History NeverTrustATrailer / LiveACtionTV

*** The trailer's claim that the Rangers' time machine had never been tested would be contradicted by the three episode arc revolving around the [[SixthRanger Quantum Ranger]].
*** Speaking of the Quantum Ranger, the trailer suggests his identity will be an ongoing mystery in the show. It wasn't. The Quantum Ranger debuts an episode before he gets his powers and his identity is only a mystery for about five seconds to the four Time Force Rangers before Wes tells them who he is.
*** The trailer teases a show in which the Rangers will be hopping from one era to another in pursuit of bad guys. The actual show had about seven episodes out of forty were time travel occurred.

* Creator/TheWB's ''Series/BirdsOfPrey2002'' kept employing this trope week after week to the point where it actually played a large part in causing the show's demise in the eyes of many critics, in retrospect. To elaborate, the show centered around the full-grown daughter of Franchise/{{Batman}} and ComicBook/{{Catwoman}} fighting crime alongside ComicBook/BlackCanary and the former ComicBook/{{Batgirl}}, TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture...or today (the show was kinda vague about it), with guidance from [[BattleButler Alfred]], while a manipulative [[Characters/BatmanRoguesGalleryPart1 Harley Quinn]] hid in plain sight, and plotted to avenge ComicBook/TheJoker by getting back at the Bat-Family. Cool...except that the show kept promising "Next week...*cut to silhouetted images of Batman or a Batarang on a wall*" and promising that Batman would be returning to Gotham, with much hype and fanfare...and then every week it'd turn out that the trailer had just lied. The show employed this so much, and so shamelessly, that viewers en masse got sick and tired of being lied to every week, and the vast majority stopped watching by midseason. The ratings got so abysmal that the show was suddenly yanked off the air without warning (not that anyone was watching by that point), though The WB ''did'' air the already-filmed season finale as the GrandFinale a few months later.

* Season 5 of ''Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations'' was bloated with this. Every episode pointed out that he was going to have a bad time at his destination but on the actual show, it was always just a minor moment of discomfort that took place in the first half of the episode, surrounded by Tony loving the place.

* ''Series/{{Angel}}'': In the middle of the Jasmine arc, there was an OnTheNext promo that centered around Angel and Fred kissing, with the announcer going on about how the crisis will drive them together... in the actual episode, the kiss turns out to be a FakeOutMakeOut and no romance comes of it.
** An earlier trailer showed Darla, Angel chained against a wall, Angel jousting and the implication that this was all centered around her machinations. While those things actually do happen, the joust is for a minor character and by the time Angel ends up on that wall [[spoiler: it's actually part of a test to save Darla who is dying of disease]].

** Don't forget when they implied that Declan and Clare would hook-up (it turned out to be AllJustADream).

* ''Don't Forget the Lyrics'': {{Creator/FOX}}'s promo monkeys tried to make a contestant's brief moment of discomfort much more dramatic than it actually was. [[http://forums.televisionwithoutpity.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=3155892&view=findpost=8540647 (Source)]]

* ''Series/HenryDanger'':
** In the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9P6wMxXASTE promo]] of "Thumb War", Captain Man and Kid Danger get trapped in a rocket that sends them to space, but in the episode, The Thumb buddies were the ones who got sent to space.

* One ''Series/NashBridges'' episode was promoted with a shot of Nash's 'Cuda exploding followed with a shot of him saying "Now you have my attention." tensely. In actually, the car that gets blown up is a kit car replica bought be recurring villain Tamera Van Zandt and Nash's response is a series of "Dammit"s. (Although fans of the series know his response to his car getting destroyed would be closer to the latter than the former.)

* ''Series/{{Survivor}}'' does this religiously, especially in ''Samoa'', they tried to edit it so that people were thinking about eliminating Russell..except for some incredibly odd reason, seeing the episode brought out ''no'' talks about actually ''doing'' it.

* ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'' has an interesting case: the trailer featured D'Anna [[spoiler:telling Roslin that she's the final Cylon who has yet to be revealed. However, the cut revealing who she was talking to caused some speculation that Roslin actually wasn't the person she said it to. It turned out D'Anna ''was'' talking to Roslin, but was just playing a prank on her. Of course, had Roslin been the final Cylon]] this would have been a major case of both TrailersAlwaysSpoil and LyingCreator (as showrunner and producer Ron Moore had officially declared that [[spoiler:Roslin is ''not'' a Cylon]]).

** The original trailer for "The Plimpton Stimulation" had the narrator saying "this is the episode you've been waiting for," then showed scenes of a hot woman in the guys's apartment and a scene of Sheldon giggling childishly, as if he was attracted to her. Needless to say, or it wouldn't be in this category, Sheldon had no romantic interest in her whatsoever (she was a fellow physicist he'd invited to stay with him) and the giggling was taken out of context. (Dr. Plimpton did have sex, but with Leonard, and later, Raj).

* ''Series/{{Bones}}'': The Verizon [=FiOS=] info for one particular episode states that the cast is working undercover at a bar to help solve a case; additionally, ads hyped the fact that [[{{UST}} Booth and Bones would wind up in bed]]. Actually [[spoiler: the episode was AllJustADream because a comatose Booth was hearing Bones read the rough draft of her latest novel and his mind was inserting his friends as various characters, including himself and Bones as a HappilyMarried couple.]]
** The trailers were, in fact, just as deceptive for that episode.

* ''Series/CodeBlack'' had an episode with the paramedics responding to a boating accident. One of the victims falls into the water surrounded by leaking fuel which then catches fire. Like the ''911'' example above, the promo implies that the paramedics they will pull off a daring rescue while braving the flames, but instead all they can do is watch helplessly as the victim burns to death.

* ''CSI NY'': CBS had a promo for the episode "All In The Family" with Danny shielding a woman from another person with a gun, then the screen cutting to black and the sound of a gunshot. In reality, [[spoiler: he managed to convince the person with the gun to not kill him or the woman he was protecting (Rikki Sandoval, mother of Reuben, the boy who was killed) and no one was shot.]] The gun sound was in fact a sound effect added in.

* Teen Nick mastered this trope for their ''Series/{{Degrassi}}'' promos, ''especially'' for Season 10. Fiona standing at the edge of the roof (is not a suicide attempt, she just finds it dramatic to think on the roof). Anya's pregnant (no she's not), Clare's getting a boobjob (no she isn't). In the final episode of 2010, they showed Jenna looking like she was in labor at a party(she wasn't) Then they continue with this in the trailers for the 2011 premiere, as if everybody forgot what the actual situation was. The best being an ad playing on ShipTease, with the two actors ''practicing'' on the copier for the show. That couple never happened in the series, ever.

* ''Series/GilmoreGirls'': A season four episode featuring Rory and Paris on Spring Break had a promo from Creator/TheWB which almost asserted that they would become a couple during a SweepsWeekLesbianKiss scene and managed to get a ''New York Post'' writer to write a hilarious and badly-researched article dissecting said promo and getting most of the sexualities of the characters all wrong. In reality the kiss was PlayedForLaughs (Paris just wanted to experience Spring Break at its most heightened absurdity, and Rory stumbled around confused after it happened).

* A trailer for one episode of the New Zealand series ''GoGirls'' has a main character being told by her boyfriend that she's fat, ugly, and that he's gay. In actuality, this was a daydream of what she was expecting him to say-- what he actually does is ask her to marry him.

*** One episode made a big deal out of the Red Team freaking out over some blood, making it look like somebody got badly injured. In the actual episode, the blood came from a cow carcass they were carrying.

* ''Series/HomeImprovement'' during its last few seasons was notoriously misleading with its advertisements. In the season 6 premier, Jill catches her her oldest son, Brad, in a compromising position with his girlfriend Angela. The advert for the episode shows the pair getting caught in the act and Jill asking, "What if Angela gets pregnant?", followed by a glimpse of Brad's serious expression and a ''shocked'' look from his mother (heavily implying that a TeenPregnancy plot is about to unfold). The reality? [[spoiler: Brad and Angela never actually have sex in the first place, Jill's statement about pregnancy is actually spoken to her husband (to convince him to have "the talk" with Brad), and her "shocked reaction" is in response to Brad yelling at her and storming out of the room.]]

* ''Series/{{House}}'' does this far too often. For example, the trailer for an episode during the Tritter arc had the following exchange:

** The reality, however, was more like this (somewhat paraphrased):

* ''Series/ICarly'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFTsGQFtM1U did this spectacularly for the episode ''iStart A Fan War'']]. After months of fandom speculation that this episode would be a [[{{Shipping}} ship-centric]] episode that would involve shipping development, the first trailer appeared to confirm that not only would it involve the ships (using both popular ships by their PortmanteauCoupleName), but that it would actually end the ShipToShipCombat in regards to which became canon. This was not what happened, as the show ended with an AuthorFilibuster about how shipping was not what the WordOfGod wanted to focus on. Obviously, neither ship was even vaguely developed positively.
** The WordOfGod released a blog post later that made it appear to be a miscalculation by the marketing department of Nickelodeon, who either didn't realize that the episode didn't actually do anything they claimed, or something, and release the trailer like that to hype up the episode.

* ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'': One trailer used a shot of Olivia looking surprised with a shot of Elliot and Dani about to kiss, adding up to sexual tension at its max. In the actual episode, Olivia never saw the kiss, which was just an [[AccidentalKiss accidental quickie]] after the two had a few drinks. The trailer made more fans {{squee}} than the episode.

* The trailer for ''Series/LifeOnMars2008'' is shot like a ''Series/StarskyAndHutch'' parody. Seriously, watch it.
** This seems entirely in keeping with the UK version.
* ''Series/{{Lost}}'': A preview for the episode "Stranger in a Strange Land" promised that three huge questions would be answered in it. These turned out to be the meaning of Jack's tattoos, what happened to the children the Others kidnapped and what happened to Cindy the flight attendant. Those last two have the same answer so many viewers argued they shouldn't count as separate questions, and it's not like many people were chomping at the bit about the first one either. The producers immediately said they never intended the episode to be one that was full of reveals like that, and blamed the network for unduly raising the viewers' hopes when it became one of the show's most unpopular episodes.

* ''Series/MadMen'': The main character Don Draper [[DeadPersonImpersonation changed identities with a dead guy during the Korean War]] and has been hiding it ever since. A promo for the season two episode "A Night to Remember" had Joan Holloway announcing, "Someone people think is dead is not dead," in a context intended to make it look like she was going to find out his secret and out him (or threaten to, or something). In fact, she'd spent the episode reading TV scripts for work and was talking about an upcoming storyline on a soap opera.

* ''Series/{{Medium}}'': The Season 5 finale was billed as the main character's "last vision". Which it was...on NBC. The show took a ChannelHop to CBS that fall.

* BBC's ''Series/{{Merlin|2008}}'' show wasn't much better. One trailer had Merlin dramatically reveal to the court that he was a wizard. In the actual episode, no one believed him and the scene had no impact on the plot.

* ''Series/MyNameIsEarl'': Most trailers will always show footage from the flashback scenes, giving you the impression the show is just about an idiot doing stupid things.
** This isn't really deceptive, the show got a lot of mileage out of pretending it didn't approve of Earl being a colossal jackass for RuleOfFunny because he could fix it in the non-flashback part of the episode.

* ''Series/{{NCIS}}'': [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8grPGqH3IHI This preview]] for the season six finale made it look like Ziva was going to kill Tony on her father's orders. Pretty shifty of CBS, but at least the episode itself was good.
** Under Covers, which has a giveaway title as it is, was played out as being an actual hookup between Tony and Ziva. It's really too bad that the big reveal was five minutes in, and that it was a repeat.

* ''Series/OnceUponATime''

* One ''Series/SoYouThinkYouCanDance'' was promoted by {{Creator/FOX}} with a clip of Nigel Lythgoe shouting "Get off the stage!", suggesting that he was so angry at a contestant's performance he wanted them to leave. As shown in the actual episode, however, he was shouting out of enjoyment, and telling them to get off the stage because they'd made it to the next round.

* ''Series/StargateSG1'': A preview for one episode revolving around the team being trapped in an unpleasant version of a LotusEaterMachine, with the trailer using Carter's line "How do we know this is real?" as if it were a serious question and dramatic concern. In the actual episode, this is just the set-up for a final joke to cap off what's otherwise a particularly dark episode.
** For several weeks there, the trailers for ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' alluded to replicator involvement. "Or is it a Replicator trap?" "Is he really back from the dead, or is it another Replicator?" Needless to say, Replicators weren't even mentioned in those episodes.
** ''Series/StargateUniverse'' follows the trend for one episode. Footage of the crew running down the hallway is accompanied by the usual urgent voice overs, as if they're running to avert some disaster. In the actual episode, it turns out it's just the crew working out during the opening montage.
** Two particular examples for the original ''Series/StargateSG1.'' One, where it was hyped up that a team member would end up dying and a clip of O'Neill falling to the ground wounded in battle was shown (it ended up being the doctor who died). The second was set up with Carter finding herself alone on a ship with only illusions to help her. The trailer made it look like she and O'Neill would end up kissing, but in the actual episode it was only a fantasy of hers that passed through her mind for a second- two at the most.
*** To be fair, in the first example, the episode itself actually implied that up until the last five minutes or so. So it wasn't just the creators of the ad, but the writers as well who intended the audience to be misled.

** The trailer for a Season 17 episode made it seem like the episode was going to be about Benson's son Noah going missing. In the actual episode, he briefly wanders off on a playground and is found before the end of the teaser; the bulk of the episode centers around a case involving a missing, and later murdered, teenager that wasn't even hinted at in the trailer.

* ''Series/WandaVision'':

* ''Series/Wandavision'':

* ''Series/Wandavision'': In In second trailer features a normal-looking

* ''Veronica Mars'': The Australian promos described the show as "What would you do if your best friend was murdered, and YOU were accused of being the murderer, and the whole school hated you?", something that the main character was never accused of in the show.

* The trailers of the Columbia Tristar Home Video reprints of the obscure direct-to-video series ''Secret Adventures'' has hidden the fact that [[spoiler: it is a Christian television series]].

* The trailers of the Columbia Tristar Home Video reprints of the obscure direct-to-video series ''Secret Adventures'' has hidden the fact that [[spoiler: it is a Christan television series]].

* The trailers of the Columbia Tristar Home Video reprints of the obscure direct-to-video series ''Secret Adventures'' did a very good job disguising the fact that [[spoiler: it is a Christan television series]].

* The trailers of the Columbia TriStar Home Video reprints of the obscure direct-to-video series ''Secret Adventures'' did a very good job disguising the fact that [[spoiler: it is a Christan television series]].

* The trailers of the Columbia/TriStar Home Video reprints of the obscure direct-to-video series ''Secret Adventures'' did a very good job disguising the fact that [[spoiler: it is a Christan television series]].

* The early 2000's show ''Series/BirdsOfPrey'' on Creator/TheWB kept employing this trope week after week to the point where ''it actually played a large part in causing the show's demise'' in the eyes of many critics, in retrospect. To elaborate, the show centered around the full-grown daughter of Franchise/{{Batman}} and ComicBook/{{Catwoman}} fighting crime alongside ComicBook/BlackCanary and the former ComicBook/{{Batgirl}}, TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture...or today (the show was kinda vague about it), with guidance from [[BattleButler Alfred]], while a manipulative [[Characters/BatmanRoguesGalleryPart1 Harley Quinn]] hid in plain sight, and plotted to avenge ComicBook/TheJoker by getting back at the Bat-Family. Cool...except that the show kept promising "Next week...*cut to silhouetted images of Batman or a Batarang on a wall*" and promising that Batman would be returning to Gotham, with much hype and fanfare...and then every week it'd turn out that the trailer had just lied. The show employed this sooo much, and so shamelessly, that viewers en masse got sick and tired of being lied to every week, and the vast majority stopped watching by midseason. The ratings got so abysmal that the show was suddenly yanked off the air without warning (not that anyone was watching by that point), though The WB ''did'' air the already-filmed season finale as the GrandFinale a few months later.

* The trailers for the 1990's Swedish miniseries ''Nattens barn'' made it seem like a vampire/supernatural story, while it was in fact a perfectly realistic series about a RomanticTwoGirlFriendship between two {{Goth}}s.

* One trailer for ''Series/WWEToughEnough'' featured some Wrestling/{{WWE}} Divas as guest stars, and showed one of them slapping Jeremiah with the implication that he'd done something untoward to deserve it. In truth, he was just drunk and being goofy, and ''asked'' to be slapped in a moment of euphoria.

* ''Series/HomeImprovement'' during its last few seasons was notoriously misleading with its advertisements. In the season 6 premier, Jill catches her her oldest son, Brad, in a compromising position with his girlfriend Angela. The advert for the episode shows the pair getting caught in the act and Jill asking, "What if Angela gets pregnant?", followed immediately by a glimpse of Brad's serious expression -- and a ''shocked'' look from his mother (heavily implying that a TeenPregnancy plot is about to unfold.) The reality? [[spoiler: Brad and Angela never actually have sex in the first place, Jill's statement about pregnancy is actually spoken to her husband (to convince him to have "the talk" with Brad), and her "shocked reaction" is in response to Brad yelling at her and storming out of the room.]] Not that you'd know it, of course.

* ''Series/AdventuresInWonderland'': The TV promo for "Christmas in Wonderland" makes it look like the episode is all about the quirky Wonderland Christmas traditions, and how even though they're different from the familiar traditions, [[TrueMeaningOfChristmas the spirit is the same]]. Actually, the quirky Wonderland traditions are only shown for comedy a the beginning of the special, which is mostly about the Queen being depressed because it never snows in Wonderland and the other characters [[LetThereBeSnow trying to make it snow on Christmas Eve for her.]] It also implies that building a "sourdough bread house" is one of the weird Wonderland traditions. Actually, it's part of the White Rabbit's attempts to recreate the traditions Alice has described: he wants to make a gingerbread house, but doesn't have time to make gingerbread, so he uses sourdough instead.

* ''Series/AdventuresInWonderland'': The TV promo for "Christmas in Wonderland" makes it look like the episode is all about the quirky Wonderland Christmas traditions, and how even though they're different from the familiar traditions, [[TheTrueMeaningOfChristmas the spirit is the same]]. Actually, the quirky Wonderland traditions are only shown for comedy a the beginning of the special, which is mostly about the Queen being depressed because it never snows in Wonderland and the other characters [[LetItSnow trying to make it snow on Christmas Eve for her.]] It also implies that building a "sourdough bread house" is one of the weird Wonderland traditions. Actually, it's part of the White Rabbit's attempts to recreate the traditions Alice has described: he wants to make a gingerbread house, but doesn't have time to make gingerbread, so he uses sourdough instead.

* ''Series/AdventuresInWonderland'': The TV promo for "Christmas in Wonderland" makes it look like the episode is all about the quirky Wonderland Christmas traditions, and how even though they're different from the familiar traditions, [[TheTrueMeaningOfChristmas the spirit is the same]]. Actually, the quirky Wonderland traditions are only shown for comedy a the beginning of the special, which is mostly about the Queen being depressed because it never snows in Wonderland and the other characters [[LetItSnow trying to make it snow on Christmas Eve for her.]]