Capsule Pitch Description: Make a show like (respectively) Bronowski's The Ascent of Man or Carl Sagan's Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, but specifically aimed at children
Implementation:Man is broody and even creepy in places, while Meme is distinctly Lighter and Softer in tone, much in line their grown-up predecessors.
Capsule Pitch Description: The adventures of a group of pre-teen characters who perform covers of popular songs.
Implementation: Most episodes of Kids Incorporated focused on a group of pre-teens who hung out at a place called "The P*LACE" and dealt with typical issues children that age faced, while the episodes of Alvin were varied, with some being Slice of Life stories and others being Whole Plot References to popular movies and shows from the 80s.
Capsule Pitch Description:Preschool shows centered around unconventional superheroes (a group of baked goods for the former, and dogs for the latter).
Implementation: This duel centers around the Japanese release of PAW Patrol in 2019. It's also important to note that while PAW Patrol was an original idea, Anpanman is based on a series of picture books.
Capsule Pitch Description:Magical Girl series in which a blonde-haired girl, aided by a Talking Animal, is tasked to save her world from evil forces with the help of a group of girls by transforming into a superheroine.
Implementation: This duel concerns the North American release of Sailor Moon, which was released the same year Princess Gwenevere debuted.
Capsule Pitch Description: Shows that try to copy the format ofShining Time Station by having British children's shows framed by segments related to the theme of the original show.
Implementation: While Salty's Lighthouse was an animated show, The Noddy Shop was a live-action show that also featured puppets. Despite this, the shows also have similarities to each other. First, both shows feature a crustacean character, have adult characters who have jobs related to the ocean and both had episodes about a character thinking they were being ignored because of their age and a Big Blackout.
Implementation: One of the comparisons on the two shows is about Sasuke and Zuko. These two constantly switched sides, so their alignment is complicated.
Capsule Pitch Description:Greek Mythology-themed Urban Fantasy where a team of Kid Heroes selected by the Gods try to stop the evil titan Kronos/Cronus.
Implementation:Class of the Titans was more episodic (intoducing the main characters early and having them fight the bad guy each episode) while Percy Jackson focused more on a broad storyline (gradually introducing characters and building up to a Final Battle). Also, Percy Jackson did more to integrate the various gods and monsters into our world though Masquerades and Modernized Gods.
Implementation:The Tudors is an international Showtime co-production created by American, British and Irish television companies while The Other Boleyn Girl is the second BBC adaptation of the 2001 novel of the same name after the 2003 television film.
Capsule Pitch Description: Works that Involve a Purple Protagonist & having an heavy emphasis on breaking the 4th Wall.
Implementation:Chowder is American, spoofs Cooking, and targeted towards children while Hyperdimension Neptunia is Japanese, spoofs the Console Wars and targeted towards mature Teenagers and Adults.
Implementation: While both works have the same setting and touch upon similar subject matter, The Borgias takes a lot of inspiration from another Showtime-produced show The Tudors and isn't exactly known for historical accuracy. Brotherhood on the other hand tries to stay as close to real world history as possible though the game mixes it with Historical Villain Upgrade and Artistic License to portray the House of Borgia since they are the main antagonists to the Auditores in addition to being a sequel to Assassin's Creed II.
Capsule Pitch Description: Shows about a kid who is tired of being the only boy in his family and looks for new ways to cope with it.
Implementation: In Crash & Bernstein, Wyatt Bernstein is the only boy out of four children, but he befriends a purple puppet named Crash. Lincoln Loud of The Loud House doesn't get a new male friend in the house, and has to deal with ten sisters. Outside the house, our heroes spend most of their time hanging out with a geeky best friend who has a huge crush on their oldest sister, who is a blonde phoneaholic.
Capsule Pitch Description: Prequels about a fictional pirate captain who commands his own ship and crew while working with real-life historical figures in the Caribbean as a member of the Republic of Pirates.
Capsule Pitch Description: Shows about kids/teens who have supernatural powers that have a huge emphasis on comedy, are adaptations of something else and are adored by the channels they air on.
Implementation: While Teen Titans Go! is based on the Teen Titans comics and the 2004 TV show, Yo-Kai Watch is based on a video game, and due to originating in Japan, the show aired one year earlier in said country.
Capsule Pitch Description: Family-friendly material released in 2013 who's main villains exploit their supposed love interests for their selfish ambition, and plot against the families of said love interest.
Implementation:Thieves in Time stars a trio of adopted brothers who reunite over a disaster, while Frozen is about two sisters estranged after a disaster. Both have a morally ambiguous female character*Penelope and Elsa disappear on her own terms, with locating her a major goalresultElsa makes amends with Anna, while Penelope turns out to be the female Prince Hans, the Big Bad of Frozen, and she ends up hated and ditched by the Cooper Gang for the same reasons as him.
Capsule Pitch Description: An elementary school child helps solve other people's problems with the help of creatures that only they can see.
Implementation:Yo-Kai Watch is an adaptation of a Video Game, while Abby Hatcher is Spin Master's attempt at a Distaff Counterpart of PAW Patrol. It's worth noting that at the time Abby Hatcher premiered, the English dub of Yo-Kai Watch was up to the episodes of the series that mainly focused on a new female protagonist.
Capsule Pitch Description: A tween tells the audience how he survives being the middle child of a large family with lots of siblings.
Implementation: Both series are about being the middle child in a big family, and they even have an episode each where the main character tries to claim the best seat in the family car. To be fair, The Loud House has been in development and production longer than Stuck in the Middle.
Implementation:Gods of Egypt is more of a fantasy action movie about the conflict between Horus and Set while AC Origins by contrast is an RPG game that is mostly grounded in reality since it's set during the final years of Ptolemaic Egypt and The Roman Republic though the gods themselves are constantly referenced by major and minor characters or appear in the flesh outside of the base game.
Capsule Pitch Description: Series that take place in outer space.
Implementation:Final Space is about a person who is protecting a planet destroyer from the claws of an evil alien, Lost in Space on the other hand is about a family who want to get out of a certain planet while surviving in the process
Capsule Pitch Description: Adaptations with horror themes and gothic and dark aesthetic.
Implementation:Castlevania is an adaptation of Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, following heroes trying to save Wallachia from Dracula's army and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is a horror themed re-imagining of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, adapted from a comic with the same name.
Capsule Pitch Description: Shows based on popular properties that both involve the main character finding three clues to solve a mystery with the help of cartoon animal characters.
Implementation:Blue's Clues and You is a reboot of the original Blue's Clues series, while Ryan's Mystery Playdate is based on the popular YouTube toy channel Ryan ToysReview. Also, both shows are slated to air on Nick Jr. at the same time.
Capsule Pitch Description: Works and sequels based on Watchmen.
Implementation:Doomsday Clock is the follow-up to The Reveal in the original DC Rebirth one-shot that Dr. Manhattan, not Barry Allen and Pandora, is responsible for the New 52 DC Universe, while the HBO Watchmen series is a stand-alone story that also takes place after the events of the comic. Both also feature rather different outcomes to Rorschach sending his journal to The New Frontiersman and the idea foreshadowed in the end of Robert Redford as President of the United States*Doomsday Clock depicting the journal's publication as destroying Veidt's efforts and with Redford as President being more analogous to Donald Trump's controversial tenure in office, whereas the HBO show, in a case of Surprisingly Realistic Outcome given the in-universe reputations of both Rorschach as a lunatic and The New Frontiersman as a fringe tabliod, depicts Veidt's scheme as unaffected by the journal seeing print as well as President Redford's tenure being more reflective of the real Redford's actual (Liberal) leanings, both feature more focus on one of the Minutemen*Mothman in Doomsday Clock, Hooded Justice in the HBO show, and both ended in December 2019 within days of each other with both endings featuring the death of Dr. Manhattan and the imprisonment of Ozymandias for his crimes in the original story.
Implementation:The Hunt is a theatrical film loosely adapting "The Most Dangerous Game", only with a political twist as the hunters are rich liberal elites while the hunted are conservative "deplorables". Most Dangerous Game, despite the name, is not officially based on the short story; it is a Quibi short-form video series in which the "game" is a desperate man sought out by a mysterious organization with a lucrative cash offer for his participation. Rather than one man seeking out multiple quarry on an isolated island, it's several hunters seeking out one quarry in the middle of Detroit.
Capsule Pitch Description: Early 2020*Just Mercy was released wide in January 2020Based on a True Story legal dramas focused on a wrongly convicted black man fighting to overturn his conviction on appeal.
Implementation:Just Mercy is a Warner Bros. film starring Jamie Foxx as the wrongly convicted Walter McMillan and Michael B. Jordan as his lawyer, Bryan Stevenson, released in the heat of awards season. For Life is an ABC primetime drama series produced by (and featuring a cameo role from) 50 Cent, in which the main character becomes a lawyer himself in prison and defends others while working to overturn his conviction; unlike Just Mercy, it is a much looser adaptation of its true story.
Capsule Pitch Description: Animated series based on the Baby Shark nursery rhyme.
Implementation: While both shows are based on a then-popular nursery rhyme, they're made by different companies. Finny the Shark is made by the team behind Super Simple Songs, while Baby Shark's Big Show! was made by Pinkfong and Nickelodeon. It's also worth noting that despite the latter show's production being announced first, Finny the Shark was released a few months before it.
Capsule Pitch Description: Action-oriented Historical Fiction dramas set during The Viking Age which serve as sequels to a popular work of an otherwise well-known franchise focusing on Viking clans who relocate from their original home of Scandinavia to a brand new location and the Norse invasions of England.
Implementation:AC Valhalla is set in 873 AD with Eivor and her kin moving to a small English town known as Ravensthorpe to set up shop amidst the chaos and turmoil of Dark Age Europe whereas Vikings: Valhalla has two distinct storylines: Harald Hadrada and William the Conqueror leading their own expeditions into the British Isles and Leif Erikson and his family setting in Greenland as the spread of Christianity back home will lead to the end of the Vikings as we know it a century after the events of the original series.
Capsule Pitch Description: Comprehensive biopics of the life of Aretha Franklin, from her childhood as a gospel singer to her reign as the Queen of Soul.
Implementation:Genius: Aretha is the third season of the National Geographic Channel series chronicling the lives of titular "geniuses" of history; Cynthia Erivo portrayed the singer. Respect is a theatrical film from MGM that stars Jennifer Hudson as Aretha. Both the series and the film were severely delayed due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Franklin herself was actually involved with Respect prior to her death, while Genius: Aretha was fast-tracked after her passing. Shortly before the release of Respect, Genius: Aretha (which had fully aired months earlier) sponsored a category on Jeopardy! to promote its Hulu availability, solidifying the "dueling" status.
Capsule Pitch Description: Two 2022 fictions about a black American woman, Mamie Till-Mobley, and her pursuit of justice after the lynching of her 14-year-old son, Emmett Louis Till, in 1955, which contributed to spawning the Civil Rights Movement. Both had a major star contributing to the production (Will Smith for Women of the Movement, Whoopi Goldberg for Till).
Implementation: The first is a Mini Series, the second is a theatrical film.
The Offer (2022) / Francis & The Godfather (TBA)
Capsule Pitch Description: A TV series and film, respectively, centered around the making of the 1972 classic The Godfather.
GameStop: Rise of the Players (2022) / Gaming Wall Street (2022)
Capsule Pitch Description: Documentaries chronicling the 2021 GameStop Short Squeeze incident.
Implementation:GameStop: Rise of the Players is a documentary film tells the incident from the perspective of the original perpetrators whose actions would lead to the short squeeze, while Gaming Wall Street is a two-part HBO Max docuseries that tells the short squeeze from the perspective of the people who have been on the r/wallstreetbets subreddit before the incident. The former also focuses solely on the GameStop short squeeze incident, while the latter focuses on both the incident and the dark side of Wall Street hedge funds.
Capsule Pitch Description: 8-episode CG-animated series with a similar stylized animation, that both premiered on Netflix in November 2023 and feature a samurai traveling Feudal Japan with a small number of companions in order to fulfill a quest.
Implementation:Onimusha is a CG anime series based on Capcom's game series of the same name, though as a sequel and not based on one chapter in particular, and featuring Miyamoto Musashi as main character. As the title implies, it features plenty of demons and supernatural occurrences. Blue Eye Samurai is a Franco/American CG-animated cartoon featuring original characters in an alternate history Japan and, despite some borderline-supernatural feats, does not have any fantastical elements.
Capsule Pitch Description: A musical fantasy Origins Episode for a character from a classic story. An idealistic, quirky protagonist enlists the help of a racially diverse group of friends to stop a powerful, ruthless villain(s) who deceitfully hoards something valuable from an unknowing public who sees no reason to mistrust them. The protagonist has a sidekick of sorts with a comically deep voice and mannerisms, and is inspired by the memory of a deceased parent. Both films also prominently excerpt at least one famous song from another movie in their underscores and have numerous Call Forwards and/or Easter Eggs to the classic story, and both protagonists at one point must swim back to the city to hatch their plan to defeat the villain! Both films were released in a one-month timespan in 2023.
Capsule Pitch Description: In 2019, Prince Andrew gave a disastrous interview with BBC journalist Emily Maitlis about his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Implementation:Scoop is a Netflix original film, while A Very Royal Scandal is a three-part miniseries by Amazon Studios (presumably for Prime Video), for which Maitlis herself served as an executive producer.
Implementation: One is a French film (by the same production team as 2023's The Three Musketeers) that's due to release in June 2024, the other is an Italian miniseries (produced by Rai and Mediawan) and is due to premiere in December 2024.
