History ManBehindTheMan / LiveActionTV

** In Season 6, Abu Fayed's superior, General Habib, appears in one episode, but he was already captured by the time we learn about him. Fayed was also the attempted pawn of Dmitri Gredenko, however Gredenko died and Fayed seemed to reclaim his spot as antagonist, but died in the very next episode. Latter a different conspiracy emerged when the Chinese entered the picture, led by Cheng Zi, and they are revealed to be in cahoots with Jack's long lost father Phillip. Phillip and his son Graem were also Logan's co-conspirators in the previous conspiracy, or at least until they were seemingly retconned, as Logan recieved the full blame for it at the start of Season 7.

** [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Juzaburo Namba]] is this for most of the villains in ''Series/KamenRiderBuild''. He funds [[NebulousEvilOrganization Faust]] as a means to conduct underground research, and backs Hokuto and Seito in order to kickstart a CivilWar in Japan so they can profit off of it. And behind ''him'' is [[EnigmaticMinion Blood Stalk]], who is manipulating things in pursuit of his own mysterious agenda.

%%* ''Series/{{Revenge}}'' has [[NebulousEvilOrganization the Americon Initiative]], which seems to play this role to the Graysons' empire.

* ''Series/TheSopranos'': After the death of acting boss Jackie Aprile, Sr. in the first season, Tony allows his Uncle Junior to assume the position of Boss of the DiMeo crime family. Tony reassures the other capos while Junior is largely happy with the prestige that comes with being Boss, Tony was the true head of the family. This arrangement continued until 2006 when Junior's dementia had made him incapable of continuing as Boss, and Tony eventually taking over.

** [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Juzaburo Namba]] is this for most of the villains in ''Series/KamenRiderBuild''. He funds [[NebulousEvilOrganization Faust]] as a means to conduct underground research, and backs Hokuto and Seito in order to kickstart a CivilWar in Japan so they can profit off of it. And behind him is [[EnigmaticMinion Blood Stalk]], who is manipulating things in pursuit of his own mysterious agenda.

** It's revealed in ''Series/ChikyuuSentaiFiveman'' that the leader of the Zone Empire, Galactic Empress Meadow, is actually an illusion created by [[TheDogWasTheMastermind Zone's flagship]], Vulgyre. The real Meadow whom the illusion was based was [[GoodAllAlong never evil]].

%%* ''Series/TheXFiles'': Used frequently over the course, as each echelon of the conspiracy turned out to have a higher one it reported to.

** [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Juzaburo Namba]] is this for most of the villains in ''Series/KamenRiderBuild''. They fund [[NebulousEvilOrganization Faust]] as a means to conduct underground research, and back Hokuto and Seito in order to kickstart a CivilWar in Japan so they can profit off of it. And behind him is [[EnigmaticMinion Blood Stalk]], who is manipulating things in pursuit of his own mysterious agenda.

** ''Series/KamenRiderStronger'': In the final episode, the Great Leader of Delza claims to have been behind all of the previous evil organizations faced by the Kamen Riders, including those with conflicting goals.
** It's eventually revealed in ''Series/KamenRiderExAid'' that the one truly behind the development of ''[[TheMostDangerousVideoGame Kamen Rider Chronicle]]''' is Kuroto Dan's father and the original CEO of Genm Corp, Masamune Dan, and that all of the other villains (including Kuroto) were his pawns in completing it.
** [[MegaCorp Namba Heavy Industries]] are this for most of the villains in ''Series/KamenRiderBuild''. They fund [[NebulousEvilOrganization Faust]] as a means to conduct underground research, and back Hokuto and Seito in order to kickstart a CivilWar in Japan so they can profit off of it. They in turn were really being manipulated by [[EnigmaticMinion Blood Stalk]] in pursuit of his own mysterious agenda.

* ''Series/StrangerThings'': The Demogorgon, the main threat from the [[EldritchLocation Upside Down]] in Season 1 is revealed in Season 2 to have merely been an attack dog of the true threat, [[EldritchAbomination the Mind Flayer]].

** [[MegaCorp Namba Heavy Industries]] are this for most of the villains in ''Series/KamenRiderBuild''. They fund [[NebulousEvilOrganization Faust]] as a means to conduct underground research, and back Hokuto and Seito in order to kickstart a CivilWar in Japan so they can profit off of it. However, their CEO, Juzaburo Namba, is really being manipulated by [[TheManInFrontOfTheMan Blood Stalk]], who's using them in pursuit of his own mysterious agenda.

** ''Series/KamenRiderSaber'' starts off with a pretty big BigBadEnsemble, but it's eventually revealed [[BigBadDuumvirate Isaac and Storious]] were behind all of them in some way. Storious manipulated Kamen Rider Calibur and his partners Legeiel and Zooous, while Isaac was the one giving orders to Reika Shindai and her brother. In addition, the two also seem convinced they're this to their partner and towards the end of the series, the question becomes less ''who'' is The Man Behind The Man and more which is The Man Behind which?

** In ''Series/TaiyouSentaiSunVulcan'', it's revealed in the last few episodes that the leader of Black Magma, [[BigBad Fuhrer Hell Saturn]] was receiving orders from [[BrainInAJar the Omnipotent God]], the deity of the Black Magma cult, all along. The Omnipotent God had previously popped up before in episode 5, but its influence wasn't revealed until towards the end.

** Taken UpToEleven in ''Series/KamenRiderStronger'' when, in the final episode, the Great Leader of Delza claims to have been behind all of the previous evil organizations faced by the Kamen Riders, including those with conflicting goals.

** Subverted in "[[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/DoctorWhoS39E5FluxChapterFiveSurvivorsOfTheFlux Flux: Survivors of the Flux]]", in which [[spoiler:Tecteun]] is revealed to be the creator of the Flux and the BigBad behind apparent BigBadDuumvirate Swarm and Azure... and then Swarm and Azure arrive and kill [[spoiler:her]], regaining their status.

** Nine episodes into ''Series/KamenRiderBuild'', it's revealed that NebulousEvilOrganization Faust and their leader Night Rogue are being backed by [[MegaCorp Nanba Heavy Industries]], who later resurface as the ones backing Seito. And then its revealed that NHI's CEO, Juzaburo Nanba, is an UnwittingPawn of [[TheManInFrontOfTheMan Blood Stalk]], who initially appeared as Night Rogue's DragonWithAnAgenda, but it soon becomes apparent that's he's been using Nanba and pretty much every other antagonist in the show to achieve his goal of [[spoiler:[[OmnicidalManiac annihilating all life on Earth]].]]

** ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}'' is a massive cascade of Man Behind The Man moments: [[DefrostingIceQueen Adelle DeWitt]] in front of Rossum as a whole, then a series of fake out reveals which ultimately give way to the [[ShockingSwerve sudden knowledge]] that Boyd is the real BigBad.

** ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'': The Prime-Time Premiere of the second season reveals that Lord Zedd was Rita's BigBoss, by imprisoning her in another dumpster but he was only the trope to the humans (viewers or in-universe). Zordon and Goldar (and it's implied the same to the other non-humans in the series) already knew Zedd was Rita's "lord and master" and was just too busy conquering other worlds prior to his debut.

%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order.

** In ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' season 6, several [[MonsterOfTheWeek monsters of the week]] were hired or summoned by the Nerds.

** In season 1, Dan and Rick (as well as Mandy and her assistant) were working for Ira Gaines, who himself was hired by the Drazens, while the Drazen brothers were working to bust their thought-dead father out of prison.
** In season 2, Joe Wald was being manipulated by Nina Myers, who was working with Syed Ali, who was sold the nuclear device by Peter Kingsley, who himself was working under orders of Trepkos and Max. Max himself may have been the superior of the German woman talking to Nina at the end of season 1, making him the man behind the woman behind the woman.

** In season 3, Michael Amador and Marcus Alvers were working for Stephen Saunders.

** In season 4, Navi Araz was working for Habib Marwan.
** In season 5, Anton Beresch was working for Ivan Erwich, who was working for Vladimir Bierko, who was working with Christopher Henderson, who was working for President Charles Logan.
** In season 6, Abu Fayed's superior, General Habib, appears in one episode, but he was already captured by the time we learn about him. Fayed was also the attempted pawn of Dmitri Gredenko, however Gredenko died and Fayed seemed to reclaim his spot as antagonist, but died in the very next episode. Latter a different conspiracy emerged when the Chinese entered the picture, led by Cheng Zi, and they are revealed to be in cahoots with Jack's long lost father Phillip. Phillip and his son Graem were also Logan's co-conspirators in the previous conspiracy, or at least until they were seemingly retconned, as Logan recieved the full blame for it at the start of season 7.
** In season 7, it's debatable whether Benjamin Juma's relations with Jonas Hodges count, as Hodges relationship is already stated in Redemption, and it can be interpreted as more of a BigBadDuumvirate than Hodges being Juma's superior. On a far grander and less ambigious scale, even Hodges was merely a member of a [[TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness large cabal headed by Alan Wilson, and Wilson was stated by Tony Almeida to have been The Man Behind The Man to PresidentEvil Charles Logan.]]
** In Season 8 Farhad Hassan and Samir Mehran were the Men Behind the assassination attempt on President Hassan. Meanwhile, Mehran was secretly supported by Russian Minister Mikhail Novakovich, who in turn answered to Russian President Yuri Suvarov who seemed to have undergone a FaceHeelTurn. They are later blackmailed into a new conspiracy, which involved both the US and Russian governments covering up the original conspiracy, signing the peace treaty, and attempting to kill Jack Bauer. The man behind it? None other than Former PresidentEvil Charles Logan.
* ''Series/{{Alias}}'': Throughout Season One, Sydney pursues a character that the show refers to as "The Man". Sure enough, the person they thought was The Man turns out to be TheDragon:

** In the season 3 finale we find out that Vigilance, a group of pro-privacy terrorists, are actually manipulated and controlled by Decima, a group trying to bring their own version of The Machine online. The irony is that Decima's goals are actually everything Vigilance hates and is fighting against.

* ''Series/TwinPeaks'': Although Agent Cooper encounters BOB in season 1 and Windom Earle in season 2, Windom Earle would be The Dragon, while BOB (who is never truly defeated) is the BigBad.

* ''Series/TheWitcher2019'': {{Court mage}}s like Yennefer and Fringilla have the ability to push {{muggle}} rulers in the directions they want by using their position (even aside from using magic).

* ''Series/DayBreak'': The thugs targeting Hopper are commanded by the ominous "Man from the Quarry". We learn his name — Conrad Detweiler — only several episodes later. Then he is heard taking orders from somebody else — Tobias Booth. Who in one episode even executes him for allegedly leaking information to Hopper. But Booth is actually subordinate to Barry Colburn, who is the ultimate leader of the conspiracy. Hopper eventually learns the truth, but Colburn is actually so high up in the criminal chain that all his tracks are covered and Hopper can't do anything about him, so he remains a free man.

** The earliest example of the Daleks being the Man Behind the Man Behind the Man was in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E3FrontierInSpace Frontier in Space]]", in which case they were behind the Master, who was the Man Behind the Man to the Ogrons.

* Creator/JossWhedon: He really likes this trope. Here we go:
** In ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' season 6, several [[MonsterOfTheWeek monsters of the week]] were hired or summoned by the Nerds.
** In ''Series/{{Angel}}'', it's made clear early on that [[CorruptCorporateExecutive corrupt]] MegaCorp Wolfram And Hart is behind many lesser evils of LA, but who is behind ''Wolfram And Hart'' goes through several levels of reveal.
*** Season 1 reveals Holland Manners is behind the former face of W&H Lindsey [=McDonald=].
*** Season 2 shows that W&H is behind the CorruptChurch that rules the dark dimension Pylea, and that true demons (the Senior Partners) are behind the mortal attorneys.
*** Season 4 has a different procession: The Beast (a.k.a. Big Rubber {{Satan}}) is in front of [[DemonicPossession Evil Cordelia]], who is in front of (or rather, actually ''is'') EldritchAbomination Jasmine (who may be behind any number of other things, as well).
** ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' never got around to revealing much, but based on what we know about the show's planned MythArc, it appears that Blue Sun Corporation was meant to be behind most of The Alliance's evil tendencies.
** ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}'' is a massive cascade of Man Behind The Man moments: [[DefrostingIceQueen Adelle DeWitt]] in front of Rossum as a whole, then a series of fake out reveals which ultimately give way to the [[ShockingSwerve sudden knowledge]] that Boyd is the real BigBad.

** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E7TheLongGame "The Long Game"]], the Editor who supposedly runs Satellite 5 is revealed to work for the Mighty Jagrafess. In the season finale, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E12BadWolf "Bad Wolf"]]/Recap/DoctorWhoS27E13ThePartingOfTheWays "The Parting of the Ways"]], it's revealed that the Jagrafess, in turn, worked for the Daleks.