History ChronicHeroSyndrome / LiveActionTV

** And it works reciprocally as well: House is always there for Wilson, from when they met (at a medical convention when Wilson was a zombie from a failed marriage) to [[spoiler: when Wilson, an oncologist, came down with an [[DeathByIrony ultimately untreatable cancer]]]], to [[spoiler: the series finale, where House fakes his own death rather than go back to prison for six months when Wilson has only five months to live, effectively exchanging the rest of his life for the rest of Wilson's life]].

** Was an InformedAttribute of Trapper. One of Hawkeye's letters home mentions him providing various forms of aid to the local people in exchange for (to them) small consideration (although a gallon of fresh milk was a ''nice'' thing to get). Being the sidekick, he didn't get it shown as much.
** BJ had this as well, although he also had the problem of being the sidekick. He did get an entire episode dedicated to his heroic efforts to help a local family, who fled shelling at the end of the episode. Hawkeye comments at the end that they'll go back to camp, BJ will eat a lousy meal, have a bad night's sleep, and start looking for someone else to help tomorrow. BJ questions this, but Hawkeye affirms it, and BJ agrees he's right.

** We find that it's been going on a long time, too -- both the Syndrome and his being badass enough to act on it. When Reese is in disguise as a police officer, he's asked by the psychologist he's been ordered to see if he was bullied as a child, as that might've led to his 'hero complex.' What is his answer? "There were no bullies at my school. I kept them in line."

* ''Series/{{Primeval}}'': Nick Cutter [[spoiler: runs into a burning building to rescue his wife Helen. Not so unusual, but the building is on fire because she blew it up in an attempt to kill him and everyone else. He saves her after all that, and then she kills him]].

* ''Series/{{Riverdale}}'': This is Archie's FatalFlaw. He's been seen as the town's golden boy and protector, to the point where he literally can't stop playing the hero, even when people tell him not to. This is also repeatedly used against him by Hiram and Percival.

* ''Series/TheUmbrellaAcademy'': After being shot back in time to the 1960s, Diego is determined to make the most of his situation and save President JFK from being assassinated. Despite being locked up in a mental institution, almost dying, and being told by Five (who's a lot more familiar with time travel than anyone else in the family) that trying to alter the timeline is a ''bad'' idea, his inferiority complex coming from always being number two drives him to extreme measures to prove his heroism.

** In "Ariel" Simon, who until becoming a fugitive with his sister was a brilliant surgeon, goes to save a dying man while in the middle of the heist in a busy hospital, paying no mind to the risks of recognition and capture. He has a "save lives first, ask questions later" mentality that he also displays in "Bushwhacked" and "Safe". You can see him visibly suppressing it in the pilot when he [[spoiler:refuses to treat Kaylee unless Mal runs]]. He would have helped that man regardless of whether River was screaming or not.
* ''Series/TheFugitive'': Dr. Richard Kimble could probably have done a better job of hiding from the law if he hadn't constantly insinuated himself into strangers' problems. But of course, he invariably saved the day, one way or another.
* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': Despite the fact that taking Yunkai is tactically difficult and completely unnecessary, Daenerys puts her dream of conquering Westeros on hold indefinitely while she conducts a prolonged SlaveLiberation in Slaver's Bay. She even passes up several opportunities to parlay her conquests there into gold and ships to take her to Westeros in exchange for leaving the Masters of the city be. On the other hand, freeing the slaves gives her the loyalty of her subjects (which is more than can be said of any of the other Westerosi leaders -- except perhaps for the Greyjoys -- after the Red Wedding), gives her some pretty good PR, and a source of ready volunteers, so perhaps it balances out. Later, she has the perfect chance to sack King's Landing with her forces after the death of Joffrey and the running down of the War of the Five Kings; all sides except for hers are exhausted and vulnerable. But Dany won't abandon her new subjects in the East until slavery is abolished. And there ''are'' pragmatist concerns from Jorah that the Kingdoms are so divided thanks to the civil conflict that a victory at the capital would be ultimately meaningless. Even after completing her campaign, she passes on a chance to strike Westeros in favour of staying to consolidate her social reforms.

* In ''Series/TwentyFour'', where do we find Jack at the beginning of "Live Another Day?" Despite everything he's been through, everything he's lost, and the fact that the authorities (and the Russians) would still love to see him in a cell, we find him trying to stop another terrorist threat, working in secret with some others, and he resurfaces when he needs the authorities' help to do it. It's not been his job in ages, it's not been in his best interests in longer... but Jack just can't stop knowing bad guys are still out there. It's not like one of his old {{Big Bad}}s resurfaced; he ''has'' to watch for trouble and take action when it shows up; it's just who he is.
* ''Series/{{Andromeda}}'': Being an idealist from a more idealistic time dropped into a Crapsack Universe, Dylan Hunt often suffers from this. Much to the annoyance of his more cynical/pragmatic crewmates.
-->'''Tyr Anasazi:''' I trust Dylan to be Dylan. When the universe collapses and dies, there will be three survivors: Tyr Anasazi, the cockroaches... and Dylan Hunt, trying to ''save'' the cockroaches.

* ''Series/BabylonFive'': Dr. Franklin, despite having a full staff at his disposal, pushes himself to treat as many patients as possible to the point that he becomes dangerously addicted to stims in an effort to keep going. [[spoiler: SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome when his addiction begins to impact patient care.]]
* ''Series/BeingHumanUK'': Despite being a CuteGhostGirl [[TheDitz occasional ditz]], Annie winds up saving people a number of times. She saves the humans that the vampires were using as a food supply, and [[spoiler:saves Mitchell and George from their assailant at the end of the second series. She doesn't even care that whoever is in charge of the afterlife is angry at her for doing so, she wants to make sure her friends are safe]]. A slightly less impressive (but still valid) moment would be when she and [[NonActionGuy George]] go to save Mitchell from the vampires, using a lot of screaming and flailing to take down one vampire.

* ''Series/BlueBloods'': InvokedTrope by Erin Reagan, who warned Jamie that an awful lot of cops are like this and end up [[ShellShockedVeteran breaking themselves]] and that his personality made him especially vulnerable to it.

** The Doctor, the Doctor, dear GOD the Doctor. And boy, do they suffer for it. Again and again and again, in every single [[TheNthDoctor reincarnation]].
*** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E12ClosingTime When]] the Eleventh Doctor [[spoiler:thinks he's destined to die soon]] he decides to give up his heroism, [[spoiler:devoting his last remaining days to himself]], but he's really bad at it. When he realises people need help, he walks towards the TARDIS, repeatedly reminding himself it's not his problem. As soon as he reaches the door, he turns around and heads off to save the world. Realising that being a hero is [[spoiler:what really made his life worthwhile]].

*** Douglas Adams came up with an idea for a script tentatively called "The Doctor Retires" which would have been about the (Fourth) Doctor attempting to retire from travelling but constantly being baited back into heroics. It was popular with the production team, [[WhatCouldHaveBeen but vetoed by the producer]], who saw it as mocking the premise of the show, and instead Adams bashed out "Shada" in four days. Steven Moffat has often expressed his interest in "The Doctor Retires" as being a brilliant concept and used it as the basis for his episode [[Recap/DoctorWho2012CSTheSnowmen "The Snowmen"]] (as well as using minor elements of the concept and concepts from "Shada" in [[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor "The Day of the Doctor"]]).
*** Ten's Chronic Hero Syndrome gets the better of him with ''very'' bad consequences in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E16TheWatersOfMars "The Waters of Mars"]]. The destruction of Bowie Base One with all hands is a fixed point in time, so the right thing to do when he finds himself there on the day it blows up is to leave immediately. He tries to do just that, but Captain Adelaide, suspicious of him, forces him to stay long enough that his heroic instincts get to him at the absolute worst time, with time nearly being broken as a result.
*** The Twelfth Doctor reaffirming his commitment to this trope despite the possibility/inevitability of problematic aftermaths to his rescues is key to his actions in Series 9 and 10. His first companion Clara Oswald also adopts this trope as she becomes, effectively, his DistaffCounterpart -- which leads her to a tragic fate in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E10FaceTheRaven "Face the Raven"]], the first episode of the three-part Series 9 finale. Making matters worse, the events of that episode are tied into a secondary arc involving the aftermath of the Doctor holding himself to the mark in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E5TheGirlWhoDied "The Girl Who Died"]]. Upon losing Clara and having ''more'' miseries heaped on him besides, he has a FreakOut, and in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E12HellBent "Hell Bent"]] two episodes later is at the DespairEventHorizon, acting purely out of rage, anguish, and self-interest. He gets better, but it's a painful road back to goodness. The following season's [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E5Oxygen "Oxygen"]] ends with him [[spoiler:blinded]] as a result of him not turning back from a distress call even though his companions would rather he focus on their own safety and his duty to guard the mysterious Vault. They have to stop him from making a HeroicSacrifice a few episodes later in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E10TheEatersOfLight "The Eaters of Light"]] so ''others'' can make it in his stead, because his issues back "home" with the Vault can't be dealt with by others. He turns his attention to those... and it goes very, '''very''' badly for everyone over the course of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E11WorldEnoughAndTime "World Enough and Time"]]/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E12TheDoctorFalls "The Doctor Falls"]], the SeasonFinale lead-in to his GrandFinale. By the end of the latter he's firmly ready to die for good instead of regenerating, adjusting to a new self, and falling into this trope yet again... only for others to remind him in [[Recap/DoctorWho2017CSTwiceUponATime "Twice Upon a Time"]] that he '''really is that badly needed by the universe.''' He eventually relents and becomes Thirteen.

---->"I'm the Doctor. When people need help, I never refuse."
** The [[CoolSpaceship TARDIS]] herself could also qualify since she's an intelligent machine who always seems to plunk the Doctor down exactly when and where he's needed most, whether he wants to be there or not. This is exactly what she does in [[Recap/DoctorWho2017CSTwiceUponATime "Twice Upon a Time"]], Twelve's final episode (see above), and in the denouement, she even tells him that the universe will "get it all wrong" without him -- a sentiment he agrees with.

*** A particularly extreme example of this is Ian Chesterton, who is incapable of leaving anyone suffering alone, no matter how much it involves screwing himself over to do it or how much it's somebody else's problem. The other TARDIS travellers moan at him about this tendency, too, especially Barbara. Just a couple of more extreme examples: [[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E8TheReignOfTerror "The Reign of Terror"]] shows him getting sidetracked saving an English spy when Barbara and Susan are going to be guillotined and the Doctor, his only hope of returning to his own time, is missing. In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E1PlanetOfGiants "Planet of Giants"]], he spurs everyone into bringing justice to a murder he witnessed, even though they've all been shrunk to an inch tall thanks to a TARDIS malfunction and Barbara is poisoned.
*** Donna and the Tenth Doctor spend most of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E2TheFiresOfPompeii "The Fires of Pompeii"]] bickering about what to do about the fate of the people there -- he insists that it's a fixed point in history, and they can't do anything to stop it. She feels that they should save at least ''one'' person. [[spoiler:She finally convinces him to save a family of four.]] And down the line, [[spoiler:remembering this incident subconsciously will give the ''Twelfth'' Doctor the patriarch's face as a reminder of what he exists to be -- a man who saves people]].

* A defining trait of [[TheHero protagonist]] ''Franchise/KamenRider'' is the need to help the helpless and protect the defenseless. Naturally, the villains [[WoundedGazelleGambit exploit]] [[GoodJobBreakingItHero every]] so [[UnwittingPawn often]].
** Notably, Eiji of ''Series/KamenRiderOOO'' and Ikki of ''Series/KamenRiderRevice'' have cases of the syndrome so bad that they're actively portrayed as unhealthy. The former is a completely broken individual whose ability to use the supposedly dangerous and corruptive OOO Driver is directly tied to the fact that ''he has no desire for himself beyond "the power to help people"'', [[spoiler:something that happened after he was caught in a bombing run while doing charity work in the Middle East]]. The latter may cheerfully call himself "Japan's Number One Busybody", but his tendancy to shoulder other people's troubles whether they want it or not has serious consequences, with both of his siblings developing severe second-banana complexes (especially his younger brother Daiji, whose eventually manifesting [[EnemyWithin inner demon]] is primarily characterized by his ''raw hatred'' of everything Ikki stands for). When a villain outright tells him that he's clearly helping people to satisfy his own ego rather than actual selflessness, [[HeroicBSOD he is visibly shaken for quite a while]].

* ''Series/{{Merlin|2008}}'':
** From the BBC series of the same name to the point that it becomes a joke in [[http://tinyurl.com/2dfhuru The Torch Online's]] Facebook-style recap of episode 2x9:

* Special Agent Dwayne Pride from ''Series/NCISNewOrleans'' has this mixed with a rather unhealthy dose of ItsAllMyFault and latent daddy issues: [[spoiler: his father was a notorious criminal and he, therefore, feels personally responsible for helping as many people as possible to make up for his father's sins]]. This tends to get worse when someone does actively blame him for something. Fortunately, his competence and sheer determination give him a relatively high success rate.

* ''Series/ObiWanKenobi'': The Grand Inquisitor suggests that this is the key weakness of the Jedi that allows the Inquisitors to hunt them -- the Jedi Code and their own compassion will lead them to help others, allowing the Inquisitors to find them.
** And indeed the Inquisitors are able to flush a Jedi out of hiding simply by attacking an innocent bystander.

* ''Series/{{Poirot}}'':
** Played with in the series' adaptation of ''Literature/MurderOnTheOrientExpress'', a woman is being stoned for being pregnant with another man's baby. Poirot tells a distraught woman that it's ''their'' laws. It comes to bite him in the ass later in the episode when the question of "What is justice" is brought up.

* ''Series/StargateSG1'':
** Inherited from the [[Film/{{Stargate}} original film]], Daniel Jackson was this which often put him at odds with the more pragmatic Jack O'Neill. Initially, Samantha Carter was given a feminist-oriented aspect of this which the writers quickly realised wasn't going to work for the show. As the series developed (and went down a drama to drama-with-comedy to comedy-with-drama route) the feminism angle was dropped from Sam, Daniel was given character development to give him a more pragmatic edge, and this trope became less relevant. At one point, however, it did essentially apply to the entire SG-1 team with different characters encouraging the team to "do the noble thing" in different episodes.

* ''Franchise/StarTrek'': Many Starfleet captains habitually encourage their crews or the alien of the week that it's sometimes okay to break a rule or two in order to do what's right.
** ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'' presents this as Michael Burnham's FatalFlaw during the second season. Multiple characters, primarily Spock and Georgiou, accuse Burnham of choosing to take all of the universe's burdens upon her shoulders because it's easier than dealing with her own grief over the losses she's suffered in her life.
*** This doesn't seem to sink in with her until the third season premier. After being drugged, she realizes with a tinge of horror that they were right about her hero complex, and that she is reflexively supportive as a means of overcompensation for all the aforementioned grief and loss.

* ''Film/BlackLightning2009'': When Dima's dad sees a robber, he jumps out of the car and runs to punch him, and tries to force him to apologize to the lady. Dima is annoyed by his lack of self-preservation.

* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'': Read Superman's description in the comics section, raise the {{Angst}} UpToEleven, and you have his Smallville character. Chloe once asked Clark if he was afraid that if Lana learned self-defense then she wouldn't need a knight in shining armor to keep rescuing her from Smallville's dangers. He thinks he has to rescue her and everyone else too.