History RealityIsUnrealistic / LiveActionTV

* While police dramas or dramedies featuring police consultants like [[Series/Psych]], [[Series/Castle]], [[TheMentalist The Mentalist]] and [[WhiteCollar White Collar]] do play with the boundaries of reality, they're not quite as unrealistic as one would believe. Real police departments, military organizations and government agencies hire consultants all the time, prime real life example being [[Film/CatchMeIfYouCan Frank Abignale]], who after several years as one of the world's greatest conmen, was hired onto the FBI as a consultant and stayed for decades. Other examples include military embedded reporters, film crews who follow real police around, and laypeople with special skills hired or consulted by police in solving particularly difficult cases.

* There were some viewers who complained about ''Series/SleepyHollow'' being "[[PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad too PC]]" for having a black female cop as the lead character in very small, white town. In real life there ''is'' a black female cop in Sleepy Hollow, and she even ended up being interviewed over the controversy.

* The New York Supreme Court is actually the ''lowest'' state-level court in the New York judicial system (county and municipal courts being below it). It's a trial court where felonies, large civil lawsuits, and divorces are tried, whereas other Supreme Courts only hear appeals of issues of major national or statewide legal importance. This all means that to anyone who doesn't know how the New York courts are set up, works that get the name right (like ''LawAndOrder'') sound wrong, while works that get the name wrong sound right. A few early episodes of ''LawAndOrder'' erroneously referred to the 'superior court.'

* There were some viewers who complained about ''Series/SleepyHollow'' being "[[PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad too PC]]" for having a black female cop as the lead character in very small, white town. In real life there ''is'' a black female cop in Sleep Hollow, and she even ended up being interviewed over being the alleged inspiration for the character.

* Students and younger alumni from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee often believe the red and white UWM pennants and paraphernailia used on HappyDays are a mistake, but during the period in which Happy Days takes place (late 50s and early 60s), UWM's official colors actually were white and cardinal red. The university didn't adopt its current colors (black & gold) until 1964.

** This is also a LampshadeHanging on the fact that Michael has his actor's Massachusetts accent, despite growing up in South Florida, which doesn't seem all that likely, either. However (believe it or not), it is far from unheard-of for born-and-bred Floridians to exhibit their parents' accents--for instance, Creator/DavidFosterWallace reported (in "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again) a group of four unrelated native-born South Floridians with distinctive Noo Yawk accents despite never having lived there in their lives...but their ''parents'' had. Now, Madeleine Westen doesn't have that accent, but we've never heard from his father (him being dead and all)...

** Theodore Gray, a scientist who built a coffee table in the shape of the Periodic Table - and filled it with samples of all the elements he can feasibly get hold of - was pissed at this and has demonstrated all the stable alkali metals in water, as shown here: http://www.theodoregray.com/PeriodicTable/AlkaliBangs/index.html He also says that if you want to have some REAL fun... try dropping a two-pound block of sodium into a lake and timing how long it takes to fall back down, and explode again... and again... it's on the same page, under 'Sodium Party'

* The ''Series/DoctorWho'' episodes "The Impossible Astronaut" and "Day of the Moon" were criticized by some fans because of the character Carl, a black member of {{Richard Nixon}}'s security detail. While some people claimed this was an example of BlackVikings and PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad, it turns out that in real life Nixon ''did'' have at least one black agent.

** Inverted in a more general sense by the show's worldview. While typically lauded for its realism, one of the more consistent criticisms of the show is that its portrayal of systematic dysfunction and in particular institutional determinism is unrealistically bleak, depicting a more deeply corrupt government and powerless citizenry than is actually the case; those responding to such criticisms tend to invoke this trope.

* The character of [[MagnificentBastard Tywin Lannister]] in ''Series/GameOfThrones'' was introduced skinning a stag. Viewers heartily criticised the silly fake stag and ridiculed the scene. It was a real freshly killed carcass and CharlesDance was actually skinning it on camera.

* Invoked in ''Series/BurnNotice'' when Fiona's brother shows up to help Fiona survive an old foe come back to kill her. Long story short, the brother thinks Michael is Irish from an old operation and Fiona encourages him to maintain the illusion. At a certain point they need to do some recon work and are left to wonder how an Irishman will blend into an American crew. At that point Michael drops his accent and says he's done undercover work in America before. Fiona's brother remarks that Michael's American accent could use some work.[[note]]This is also a LampshadeHanging on the fact that Michael has his actor's Massachusetts accent, despite growing up in South Florida, which is not all that unlikely either.[[/note]]

* There's a joke from ''HowIMetYourMother'' where Marshall talks about there being [[MonochromeCasting no minorities in Minnesota]] other than Music/{{Prince}}. While it may not seem like it, Minnesota does have sizable black populations in many areas, with there even being a section of Minneapolis dubbed "Little Mogadishu." That said, this was a joke about stereotypes, and in smaller towns in the state, it's closer to the truth--but incidentally ''not'' where Marshall is from (St. Cloud, which has a higher percentage of black residents than the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area--about 7% vs. about 6%--although not as much as Minneapolis or St. Paul themselves--which hover around 15% black).

* There's a joke from ''HowIMetYourMother'' where Marshall talks about there being [[MonochromeCasting no minorities in Minnesota]] other than Music/{{Prince}}. While it may not seem like it, Minnesota does have sizable black populations in many areas, with there even being a section of Minneapolis dubbed "Little Mogadishu." That said, this was a joke about stereotypes, and in rural small towns like the one Marshall is from, it's closer to the truth than in the Twin Cities area.

* There's a joke from ''HowIMetYourMother'' where Marshall talks about there being [[MonochromeCasting no minorities in Minnesota]] other than {{Prince}}. While it may not seem like it, Minnesota does have sizable black populations in many areas, with there even being a section of Minneapolis dubbed "Little Mogadishu."

** The state's appellate courts are misleading too; the court of last resort for all state matters is the plainly named Court of Appeals. If you're familiar with the Federal court system, that's just like the mid-level appeals court above the trial court and below the Supreme Court of the United States. The NY version of the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals? The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court. Yeah, good luck with convincing people who aren't legal experts that's real.

* There's a joke from ''HowIMetYourMother'' where Marshall talks about there being no minorities in Minnesota other than {{Prince}}. While it may not seem like it, Minnesota does have sizable black populations in many areas, with there even being a section of Minneapolis dubbed "Little Mogadishu."

* There's a joke from ''HowIMetYourMother'' where Marshall talks about there being no minorities in Minnesota other than {{Prince}}. While it may not seem like it, Minnesota does have sizable black populations in many areas, with there even a section of Minneapolis dubbed "Little Mogadishu."

*** She may have been "Anthony LaPaglia-ed" and had to reconstruct her accent. But then maybe the show's use of obviously non-Australian actors or Australians who had clearly been LaPaglia-ed planted the idea in people's heads that she might be American. The accent was either genuine or convincing enough that it's unlikely any Australian would call her on it if they heard it on an Australian show without knowing who she is.

** Theodore Gray, a scientist who built a coffee table in the shape of the Periodic Table - and filled it with samples of all the elements he can feasibly get hold of - was pissed at this and has demonstrated all the stable alkali metals in water, as shown here http://www.theodoregray.com/PeriodicTable/AlkaliBangs/index.html He also says that if you want to have some REAL fun... try dropping a two-pound block of sodium into a lake and timing how long it takes to fall back down, and explode again... and again... it's on the same page, under 'Sodium Party'

* A common sources of snickering about ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' is that Picard is supposedly French, but speaks English with a British accent and not a French one. Patrick Stewart is indeed British and not French, but it's common for French people who know English well to speak it in a British accent - Britian is, after all, the nearest English-speaking country to France. A French person speaking English with a British accent is no more unrealistic than is, say, a Mexican person who speaks English with an accent from the American south.

* A group of Native American actors appearing as extras in the series ''Wild Wild West'' were asked to speak in their own language for a scene, only for the director to change the dialogue as it didn't sound 'Indian' enough.

* As mentioned in the DVD commentary of the U.S. series premiere, the creators of ''TheOffice'' run up against this problem quite a bit. It's a fictional show done in documentary style, which means it needs to look "realistic", but to achieve this, it often needs to look less professional than an actual documentary. WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief isn't necessary for a documentary filmmaker, because by its very nature a documentary is assumed to be true and uses no actors or sets. Therefore, they often strive to make their footage look as artistic and professionally staged as possible. But if ''TheOffice'' did that it would probably look like a regular show, hence it has to be "behind the times".
** For the original British version, a common point of complaint from early critics was that the PointyHairedBoss David Brent was too obviously incompetent and self-deluding to make it as the manager of the branch. The retort from the series creators was that if these critics were to go into any large organisation ([[BItingTheHandHumor such as]] TheBBC) and spend just five minutes looking around, they'd run out of fingers to count the people who were just as bad if not worse than Brent but who had yet managed to make it to senior management level.

* In the early days of ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'', Jason Alexander complained to Creator/LarryDavid of the way George was written, saying that ''no'' person could possibly sink so low as to do some particular thing, that it was completely unrealistic for one person to be that selfish and stupid. Larry informed him that he himself HAD done that very same thing in real life. This changed how Jason saw the character when he realized it is possible for a person to sink that low. Also lampshaded in an episode of ''CurbYourEnthusiasm''- playing himself, Jason complains to Larry that he always gets typecasted as schmucks and assholes because of George. Larry asks what he meant, Jason said something like "Well come on, George was an asshole! He did [lists off various misdeeds of George]" to which Larry angrily replies "''I'' did those things!!!"

** In the first season episode "The Mile High Job" the audio commentary points out that the LA Convention Center (where they were shooting) looks much more like an aiport than the actual LAX.

* MarkSheppard - Badger in ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' has been criticised for his "atrocious British accent". Perhaps a borderline case - Sheppard is British, but he was laying that accent on rather thick.

* The game show ''{{QI}}'' (hosted by the genius StephenFry) lives and ''breathes'' this trope. For example: Jesus probably wasn't born December 25th; there are words that rhymes with "orange", "purple" and "silver"; goldfish have respectable memories; and [[Funny/{{QI}} they say of the Acropolis, where the Parthenon is]], that there are no straight lines... though they later admitted ''that'' wasn't actually true.

* John Rogers frequently does write-ups and Q&A sessions for each episode of ''Series/{{Leverage}}'' on his blog. For episodes that feature a prominent character with an accent (i.e. the antagonist with an Irish accent in "The Bottle Job"), someone inevitably tells Rogers that the actor's accent sounds fake, only for Rogers to reveal that the actor is actually using their native accent.

** Inverted in a more general sense by the show's worldview. While typically lauded for its realism, one of the more consistent criticisms of the show is that it its portrayal of systematic dysfunction and in particular institutional determinism is unrealistically bleak, depicting a more deeply corrupt government and powerless citizenry than is actually the case; those responding to such criticisms tend to invoke this trope.

* In the early days of ''{{Seinfeld}}'', Jason Alexander complained to Creator/LarryDavid of the way George was written, saying that ''no'' person could possibly sink so low as to do some particular thing, that it was completely unrealistic for one person to be that selfish and stupid. Larry informed him that he himself HAD done that very same thing in real life. This changed how Jason saw the character when he realized it is possible for a person to sink that low. Also lampshaded in an episode of ''CurbYourEnthusiasm''- playing himself, Jason complains to Larry that he always gets typecasted as schmucks and assholes because of George. Larry asks what he meant, Jason said something like "Well come on, George was an asshole! He did [lists off various misdeeds of George]" to which Larry angrily replies "''I'' did those things!!!"

* The character of [[MagnificentBastard Tywin Lannister]] in ''Series/GameOfThrones'' was introduced skinning a stag. Viewers heartily criticised the silly fake stag and ridiculed the scene. It was a real carcass and the actor was actually skinning it.

* Parodied in ''{{Supernatural}}'''s self-referential episode "Hollywood Babylon". There's a real black-and-white ghost woman with rope burns on her neck and the producer just says "Not sure about those neck wounds, though. They need to be ''red''."

** When testing the method of slowing the detonation of a bomb by cooling it with liquid nitrogene like in ''LethalWeapon2'', it turned out that not only did it work, it actually worked a lot better than in the movie. In the movie, cooling the bomb gives Riggs and Murtaugh two or three seconds of time to dive into cover, but in the test they had to wait for the bomb to completely thaw before it would explode 15 minutes later. To quote Adam: "The technique used by the bomb squad is far more effective in reality than it is in the movies. When does that ever happen?"

* The game show ''{{QI}}'' (hosted by the genius StephenFry) lives and ''breathes'' this trope. For example: Jesus probably wasn't born December 25th; there are words that rhymes with "orange", "purple" and "silver"; goldfish have respectable memories; and [[CrowningMomentOfFunny they say of the Acropolis, where the Parthenon is]], that there are no straight lines... even though that's not actually true.