History ParodyDisplacement / LiveActionTV

** The fake ad with Creator/JohnBelushi promoting "Little Chocolate Donuts" is better remembered than the Bruce (later Caitlyn) Jenner-starred Wheaties commercial it was spoofing.

* ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' popularized many old and obscure Sci-Fi movies simply because the old and obscure movies were the cheapest to get the rights to. The show itself owes a lot to a tradition of host segments on old horror movies (see HorrorHost) dating back to the 1950s, and started in a similar vein--a local show on a station that needed filler. Its willingness to mock the movie not just during breaks but during the runtime, its reliance on sarcasm and wit rather than the stock campiness-and-bad-puns format of other hosts, and its heavy utilization of home video has insured that it outlasted and overshadowed most of its ancestors.

* Series/MagnumPI hasn't ''completely'' fallen into obscurity, but its memory is being kept alive mostly by people on the Internet who love explaining what Chip and Dale's outfits on WesternAnimation/ChipNDaleRescueRangers were based on.

* The show-within-a-show ''Tool Time'' on the sitcom ''Series/HomeImprovement'' is a parody of ''This Old House'', with the main host (Tim) being a charismatic salesman and his co-host (Al) being an anti-charismatic, bland, flannel-wearing man, who nonetheless possesses unrivaled expert knowledge of the topic at hand. They are both a direct parody of Bob Vila and Norm Abram's screen presence. In addition, scenes outside of ''Tool Time'' point out how most of the actual renovation work is done by a trained crew and that the hosts' contributions are mostly symbolic. In-universe the show was occasionally noted as a knockoff, and Tim had an UnknownRival relationship with Villa when he guest starred. However, as ''Home Improvement'' has managed to remain popular and remembered in popular culture more than 20 years after it first aired, while Vila and Abram have been eclipsed by newer, younger talent in the "Home Improvement" genre such as Ty Pennington and Mike Holmes, the fact that Tool Time is a parody is largely lost on those who watch the reruns today.
* When ''Series/DoctorWho'' started in 1963, as a budget-saving measure the Doctor's possibly-infinitely-large-inside space'n'time travelling ship was disguised as an ordinary, everyday object that all viewers would be familiar with -- a police box, a telephone kiosk linked directly to the nearest police station, for patrolling officers or members of the public to contact the station. Hundreds of the blue Metropolitan Police examples could be seen across London, with variants in other cities and towns throughout Britain. Within the next decade however, these were getting phased out as portable communications improved, meaning even by the time the original series ended in 1989 the box was more familiar as a symbol of ''Doctor Who'' than as a real thing. By the time the series was revived in 2005, there hadn't been a working police box anywhere in the UK for over 20 years[[note]](since the show's revival, a genuine working one has been installed in the Bournemouth suburb of Boscombe; the council admitted at the time that it's there as a tourist attraction as much as it is a means of calling the police)[[/note]], and a line of expository dialogue was required in the first new episode to explain the TARDIS's appearance. Indeed, the TARDIS is usually the first thing anyone thinks of upon seeing a picture of a police box.

* Speaking of ''Series/Batman1966'', most fans of UsefulNotes/{{the Dark Age|of Comic Books}} Batman regard the 1960s series as representative of that era's Batman, when actually it was widely regarded as an intentionally over-the-top, tongue-in-cheek parody of the comic book. According to [[Website/{{Wikipedia}} That Other Wiki]], the comic later turned up the camp ''because'' of the TV show's success.

* These days, the phrase "Bozo the Clown" has become a commonly recognizable meme. A high-profile example is a ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' episode in which George wanted Bozo the Clown for his girlfriend's son's birthday party. But how many people know that the phrase refers to a specific, original, historical Bozo the Clown dating back to 1946? Even by the time when the Seinfeld episode aired in 1994, Bozo was 50 years old, and some of the episode's humor revolved around the character's obscurity.

* Referenced in the game show ''Series/BeatTheGeeks''. The host of the show once jokingly referred to Music/MichaelJackson as "the guy who did all those [[Music/WeirdAlYankovic Weird Al]] parodies". Sadly, the Effect did not help music geek Andy Zax. He was unable to describe the cover of Weird Al's album "Off The Deep End", despite it being a parody of Music/{{Nirvana}}'s "Music/{{Nevermind}}", the topic of the previous question.

* When ''Series/DoctorWho'' started in 1963, as a budget saving measure the Doctor's possibly-infinitely-large-inside space'n'time travelling ship was disguised as an ordinary, everyday object that all viewers would be familiar with -- a police box, a telephone kiosk linked directly to the nearest police station, for patrolling officers or members of the public to contact the station. Hundreds of the blue Metropolitan Police examples could be seen across London, with variants in other cities and towns throughout Britain. Within the next decade however these were getting phased out as portable communications improved, meaning even by the time the original series ended in 1989 the box was more familiar as a symbol of ''Doctor Who'' than as a real thing. By the time the series was revived in 2005, there hadn't been a working police box anywhere in the UK for over 20 years[[note]](since the show's revival, a genuine working one has been installed in the Bournemouth suburb of Boscombe; the council admitted at the time that it's there as a tourist attraction as much as it is a means of calling the police)[[/note]], and a line of expository dialogue was required in the first new episode to explain the TARDIS's appearance. Indeed, the TARDIS is usually the first thing anyone thinks of upon seeing a picture of a police box.

* Children who grew up watching ''Series/SesameStreet'' in the early-mid 1980s were likely introduced to Creator/CharlieChaplin's "Little Tramp" character from the shorts starring [[SamusIsAGirl Maria (Sonia Manzano) doing a Chaplin impression]] (with Emilio Delgado playing the Tramp's ButtMonkey) before (or even instead of) ever seeing the original Chaplin movies. Either that, or they saw the original TV and print ads for the IBM [=PS1=] computer, which adopted Chaplin as an unofficial spokesperson (four years after his death!) in 1981.

** ''[[Series/{{Chespirito}} Chompiras and Botija]]'' is a parody of ''Series/TheHoneymooners'', problem is, the original Honeymooners never was popular in Latin America and nor even ran in some countries, so very few Latins other than TV Geeks would know the reference.

** An in-universe example. Britta does an impression of a bit Jon Stewart does frequently on ''Series/TheDailyShow'', itself an impression of [[Series/TheTonightShow Johnny Carson]], which comes off as a weird impersonation of Carson. When asked "Is that your Johnny Carson?" Britta is confused, and says no, it was her Jon Stewart.

* In one episode of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', the visual similarity between Spike and Music/BillyIdol is {{lampshade|Hanging}}d. To a large number of fans, Spike is far more recognisable than Billy Idol. The key thing here is the look; many people have heard of Billy Idol, but don't know what he looks like, hereas ''everyone'' recognizes Spike hen they see him.

* Popular and light-hearted [=WW2=]-themed TV sitcom ''Series/HogansHeroes'' was considered at the time to be a rip-off of the darkly humourous 1953 movie ''Stalag 17'' (itself an adaptation of the Broadway play of the same name), starring William Holden. While the producers of ''Hogan's Heroes'' never acknowledged the parody, the two were similar enough to inspire a successful lawsuit by the creators of ''Stalag 17''; even down to the name (and look) of the bumbling German guard "Sgt. Schulz". Today, ''Hogan's Heroes'' is an icon of American pop culture; while ''Stalag 17'' is known only to serious classic film and theatre buffs.
* ''Series/ChappellesShow'' made popular many things, but none of them are as readily quoted as David Chappelle's Rick James impersonation: "I'm Rick James, bitch!" If you were to ask anybody born after 1980, they wouldn't even know who the real Rick James is, except some funny sketch from a comedy television show. Also, the show's famous parody of Creator/WayneBrady can seem very inexplicable to younger viewers; at the time, Brady was known almost solely for family-friendly roles and game show hosting, so seeing him [[AdamWesting acting like a sociopathic gangbanger]] was kind of like watching Creator/FredRogers getting high. In the years since, however, Brady [[PlayingAgainstType has done significantly more adult-aimed projects]], and thus no longer has the ultra-squeaky clean and wholesome image he used to.

* ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'''s ''The Continental'' recurring sketch with Creator/ChristopherWalken is actually based on a real TV show. ''The Continental'' was a short-lived Creator/{{CBS}} program that aired Saturday nights during the 1952-53 season, and starred Renzo Cesana as the title character. Its target audience was lonely, dateless women (though when it moved to Creator/{{ABC}}, it aired in the daytime for lonely, bored housewives). The combination of the subjective camera angles and the Continental's charm was designed to make these women believe they were being romanced through their TV sets. The ''SNL'' version is exactly like that, except Walken's Continental has been {{flanderiz|ation}}ed to a HandsomeLech-cum-StalkerWithACrush-cum-DirtyOldMan-cum-CasanovaWannabe.

** When Spanish dictator UsefulNotes/FranciscoFranco was on his deathbed in 1975, news programs would sometimes update his condition on slow news days. Sometimes, these reports would simply state that "Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still alive." He finally died in November of that year. Then, Creator/ChevyChase started to feature ThisJustIn reports that "Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead." The catch phrase remained in the public consciousness long after the countdown to Franco's death.
** Weekend Update's ''Point/Counterpoint'' ("Jane, you ignorant slut!"), was a parody of a ''Series/SixtyMinutes'' segment that aired in the seventies until it was replaced by ''A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney''. The segment was also parodied by ''Film/{{Airplane}}'' ("I say, let 'em crash!").

* The Creator/LloydBridges vehicle ''Sea Hunt'' is probably less familiar to modern audiences than the spoofs of it in ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 and ''Film/HotShotsPartDeux'', especially the line "By this time my lungs were aching for air!"

* The Creator/LloydBridges vehicle ''Sea Hunt'' is probably less familiar to modern audiences than the spoofs of it in ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 and ''Film/HotShotsPartDeux, especially the line "By this time my lungs were aching for air!"

* Speaking of ''Series/Batman1966'', most fans of UsefulNotes/{{the Dark Age|of Comic Books}} Batman regard the 1960s series as representative of that era's Batman, when actually it was widely regarded as an intentionally over-the-top, tongue-in-cheek parody of the comic book. According to [[Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} That Other Wiki]], the comic later turned up the camp ''because'' of the TV show's success.

* ''Series/TheMunsters'': The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TTIqK9nFH8 first season's opening sequence]] is an AffectionateParody of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QGi9XR7cBQ that of]] ''Series/TheDonnaReedShow''; both have the matriarch sending the kids off to school. The popularity of ''The Munsters'' outlasted ''The Donna Reed Show'', so most modern viewers wouldn't know that it is a parody.

* Many {{Game Show}}s become an example of a variation of this trope when a revived version of the show becomes more popular than the original version. Some examples:
** ''Series/ThePriceIsRight'' has been a fixture on daytime TV since 1972 and is likely the only version known to most people today--but the original version was also very popular in its time, airing in both daytime and primetime from 1956 to 1965. Additionally, when producer Mark Goodson updated ''The Price Is Right'' for the revival, he intended to incorporate elements of the most popular game show on TV at the time--''Series/LetsMakeADeal''. The ''Deal'' connection was largely forgotten... although with a new version of that show now airing (on the same network as ''Price'' and as a companion piece, no less), the connection may become clearer once again.
*** With the two shows having held a crossover week in the 2015-16 season, it seems mission accomplished.
** ''Series/MatchGame''. The 1970s version is the most popular due to the funny and suggestive nature of the questions. However, the original version--despite being much more sedate and tame--also had a long run on NBC from 1962 to 1969.
** ''Series/PressYourLuck'', one of the most popular game shows of the 1980s, was actually based on a short-lived game show called ''Series/SecondChance'' that aired in 1977.
** Before the still-running version with Alex Trebek started up in 1984, ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'' was hosted by Art Fleming for 10 seasons (1964-1974), followed by a short-lived reboot in 1978. (Yes, children of the '80s, ''that's'' who that guy is in Music/WeirdAlYankovic's "I Lost On Jeopardy" video...)
** Despite what its producers would have you think, Pat Sajak and Vanna White were ''not'' the original host/hostess tandem on ''Series/WheelOfFortune'' — that would be Chuck Woolery and Susan Stafford. Still, Chuck ends up a subversion, since he would go on to become famous for many other popular game shows, such as ''Series/{{Scrabble}}'', ''Series/LoveConnection'' and ''Series/{{Lingo}}''.
*** This came back to bite one group of contestants on another Woolery show, ''Series/{{Greed}}'', who were asked to pick out the one game show Woolery had not hosted, with the possible answers being ''Series/{{Scrabble}}'', ''Series/LoveConnection'', ''Series/WheelOfFortune'', and ''Series/SingledOut''. The contestants chose ''Wheel'', when the correct answer was ''Singled Out''.
* Speaking of ''Series/WheelOfFortune'', many people may remember the jingle "I'm a Wheel Watcher", used in commercials (and sometimes even on the show itself) for most of the 80s and 90s. What most people may not realize is that the song is a rewrite of "I'm a Girl Watcher", a 1960s blue-eyed soul song.

** Curiously, the same thing hasn't happened in North America with regard to payphones and two well-known Keanu Reeves franchises: ''Bill and Ted'' and ''The Matrix''... or, for that matter, the trope of Superman changing into his costume in a payphone... but it's only a matter of time.

** And, arguably, most Americans have no idea the British TV show even existed (much less the short-lived US adaptation.) They only know the puppets, which appeared in Music/{{Genesis}}'s music video for their song ''Music/LandOfConfusion''.

* Once upon a time, there was a UK game show called ''If I Ruled The World''. It inspired another game show called ''Series/{{Parlamentet}}''. ''If I Ruled The World'' stopped after two seasons -- ''Parlamentet'', however, is still going strong. In Scandinavia, admittedly, but twenty-two seasons deserve a mention.

* When ''Series/DoctorWho'' started in 1963, as a budget saving measure the Doctor's possibly-infinitely-large-inside space'n'time traveling ship was disguised as an ordinary, everyday object that all viewers would be familiar with -- a police box, examples of which could be seen in every town in Britain. By the time the series was revived in 2005, there hadn't been a working police box anywhere in the UK for over 20 years[[note]]Since the show's revival, a genuine working Police Box has been installed in the Bournemouth suburb of Boscombe. The council admitted at the time that it's there as a tourist attraction as much as it is a means of calling the police.[[/note]], and a line of expository dialogue was required in the first new episode to explain the TARDIS's appearance. Indeed, the TARDIS is usually the first thing anyone thinks of upon seeing a picture of a police box.

** There is a police box right out the Earl's Court tube station in London, [[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/08/uk_enl_1199712723/html/1.stm big and blue as anything.]] This isn't an original police box though, it was built in 1997. It was put there because tourists who had seen ''Doctor Who'' were disappointed by the lack of police boxes in England.
** This has led to possibly the only prop-based instance of the CelebrityParadox -- in the real world, a Police Box would be anything ''but'' inconspicuous, because just about everybody in Britain would recognise it as the [=TARDIS=]. This is occasionally lampshaded, with mixed success/cringeworthiness, in UK media.
** Possibly the only ''legally binding'' case of the Parody Displacement: The BBC trademarked the look of the TARDIS in 1996. The Metropolitan Police challenged it, and lost, with the judge saying that it was far more recognizable as a symbol of ''Doctor Who'' than as a symbol of the police. (The fact that the police had never attempted to trademark it themselves over the course of 40 years also counted against them.)
** Nicely spoofed in [[Recap/DoctorWho2011CSTheDoctorTheWidowAndTheWardrobe one Eleventh Doctor Christmas Special]] when the Doctor gets his space suit helmet stuck backwards, and needs to recruit a local to help him find the TARDIS. After she follows his instructions on what to look for, he goes inside...and remembers that he is in a time period where there are still real police boxes.

* Serious and downbeat drama series ''Series/SecretArmy'', about the Belgian resistance during [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII WW2]], was closely parodied in knockabout comedy ''Series/AlloAllo'' -- which went on to be much more popular and longer-running than the original. To this day, most fans of ''Series/AlloAllo'' are unaware that it began as a parody at all...
* The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batusi Batusi]] from ''Series/Batman1966'' is far better remembered than [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watusi_(dance) the Watusi]] it was originally punned off of. The Batusi is now better known as "that dance Creator/JohnTravolta does in ''Film/PulpFiction''" (not to be confused with "That dance John Travolta does in ''Saturday Night Fever''"). Or from ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': "How come Batman doesn't dance anymore?" This has now collapsed in on itself and become a double-Parody Displacement, as the Batusi is more widely remembered as the source of "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrmPehlHK3w ualuealuealeuale]]", one of the first really big gags to take off on Website/{{ytmnd}}.
* Speaking of ''Series/Batman1966'', most fans of UsefulNotes/{{the Dark Age|of Comic Books}} Batman regard the 1960s series as the representative of that era's Batman, when actually it was widely regarded as an intentionally over-the-top, tongue-in-cheek parody of the comic book. According to [[Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} That Other Wiki]], the comic later turned up the camp because of the TV show's success.
** That didn't stop parents from taking their kids to see the later Creator/TimBurton movies, expecting the same style as the Adam West series. [[DarkerAndEdgier Boy were they in]] [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids for a surprise]]...

* The TV show ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'' is now better known than the Robert Louis Stevenson novel ''The Black Arrow'', which the title is a ShoutOut to and which the first series parodied.

* ''Series/HoratioHornblower'' had an obvious influence on ''Franchise/StarTrek'' frequently acknowledged by people who worked on the series. [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries The original series]] was also influenced by the TV Westerns of its day, but now more people have heard of ''Star Trek'' than ''Series/{{Gunsmoke}}''. Creator/GeneRoddenberry specially referenced both Horatio Hornblower and the highly successful show ''Series/WagonTrain'' in his original pitches and as a result, both series are remembered only for the phrases "Horatio Hornblower in space" and "Series/WagonTrainToTheStars".