History OnlySaneMan / LiveActionTv

* ''Series/{{MASH}}'': At one point, BJ suggests Klinger may actually be this, precisely because he's the only one actively trying to remove himself from [[UsefulNotes/KoreanWar the war]].

* ''Series/{{Degrassi}}'': Hands off the hat of sanity to at least one character... usually. While one character has a zany poorly designed scheme, another character will be there to say "You're kidding, right?" The most consistent with the sanity hat are Jimmy, Ellie, and Clare. Jimmy is sane to offset Spinner's [[AttentionDeficitOohShiny Attention span]]. Ellie paired off against [[FallenPrincess Ashley]], [[{{Gayngst}} Marco]], or [[MoodSwinger Craig]] to point out when they were doing something stupid. Clare's paired off with [[HormoneAddledTeenager Alli]], who is on a mission to become popular, Clare gets to tell Alli when her popularity plans are dumb. Now, earlier I said '''most''' capable. All three of these examples have had off days, just not as many as the rest of the cast. [[AlphaBitch Paige and Holly J]] have at times made this an InvokedTrope, suggesting they might be the only sane woman at the school. However they don't have the hat of sanity as often as the above. Like much of the tropes on TNG this has roots in the previous incarnations of the show. Snake was the sane man of the The Zits as was Heather for the twins, Voula for Stephanie and Lucy etc. etc.

* ''Series/TheInbetweeners'': Brilliantly subverted with Will. He may start out being the most intelligent and sensible one in his approach to many things, but usually he soon ends up being a {{hypocrite}}, a [[ExtravertedNerd loser trying to climb the social ladder]], a horndog desperate to lose his virginity or an inconsiderate ranter (or several/all of them). Simon is the more straight example, but even he subverts it when he is [[LoveMakesYouDumb near a girl]] [[DoggedNiceGuy he fancies]].

* ''Series/FatherTed'': The Only Sane [[IncrediblyLamePun Mantle]] is passed around like a ball. It is sometimes held by Ted, however, if the circumstances are sufficiently amusing, it will pass to Mrs. Doyle, Dougal, Bishop Brennan, an Islander, a visitor to the island, and even ''Jack'' in a couple of episodes, [[RuleOfFunny unless it suits the comedy to have nobody display any kind of sanity at all.]]

* In ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'', 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.
** However, [[spoiler:he does suffer from hallucinations during part II.]]
* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'':
** Dr. Crusher in the episode "Remember Me", who is the only one to notice people disappearing. [[spoiler:She really is out of touch with reality, but she's perfectly sane: it's the rest of "reality" which isn't.]]
--->'''Dr. Crusher:''' If there's nothing wrong with me, there must be something wrong with [[spoiler:the universe.]]
* In the ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]]'' episode "The Search Part II", [[spoiler:Sisko, O'Brien, Dax, Bashir, and T'Rul are put through a Virtual Reality MindScrew which posits a treaty between the Federation and the Dominion, an alliance that gives the Dominion the upper hand -- and Bajor. These five are the only military officers (four Starfleet, one Romulan) on Deep Space Nine who see the treaty for what it is: a betrayal of Federation ideals, Bajor, and ultimately the Federation itself. Sisko turns down a bribe-promotion and our heroes risk vaporization or court-martial and a trip to Elba II to keep the Dominion away. It turns out this is because [[AllJustADream the whole thing was a simulation]] specifically designed to gauge their reactions, and by extrapolation the reaction of the entire Federation, if the Dominion were to attempt something like that in real life, and having major powers be complicit was one parameter they were testing.]]
** Avoided in the ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]]'' episode "Visionary". One would think (given the show's fondness for "O'Brien must suffer" episodes) the he would be the only one to see another version of himself across the Promenade. However in this case, Quark also sees both O'Briens.
* In the ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode "Bliss", Seven of Nine, the Doctor and Naomi Wildman are the only ones who notice the crew acting strangely when they find an opportunity to get home. [[spoiler: That was actually a telepathic pitcher plant making everyone hallucinate their own desires in an effort to eat them.]]
** Specifically, [[spoiler: the pitcher plant's powers make people consumed with their desires once they seem within reach. The Doctor, being a hologram, naturally isn't affected, and Seven and Naomi remain clearheaded because they don't share the others' intense desire to return to the Alpha Quadrant.]] Unfortunately, [[spoiler:once Seven learns what's going on, she gets a desire to escape the pitcher plant, which itself makes her vulnerable to it.]]

** Bobby is often the only one of the main four who can take a step back and see the bigger picture most of the time. The most notable example 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/TheOfficeUK'': Tim. Not surprisingly, Creator/MartinFreeman [[Film/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy went on to play Arthur Dent]].

* ''Series/TeenWolf'': In early seasons snarky, TokenHuman and HyperCompetentSidekick Stiles is usually this to his more emotional, besotted best friend Scott, generally unstable and paranoid Derek, Allison who is frequently conflicted and destabilized by her murderous family, outwardly vapid Lydia who has voices in her head, and Jackson who is more worried about winning lacrosse than people dying and then [[spoiler: ''turns into an actual lizard.'']] Despite Stiles's constant quips and hare-brained ideas, he's usually [[{{TheReliableOne}} the most dependable person to have around around]], [[{{TheSmartGuy}} will actually think up a plan]] rather than charging into things and is two steps ahead on figuring out what the hell is going on most of the time. The fact that a lot of werewolves have issues with control also means he's one of the few people not trying to rip throats out on a full moon which is a bonus. [[spoiler: All this is why his possession by a fox spirit in Season 3b destabilizes everyone so badly.]]

** One sketch cast Norm Macdonald as a character in a musical (a ''West Side Story'' {{expy}}), who questioned [[SpontaneousChoreography why everyone was spontaneously breaking into choreographed song and dance]].
** The ''Saturday Night Live'' "Celebrity ''Jeopardy''" sketches LIVE by this trope. Trebek is the suffering straight man, and the contestants will be too stupid to tie their shoelaces together or his SitcomArchNemesis Sean Connery. Most of the sketch consists of Trebek trying in vain to get ''any'' of them to answer a question correctly.

* ''Series/ControlZ'': Mostly Sofía and Javier when it comes to protecting their classmates from both the hacker and the avenger. Isabela, María (who belong in the popular clique) and Alex also fall in this trope to some extent. Isabela shows a softer side once she's outed as trans, María is very sympathetic to almost every of her classmates and is shown to disapprove of Natalia's controversial actions and Alex completely resents the school's toxic small-minded environment, just as she lampshaded to Isabela in 1.06, being the main reason why she doesn't interact with anyone her own age.

* ''Series/ControlZ'': Mostly Sofía and Javier when it comes to protecting their classmates from both the hacker and the avenger. Isabela, María (who belong in the popular clique) and Alex also fall in this trope to some extent.

** Steve and Susan each fill this role with their group of friends - beauty-obsessed age-fearing Sally, {{Cloudcuckoolander}} egomaniac Jane, brain-dead misogynist Patrick and, well... Jeff - but tend to trade the role back and forth during their own arguments. 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).

* ''Series/PowerRangersRPM'': Has the villainess Tenaya 7, who once spent ''an entire episode'' asking the BigBad if his evil plan had failed enough for her to go take a nap. There's also Ziggy, who is so GenreSavvy that you're surprised he doesn't look directly at the camera and inform the audience that yes, these people he hangs out with are ''serious.'' At one point, he actually does look directly at the camera and inform the audience that these people he hangs out with aren't Rangers, they just play them on TV; as a way to segue into [[SomethingCompletelyDifferent a behind-the-scenes episode]].

%%* ''Series/ShaunMicallefsMadAsHell'': This show, which is ''Series/TheDailyShow'' '''[[RecycledInSpace DOWN UNDER]]''', also makes use of this.

%%* ''Series/TheTwilightZone'': This show loved this one.

* '''':

* ''Series/{{MASH}}'': At one point, BJ suggests Klinger may actually be this. precisely because he's the only one actively trying to remove himself from [[UsefulNotes/KoreanWar the war]].

** In the ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]]'' episode "The Search Part II", [[spoiler:Sisko, O'Brien, Dax, Bashir, and T'Rul are put through a Virtual Reality MindScrew which posits a treaty between the Federation and the Dominion, an alliance that gives the Dominion the upper hand -- and Bajor. These five are the only military officers (four Starfleet, one Romulan) on Deep Space Nine who see the treaty for what it is: a betrayal of Federation ideals, Bajor, and ultimately the Federation itself. Sisko turns down a bribe-promotion and our heroes risk vaporization or court-martial and a trip to Elba II to keep the Dominion away. It turns out this is because [[AllJustADream the whole thing was a simulation]] specifically designed to gauge their reactions, and by extrapolation the reaction of the entire Federation, if the Dominion were to attempt something like that in real life, and having major powers be complicit was one parameter they were testing.]]
** In the ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode "Bliss", Seven of Nine, the Doctor and Naomi Wildman are the only ones who notice the crew acting strangely when they find an opportunity to get home. [[spoiler: That was actually a telepathic pitcher plant making everyone hallucinate their own desires in an effort to eat them.]]
*** Specifically, [[spoiler: the pitcher plant's powers make people consumed with their desires once they seem within reach. The Doctor, being a hologram, naturally isn't affected, and Seven and Naomi remain clearheaded because they don't share the others' intense desire to return to the Alpha Quadrant.]] Unfortunately, [[spoiler:once Seven learns what's going on, she gets a desire to escape the pitcher plant, which itself makes her vulnerable to it.]]

* ''Series/{{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.

*** Rowlf might be closer to sane than Kermit. He is calmer.
** ''Series/MyFamily'': Michael. Technically an Only Sane Boy, at least in the earlier seasons. His father Ben only thinks he is.

%%* ''Series/MyFamily'': Michael. Technically an Only Sane Boy, at least in the earlier seasons. His father Ben only thinks he is.