History BackFromTheDead / LiveActionTV

* ''Series/{{Arrowverse}}''. This has never explicitly happened, but characters have been coming back from presumed death a whole lot.

* Series/{{Buffy|TheVampireSlayer}}verse examples:
** Buffy was dead for nearly five months at the conclusion of Season 5 but she was brought back by Willow's magic, Angel after Season 2 was brought back from hell, Spike (HeroicSacrifice in the last episode of ''Buffy'', returned as a ghost on ''Series/{{Angel}}''). Many Buffyverse characters were KilledOffForReal, though, sometimes despite efforts to bring them back supernaturally (Joyce Summers and Tara; Whedon did once plan to resurrect the latter). ''Series/{{Angel}}'' also did a LampshadeHanging on this trope in the episode "Shells," in which Angel and Spike talk about how in "their world", dead doesn't always mean dead. The trope is subverted in the same episode, as it's made clear that even though Fred's body is being used by the demon goddess Illyria, Fred can't be brought back by supernatural means as one might expect (the writers did plan on eventually splitting them apart though, had the series not been denied a sixth season).
** Angel's mission in Season 9 of ''Buffy'' is to find a way to resurrect Giles in a world without magic; he comes close. After he and Faith obtain the Crown of Coils, they dig up his coffin to find it empty. Nadira and some other slayers come and she tells him to resurrect a dead slayer, though Angel tells her that he can't. The girls instead go to someone they have heard would be able to do it. It turns out to be Giles.
** The Master does this at least four times. In an early comic (he tries possessing Xander); in the UsefulNotes/{{Xbox}} game (possesses Angel); in the book "Portal Through Time" (really briefly due to a minion monkeying around with time); and the Season 8 comics (the Seed of Wonder brings him back so he can act as its protector).
** One comic story had The Mayor briefly return as a wayward spirit capable of DemonicPossession.

** Becoming an Orphnoch is usually what this trope entails in ''Series/KamenRiderFaiz''. When someone dies, there is a very slim chance that the person will be revived as an Orphnoch.

** ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': This trope is homaged in the Film/{{Flash Gordon|Serial}}-homage holodeck program "The Adventures of Captain Proton!", when Proton runs into henchman Lonzak.
--->'''Lonzak''': Surprised? You thought I'd perished in that den of crocodiles! I SURVIVED! CLINGING to the thought that I would ONE DAY-- ''[Proton zaps him with his raygun]'' Arrrgh!
** Voyager introduced a race known as the Kobali whose entire method of reproduction was basically this: they reanimated the bodies of the dead of other species and converting them physiologically to Kobali. Usually this was an arguable subversion with the new being lacking any memories of their former life but on occasion one could retain substantial memories of their former life. The character featured in the ''Voyager'' episode tried to go back to her life on Voyager, only to eventually realize in the end that she was too changed a person to remain.

*** Ambiguously in Charlie X, after several people wiped out of existence by the titular RealityWarper are brought back.
*** "What Are Little Girls Made Of" has Doctor Roger Korby, a scientist that used Alien Tech to make an android clone of himself as he was dying. The episode ending is ambiguous on this point, as android!Korby commits suicide when he comes to realize he's [[CameBackWrong not the same person his human self was]], and Kirk says later that Roger Korby had already died before they arrived.
*** Bones is killed by a knight in the episode ''Shore Leave'', and brought back by the hyper-advanced aliens that created said knight.
*** In "Return To Tomorrow", Spock is killed ''twice'' (once in spirit, once in body) to ensure the eradication of a malevolent alien that has possessed him, and then returned to life by {{Sufficiently Advanced Alien}}s of the same species.
*** In "By Any Other Name", the aliens can turn people into lifeless cubes of gray chalk, which can be reconstituted -- as long as they stay in one piece.

** ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''. This trope is homaged in the Film/{{Flash Gordon|Serial}}-homage holodeck program "The Adventures of Captain Proton!", when Proton runs into henchman Lonzak.
-->'''Lonzak''': "Surprised? You thought I'd perished in that den of crocodiles! I SURVIVED! CLINGING to the thought that I would ONE DAY ''Arrrgh!''" (''Proton zaps him with his raygun'')

* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': John Winchester (played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan) pulls this off by dying in the Season 2 opener "In My Time of Dying", and then charging out of the gates of hell in the season finale.
** This happens a lot in the show. Mary Winchester makes an appearance in "Home" and "What is and What Should Never Be." Jess also comes back for the latter episode. [[spoiler:Mary comes back FOR REAL in the Season 11 finale, having revived by the Darkness for redeeming her. With this, everyone who posseses the name Winchester has been back.]]

* In the ''Series/TalesFromTheCrypt'' episode "Dig That Cat... He's Real Gone", the main character has a gland from a cat's brain implanted. He then gains the cat's 9 lives, and his benefactor and him do carnival shows where he dies but the gland brings him back. Eventually, he kills his benefactor. Then he goes to perform his final trick. But, after being buried alive in an airtight coffin, with a candle flickering out, he remembers the cat died once to get the gland--so this is his last life and he isn't coming back. Cue screams of panic as the candle goes out.

** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E88TheLastRitesOfJeffMyrtlebank The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank]]", the title character comes back from the dead in the middle of his funeral and demands to know why someone put him in a coffin. Due to the strange changes in his behavior, the townsfolk begin to worry that it was not Jeff that came back but a demon. It is never made clear whether this is the case but he certainly CameBackWrong in some way.
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS4E105ValleyOfTheShadow Valley of the Shadow]]", Philip Redfield's dog Rollie is killed when Philip's car impacts against the InvisibleWall surrounding Peaceful Valley, UsefulNotes/NewMexico. However, he is almost immediately revived and appears none the worse for wear.
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E152MrGarrityAndTheGraves Mr. Garrity and the Graves]]", the peddler Jed Garrity claims that he can resurrect the dead. After performing the resurrection ceremony, he swindles the townspeople of Happiness, UsefulNotes/{{Arizona}} out of their money by promising that he will not bring the people buried in Boot Hill Cemetery back to life since most of them were holding grudges when they died. It turns out that the ceremony had succeeded in resurrecting the dead.

* ''Series/TheUmbrellaAcademy'': [[spoiler:Klaus]] invokes this a lot.

* In the ''Series/TheBrittasEmpire'' episode "[[Recap/TheBrittasEmpireS5E8TheLastDay The Last Day]]", Gordon Brittas is crushed to death by a falling water tank and goes to heaven, but is returned to life on Earth. St Peter considers him too annoying to stay in heaven, but not bad enough to go to hell.

* In ''Series/TheBrittasEmpire'' Gordon Brittas is crushed by a falling water tank and goes to heaven, but is returned to life on Earth. St Peter considers him too annoying to stay in heaven but not bad enough to go to hell.

* Frequently done on {{Soap Opera}}s. Sometimes the audience knows while other characters don't, other times, everyone is clueless. This is typically limited to certain types of deaths -- plane crashes, explosions, drownings etc. There are exceptions though.
** Series/TheBoldAndTheBeautiful: Taylor, who was shot in the chest and clearly died in her husband's arms, yet was resurrected a few years later (this was the ''second'' "death" for the character, her previous one being a typical reversible one in a plane crash).
** Series/DaysOfOurLives: Doctor Rolf, a mad scientist, has a serum that brings people back to life.
** Series/EastEnders: Den Watts was shot dead, only to be brought back years later as a UsefulNotes/{{ratings}} stunt.
** Series/{{Saramandaia}} has Seu Cazuza. When he's stressed, he ends up throwing up his heart. In the first episode, [[ItMakesSenseInContext he dies after swallowing his heart again and it ending up on the wrong side of his body]]. The day of his funeral, there are two political rallies, one of which arrives by surprise, shocking the people carrying the coffin, which falls to the ground and makes Cazuza's heart go back into place, reviving him.

* Several times in ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries''.
** Ambiguously in Charlie X, after several people wiped out of existence by the titular RealityWarper are brought back.
** "What Are Little Girls Made Of" has Doctor Roger Korby, a scientist that used Alien Tech to make an android clone of himself as he was dying. The episode ending is ambiguous on this point, as android!Korby commits suicide when he comes to realize he's [[CameBackWrong not the same person his human self was]], and Kirk says later that Roger Korby had already died before they arrived.
** Bones is killed by a knight in the episode ''Shore Leave'', and brought back by the hyper-advanced aliens that created said knight.
** In "Return To Tomorrow", Spock is killed ''twice'' (once in spirit, once in body) to ensure the eradication of a malevolent alien that has possessed him, and then returned to life by {{Sufficiently Advanced Alien}}s of the same species.
** In "By Any Other Name", the aliens can turn people into lifeless cubes of gray chalk, which can be reconstituted -- as long as they stay in one piece.
* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''. This trope is homaged in the Film/{{Flash Gordon|Serial}}-homage holodeck program "The Adventures of Captain Proton!", when Proton runs into henchman Lonzak.

* In ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', a small percentage of the Trill species carries an extremely long-lived symbiote, which, upon death, is passed to another eligible Trill. This happens to the Dax symbiote in the very first episode of the series, when it is passed from old man Curzon to main to Jadzia and when Jadzia Dax is killed in the sixth season finale, the Dax symbiote comes Back From the Dead as Ezri at the end of the seventh season premiere, thus making them half Back from the Dead, half SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute, with just a hint of TheNthDoctor thrown in for good measure.

*** There's also Dona Candinha, who gets overwhelmed by seeing her long lost love and dies, but gets revived by her great-granddaughter's [[SwissArmyTears tears]]

** Series/{{Saramandaia}} has Seu Cazuza, when stressed, ends up throwing up his heart. In the first episode, [[ItMakesSenseInContext he dies after swallowing his heart again and it ending up on the wrong side of his body]]. The day of his funeral, there are two political rallies, one of which arrives by surprise, shocking the people carrying the coffin, which falls to the ground and makes Cazuza's heart go back into place, reviving him.

** Series/Saramandaia has Seu Cazuza, when stressed, ends up throwing up his heart. In the first episode, [[ItMakesSenseInContext he dies after swallowing his heart again and it ending up on the wrong side of his body]]. The day of his funeral, there are two political rallies, one of which arrives by surprise, shocking the people carrying the coffin, which falls to the ground and makes Cazuza's heart go back into place, reviving him.

** Bobby Singer dies in the finale of Season 5, but is revived before the end of the episode by Castiel. The second time he dies he's officially KilledOffForReal, but given his status as a FanFavourite the writers managed to keep him involved for most ofthe rest of the season, and have still managed to include him in every season since, in his various afterlives, flashbacks, or even alternate universes.

** Both Monica Reyes and Scully are pronounced brain dead at different points in the series, only to emerge from their respective comas healthy.