History Main / RegularCaller

* Short lived Creator/KirstieAlley & Creator/GregEvigan series, Masquerade was sort of a Series/MissionImpossible on a budget mixed with Series/TheLoveBoat. A CIA type agency had all its agents exposed so the head of the agency would have the stars recruit a new team of civilians with relevant talents played by a group of guest stars.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Llanargollen}}'', detective duo Prys and Ceri are always called on OnceAnEpisode to solve a mystery in their village. "There's a mystery to solve, and that's no lie; Call the detectives, before things go awry!"

* In ''WalterMelon'', being called to adventure happens once or twice every episode. The "protagonist", Walter Melon, an out of shape, far from brilliant "hero for hire" is usually called on the phone by a very poorly disguised pastiche of the actual protagonist from a movie or TV series when they cannot finish their adventure themselves, and hired to do it in their stead. He accepts all major credit cards.

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* "[[VideoGame/{{Touhou}} Reimu]], you must investigate the scarlet mist!" "Reimu, you must investigate why SpringIsLate!" "Reimu, you must investigate the false moon!"...and so on. Justified, since [[BrilliantButLazy if it's not for Yukari's (or Marisa's) once-per-episode urging, Reimu will never do her job]]. It's AllThereInTheManual, though.

* ''Series/CharliesAngels''. "Good morning, Angels!"
* ''Series/MissionImpossible''. "Good morning, Mr. Phelps."
* ''Series/{{UFO}}''. SHADO sprang into action whenever SID (Space Intruder Detector) detected a FlyingSaucer approaching from space.

* Series/{{Danger 5}} are briefed by the eagle-headed Colonel, who for some unknown reason insists on bullying IceQueen Claire as a RunningGag.

The MagneticPlotDevice can overlap with the RegularCaller, however the Magnetic Plot Device is usually just an in [[TheVerse universe]] justification for the RegularCaller. The BatSignal is one specific kind of RegularCaller. Compare ProphecyPileup, when this happens with prophecies related to a ChosenOne.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' has the team being called by the mayor and a phone with a flashing red light going off.

* In the Silver Age, {{Superman}} often received a CallToAdventure in the form of Jimmy Olsen's signal watch. That, or Perry White would send him to investigate something as Clark Kent.

* ''WesternAnimation/FilmationsGhostbusters'', the original LiveActionTV version : "Good afternoon, Ghost Busters. This is Mr. Zero..."

* ''WesternAnimation/SuperFriends'' (1973-74). The title heroes were called into action by either (a) an emergency signal from the [=TroubAlert=] computer, (b) a message from Colonel Wilcox or (c) both.

* In the ''Literature/EternalChampion'' stories, Ekrose (a.k.a. Elric) is always called to a different war on a different world, only getting some measure of peace for a short period of time.

* As mentioned above, the Bat-Signal is a classic example.

* In [[OnceAnEpisode every single episode]] of ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'', Perry the Platupus (aka Agent P) gets orders from Major Monogram to investigate the suspicious activities of Dr. Doofenshmirtz.

* In ''SamAndMax'' and its various adaptations, every case is preceded by a call from the mysterious Commissioner.

* ''Series/PersonOfInterest'': the team is sent the Social Security Number of either a victim or a perpetrator of an upcoming violent crime. [[spoiler: In Season 2, this trope is revealed to be literal: the Machine uses payphones to relay the numbers.]]

* In ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'', Kyubey is insistent to the point of being annoying on the whole 'Sign a contract with me and become magical girls' thing. Even when the girls are witnessing horrifying and traumatic things happening to those who decided to sign such contracts!
** More like ''especially'' when the girls are witnessing horrifying/traumatic things. Kyubey has a knack for calling at the most manipulative times, when the girls are most vulnerable to his offer.
** Quoting the character sheet: "[[{{Metaphorgotten}} The call is on reversed charges, though.]] ''[[DealWithTheDevil With international call prices]]''."
** It should be noted that all the contracts made by Kyubey over the course of the series are done [[spoiler:as part of a plan to get Madoka, [[TheChosenOne the greatest source of anti-entropy energy in the universe]], to make a contract.]] It is unlikely that he is '''always''' this insistent, since under normal circumstances, when someone initially refuses his offer, it would be much more time-efficient for Kyubey to just find someone more gullible.

* A famous example lies within the ''Franchise/Mario'' series, in which Mario frequently finds his self rescuing Princess Peach from the vicious King Bowser.

* In ''WesternAnimation/Phineas&Ferb'', Phineas finds himself asking "Hey, where's Perry?" near the beginning of nearly every episode, after which it cuts to the pet platypus (under the secret agent name "Agent P") receiving a mission from Major Monogram to stop the evil Dr. Doofenschmirtz, who has usually been found trying to build another [[ThingOMatic -inator device]] fueled by his troubled childhood in order to take over the Tri-State Area.

* Every time the alarm goes off on ''WesternAnimation/TimeSquad''.

** Quoting the character sheet: "[[{{Metaphorgotten}} The call is on reversed charges, though.]] ''[[DealWithTheDevil With]] [[BreakTheCutie international]] [[ManipulativeBastard call]] [[DespairEventHorizon prices]]''."

* ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum'' and ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity'' features Oracle, Batman's Mission Control who he contacts on a frequent basis, but the real caller is Joker in Arkham City. Brutally deconstructed when it turns out that calling Batman so frequently is part of his (somewhat successful) plan, [[spoiler: because by intentionally giving away hints and playing on Batman's detective mind, he actually succeeds at "[hiding] something from the World's Greatest Detective" by making the truth look like it was too easy to guess to be the logical answer, "dangling it in front of him, right under his big pointy nose", and so Batman failed to realize in time that Joker had a REALLY hammy decoy. The result is that Talia was grievously, maybe even Lazarus-can't-save-them fatally, wounded - and so was Joker.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/SuperFriends'' (1973). The title heroes were called into action by either (a) an emergency signal from the [=TroubAlert=] computer, (b) a message from Colonel Wilcox or (c) both.

* In the ''EternalChampion'' stories, Ekrose (a.k.a. Elric) is always called to a different war on a different world, only getting some measure of peace for a short period of time.

* In ''WearingTheCape'', Crisis Aid and Intervention Heroes (the setting's city superteams) aren't patrolling freelance crimefighters. Instead they are special services contractors tied into a city's emergency-response department, and most of Hope/Astra's action-scenes start with a summons from Dispatch.
* Michael from the ''KnightAndRogueSeries'' finds one grand adventure (a.k.a. some crime to investigate) per book.

* VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum and VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity features Oracle, Batman's Mission Control who he contacts on a frequent basis, but the real caller is Joker in Arkham City. Brutally deconstructed when it turns out that calling Batman so frequently is part of his (somewhat successful) plan, [[spoiler: because by intentionally giving away hints and playing on Batman's detective mind, he actually succeeds at "[hiding] something from the World's Greatest Detective" by making the truth look like it was too easy to guess to be the logical answer, "dangling it in front of him, right under his big pointy nose", and so Batman failed to realize in time that Joker had a REALLY hammy decoy. The result is that Talia was grievously, maybe even Lazarus-can't-save-them fatally, wounded - and so was Joker.]]

* Though it's never stated outright, there are hints that [[spoiler: [[OurGodsAreGreater Indra]]]] in Geoph Essex's ''Jackrabbit Messiah'' is the ''god'' of the Call - right down to a phone call itself being his initial method of prodding the protagonist into the plot!