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Three Busy Debras is Heathers meets Aqua Teen Hunger Force.
The unaired pilot 17th Precinct was pitched as Law & Order meets Harry Potter, as it was a typical police procedural...set in a world of magic, rather than science.
30 Rock is The Mary Tyler Moore Show meets NewsRadio
- Alternately Just Shoot Me! meets a documentary on the behind-the-scenes drama of working on Saturday Night Live.
- Or The Mary Tyler Moore Show meets a live action version of Family Guy.
The 100 is Lord of the Flies (with teens) meets Fallout meets But What About the Astronauts?.
- The series was also billed as Lord of the Flies meets Lost.
1000 Ways to Die is Final Destination meets Jackass meets CSI, with the anthology structure of The Twilight Zone and a very big side order of Happy Tree Friends.

Falling Water is Sense8 meets Inception.
Falling Skies is Independence Day meets Jericho (2006).
The Fall of the House of Usher (2023) is Succession (the dysfunctional family dynamic of aging billionaire patriarch and his variously incompetent heirs) meets Dopesick (said billionaire family markets an addictive painkiller, causing an epidemic) meets the various short stories of Edgar Allan Poe.
Faking It is G.B.F. meets Awkward., injected with heavy doses of South of Nowhere
Family Ties is All in the Family meets The Brady Bunch.
Farscape:
- Blake's 7 meets The Wizard of Oz meets The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
- SF Debris on the subject:
  Chuck Sonnenburg: If Star Wars and Red Dwarf had a baby, and that baby ran off to join the circus, that's Farscape.
Fate: The Winx Saga is Winx Club meets RWBY meets She-Ra and the Princesses of Power meets Kamen Rider Fourze meets Kamen Rider Saber meets Ultraseven X meets SSSS.GRIDMAN.
Father Ted was described by co-creator Graham Linehan as having the farce of Fawlty Towers, the wit of Blackadder and the lunacy of The Young Ones.
Fawlty Towers is Blackadder meets The Three Stooges.
Filthy Rich & Catflap is The King of Comedy meets The Young Ones meets The Three Stooges meets Bottom.
Firefly:
- Blade Runner meets Cowboy Bebop meets Star Wars.
- Or Star Wars meets The Searchers meets The Grapes of Wrath.
- Or The X-Files meets Star Trek meets your average western.
- Or Blake's 7 meets Outlaw Star.
Food Tech (History Channel): Good Eats meets Dirty Jobs.
Cinemax's Forbidden Science: Fringe + Abby and (a significantly younger) Ducky from NCIS + Lots of sex.
Forever
- Castle meets New Amsterdam (2008).
- Highlander (minus the beheadings and swordfights) meets Sherlock.
Freaks and Geeks is My So-Called Life meets The Wonder Years, with a bit of That '70s Show.
FreakyLinks is The Blair Witch Project meets The X-Files.
The Fresh Beat Band is The Wiggles meets High School Musical
Fridays is best described as Saturday Night Live meets Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In meets early 1980s politics, pop culture, and some leftover cocaine, weed and pills found in a bathroom stall at a disco.
Friends can be boiled down to "Cheers infused with Seinfeld, with some sprinkles of Singles on top."
Fringe has been described as The X-Files meets Altered States meets The Twilight Zone (1959) with heavy influences of Dark Angel.
- More like Eureka meets CSI meets Charlie Jade.

Galavant: actress Mallory Jansen called it "the bastard child of Monty Python and The Princess Bride."
Game of Thrones: Described by George R. R. Martin as "The Sopranos in Middle Earth."
- Or The Lord of the Rings meets Berserk.
- Many fans describe it as The Lord of the Rings meets The Wire, "ye olde The Wire" or "The Wire in Middle Earth", owing to its multiple characters, complex plot developments and struggles, and Deconstructor Fleet attitude towards their respective genres (Police Procedural for The Wire and High Fantasy for Game of Thrones).
- It could also be The Borgias or The Tudors in Middle Earth.
- And any combination certainly needs to include Shakespeare, particularly the Henry VI saga.
- House of the Dragon is The Accursed Kings meets King Lear. With dragons.
Gamer's Guide to Pretty Much Everything is Kickin' It meets Video Game High School.
Game Shakers is iCarly meets Some Assembly Required.
Garrison's Gorillas is The Dirty Dozen meets Mission: Impossible.
GCB is Desperate Housewives meets Mean Girls all grown up.
Get Smart is James Bond meets The Pink Panther.
Ghosted is Beverly Hills Cop meets Ghostbusters
- Alternatively, Fringe meets Parks and Recreation
Ghosts (UK) was described by Guardian reviewer Stuart Jeffries as "a mashup of Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit and Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), not to mention the manifold sillinesses of Hammer Horror."
- The American remake tosses a bit of Beetlejuice into the mix.
The Gifted (2017): Heroes meets Mutant X (with actual X-Men characters).
Gilligan's Island is Robinson Crusoe meets the Sitcom formula.
Girl from Nowhere:
- Season 1 is Tomie meets Black Mirror.
- Season 2 is Death Note meets Game of Thrones meets Othello meets Gone Girl meets Avengers: Infinity War meets Breaking Bad meets Joker (2019) meets The World of Kanako.
Girl Meets World: Boy Meets World meets iCarly.
Glee: Fame meets The Office (Or High School Musical meets The Office, for the younger set).
- It could also be described as "Every Teen Show" meets Blackpool, and does it 1000 times better.
- Or Election meets High School Musical (plus Dawson Casting).
- Or Fame meets Saved by the Bell meets Degrassi: The Next Generation.
Godzilland: The Godzilla franchise meets Sesame Street meets Muppet Babies (1984)
The Goldbergs is The Wonder Years set in The '80s meets the narrative direction of A Christmas Story.
The Golden Girls: The original plan was for Rue McClanahan to be Rose and Betty White to be Blanche. Not only did the actresses feel better suited for the opposite characters, but Bea Arthur almost did not want to be involved for fear of the show only being "Maude and Vivian meet Sue Ann Nivens" (as White and McClanahan would resemble characters from their previous series).
The Good Doctor: Doogie Howser, M.D. meets Monk.
Good Eats is a Science Show mixed with a Cooking Show — or if you prefer specific show examples, Mythbusters meets Beakman's World meets Bill Nye the Science Guy mixed with Cooking with Science (the actual book series that inspired the show) mixed with Emeril Lagasse.
- Alternatively, Julia Child meets Bill Nye the Science Guy.
  - Alton Brown has explicitly said he pitched the show as "Julia Child meets Mr. Wizard meets Monty Python."
Good Luck Charlie is The Brothers García meets Clarissa Explains It All meets Full House.
The Good Night Show is The Big Comfy Couch meets PJ's Bedtime.
Good Omens (2019) is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy meets The Omen starring The Doctor and the Master.
The Good Place is Parks and Recreation meets Afterlife (1996) meets Lost with thematic parallels to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The Wham Episode at the end of Season 1 reveals that it also meets No Exit and The Twilight Zone (1959) episode A Nice Place to Visit.
Gotham is Batman meets both CSI and The Godfather.
The Great Space Coaster is basically what would've happened if The Muppets and Sid and Marty Krofft Productions created an Edutainment show together (more specifically, it resembles a cross between Sesame Street, The Bugaloos and Far Out Space Nuts).
Grimm: Grimm's Fairy Tales meets Angel (with a bit of Supernatural thrown in).
Guy's Grocery Games: Chopped meets Supermarket Sweep.

H₂O: Just Add Water:
- Home and Away meets Charmed with mermaids.
- Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch meets Home and Away as a live-action series but minus the singing... at least until season 3.
- Bonus points: Indiana Evans, who would later play Bella in H20, had a role in Home and Away.
Hannah Montana is Jem meets Unfabulous.
Hannibal is what would happen if Sherlock got transplanted into Red Dragon.
Hard Copy was pitched as 60 Minutes meets MTV.
The Haunted Hathaways: The Brady Bunch meets Topper.
The Haunting Hour episode "Scarecrow" is Storm of the Century with kids (or the Goosebumps book "The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight" with a Downer Ending)
- "The Hole" is The Ring meets The Amityville Horror (2005) and a little bit of the first Paranormal Activity movie.
- "Headshot" is The Picture of Dorian Gray meets the world of teen modeling.
Hee Haw: Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In meets The Grand Ole Opry.
Henry Danger is Batman (1966) meets Drake & Josh.
Henshin Ninja Arashi = Kamen Rider + Kamen no Ninja Akakage
Heroes: X-Men meets Lost.
High School Heroes = Himitsu Sentai Gorenger + Kousoku Sentai Turboranger + Denji Sentai Megaranger + Kamen Rider 555 + Kamen Rider Fourze + Kamen Rider Ex-Aid
High School Musical: The Musical: The Series is High School Musical meets Glee.
- Or Pitch Perfect meets Waiting for Guffman.
- Or High School Musical meets a kid-friendly The Office and/or Parks and Recreation.
History Bites is Horrible Histories by way of The Red Green Show.
Hogan's Heroes: The Great Escape meets the Sitcom formula.
- Stalag 17 meets The Phil Silvers Show also works (the similar setting and blatant Expies for a few of the characters led the writers of the original Stalag 17 play to sue the Hogan's Heroes producers for plagiarism, in fact).
The Hour: Described by one review as Drop the Dead Donkey meets Spooks.
House of Cards (UK) is Macbeth meets Richard III meets Yes, Minister.
- House of Cards (US) on the other hand is The West Wing meets Game of Thrones meets The Sopranos meets Richard III.
House is Sherlock Holmes meets ER with a tasty sprinkle (for those who know it) of Black Jack.
How I Met Your Mother is Cheers (the bar) meets The Wonder Years (the flashback) meets Friends (the group of friends) meets Arrested Development (the Lemony narration).
Hustle is The Sting meets Ocean's Eleven meets Mission: Impossible.
Hyperdrive is Star Trek: The Next Generation meets Red Dwarf.

QI is a quiz bowl show meets a stand-up comedy set.

Reaper is best described as Brimstone meets Clerks. Kevin Smith even directed the Pilot.
ReBoot: The Guardian Code has been compared (and not very favorably) to Reboot meets Code Lyoko meets Power Rangers.
- Or Reboot meets Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad meets Zixx.
Red Dwarf is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1981) meets Seinfeld.
Repo Games: Cash Cab meets Operation Repo - Answer the repo man's questions correctly and you get to keep your car.
The Red Green Show is Home Improvement meets Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In meets the Bob and Doug McKenzie skits of SCTV.
Reign is The Tudors meets Gossip Girl.
Reservation Dogs is Freaks and Geeks meets Stranger Things on a Creek Reservation.
Resident Alien: Corner Gas meets The X-Files meets Invader Zim.
- Or The X-Files meets ALF and Paul.
Restaurant: Impossible is Kitchen Nightmares meets Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.
Riverdale:
- Twin Peaks meets My So-Called Life.
- Dawson's Creek meets Without a Trace or The Killing.
- Clueless meets Veronica Mars.
- Archie's Weird Mysteries meets Skins.
Les Revenants ("The Returned") has been described as Twin Peaks meets The Walking Dead (2010). The town itself is like Twin Peaks' French counterpart.
Revolution:
- The Trigger Effect meets Jericho (2006), with swords.
- Alternatively, it's Dies The Fire meets The Dark Tower starring Katniss Everdeen.
ABC's 1975 game show Rhyme and Reason is Match Game meets Lord Alfred Tennyson.
The Righteous Gemstones is The Sopranos meets Succession meets Schitt's Creek.
The River is Paranormal Activity meets Heart of Darkness, with a small dusting of Cannibal Holocaust as well.
Rizzoli & Isles:
- Bones meets Cagney & Lacey.
- Word of God says: The Rockford Files meets Sex and the City.
Rookie Blue is Scrubs meets NYPD Blue.
Roswell: Dawson's Creek meets The X-Files.
Round the Twist: One TV plug described it as The Swiss Family Robinson meets The X-Files.
- Goosebumps meets The Swiss Family Robinson
Royal Pains:
- Burn Notice meets Northern Exposure.
- Or House meets MacGyver (1985) with a little bit of Magnum, P.I. sprinkled in.
Russian Doll is Final Destination meets Groundhog Day meets Fleabag.

Take It All, NBC's most recent prime time game show, is Give-n-Take meets Friend or Foe?.
Tales of the Gold Monkey is Indiana Jones meets Sky King.
Tattletales is The Newlywed Game meets I've Got a Secret. This could also apply to its beta edition, He Said, She Said.
- Going way back to its beta beta version It Had to Be You (which was piloted only in 1966 for NBC), that was Password meets The Newlywed Game.
- The forthcoming revival on HBO Max (now titled About Last Night) sounds to be the original Tattletales meets Beat the Clock.
Taxi: Taxi Driver meets The Mary Tyler Moore Show
Terra Nova:
- Jurassic Park meets Avatar. Guess who suddenly showed up to explain "Terra Nova Rules".
- It could also be described as Decision At Doona meets Primeval.
- With a dash of Earth 2.
The Terror: Master and Commander meets The Thing (1982).
That '70s Show is Happy Days meets Dazed and Confused.
The original Teletubbies is basically Tots TV meets Brave New World, while the 2022 reboot is the original series meets Face's Music Party and CBC Kids.
The original pitch for Terry Pratchett's The Watch was CSI: Ankh-Morpork.
The Thick of It: Armando Iannucci described the series as Yes, Minister meets The Larry Sanders Show.
- Iannucci's other show, Veep, is The Thick Of It meets House of Cards (US) with some sprinkling of Seinfeld's Cringe Comedy.
This is Jinsy is The League of Gentlemen meets The Mighty Boosh with a side-order of Stanley Unwin and The Goons.
The Thundermans is The Incredibles meets Wizards of Waverly Place.
Three Sheets: The Thirsty Traveler meets Insomniac with Dave Attell.
The Tick (2016) is Power Rangers S.P.D. meets Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency.
Tikkabilla is Play School meets The Sunny Side Up Show
Timeless has been described as Back to the Future meets Mission: Impossible.
Tin Man is The Wizard of Oz as a Space Opera, but it's too much of a genuine Space Opera to be a mere Recycled In Space.
Toei's take on Spider-Man = Spider-Man + the Toku genre.
Tomica Hero Rescue Force = Madan Senki Ryukendo + Kyuukyuu Sentai GoGoFive + Tokkei Winspector + Tokkyuu Shirei Solbrain + Tokusou Exceedraft + Chousei Kantai Sazer X
The Tomorrow People (2013) is Push meets Jumper.
Me-TV's Toon In With Me is Captain Kangaroo meets Frasier.
Torchwood, in series 1 at least, was often described as The X-Files meets This Life. (Angel meets Queer as Folk would seem more accurate.)
The Troop is Persona 3 meets Power Rangers.
- Or, as it was originally concieved during development, So Weird meets The X-Files meets 24.
Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell is The Daily Show meets The Soup.
Truth Seekers is Grave Encounters meets Extra Ordinary (2019).
Tulsa King is described on Paramount+ as "Yellowstone meets The Sopranos"
24 is Commando meets Dirty Harry meets The West Wing with more torture.
True Blood is Interview with the Vampire meets Six Feet Under meets The Lost Boys.
2 Broke Girls is Laverne & Shirley meet Lady Gaga.
- Or Laverne & Shirley meets Two and a Half Men (and more generally, a Garry Marshall-style sitcom meets a Chuck Lorre-style sitcom).
The Fresh Beat Band is The Wiggles meets High School Musical
Topsy And Tim is Caillou meets The Suite Life of Zack & Cody

V is It Can't Happen Here meets To Serve Man. The series was, in fact, originally intended as a straightforward adaptation of the former before the network convinced the creator to shoot it as a sci-fi story.
The Vampire Diaries is Dawson's Creek meets Twilight meets True Blood meets Scream.^note
Van Helsing (2016) is Blade meets The Walking Dead.
Victorious is a hybrid of High School Musical meets Saved by the Bell (and all its clones, like City Guys and California Dreams) thrown in.
Vikings is Ragnar Lothbrok And His Sons meets The Vikings meets Game of Thrones meets Vinland Saga meets Northlanders garnished with the flavor of The Tudors and The Borgias.
Vintergatan is Scooby-Doo meets Monty Python and the Holy Grail meets Star Trek.
Vinyl is Mad Men meets Empire meets The Wolf of Wall Street.
The Voice is American Idol meets Dragons' Den.

The X-Files was pitched as Kolchak: The Night Stalker meets The Silence of the Lambs meets JFK.
- However, it might better be described as Tales from the Crypt meets Project UFO with a shadow of JFK, and a main character inspired by Clarice Starling from The Silence of the Lambs.

X Meets Y / Live Action TV Shows

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