost had a major impact on dramas that came after it, Gilligan's Island influenced many sitcoms that followed, thanks to its smart mix of slapstick and character-centric humor.

The historical television drama has long lived in the minds of viewers as something reserved, prestigious, and maybe even a little stuffy. HBO and Sky Atlantic's Catherine the Great fits squarely into that mold, with Helen Mirren playing the titular Russian empress with all of the requisite dignity, grace, and power that one might expect from a staid but respectable historical drama. For the more sardonic, chaotic, and irascible approach to that same subject, Hulu's The Great turns the period drama into period antics. With its cheeky subtitle An Occasionally True Story, this version stars Elle Fanning as Catherine and Nicholas Hoult as Peter III, her husband whom she plots to overthrow. Playing freely with the facts for the sake of irreverence, this version is full of absurdist wit, political satire, and anachronism to craft Catherine's story into a gonzo dark comedy.

Ghosts, a US adaptation of an identically titled British television comedy, found itself a minor hit on CBS upon its 2021 debut thanks to its humorous depiction of a couple who discover the house they inherited is haunted when Sam (Rose McIver) gains the ability to see and hear ghosts after a near-death experience. Rose and her husband Jay (Utkarsh Ambudkar) attempt to continue their plans to turn the house into a bed and breakfast without disturbing the charming and eclectic ensemble of ghosts (who all hail from different historical periods) too much. Where Ghosts has the living helping the dead with minor quibbles, Ghost Whisperer came before it to focus on much more serious topics. Protagonist Melinda Gordon (Jennifer Love Hewitt) likewise can see and hear spirits, but she uses this ability to help the individuals deal with “unfinished business” so that they may find peace and move on. The magical take on a case-of-the-week format features sadder stories and greater drama, taking the fantastical premise in a less goofy, but still emotional direction.

If Bill Hader's masterpiece of a program, Barry, doesn't entirely stick to the sitcom formula suggested by its half-hour runtime, one still can't deny that it finds plenty of bleak humor even in its dark moments. As Barry Berkman (Hader) attempts to put his life as a hitman behind him, embracing acting under the tutelage of Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler), he meets plenty of goofy criminals and bizarre non-sequitur situations that provide chuckles in between kills. Meanwhile, Killing Eve turns a very similar premise into an hour-long drama, centering another bored assassin, Villanelle (Jodie Comer). Much like Barry, Villanelle yearns for fulfillment and connection that her job as a killer can't provide, leading her to strike up a playful cat-and-mouse game - and eventually, an erotic, romantic rivalry - with MI6 agent Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh). Oddly enough, Barry and Killing Eve aired their first episodes only two weeks apart from each other, on March 25 and April 8, 2018, respectively. This concurrent timing didn't hinder either show, though - both actors who play the central assassins won Emmys for their performances in 2019 (Hader for Lead Actor in a Comedy, and Comer for Lead Actress in a Drama).

Arrested Development was a cult hit of a sitcom, under-appreciated during its original 2003-2005 run, but with a retroactive fanbase that had it revived on Netflix 10 years later. The documentary-style filming features rapid-fire jokes while centering on Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman) and his siblings Gob (Will Arnett), Lindsay (Portia de Rossi), and Buster (Tony Hale), as they attempt to salvage their family real estate company - and fight over who gets control of the company finances - after their father, George Sr. (Jeffrey Tambor) ends up in jail. A near-identical premise kicks off Succession, one of the defining dramas of the early 2020s. Though there's a decent dose of comedy in the Roy siblings' vicious verbal takedowns of each other, the endless fight between Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Roman (Kieran Culkin), and Shiv (Sarah Snook) over who will take over as CEO from their father Logan (Brian Cox) certainly has far more tragedy in the end. The sociopathy of the mega-wealthy is on full display in Succession, and the characters certainly make much colder and less humorous choices than those of Arrested Development do.

The character Sabrina from the Archie Comics universe has received multiple TV adaptations with differing tacts. In 1996 came the live-action sitcom Sabrina the Teenage Witch, setting Sabrina (Melissa Joan Hart) through the daily trials and challenges of high school. Her aunts Hilda (Caroline Rhea) and Zelda (Beth Broderick) teach her how to properly use her magic powers, while her talking cat Salem (voiced by Nick Bakay) offers sarcastic repartee. Long after that sitcom wrapped up, 2018 brought Netflix's completely different adaptation, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. With Kiernan Shipka in the lead role, this show takes a far darker approach as a supernatural horror drama, where Sabrina feels torn between the human world and magic world while fighting off evil forces that threaten her friends and family. It keeps a similar tone to its companion show Riverdale, turning Sabrina and her adventures into the stuff of soap opera dreams. In the end, both Sabrina the Teenage Witch and The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina manage to stay faithful to the sweet yet spooky spirit of their shared source material, despite two contrasting approaches.

It seems unlikely that the pirate mythology could inspire both a TV drama and comedy, but much less unlikely that both should feature pirate legend Edward Teach AKA Blackbeard as a central character. Crossbones, the first and more dramatically inclined of the two, unfortunately only managed to eke out a single season on NBC (possibly due to competition from another pirate drama, Black Sails). Still, John Malkovich gives a great turn as Blackbeard in this gritty historic take. The 2022 comedy Our Flag Means Death takes on a light-hearted fictionalization of the life of Stede Bonnet (Rhys Darby), an idealistic and gentle pirate captain who crosses paths with Blackbeard (here played by Taika Waititi). Not only is Our Flag filled with levity as the pirate crew grow close like a family, it also features a delightful romantic arc between Bonnet and Blackbeard that has to be seen to be fully appreciated. Though pirates and rom-coms might not seem like a natural pair, this show blends them in the best way.

30 Rock and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip took on similar targets in their subject matter, with both shows operating as clear behind-the-scenes analogues for the real-life sketch comedy juggernaut Saturday Night Live. 30 Rock takes a sitcom angle, featuring series creator (and former SNL head writer) Tina Fey playing a fictionalized version of herself named Liz Lemon, wrangling unruly star Tracy Jordan (SNL alum Tracy Morgan) and combating notes from heartless exec Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin). That being said, Studio 60, while shorter lived, has plenty of bona fides to justify it as a dramatic companion, with Academy Award-winning screenwriter Aaron Sorkin at its helm. In fact, given Sorkin's credentials (with megahit The West Wing to his name), along with the powerful leading duo of Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford, many expected that Studio 60 would overshadow 30 Rock when both debuted in 2006; in the end, the reverse happened, with Sorkin's show ending after its first season, and Fey's take going on to a total of seven seasons. Perhaps viewers preferred the faster pace and zanier feel of 30 Rock versus Studio 60's hour-long runtime and comparatively dramatic tone - it's a shame that both shows couldn't continue on.

The Last of Us reached instant critical acclaim upon its 2023 debut, with the HBO adaption of the popular video game of the same name passing muster with existing fans and newbies alike. Set in a near-future ravaged by an infection that turns people into zombie-like beings, the story follows Joel (Pedro Pascal) as he protects teenager Ellie (Bella Ramsey) while they navigate the dangerous landscape. Though it's a rather familiar premise akin to many apocalyptic films and TV shows, it excels at highlighting the human stories of each survivor. Meanwhile, an apocalypse may not seem a probable setting for a sitcom, but The Last Man on Earth proves that assumption wrong. The 2015-2018 sitcom is created by Will Forte, who also stars as Phil Miller, apparently the last survivor of humanity. He's about to end his own misery when he finds Carol (Kristen Schaal), and her suggestion that they must repopulate the Earth together is complicated by the small fact that Phil can't stand her. This sillier approach to the end of the world turns out to be equally effective, taking the high stakes of humanity's continued existence that are played so well for drama in The Last of Us, and turning them into ridiculous comedy instead.

Quickly from its 2006 debut, Friday Night Lights became one of the most beloved programs on television, thanks to its earnest and open-hearted approach to storytelling. The show is, on balance, about a high school football team and the trials and tribulations they face on their way to winning (or losing). It's a true ensemble drama, deriving great emotion from the struggles of well-meaning coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler), star quarterback Jason Street (Scott Porter), who has his career cut short by a major spinal injury, and backup quarterback Matt Saracen (Zach Gilford) who is left to rise to the occasion - among many others. The 2010 sitcom Blue Mountain State takes a similar setting, albeit with a college football team, but flips it for comedy. Quarterback Alex Moran (Darin Brooks), running back Craig Shilo (Sam Jones III), and the rest of the players engage in typical college shenanigans including partying, drinking, and hazing, while coach Marty Daniels (Ed Marinaro) tries to keep them in line. It remained lesser known than Friday Night Lights, perhaps due to airing on the obscure Spike network, but does an admirable job finding comedy within well-trod football tropes.