>>Here we have House back-to-back with Shark on a Thursday. Shark: Never was a series SO aimed at complementing/competing with another. Same scenario: Maverick main character with his brilliant but put-upon "interns".
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>Years ago, Mad magazine did a piece showing how the networks came up with new ideas that were just twists on existing ones. I think the idea came from Green Acres (city folks in the country) and Beverly Hillbillies (country folks in the city). IIRC, the "article" included a big wheel.
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>Tamar

We've talked about these before. Wasn't Greenacres an offshoot of Petticoat Junction, itself the offshoot from BHB?

But this isn't the same thing. They're not connected other than someone's seen a winning formula in House and taken it over to a courtroom scenario (or vice versa?)

Something similar happened with CIS: solving crime through forensics. Next came Numb3rs: solving crime through statistics and maths. Then you have your Mediums (through clairvoyance, Angela's Eyes (through insightfulness?), usw.