History Website / TelevisionWithoutPity

[[https://web.archive.org/web/20140329175803/http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/ Television Without Pity]], formerly known as ''Mighty Big TV'', was a TV recapping and discussion site featuring '''very''' snarky commentary.

If you believe some TV shows are so good that they must never be made fun of, [=TWoP=] wasn't for you. However, if you recognize that even your favorite show has much which is deserving of mockery, you would have liked [=TWoP=].

The site's forums were notable for requiring posters to conform to standard written English. All-caps, no-caps, or [[XtremeKoolLetterz textspeak]] would get a poster warned or banned. Flames and "talking about the boards on the boards" were prohibited, and that's just the tip of the iceberg (see the YMMV tab for more).

The site launched in 1998 as a ''Dawson's Creek'' recap forum and re-branded to Television Without Pity in 2002. Bravo bought the site in 2007 and ran it until 2014, when they shut it down. There was some chatter about a potential relaunch, but those plans never came to fruition, and the site remains dead.

!!This website provides examples of:
* AccentuateTheNegative: The entire purpose of the site is to review and discuss TV shows in as snarky a fashion as possible, so naturally this is going to result in a fair bit of focusing on the bad bits over the good bits. Depending on the reviewer and the show, however, this can sometimes tip into [[{{Hatedom}} outright negativity]], often with no readily apparent justification. On the other hand, when the show is doing what it does best well, the praise can be quite strong.

* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: Recap of ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' episode "Roulette".

* BerserkButton: As an example of the moving into {{Hatedom}}, even mentioning the show ''Series/SeventhHeaven'' on the site after a certain point could send the reviewers into a frothing rage. And then we have...

-->''It's [[{{Narm}} so over-the-top, so awful]], that calling it cartoony would be an insult to cartoons.''

* InJoke: Numerous.
** Some of the recappers would occasionally slip up and admit that they were being pressured by the site maintainers to come up with these as well as numerous CatchPhrase options when they did a show's reviews, as a sort of marketing.
* InherentlyFunnyWords: Flounce.
* {{Irony}}: The season 4 recaps of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' (first recaps done of the show) have Sep and Ace totally crushing and in love with Spike, and want more of him. By late season 5, they're sick of the sight of him and their opinions keep dropping from there.

* {{Spork}}: The recappers' supposed weapon of choice.
* StartToCorpse: Believed to be the TropeNamer

* SpiritualSuccessor: [[http://previously.tv Previously.TV]], which was started by former [=TWoP=]ers and saw a mass migration to its forums after Television Without Pity's closing was announced.
* SuckinessIsPainful:

** Deconstructed in that fans cheered when Jacob was removed from recapping Doctor Who, as Jacob talked about nothing BUT Rose, Rose, Rose and pretentious (even for him) ramblings about Rose's "Hero's Journey" to the point that he barely fucking recapped the episodes and wholesale skipped the last two season because of Jacob being pissy Billie Piper opted to quit the series/not liking Martha because she was black.
** Omar G. gave an unprecedented F (the worst before was a D) to the Lana-heavy "Requiem" episode of ''Smallville'' and [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere fled]]. He came back two episodes after that, but when ''[[JumpingTheShark Doomsday]]'' comes around, he decides to permanently stay away from ''Smallville''.
* TheUnFavorite: FX Network suffered this. The site infamously refused to recap the networks' various dramas and comedies, meaning fans of beloved and critically acclaimed shows like ''Series/TheShield'', ''Series/NipTuck'' and ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'' were effectively denied recaps. Towards the end of the website's run however, they did SLIGHTLY loosen up their ban and recapped ''Series/RescueMe'', ''Series/{{Damages}}'' and ''Series/SonsOfAnarchy'', but they only lasted 1-2 seasons and were quickly dropped as soon as the website could.

-->''Multi-task? Multi-task?! Woman, I just saved a [[BusFullOfInnocents bus full of nuns]], burned [[{{Superman}} an S into the sidewalk]], and got my eyebrows done! Don't talk to me about multi-tasking!''

* NotImportantToThisEpisodeCamp: The thread for ''Series/{{Monk}}'' was the TropeNamer, as used in a post on "Mr. Monk is on the Run, Part II".

On March 27, 2014 it was announced that the site would be closing down on April 4, with its forums following suit on May 31. (Happily, the content is still up.)

[[HopeSpot In 2016]], Tribune Media acquired the rights to [=TWoP=] and was planning a revival in 2017 as part of their Screener.tv website. However, by mid-2017, references to the planned revival mostly disappeared[[note]]The [[http://screenertv.com/twop/ site]] in question is now a broken link[[/note]] and it was soon revealed by [[https://www.thewrap.com/tribune-layoffs-screener-tv-shut-television-without-pity-relaunch-scrapped-exclusive/ TheWrap]] that Tribune made major layoffs and scrapped the plan to revive [=TWoP=], leaving it in DevelopmentHell for the foreseeable future.

The site's forums were notable for requiring posters to [[YouMakeMeSic conform to standard written English]]. All-caps, no-caps, or [[XtremeKoolLetterz textspeak]] would get a poster warned or banned. Flames and "talking about the boards on the boards" were prohibited, and that's just the tip of the iceberg (see the YMMV tab for more).

->''[[CruelToBeKind Spare the snark, spoil the networks]].''

[[http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/ Television Without Pity]], formerly known as ''Mighty Big TV'', was a TV recapping and discussion site featuring '''very''' snarky commentary.

* ShapedLikeItself: One of the more infamous rules of the site was "No talking about the boards on the boards" -- namely, the intent was to focus on the show under discussion, not tangential conversations about the content of the recaps, the recappers, or other posters. As it was a bit of an unclear and circuitous rule to begin with, the recappers themselves were frequently the ones in-charge of enforcing it and it could be conveniently interpreted as preventing any disagreement or criticism of the views or running of the site, this gradually led to claims of unethical and overly draconian moderating. Many accusations arose that certain moderators / recappers ([[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment who will not be specified]]) exploited its nebulous nature to unfairly target and ban people whose only real crime was disagreeing with the mod's / recapper's opinion or otherwise bruising their ego.

** While the show did lean liberal, Jacob Clifton ironically rage-quit recapping Dr Who over the crime of hiring a black actress to replace his beloved "goddess" Rose Tyler

* TheUnFavorite: FX Network suffered this. TWOP infamously refused to recap the networks' various dramas and comedies, meaning fans of beloved and critically acclaimed shows like The Shield, Nip/Tuck, and It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia were effectively denied recaps. Towards the end of the website's run however, they did SLIGHTLY loosen up their ban and recapped Rescue Me, Damages, and Sons of Anarchy, but they only lasted 1-2 seasons and were quickly dropped as soon as the website could.
** More infamously, Jacob Clifton's racist hatred for Freema Agyeman, which resulted in Doctor Who not getting recapped during it's third season due to Jacob refusal to accept a black female companion replacing his beloved Rose Tyler.

* TheUnFavorite: They will cheerfully and unashamedly play favorites.