History RealityIsUnrealistic / LiveActionTV

** Several non-Brit fans of the show have complained about Peter Dinklage's "horrendously fake" British accent. While Dinklage is, in fact, an American, his accent has fooled some native Brits, and seems mostly to offend the ears of Americans, who believe all British accents are either Received Pronunciation or Cockney. Since ''GameOfThrones'' isn't even set in Great Britain, the point should be moot.

* While some elements of ''VivaLaBam'' were scripted in advance, some fans have claimed that Vince "Don Vito" Margera was acting, and that his over-the-top, incomprehensible manner was a put on. This is untrue, though April Margera has stated that the show made Vito out to be a bigger jerk than he actually is.
* Any mention of the character of Spearchucker Jones on ''[[Series/{{Mash}} M*A*S*H]]'' - including multiple pages on this very Wiki - inevitably includes the "fact" that he was written out when producers were told no black surgeons served in Korea. ''M*A*S*H'' is based on a real unit, the 8055th, which did indeed have an African-American surgeon on staff.
* Parodied in an episode of ''OneFootInTheGrave'', when a woman writes a play based on a typical day with the Meldrews... that is, a day when everything goes wrong and a few surreal things happen that [[RiddleForTheAges they never manage to figure out]]. Her backer protests that there isn't a proper story, and it's not convincing.

* In the early years of ''TheAdventuresOfSuperman'', when it was in black and white, Superman's costume was actually white and red, because blue would have looked wrong (you can see it in the movie Hollywoodland). A normal version was created for later seasons that were shot in color.
* Season 5 of ''MadMen'' opens with a rival agency throwing water bombs on protesters. The scene was criticized for being unrealistic and having bad dialogue, but it was actually lifted [[http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/28/on-mad-men-an-opening-scene-straight-from-page-1/ word for word]] from a contemporary New York Times article.
* Invoked in ''ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'' when Mac and Charlie get a hold of a hand grenade and use it to blow up Dee's car. There's a small explosion which blows out the windows but doesn't do much other visible damage. They start complaining that they were expecting a fireball that would lift the car in the air.

* ''TheWire''

* ''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 a 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.

* Students and younger alumni from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee often believe the red and white UWM pennants and paraphernalia 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.
* On ''PairOfKings'', the protagonists are a pair of twins born to a mixed race couple; one black and one white. Though it is rare, this has been known to happen.
* 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 realize 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).

** StevenMoffat mentioned during a panel at the summer edition of the 2014 London Film and Comic Con that back in Victorian times, the "221B" wouldn't have actually been on the door as shown in several older movies and TV series (the 2009 and 2011 movies actually [[AluminumChristmasTrees garnered criticism]] for not showing it on the door, amazingly), so with the show being modernized, this time he actually had a reason to do it.

* In the first episode of {{Series/Sharpe}}, a Spanish partisan chief sets fire to a document using a strange item which looks like a barrel-less pistol. Very few people know that flintlock lighters of that type were very fashionable among wealthy NapoleonicWars-era smokers, and call it a scriptwriter's cop-out.

* MarkSheppard - Badger in ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' - has been criticized for his "atrocious accent". Although he's a Londoner, he's from a different social class to the character he was playing and therefore had to fake the Cockney accent; the debate is over how well (or badly) he pulled it off.
** Similarly, some fans complained about Glenn Quinn's Irish accent on ''Series/{{Angel}}''. Quinn was, of course, Irish - and doing his best to done ''down'' his accent so American viewers would understand him.
** More from the Whedonverse -- 10+ years after the end of Buffy, James Marsters' real (American) accent is still rather jarring to fans of the show, as is Anthony Head's real accent... which is closer to what James Marsters adapted for the character of Spike than the one Anthony Head affected for Giles.
** And another set. Alexis Denisof who plays Wesley, does an upper class English accent so well fans tend to find it more realistic than his natural American one. Similarly the accent Amy Acker initially gave Fred in season 3 of ''{{Series/Angel}}'' was found to be unrealistic by fans. According to Joss Whedon, Acker originally spoke like that (she is a Texas native) and her accent has simply faded from years of doing Shakespeare.
** With regards to other matters, some negative criticism of ''Firely'' involved the fact the makers of the show do not allow sound to be heard in space (engines, explosions, etc). This is of course scientifically accurate, but ''Firefly'' was one of the first fiction TV series to actually depict it correctly, and viewers used to hearing sounds in space reacted negatively.
* 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 rhyme 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.

* The opening episode to the main series of the new ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Reimagined}}'' deals with how the fleet is just getting by with everyone being sleep-deprived from a relentless chase by the Cylons. During the table read, Edward James Olmos brought in a sleep-deprivation expert to consult with the cast to better inform how they would act for the episode. Olmos was convinced that people would be on the verge of suicide after five days of no sleep. The expert said everyone would just be really irritable after five days, much to Olmos' chagrin.

* In the first episode of {{Series/Sharpe}}, a Spanish partisan chief sets fire to a document using a strange item which looks like a barrel-less pistol. Very few people know that flintlock lighters of that type were very fashionable among wealthy NapoleonicWars-era smokers, and cal it a scriptwriter's cop-out.

** With regards to other matters, some negative criticism of ''Firely'' involved the fact the makers of the show do not allow sound to be heard in space (engines, explosions, etc). This is of course scientifically accurate, but ''Firefly'' was one of the first fiction TV series to actually depict it correctly, but viewers used to hearing sounds in space reacted negatively.

* 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 typecast as schmucks and assholes because of George. Larry asks what he meant, Jason says 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!!!"

* 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-Britain 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 (and Picard only speaks French in ''one episode.'' Even his visit home to France was everyone speaking English).

** 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 [[http://www.theodoregray.com/PeriodicTable/AlkaliBangs/index.html here]]. 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'

** In yet another episode, many complained about a villain's "fake" scar. In fact, the actor had gotten that scar while trying to stop a mugging, and as a consequence he'd been out of work for years until B5.

** This was picked up on in ''Series/{{Lost}}'', when fans asked why the French woman trapped on the Island by herself for 16 years is speaking with a Croatian accent. The producers regularly discuss this on their podcasts for Rousseau-heavy episodes, pondering if her traumatic experiences are responsible for the accent shift.

* Arguably, every episode of every 'ghost hunting' show ever - except for England's ''MostHaunted'', which was revealed to be a fabrication. (Cast and crew members of shows such as ''GhostHunters'', ''ParanormalState'', and ''GhostAdventures'' absolutely insist that no fakery is involved.)

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

* Terence Winter, creator of ''BoardwalkEmpire'', discusses this trope in [[http://www.avclub.com/articles/boardwalk-empire-showrunner-terence-winter-dissect,84300/ this interview]] with the AV Club, using the example of a wire-mesh fence as something that existed in the 1920s but would appear incongruously modern.

** As {{Badass}} as [[BadassGay Omar Little]] is, there's no way he would really be able to survive a leap from a fourth-floor window, right? Except for the fact that Donnie Andrews, one of the real-life Baltimorians Little is based off, pulled off a similar feat with a ''sixth''-floor drop.
** Some fans got upset in the season five opener, when Bunk and Landsman dupe a murderer into confessing with a "lie detector test" that is actually just a photocopier with the words "TRUE" and "FALSE" on different sheets of paper. The only problem is, this method has actually been used to get a murder confession on multiple occasions. As they say in the episode: "The bigger the lie, the more they believe."

* As {{Badass}} as [[TheWire Omar Little]] is, there's no way he would really be able to survive a leap from a fourth-floor window, right? Except for the fact that Donnie Andrews, one of the real-life Baltimorians Little is based off, pulled off a similar feat with a ''sixth''-floor drop.

** 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 organization ([[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.

* 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 38:00 of [[http://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/2/5/4/25442b9c03c4be6f/sofadogs_dollhouse_1x05.mp3?c_id=2468103&expiration=1386874355&hwt=220fbf492561290e210c874f73dd58b8 this podcast.]]

** 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 (or haven't been on trial/sued in New York lately) that's real.

** There's a joke 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).
** 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 in fact the ShoutOut to London 20 Fenchurch Street Scyscraper, which in fact [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20_Fenchurch_Street#Solar_glare_problem works as a concave mirror, and on a sunny day partially melted a car, set a carpet on fire in a nearby 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 - Britain 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.

** This criticism was also aimed at Mira Furlan, who played Delenn using her native Yugoslavian/Croatian accent, leading detractors of the show to complain that the character's accent sounded "fake". Similarly with the new Earth Alliance president late in season 4; like Furlan, the actress used her real accent (Polish) and many viewers complained that it sounded fake. With the new president, though, viewers did at least have one point in their favor; the actress was supposed to be portraying a ''Russian'' character--and though both Polish and Russian are Slavic languages, the accents sound ''very'' different. So, real accent... just not a real ''Russian'' accent.
** This was picked up on in ''Series/{{Lost}}'', when fans asked why the French woman trapped on the Island by herself for 16 years is speaking with a Croatian accent. The producers regularly discuss this on their podcasts for Rosseau-heavy episodes, pondering if her traumatic experiences are responsible for the accent shift.

* ''Series/BlakesSeven'' is often criticised for FashionDissonance concerning its [[SeventiesHair plethora of perms]]. No-one on the show actually had permed hair - Gareth Thomas was just very naturally curly.