History BunnyEarsLawyer / LiveActionTV

* [[PickACard Pick]] a ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' character. '''''Any''''' Scrubs character. And yet, they're all excellent doctors. Except for Dr Murphy, who is merely an excellent clinical pathologist on account of accidentally killing so many patients.

* Neatly subverted on ''Series/ThisIsWonderland'', where no quirk is harmless. One mild example, Elliot Sacks, started out with long hair and a mildly scruffy appearance, but later went through an identity crisis that had him coming to work dressed in a different style every day. Apparently the only person who could get away with [[CourtroomAntic that sort of behaviour]] was ''Judge'' Maxwell Frasier, who wore running shoes into court, loudly complained of boredom and hunger, sang while other people were talking, and would occasionally scream.

** The page quote describes Lionel Tribbey, the White House Counsel, who spends much of his first episode wandering the White House and threatening people with a cricket bat. Which he got as a gift from UsefulNotes/HMTheQueen.

** Cuddy mentions at one point that the hospital actually has an annual budget which is basically "House is getting sued" funds, the justification being that House, while being a complete asshole loose cannon, is such a damn good doctor that the hospital doesn't really care that he apparently is threatened with legal action on a fairly regular basis. Just to drive it home, she points out that despite all his assholing and loose cannoning and blowing up MRI machines and smacking patients in the gut with his cane and all manner of other abuses... this fund is ''under budget''. So, either the budget is huge, or [[ArsonMurderAndLifesaving House's brilliance and the fact that he saves lives means that his patients rarely resort to legal action.]]

* Saul Goodman of ''Series/BreakingBad'' and ''Series/BetterCallSaul'' is one who's actually a lawyer: the cheesy ads, dotty persona, silly name, and general shyster vibe all make him seem hugely untrustworthy. However, he's extremely competent and very loyal to his clients. Some of this is suggested to be ObfuscatingStupidity, as his goofy nature keeps him BeneathNotice.

* River Tam from ''{{Series/Firefly}}'' is insane and a little [[AxeCrazy knife-happy]] at times. Half of the reason she has a bunk on the good ship ''Serenity'' is Mal's tendency toward HonorBeforeReason, but the ''other'' half is because of those exceptionally useful PsychicPowers she has. Well and her pilot skills, but only after Wash’s untimely movie death.

* The closest comparison to Jason Peters from the original ''Series/LawAndOrder'' is Randall J. Dworken. He makes Jack work hard through a liberal use of tapdancing and oafish charm. Dworken is introduced by objecting to 'the people of the state of New York vs. his client' because he is certain that the twelve jurors seem reasonable people. The character reappears in ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' with a similarly bizarre set of arguments.

* [=LAPD=] Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson of ''Series/TheCloser'' had her boyfriend move back out to avoid the fallout with her mom, is constantly breaking off dates to work on a case, is quite possibly the most insecure character on network television, will cheerfully [[LyingToThePerp lie to suspects]], is generally caustic to anyone she doesn't like, and never takes no for an answer. She is also a brilliant detective who manages to close virtually every case to come her way... [[TitleDrop hence the show title]]. Chief Pope sums it up:

* Spencer from ''Series/ICarly'' is an almost literal example. He spent only three days in law school, but in several episodes, most notably "iPromote Techfoots", he put what he learned in those three days to good use. In

* River Tam from ''{{Series/Firefly}}'' is insane and a little [[AxeCrazy knife-happy]] at times. Half of the reason she has a bunk on the good ship ''Serenity'' is Mal's tendency toward HonorBeforeReason, but the ''other'' half is because of those exceptionally useful PsychicPowers she has.

* Detective Charlie Crews of NBC's ''Series/{{Life}}'' who turned to zen Buddhist philosophy after his wrongful imprisonment. Or at least, "Zen-ish" philosophy. Imprisonment left him with a number of quirks, including a complete hatred of furniture, a love of fresh fruit and a slowness to grasp some modern-day technology (usually because it wasn't widespread before he went inside), and yet he keeps his job as a detective. It helps that he's given a certain amount of leeway because he was already wrongfully convicted.

* ''Series/KamenRiderBuild'' is another show with a cast full of these. You've got a genius (and unapologetically egotistical) theoretical physicist who frequently gets distracted when he's on the cusp of a new discovery, a HotBlooded former prize fighter who's skilled at fighting but BookDumb, a potato farmer and cook who's also an unapologetic idol fanatic, and a [[HeelFaceTurn former villain]] with a preference for {{Fun T Shirt}}s who dresses like a RummageSaleReject.

** In fact, nearly the entire main cast of ''Series/BostonLegal'', as well as ''Series/LALaw''.

** Pierce Hawthorne is a [[RacistGrandpa racist, homophobic,]] [[DirtyOldMan sexist, perverted,]] [[CloudCuckooLander loony]] old {{Jerkass}} bordering on PsychopathicManChild, but he has proved on rare occasions to be a competent businessman, even better than his father. That didn't stop his company from firing him after [[spoiler: his father's death]].

* Detective Dan Stark from ''Series/TheGoodGuys'' is a fantastic 1981 cop turned BunnyEarsLawyer due to not progressing with the times. Despite this, he still proves himself a fantastic, if unorthodox cop, [[spoiler: uncovering and solving major crimes while handling minor ones. He even once managed to cuff himself to the pimp/murderer while being choked out from behind]].

* The Soup Nazi on ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}''. He treats his customers ridiculously harshly, but his soup is so good they willingly submit to his regime rather than go without it, thus his business is safe. (At least until Elaine steals his recipes.)
** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soup_Kitchen_International Loosely based on true events,]] mind you.
** Don't ever call the real one a "Soup Nazi", though; he's Jewish.
** The real one was actually a justified example -- his soup was so popular, especially in winter, and his shop was so small that lines would be around the block in a New York winter, so he did everything he could to keep the line moving to stop people freezing outside. This meant forbidding anything that wasted time.

* Don Konkey of ''{{Series/Dirt}}'' is a functioning schizophrenic with a tendency to skip his meds, but it doesn't stop him from being a very talented photographer, and might at times be seen as an asset, as it results in a reckless disregard for his own safety which makes him willing to go to frankly insane lengths in order to get a difficult shot. Would've gone AxCrazy at the end of the first season if he had listened to his hallucinations.

* ''{{Series/Community}}''

* Elsbeth Tascioni of ''Series/{{The Good Wife}}'' is by far the biggest one in the show. She is quirky, somewhat overactive and does several things that makes her be seen as weird to her peers (she constantly gets lost in tangents, talks and makes questions to herself, her notes are indecipherable even to Kalinda and at one point, she switched the table in her office for a treadmill), but Alicia, Will and Diane all hold her in very high regard, Alicia even calling her one of the most brilliant lawyers she ever met.

* ''Series/MadMen:''

* ''Series/{{Merlin 2008}}'' plays with the trope. Merlin is a horrible servant, his primary job, but his secondary job, providing support for Arthur, is so good that Arthur can't bear to fire him despite the fact that Arthur thinks he's a complete {{Cloudcuckoolander}}. Further played with because, while no one knows it, Merlin is an extremely badass and smart self-appointed CourtMage, and has saved Camelot and Arthur multiple times without anyone knowing.

* John Amsterdam of ''Series/NewAmsterdam'' has lived for over 400 years, but no one on the police force he works with knows. Because, every so often, a case is solved because, say, Amsterdam knows a underground club because it was a speakeasy during Prohibition, everyone treats him like a BunnyEarsLawyer who thinks he's 400 years old.

* ''Series/{{Probe}}'': Austin is a genius, holding enough patents and royalties from his inventions that he founded Serendip without any investment help. He's also socially awkward, callous, and, by self-admission, mildly schizophrenic. It becomes Mickey's job to [[GirlFriday manage Austin's quirks so that he remains a net benefit to his own company]].

* ''{{Series/Sherlock}}:'' Sherlock definitely. Self-proclaimed high-functioning sociopath, does weird things to solve mysteries, and keeps a skull. John's [[UnfazedEveryman not freaked out by him]], but is definitely [[OnlySaneMan NORMAL in comparison to the guy.]]

* Arguably all three presenters on ''Series/TopGear'', but the best case can be made for their masked, perpetually silent, possibly [[RidiculouslyHumanRobot non-human]] "[[BadassDriver tame racing driver]]," The Stig.

* Peter Lattimer from ''Series/{{Warehouse 13}}'' is a manchild and not very book smart compared to the people he works with, but he has good crime-solving instincts, is physically fit and even has low level psychic ability.

* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' had Reginald Barclay, played by Creator/DwightSchultz, who was shy and insecure, had a tendency to stutter, was fearful of being transported, had a holo-addiction problem, and was a hypochondriac. He also saved some lives and the ship at least once. He returned as a recurring guest character in ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': his brilliance and scientific insight led to Starfleet finding and establish transgalactic communications with Voyager, though he remained as hopelessly neurotic as ever (initially, the stress of the project and his sympathy for the stranded crew actually made him ''worse'').
** Many other crew members have their own quirks. Riker is a notorious womanizer, Geordie is rather socially awkward, Worf is always trying to live up to what Klingons want outsiders to think about their culture, Data has no emotions, and initially had no understanding of common metaphors or social skills. Despite these, they are the best crew Starfleet has.

** Chuck himself qualifies too, but in his spy career, not his computer repair career. The Intersect gave him encyclopedic knowledge of espionage and international conflict, and the Intersect 2.0 gave him basically any skill that could be useful to a spy in short bursts (such as marksmanship and almost every martial art and language). He'd be a perfect TuxedoAndMartini spy if not for being a TechnicalPacifist and [[HollywoodNerd very socially awkward]].

* Filippo Brunelleschi ''Series/MediciMastersOfFlorence'' is very much an arrogant and eccentric jerk, and every inch the master architect he believes himself to be.

** Woody the Coronor takes CreepyMortician and CloudCuckooLander up to eleven. He is also vital to solving many of the group's cases, sometimes finding forensic evidence even Shawn wouldn't have been able to deduce.
* Biochemist Bob Melkinov of Canadian hard sci-fi show ''Series/{{Regenesis}}'' is socially awkward due to his Aspergers syndrome, but his off-the-charts IQ and wiki-like brain more than make up for it. An arc where he was considering leaving to work for a perfume company revealed that he also has an extremely well-honed sense of smell.

* Biochemist Bob Melkinov of Canadian [[MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness hard-scifi]] show ''Series/{{Regenesis}}'' is socially awkward due to his Aspergers syndrome, but his off-the-charts IQ and wiki-like brain more than make up for it. An arc where he was considering leaving to work for a perfume company revealed that he also has an extremely well-honed sense of smell.

** Starbuck is a heavy drinker and has serious anger management issues, which results in her punching her executive officer on one occasion. Still, she is kept flying due to her being so damn good at it... when she's not too drunk or hung over for it.
** It may help that she has strong ties with the Adama family, though. And that the good commander seems to have somewhat fatherly feelings for her.
** For that matter, Baltar's actual lawyer at the end of Season 3, Romo Lampkin, is a kleptomaniac who wears sunglasses for almost an entire season and carries his ex-wife's cat around in a bag. He's also an amazing lawyer.