History OvershadowedByControversy / LiveActionTV

* ''Series/{{Brookside}}'' had an infamous storyline featuring SiblingIncest between fully related (and raised together in a normal family) siblings Nat and Georgia Simpson. It was even a plot point that the family goes to a therapist, who discovers that the two didn't have a [[FreudianExcuse traumatic childhood]] or anything else that would explain it. Ultimately, they get a happy ending and move away to live as a married couple. It aired in the mid-1990s but is still remembered as one of the most controversial storylines ever to be featured in a UK soap opera.

* ''Series/Brookside'' had an infamous storyline featuring SiblingIncest between fully related (and raised together in a normal family) siblings Nat and Georgia Simpson. It was even a plot point that the family goes to a therapist, who discovers that the two didn't have a [[FreudianExcuse traumatic childhood]] or anything else that would explain it. Ultimately, they get a happy ending and move away to live as a married couple. It aired in the mid-1990s but is still remembered as one of the most controversial storylines ever to be featured in a UK soap opera.

* The Creator/KevinJames-led sitcom ''Series/KevinCanWait'' is better known for its ill-fated attempt to shake the show's dynamics up in its second season, thanks to CBS' decision to fire Creator/ErinnHayes, who played Kevin's wife on the show, and replacing her with James' ''[[Series/TheKingOfQueens King of Queens]]'' co-star Creator/LeahRemini in an attempt to sell it as a SpiritualSequel to the earlier show. Hayes' character was subsequently killed off, and any attempt to address her death was poorly handled, with it only being mentioned in passing at the beginning of the Season 2 premiere episode. The subsequent backlash gave the show some very negative publicity and may have played a factor in the show not getting renewed for a third season, as well as helped to spawn the critically acclaimed and venomous DeconstructiveParody series ''Series/KevinCanFuckHimself''.

* ''Karamo'' was a talk show similar to ''Maury'' and wasn't really popular, but now it's remembered for when Tiktok Chef Pii of the infamous Pink Sauce brought on a critic and proceeded to insult and gaslight her for the entire segment without letting the woman really defend herself. Making things worse, Karamo stood by her side and condemned the critic as well, accusing her of ruining the woman's life and complaining for no reason. Pink Sauce is actually known for misleading information, the chef's incredible inexperience in sauce making, not knowing what the FDA stood for, and the fact many sauces have been delivered spoiled or damaged. The critic in question wasn't just complaining to complain, and it was clear there was either some miscommunication or no research at all here. Comments even brought up why they didn't bring on people who actually lied about what the sauce did to them compared to someone with legitimate critiques. The audience cheered on the chef as well, making the critic feel like a pariah, and even when she sadly had to concede and say this should make everyone think, Karamo threw it back on her and said it was her problem and her fault before ending the segment there. This backfired for everyone except the critic; Chef Pii's reputation sunk further, and Karamo was lambasted online for his poor research and gaslighting, with people accusing him of showing favoritism to black women guests over the white ones. This culminated in him leaving a nasty tweet online calling these critics haters before deleting it, and his show scrubbed the video itself from the internet, with reaction and commentary channels being the only evidence of what happened in that episode. Many comments on newer videos continually bring up that Karamo should apologize to the critic; he did eventually contact Ally, four months later, and he still showed no real remorse to gaslighting her and, as comments pointed out, the apology felt half assed and that he was simply saving face because people were still posting comments begging for him to apologize to Ally. He even seemed to use her own words against her. Karamo went from the helpful guy on ''Queer Eye'' to a gaslighter.

** ''Series/KamenRiderBuild'': In Japan, the ''Cross-Z'' V-Cinema is remembered poorly, partly because of its content (unpopular new characters and complaints of a formulaic plot) but also because promotional material gave the false impression that it was suitable for young children to be taken to. Official social media channels shared photos of children cosplaying at screenings of the movie - who would then have been treated to graphic scenes like [[spoiler:Ryuuga being tortured onscreen and Yui burning to death.]] This is likely to be why subsequent V-Cinemas have largely toned down the gore, while the BloodierAndGorier ''[[KamenRiderSaber Trio of Deep Sin]]'' movie included some of the worst scenes in the trailer as a warning of what to expect.

** ''Series/KamenRiderBuild'': In Japan, the ''Cross-Z'' V-Cinema is remembered poorly partly because of its content (unpopular new characters and complaints of a formulaic plot), but also because it was promoted as suitable for young children to be taken to. Official social media channels even shared photos of children cosplaying at screenings of the movie - despite it containing graphic scenes such as [[spoiler:Ryuuga being tortured onscreen and Yui burning to death.]] This is likely to be why subsequent V-Cinemas have largely toned down the gore, while the BloodierAndGorier ''[[KamenRiderSaber Trio of Deep Sin]]'' movie included some of the worst scenes in the trailer as a warning of what to expect.

* ''Series/TomorrowsPioneers'', being Hamas-inspired propaganda, is only known in the West for its anti-Semitic and anti-American themes, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking as well as for having a character that is a]] [[MockyMouse blatant rip-off of]] WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse. Pretty much the only defenders of the show are its very makers, as even moderate Palestinians don't like it because of their concerns that it could undermine negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis.

* The single thing to be talked about ''Series/{{Heathers}}'' is what many consider to be the offensive undertones of the Heathers' casting as a fat girl, a gender-queer person, and a biracial girl, while casting Veronica and JD as white, conventionally attractive and cisgender, which was widely criticized for giving the series the appearance of being a paranoid alt-right fantasy (especially since it wasn't done as social satire or a what-if scenario) and which many saw as completely missing the point of [[Film/{{Heathers}} the original film]]. In fact, no online review of the show goes by without mentioning it and no site featuring it is without this debate. Making matters worse was the show's glorified portrayal of school gun violence in an era where mass shootings were rampant across the United States. The Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, made this premise rather tasteless, [[DistancedFromCurrentEvents forcing Paramount Network to delay the premiere of the series]] -- which itself got cancelled after another high-profile high school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas, and permanently got the series dropped from the network. Paramount ultimately reversed course and it was shown in an edited form almost half a year later -- just days before a white nationalist stormed into a synagogue in Pittsburgh and killed eleven worshippers, forcing Paramount to make even ''more'' edits.

* The single thing to be talked about ''Series/{{Heathers}}'' is what many consider to be the offensive undertones of the Heathers' casting as a fat girl, a gender-queer person, and a biracial girl, while casting Veronica and JD as white, conventionally attractive and cisgender, which was widely criticized for giving the series the appearance of being a paranoid alt-right fantasy and which many saw as completely missing the point of [[Film/{{Heathers}} the original film]]. In fact, no online review of the show goes by without mentioning it and no site featuring it is without this debate. Making matters worse was the show's glorified portrayal of school gun violence in an era where mass shootings were rampant across the United States. The Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, made this premise rather tasteless, [[DistancedFromCurrentEvents forcing Paramount Network to delay the premiere of the series]] -- which itself got cancelled after another high-profile high school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas, and permanently got the series dropped from the network. Paramount ultimately reversed course and it was shown in an edited form almost half a year later -- just days before a white nationalist stormed into a synagogue in Pittsburgh and killed eleven worshippers, forcing Paramount to make even ''more'' edits.

* The character of Series/MaxHeadroom was a popular character of a cyberpunk future and would become a pop culture icon of the 80's. These days, he's remembered for two things, one being a homage in Music/{{Eminem}}'s music video for Rap God, the other being [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Headroom_signal_hijacking the Max Headroom broadcast intrusion,]] in which a man in a Max Headroom mask hijacked the signal of two broadcast channels in Chicago. Many clips of the character on [=YouTube=] often use quotes from the hijacker.

* A couple ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' episodes have this attached:

* The single thing to be talked about ''Series/{{Heathers}}'' is what many consider to be the offensive undertones of the Heathers' casting as a fat girl, a gender-queer, and biracial, while casting Veronica and JD as white, conventionally attractive and cisgender, which was widely criticized for giving the series the appearance of being a paranoid alt-right fantasy and which many saw as completely missing the point of [[Film/{{Heathers}} the original film]]. In fact, no online review of the show goes by without mentioning it and no site featuring it is without this debate. Making matters worse was the show's glorified portrayal of school gun violence in an era where mass shootings were rampant across the United States. The Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, made this premise rather tasteless, [[DistancedFromCurrentEvents forcing Paramount Network to delay the premiere of the series]] -- which itself got cancelled after another high-profile high school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas, and permanently got the series dropped from the network. Paramount ultimately reversed course and it was shown in an edited form almost half a year later -- just days before a white nationalist stormed into a synagogue in Pittsburgh and killed eleven worshippers, forcing Paramount to make even ''more'' edits.

* NBC's ''Series/Rise2018'' was nominally based on a non-fiction book about a gay man (albeit closeted at the time) who revolutionized a high school theater department. His equivalent in the show is straight, which wasn't helped at all by producer Jason Katims making what he later regretted as an extremely poor choice of words when he said he wanted to "tell my own story," which many LGBTQ advocates took as him saying he couldn't possibly relate to a sexuality outside of his own, when in fact he was just commenting on how the original book was just a jumping off point for the show's fictional story (enough that Katims has a "created by" credit rather than "developed by"). The show did feature several prominent non-straight characters and got the blessing of GLAAD for their positive portrayal, but many had a hard time getting past that initial impression. Perhaps as a result of the controversy, it only lasted one season.

* ''Series/{{Maude}}'' ran for six seasons, and was a ratings hit throughout its run, but today it is remembered for the abortion episode and little else. This was very evident when Creator/BeaArthur died, and reporters mentioned virtually nothing else about the show.

** The 1966 story "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E7TheCelestialToymaker The Celestial Toymaker]]" would generally be remembered as a middle-of-the-road MissingEpisode once previously upheld as a classic thanks to faulty reviewers, if not for the fact that it contains a scene where a minor villain, played by a white actor, [[NWordPrivileges utters the n-word]] during a game of "eeny meeny miney moe." The BBC have had to go out of their way to censor the offending word in official releases of the story's surviving audio recording, but despite this the slur still dominates it, in part because while the Classic Series is no stranger to ValuesDissonance, this is by and large considered the most blatant example by both fans and analysts. There has also been some discussion about whether the story has anti-Chinese content or not, as the Toymaker dresses in stereotypical "old China" clothing and the word "celestial" is an obscure derogatory response to Chinese people and culture in British English, although there is no actual yellowface make-up. When the character returned in "The Giggle", the word "celestial" was not used to refer to him in dialogue or credits (apart from one MythologyGag in dialogue), he mostly acted in a stage-German way (with briefer imitations of French or American), and he was depicted as somewhat racist.

** The 1966 story "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E7TheCelestialToymaker The Celestial Toymaker]]" would generally be remembered as a middle-of-the-road MissingEpisode once previously upheld as a classic thanks to faulty reviewers, if not for the fact that it contains a scene where a minor villain, played by a white actor, [[NWordPrivileges utters the n-word]] during a game of "eeny meeny miney moe." The BBC have had to go out of their way to censor the offending word in official releases of the story's surviving audio recording, but despite this the slur still dominates it, in part because while the Classic Series is no stranger to ValuesDissonance, this is by and large considered the most blatant example by both fans and analysts.

** The franchise also faced other [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bachelor_and_race controversies over race]] throughout its run. Notably, non-White contestants in the early seasons, both women and men, usually got eliminated first, while those who remained were either mixed race or had their heritage downplayed. It wasn't until 2017 and 2021, respectively, that the franchise saw its first Black leads in Rachel Lindsay and Matt James.

* ''Series/TheChair2014'' was a short-lived reality show with a unique concept: two novice filmmakers from different creative backgrounds would each have to make a movie using the same script, with the series documenting their efforts and the winning movie being determined by online poll. Nowadays, it's best remembered for how said online poll allowed the highly controversial WebVideo/ShaneDawson to win even though his film, ''Not Cool'', was universally agreed to be the worse one; his bad behavior on the show was also brought up as the controversies surrounding him caused his popularity to implode.