History ThePollyanna / LiveActionTV

* Basi from the Nigerian TV show ''Basi And Company'' is remarkably cheerful for a broke, unemployed (and unemployable) man living in a one-room apartment (which he insists on calling "Basi's Palace"). Basi's landlady wants him out, but he's so sunny that nothing she does, including taking his only mattress, can get him to leave.
* ''Budoy'', from the 2011 Filipino drama of the same name, is an interesting RareMaleExample. Interesting in that, while he does have the sunny disposition of the Pollyanna, this one might actually be partly due to the fact that he is diagnosed with Angelman Syndrome, a mental disorder that does create the happy and childish personality that he exhibits. Even in the finale, he still is a Pollyanna.

* Jane from the BritCom ''Series/WaitingForGod'' is a mix of this and suffering from StockholmSyndrome given her seemingly pathological infatuation with the smarmy weasel Harvey Baines.

* Sue Heck of ''Series/TheMiddle''.
* Erin on ''Series/TheOfficeUS''. She's Pam's replacement as receptionist at Dunder Mifflin. She's more upbeat and cheerful than her co-workers and actually seems to enjoy working for Michael (but it could be because she's new). She somehow manages to find the positive in Michael lying to a group of underprivileged teens about paying their college tuitions in "Scott's Tots". We also learn in "Koi Pond" that she's an orphan.
* Kenneth Parcell in ''Series/ThirtyRock''. "My mother always told me that even when things seem bad, there's someone else who's having a worse day. [[BreadEggsMilkSquick Like being stung by a bee or getting a splinter or being chained to a wall in someone's sex dungeon.]]"

* In ''Series/{{Lodge 49}}'', Sean Dudley has, in the space of only a year or so, lost his father, his childhood home, and his business, and suffered a DreamCrushingHandicap that has left him in debt up to his eyeballs. Despite this, he is relentlessly optimistic.
* Jared from ''Series/{{Silicon Valley}}''. Over the course of the series he's stuck on an uninhabited island full of robot forklifts, kicked out of his home by an asshole tenant, and forced to sleep in a rat-infested garage, all while maintaining an insanely positive attitude. And that's nothing compared to his [[DarkandTroubledPast childhood]].

* Parodied in a skit of ''Series/KeyAndPeele'' where two prisoners of a psycho clown are so optimistic, they end up driving the clown insane with frustration at not breaking their spirits.
* ''Series/DrQuinnMedicineWoman'''s sister Rebecca is this, though after a confrontation with her conversely depressed sister Marjorie, she confesses to Mike that although she's not secretly unhappy, it's sometimes exhausting to be cheerful all the time and unfair that she doesn't get to admit it whenever she ''is'' sad.

* ''Series/{{Friends}}'': Phoebe's boyfriend Parker (Alec Baldwin), who annoys the rest of the gang and eventually Phoebe herself.

** Sonja "Sunny" Dey in season 8, who at one point tells the Janitor that she has to be strong to always be smiling on the outside, when sometimes she's not smiling ''quite'' as much on the inside.

* Jared from ''Series/{{Silicon Valley}}''. Over the course of the series he's stuck on an uninhabited island full of robot forklifts, kicked out of his home by an asshole tenant, and forced to sleep in a rat-infested garage, all while maintaining an insanely positive attitude. And that's nothing compared to his [[DarkandTroubledPast childhood]].

* The ditzy Nymphs from the ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}} episode; "Nymphs Just Wanna Have Fun".

* In ''Series/{{Lodge 49}}'', Sean Dudley has, in the space of only a year or so, lost his father, his childhood home, and his business, and suffered a DreamCrushingHandicap that has left him in debt up to his eyeballs. Despite this, he is relentlessly optimistic.

* The ditzy Nymphs from the ''Series/{{Charmed}} episode; "Nymphs Just Wanna Have Fun".