History SkewedPriorities / LiveActionTV

** "[[ Bad Tidings]]": After Fiona Thompson's murder, Charles Rust wants to push through and continue planning Garden Day. Mary then asks Charles if he still wants it to happen as normal because he wants to win the top award for the third year in a row.

* ''Series/MidsomerMurders'': In "[[Recap/MidsomerMurdersS8E7 Sauce for the Goose]]", Ralph's company is in serious financial trouble but he would rather spend his days in the woods birdwatching.

* ''Series/HorribleHistories'': A German soldier attempting to notify Hitler about the D-Day invasion is blocked by two guards who are more worried about pissing the Fuhrer off by waking him than about the prospect of losing the war. At the end, Hitler awakens and gives his order... his ''breakfast'' order, which the guards give top priority.

* Deliberately invoked by Mr Moseby in ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody'' when he finds out the twins have been climbing through the air vents. "They could have damaged the vents!"

-->'''Scott Jr.''': Sir, are you okay?!
-->'''Judge Nelson''': It's "Your Honor"!
-->'''Scott Jr.''': Your Honor, are you okay?
-->'''Judge Nelson''': No, I am not okay! There's rancid Chinese food back here.
* ''Series/TrueLies2023'':

-->'''Helen''': Harry, if we live through this, you're sleeping on the couch.
-->'''Harry''': Yeah, I figured.

->''"I hate to remind everyone but, um, I've just destroyed a merger that probably took hundreds of years to set up, the office is on fire, Denholm is furious-- so can we please please concentrate on what's important ''AND HELP ME PUT ON MY SHOES!''"''

-->'''Clark''': He's ''what''?!

* ''Series/BreakingBad'': In "Salud", after [[spoiler:Gus intentionally drinks poisoned tequila in a SelfPoisoningGambit]], he excuses himself to the restroom at the first opportunity to vomit it back up. He takes the time to first turn on the sink (to cover up the sounds), take off his suit, neatly fold it on the sink counter, and place a folded hand towel on the floor in front of the toilet to kneel on before making himself throw up the poison that's killing him.

** In the first two seasons, this was Cordelia's main character note: no matter what danger anyone was in, she would always bring up some completely irrelevant detail [[ItsAllAboutMe (usually of the self-centered variety)]] that she deemed far more important. [[CharacterDevelopment She got better.]]
** In the film, Pike cuts off Amilyn's arm and his main concern is his ruined jacket.

* ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'': Phoebe has a terrible tendency to prioritize her personal/professional life over her duties as a Charmed One.

* ''Series/{{The Sandman|2022}}'' (2022):

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': In the episode "Body Parts", Quark is diagnosed with a terminal illness. He and his brother, Rom, are planning the funeral when Dr. Bashir delivers a message that the diagnosis was incorrect.
-->'''Quark:''' Do you know what this means, Rom?\\

*** Lampshaded by Rom when Quark hires a Ferengi assassin who cares more about the thrill and challenge of the job than the paycheck (but isn't completely uncaring).

** In the notorious "A Night in Sickbay", Archer is so worked up about the illness his dog has contracted on an alien planet that he's willing to risk dooming his entire ship to a long and agonising trip back to Earth at impulse, rather than apologise to those aliens for taking a dog to visit a stand of sacred trees. Archer does eventually realize that stress caused by a combination of TheChainsOfCommanding, isolation, and sleep deprivation, were causing him to make bad decisions.
** In [[Recap/StarTrekEnterpriseS02E09Singularity "Singularity"]], most of the crew become fixated on small things (e.g. Trip on fixing the captain's chair, Hoshi on making an old family recipe).
* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': In "Fair Haven", the ship is facing destruction and needs all power diverted. When ordered to divert power from the holodeck, [[VoodooShark which the show had established to be impossible]], Ensign Kim warns they'll lose the titular holodeck program that they've been running for the last few days. Yes, a computer game is more important than their own lives.

* ''Series/YoungSheldon'': In "An Ugly Car, an Affair and Some Kickass Football", Petersen is less concerned with Wayne's well-being than in getting him back in shape to coach the big Friday game.
** In "A Launch Party and a Whole Human Being" Sheldon is more concered about the launch of his database than the birth of Mandy's baby.

* ''Series/TheSandman2022'':

* This is the main element of the ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' character [=MacGruber=], a parody of [[Series/MacGyver1985 MacGyver]]. In each sketch, [=MacGruber=]'s always too distracted by his own personal issues to even bother with defusing the bomb that's about to detonate. Such distractions include alcoholism, fear of aging, his co-workers talking behind his back, the 2008 Recession wiping out all his money, etc.
* Parodied in ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' when JD imagines life as a SitCom. When one patient finds out he has terminal lung cancer, he says "at least I don't have to eat my wife's cooking anymore".

-->'''Alex:''' Gigi finding out about Dean is worse than finding out magic.
-->'''Justin:''' Really?
-->'''Alex:''' No, but it's more important for me.

* A major obstacle in ''Series/{{Chernobyl}}'' is the Soviet government's obsession with admitting mistakes or looking bad. The ''first'' thing the party leaders in Pripyat do is cut the phone lines to prevent word of the accident from spreading (which only raises the alarm for other nuclear scientists when they try to figure out an unexpected radiation detection and realize that [[RevealingCoverup Chernobyl isn't answering the phone]]). It's only when the radiation becomes impossible to hide that the government is willing to admit that something is wrong--and even when they do seek help from the West, they lie about the level of radiation for propaganda reasons, which only results in a high-end robot getting fried in 12,000 (not 2,000) roentgen as soon as it's deployed. Even at the end, the KGB drags its heels on ''actually fixing'' the problem that made the Chernobyl disaster possible in the first place, driving Valery Legasov to deploy his ThanatosGambit to get the word out.

** In one episode Carla has a CatapultNightmare where her husband Turk and his {{Heterosexual Life Partner|s}} JD decide that [[IfItsYouItsOkay maybe they aren't so heterosexual after all]], and the only way for them to be together is to MurderTheHypotenuse: her. When she wakes up, she is horrified... that her dream was in English and not Spanish, and worries that it means she's losing touch with her Dominican identity. At the end of the episode, after her problem is sorted out, she has the exact same dream in Spanish and sleeps like a baby through it.

** In the notorious "A Night in Sickbay", Archer is so worked up about the illness his dog has contracted on an alien planet that he's willing to risk dooming his entire ship to a long and agonising trip back to Earth at impulse, rather than apologise to those aliens for taking a dog to visit a stand of sacred trees.

* ''Series/TheMuppetShow'': Gonzo's priorities are not those of a rational...whatever he is. His first thought when JP Grosse plans to demolish the theatre is that it would make a terrific act, for example.