Is CBS Recycling a 90s Fox Sitcom with ‘Partners’?

Coming to Mondays at 8:30 on CBS this fall is Partners, a new sitcom from James Burrows that the network describes as being about “two life-long best friends and business partners whose ‘bromance’ is tested when one of them is engaged to be married.”

Coming to Mondays at 8:30 on Fox in the fall of 1996 was Partners, an old sitcom from James Burrows that the network described as “Best friends Bob and Owen work together as aspiring young architects on the rise, their relationship complicated by Owen’s recent engagement to Alicia.”

The CBS description also says their “Partners” is “based on the lives of creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick,” who have worked together throughout their Hollywood careers – “Dream On,” “Boston Common,” “Good Morning Miami,” “Will & Grace,” “Four Kings” and “$#*! My Dad Says.”The FOX “Partners” was not created by Kohan and Mutchnick, but by Jeff Greenstein and Jeff Strauss. Greenstein previously worked on 132 episodes of “WIll & Grace” – which was created by Kohan and Mutchnick. However, they didn’t all work together on “Will & Grace” until years after the FOX “Partners” went off the air.

OK then! So, what the hell is the deal here? TVbytheNumbers discovered the weird similarities between the two shows, which share a director, name, story and even a timeslot with each another. Of course, there are differences between the two shows, most notably that the friend whose inconvenienced by the engagement is gay in the 2012 version. But even the main creators of the two shows are connected:So is this a half-remake of that show? It certainly seems like it, doesn’t it? But it could also be a big coincidence, and proof that super generic sitcom ideas/names come up again and again throughout the years because that’s just the way TV works. How depressing.

Is CBS Recycling a 90s Fox Sitcom with ‘Partners’?