History RealityIsUnrealistic / LiveActionTV

* The producers of ''Series/TheBorgias'' knew enough about the real period that they could have portrayed things accurately, but chose not to since they feared this reaction from the audience. Meanwhile, another series, ''Borgia: Faith and Fear'' played the DeliberateValuesDissonance for all its worth. As [[http://www.exurbe.com/?p=2176 one analysis]] put it:

-->I think [Showtime did it] because they were afraid of alienating their audience with the sheer implausibility of what the Renaissance was actually like. Rome in 1492 was so corrupt, and so violent, that I think they don’t believe the audience will believe them if they go full-on. Almost all the Cardinals are taking bribes? Lots, possibly the majority of influential clerics in Rome overtly live with mistresses? Every single one of these people has committed homicide, or had goons do it? Wait, they all have goons? Even the monks have goons? It feels exaggerated. Showtime toned it down to a level that matches what the typical modern imagination might expect.

** John Rogers frequently does write-ups and Q&A sessions for each episode 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.

* When the ''Series/MythBusters'' [[TropesExaminedByTheMythBusters bust a Hollywood myth,]] like, say, BlownAcrossTheRoom, you can be almost certain that there will be a large portion of fans who clamor about having the myth re-tested because they're so used to seeing such myths on the media for so long that they have difficulty believing that real life won't live up to what they expect based on said myths.

* 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 is as about as white as and 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 60% white and 15% black).
** Also on ''HowIMetYourMother'' Ted's former boss Hammond Druthers is mentioned to have designed a building that focused reflected sunlight so much that it ''melted a few cars and boiled the city aquarium killing thousands of fish'' while it may sound absurd, it is nin fact the ShoutOut to London 20 Fenchurch Street Scyscraper, which in fact [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20_Fenchurch_Street#Solar_glare_problem workes as concave mirror, and on a sunny day partially melted a car, set a carpet on fire in a nerby store,]] [[http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/09/04/london-skyscrapers-deathray-reflection-is-melting-cars-burning-businesses-but-also-cooking-eggs/ and apparently can be used to cook an egg]]. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vdara And it's not even the first building designed by this architect to have this "little problem"]]
* A common source 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.
** Of course if you get one to not speak in [[IncrediblyLamePun lingua franca]].

** Also on ''HowIMetYourMother'' Ted's former boss Hammond Druthers is mentioned to have designed a building that focused reflected sunlight so much that it ''melted a few cars and boiled the city aquarium killing thousends of fish'' while it may sound absurd, it is nin fact the ShoutOut to London 20 Fenchurch Street Scyscraper, which in fact [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20_Fenchurch_Street#Solar_glare_problem workes as concave mirror, and on a sunny day partially melted a car, set a carpet on fire in a nerby store,]] [[http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/09/04/london-skyscrapers-deathray-reflection-is-melting-cars-burning-businesses-but-also-cooking-eggs/ and apparently can be used to cook an egg]]. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vdara And it's not even the first building designed by this architect to have this "little problem"]]

** For the [[Series/TheOfficeUK 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.

** "The Underwater Menace" is often criticised for the over-the-top, ridiculous and cheesy Eastern European accent used by the MadScientist Professor Zaroff. That was the actor's natural accent.

* 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.

* 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 ''HappyDays'' 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.

* In DerrenBrown's [[Series/{{Apocalypse}} Apocalypse]] (which stages an insanely elaborate fake ZombieApocalypse, with common archetypal characters of such films being played by actors), the "hero" of the story (who is an unsuspecting member of the public who doesn't realise it's fake) uses extremely stilted or cliched dialogue that would be laughed at in a B-movie, despite it being completely natural. [[JustifiedTrope It's unsurprising really]]; given that he's a [[UnfazedEveryman very-definitely-fazed everyman]] totally out of his depth he's not going to be thinking up witty or creative things to say, and will be drawing on the only things that will give him any familiarity with that scenario (ie zombie apocalypse movies).

* The television show ''Series/TheNanny'' featured Niles the British butler working for British Broadway producer Maxwell Sheffield. The show would repeatedly get fan mail suggesting that Daniel Davis, [[FakeBrit who is from Arkansas]], coach Charles Shaughnessy, who played Maxwell and who is (a) from London, and b) [[RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething an honest-to-god member of the British aristocracy]]) to make his accent more believable.

* The television show ''TheNanny'' featured a [[FakeBrit British]] butler working for a British Broadway producer. The show would repeatedly get fan mail suggesting that the guy who played the butler (who is from Arkansas) coach the guy who played the producer (who is a) from London, and b) [[RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething an honest-to-god member of the British aristocracy]]) to make his accent more believable.

** Also on ''HowIMetYouMother'' Ted's former boss Hammond Druthers is mentioned to have designed a building that focused reflected sunlight so much that it ''melted a few cars and boiled the city aquarium killing thousends of fish'' while it may sound absurd, it is nin fact the ShoutOut to London 20 Fenchurch Street Scyscraper, which in fact [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20_Fenchurch_Street#Solar_glare_problem workes as concave mirror, and on a sunny day partially melted a car, set a carpet on fire in a nerby store,]] [[http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/09/04/london-skyscrapers-deathray-reflection-is-melting-cars-burning-businesses-but-also-cooking-eggs/ and apparently can be used to cook an egg]]. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vdara And it's not even the first building designed by this architect to have this "little problem"]]

* The ''Series/DoctorWho'' episodes "The Impossible Astronaut" and "Day of the Moon" were criticized by some fans because of the character of Carl Peterson, 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.

* The actors portraying Fitz and Simmons in ''AgentsOfSHIELD'' were criticized early on for their British accents sounding "fake". Both actors are indeed British: Iain De Caestecker is from Glasgow, Elizabeth Henstridge is from Sheffield. But, since regional British accents are rare on American shows, a lot of viewers apparently assumed they were American actors trying for more familiar [[IAmVeryBritish Edinburgh- or London-based RP accents]] and getting them slightly wrong.

* ''[[Series/BreakingBad Breaking Bad]]'' is praised for its realism--yet gets some things very wrong, despite having an actual chemist involved with the writing. Two egregious examples:
** Meth is not cocaine. Tweekers ''do not care'' how pure their meth is. If it's bad, they'll do twice as much.
** [[Series/MythBusters Hydrofluoric acid will not eat a hole in a bathtub, and 50 grams of mercury fulminate will not explode violently enough to rupture windows.]]

* ''HorribleHistories'' loves pointing out how our perceptions of history are often misguided or influenced by anachronistic sources that came later, such as the works of Shakespeare influencing how Richard III is remembered. Their two greatest sources of sketches are commonly held misconceptions and things that sound so ridiculous that no one would believe they actually happened. For example, if someone named a Victorian era character "Never," or a 17th Century character "Silence," the vast majority of people probably would think it was something out of a bad fanfic as opposed to a completely real name used in England at the time. They've also pointed out plenty of weird things that would seem trite or like contrived plot convenience in a story that have happened in real life, such as dying on stage or having Dick Turpin be caught by having a kind of mentor coincidentally deliver a letter from him and recognise his handwriting.

* DerrenBrown's [[Series/{{Apocalypse}} Apocalypse]] (which stages an insanely elaborate fake ZombieApocalypse, with common archetypal characters of such films being played by actors,) the "hero" of the story (who is an unsuspecting member of the public who doesn't realise it's fake) uses extremely stilted or cliched dialogue that would be laughed at in a B-movie, despite it being completely natural. [[JustifiedTrope It's unsurprising really]]; given that he's a [[UnfazedEveryman very-definitely-fazed everyman]] totally out of his depth he's not going to be thinking up witty or creative things to say, and will be drawing on the only things that will give him any familiarity with that scenario (ie zombie apocalypse movies).

* ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'' took flack for a murder attempt audiences saw as too far-fetched in "The Sign of Three: an extremely sharp and narrow blade is used to stab through the very tight belt of a military dress uniform, which acts as a pressure bandage and prevents the victim from bleeding noticeably until the belt is removed hours later. Both attempted murders fail, as even once the belt is removed the bleeding is slow enough to be stopped by prompt medical attention. The method is very similar to the ''successful'' real-life [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empress_Elisabeth_of_Austria#Assassination assassination of Empress Elisabeth of Austria]]. The Empress' extremely tight corset impeded circulation so much that she survived for about half an hour after ''being stabbed through the heart'' because blood didn't enter the pericardial sac until the lacing was cut to allow her to breathe more freely.

* The television show ''TheNanny'' featured a [[FakeBrit British]] butler working for a British Broadway producer. The show would repeatedly get fan mail suggesting that the guy who played the butler (who is from Arkansas) coach the guy who played the producer (who is from London) to make his accent more believable.

* While police dramas or dramedies featuring police consultants like {{Psych}}, {{Castle}}, [[TheMentalist The Mentalist]] and [[WhiteCollar White Collar]] do play with the boundaries of reality, they're not quite as unrealistic as one would initially 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.

* Tim Minear remarks in an audio comment for ''{{Dollhouse}}'' that they brought in a blind woman as an expert, so ElizaDushku could portray blindness realistically. But it turned out that when she behaved like a blind person actually would, then it looked fake on screen. So they went with more stereotypical "blind" behaviour. You can hear them talk about it starting around 35:10 of [[http://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/2/5/4/25442b9c03c4be6f/sofadogs_dollhouse_1x05.mp3?c_id=2468103&expiration=1386874355&hwt=220fbf492561290e210c874f73dd58b8 this podcast.]]

* Tim Minear remarks in an audio comment for ''{Dollhouse}}'' that they brought in a blind woman as an expert, so ElizaDushku could portray blindness realistically. But it turned out that when she behaved like a blind person actually would, then it looked fake on screen. So they went with more stereotypical "blind" behaviour. You can hear them talk about it starting around 35:10 of [[http://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/2/5/4/25442b9c03c4be6f/sofadogs_dollhouse_1x05.mp3?c_id=2468103&expiration=1386874355&hwt=220fbf492561290e210c874f73dd58b8 this podcast.]]

* Tim Minear remarks in an audio comment for {{Dollhouse}} that they brought in a blind woman as an expert, so Eliza Dushku could portray blindness realistically. But it turned out that when she behaved like a blind person actually would, then it looked fake on screen. So they went with more stereotypical "blind" behaviour.

* 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 initially 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.

* While police dramas or dramedies featuring police consultants like ''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 initially 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.