History DysfunctionJunction / LiveActionTV

* The Sallinger family on ''PartyOfFive''. It really is a wonder that none of them picked up on being {{Cosmic Plaything}}s to a FinaglesLaw obsessed writer.

* ''{{Smallville}}''. Notably, the mothers of most main characters are dead before the series.

* ''Series/{{Lost}}''. The majority of characters have issues with their fathers, stepfathers, fathers-in-law, or other father figures (the exceptions being Shannon and Ana Lucia, who hate their stepmother and mother, respectively). Not to mention various other dysfunctionalities. It's saying something when the ''former Iraqi torturer'' is the most level-headed person on the island. One of the earliest episodes is even titled "All the Best Cowboys have Daddy Issues."

* Two words: ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Reimagined}}''. Anyone who wasn't depressed, delusional, suicidal, emotionally repressed, alcoholic, unlucky in love, and/or really really pissed off at both their parents and the world ''before'' the Cylons attacked... sure as hell is now.

*** Of course, they have the Screwed Up Past: Athena was a spy ordered to con a human into getting her pregnant, only to fall for the guy and become a traitor to her own people, while Helo was the aforementioned con victim who discovered his love interest/flight partner was not only a spy, but not even the same individual he'd originally known, who was also a spy.

*** The fact that Helo remains a level-headed family man in spite of all the shit he has to deal with brings new meaning the phrase "BadassNormal."

* ''Series/ColdCase'': Lilly Rush's father left her and her younger sister Christina in the 'care' of their alcoholic mother Ellen, who ended up drinking herself to death the same day her daughter got shot almost to death on the job. Christina grew up to be a seductress (even sleeping with Lilly's fiance) and a scam artist, who dayed Lilly's partner Scotty Valens and then ran out the moment a police officer from NYC came to Philadelphia to arrest her. Not to mention what happened to her as a child...

* ''InPlainSight'': The lead character, Mary, is a US Marshal in the witness protection program. During the pilot, she narrates how good she is at solving other people's problems but not her own. Her father abandoned his family to evade the police when she was a child, and she's been taking care of her alcoholic mother and chronically irresponsible sister ever since. During the course of the series, [[spoiler:the sister ends up involved in a drug deal gone bad.]] Even Mary's [[{{UST}} sorta-boyfriend]] is a minor-league baseball player who can't make it to the big leagues, and he's pretty much the most normal character in the immediate family. With the exception of Mary's coworkers, everyone else in the show is messed-up, even the ''witnesses under protection''.

** And even ''he'' has a couple of episodes where it's implied that his family is somewhat dysfunctional, although nothing compared to the other characters'.

* ESPN's short-lived ''Playmakers'' series featured a football team where seemingly every player had at least one major dysfunction, including drug addiction, marital abusive, steroid abuse, closet homosexuality and inevitable rabid homobphobia, adultery all over the place, a player suffering near-debilitating guilt for having paralyzed an opponent and just about anything else you could think of to some extent. It's amazing they had time to play any football.

** Charlie Young's father is conspicuously absent. And on that note, Charlie's mother [[spoiler: was killed in the line of duty.]]

** Daniel Jackson: Saw his parents die when he was eight. Lived in foster care, failed at every romantic relationship, before joining the SGC basically because he had nowhere else to go. Stayed behind with his wife on an alien planet for a year before she was kidnapped and taken over by creepy evil aliens. And that's just his backstory.

** Teal'c: Hell-bent on getting revenge for his father's murder. Also grew up in slavery to an evil guy. (Same evil guy who kidnapped Daniel's wife. He was a ''really'' evil guy). Abandoned the love of his life when she joined a temple, and had to leave his wife and son behind when he went off to start a revolution.

*** Note that Stargate doesn't delve all ''that'' much into the dark sides of the character's pasts, though you know it's there.

* ''NipTuck'': Christian Troy's mother was raped by his father and then given up for adoption. The adoptive father sexually abused Christian. Sean [=McNamara=]'s father was abusive towards Sean because he had a cleft lip. Dad left the family when mom secretly paid to have Sean's lip fixed. Sean's ex-wife Julia slept with Christian on the eve of their wedding and became pregnant with Matt. Sean believed that Matt was his son until a DNA test revealed that Christian was his biological father. Julia's mother Erica was emotionally abusive and negelected Julia for pretty much all of her life. Sean and Julia's daughter Annie is pretty much ignored by both of her parents and eats her hair out of stress. Youngest son Conor has lobster claw hands, Matt married Christian's ex-fiancee, porn star Kimber and had a baby with her. Kimber and Matt got hooked on meth. Matt's done some really crazy shit, but most recently he turned to a life of crime while ''dressed as a mime'' and is now in prison, having just killed his prison husband. Liz Cruz seemed to be above all the crazy, but she married Christian at the end of season 5 and divorced in the first episode of season 6. Even Christian's adopted son Wilbur has some dysfunction. His mother Gina met Christian at a sexaholics meeting and his biologial father was part of an orgy that Gina hosted. It looks like Nurse Linda is the only same person at the asylum that is [=McNamara=]/Troy.

* In ''Series/{{Community}}'''s group, pretty much everyone's banged up emotionally, resulting in the Spanish study group being a substitute family for most of them. (Britta says as much early on)

** Abby discovers she's been adopted and her (dead) parents never told her. Not to mention her, and the team in general's, inability to have functional out-of-work friendships or romantic relationships, and a tendency to seek a subsitute family in their coworkers. Congratulations, NCIS writers. You've officially given the entire field team, and now Abby too, issues with their parents. Just . . . at a loss for words.

* ''Series/MyNameIsEarl'': Pretty much every resident of Camden County

** LexLuthor probably has it worst. His mother [[spoiler:murdered his younger brother]]. She soon died afterwards. And he is [[{{Understatement}} definitely not on friendly terms]] with his father. [[spoiler:Both him and his father are {{Self Made Orphan}}s.]]

** Kurt Hummels mother died when he was eight, and Kurt was bullied horribly for his sexuallity in high school. *it gets a lot worse for him season 2*

** LexLuthor probably has it worst. His mother [[spoiler:murdered his younger brother]]. She soon died afterwards. And he is [[{{Understatement}} definitely not on friendly terms]] with his father. [[spoiler:Both him and his father are {{Self Made Orphan}]s.]]

** LexLuthor probably has it worst. His mother [[spoiler:murdered his younger brother]]. She soon died afterwards. And he is [[{{Understatement}} definitely not on friendly terms]] with his father.

* The press release for BBC's upcoming comedy series ''Blandings'' humorously described Literature/BlandingsCastle with the trope name. If the original series by PGWodehouse is anything to go by, it will be much, ''much'' [[LighterAndSofter more lighthearted in tone]] than the rest of the examples on this page. The general idea could still apply, though; Lord Emsworth is [[ForgetfulJones alarmingly forgetful]] and [[CloudCuckoolander constantly in his own world]], his son Freddie is very much TheUnfavorite, his secretary Baxter is [[ProperlyParanoid severely (though not unjustifiably) paranoid]], [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and their butler has severe joint pain]]. All of this is PlayedForLaughs.

* The press release for BBC's upcoming comedy series ''Blandings'' humorously described Literature/BlandingsCastle with the trope name. If the original series by PGWodehouse is anything to go by, it will be much, ''much'' [[LighterAndSofter more lighthearted in tone]] than the rest of the examples on this page. The general idea could still apply, though; Lord Emsworth is [[ForgetfulJones alarmingly forgetful]] and [[CloudCuckoolander constantly in his own world]], his son Freddie is very much TheUnfavorite, and his secretary Baxter is [[ProperlyParanoid severely (though not unjustifiably) paranoid]]. All of this is PlayedForLaughs.

* The press release for BBC's upcoming comedy series ''Blandings'' humorously described Literature/BlandingsCastle with the trope name. If the original series by PGWodehouse is anything to go by, it will be much, ''much'' [[LighterAndSofter more lighthearted in tone]] than the rest of the examples on this page. The general idea could still apply, though; Lord Emsworth is [[ForgetfulJones alarmingly forgetful]] and [[CloudCuckoolander constantly in his own world]], his son Freddie is very much TheUnfavorite, and his secretary Baxter is [[ProperlyParanoid severely (though not unjustifiably) paranoid]].

* The cast of HigherGround, which is set in a therapeutic boarding school.

* ''Series/{{Stargate SG-1}}'' Shall we make a list?

** Chloe Sullivan's mother ended up in a mental institution and [[spoiler:both mother and daughter has psychosis-inducing meteor infection. Her father is hinted to have died after ''Gone'' and before ''Instinct'']].

** Chloe Sullivan's mother ended up in a mental institution and [[spoiler:both mother and daughter has psychosis-inducing meteor infection]].

* ''{{Smallville}}''. Notably, the mothers of most main characters (or all of those listed except Chloe) are dead before the series.

* Kept at a relatively realistic degree in ''{{Smallville}}''.

** LoisLane's army general father is not very nice. [[spoiler:She also has a [[ManipulativeBitch manipulative]], backstabbing sister.]]

* ''Series/PrisonBreak'' has a metric buttload of this. But then, it's kinda necessary to justify why all these people would be dumb/crazy enough to get caught up in the series' main story arc. Some of the kickers are [[CompleteMonster child rapist and murderer]] T-Bag, who was sexually abused by ''his'' father and forced to memorise the thesaurus, or Mahone, who [[spoiler:literally went insane while chasing a fugitive, got hooked on the meds he used to stay sane, caught and then murdered the fugitive in cold blood and was blackmailed by the villains into becoming their assassin]].

** Not to mention revelations made during the series that actually make previous dysfunctions seem even worse, like Michael and Lincoln discovering [[spoiler:not one, but ''both'' their parents worked for the villains, including their long-dead mother who isn't really dead]].

* ''Series/ThirtyRock'': Almost every NBC employee, but ''especially'' the cast and crew of [[ShowWithinAShow TGS]]. Also [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] when Jack is putting together a reality show for Tracy's wife, Angie.

** Nate was an honest man before the insurance company he worked for as an investigator rejected the policy on his son's health coverage causing him to die. As a result of this, he becomes JustLikeRobinHood.

** ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}'' is certainly in this vein. There's a whole episode dedicated to proving that Sierra doesn't really belong in the house until she's [[spoiler: murdered her rapist!]]

** Parker is the most broken of the main cast. She grew up in the foster care system without ever knowing her family, apart from her brother who died at a young age. After being caught for car theft when she was 12, she trained under the greatest thief in the world as a teenager who kept her away from his real family. To top it off, WordfGod indicates that she also has UsefulNotes/AspergerSyndrome, meaning that she never really fits in in social situations. She also may have killed her last foster parents (the episode doesn't show if they were inside their house when she blew it up), but it's clear that the father in that household was [[AbusiveParents abusive]].

->"This is a show about broken people. All of them are quite alone, some involuntarily, some by their own hand, some without realizing it, but none of them come to the study room table with the emotional advantages held by that mythical creature known as ‘a normal person.’ There are no normal people, there are just different kinds of weird, all of it is human and all humanity is better than everything inhuman."

** Nate was an honest man before the insurance company he worked as an investigator rejected the policy on his son's health coverage causing him to die. As a result of this, he becomes a robin hood.
** No one actually knows who Sophie really is as she is a grifter who is constantly living in new identities.

** Parker is the most broken of the main cast, grew up on in the system without ever knowing her family apart from her brother who died at a young age. After being caught for car theft when she was 12, she trained under the greatest thief in the world as a teenager who kept her away from his real family. To top it off she also has AspergerSyndrome meaning that she never really fits in in social situations. She also may have killed her last foster parents.
** Hardison is the only member of the main cast that seems to be relatively normal as the PlayfulHacker.

** ''{{Eastenders}}''.

* In the TV show ''MalcolmInTheMiddle'' the entire family is dysfunctional. In one episode he discovers a "normal" family and starts spending all his time there as the kids' babysitter, enjoying the "normalcy". Until [[spoiler: he discovers that they were using a video camera to spy on him (something that is actually considered ok by many when it comes to child care) and he decides that although his family is dysfunctional, they are honest with him.]]

* ''{{Scrubs}}''. For a comedy, most of the show's characters are pretty messed up whether it be in their backstory, personality, or both. Turk is probably the most normal and well-adjusted of the lot.

* ''PrisonBreak'' has a metric buttload of this. But then, it's kinda necessary to justify why all these people would be dumb/crazy enough to get caught up in the series' main story arc. Some of the kickers are [[CompleteMonster child rapist and murderer]] T-Bag, who was sexually abused by ''his'' father and forced to memorise the thesaurus, or Mahone, who [[spoiler:literally went insane while chasing a fugitive, got hooked on the meds he used to stay sane, caught and then murdered the fugitive in cold blood and was blackmailed by the villains into becoming their assassin]].

* The whole point of ''{{Titus}}'' (and the stand-up it was based on) was Christopher's supremely dysfunctional family, especially his manic-depressive schizophrenic mother and his hard-drinking/chronic-marrying/wussy-hating father. "Hey, once you've driven your drunk father to mom's parole hearing, what else is there?"

** To expand:
*** Ned: Watched his mother die. Twice. Accidentally killed his childhood sweetheart's father. Got sent by his neglectful father to a boarding school. [[spoiler: Upon solving his first "case", was mistaken for a murderer and sent to jail. When he was ''ten''.]] Can't touch his girlfriend.
*** Chuck: Her father died when she was eight. She went to live with her aunts, [[spoiler: one of which actually was her biological mother.]] Upon seeking liberty from her reclusion, got killed in a cruise.
*** Olive: Grew up as a LonelyRichKid. [[spoiler: Was once accidentally kidnapped by two thieves who were very kind to her... and got sent to jail by the Snooks unjustly. Kept for years an oath about the murder of her jockey friend.]]
*** Emerson: BornDetective trained from infancy in the art of crook-catching by his own mother. [[spoiler: Fell in love with - and was promptly swindled by - grifter Lila Robinson, who prevented him from seeing his own daughter for about nine years.]]
*** Lily and Vivian: Two [[SiblingYinYang quite different]] siblings who were prevented from pursuing a career in synchronized swimming by their social phobias. [[spoiler: Lily fell in love with Vivian's fiance, Charles, and had a child with him. Upon finding out, Vivian was not exactly pleased.]]
* The two main characters of ''{{Bones}}'' are a woman whose [[ChekhovMIA parents disappeared]] when she was a teen, and a man with an abusive and alcoholic father. Upon learning that Dr. Sweets had been whipped as a child:

* ''BurnNotice'' : This seems to be a common trope for spy shows. As Michael notes a bad childhood is a good preparation for a life as a spy. You don't miss home, you don't trust easily and you're used to violence.

* ''TheWestWing'' is an unusual case; everyone on the cast has father issues, but very few mommy problems.

** Charlie Young's father is conspicuously absent.
*** And on that note, Charlie's mother [[spoiler: was killed in the line of duty.]]
** And finally, Josh's father was actually very supportive of his son and by all accounts a good guy - [[spoiler: until he died.]]
*** Josh gets to substitute daddy issues for a literal DeadLittleSister.
* ''{{Stargate SG-1}}'' Shall we make a list?

* While the original ''Series/LawAndOrder'' largely avoids this, both ''[[LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit SVU]]'' and ''[[LawAndOrderCriminalIntent Criminal Intent]]'' slid into this trope over the years, to the point where one suspects that the detectives had been read their 'Nielsen Rights': "You have the right to Drama; if you waive this right, anything you ''don't'' say can and will be used against you in the Court of Public Opinion. You have the right to a dysfunctional family; if you have no family problems, one will be invented for you...". Prime examples in these series:

* In {{ER}}, a lot of the patients are this and most of the doctors/nurses too.

* No one from ''{{Oz}}'' escapes this trope, not even the people who aren't prisoners.

* Everyone in ''MadMen''. Or at least, all of the characters who are married.

* ''Series/{{NCIS}}'':

* The ''ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'' gang is messed up to the point of absurdity, giving the show much of its hilarity.
* MyNameIsEarl: Pretty much every resident of Camden County
* ''TheMentalist''. Every single member of the team has a DarkAndTroubledPast, and Jane is also, frankly, [[DefectiveDetective mentally unstable]].
* [[ThirtyRock 30 Rock]]: Almost every NBC employee, but ''especially'' the cast and crew of [[ShowWithinAShow TGS]]. Also [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] when Jack is putting together a reality show for Tracy's wife, Angie.

* ''TheMentalist''. Every single member of the team has a DarkAndTroubledPast, and Jane is also, frankly, [[DefectiveDetective mentally unstable]].