History LaserGuidedAmnesia / LiveActionTV

* ''Series/LoisAndClark'':
** Averted in one episode, where a woman uses Jimmy to power her age-reducing machine, and after he manages to run away says that it disrupts short-term memory -- so the boy will come home and will wonder how he got there. That's precisely what happens; the next day, Jimmy has no clear memories of a couple hours both sides of the incident.

* Happens OncePerEpisode in ''Series/KCUndercover''. Since the Coopers are an undercover BadassFamily, they have a special "memory spray" used to make anyone forget their secret. [[SecretKeeper Marissa]], K.C.'s best friend, is only exempt from forgetting thanks to K.C tricking her parents.

* Played straight on ''Series/{{Tracker}}''. Cole is shocked by his collector device due to an instability, and loses all memory of who and what he is, until Mel helps him restore it.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS4E105ValleyOfTheShadow Valley of the Shadow]]", Dorn, the mayor of Peaceful Valley, UsefulNotes/NewMexico, studies the town's laws and discovers that there is [[TakeAThirdOption an alternative]] to executing Philip Redfield or forcing him to remain in Peaceful Valley. His memory of everything that happened to him during his visit is wiped. He is left with nothing more than a sense of ''deja vu''.

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'':

* On ''Series/{{Grimm}}'' Adalind's attack on Juliette at the end of the first season completely erases all of Juliette's memories of Nick. She remembers everything else that happened to her but Nick and all things directly related to him have been edited out of all those memories, even in cases such as Monroe who she explicitly met through his friendship with Nick.

** Sinclair's memories of what happened to him during the Battle of the Line [[spoiler:were erased by the Minbari after they captured and interrogated him.]]
** Artificially induced amnesia is also used on criminals (called the "DeathOfPersonality", the closest thing [=EarthGov=] has to the death penalty), wiping their mind and reprogramming them to be upstanding, law-abiding citizens. First referenced in the episode "[[Recap/BabylonFiveS01E21TheQualityOfMercy The Quality of Mercy]]", and features in the later episode "[[Recap/BabylonFiveS03E04PassingThroughGethsemane Passing Through Gethsemane]]".

* ''Series/DontLookDeeper'': Aisha's therapist deletes (though not permanently) all her recent memories of discovering she's an android after Aisha reveals it.

** A justified example with the Doctor, who, being a hologram, is a computer program. In "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS5E11LatentImage Latent Image]]", when an experience ends up nearly causing [[LogicBomb a cascade failure (i.e., total collapse of AI personality)]], Janeway has his memories of the experience wiped, as well as all the logs. All crewmembers are ordered never to mention it to the Doctor. However, he later starts finding clues, such as a stitch of his own invention that he applied to Harry Kim during this event, or a picture of a crewmember he doesn't recognize. This nearly leads to another cascade failure. After Seven of Nine argues that [[GrewBeyondTheirProgramming this incident happened because he's grown beyond his original programming]], [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman he deserves the power to deal with the perils of personhood]], Janeway decides to restore the memories, allowing him to make peace with himself.

** A justified example with the Doctor, who, being a hologram, is a computer program. In "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS5E11LatentImage Latent Image]]", when an experience ends up nearly causing a cascade failure (i.e., total collapse of AI personality), Janeway has his memories of the experience wiped, as well as all the logs. All crewmembers are ordered never to mention it to the Doctor. However, he later starts finding clues, such as a stitch of his own invention that he applied to Harry Kim during this event, or a picture of a crewmember he doesn't recognize. This nearly leads to another cascade failure.

* On ''Series/{{Grimm}}'' [[spoiler: Juliet]] loses all memories of Nick. She remembers everything else that happened to her but Nick and all things directly related to him have been edited out of all those memories.

* ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'' has several memory-altering and memory-erasing entities in order to maintain the {{Masquerade}} (i.e., the Cleaners and memory dust). These methods aren't used very often because, as Leo explains, they often ''aren't'' that laser-guided and you might erase something else (appointments, birthdays etc.) by accident.

* In ''Series/DansUneGalaxiePresDeChezVous'' it happens to the ship's crew a few times but gets taken to extremes when an [[AlienPhlebotinum alien device]] gradually strips away Bob, Flavien, and the Captain's memories until they're reduced into mindless vegetables. Good thing the process is reversible...

* ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' did a good episode about anterograde amnesia caused by alien parasites. T'Pol had to tell Archer the whole story again each day for years. Good thing for Vulcan patience.

** Artificially induced amnesia is also used on criminals (called the "Death of Personality", the closest thing [=EarthGov=] has to the death penalty), wiping their mind and reprogramming them to be upstanding, law-abiding citizens. First referenced in the episode "The Quality of Mercy", and features in the later episode "Passing Through Gethsemane".

** In the episode "Thanks for the memories" the crew lose their memory of the past four days and try to figure out what happened. [[spoiler: It turns out that Lister's "deathday present" to Rimmer of the memory of one of his past relationships didn't work out well, and they all voluntarily erased their memories.]]
** In another episode [[SapientShip Holly]] asked Lister to erase the works of Creator/AgathaChristie from his memory banks so he could read them again. HilarityEnsues when immediately afterward Holly is confused as to why Lister just erased his memories of someone he's never heard of.

** Episode "Requiem for Methuselah". Spock uses the Vulcan Mind Meld to remove Kirk's memories of Rayna Kapek to relieve his grief over her death. Perhaps because it's one of the rare instances when Kirk seems truly and deeply affected by the loss (and you get the feeling Spock -- at best -- has the ability to ease Kirk's pain somewhat, rather than perform a truly Laser Guided procedure). As for [[HoYay other interpretations]] of the scene: well, those are inevitable...
** See also the episode "The Paradise Syndrome", where Kirk's memory is zapped by an alien device, to later be restored by a mind-meld with Spock.

** Episode "Conundrum". The ''entire crew'' suffers from LaserGuidedAmnesia, forgetting who they are, but not their skills. Only the audience knows that the first officer is out of place. This effect is intentional, though, as part of an alien plot.
** In a similar episode, "Clues", the entire crew realizes after an unexplained wormhole jump that they are missing one day of memory. Subtle hints suggest that Data knows more about what was going on, but all of the clues lead to a real conspiracy theory. [[spoiler:The ''Enterprise'' had encountered extremely xenophobic aliens who did not want their existence known. To end hostilities, Picard allowed their memories of that day to be wiped. Data, the only one unaffected by the process, was commanded never to reveal what happened.]]

** A two-part episode, "Workforce", was based on this. Almost the entire crew was captured by aliens and put to work on some planet after having their memories scrambled.
--->'''[[http://docohobigfinish.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/voyager-season-seven.html Doc Oho]]''' ''If you were going to wipe Seven’s mind and give her a job, then an Efficiency Monitor is just about the perfect fit! Tuvok is a riotous sort of fellow who belly laughs when he [[DontExplainTheJoke spots the logic in jokes]]! Can’t we just stay on this planet? These are genuinely more likable versions of all of the regular characters!''
** In another episode, some Hirogen capture the ship, suppress almost everyone's memories, implant false memories, and hunt the crew through a variety of holodeck simulations.
** A justified example with the Doctor, who, being a hologram, is a computer program. When an experience ends up nearly causing a cascade failure (i.e. total collapse of AI personality), Janeway has his memories of the experience wiped, as well as all the logs. All crewmembers are ordered never to mention it to the Doctor. However, he later starts finding clues, such as a stitch of his own invention that he applied to Harry Kim during this event, or a picture of a crewmember he doesn't recognize. This nearly leads to another cascade failure.
** "Unforgettable". The humanoid Ramura race give off a pheromone that has an odd effect on other beings. A few hours after the Ramura leaves their presence, the other being completely forgets ever having met them.

** In "[[Recap/TheXFilesS02E08OneBreath One Breath]]" when Scully first returns after her abduction, she doesn't remember anything that happened while she was gone.
** In "[[Recap/TheXFilesS04E23Demons Demons]]" Mulder [[YouWakeUpInARoom wakes up in a hotel room]] with blood on his clothes and no memory of how he got there.

* In ''Series/MahouSentaiMagiranger'', a MonsterOfTheWeek puts a spell on TheChick, causing her to forget not only the plot she'd stumbled upon but ''everything'' to happen since she became a Ranger. Every hour, all new memories are erased, too. Thanks to the broad amnesia, nobody suspects that the intent was to erase ''one specific memory''. Still this trope, since the cutoff point for her memories seems pretty precise.

* The amnesia pills used in the British TV series ''Series/{{UFO}}''.
** Used with a twist in one episode, in which a woman who wants to kill her husband gets the amnesia treatment after killing a UFO pilot instead - but the amnesia doesn't affect her desire to kill her husband, and SHADO can't interfere without revealing their secrets.

** The purple clouds appear not just to reset time but also wipe out memories of people caught in the wake. Larry leaves a message to himself to remember before managing to block the effects, but ally Jennifer completely forgets their time together, despite a note to herself.

* ''Series/{{Severance}}'' is set at the Lumon company, where employees receive special surgeries to make them unable to remember their home lives while at work and vice versa.

** In the post-series comics, we learn that during his time in London, Giles cast a spell to bind a demon, but it required him to lose the memory of one of the happiest days in his life. That day was the day he fell in love with Jenny Calendar, leaving him with a heartache that he felt would never go away, even though he had no idea what the memory was about.

** Regular humans instantly forget that Glory and Ben have a shared existence, though over time the spell weakened, and even from the beginning, it didn't work on non-humans such as Spike.

* ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'' has several memory-altering and memory-erasing entities in order to maintain the {{Masquerade}} (i.e., the Cleaners and memory dust).