History WhatAnIdiot / LiveActionTV

'''Predictably''': Lucy uses her diminishing reserves of energy to knock out the dancer that Ricky hired, tie her up and lock her in a closet, steal the dress, and go onstage. She shows Ricky that she ''can'' do the routine and become a showstropper. Then the SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome occurs...she collapses backstage, and Ricky has to call for a doctor and paramedics on a stretcher. Ricky goes MyGodWhatHaveIDone for not stopping this, telling Lucy she needs to be on three weeks of bedrest due to suffering malnutrition. It turns out eating only celery sticks and exercising endlessly is a great way to wreck your health. Lucy only has enough strength to gesture to Ethel to open the closet where the BoundAndGagged dancer girl is.
** "The Fur Coat: Ricky borrows a $3500 mink coat for an act at his club, but when Lucy sees it, she thinks it's an anniversary present for her. She loves it so much she never takes it off, even when she goes to bed. Not having the heart to tell her the truth, Ricky makes an arrangement with Fred for Fred to dress as a burglar, break into the Ricardos' apartment and "steal" the coat. But coincidentally, a real burglar breaks into their apartment on the same night.\\

'''Instead''': Ricky assumes that the burglar is Fred, foolishly points out the mink coat Lucy is wearing (which the burglar paid no attention to until Ricky pointed out how much it was worth) and hands the burglar the coat after he threatens to shoot Lucy. It's only when Fred arrives and scares the burglar away that Ricky catches on. If not for that, the coat could have actually been stolen.

'''You'd Expect''': For Ricky to confirm that the burglar is actually Fred and take a hint that he is a real burglar, given that he was rummaging through the Ricardos' valuables, isn't exactly talking like Fred, holds a gun up to Ricky, and never once "drops the act", even when only Ricky is present. To add to that, a real burglary has been reported in the neighborhood at that time, which is in fact what gave Ricky the idea to have Fred pretend to be one.\\

'''You'd Expect''': For Ricky to confirm that the burglar is actually Fred and take a hint that he is a real burglar, given that he was rummaging through the Ricardos' valuables, isn't exactly talking like Fred, holds a gun up to Ricky, and never once "drops the act", even when only Ricky is present.\\

'''You'd Expect''': For Ricky to confirm that the burglar is actually Fred or take a hint that he is a real burglar, given that he is rummaging through the Ricardos' valuables, isn't exactly talking like Fred, holds a gun up to Ricky, and doesn't drop the act even once, even when only Ricky is present.\\

[[folder:Live-Action TV A-F]]

* ''Series/OneThousandWaysToDie'' is a show that, by its very nature, has this trope pop up about OnceAnEpisode. For example...
** "Love Bugged": A French man with an interest in lizards and bugs decides to try and build an immunity to black widow spider venom by letting one bite him.\\
'''You'd Think:''' He would first try to find out if it's a good idea, before letting the spider bite him.\\
'''Instead:''' He lets the spider bite him, and he grows weaker until he dies from a heart attack.
** "Wet Dream": A man with a deep love of fish constructs a fish suit out of waterbed material and goes to a lake to test it out.\\
'''You'd Think:''' He would put it on near the water or use it on a cooler day.\\
'''Instead:''' He puts it on far from the water on a hot day.\\
'''As A Result:''' He starts overheating, but the suit prevents his sweat from cooling him and he dies of hyperthermia, just inches away from the water.
** "Butt F***ed": A man ends up in the hospital with serious burns all over his body ''after falling asleep in bed while smoking.''\\
'''You'd Think:''' He'd take this as a sign from the man upstairs that it's high time he kicks the habit.\\
'''Instead:''' He bribes the night nurse to take him out back for a smoke. The ash from his cigarette holds enough of a spark to ignite the highly flammable ointment his bandages are soaked in. Set ablaze, he rolls uncontrollably down the wheelchair ramp and at the bottom his oxygen tank explodes into a ball of fire, burning him to a crisp.\\
'''On Top Of That:''' The nurse had just told him, "Okay Mister Burns, you've got 2 minutes, don't do anything stupid."
** "Tanked Girl": A female diver was in the decompression chamber after a spot of trouble down below. A maintenance worker was making his rounds when he came upon the chamber door.\\
'''You'd Think:''' He'd have the presence of mind to ''ask if the chamber was occupied before opening the pressure door''.\\
'''Instead:''' He opened the door without asking, changing the pressure in the chamber and killing the poor woman inside. One can only hope that this moron was, at the very least, fired.\\
'''Also:''' that episode was all sorts of FridgeLogic: why didn't the chamber have an intercom, window or some sort of signal light or sign to indicate when it was being occupied, and why exactly did the maintenance man open the door? Curiosity? Or did he have a legitimate reason to go into the chamber? As for the maintenance man opening it without asking, the occupant was presumably screaming out loud to warn him of what he was doing and the chamber was either soundproofed or so sound-shielded that he couldn't make out her words and thought someone was stuck in there and trying to free them, which again brings up another question of why there wasn't a speaker/intercom hooked up to the outside.
** "Exhaustdead": A cruel man named Mark is abusive towards is girlfriend, Julie, and one month later, she dumps him for a nicer man. Mark finds out about Julie through a friend and drives to the restaurant where Julie is with her new boyfriend. Being too much of a coward to confront them, he decides to pelt them with paintballs and drive off. He backs up his car to hide, but begins to feel lightheaded because he backed up his car into a garbage heap, therefore, trapping the carbon monoxide exhaust in the car.\\
'''You'd Think:''' He would get the idea that something's wrong with him and step out for a bit or at least open the window for fresh air.\\
'''Instead:''' He does neither and he eventually passes out and dies of asphyxiation.
** "USSR-Dead": A Ukrainian immigrant hooks up with the Russian mob. After bumping off three men who owe debts to the mob, the immigrant's fingertips are burned off with sulfuric acid so he can't be identified by the cops. To celebrate his joining, the mobsters order a round of vodka.\\
'''You'd Think:''' The mobsters would keep the vodka and the sulfuric acid in different-looking bottles, or at least label the containers so that they don't get the two liquids confused. [[note]]Both vodka and sulfuric acid are colorless liquids.[[/note]]\\
'''Instead:''' The two liquids are kept in identical containers with no labels, so the senile barkeep couldn't tell the difference between the vodka and the sulfuric acid, so the barkeep serves sulfuric acid to the two mobsters and the immigrant, resulting in all three of them dying from internal damage.
** "Jaw Boned": A meth cook/addict chews gum while he works and occasionally dips it in citric acid to keep it fresh.\\
'''You'd Think:''' He'd keep the citric acid away from all the dangerous chemicals.\\
'''Instead:''' He places the citric acid right next to red phosphorus, an explosive substance in meth and fireworks. Eventually, during a meth-fueled rush, the addict dips the gum in red phosphorus and when he bites down on the gum, his jaws apply 120 lbs of pressure, igniting the red phosphorus, blowing his lower jaws off, and causing his brain to compress to the back of his skull, killing him.\\
'''Also:''' He even kept a can of soda near a bottle of hydrogen peroxide, which he nearly drank earlier but spitted out before he could swallow.
** "Dog Dead Afternoon": An animal abuser sneaks into an animal shelter to steal a pit bull named Michael, the man tranquilizes Michael and is about to leave, but a security guard comes by and takes a nap in his car.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' The thief to just leave Michael behind and flee while the guard is asleep.\\
'''Instead:''' He decides Michael is a too good of a catch and tries to wait for the guard to leave. An hour later, the guard awakes and sees the cage open, prompting the thief to tranquilize the guard. However, this causes the guard to fall in front of the cage and shut it. As the thief tries to get the cage open, the tranquilization on Michael wears off, and Michael bites the thief, ripping out his trachea.
** "Vertigo, Going, Gone": A sociopathic accounting worker who was fired for his {{Jerkass}} attitude and general incompetence, climbs an oak tree to kill his boss with a single-shot, bolt-action rifle. However, he is revealed to have an allergic reaction to oak pollen and starts sneezing uncontrollably.\\
'''You'd Think:''' He would get the idea that something's wrong with him and come down.\\
'''Instead:''' He stays up in the oak tree with tens of thousands of pollen particles and ends up with an allergy-induced vertigo.\\
'''As A Result:''' When his former boss comes out of the building, he misses the shot, falls out of the tree, and dies of a paralysis resulting from the compression of his cervical spinal cord.\\
'''Ironically:''' The sociopath wanted his former boss dead, but instead it was he who ended up dead.
** "Lesboned": A horny real estate agent is selling a house to a fellow nymphomaniac and they decide to start having fun.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' For them to go to the bedroom or living room to do the nasty.\\
'''Instead:''' They do it in the laundry room where any number of accidents could happen during coitus. They end up rocking the dryer so much that it unhooks, releasing natural gas and causing an explosion that kills them both.

** In the 1969 episode "Every Boy Does It Once", when Bobby wants to go to the movies with Marcia and Jan, they say, "Hi and bye, small fry", and "see ya later". Since he is wearing Greg's and Peter's hand-me-downs, they add, "Besides, we couldn't take you looking like ''that''", and "Of course not. Who'd look at the screen?".
'''You'd Expect:''' For Mr. and Mrs. Brady to tell Marcia and Jan that they couldn't go to the movies and/or make them apologize to Bobby.

** In the 1971 episode "The Winner", Bobby feels worthless because unlike everyone else in the household, he doesn't have a trophy. When Bobby's siblings beat him at games that they play with him, he gets angry about it. Greg and Marcia tell Mr. and Mrs. Brady that Bobby's been a real stinker, but Carol tells them she doesn't like that word. Greg and Marcia say that's what Bobby's been.
'''You'd Expect:''' For Mrs. Brady to tell them that the term "poor sport" is nicer and more mature, and make them say that's what Bobby's being.

'''The Result''': When Nobel tries to get the director to depict Bubba intelligently, the director shoots down Nobel. [[spoiler: Nobel ends up cutting off his own tongue, making Bubba disappear. [[TheOtherDarrin A new actor ends up getting hired]], [[HereWeGoAgain bringing Bubba back to the real world.]]]]\\

'''The Result''': When Dr. Cox finds this out, shortly after Ben has returned to the States, he goes OhCrap while still smiling. He orders J.D. to give Ben a checkup immediately and doesn't care when J.D. says that he's swamped. [[spoiler:Before J.D. can get started, Ben dies of cardiac arrest, and it's revealed his cancer returned. While Dr. Cox blames J.D. initially, a hallucination of Ben points out to Perry what he already knew: Ben was the real idiot in the situation for not getting regular medical care, which he should have as a cancer survivor. Jordan becomes uncharacteristically withdrawn in the next episode, leaning on her obnoxious friends for support, and Dr. Cox ]].

* ''Series/StrangerThings'': In episode 4, after roughing up a state trooper named O'Bannon and uncovering what appears to be a conspiracy, Sheriff Hopper begins to suspect that there's more to the Will Byers story. He knocks out a state trooper, breaks into the morgue, and discovers that [[spoiler:Will's apparent corpse is actually a realistic looking dummy filled with cotton.]]\\

'''Instead:''' They leave the pills in a giant glass jar in plain sight, where the orphans see them every day when they get their daily vitamins.\\

'''The Result''': MassOhCrap ensues. Rather than learning the procedure from Dwight, who is shouting instructions, everyone panics when they realizes that someone locked them inside and there is a real fire. They start trying to smash the windows and go through the vents. To top it all off, when the CEO David Wallace finds out, OOCIsSeriousBusiness is in effect. He tells off Dwight for reckless activity that could have gotten someone killed and nearly did, and Michael strips him of his safety officer position. To avoid getting fired, Dwight has to receive a signature of forgiveness from everyone in the office. No one wants to sign since he is a jerk and nearly got them killed via smoke suffocation. He ends up having to trick them to save his job, but they still hate his guts. 

* "Stress Relief" has a ''doozy'' of one for the inciting incident. Dwight is the appointed office safety inspector, and he notes that no one was paying attention to the meeting on orderly evacuations during a drill.\\
'''You'd Expect''': Dwight would consult the fire department on how to conduct a drill safety and remind his coworkers about procedures. They could set off the alarms and remind people to evacuate, in an orderly fashion. The whole point of a drill is that people don't panic during a real emergency.\\
''Instead''': He not only starts a fire, but locks the normal exits to remind people to use the emergency exits. (This is ''very'' dangerous, by the way in real life, and Dwight would have been terminated if not arrested for arson and endangerment.) When Stanley suffers a potentially fatal heart attack, Dwight shows NoSympathy while Michael displays WorstAid.\\
'''The Result''': MassOhCrap ensues. Rather than learning the procedure from Dwight, who is shouting instructions, everyone panics when they realizes that someone locked them inside and there is a real fire. They start trying to smash the windows and go through the vents. To top it all off, when the CEO David Wallace finds out, OOCIsSeriousBusiness is in effect. He tells off Dwight for reckless activity that could have gotten someone killed and nearly did, and Michael strips him of safety officer. To avoid getting fired, Dwight has to receive a signature of forgiveness from everyone in the office. No one wants to sign since he is a jerk and nearly got them killed via smoke suffocation. He ends up having to trick them to save his job, but they still hate his guts. 

'''Instead:''' JJ attempts to draw suspicion away from himself by getting lower test scores, gradually working his way back up to higher ones, then uses his superior understanding of physics to join the football team despite his short stature. Litchfield becomes more and more suspicious. Eventually, Litchfield accuses another student that JJ tutored of copying off him because of very similar test answers, leading to JJ attempting to hack into the school computers and change the grades. Litchfield catches him doing this and soon afterwards [[spoiler:gets caught in a near-fatal car crash, which JJ blames himself for.]]

'''You'd Expect:''' That he would privately talk to his sister and ask what happened before doing anything.\\

'''Instead:''' [[TooDumbToLive At least one of them doesn't.]] Instead, he gets drunk and then [[DrunkDriver offers a ride to a classmate]], which ends in a crash that kills both of them.

* TV Shows in The ''WhatAnIdiot/MarvelCinematicUniverse''

'''Predictably''': RealityEnsues and the other concerned neighbors tell the guards about the blatant child abuse. They escort Lois outside to where the rest of the family is for their episode's misdemeanors. She expresses further stupidity by arguing with the guard that she has the right to discipline her child, and he bluntly tells her she's being a troublemaker. The weather is cold, and when they try to beg Malcolm for blankets, he smugly reminds them he's abiding by Lois's punishment.

'''Instead:''' She smugly goes to the cashier and demands he sell her the booze or she'll rat him out. The cashier [[RealityEnsues calmly points out]] that she has no proof of her claim, while the store's security camera provides him with footage of her trying to illegally purchase alcohol. He calls the police, and Daphne gets in trouble.

'''The Result''': Mob psychology means that no one believes Sabrina is a witch, and instead they pretend Jenny is guilty. The program leaders tell Libby that they [[RealityEnsues aren't going to do anything to Jenny]] and just imagine that she was hanged. Of course, then Sabrina trolls Libby by conjuring a monkey that only she can see, which forces Libby to admit that she was making up the accusations. This exonerates Jenny and puts Libby in the stocks until the buses come.

'''Instead''': She tries seeking revenge on Buffy for the aforementioned murder attempt by attacking her and later her mother. Yeah, she takes on the previous Slayer that nearly killed her in their last fight and attacks the one adult who has been consistently nice and polite to her even as she [[spoiler:betrayed the Scoobies and tried to usher in another apocalypse]]. Faith's legitimate point is that she and Buffy were fighting over a guy, albeit not in the traditional sense, but she is outmatched and outnumbered. That's not even counting what Tara and WIllow are able to do once they cut loose.\\

* In the first season finale of ''Series/{{Forever}}'', Adam (a 2,000-year-old evil immortal) shoots protagonist immortal Henry with the flintlock that could cause Henry's FinalDeath. As Adam gloats over Henry's dying body, Henry quickly stabs Adam in the neck with a syringe and injects air into Adam's brainstem. This visibly affects Adam.\\