History CoversAlwaysLie / LiveActionTv

** The [[http://static2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20111213132049/tardis/images/f/f7/Japan_The_Daleks_cover.jpg Japanese cover]] of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E2TheDaleks "The Daleks"]]. Not only is it ugly, it's [[CowboyBebopAtHisComputer hideously inaccurate]]. The Daleks couldn't look less like Daleks, it's anyone's guess who that woman is supposed to be or why she's dressed like an air hostess, the artist clearly heard "British Police Telephone box" and assumed it was the same as a British telephone box, and ''what's [[Film/StarWars Darth Vader]] doing there''?

** Most of the time, ''Doctor Who's'' novelization covers were fairly accurate...with exceptions. [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E4TheDalekInvasionOfEarth "The Dalek Invasion of Earth"]], for example, featured a Dalek spaceship and a Roboman, both of whom were taken from ''Film/DaleksInvasionEarth2150AD'', the Peter Cushing movie.

* The British TV movie ''Blunt, The Fourth Man'' was made in 1985. The video was released much later, at least several years after ''The Silence of the Lambs'' (film) came out. Creator/AnthonyHopkins's head and upper torso were prominent on the cover, along with his name in large letters. However, the eponymous Blunt is played by Creator/IanRichardson. Hopkins plays Guy Burgess--the love interest. But then Ian Richardson never played Hannibal Lecter.

* One of the DVD covers for ''Series/RobinHood'' Season One has the outlaws lined up at the bottom of the cover, including Roy and Djaq. In actuality, Roy was dead before Djaq appeared on the show.

** The VHS release of the ''Series/DoctorWho'' story "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E3FrontierInSpace Frontier in Space]]" prominently features a Dalek, even though the Daleks only appear for about two minutes in the last episode.
** The novelisation of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E7TheSpaceMuseum The Space Museum]]" went one better by including a Dalek (albeit small and in the corner) even though, since the novelisation omits the cliffhanger ending, the only Dalek that appears is an empty casing as an exhibit in the museum.
** Most of the time, ''Doctor Who's'' novelization covers were fairly accurate...with exceptions. "The Dalek Invasion of Earth," for example, featured a Dalek spaceship and a Roboman, both of whom were taken from ''Film/DaleksInvasionEarth2150AD'', the Peter Cushing movie.
** The biggest howler comes from Pinnacle Books' [[https://drwhonovels.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/day-of-the-daleks.jpg reprint]] of "Day of the Daleks," features a (very cool) huge spaceship that wouldn't look out of place in ''Franchise/StarWars'', proudly bearing the word UNIT across its surface, UNIT spaceship, a Dalek with pink hemispheres and ''two'' gunsticks, and a which gave us a menacing, Mongol-like thing that's ''supposed'' to be an Ogron.
** The [[http://static2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20111213132049/tardis/images/f/f7/Japan_The_Daleks_cover.jpg Japanese cover of "The Daleks"]]. Not only is it ugly, it's [[CowboyBebopAtHisComputer hideously inaccurate]]. The Daleks couldn't look less like Daleks, it's anyone's guess who that woman is supposed to be or why she's dressed like an air hostess, the artist clearly heard 'British Police Telephone box' and assumed it was the same as a British telephone box, and ''what's [[Film/StarWars Darth Vader]] doing there''?
** The French novelisation of it went for cheap populism - it shows a poorly drawn but accurate First Doctor and some clearly recognisable Daleks, but also gives him the Fourth Doctor's [[IconicItem scarf]] which he most certainly never wore.
* Happens in-universe in ''Series/AsTimeGoesBy'' to Lionel's book, ''My Life In Kenya''. The cover shows Lionel in a pith helmet in front of a luxurious jungle, with a busty blonde woman showing considerable cleavage draping herself over him.
** Lionel even complains during the photo shoot that there weren't even any such luxurious jungles in Kenya and that no one in Kenya wore pith helmets or even the khaki outfit Alistair had him wearing for the cover. Oh, and the story itself was about Lionel's life as a coffee plantation owner, and the woman he was married to was even described as being a thin, angular, severe-looking woman, not a "busty blonde woman", to add one more absurdity to the cover.
* The Season 1 set of ''Series/TheMiddle'' shows the aunts' dog Doris on the front cover with the main characters implying that she belongs to the Heck family.

** [[http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3834158336/tt0187636 Another cover for season four]] just has Crichton surrounded by the attractive female aliens. No sign of D'Argo and Rygel. In fact it can even serve as a false LateArrivalSpoiler suggesting they both die by the end of Season three (in reality Rygel survives the whole series and [[spoiler: D'Argo dies near the very end of The Peacekeeper Wars]].
* The Season 9 set of ''Series/TheXFiles'' prominently features David Duchovny's face, despite the fact that he was in only one episode that season. Or two if you count the brief, imaginary reflection of him in another character's eyeball. Robert Patrick and Annabeth Gish, who were the actual leads that year, are marginalized.
** Speaking of ''The X-Files'', various Rolling Stones and other magazines had amusing 'shipper' covers of David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson in bed or otherwise in suggestive poses, which their agent counterparts were never seen in.
* ''Series/WalkingWithBeasts'' was only ever released in Hungary on a pair of VHS tapes. These featured images and story descriptions for the first two episodes (one tape centered around the episode ''New Dawn'', the second was all about ''Whale Killer''[[note]] although the episode titles printed onto the cases and the cassettes were inconsistent with each other[[/note]]). In reality, the first VHS contained episodes one to three and the first bonus feature, while the second had episodes four to six, as well as the second bonus.
* The DVD of the MiniSeries ''Literature/ToTheEndsOfTheEarth'' features Sam Neill's face largest and in the forefront, and his name and profile on the case spine, even though he plays a very minor character. The real star, Creator/BenedictCumberbatch, is barely noted.
* The cast photo and back cover of ''Series/TwentyFour'' season five prominently features Tony Almeida. [[AdvertisedExtra Although he is technically a member of the main cast]] it feels weird seeing him up there with the other cast members even though he barely has any relevance to the overall arc. Tony doesn't even wear the suit he has on in the photo any point.
* The [[http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/514ZNA060WL._SL500_SS500_.jpg cover]] for the VHS release of the Psycho Rangers arc in ''Series/PowerRangersInSpace'' is only titled by the season name, and it claims to be "An All-New Feature-Length Movie!", when in reality they're just 5 individual episodes that cover one story arc. Nowhere else is it advertised as a movie.
* The ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' [=DVDs=] feature images of ships and characters on the discs themselves. However, they don't match the episodes on that disc.
* The cover for the Season 1 DVD set of ''Series/FamilyMatters'' features a huge portrait of Steve Urkel alongside a much smaller-sized image of the Winslow family. In actuality, Steve only appears in a handful of episodes as a side character and doesn't even make his first appearance until midway through the season.
** Valerie Jones, the actress who played Judy Winslow '''only in the pilot''', is featured on the DVD cover for season 1, instead of Jaimee Foxworth, who played Judy from the second episode onwards.

* The info guide synopses for the first season of ''Series/AngieTribeca'' contain a running thread of the Lieutenant being sick (apparently suffering from bacterial meningitis), with the finale's synopsis claiming that he's "inches away from death". None of this is true in the show.

* ''Series/TalesFromTheCrypt'': The pictures of the Cryptkeeper on each cover are actually taken from an episode from a completely different season than the one the cover is for. For example, the Season 6 cover (Cryptkeeper in bed with a skeleton) is taken from the host segments of the Season 4 episode "None But the Lonely Heart."

* The British TV movie ''Blunt, The Fourth Man'' was made in 1985. The video was released much later, at least several years after ''The Silence of the Lambs'' (film) came out. Anthony Hopkins's head and upper torso were prominent on the cover, along with his name in large letters. However, the eponymous Blunt is played by Ian Richardson. Hopkins plays Guy Burgess--the love interest. But then Ian Richardson never played Hannibal Lecter.

* ''Series/TalesFromTheCrypt'': The pictures of the Cryptkeeper on each cover are actually taken from an episode from a completely different season than the one the cover is for. For example, the Season 6 cover (Cryptkeeper in bed with a skeleton) is taken from the host segments of the Season 4 episode "None But the Lonely Heart."

** ANother version of the Echo ridge DVD covers features the surface of the planet Brunnis-1, which did appear in the show (in the 2nd of the 4 original TV movies), but features armored warriors with BFGs fighting cybernetic robo-insects, which ''might'' tie into the show's backstory but was never depicted in any episode. Also, this Brunnis-1 imagery appears on the cover of Season 4, despite never appearing in Season 4. The cover for the discs with the movies and earlier seasons feature a bunch of spaceships totally unfamiliar to any viewer, and prominently has one of the main characters, Kai, wearing a brown leather duster and carrying a very large sword, but Kai ''never'' wears a duster and ''never'' carries a sword, he has a special wrist-mounted assassin's weapon.

* The VHS release of the ''Series/DoctorWho'' story "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E3FrontierInSpace Frontier in Space]]" prominently features a Dalek, even though the Daleks only appear for about two minutes in the last episode.

** Most of the time, ''Doctor Who's'' novelization covers were fairly accurate...with exceptions. "The Dalek Invasion of Earth," for example, featured a Dalek spaceship and a Roboman, both of whom were taken from ''DaleksInvasionEarth2150AD'', the Peter Cushing movie.
** The biggest howler comes from Pinnacle Books' reprint of "Day of the Daleks," which gave us a menacing, Mongol-like Ogron, and a huge spaceship that wouldn't look out of place in ''StarWars'', proudly bearing the word UNIT across its surface.

* The poster for season 1 of ''GameOfThrones'' shows Ned Stark sitting on the Iron Throne, gripping his sword with a dark, brooding look on his face. It implies he's a driven VillainProtagonist who kills anyone who stands in his way to become king, when really he's one of the few protagonists ''not'' concerned with their own power or glory.

* ''{{Series/Lexx}}'': The Echo Bridge DVD covers not only feature CGI landscapes that don't appear anywhere in the show itself[[labelnote:*]]''though to be fair, given the show's deliberate cheese factor, they make it look much better than it actually does''[[/labelnote]], but the first season cover has Xenia Seeberg on it, an actress who doesn't even appear until season two.

* ''{{Series/Lexx}}'': The Echo Bridge DVD covers not only feature CGI landscapes that don't appear anywhere in the show itself[[labelnote:*]]''though to be fair, given the show's deliberate cheese factor, they give the ''[[/labelnote]], but the first season cover has Xenia Seeberg on it, an actress who doesn't even appear until season two.

* ''Series/Lexx'': The Echo Bridge DVD covers not only feature CGI landscapes that don't appear anywhere in the show itself[[labelnote:''though to be fair, given the show's deliberate cheese factor, they give the ''[[/labelnote]], but the first season cover has Xenia Seeberg on it, an actress who doesn't even appear until season two.

* The info guide synopses for the first season of ''Series/AngieTribeca'' contain a running thread of the Lieutenant being sick (apparently suffering from bacterial meningitis), with the finale's synopsis claiming that he's "inches away from death". None of this is true in the show.

* The poster for season 1 of ''GameOfThrones'' shows Ned Stark sitting on the Iron Throne, gripping his sword with a dark, brooding look on his face. It implies he's a driven VillainProtagonist who kills anyone who stands in his way to become king, when really he's one of the few protagonists ''not'' concerned with their own power or glory.

** The biggest howler comes from Pinnacle Books' reprint of "Day of the Daleks," which gave us a Dalek with ''two'' sink-plungers (!), a menacing, Mongol-like Ogron (!!), and a huge spaceship that wouldn't look out of place in ''StarWars'', proudly bearing the word UNIT across its surface (!!!).

* ''WalkingWithBeasts'' was only ever released in Hungary on a pair of VHS tapes. These featured images and story descriptions for the first two episodes (one tape centered around the episode ''New Dawn'', the second was all about ''Whale Killer''[[note]] although the episode titles printed onto the cases and the cassettes were inconsistent with each other[[/note]]). In reality, the first VHS contained episodes one to three and the first bonus feature, while the second had episodes four to six, as well as the second bonus.

* A light but rather strange example of this is the ''Series/{{Friends}}'' Season 6 DVD set: the insert contains a group photo of the gang at Central Perk that was clearly taken during Season 4. Even more bizarrely, head shots were later cropped from this photo and then used on the ''Season 8'' DVD cover.

* The DVD of the MiniSeries ''ToTheEndsOfTheEarth'' features Sam Neill's face largest and in the forefront, and his name and profile on the case spine, even though he plays a very minor character. The real star, Creator/BenedictCumberbatch, is barely noted.

* The animated adaptation of "Tintin in America" in Nelvana's acclaimed adaptation of Hergé's comic book series Franchise/{{Tintin}} also lies. The cover of the video cassette is the same as the comic book album and depicts Tintin being held captive by Native Americans. In the album itself this indeed happens. In the animated adaptation Tintin is never seen in the presence of any Native American at all, nor being captured by them. Probably in order to avoid some of the racism of the original.

* A light but rather strange example of this is the ''Series/{{Friends}}'' Season 6 DVD set: the insert contains a group photo of the gang at Central Perk that was clearly taken during Season 4. Even more bizarrely, head shots from this photo were later cropped and then used on the ''Season 8'' DVD cover.

* A light but rather strange example of this is the ''Series/{{Friends}}'' Season 6 DVD set: the insert contains a group photo of the gang at Central Perk that was clearly taken during Season 4. Even more bizarrely, head shots from this photo were later used on the ''Season 8'' DVD cover.

* A particularly unusual (although comparably minor) example: The insert for the ''Series/{{Friends}}'' Season 6 DVD set contains a group photo of the gang at Central Perk that was clearly taken during Season 4. Even more bizarrely, head shots from this photo were later used on the ''Season 8'' DVD cover.

* The cover for the Season 1 DVD set of ''Series/FamilyMatters'' features a huge portrait of Steve Urkel alongside a much smaller-sized image of the Winslow family. In actuality, Steve only appears in a handful of episodes as a side character and doesn't even make his first appearance until midway through the season.

* The animated adaptation of "Tintin in America" in Nelvana's acclaimed adaptation of Hergé's comic book series Franchise/{{Tintin}} also lies. The cover of the video cassette is the same as the comic book album and depicts Tintin being held captive by Native Americans. In the album itself this indeed happens. In the animated adaptation Tintin is never seen in the presence of any Native American at all, nor being captured by them. Probably in order to avoid some of the racism of the original.