History Main / WunzaPlot

* The premise of ''DirtyPair'' in which the impulsive tomboyish [[FieryRedhead Kei]] is paired up with the more cerebral and mannered Yuri. Of course it's all right since TheyFightCrime...

* ''TigerAndBunny''. A down-on-his-luck, doofy single father and a slightly dickish prettyboy upstart are paired together as a corporate-sponsored superhero duo. TheyFightCrime.

* ''ScarecrowAndMrsKing''': He's a spy; she's an everyday housewife. Together, they ...do spy-ish things.

* LifeOnMars: He's a cop from TheNoughties. He's a cop from TheSeventies. [[ComicallyMissingThePoint They fi--]] ...oh.
* ScarecrowAndMrsKing: He's a spy; she's an everyday housewife. Together, they ...do spy-ish things.

* ''BloodTies:'' She's a Canadian police detective who is slowly losing her sight. He's a vampire. They fight crime!

Many TV shows are based around a HighConcept -- a simple, intriguing premise that can be explained in one or two sentences -- a "hook" which attracts the interest of everyone from producers to advertisers to viewers. One very common way to get a build a high concept is to take two characters who are very different from each other, quirky, or somehow odd, and then team them up to accomplish some objective. In 'the Biz' this is called a "Wunza plot". Put in its simplest form, a Wunza Plot is "One's an [X]; one's a [Y]. Together they [Objective Z]" [[hottip:*:Hence, the name: "One's a" = "Wunza"]]

* The {{Creepypasta}} [[http://springhole.net/generators/creepypastaplot.htm Plot Generator]].
-->''In the middle of the night, a crazed widow, a babysitter, and a disturbing girl want to find a girl with the help of a widow, a lost man, and a lost ring.''

<<|CreatorSpeak|>>

Many TV shows are based around a [[HighConcept simple, intriguing concept]]: a "hook" which attracts the interest of everyone from producers to advertisers to viewers. One very common way to get a high concept rolling is to have two characters who are very different from each other, quirky, or somehow odd, and then team them up to accomplish some objective. In 'the Biz' this is called a "Wunza plot". Put in its simplest form, a Wunza Plot is "One's an [X]; one's a [Y]. Together they [Objective Z]" [[hottip:*:Hence, the name: "One's a" = "Wunza"]]

Many TV shows are based around a [[HighConcept simple, intriguing concept]]: a "hook" which attracts the interest of everyone from producers to advertisers to viewers. One very common way to get a high concept rolling is to have two characters who are very different from each other or are simply odd, and then team them up to accomplish some objective. In 'the Biz' this is called a "Wunza plot". Put in its simplest form, a Wunza Plot is "One's an [X]; one's a [Y]. Together they [Objective Z]" [[hottip:*:Hence, the name: "One's a" = "Wunza"]]

Many TV shows are based around a [[HighConcept simple, intriguing concept]]: a "hook" which attracts the interest of everyone from producers to advertisers to viewers. Fine so far. But in an effort to stand out from the crowd, some creators go a little too far, producing premises so surreal as to make Grant Morrison hang up his fiction-suit in defeat. Then they have to make the show, and the results aren't always pretty. "[[GenderFlip She's the Pope]], [[EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys he's a chimp]], TheyFightCrime", may be, as Michael Cassutt says, the best TV pitch ever, but try writing a pilot. In 'the Biz' it's called a Wunza plot. (One's a... and one's a...)

The former name of this trope (now the name of a [[TheyFightCrime subtrope]]) comes from [[http://www.theyfightcrime.org/ an automatic TV pitch generator]] and illustrates how the most bizarre premises can end up rather mundane in execution, with the strange characters -- despite initial weirdness -- ending up in fairly stock show formats like workplace comedies/dramas, quirky sitcom family hijinks, or, yes, fighting crime as private detectives or freelance do-gooders.

See also InAWorld. Compare and contrast with BetterThanItSounds. Supertrope of TheyFightCrime.

* These are much more common in comics (the origin of this series). For example, ''G.I. Robot.'', he's a robot. His buddy's a hard bitten G.I. They fight [[SomewhereAPalaeontologistIsCrying dinosaurs]] and Japanese giant robots until the robot is sent into space with military werewolves, vampires, etc. and the comic's creator. Bob Kanigher, man..

* ''Duplicity'': On it's movie poster - "She's ex-Cia. He's ex-MI5, together they are stealing a fortune." She is Julia Roberts, he is Clive Owen.

* Meta-example: ''BoyMeetsWorld'' used a call-out to this trope as a running gag, where an unemployed Eric Matthews spends his days on the couch watching schlocky syndicated daytime TV and listlessly summarizing the plot to anyone else around -- which is, of course, a succession of increasingly bizarre characters "who fight crime". (This eventually leads to a surreal dream sequence where Eric himself wanders through a series of green-screen environments armed with a toy gun intent on finding some crime to fight.)
* Similarly {{Friends}} featured the example of 'Mac & Cheese' (Joey's starring role)- one's a hard-bitten detective, one's a robot. They fight crime.

* ''Space Precinct 2040'': A police procedural in space. {{Da Chief}} is a grumpy, brown alien with an accent. Its single season [[TropeOverdosed featured virtually every trope known to mankind]].

* Really, {{House}} and Wilson's relationship is ultimately about this.

* They're ''PinkyAndTheBrain''. One is a genius. The other's insane.

* ''MermaidMelodyPichiPichiPitch'': A MultinationalTeam of IdolSinger MagicalGirl mermaid princesses and their TeamPet battle fish-turned-demons led by Gackt in sing-offs.
* ''NerimaDaikonBrothers'': An anime series about three down-on-their-luck musicians/daikon farmers who scheme to fund their own stadium by stealing money from crooks, a la ''LupinIII''. And did we mention it's a musical?
* ''PrincessTutu'': a duck-turned-girl-turned-MagicalGirl fights evil with the power of ballet. Additionally, her ballet teacher is an anthropomorphised cat; no one notices or cares.
* ''[=~Yu-Gi-Oh!~=]'': An manga/anime about a [[{{Yu-Gi-Oh The Abridged Series}} children's card game]].
** And ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds}}'', which is about [[{{Yu-Gi-Oh The Abridged Series}} card games on motorcycles]]!
* ''ThoseWhoHuntElves'': A gun-nut high-school girl, an award winning actress and a world champion karate black-belt travel the world stripping elves in order to find the parts of a spell that will send them back to Earth. They're accompanied by an elf shapeshifted into a talking dog and a tank possessed by the spirit of a cat.
* ''{{Planetes}}'': This is the story of garbage men, in space.
* ''LibraryWar'': Girl joins an elite special forces team of librarians engaged in a violent civil war against an oppressive government censorship organization.
* ''ReadOrDie'': She reads books... and fights [[strike:crime]]spies!
** ''ReadOrDream'': They're three broke sisters, two love books and the youngest...doesn't. They fight crime!
* Either averted or used relentlessly, depending on how you look at it, in the ''SuzumiyaHaruhi'' franchise. It's got a truly bizarre premise that is usually only used as spice for more formulaic storylines, except it [[GenreBusting keeps changing the formula]] with each episode/chapter: a murder mystery will be followed by a slice-of-life teen comedy, followed by a superheroic tale of fighting aliens, followed by an extensive parody of anime cliches in the form of a student film.
* ''{{Gantz}}'': People who have just died are transported to a room where a sadistic robot (shaped like a giant black ball) sends them out to kill aliens.
* ''{{Mnemosyne}}'': A small-time detective solves crimes. While trying to avoid killer cyborg assassins and [[MadeOfPlasticine dying excruciatingly painfully]] just about every month forever.
* ''{{Bobobobo Bobobo}}'': In the future, an evil empire has taken over the world and is trying to make everyone bald. A man named Bobobobo Bobobo fights them using his nose hair as weapons. Joining him are a giant walking piece of jelly, an orange rock thing, a man with ice cream for his head, a talking torpedo, and a guy who fights using his farts.

* ''{{Nextwave}}'' takes this idea and runs with it and was lauded by comic readers.

* ''Marvel Zombies'': All of the Earth's superheroes are turned into zombies. Later they eat Galactus and become zombie gods that destroy the universe and also become part robot.
* ''The Haunted Tank'': A World War II tank crew is assisted by the ghost of a Confederate General. A sequel has the ghost haunting a Tank in the Middle East... whose commander happens to be ''Black.''
* ''SamAndMax'': One's a dog. The other's a hyperkinetic rabbity-thingy. TheyFightCrime.

* And don't forget all the 'high concept' movies that [[FollowTheLeader followed]] ''DieHard'':
** ''{{Speed}}'': '[[DieHardOnAnX Die Hard]]' on a bus
** ''{{Speed}} 2'': '[[DieHardOnAnX Die Hard]]' on a cruise ship
** ''UnderSiege'': '[[DieHardOnAnX Die Hard]]' on a battleship
** ''UnderSiege 2'': '[[DieHardOnAnX Die Hard]]' on a train
** yada yada yada
*** There's a story that someone forgot the plot to the original, and tried to pitch "[[DieHardOnAnX Die Hard]] in an office building!" To Bruce Willis. It's true, I tells ye.
* ''Six-String Samurai'': In an alternate history where the Soviet Union has taken over the United States and turned it into a post-apocalyptic wasteland, a katana-wielding Buddy Holly look-alike heads for the last city the Russians haven't seized—"Lost" Vegas—to become the King of Rock and Roll after the death of the city's old king, Elvis. His main opponent is Death himself, who suspiciously resembles Slash and is heading to Vegas to replace rock 'n' roll with heavy metal.
* ''TheThirteenthWarrior'': A Muslim traveloguer and a group of Vikings team up to fight cavemen.

** Not to mention the fact that her boss is a [[spoiler:shapeshifter]] who also helps her fight crime.

** Similarly {{Friends}} featured the example of 'Mac & Cheese' (Joey's starring role)- one's a hard-bitten detective, one's a robot. They fight crime.
*** He's acting in a live-action ''[[IsaacAsimov Robot Novels]]'' series?
**** No, it's more like ''{{Holmes and Yoyo}}'', or ''{{Mann and Machine}}'' or Data and Geordi (one's an emotionless android, the other is a blind engineer. Can they solve a holodeck mystery without driving each other ''crazy''?)
* ''MyMotherTheCar:'' A man's mother is [[{{reincarnation}} reincarnated]] in an antique automobile.
* ''BlindJustice:'' A cop loses his sight but still patrols the mean streets -- armed.
* ''HogansHeroes:'' A sitcom set in a {{Nazi}} prisoner of war camp.
* ''MrSmith:'' ''TheWestWing'', but with an talking orangutan.
** Since Mr. Smith was first, I prefer to think of the West Wing as "Mr. Smith", but not as awesome.

** This troper actually heard a radio ad for ''BloodTies'' that use almost exactly that same description. Not verbatim, but definitely stressing the trope. This troper thought for sure that the ad was a parody for something, and was shocked to discover that the show is real.
* ''TheFlyingNun:'' ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin.
* ''ThirdRockFromTheSun'': Aliens come to examine life on earth. They're a zany sitcom family
* ''TheBradyBunchHour:'' An architect with six children starts a musical and sketch comedy show starring his entire family.
* ''HomeboysInOuterSpace'': JiveTurkey [[RecycledInSPACE IN SPACE!]]
* ''CopRock'': The PoliceProcedural [[XMeetsY meets]] TheMusical.
* ''MrEd'': It's a horse! That ''talks''!
* ''{{Woops}}!'': A SitCom, set AfterTheEnd!
* ''Heil Honey, I'm Home!'': A sitcom about ''Hitler'', Eva Braun, and their wacky Jewish neighbors.
** [[OneEpisodeWonder Lasted one episode]].

* ''[[SuperSentai Engine Sentai Go-onger]]'': a species of humanoid robots bent on polluting all of reality escape from a dimension populated by giant talking TransformingMecha vehichle/animal hybrids and into Earth, where a quintet of young adults with vehicle-specific jobs are charged with becoming PowerRangers to stop them. Oh, and said talking mecha vehicle/animal things have their souls downloaded into Game Boy cartridges, and their bodies shrunk down to the size of an RC car when not in use.
* ''[[{{MANTIS}} M.A.N.T.I.S.]]'': A mild-mannered African-American doctor is shot in the spine, builds a suit of futuristic exoskeleton, and vows to fight cri-oh wait, he was killed by an ''invisible dinosaur''.
* ''{{Quark}}'': More garbagemen in space! With twin blondes!

* ''ManFromAtlantis'': He's part fish, living in the ocean.. and he fights crime!
** Isn't that {{Aquaman}}'s plot?
** This troper heard the first ads for this show second-hand and at first refused to believe they were real.

** These are much more common in comics (the orgin of this series). For example, he's a robot. His buddy's a hard bitten G.I. They fight [[SomewhereAPalaeontologistIsCrying dinosaurs]] and japanese giant robots until the robot is sent into space with military werewolves, vampires, etc. and the comic's creator. Bob Kanigher, man.
*** For those who don't get the above reference, it was a DC comic book titled ''G.I. Robot.''

* ''{{Angel}}'': In the Season 3 Episode Dad Fred concocts an ordinary identity for Angel when they have to get [[spoiler: his son]] checked out in hospital. He becomes Geraldo Angel, a pet psychiatrist with a small practice in Pacoima...and he fights crime. - Fred then says she was having fun with him except for the name part.
** Not to mention the entire concept of the TV show in the first place. Angel's a 200-year old vampire with a soul who lives in Los Angeles and fights off the forces of darkness.
* StephenJCannell, this one's for you.
* ''{{Manimal}}'' - He can turn into various animals as the result of an ancestral curse and, er, fights crimes.

* Really, House is ultimately about this.

[[folder:Tabletop RPG]]
* ''Cthulhu Tech'': The writings of HPLovecraft crossed with ''NeonGenesisEvangelion''.
** Huh. There's a more direct pairing of those two in [[http://www.thekeep.org/~rpm/eva/coaeg.html ''Children of an Elder God'']].
[[/folder]]

* Some of the ''[[SimpleTwoThousand Simple 2000]]'' games, a series of budget Japanese games for the Dreamcast, Playstation, and Playstation 2, have some pretty weird concepts:
** In ''The Daibijin'', you have to subdue [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever a giant bikini-clad woman]] who's been brainwashed by evil aliens.
** In ''The Zombie vs. Kyuukyuusha'', you drive around in a heavily armored ambulance rescuing people from a ZombieApocalypse.
** In ''The {{Oneechanbara}}'' and its sequels, you play a scantily clad girl who runs around killing zombies with a katana.
*** This is roughly the point where you turn to the glitchy version of Solitaire you got as a budget game and sob quietly to yourself.
* ''SpaceQuest'': There's just something about janitors in space, isn't there?
* ''{{Planetfall}}'': Yes, yes there is...

* ''[=~Pokémon~=]'': A pre-teen assembles a bunch of {{Mons}} and in between becoming the Master and [[GottaCatchEmAll catching 'em all]], they dismantle entire criminal organisations. And that's just the games.
* ''[[MDK2 MDK]]'': A janitor working in a space station called the "Jim Dandy" gets called into action (with a lot of reluctance) to defend earth from invading aliens who have a sick sense of humor. The sequel has an eccentric but ingenius scientist and a 6-legged robotic talking dog (both also based on the "Jim Dandy") join in the action.

* ''TurboTeen'': A teenager gets the ability to [[ShapeShifting Shape Shift]] into... a car.
* ''AquaTeenHungerForce''. They're a meatball, a milkshake, and a box of French fries living in South Jersey. They fight crime! Except... they basically haven't even tried to fight any crime since the pilot, wherein their neighbor hired them to find out who totaled his car. It turned out to be a giant rabbit-shaped robot (designed to fight ordinary vegetables) that went berserk after its mad scientist creator sprayed perfume in its eyes for some reason. It seemed to have been tamed when the meatball turned on a boombox and the Rabbot started dancing, until Shake provoked it again and it chased them back uptown. The show's creators have admitted that they only made the anthropomorphic fast food items into freelance detectives when executives insisted they be employed to ensure a steady stream of plot ideas.
* ''ChipAndDaleRescueRangers''. Two chipmunks, two mice, and a housefly fight crime among both animals and humans.

* Parodied in TheSimpsons with RonHoward's pitch for a film about a killer robot driving instructor with a heartbreaking decision to make about whether his best friend lives... or dies. His best friend's a talking pie!
** Howard stole half of that pitch from Homer.
*** "You can't lose the pie, the pie's your heart."

*** There's a story that someone forgot the plot to the original, and tried to pitch "[[DieHardOnAnX Die Hard]] in an office building!" It's true, I tells ye.

* LifeOnMars: He's a cop from TheNoughties. He's a cop from TheSeventies. [[CompletelyMissingThePoint They fi--]] ...oh.

** In ''The Oneechanbara'' and its sequels, you play a scantily clad girl who runs around killing zombies with a katana.

* ''[=~Pokèmon~=]'': A pre-teen assembles a bunch of {{Mons}} and in between becoming the Master and [[GottaCatchEmAll catching 'em all]], they dismantle entire criminal organisations. And that's just the games.

* ''AngelAndThe Ape'' ('60s comic book with revivals in the '80s and '00s): She's a gorgeous [[GreatDetective super-sleuth]] who speaks thirteen languages [[ActionGirl and knows karate]]. He's a comic book artist who [[EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys happens to be a talking gorilla]]. TheyFightCrime!

* ''Angel and the Ape'' ('60s comic book with revivals in the '80s and '00s): She's a gorgeous [[GreatDetective super-sleuth]] who speaks six languages [[ActionGirl and knows karate]]. He's a comic book artist who [[EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys happens to be a talking gorilla]]. TheyFightCrime!

Also known as [=~One's A Plot~=].

->''"Ian Fruit, a flamboyant elderly raconteur, shares a flat with Ian Nut, a dangerous schizophrenic who has escaped from Broadmoor Hospital. Ian Fruit can only eat nuts, Ian Nut can only eat fruit, but they are both allergic to fruit and nut chocolate. As Ian Nut is mad he always secretly puts fruit and nut chocolate in everything they eat. With fatal consequences.''"
->-- '''This Morning with Richard Not Judy'''

->''"He's a giant robot made out of robotic lions! He's the evil crazed clown who stars in this summer's TheDarkKnight! And together, Voltron and the Joker are teaming up to [[TheyFightCrime fight cri]] - Wait, wait. I'm sorry.''"
-->--Awesome comic, or unwritable crap? You decide!

* Parodied in TheSimpsons with Ron Howard's pitch for a film about a killer robot driving instructor with a heartbreaking decision to make about whether his best friend lives... or dies. His best friend's a talking pie!

* ''Magic Pickle''. He's a super-powered pickle. She's a little girl. Together they fight super-powered evil produce. [[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer Yes, this is actually a real book series.]]

* ''YuGiOh'': An manga/anime about a children's card game.
** And {{Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds}}, which is about [[YugiohTheAbridgedSeries card games... on motorcycles!]]

* Parodied in ''Network'': "These are those four outlines submitted by Universal for an hour series. You needn't bother to read them; I'll tell them to you. The first one is set at a large Eastern law school, presumably Harvard. The series is irresistibly entitled "The New Lawyers." The running characters are a crusty-but-benign ex-Supreme Court justice, presumably Oliver Wendell Holmes by way of Dr. Zorba; there's a beautiful girl graduate student; and the local district attorney who is brilliant and sometimes cuts corners. The second one is called "The Amazon Squad." The running characters include a crusty-but-benign police lieutenant who's always getting heat from the commissioner; a hard-nosed, hard-drinking detective who thinks women belong in the kitchen; and the brilliant and beautiful young girl cop who's fighting the feminist battle on the force. Up next is another one of those investigative reporter shows. A crusty-but-benign managing editor who's always gett..."