History Main / BeleagueredChildhoodFriend

Someone enters the door of the law office -- it's a childhood friend, and he's accused of murder. The childhood friend goes out to dinner with the protagonist, and they think back to the good ol' days when they used to chase girls, play on the slip and slide, and smoke out in the tree house together.

The main character is determined not to let his Childhood Friend take the fall, and does everything in his power to help out the Friend (usually, in law shows, with the help of UnconventionalCourtroomTactics). Usually he succeeds.

* ''Anime/KnightHunters'' provides a variant with an assassin instead of a lawyer: not only is target Koichiro Kase 100% guilty of the crime of the week, he's also 100% guilty for the gambling scandal that ruined Ken's soccer career ''and'' attempted to burn him to death. And shot him. Kase is a really, ''really'' bad friend.

* In ''Film/TheThirdMan'', Holly Martins spends most of the film trying to prove his dead friend's innocence of the bad name he garnered selling diluted penicillin in post WWII Vienna, [[spoiler: only to discover at the end that his friend (still alive after faking his death), did actually sell the bad drugs to make a profit.]]

* In ''Literature/GuardsGuards'', Vimes's childhood friend, (or at least fellow member of the street gang the Cockbill Street Roaring Lads) Lupin Wonse gets seriously beleaguered when he becomes the personal assistant to a dragon. Vimes realizes that [[spoiler:he summoned the damn thing in the first place]]. Of course, he wasn't a friend so much as the guy him and his friends picked on. He had implicitly been Vimes' ObstructiveBureaucrat rival for a while and didn't really come to him for help at any point.
* In ''Literature/TheRegenerationTrilogy'', Prior becomes a double agent of sorts--he's working for the Ministry of Munitions during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI to apprehend pacifists, while trying to shelter a family of pacifists he had known as a child. His unique position looks like it could be very useful for helping his friends, and even getting one of them out of jail. [[spoiler:It doesn't end well.]]

* An episode of ''Series/TheOrville'' has Gordon reunite with Orrin, an old friend from his academy days. However, Orrin has just escaped from Krill custody at a time when the Union is trying to align with them against the Kaylon, putting Gordon at a great dilemma of whether to help the man who saved his life long ago flee, or turn him in for the current greater good.

* In ''Series/ThirdWatch'', this character type was subverted slightly, as Bobby's drug addicted best friend ended up shooting him (Bobby) dead despite Bobby's efforts to help him.

[[folder: Anime ]]

* ''Anime/WeissKreuz'' provides a variant with an assassin instead of a lawyer: not only is target Koichiro Kase 100% guilty of the crime of the week, he's also 100% guilty for the gambling scandal that ruined Ken's soccer career ''and'' attempted to burn him to death. And shot him. Kase is a really, ''really'' bad friend.

[[folder: Film ]]

* Messala from ''[[Film/BenHur1959 Ben-Hur]]'' is a classic example of this. He's Judah's childhood friend, just returned to the area, and even appears to have a thing for Judah's sister. Then he betrays them all.
** He's not beleaguered, he was gone for a while, but he's come back to town as a tribune. He wants Judah to help him, but he's not in trouble himself.
* Twisted in ''Film/TheFugitive'', the protagonist Dr. Kimble is the Beleaguered Childhood Friend. [[spoiler: It turns out Dr. Charles Nichols, the "stable fiend" was somewhat of a BrokenPedestal.]]
* In ''Film/TheThirdMan'', Holly Martins spends most of the film trying to prove his dead friend's innocence of the bad name he garnered selling diluted penicillin in post WWII Vienna, [[spoiler: only to discover at the end that his friend (still alive after faking his death), did actually sell the bad drugs to make a profit.]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* In the Creator/OHenry story ''After Twenty Years'', [[spoiler: two friends meeting for the first time after twenty years apart are a policeman and a criminal. The police officer, not recognized by his friend, gets a plainclothes detective to pose as him and apprehend the criminal since he can't bear to do it himself.]]
* In ''Literature/GuardsGuards'', Vimes's childhood friend, (or at least fellow member of the streetgang The Cockbill Street Roaring Lads) Lupin Wonse gets seriously beleaguered when he becomes the personal assistant to a dragon. Vimes realises [[spoiler: he summoned the damn thing in the first place]].
** Of course he wasn't a friend so much as the guy him and his friends picked on. He had implicitly been Vimes' ObstructiveBureaucrat rival for a while and didn't really come to him for help at any point.

* Subverted in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' when [[spoiler: Elaine Mallory reenters Harry's life and asks for help unraveling a faerie fracas. She]] appears to betray him, but leaves him a way out only he would know, allowing him to save the world just in the nick of time.
* In ''Literature/TheRegenerationTrilogy'', Prior becomes a double agent of sorts--he's working for the Ministry of Munitions during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI to apprehend pacifists, while trying to shelter a family of pacifists he had known as a child. His unique position looks like it could be very useful for helping his friends, and even getting one of them out of jail. [[spoiler: It doesn't end well.]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* ''Series/ThePractice'' has at least one such episode (usually a 2-3 parter) per season.
* Various ''[[Franchise/StarTrek Star Treks]]'' also would have a fellow from the Starfleet Academy (often an old buddy of the captain's) come in and need desperate help.
* In ''Series/ThirdWatch'', this character type was subverted slightly, as Bobby's drug addicted best friend ended up shooting him (Bobby) dead despite Bobby's efforts to help him.
* An episode of ''Series/TheOrville'' has Gordon reunite with Orrin, an old friend from his academy days. However, Orrin has just escaped from Krill custody at a time when the Union is trying to align with them against the Kaylon, putting Gordon at a great dilemna of whether to help the man who saved his life long ago flee, or turn him in for the current greater good.

* Subverted in the ''Series/BabylonFive'' episode "Knives", where an old friend of Londo's comes seeking aid as he is about to be (falsely) declared a traitor to the Centauri Republic. In truth, he wants Londo to kill him in a ritualistic duel which requires the victor to adopt the loser's family into his own, since a conviction of treason would result in execution and the confiscation of everything the convict owns, leaving any surviving family destitute.
* This starts the plot of ''Series/{{Chuck}}'', with the twist that Chuck isn't particularly fond of his former roommate and friend for a very good reason.
** And subverted when [[spoiler: it turns out Bryce has had Chuck's best interest in mind all along.]]
* Not childhood, but this happened a number of times on ''Series/{{Highlander}}: The Series'' where an old immortal friend of Duncan's would show up, reminisce some, and then turn out to have either gone bad since Duncan last saw them or to have always been a little bit rotten after all.

* An episode of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', "Lie to Me", involved an old friend of Buffy's named Ford offering Buffy up as a trade to Spike for Ford's becoming a vampire. There was an attempt by Ford to make Buffy understand why he was doing this (he was dying of cancer) but Buffy explained to him that it doesn't make what he was trying to do right. She does try to convince him to save himself (and the others he was bringing with him) but he doesn't listen.
* Not quite childhood friends, but you can pretty much lay money on the fact that every time an old friend of one of main characters on ''Series/LawAndOrder'' or its spin-offs shows up, they'll be involved in the crime of the week and guilty as sin.
* An old war comrade of Leo [=McGarry=]'s turns out to be one of these in ''Series/TheWestWing''.
** And a friend of Toby's comes in asking for whistleblower protection when what he really wants/needs is immunity.
* One episode of ''Series/MidsomerMurders'' ends with Jones [[spoiler:discovers not only that his ex-cop friend was guilty, but that he'd committed murder when he was ten ([[NeverFoundTheBody or so he thought]]).]]
* ''Series/PieInTheSky'', "In the Smoke": Henry Crabbe and Nick Spencer were friends as rookie policemen, then their paths diverged. Henry helps Nick out when he gets in a jam, and there's some philosophizing about the different paths their lives have taken.
* ''Series/ThePinkertons'' episode "The Sweet Science" plays this completely straight with detective Kate Warne and [[spoiler:her childhood friend Henry Fox, who's now a crooked pugilist]].

* ''Series/MiamiVice'': On many occasions, the detectives are approached by an old friend who has gotten themselves in trouble. Often the trouble involves illegal activities on the friend's part. It usually ends badly.

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* In ''Franchise/StarWars: VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', your party comes across an old and strongly respected friend of Jolee Bindo (the mentor of the party), who has been accused of murder and asks for your aid in clearing his name. [[spoiler: In a twist, he's guilty but ostensibly on your side (his victim was a spy for the enemy faction) presenting the player with a nice moral dilemma in a game where the dark side seems to be almost all [[KickTheDog random pointless thuggery]] otherwise.]]

[[folder: Visual Novels ]]

* In the first case of ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'', Wright's old friend Larry Butz is the defendant, although in this case the childhood friend really ''is'' innocent.
** And later, [[spoiler:Edgeworth, who was also Phoenix's childhood friend, has become cold and dedicated to always getting a guilty verdict in his prosecution. Wright ends up defending him, as well.]]
*** [[spoiler: And in this case, Edgeworth really was innocent too, of BOTH crimes, even though he himself thought he was guilty of the second one.]]

[[folder: Web Original]]
* In Season 1 of ''Podcast/WithinTheWires'' the beleaguered friend is the unwilling patient of a research hospital, trapped and struggling to find a way out while listening to its mandatory curriculum of "Relaxation Cassettes." By the time "Cassette #4: Sadness, Lungs" is received, the patient rediscovers a childhood companion who offers further aid in escaping [[spoiler: The Cassettes' Narrator herself, who reveals that she's offering this help purely because of remembering their prior relationship.]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'' immediately sets out to find (and exonerate) his childhood friend Lucas Troy after Troy is accused of treason. Turns out Archer is WrongGenreSavvy and Troy [[spoiler: did commit the crimes so he could have enough money to elope with Archer.]]

The main character is determined not to let his Childhood Friend take the fall, and does everything in his power to help out the Friend (usually, in law shows, with the help of a CourtroomAntic). Usually he succeeds.