History OnlySaneMan / LiveActionTV

* ''NewsRadio'': Dave Nelson, but only sometimes. Occasionally he's completely crazy, and Lisa is the Only Sane Woman.

* ''{{Reno 911}}'': Let us not forget Deputy Sven Jones and (most of the time) Jim Dangle. They are the only ones who aren't violent, racist idiots, or holier than thou religious zealots. Or conversely, no one but no one is sane on ''{{Reno 911}}''.

* ''{{Scrubs}}'': Like the case with most sitcoms, this role can be traded depending on what works for an episode. But the one who plays this on a regular basis is Carla, whom will often be the voice of reason, the only one in the hospital with any common sense and right solution to a problem. Because of this, she is the only one [[{{Jerkass}} Perry Cox]] doesn't dare speak down to.

* {{Scrubs}}: Like the case with most sitcoms, this role can be traded depending on what works for an episode. But the one who plays this on a regular basis is Carla, whom will often be the voice of reason and the only one in the hospital with any common sense and right solutions. Because of this, she is the only one [[{{Jerkass}} Perry Cox]] doesn't dare speak down to.

* ''DrakeAndJosh'': Josh Nichols.

* ''{{Soap}}'': Benson usually played this role within the Tate household. Mary and Jodie took turns with the SanityBall in the Campbell household.
* In Star Trek Enterprise, two-part episode "In a Mirror, Darkly", Commander Archer is the only sane one of the bunch. He's the only one that has no personal ambitions, wanting to save the Empire from the rebellion. He also has more compassion than the other officers and enlisted men, being disgusted by their new invention, the agony booth. The background setting is a rebellion by the Vulcans, Tellarites, Andorians and other subject races is going to destroy the Empire in a matter of weeks. No hope. Archer gets wind of a ship the Tholians have "acquired" from the future. Despite the war being lost as it is, he can't convince anyone to go to the location and try to take the ship. Captain Forrest is far less intelligent than his Admiral Forrest counterpart in the real universe, being casually brutal. Forrest has no interest in a myth ship, somehow being anxious to throw his life away in a battle that is unwinnable. Even when Archer is successful in forcing the Enterprise to go to the area of Tholian space where the U.S.S. Defiant, Constitution Class is located, and the ship turns out to be everything that Archer was told, Forrest idiotically wants to destroy the ship, rather than take it back with them, insanely wanting to throw away any advantage the ship could give them, probably because it would make Archer look like a hero and Forrest's pride was bruised. Archer seems to be the only one that realizes that this ship could potentially win the war for them. When Archer manages to bring back the ship to his commanding officer, winning a battle against several vessels, the Admiral wants to waste several years taking the ship apart to figure it out. It's insanity: the war will be lost in a few weeks, tops. They have NO TIME to take the ship apart. Archer wants to use the ship to win the war. He's right: it's the Empire's only hope. The Admiral, like Captain Forrest, doesn't see the obvious. So, Archer ends up killing the Admiral in order to save the Empire. From start to finish, Commander Archer is the ONLY one who can see things as they are. He's the only one that isn't nuts.

* ''Series/{{Eureka}}: Sheriff Jack Carter is one for the entire town of Eureka, since it's entirely populated by {{Mad Scientist}}s, and they predictably lack the common sense that would keep some of their experiments from going wrong and threatening the town. While Carter is certainly not as book smart as the rest of the town, including his own genius daughter, he's certainly practical enough on his feet that his quick thinking is always what saves the town from self-destructing from its own scientific curiosity.

* ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'': Miss Brooks often serves this role, as she is constantly dealing with the eccentricities of the people around her.

* ''SaturdayNightLive'':

* ''TheBobNewhartShow'': Hartley was one of these himself. For good reason, because he was a counselling psychologist and most of the other characters were his patients, and Bob did deal with several sane people.

* ''TheRedGreenShow'': Harold often tries to be the Voice of Wisdom trying to get his uncle and compatriots to see the foolishness of this week's '''Big Plan'''. After all, Harold does actually have a high-school knowledge of physics and other sciences, and so can usually predict how things are about to wrong, badly!

* ''TheMuppetShow'': Kermit The Frog qualifies as the Only Sane Amphibian, although he cheerfully admits at least once that he's only surrounded by crazies because ''he'' hired them. Contrast Sam the Eagle, who merely ''thought of himself'' as this.
* ''MyFamily'': Michael. Technically an Only Sane Boy, at least in the earlier seasons. His father Ben only thinks he is.
* ''MyNameIsEarl'': By the halfway point of the show, Earl himself has become this. He even has a mini-HeroicBSoD when he realises he is now the one sane and competent guy in Camden. This really comes into force as a major plot point in the prison-arc where Earl is the only sane guy in the entire prison, including the governor.
* ''{{Newhart}}'': Dick Loudon, where he dealt with eccentric, over-the-top characatures of people on a near-constant basis. George Utley (Tom Poston) is the nice but dim-witted handyman who is not too good at his job, but still insists that he'll be inducted into the handyman's Hall of Fame. Stephanie Vanderkellen (Julia Duffy) is the spoiled maid who also is virtually incompetent, while TV producer boyfriend Michael Harris (Peter Scolari) is the epitome of alliteration and yuppiness. There was Larry (Creator/WilliamSanderson) and his mute brothers, Darryl and Darryl, backwoods outdoorsmen who owned the Minuteman Cafe; Larry introduces the group the same way every time they make an appearance: "Hi, I'm Larry; this is my brother Darryl, and this is my other brother Darryl," and makes wild claims that often turn out to be true. Dick somehow tries to keep his sanity but finally snaps at the end of the [[GrandFinale final episode]], "The Last Newhart" ... only for "Dick" to be the starring character in Dr. Robert Hartley's nightmare.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': Rory could also be considered this. Given that both Amy and the Doctor have {{Cloudcuckoolander}} tendencies, Rory often has to act as the voice of reason. And not just in the {{Cloudcuckoolander}} sense either. Amy and the Doctor both have a tendency to abandon good sense altogether when they become too emotionally involved in a situation. Rory is easily the most emotionally stable of the three of them, making him the OnlySaneMan in that regard as well.

** Susan is a rare female example of this trope - the only sane voice among oft-ranting, chronically insecure Steve, beauty-obsessed age-fearing Sally, {{Cloudcuckoolander}} egomaniac Jane, brain-dead misogynist Patrick and, well... Jeff.
** Steve often fills this role when he's hanging out with Jeff and Patrick. Sanity is relative . . .
** Er, I'm pretty sure Steve is always the one that sees things for what they really are with his honest takes of the insanity he sees around him (like the pointlessness of cushions on a chair, or the riduculousness of taking a lock off a bathroom door) without the social delusions that Patrick and Jeff hold. That's where the root of Steve's rants come from. While Susan is always the one that's insecure about her place (insecure about Steve still comparing her to Jane, insecure about him cheating, to the point of high pitched breakdowns that never see things from the rational overview). If anyone is chronically insecure, it's her. Her rants come from her own subjective insecurities.
*** Well, Steve's major talent in this area is that he can invariably ''explain that he is this'', however far he has to go towards InsaneTrollLogic to do so (like, the cushion thing (which isn't as stupid as he thinks) was really not relevant to what was going on...)
** The point of the show is to contrast the two normal people (Steve and Susan) with the two incredibly insecure people (Jeff and Sally) and the two excessively confident people (Jane and Patrick). Steve and Susan's relationship isn't perfect and they themselves aren't perfect; they both have perfectly normal flaws and neither ignore them nor obsess about them (much).

* ''{{LEXX}}'': Kai, who, despite being a more-than-2000-years old, former-slave-of-his-worst-enemy, single survivor of an entire destroyed civilization as well as being ''dead'' still is the most rational, honest and intelligent member of his crew by far. Of course, the competition aboard Lexx is not what you'd call ''fierce''....

* ''MalcolmInTheMiddle'': the eponymous Malcolm to his delinquent, dysfunctional family, his impossibly nerdy, neurotic, and socially inept friends, his nasty, petty, stupid neighbors and classmates, ''and'' the entirety of the shallow, unappreciative, unfair society around him. Deconstructed, as [[TheSnarkKnight being this trope for too long and going through too much frustration as a result of his sane-ness]] turns him cynical and bitter enough for his OSM-cred to start slipping in the last couple of seasons (thought the finale strongly hints that he earns it back once he dares to live up to his potential).

* ''KenanAndKel'': Kenan Rockmore would qualify as he almost always shouts out "WHYYYYYY?!" whenever [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Kel]] does something wrong.
* ''KyleXY'': Josh kept a detailed notebook on all the strange things that happen around Kyle, and concluded he was a space alien, which he constantly mentioned. Kyle (who was actually an escaped lab experiment) later had to admit that Josh was the person who came the closest to figuring it all out.
* ''LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'': FBI Special Agent George Huang, M.D. always sees the big picture, and is often the only reasonable person. If the rest of the cast ever actually listened to him, instead of using him to wheedle confessions out of perps, most of their problems would be solved.

* ''Series/{{Bones}}'': Carol Saroyan zigzags between this and DaChief. Clark Edison tends to act as this when he's in an episode.

* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': Bobby fits this trope from time to time but the most notable is "Tall Tales": Sam and Dean are bickering like an old married couple and are annoying the hell out of each other so Bobby is the only one to see that the Trickster is pranking both of them.

* ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'': Michael Bluth believes he's this. He really, really isn't, but compared to [[DysfunctionJunction the rest of]] [[BigScrewedUpFamily his family]] he may as well be. Funny enough, the OSM is the narrator/documentary crew. George Michael fits the role pretty well.

* ''GilmoreGirls'': Luke Danes.

* ''GreenWing'': Mac, Jake and Lyndon are the only sane people in the entire hospital, both getting dragged into the others' insane antics. Mac doesn't seem to mind any of this as he likes to play around with everybody else, though Sue is his limit but that's due to her stalking problem. Lyndon, on the other hand, can't stand any of it and gets more and more frustrated as it goes along. Jake doesn't get too caught up in it and is too chilled to be as perturbed as he might be.