History Main / AdaptationDecay

* In Creator/NeilGaiman's short story "The Goldfish Pool", a young writer struggles to adapt one of his novels to film. Due to ExecutiveMeddling, he is forced to discard the title, plot, characters, themes and even genre of his original book; ultimately changing it from a psychological horror story into a romantic comedy.

** Another strip titled "Book! Movie!" demonstrates the process with TheFilmOfTheBook, including AdaptationalAttractiveness, {{Bowdlerization}} and other changes to fit the then active MediaNotes/HaysCode.

** Another strip titled "Book! Movie!" demonstrates the process with TheFilmOfTheBook, including AdaptationalAttractiveness, {{Bowdlerization}} and other changes to fit the then active UsefulNotes/HaysCode.

* Briefly seen in the Literature/DoctorWhoNewAdventures novel ''Lucifer Rising'', when Franchise/BerniceSummerfield sees the end of a 22nd century holo-drama in which a beautiful computer expert defeats the Martians and claims the handsome museum curator. She is surprised to realise that this is meant to be the Martian invasion of 2090... just as the readers are surprised to realise it's meant to be 1969 serial "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E5TheSeedsOfDeath The Seeds of Death]]", in which the computer expert is an EmotionlessGirl and the museum curator is an elderly eccentric. And there's apparently no mention of the Doctor's involvement either.

* In one issue of ''ComicBook/TheAuthority'', a [[BrownNote suicide-inducing meme]] is rendered harmless when it's told to a screenwriter, who acknowledges that "it's very good, but [[ExecutiveMeddling it needs something]]", and rewrites it.
* ''[[ComicBook/MsMarvel Captain Marvel]]'' has an InUniverse TV show about the title character. The real Carol Danvers is pissed off to discover that her TV counterpart has undergone intense {{Chickification}}, including a costume with heels, a NavelDeepNeckline, and [[StrangledByTheRedString a tacked-on romance with a male superhero]].
* There's an issue of ''Comicbook/{{Catwoman}}'' where Comicbook/HarleyQuinn attempts to sell Selina's life story to a group of film execs, who promptly suggest a bunch of unnecessary changes (such as {{Race Lift}}ing Harley into an Asian teenager and making Selina [[YoungerAndHipper a young spy]]). The story ends with an enraged Harley killing the execs and storming out of the room.
* One story arc in ''ComicBook/DamageControl'' featured a Hollywood producer who wanted to make a movie about the company. The results were... ''less-than-faithful''.

* Creator/GailSimone's ''ComicBook/WonderWoman2006'' run has a story about Hollywood making a ''terrible'' movie based on the title character's life. [[spoiler: It eventually turns out the whole movie is actually the pet project of a supervillain who had [[KillAndReplace killed the producer and stolen her identity]].]]

* Parodied by ''Creator/HarryPartridge'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDDHHrt6l4w here]] with a SaturdayMorningCartoon version of ''Comicbook/{{Watchmen}}''.

* ''WesternAnimation/TurtlesForever'' features the [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987 1987]] and the [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003 2003]] Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles meeting and constantly getting confused over the differences in their worlds. They also note how they are LighterAndSofter than the [[Comicbook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesMirage 1984 comic book Ninja Turtles]] they are based on.

* ''ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse'': The story "[[https://inducks.org/story.php?c=D+2015-132 Faithful to the Original]]" has Huey, Dewey and Louie trying to do a school research about a book titled "The Seven Brothers". They try to read the book, but halfway through they get bored so they try searching for some kind of adaptation that eases them. To their surprise they discover that in fact the book got adapted in multiple medias, but all of them are ''very different'' from the original version: among other things, the comic book adaptation changes the setting to a WizardSchool, [[AllMusicalsAreAdaptations the musical version]] is an InNameOnly version about seven businessmen trying to save their company from bankrupt and the movie version is set on a space station (and [[GenderFlip turns the main characters into six brothers and one sister]]), and most of the adaptations also seem to add a monkey playing with a yo-yo as a PluckyComicRelief character. Unable to do a proper research on the book, the three ducklings decide instead to make one about ''all the adaptations'' to analyze how the same story can be altered in multiple ways to adapt to modern audiences. Their research gets a great vote, and after the matter they discover that all the adaptations they saw were in fact inspired by a research on the same book WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck made as a kid where he made up random stuff because he was bored of the book.

* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'': Several times, it's mentioned that the Marvel Comics universe version of Marvel Comics prints Spidey comics... but since they've no idea who he actually is, they take some liberties. Like portraying him as a supervillain. And those are the nicer ones.

* ContinuityLockout

* Fans' typical [[BerserkButton reaction]] was [[http://www.weregeek.com/2007/05/09/ reflected here]] in ''Webcomic/{{Weregeek}}''.

* ''ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse'': The story "[[https://inducks.org/story.php?c=D+2015-132 Faithful to the Original]]" has Huey, Dewey and Louie trying to do a school research about a book titled "The Seven Brothers". They try to read the book, but halfway through they get bored so they try searching for some kind of adaptation that eases them. To their surprise they discover that in fact the book got adapted in multiple medias, but all of them are ''very different'' from the original version: among other things, the comic book adaptation changes the setting to a WizardSchool, [[AllMusicalsAreAdaptations the musical version]] is an InNameOnly version about seven businessmen trying to save their company from bankrupt and the movie version is set on a space station (and [[GenderFlip turns the main characters into six brothers and one sister]]), and most of the adaptations also seem to add a monkey playing with a yo-yo as a ComicRelief character. Unable to do a proper research on the book, the three ducklings decide instead to make one about ''all the adaptations'' to analyze how the same story can be altered in multiple ways to adapt to modern audiences. Their research gets a great vote, and after the matter they discover that all the adaptations they saw were in fact inspired by a research on the same book WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck made as a kid where he made up random stuff because he was bored of the book.