The Shows That Inspired Other Shows

When sorting through our favourite tv shows, albums, movies etc, we generally need only to consider our own perceptions of their quality. When trying to objectively rank art throughout history however, it can be hard to rank and compare older pieces against contemporary ones, created with much more advanced technology, and with a vaster pool of references to pull from. This usually brings two further factors into play; to what extent did they break new grounds, and how great was its influence on the industry.

Influence is a way of quantifying a show’s value to society rather than purely in and of itself. Many great shows have burned brightly, but failed to leave a footprint in the industry. In contrast, some shows have given birth to even greater ideas and shows that surpassed their legacy. In this blog, we’ll have a look at some great shows that may not have been here if not for the groundwork and inspiration of another show before its time.

Family Guy, inspired by The Simpsons

Okay this one might initially sound obvious but the inspiration drawn from The Simpsons goes far beyond just wanting to make an adult version of the show. Rather, The Simpsons aided in forging a direction for Family Guy. Writer Seth MacFarlane’s background saw him originally working on three separate animated shows for Hanna-Barbera Cartoon Inc., these were Jonny Bravo, Dexter’s Lab, and Cow and Chicken. As these shows were primarily produced for seven-minute slots, this helped MacFarlane hone an action-packed, fast-paced writing style.

The Simpsons did a lot of ground work for Family Guy, providing proof that an animated show could hold its own in a primetime slot, but also in demonstrating a path. Family Guy was intended to begin as a sketch series for Mad TV, akin to how The Simpsons began on The Tracey Ullman Show, but it soon became apparent that Mad TV’s budget wouldn’t allow animation, so Family Guy was instead pitched as a sitcom on its own. In studying The Simpsons, MacFarlane concluded that the show would not be nearly as funny if the characters had fluid, Disney-like designs and motions. Instead, he believed that characters jerking from one pose/movement to the next, as in the style of The Simpsons, added more humour and was a better fit for the snappy style of writing he had developed at Hanna-Barbera, and all of this helped form a direction and a purpose for what would become Family Guy.

Parks & Recreation, inspired by The Office

The Office, a show so excruciatingly awkward and British, may have been a hard-sell for American audiences, but the show was adapted so well by Greg Daniels that it became an incredible success, so much so that when Ben Silverman became co-chair of NBC’s entertainment division in 2007, he immediately asked Daniels to create a spin-off of The Office. This spin-off went through several iterations, becoming named Parks after the setting of the parks department had been established, before the question began to arise about whether the show should be a spin-off or stand on its own.

Depictions in The Wire had brought the theme of local politics to a wider audience and this became of use to Parks & Recreations show-runners. While Parks recruited writers and show-runners from The Office, the premise was intended to be a stark contrast; while the antics in The Office were born of the staffs sincere lack of motivation or passion for their jobs, Parks would depict a group of clueless but well-intentioned people, keen to make the world a better place, but constantly being thwarted by both democracy and bureaucracy.

Breaking Bad, inspired by The Sopranos

Two of the greatest shows ever made with two of TV’s greatest ever lead characters, and the latter pays homage to the former at several intervals throughout its run, such as Walter White protesting his innocence to Jesse at gunpoint in “End Times” in a stark callback to Tony Soprano doing the same in the first season when he is accused by Artie of having his restaurant destroyed, or with the character of cartel intermediary Juan Bolsa, who fulfils a similar role of The Sopranos’ Johnny Sacks, of whom Bolsa’s name is a direct translation.

The Sopranos broke ground as being among the first series with an anti-hero protagonist, and while many great movies had tackled mafia themes, The Sopranos examined their place in modern society, while also taking us into their day-to-day lives, with Tony’s relationship with his mother and his therapist becoming major aspects in helping the show stand apart from its peers. In developing Breaking Bad, Gilligan wished to turn the anti-hero aspect into a linear progression, whereby the protagonist would eventually become the antagonist, moving on from the “self-imposed stasis” that TV characters often exist in to keep the show going. Speaking after James Gandolfini’s death in 2013, Vince Gilligan put it best: “Without Tony Soprano, there would be no Walter White.”

Peep Show, inspired by Beavis and Butt-Head

Theses could be written about the similarities between the lead characters in each of these shows, and I like to fantasise about a universe where Beavis and Butt-Head grow up, rent a flat, and become Jeremy Usborne and Mark Corrigan. Nonetheless, the cult 90’s classic did play a part in the conception of Channel 4’s Peep Show. When the partnership of writers Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain and actors David Mitchell and Robert Webb was developing, they conceived a sitcom idea akin to Beavis and Butt-Head.

Specifically, the idea was influenced by the sequences in Beavis and Butt-Head where the two would sit on their sofa (or couch, if you will) and watch and give commentary on music videos. Creator Mike Judge saw this as a feature of the show that transforms them from characters you’d want to keep a distance from to characters you wouldn’t mind chilling and watching TV with. Peep Show originally wished to recreate this, with Mark and Jeremy watching and discussing television. The show ultimately moved away from this specific idea, due to the large expense that airing clips from other shows would bring, as well as Mitchell & Webb’s apprehension that, due to the show’s POV filming style, they would end up not actually being seen in the show.

Black Mirror, inspired by The Twilight Zone

Show creator Charlie Brooker had previously produced a series entitled “How TV Ruined Your Life”, a satire-based documentary where Brooker explored themes in television, how these had evolved over time, and how attitudes of TV audiences had changed as a result. He wished to expand upon this idea, looking at how not just television, but technology as a whole, could impact impact “the way we might be living in 10 minutes’ time”.

He decided to make an anthology drama series that explored this, and this was heavily inspired by The Twilight Zone, a sci-fi/horror series that ran from 1959 to 1964 (a show you may recognise as ‘The Scary Door’). The Twilight Zone operated in a similar way to Black Mirror, although it featured a presenter who would introduce and semi-narrate each individual story, and it’s anthology structure, which often placed the show in different settings and time periods, was crucial in allowing the show to get around television censors at the time.

Drake & Josh, inspired by The Amanda Show

Nickelodeon’s The Amanda Show was a 3-season long sketch and variety series that put the name Drake Bell on the map, with the actor one of several supporting cast members. From the second season, a future director of the Manhattan Project’s Trinity Nuclear Test by the name of Josh Peck was added to the cast. With the two sharing many scenes in the show, the all-powerful Dan Schneider saw potential in the chemistry the two had together.

The two seemed to have a talent for creating comedic conflict when alongside each other, and this inspired Schneider to write a series where the two could be co-leads, leaning heavily into the idea of the two being opposites, and borrowing heavily from their real-life personalities. There was another Amanda Show reunion on Drake & Josh, as supporting cast member Nancy Sullivan was also recruited, this time to play Drake Parker’s (supposedly unnamed) mother.

Mad Men, inspired by Various

In conceiving the show, creator Matthew Weiner admitted that he retained very few memories of the time period during which he set period drama Mad Men, but states that he utilised the influence of M*A*S*H (you have no idea the extent I had to battle with SquareSpace just to type that name) and Happy Days, two shows that, while set in the 1950s, were actually produced and released in the 1970-80s. While these shows provided a touchstone for the culture of the time, he also remarks that they served as a reminder that many of our ideas of the past are based on misconceptions/depictions after the fact.

Weiner also speaks of The Sopranos, when remarking upon his influences, a show he actually worked on as a writer. He remarks that Mad Men may have taken a different direction, possibly becoming a “soapy version of The West Wing” if not for The Sopranos, also stating that there were plot-points in Mad Men itself that would never occurred to him had he not worked on The Sopranos. Many others note the dream sequences, frequent insights into Tony Soprano’s subconscious, and how while these episodes often grated with fans, they have a large footprint throughout the run of Mad Men.

Spongebob Squarepants, inspired by Dumb & Dumber (Speculative)

While it’s fun to research and dig deep into the origins of iconic shows, sometimes it can be just as fun to speculate, and this last link is based on nothing more than a theory of mine. 1994 comedy Dumb and Dumber showcases Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels as two air-headed friends caught up in a kidnapping plot far beyond their intellectual comprehension, and I would gladly proclaim it as one of the greatest films ever made, let alone best comedies.

Come the 2nd act, we find the two in the car with a henchman tasked with retrieving the ransom money they believe Harry & Lloyd have stolen. The henchman gains their trust, pretending to be a hitch-hiker, and sits in the front in between the two. Over the course of this brief car ride, the henchman puts up with the two playing tag across him (while driving), introducing him to the most annoying sound in the world, and shutting down his suggestion of putting on the radio to instead perform their own rendition of the lullaby ‘mockingbird’. This accumulation causes him to consider scrapping his own plan and taking both their lives, just to end the brief misery.

While Stephen Hillenburg’s experience in marine biology and in the Ocean Institute were large influences in forming the concept of the show Spongebob Squarepants, there is little coverage on where the inspiration behind the characters (bar Spongebob) and the dynamics between them came from. I propose, however, that this scene from 5 years prior, where a henchman sits and suffers between two annoying best friends, could have been a large influence in the characterisation in Spongebob Squarepants.

And thus, Conch Street was born. While the henchman perfectly embodies the attitude that Squidward would go on to possess towards his two neighbours, it’s unclear who out of the two friends became who. If we’re being real, however, Lloyd is 100% Spongebob, and Harry is 100% Patrick.