No, Not That One! 10 Forgotten TV Shows With the Same Name as a Hit
Lost to time is the 2001 TV show Lost, an NBC series that had nothing to do with plane crash survivors exploring a mysterious island.
Premiering on September 4, 2001, NBC’s Lost did follow castaways of a sort. In the reality competition, contestants were paired off and dropped off in a remote location, and they then raced across the globe to reach the finish line.
That Lost beat CBS’s similar The Amazing Race to the airwaves by one day. However, it only lasted one low-rated season — and was overshadowed by ABC’s Lost in 2004 — while The Amazing Race is still going, a quarter-century later.
Now, 25 years after the debut of NBC’s Lost, keep reading to discover other TV shows that didn’t get nearly the same play as other TV shows with the same title.
Adventure Time (1958)
Animation fans know 2010’s Adventure Time as Cartoon Network’s franchise-starting fantasy series about a boy and his shapeshifting dog. Pittsburghers of a certain age, however, might remember children’s show hosted by Paul Shannon, pictured here, that ran for more than two decades on WTAE.
Empire (1962)
The musical drama Empire, featuring Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson, became a huge hit for Fox in 2015. But an Empire also aired one season on NBC five decades prior: It was rancher drama starring Terry Moore and Richard Egan.
E/R (1993)
As we’ve covered before, George Clooney was one of several actors who appeared in NBC’s ER and CBS’ E/R, both of which were TV shows set in Chicago emergency rooms. But the latter, a 1993 sitcom, only lasted one season.
Friends (1979)
A decade and a half before we met TV’s favorite Friends, Aaron Spelling executive-produced an ABC series of the same name. 1994’s Friends showed twenty-somethings growing up together; 1979’s Friends showed 11year-olds doing the same, with more of a dramatic slant.
General Hospital (1972)
On American TV, the ABC daytime soap General Hospital has been churning out drama since 1963. On British TV, the daytime soap General Hospital only lasted from 1972 to 1979. And the latter was actually an attempt to recoup the success of an earlier British TV soap titled Emergency Ward 10.
Lost (2001)
The massively popular adventure drama Lost drove viewers to ABC, superfans to online message boards, and Emmy voters to their ballots. And it likely erased all memories of the same-named NBC reality show that also had strangers facing the wilderness together.
New Amsterdam (2008)
NBC’s New Amsterdam, debuting in 2018, was a medical drama starred Ryan Eggold as a doctor trying to save a New York City hospital. And it only shared a title and a locale with Fox’s earlier and less successful New Amsterdam, in which Nikolaj Coster-Waldau played an immortal man serving as a detective in modern-day NYC.
The Office (1995)
NBC’s hit workplace comedy about the employees of Dunder Mifflin Paper Company was, of course, based on the British series of the same name. But a decade earlier came CBS’s The Office, which only lasted for four episodes. In that comedy, Valerie Harper played the long-suffering office manager at a Chicago packaging company.
The Practice (1976)
One of our favorite courtroom dramas, 1997’s The Practice was an ABC legal dramedy that delved into moral and ethical dilemmas for eight seasons. Preceding it by two decades was an NBC production of the same name, a sitcom starring Danny Thomas as a New York City doctor whose son also happens to have a private practice in the Big Apple.
Saturday Night Live With Howard Cosell (1975)
Even though the two Saturday Night Lives both debuted in 1975, NBC’s version — the one that has aired for the last half-century — was originally titled NBC’s Saturday Night. ABC’s Saturday Night Live, meanwhile, had sports commentator Howard Cosell doing his best to host a variety show for 18 episodes.
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