History SpecialEffectFailure / LiveACtionTV

[[caption-width-right:350:[[http://www.agonybooth.com/greatest-american-hero-here-s-looking-at-you-kid-s01e03-part-4-13243 Special effects by Piet Mondrian.]]]]

** "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS4E10Gold Gold]]" has a particularly jarring jump cut on the teleport effect, with actor Roy Kinnear obviously moving between cuts in the foreground.

** The WWD special ''The Ballad of Big Al'' brings us:

* The History Channel {{Miniseries}} ''America: The Story of Us'' at times. A few that particularly stick out include the steamboat that goes by UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln's little raft, the log jam, and Lady Liberty's construction. Granted, they did saturate the series in CG, but it's not that conspicuous unless there's non-CG elements like people in the same frame.

** In the late '90s, they "remastered" the first three series, which didn't actually improve anything, as the CGI effects are no better than the originals. This wouldn't be a problem, except that they ''cut several minutes'' from various episodes to make room for them. The remastering also took the time to have Creator/NormanLovett record new versions of Holly's shots and lines, and adding in new ones, which were only used in closeups, with other shots being left as they were besides colour correction. [[UnintentionalUncannyValley This creates the effect that Holly is aging ten ten years and back between shots.]] The uncanny aspect is heightened by the fact that the new Holly footage has him in a blue-tinted greyscale and partly disappearing into shadow, while the unchanged footage has him in colour and his face fully visible. It's telling that Hattie Hayridge wasn't brought in to rerecord Holly's lines for Series III.

** In the late '90s, they "remastered" the first three series, which didn't actually improve anything, as the CGI effects are no better than the originals. This wouldn't be a problem, except that they ''cut several minutes'' from various episodes to make room for them. The remastering also took the time to have Norman Lovett record new versions of Holly's shots and lines, and adding in new ones, which were only used in closeups, with other shots being left as they were besides colour correction. [[UnintentionalUncannyValley This creates the effect that Holly is aging ten ten years and back between shots.]] The uncanny aspect is heightened by the fact that the new Holly footage has him in a blue-tinted greyscale and partly disappearing into shadow, while the unchanged footage has him in colour and his face fully visible. It's telling that Hattie Hayridge wasn't brought in to rerecord Holly's lines for Series III.

** The dramatic climax of the episode "Dream a Little Dream" is somewhat undercut by the fact that what is meant to be a flaming torch is blatantly an electric light on the end of a stick. Presumably they were told they couldn't use a real flame when there wasn't enough time to come up with a better effect.

* InUniverse example in a season 2 episode of ''Series/JaneTheVirgin'': Xiomara is cast on Rogelio's current telenovela as [[ItMakesSenseInContext the lesbian lover of Eleanor Roosevelt]], and they decide to disguise Xiomara's BadBadActing by digitally adjusting her face. UncannyValley does not ''begin'' to describe the finished result.

** While the new series is rather more impressive (if a bit UncannyValley) with its Turbo Boost and metamorphosis sequences, it has a harder time with effects nowhere near as special: watch the rear window during driving scenes shot from inside KITT. The color saturation is so far off, one expects to see Wile E. Coyote chasing after the Knight 3000.

* ''Series/TheMandalorian'' is a mostly [[SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome fantastic-looking series]], though there are some goofs visible in the second season. The show had at least two instances of stagehands being briefly visible, one of whom was [[FanNickname later dubbed]] "[[MemeticBystander Jeans Guy]]" by fans. [[spoiler: Though the CGI used to de-age Creator/MarkHamill to his 1983 self to portray Luke in "The Rescue" is well-done for the most part, the appearance of his eyes did dip into the UncannyValley for some.]]

** In the late '90s, they "remastered" the first three series, which didn't actually improve anything, as the CGI effects are no better than the originals. This wouldn't be a problem, except that they ''cut several minutes'' from various episodes to make room for them.
*** The remastering also took the time to have Norman Lovett record new versions of Holly's shots and lines, and adding in new ones, which were only used in closeups, with other shots being left as they were besides colour correction. [[UncannyValley This creates the effect that Holly is aging ten ten years and back between shots.]]
*** The UncannyValley aspect is heightened by the fact that the new Holly footage has him in a blue-tinted greyscale and partly disappearing into shadow, while the unchanged footage has him in colour and his face fully visible. It's telling that Hattie Hayridge wasn't brought in to rerecord Holly's lines for Series III.

* Parodied in ''[[Series/TheColbertReport A Colbert Christmas]]: [[ChristmasSpecial The Greatest Gift of All]]'', which is every cheesy Christmas trope you can think of turned {{up to|Eleven}} ''[[UpToEleven eleven]]''. Music/ElvisCostello is amazed when Stephen reveals that the "reindeer" hired for the show are actually just goats with antlers. "Well, you can't tell!" Cut to a miniature goat with a pair of toy antlers tied to its head.

** In ''Series/AvataroSentaiDonbrothers'', alarms immediately went off once it was stated that both [=KijiBrother=] and [=InuBrother=] would be portrayed by CG rather than suit actors. Come the episodes and it looks like they wouldn't be out of place in a UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 game, and it's incredibly easy to discern them whenever they're up against a live-action background. The ways they contort and move also look awkward as they don't have the same weight as the live-action characters, not to mention their lack of shadows.

** ''Series/KaizokuSentaiGokaiger'' has a recurring instance of this with [[SixthRanger Gokai Silver]]'s [[ProngsOfPoseidon trident weapon]]. Obviously the normal prop would be too fragile to use in fight scenes, so they employed a "stunt trident". The problem is that the stunt version has the prongs held together by sheets of '''black''' plastic, making it stick out like a sore thumb.

* In "The One With Phoebe's Cookies", Rachel tries to teach Joey how to sail on a boat that's obviously in front of a greenscreen in the studio.

* ''Series/QuantumLeap mostly stands up to remastering very well, but in early episodes you can tell when Al's about to walk through something, because he'll be [[ConspicuouslyLightPatch lit differently from the rest of the scene]].

* In ''Series/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'', an animatronic second head was made for Zaphod Beeblebrox. Unfortunately, it rarely worked, and for most of the series it just sits lifelessly on actor Mark Wing Davey's shoulders. The series tries to HandWave it early on, with the actor ordering his second head to "go back to sleep".

* ''Series/{{MadTV}}'' parodies this in their "Funkenstein" sketches, which [[BlaxploitationParody parody]] 1970s low-budget {{blaxploitation}} remakes of classic horror movies such as ''Film/{{Blacula}}'' and ''Blackenstein''. Some of the sketches, such as "Funkenstein vs. The Creature of the White Lagoon" and "Funkenstein vs. Nefertiti" make deliberately awful use of blue screen effects. A hilarious example is the "underwater fight scene" in "Creature from the White Lagoon", which uses video footage of an aquarium to create a lagoon.

* While ''Series/TheWalkingDead'' has generally been lauded for its special effects -- especially the [[NotUsingTheZWord zombie]] makeup. But mention "CGI Deer" on any forum and you'll be met with groans and eye-rolls.

* In the ''Series/FawltyTowers'' episode "[[Recap/FawltyTowersS2E6BasilTheRat Basil the Rat]]", most of the shots of Manuel's pet "filligree Siberian hamster" use a real rat, videotaped separately from the main action and edited in. In a scene where the rat scurries across the floor, it's obviously a model pulled by a nylon cord, but the main fx failure occurs in the final scene in which the rat pops its head out of a biscuit tin that Polly is presenting to [[spoiler:the health inspector]]. In this scene, the rat is a very unconvincing puppet with a rotating head which is operated from beneath the tin by actress Connie Booth.

* ''Series/LittleBritain'' has special effects which are obviously fake, most notably in the sketches with the tiny Dennis Waterman; a mouse (enormous to Dennis) is shown by a man in a mouse costume, walking on two legs.

** The toy version of the Series/PowerRangersMysticForce Titan Megazord's Mystic Dragon mode is extremely cool. The suit costume on the show... well, because the red Mystic Titan rides the dragon, it's essentially the Red Mystic Titan's torso wearing the dragon's legs with the rest of the dragon around its belly like an inner tube. It's really embarrassing to see the rest of the dragon flop around when it lands after an attack.

** In ''Series/AvataroSentaiDonbrothers'', alarms immediately went off once it was stated that both [=KijiBrother=] and [=InuBrother=] would be portrayed by CG rather than suit actors. Come the episodes and it looks like they wouldn't be out of place in a UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 game, and it's incredibly easy to discern them whenever they're up against a live action background. The ways they contort and move also look awkward as they don't have the same weight as the live-action characters, not to mention their lack of shadows.

** In ''Series/AvataroSentaiDonbrothers'', alarms immediately went off once it was stated that both [=KijiBrother=] and [=InuBrother=] would be portrayed by CG rather than suit actors. Comes the episodes and it looks like they wouldn't be out of place in a Playstation 2 game, and it's incredibly easy to discern them whenever they're up against a live action background. The ways they contort and move also look awkward as they don't have the same weight as the live action characters not to mention their lack of shadows.

* ''Series/TheProfessionals'' has a car going off a cliff in slow motion in one episode — which only highlights the fact that it's driven by crash-test dummies. Even if a short-sighted audience member is fooled, one of the drivers' heads falls off for no apparent reason.

** ''Series/KamenRiderBuild'', like most shows, uses separate stunt suits for action scenes from the more detailed suits used for close-up shots. One character stands out, however, for having a black undersuit in his detailed suit but a maroon one in his stunt suit, which sticks out like a sore thumb whenever the switch between costumes is made.