History NonIndicativeName / LiveActionTV

* ''Franchise/KamenRider'' has this going on in a {{Meta}} sense. Like many {{Toku}} properties, the franchise is separated into distinct eras based off of the Japanese calendar system. However, while the calendar changed from Showa to Heisei in 1989, a trilogy of stand-alone movies made in the 1990s are officially part of the Showa era; 2000's ''Series/KamenRiderKuuga'' is the first Heisei-era series. In practice "Showa Rider" really means the works produced during creator Creator/ShotaroIshinomori's lifetime, while "Heisei Rider" means the works made after his death in 1998.

* ''Series/BlakesSeven'', for the last two of its four seasons, was noticeably missing Blake. [[spoiler:With the exception of the stunning final espisode.]]
** And there usually weren't seven of them: The number was usually fudged to mean either six humans and a computer, or five humans and two computers. For part of the series, though, there were six humans and two computers, so... you figure it out.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E4TheDoctorsWife "The Doctor's Wife"]]. [[spoiler: The Doctor's relationship with the TARDIS is merely LikeAnOldMarriedCouple.]]

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E13TheNameOfTheDoctor "The Name of the Doctor"]] [[spoiler: does not reveal the Doctor's name]].

* ''Series/DragonsWagonsAndWax'' only has dragons, wagons and a wax candle in the ActionHoggingOpening. The rest of the show is a low-key LiveAction children's program.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** In "Planet of Evil", the alien from the eponymous planet is defending itself, and the characters who come closest to being "evil" are among the visitors to it.
** "Vengeance on Varos" is a story which features practically every negative human motivation except for vengefulness.
** "Remembrance of the Daleks" had a futuristic-tech-looking device called the Hand of Omega, which didn't look anything like a hand. As the Doctor says: "Time Lords are capable of infinite pretension."
** The eponymous "girl" in the episode "The Girl in the Fireplace" never actually appears inside a fireplace. It's the Doctor who appears in her fireplace.
** The episode "The Name of the Doctor" [[spoiler: does not reveal the Doctor's name]].
** And before that, "The Doctor's Wife". [[spoiler: The Doctor's relationship with the TARDIS is merely LikeAnOldMarriedCouple.]] Similarly, "The Doctor's Daughter" and "The Next Doctor". Most of these have some sort of justification in-story, but the last is pure TrollingCreator. [[note]] The former is a young female soldier cloned from the Doctor's genetic material, the latter is a hapless young man in Victorian Britain who gets the Doctor's memories imprinted onto his mind.[[/note]]
** And in between, "Let's Kill Hitler". He just gets stuffed in a cupboard to make way for the actual plot. It does get a TitleDrop, though.
** It's difficult to say what "The Witch's Familiar" has to do with the story, or even exactly which character this refers to. Even if it's taken to refer to Clara's allegiance with Missy (which would make sense), "The Witch's Familiar" is mostly about the Doctor visiting Davros, and consigns Clara's role in the story to being tortured by Missy irrelevantly in the background.
** "Terror of the Zygons" is about the Zygons invading Earth, while "The Zygon Invasion" is about Zygon terrorists (who are legal Earth citizens).
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': The "scythe" Buffy finds in the last episodes is actually an axe, specifically a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bardiche bardiche.]]

* Data's pet cat Spot in ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' is not a spotted cat, despite her name. (She's a tabby with light orange fur; female orange tabbies are very uncommon in real life.)
* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' has these things called ''orbs''. For some reason they look like crystal hourglasses. Aren't orbs supposed to be spherical?
** They're also called the Tears of the Prophets, but don't look much like teardrops, either.
** For that matter, Sisko is called Emissary, which isn't really accurate. An "emissary" is a person who is sent somewhere to represent the interests of someone else. Emissaries are trusted to use their own judgement to achieve said mission. Sisko is told several times that he has to do or say something specific; he's just an errand boy and mouthpiece, not an "emissary".
** And the station isn't in deep space at all; it's quite close to an inhabited planet.
*** It's pointed out in one episode how "human-centric" the name is, as it refers to how far from ''Earth'' the station is.
* Two-thirds of ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' airs on Sunday morning in the Eastern and Pacific Time Zones - in fact, in the Pacific, what's shown is a feed of the episode that finished filming 90 minutes before, making the ''entire'' title a misnomer (in the Mountain time zone, the program begins after the first hour has finished filming. Alaska and Hawaii get the episodes well later.). Also, NBC's ''Series/LateNight'' airs completely during the early morning, except in the Central, Mountain, Alaska and Hawaii time zones where it begins at 11:30.
** Reruns and compilation specials aren't live either.
** Also, the Brazilian version of SNL will air on Sundays.
** Mike Myers' character Linda Richman would occasionally [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_Talk#Discussion_topics throw out one of these for audience discussion]] when she became [[YiddishAsASecondLanguage verklempt]]. Examples include peanuts, Rhode Island, and the Holy Roman Empire.
--->'''Linda''': Creator/RalphFiennes is spelled neither ''rafe'' nor ''fines''. Discuss.
** Also Duran Duran, which is apparently neither a Duran nor a Duran.
** This also slightly annoyed her in regards to actress Kristin Scott Thomas, since she was a female whose name was two-thirds male.
* The eponymous hotel in ''Series/FawltyTowers'' was not in any way even a single tower.
** The towers were, one might say... [[IncrediblyLamePun Faulty?]]

-->It has nothing to do with pods. It has nothing to do with people. It has everything to do with ''hurting''.

* ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' itself, but that's really more of a WordSaladTitle. They did, however, do a serious investigative news show called ''Ethel the Frog'' in one sketch, perhaps as a nod to Creator/TheBBC's habit of using nonindicative titles.
** 'The Flying Circus' is a nickname of the Red Baron's squadron from WWI and their colorful planes. Still non-indicative.
** Another sketch has ''Blood, Devastation, Death, War, and Horror'', a completely tame chat show.
** Six human, ground-bound men (no pythons, or even snakes of any sort), none of whom are named "Monty," and they perform a sketch comedy show without trapeses, lion tamers, a ringleader, or any references at all to the greatest show on earth. That's pretty non-indicative for four words.
*** You might even call it a meta-indicative title, as the fact that it is a non-indicative title is itself indicative of the content of the show.
* Several real-life examples are parodied in [[Series/ThatMitchellAndWebbLook Mitchell and Webb's]] "[[https://youtu.be/dOBhf8f7cXM Discoverer]]" sketches. Mitchell plays whatever famous explorer discovered and named the area, and Webb plays his second-in-command who points out the obvious disconnect between the name and the place, but ends up having to give in because he's not "[[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem the captain]]."
--> '''Webb:''' Captain, the Lord has delivered us to a [[LandDownUnder truly wondrous land]]! Lush subtropical plains stretch out as far as the eye can see. It's ninety degrees in the shade even though it's November, there are herds of seven-foot-tall two-legged creatures bouncing across the landscape at tremendous speeds.\\
'''Mitchell:''' Yes. Do you know where it reminds me of? Wales.
** They also have a sketch involving a "giant death ray", which turns out to be harmless. They explain the name as follows:
--> '''Bachman:''' One question that does spring to mind, Professor, er...
--> '''Webb:''' Professor Death.
--> '''Bachman:''' ...Professor Death, is why on Earth you elected to name this contraption the "giant death..." oh I see.
* Brazilian TV Globo broadcasts three soap operas every day except Sunday: 6 o'clock, 7 o'clock, and 8 o'clock. The last one, however, rarely begins at an hour starting with 8 nowadays (due to the news program that precedes it - the delay gets even worse during election period). A common joke is to describe it as "the 8 o'clock soap opera that starts at 9".
* In 19 years, when have any of the Franchise/PowerRangers actually performed the duties of a "{{ranger}}"? That is, when have any of them ever helped oversee a national park or conducted guerilla warfare in a forest environment? [[RuleOfCool Then again, a show about park rangers in brightly-colored spandex probably wouldn't be very successful...]]
** The term ranger comes from the japanese series ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' in which ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' uses stock footage and costumes from. Many of these series' have the word "Ranger" in the title or some combination of the word "Ranger".

* ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' have had a few.
** ''Series/SeijuuSentaiGingaman'': Ginga could be translated as Galaxy, but the show has nothing to do with galaxies and is just a meaningless proper name.
*** Averted somewhat with it's Power Rangers counterpart, Lost Galaxy it is set in space, though as stated above the show has very little to do with "The Lost Galaxy". That wasn't exactly the fault of the show as Lost Galaxy was notorious for its chaotic behind-the-scenes issues, such as script rewrites. The titular Lost Galaxy was meant be a much bigger presence in the show.
** Tensou Sentai Goseiger. Gosei translates as "five star" as seen with Gosei Sentai Dairanger. Goseiger does have the usual five warriors but has nothing to do with stars o any nature unless you count Gosei World as with Gingaman the term Gosei is just a Proper name.
* ''Series/PowerRangersMegaforce'' takes place in the ''city'' of Harwood ''County''.
* ''Series/StrangersWithCandy'' is not (typically) about strangers or candy. The show is meant to parody "After School Specials" that are known to drop {{Anvilicious}} {{Stock Aesop}}s on school-age kids, one of the most obvious being "never accept candy from strangers." The title also may refer to the ComedicSociopath leads; accepting candy from Jerri Blank is probably never a good idea.

* Parodied in an early episode of ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun''; during one of their rooftop chats, [[CloudCuckooLander Harry]] muses "Why do they call it a fur coat? It's not really fur, and it's not really a coat". Tommy then explains to him that it actually is both those things.
* ''Series/BlakesSeven'', for the last two of its four seasons, was noticeably missing Blake. [[spoiler:With the exception of the stunning final espisode.]]
** And there usually weren't seven of them: The number was usually fudged to mean either six humans and a computer, or five humans and two computers. For part of the series, though, there were six humans and two computers, so... you figure it out.
* Many fans of ''Series/{{Terriers}}'' attributed its low ratings and cancellation to the title, which gave the (incorrect) impression that it involved dogs, while failing to convey that it was a noir-ish detective series. Had it been renewed, it might have been re-titled ''BeachDicks''.
* Similarly, ''Series/CougarTown'' stopped being about middle-aged women chasing younger men (with the exception of one minor recurring character) after the first few episodes. The makers seriously considered retitling it, but in the end stayed with the ArtifactTitle. They do, however, [[IncrediblyLamePun mock the title]] in the [[CouchGag title card]] every week.
** Neither is it about a town populated by the large, North American feline.
*** {{Lampshaded}} in an episode where the characters steal a sculpture of a cougar from the college one of them attends: "Why does this school even have a cougar? Nothing here has anything to do with cougars." The [[CouchGag title card joke]] that week also says, "Pay attention. The title: ''Cougar Town'' almost makes sense this week!"
** One advertisement had a woman next to the feline with both thinking the show was about them.
* Many of the artists who appeared on ''MTV Unplugged'' played electric instruments that were, indeed, plugged in, although the musical arrangements were usually softer and more laid-back than expected from the artists. ''MTV Turned Down'' would have been a more accurate name.
** Although this is the result of some drift. It started out with all the artists playing acoustic.
* Played for laughs during a performance of Scenes From a Hat on ''Series/WhoseLineIsItAnyway''.
-->'''Suggestion''': What's really going through president Bush's mind during Cabinet meetings.
-->'''Colin Mochrie''': There isn't even a cabinet ''in'' here...
* Many of the scenes in ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'' take place at night.
* When Jamie Lynn Sigler (aka [[Series/TheSopranos Meadow Soprano]]) was attempting to kick start a pop music career (([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=golt9BQUmcE no, seriously,]])) she said that one of the reasons she auditioned for the part of Meadow was because when she saw the title ''The Sopranos,'' she honestly thought it would involve music somehow.
* The title characters in ''Series/CrashAndBernstein'' are a puppet named Crash and Wyatt Bernstein, who is almost never referred by his last name.

* Series/TheNakedBrothersBand spends the entirely of every episode at least partially clothed.

* Everybody does not die in the ''Series/{{House}}'' series finale "Everybody Dies"
** The show's not about a house, either.
* ''Series/{{Community}}'': Greendale Community College has the North Cafeteria, which is in the western portion of East hall, which is northwest of North Hall, which is near the center of campus. Also, the English Memorial Spanish Center, named after Portuguese explorer [[CreatorCameo English Memorial]].

* Despite the title being [[Series/PainkillerJane "Painkiller" Jane]], she feels pain from every wound, even after healing.
* The BigBad of the first season of ''Series/TheBlacklist'' is known as "Berlin." Except that he's actually ''Russian'', not German, and was most recently in Siberia, not Berlin.
* ''Airplane Repo'' '''is''', in fact, about repossessing airplanes. And boats. And an occasional helicopter. And other high-value assets. But mostly planes.
* Subverted in ''Series/PersonOfInterest'', in which the Brotherhood has a member named Mini who tells strangers it's an ironic nickname that pokes fun at his heavy build, but his colleagues know it isn't the reason.
* ''Series/{{NCIS}}'': Delilah, Tim [=McGee=]'s love interest in recent years, shares her name with the Biblical temptress who betrayed Sampson, but has proven to be faithful and steadfast toward Tim, and one of the sweetest women you could ever hope to meet.
* ''Series/DragonsWagonsAndWax'' only has dragons, wagons and a wax candle in the ActionHoggingOpening. The rest of the show it a low-key LiveAction children's program.
* The Series/{{Victorious}} episode "Stuck in an RV" doesn't actually take place in a RV, but instead a trailer attached to Beck's truck. An RV drives itself.
* The American Heroes Channel, a Creator/DiscoveryChannel affiliate, has gone through several renames to [[NetworkDecay keep its name relevant to its actual programming]]. Originally the Discovery Wings Channel, it started airing largely military-themed shows, so it was renamed the Military Channel. Later, it started airing programs about firefighters and such, so it was renamed the American Heroes Channel. However, it shows heroes who aren't American, i.e. British Commandos in World War 2.
* Every episode of Dave Gorman's Series/ModernLifeIsGoodish has a non-indicative title. OnceAnEpisode he reads a "Found Poem" (a collection of internet comments from people getting worked up about minor issues) and the title is a line from it: "Winston Churchill's Pants", "Dat Is Data, Dat Is", "I Like Eggs", etc. It's usually impossible to work out the subject of the ''poem'' from the title, and that in turn is usually only tangentially related to what the ''show'' is about.
* The trope comes up in ''Series/BetterCallSaul'' in a passing reference to Golden Delicious apples, which Charles [=McGill=] describes as "usually pretty tasteless".
* The iconic ''Series/{{Ultraman}}'' {{kaiju}} Red King is ''not'' red, but a yellow-blue mix. The real reason for his name was that he was originally intended to be the BigBad in a prototype of the series called ''Redman'', and the name ended up sticking when he was recycled as a recurring MonsterOfTheWeek.
* The ''Batman''-themed TV series ''Series/{{Gotham}}'' has a gangster character named Fish Mooney. You hear the name and you assume "Fish Mooney" is some scuzzy Irish guy. But the character is not scuzzy [[EvilIsSexy (on the outside, anyway)]], not Irish, and not a guy.
* In ''Series/DirkGentlysHolisticDetectiveAgency'' we are introduced four violent hoodlums who break into Todd's house and destroy everything in sight...named the Rowdy Three.
-->'''Todd:''' What's going on?\\
'''Dirk:''' The Rowdy Three!\\
'''Todd:''' There are ''four'' of them.\\
'''Dirk:''' I'm ''wildly'' aware!
** Later, Amanda Brotzman joins the Rowdy Three, bringing their number to five. And in the second season, three of them have been captured by the government, leaving Amanda and Vogel to operate as the Rowdy Three with a membership of two.
* ''Series/TheIndianDetective'': At the start, as he notes, Doug is ethnically Indian, though not ''really'' Indian to people from India. He's also not a detective, but only a constable. By the end he has become one in fact, even if unofficially, and embraced his roots more deeply by being in India.
* History Channel's ''Truck Night in America'' takes place during the daytime.
* The game show ''Series/SaveToWin'' involved trivia, memory recall, and picking random numbers, but it never actually involved saving money.
* Subverted (in the correct use of the term) on ''Series/GetSmart'' -- the Cone of Silence ''would'' be a straight example of this trope, as it's not a cone but a set of 2 spheres. However, it turns out [[NamesakeGag it was invented by a man named Cone]].
* ''Franchise/KamenRider'' has this going on in a {{Meta}} sense. Like many {{Toku}} properties, the franchise is separated into distinct eras based off of the Japanese calendar system. However, while the calendar changed from Showa to Heisei in 1989, a trilogy of stand-alone movies made in the 1990s are officially part of the Showa era; 2000's ''Series/KamenRiderKuuga'' is the first Heisei-era series. In practice "Showa Rider" really means the works produced during creator Creator/ShotaroIshinomori's lifetime, while "Heisei Rider" means the works made after his death in 1998.
** ''Series/KamenRiderDrive'': Drive is the first hero in the franchise who uses a car instead of a motorcycle[[note]]Series/KamenRiderBlackRX and Series/KamenRiderHibiki both used cars in the past, but they also had motorcycles[[/note]], and therefore isn't a "Rider" at all. This was actually a point in the show's marketing, with the tagline "This Rider is a Driver!"
* Sad Man of ''Series/MathsMansion'' is not actually sad. Rather, he's pretty happy and joyful.
* ''Series/SchittsCreek'': Neither the show or the titular town is at all as shitty as the name would imply. The show is a rather sophisticated ScrewballComedy with likable characters and heartwarming stories while the town itself, despite being rural and run down, is populated by decent, hardworking people who are tolerant and caring.
* ''Dr. K's Exotic Animal ER'' often features animals that aren't exotic pets, like rabbits and ferrets (both of which are domesticated animals).

* ''Series/SchittsCreek'': Neither the show or the titular town is at all as sh*tty as the name would imply. The show is a rather sophisticated ScrewballComedy with likable characters and heartwarming stories while the town itself, despite being rural and run down, is populated by decent, hardworking people who are tolerant and caring.

* Sad Man of ''Series/MathsMansion'' is not actually sad. Rather, he's pretty happy and joyful.

** ''Series/KamenRiderDrive'': Drive is the first hero in the franchise who uses a car instead of a motorcycle[[note]]Series/KamenRiderBlackRX and Series/KamenRiderHibiki both used cars in the past, but they also had motorcycles[[/note]], and therefore isn't a "Rider" at all. This was actually a point in the show's marketing, with the tagline "This Rider is a Driver!"

* Subverted (in the correct use of the term) on ''Series/GetSmart'' -- the Cone of Silence ''would'' be a straight example of this trope, as it's not a cone but a set of 2 spheres. However, it turns out [[NamesakeGag it was invented by a man named Cone]].

** "Vengeance on Varos" is a story with no vengeance in it.

* The game show ''Series/SaveToWin'' involved trivia, memory recall, and picking random numbers, but it never actually involved saving money.

* History Channel's ''Truck Night in America'' takes place during the daytime.

** For that matter, Sisko is called Emissary, which isn't really accurate. An "emissary" is a person who is sent somewhere to represent the interests of someone else. Emissaries are trusted to use their own judgement to achieve said mission. Sisko is told several times that he is meant to act as a mouthpiece and nothing else. His attempts at initiative in Bajoran religious matters backfire. ''Every time.''

* Several real-life examples are parodied in [[Series/ThatMitchellAndWebbLook Mitchell and Webb's]] "explorer" sketches. Mitchell plays whatever famous explorer discovered and named the area, and Webb plays his second-in-command who points out the obvious disconnect between the name and the place, but ends up having to give in because he's not "the captain."

--->'''Linda''': The peanut is neither a pea, nor a nut. Discuss.

** Mike Myers' character Linda Richman would occasionally throw out one of these for audience discussion when she became [[YiddishAsASecondLanguage verklempt]]. Examples include peanuts, Rhode Island, and the Holy Roman Empire.

* Mike Myers' character [[Series/SaturdayNightLive Linda Richman]] would occasionally throw out one of these for audience discussion when overcome with emotion. Examples include peanuts, Rhode Island, and the Holy Roman Empire.
** Also Duran Duran, which is apparently neither a Duran nor a Duran.
** This also slightly annoyed her in regards to actress Kristin Scott Thomas, since she was a female whose name was two-thirds male.

* ''Series/TheIndianDetective'': At the start, as he notes, Doug is ethnically Indian, though not ''really'' Indian to people from India. He's also not a detective, but only a constable. By the end he has become one in fact, even if unofficially, and embraced his roots more deeply by being in India.

*** It's pointed out in one episode how "human-centric" the name is, as it refers to how far from "Earth" the station is.

* ''Series/{{Psychoville}}'' is set all across England, and not in any specific town. The name is, in fact, derived from the title given to foreign releases of ''TheLeagueOfGentlemen'', which ''is'' set in a specific town, and is not about a league, nor are many of the characters particularly gentlemanly. The title actually refers to the writers.

** Later, Amanda Brotzman joins the Rowdy Three, bringing their number to five. And in the second season, three of them have been captured by the government, leaving Amanda and Vogel to operate as the Rowdy Three with a membership of two.

* ''Series/{{Angel}}'': Gunn uses a gun maybe once in the entire run of the series (pistols were more Wesley's thing).
** It's lampshaded more than once. Several people, including Cordelia, assume that "Gun" is a street name, and Gunn has to explain that "Gunn. Two 'n's." is his actual surname, and that he prefers using it to his first name (Charles).

** And in between, "Let's Kill Hitler". He just gets stuffed in a cupboard to make way for the actual plot.

'''Dirk:''' I'm ''wildly'' aware!

* In ''{{Series/DirkGentlysHolitsicDetectiveAgency}}'' we are introduced four violent hoodlums who break into Todd's house and destroy everything in sight...named the Rowdy Three.