History Series / WhiteHousePlumbers

* UnfortunateNames: SIU, or Special Intelligence Unit, the organization's full name, is noted by Howard as making him and Nixon's cronies sound mentally disabled, which Bud Krogh immediately realizes the poor name choice. When it's renamed The Plumbers, Bud approves and it remains that the way for the rest of the series until Nixon's resignation.

* DramaticIrony: We watch Howard and his son frantically destroy incriminating evidence late at night on a bridge knowing full well that an envelope with his name and address on it are at the scene of the crime.

* TheGhost: Richard Nixon appears only in archival footage of the 1972 State of the Union address despite being the driving force of the Plumbers. His orders and wishes are expressed only through subordinates.

* HowWeGotHere: The first episode begins with the Plumbers' second attempt to break into the DNC office. Then the series jumps back over a year to Hunt and Liddy meeting and forming the Plumbers.

* SmallNameBigEgo: Both Liddy and Hunt think [[WrongGenreSavvy that they are heroic spies valiantly protecting America from communism]] and are valued by Nixon and his administration. In reality, they are a pair of incompetent crooks whom Nixon and his reelection committee view as expendable idiots and the only thing they are protecting is Richard Nixon's political career. ([[NiceJobFixingItVillain and ironically they end up destroying it]]) Hunt eventually figures this out, but Liddy, being the delusional fool he is, still thinks he's a big shot all the way to the end.
* SoulCrushingDeskJob: The story begins with Hunt, once a CIA agent who was canned, working for a PR firm. He's depressed about it.

** When snooping into the doctor's office, the Cubans accidentally trash the place and leave a blatantly obvious cover-up. Hunt points out that junkies looking to steal drugs don't bring drugs ''with'' them and leave them behind.

** Liddy makes the questionable decision to shoot out a light bulb in an alley the group plans to hide out in. He misses repeatedly, forcing his comrades to lift him up on their shoulders so he can get a closer shot.

** The group is forced to go back a fourth time, even though their handlers think that this is only their second attempt, and almost immediately get caught because of Frank Willis finding the lock on the door from the underground parking garage suspiciously taped open again despite initially removing it prior to his current discovery and subsequently calling the police afterwards.

* ExplainExplainOhCrap: When the Plumbers are talking with their defense team about the Watergate trails, Howard notices nearly everything is recovered from his personal safe, but there are a few things missing. He eventually puts two and two together, realizing that the Project Gemstone files were not among the items, since John Dean has decided to cooperate with the FBI, rather than hinder them any further.

* TheDogBitesBack: Everyone on the job is horrendously dismissive of McCord, admonishing him for his incompetence and for being a little slow. When an opportunity arises to turn State's evidence during the trial, he takes it and leaves the other burglars, Howard, and Liddy out to dry.

** Howard and Gordon are forced to break into Watergate one more time to get the other bugs in [=O'Brien=]'s office working properly in what would be the Plumbers' fourth and final break-in attempt, culminating in the Cuban burglars having a check that Howard has to pay to the Lakewood Country Cub when they and John McCord get caught by Watergate security, Frank Wills the security guard discovering the piece of tape on the locked stairwell door, among other things that would be the beginning of the end for Nixon's presidency.

** Liddy is told that one of the Project Gemstone missions is a go and asks which one is approved. Cut to the gang, looking at the Watergate, at the end of episode 2, showing that Project Opal was the approved Project Gemstone mission.

** Several characters chastise Gordon for shredding the Nixon reelection campaign's money, though Liddy defends his decision since money can leave a paper trail that the federal authorities can identify one way or another. Considering what happens when the Nixon White House has Dorothy Hunt pay the Cuban burglars with hush money, which is one of the factors that causes Nixon to resign as President, he's technically right.

** Liddy is introduced showing a secretary how to kill an attacker with a pencil, establishing him as an unhinged and self-appointed defender of justice.

** Gordon Liddy's weird Nazi fetish. Liddy would like to name their special ops group "Project ODESSA" after the operation that smuggled ex-Nazis [[ArgentinaIsNaziLand to South America]]. During a meeting with Mark Felt, he references [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nacht_und_Nebel Night and Fog]]. When he and Hunt are flying back east after breaking into an office, Liddy asks a stewardess for a beer--"anything German." When Howard and Dorothy pay a visit to the Liddy home, Gordon entertains them by playing Hitler speeches on the record player, much to Dorothy's horror. When swearing, he's prone to snapping, "''Scheisse''!" During the last episode, Liddy sings a Hitler anthem and does the Nazi salute, which one of the prisoners does in return.
** Liddy threatening to kill people with pencils. He's introduced showing a secretary how to defend herself against an attacker using a pencil. Several times, when furious, he reveals that he's holding a pencil in a stabbing grip in his fist. When Hunt and Liddy face off, Hunt snarks that the prison has no pencils with which Liddy can kill him.

* SmallNameBigEgo: Both Liddy and Hunt think [[WrongGenreSavvy that they are heroic spies valiantly protecting America from communism]] and are valued by Nixon and his administration. In reality, they are a pair of incompetent crooks whom Nixon and his reelection committee view as expendable idiots and the only thing they are protecting is Richard Nixon's political career([[NiceJobFixingItVillain and ironically they end up destroying it]]). Hunt eventually figures this out, but Liddy, being the delusional fool he is, still thinks he's a big shot all the way to the end.

** The group is forced to go back a fourth time, even though their handlers think that this is only their second attempt, and almost immediately get caught because of a suspicious security guard finding some of the locks on some of the doors from the underground parking garage taped open and subsequently calling the police.

* ActorAllusion: Domhnall Gleeson is initially dismissed as having too much old lady in him, yet gains command of the White House Plumbers when Bud Kogh is ousted and is initially complicit in their schemes until he becomes a liability for Nixon's presidency and decides to betray them by testifying to the Senate, though unlike [[{{Franchise/StarWars}} Armitage Hux]], his betrayal is genuine.

** Liddy is told that one of the Project Gemstone missions is a go and asks which one is approved. Cut to the gang, looking at the Watergate, at the end of episode 2.

* TheDogBitesBack: Everyone on the job is horrendously dismissive of McCord. Admonishing him for incompetence and for being a little slow. When an opportunity arises to turn State's evidence during the trial, he takes it. Leaving the other burglars out to dry.

** Howard and Gordon are forced to break into Watergate one more time to get the other bugs in [=O'Brien=]'s office working properly in what would be the Plumbers' fourth and final break-in attempt, culminating in the Cuban burglars having a check that Howard has to pay to the Lakewood Country Cub when they get caught by Watergate security, Frank Wills the security guard discovering the piece of tape on the locked stairwell door, among other things that would be the beginning of the end for Nixon's presidency.

* NoHonorAmongThieves: Dorothy Hunt ridicules Liddy for "this honor among thieves nonsense" when Liddy refuses to cooperate on a potential tell-all book about the Watergate break-in. On Election Night 1972 a pissed-off Dorothy tells her husband that Nixon won't lift a finger to help them, because, with his second term secured, he no longer has to.

** Hunt genuinely loves Dot and is utterly devastated when in episode 4 [[spoiler: she reveals she intends to divorce him.]]

* AllPsychologyIsFreudian: Liddy explains how his German housekeeper brought Hitler as an orator to his attention. The housekeeper was likely a mother figure for Liddy. Liddy notes how his wife is blonde and has Teutonic lineage.

* ActorAllusion: [[{{Franchise/StarWars}} Domhnall Gleeson is initially dismissed as having too much old lady in him, yet gains command of the White House Plumbers when Bud Kogh is ousted and is initially complicit in their schemes until he becomes a liability for Nixon's presidency and decides to betray them by testifying to the Senate, though unlike Armitage Hux, said betrayal is genuine]].

** In episode 3, Dot points out that all of Howard and Gordon Liddy's stunts are entirely pointless, that Nixon is going to win reelection with ease so there is no need for all of their comic skullduggery. Nixon won 49 states, but Hunt and Liddy's stupidity wound up driving him from office less than halfway through his second term.

* ShownTheirWork: Liddy did indeed become an occasional actor once released from prison, with a recurring role on ''Series/MiamiVice'' he appeared on ''Series/{{Airwolf}}'', ''Series/{{MacGyver|1985}}'' and nearly a hundred other movies and TV show episodes. He would also become a popular public speaker, radio talk show host and author. After prison, Hunt would go back to a successful writing career and remarry, having two more children. Both men would die millionaires.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: The show implies that the plane crash that killed Dorothy Hunt was murder done to silence her. A vaguely shady guy takes a long look at her as she's boarding, the crash happens while she's confessing a lot of stuff to a reporter about Watergate and the Kennedy assassination, and the closing CreditsGag refers to "a mysterious plane crash." In fact, while CBS News reporter Michele Clark was also killed in the crash, there's no evidence that she and Dorothy ever talked, and the crash of United Flight 553 isn't mysterious: it was [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_553 pilot error]]. Though given the timing and the people involved, it certainly generated a ''lot'' of conspiracy theories, so it's safe to assume that, given the dry nature of the RunningGags, the producers are being a little tongue-in-cheek.

** Mark Felt says that the FBI, while unwilling to do anything illegal, is dedicated to ferreting out White House leaks. Felt will soon become the biggest White House leak of all when he starts leaking to the Washington Post as "Deep Throat".

** Creator/GaryCole appears in one scene as Mark Felt. Decades later he would be unmasked as "Deep Throat", the guy who was leaking to the Washington Post.

** Several characters chastise Gordon for shredding the Nixon reelection campaign's money, though Liddy defends his decision since money can leave a paper trail that the federal authorities can identify one way or another. Considering what happens when the Nixon White House has Dorthy Hunt pay the Cuban burglars with hush money, which is one of the factors that causes Nixon to resign as President, he's technically right.

** During the stakeout on Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist, he mentions to Gordon that he and his wife Dorthy were uncomfortable about the Nazi speeches, since he fought in World War II to help America stop Hitler's mad ambitions.

** [[spoiler:At the end of Episode 4, Howard's wife Dorthy dies on the flight to Chicago.]]

** Gordon Liddy's weird Nazi fetish. Liddy would like to name their special ops group "Project ODESSA" after the operation that smuggled ex-Nazis [[ArgentinaIsNaziLand to South America]]. During a meeting Mark Felt, he references [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nacht_und_Nebel Night and Fog]]. When he and Hunt are flying back east after breaking into an office, Liddy asks a stewardess for a beer--"anything German." When Howard and Dorothy pay a visit to the Liddy home, Gordon entertains them by playing Hitler speeches on the record player, much to Dorothy's horror. When swearing, he's prone to snapping, "''Scheisse''!" During the last episode, Liddy sings a Hitler anthem and does the Nazi salute, which one of the prisoners does in return.

* ShownTheirWork: Liddy does indeed become an occasional actor once released from prison but as well as a recurring role on 'Miami Vice' he appeared on 'Airwolf', 'MacGyver' and nearly a hundred other movies and tv show episodes. He would also become a popular public speaker, radio talk show host and author. After prison, Hunt would go back to a successful writing career and remarry, having two more children. Both men would die millionaires.

** The group is forced to go back a fourth time, even though their handlers think that this is only their second attempt, and almost immediately get caught.

** Howard's daughter also contrasts Howard's situation with John Dean's. She states Dean has clearly listened to his wife and manages to turn whistleblower and then later a celebrity pundit.