History WouldHurtAChild / LiveActionTV

** The Aryans get [[spoiler: Skyler's and Jessie's]] cooperation by threatening to kill children. Considering all the other horrible things they had done, there is no doubt that they would do it.

* ''TwentyFour'': Memorably subverts this in its second season. At one point Jack [[spoiler: orders the execution of an innocent child while his terrorist father watches]] in order to trick him into revealing where a nuclear bomb is being hidden. [[spoiler: Then after the terrorist is taken out of the room, it's revealed that the entire execution was elaborately staged and the boy is alive.]] On the other hand, villains can play it very straight, such as some of the fifth season's antagonists.

* ''Series/{{Angel}}'': Both Angelus and the torture expert vamp from 'In the Dark'. In fact, Angelus's first act as a vampire was to murder his young sister after she invited him into the house.

* ''TheBradyBunch'': Humorously troped in "Bobby's Hero," where in a dream sequence, Jesse James shoots and kills Bobby's siblings (along with his parents and Alice) during a train robbery ... all to make the point that the famed outlaw was nothing more than a "mean, dirty killer."
* ''Series/BreakingBad'': Some gangsters draw a kid into their gang, having him kill a competing drug dealer as a hazing. They later [[spoiler:kill this kid after being told by their druglord boss they weren't allowed to use kids anymore.]]

* ''{{CSI NY}}'': The guy who killed Lindsay's friends in her backstory.
* ''Series/{{Dexter}}'': In the fourth season, [[spoiler:it is shown that the Trinity Killer]] has no qualms about kidnapping ten-year-old boys, holding them prisoner, drugging them and then killing them by [[spoiler: BuriedAlive BURYING THEM IN WET CEMENT. WHICH THEN SETS]].
** The spoilered space is also why he went uncaught for so long. The killer's name, MO, all of it, was an accidental misnomer, because nobody ever knew about the FOURTH victims in each set representing himself.

* ''ForeverKnight'': Had [=LaCroix=] make a child vampire once and a killer in the present day part of that story trying to kill a girl who saw him kill someone.
* ''Series/{{Fringe}}'': Dear, loveable MadScientist Walter Bishop... experimented on children, occasionally frightening them to obtain results, and with often devastating consequences for them in adulthood; he also kidnapped his alternate-universe son and lied to him (for his own good, admittedly). Meanwhile, [[WouldntHurtAChild his ruthless alternate-universe counterpart, Walternate, absolutely refuses to experiment on children]] (though he apparently has few qualms about potentially lethal adult trials).
** At least until season four. Then he does try to kill a child...specifically, [[spoiler: his own grandson.]] This leads to much debate in both universes about [[GrayAndGreyMorality which Walter is the greater evil.]]

* ''GoodTimes'': Though little to none of the actual assaults were shown on-screen, the four-part 1977-1978 season opener, revolving around 10-year-old Penny Gordon (Janet Jackson's series acting debut) more than left no doubt she was struck. The vicious so-and-so who hit Penny was her own mother (Chip Fields), a single parent who took her frustrations out on the innocent girl. Several infamous scenes were shown, including Mrs. Gordon stalking her with a hot iron (the scene cuts before she places the iron on Penny) and Penny shrieking in pain because of a broken arm.

* ''Series/{{Justified}}'': 14-year-old Lorretta is kidnapped and locked in the trunk of a car by a pedophile. In a later episode she is almost killed by Coover Bennett. A season later Dickie Bennett breaks into her house and it is clear he would hurt or even kill her to [[spoiler: get the millions that Mags Bennett left Loretta]].

** Long before Basco was even a draft sketch, Bandora the Witch from ''Series/KyoryuSentaiZyuranger'' was ''all about'' tormenting children, being your classic "evil kid-hating witch." We find out in the final episodes that it's because she lost her son. The series is for the most part LighterAndSofter, so nothing excessively brutal happens to them, but whenever she can endanger an elementary schooler with one of her plans it's always a bonus - [[EvilIsPetty sometimes, making kids cry for its own sake is the whole plan]]. Naturally, this carries over to Rita in ''MightyMorphinPowerRangers,'' though not to quite the same degree.
* At least half the perps on ''LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' would harm children.

* ''{{Lost}}'': [[spoiler:Sayid]] shoots a 12 year-old boy in the chest [[spoiler:(Ben Linus in 1977)]], believing it to be for the greater good.
* ''MaddigansQuest'': This seems to be the mark of a bad guy, in which it's asserted that [[BigBad the Nennog]] would kill Timon, Eden and baby Jewel without a second thought if they returned to their own time, and in ''Greentown'', henchman Maska threatens to 'break' Jewel if Boomer doesn't return his bag. In ''Laketown'', [[spoiler:Timon tries to kill Jewel whilst under the Nennog's influence, but can't bring himself to do it (whether or not he would have done it if the Fantasia had failed is a moot point, though he certainly seems to think he would).]]
* ''TheMentalist'': In the backstory, SerialKiller Red John killed Patrick Jane's wife and daughter, just to take Jane down a peg.

* ''Series/PersonOfInterest'': Root would hurt a child. She would hurt anyone, actually.

* ''SonsOfAnarchy'': [[spoiler:Cameron Hayes]] holds [[spoiler:Abel Teller]] at knifepoint and then kidnaps him. As part of her effort to get him back, [[spoiler:Gemma Teller]] holds another baby at gunpoint.

* ''Series/TeenWolf'': Geriatric antagonist Gerard Argent is a master of this trope with teenagers: he violently drowns the (admittedly not innocent) [[spoiler: Matt ]], kidnaps Erica and Boyd and holds them in prolonged electrical torture, kidnaps and beats the absolute snot out of Stiles, stabs Scott in the gut, and tries to murder [[spoiler: his own granddaughter, Allison]]. It's a little disturbing to watch.

* ''WalkerTexasRanger'': More than once, the villains would hit children -- sometimes ''beating them viciously'' or otherwise putting them in extreme danger -- as they would hold them hostage, either as bargaining tools or just to show how ruthless and sadistic they were, always without conscience or fear of the consequences. Examples include burying a busload of children inside a school bus at a landfill, and burying another alive in a casket. There were other episodes involving child abuse, but said abuse is by a parent who happens to be the main villain and is used to frame his evil personality. Walker and the Rangers would arrive to give the baddies a taste of their own medicine, with extra force as Walker had zero tolerance for child abuse.

* ''Series/LittleHouseOnThePrairie'': Several episodes about child abuse. Although the actual assault was rarely seen, they were seen in a flashback in at least one episode (where Charles is helping reform a budding juvenile delinquent, and the boy -- upon being given a present -- snaps when he sees a shirt, identical in style to one that he was viciously assaulted in by his own father). In another episode, where Charles and Caroline are debating whether to adopt orphans James and Cassandra Cooper (whose biological parents were killed in a wagon accident), the orphans' temporary foster father whips James (off-camera) after being unfairly accused of stealing; his screams were heard as Cassandra was forced to watch.

* The {{Charmed}} Ones come across a trio of children in "We All Scream For Ice Cream" that are actually the spawn of upper-level demons. Initially reluctant to hurt them, the children use their powers and the sisters fight back. Notably Prue uses her telekinesis to fling a little girl into a fence.

* ''BreakingBad'': Some gangsters draw a kid into their gang, having him kill a competing drug dealer as a hazing. They later [[spoiler:kill this kid after being told by their druglord boss they weren't allowed to use kids anymore.]]

* ''Series/{{Dexter}}'': In the fourth season, [[spoiler:it is shown that the Trinity Killer]] has no qualms about kidnapping ten-year-old boys, holding them prisoner, drugging them and then killing them by [[spoiler: BuriedAlive BURYING THEM IN WET CEMENT. WHICH THEN SETS]].]]

* ''Series/{{Dexter}}'': In the fourth season, [[spoiler:it is shown that the Trinity Killer]] has no qualms about kidnapping ten-year-old boys, holding them prisoner, drugging them and then killing them by [[BuriedAlive BURYING THEM IN WET CEMENT. WHICH THEN SETS]].]]

* ''Series/{{Angel}}'': Both Angelus and the torture expert vamp from 'In the Dark'.

* ''Series/{{Justified}}'': 14-year-old Lorretta is kidnapped and locked in the trunk of a car by a pedophile. In a later episode she is almost killed by Coover Bennett. A season later Dickie Bennett breaks into her house and it is clear he would hurt or even kill her to [[spoiler: get the millions that Mags Bennett left Loretta]]

* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'': Has an AntiHero example in Noah "HRG" Bennet, who is willing to shoot [[spoiler:Molly Walker, whom the Company is using as a human superhero-tracking system, in order to keep them from finding his own daughter Claire. He is only stopped by Mohinder holding him at gunpoint]].

** Long before Basco was even a draft sketch, Bandora the Witch from ''KyoryuSentaiZyuranger'' was ''all about'' tormenting children, being your classic "evil kid-hating witch." We find out in the final episodes that it's because she lost her son. The series is for the most part LighterAndSofter, so nothing excessively brutal happens to them, but whenever she can endanger an elementary schooler with one of her plans it's always a bonus - [[EvilIsPetty sometimes, making kids cry for its own sake is the whole plan]]. Naturally, this carries over to Rita in ''MightyMorphinPowerRangers,'' though not to quite the same degree.

** Long before Basco was even a draft sketch, Bandora the Witch from ''KyoryuSentaiZyuranger'' was ''all about'' making children suffer horrific deaths. This gimmick was ditched in ''MightyMorphinPowerRangers'' wherever possible because Saban wanted to avoid using child actors wherever possible and because Rita was more conquest-oriented than twisted, disproportionate vengeance-oriented.

* ''TwentyFour'': Memorably subverts this in its second season. At one point Jack [[spoiler: orders the execution of an innocent child all while his terrorist father watches]] in order to break him into revealing where a nuclear bomb is being hidden. [[spoiler: Then after the terrorist is taken out of the room, it's revealed that the entire execution was elaborately staged and the boy is alive.]] On the other hand, villains can play it very straight, such as some of the fifth season's antagonists.

* ''BoardwalkEmpire'': [[TheWoobie Fan favorite]] Richard Harrow has a very sweet connection with Margaret's two young children [[spoiler:and in season three, Jimmy's son Tommy]]...but he doesn't hesitate to offer to kill the entirely D'Alessio family, [[WouldHitAGirl including the mother and sisters]], and does in fact shoot the youngest brother in the face. He's only 14 and is crying as he frantically attempts to load his own gun, before raising his hands, trying to surrender. Whoops.

* ''Series/{{Dexter}}'': In the fourth season, [[spoiler:it is shown that the Trinity Killer]] has no qualms about [[spoiler: hurting his children for insolence or disobedience (though they are now teenagers). But the worst example is the fact that he periodically kidnaps ten-year-old boys, holds them prisoner, drugs them and then kills them by [[BuriedAlive BURYING THEM IN WET CEMENT. WHICH THEN SETS]].]]

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In the Christmas special, [[YetAnotherChristmasCarol 'A Christmas Carol']], we watch Sardick hit his son Kazran. [[spoiler: This freudian excuse shows the Doctor that Kazran is not beyond redemption, and when he nearly does the same to his [[TimeTravel younger-self]], [[FutureMeScaresMe Kazran's horror]] brings about his HeelFaceTurn.]]

* ''BoardwalkEmpire'': [[TheWoobie Fan favorite]] Richard Harrow has a very sweet connection with Margaret's two young children [[spoiler:and in season three, Jimmy's son Tommy]]...but he doesn't hesitate to offer to kill the entirely D'Alessio family, [[WouldHitAGirl including the mother and sisters]], and does in fact shoot the youngest brother in the face. He's only 14 and is crying as he frantically attempts to load his own gun, before raising his hands, trying surrender. Whoops.

* ''Series/IClaudius'': Children get executed without so much as a blink. When reminded that it's against the law to execute a virgin, "Then make sure she's not a virgin when you kill her!"

* ''Series/LittleHouseOnThePrairie'': Several episodes about child abuse. Although the actual assault was rarely seen, they were seen in a flashback in at least one episode (where Charles is helping reform a budding juvenile delinquent, and the boy -- upon being given a present -- snaps when he sees a shirt, identical in style to one that he was viciously assaulted in by his own father). In another episode, where Charles and Caroline are debating whether to adopt orphans James and Cassandra Cooper (whose biological parents were killed in a wagon accident), the orphans' temporary foster father whips James (off-camera) after being unfairly accused of stealing; his screams were heard as Cassandra was forced to watch.
* ''TheBradyBunch'': Humorously troped in "Bobby's Hero," where in a dream sequence, Jesse James shoots and kills Bobby's siblings (along with his parents and Alice) during a train robbery ... all to make the point that the famed outlaw was nothing more than a "mean, dirty killer."
* ''Series/StarskyAndHutch'': In the episode "The Crying Child", a teacher discovers that one of her young students has deep gashes on his back, and the titular duo starts to look for who had harmed the kid [[spoiler:and manage to find out it was the boy's own mother]].

* ''WalkerTexasRanger'': More than once, the villians would hit children -- sometimes ''beating them viciously'' or otherwise putting them in extreme danger -- as they would hold them hostage, either as bargaining tools or just to show how ruthless and sadistic they were, always without conscience or fear of the consequences. Examples include burying a busload of children inside a school bus at a landfill, and burying another alive in a casket. There were other episodes involving child abuse, but said abuse is by a parent who happens to be the main villian and is used to frame his evil personality. Walker and the Rangers would arrive to give the baddies a taste of their own medicine, with extra force as Walker had zero tolerance for child abuse.
* ''Series/AdamTwelve'': Several episodes dealing with child abuse; the assault itself would never be seen on camera. The most memorable child abuse-themed episode is "He ... He Was Trying to Kill Me" (from the spring of 1969), where a 6-year-old girl lets on to juvenile protection that her 'daddy' hits her. [[spoiler:He didn't. Little Charlie was trying to protect her ''mother''.]]
* In the backstory of ''TheMentalist'' SerialKiller Red John killed Patrick Jane's wife and daughter, just to take Jane down a peg.
* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' Christmas special, [[YetAnotherChristmasCarol 'A Christmas Carol']], we watch Sardick hit his son Kazran. [[spoiler: This freudian excuse shows the Doctor that Kazran is not beyond redemption, and when he nearly does the same to his [[TimeTravel younger-self]], [[FutureMeScaresMe Kazran's horror]] brings about his HeelFaceTurn.]]
* This seems to be the mark of a bad guy in ''MaddigansQuest'', in which it's asserted that [[BigBad the Nennog]] would kill Timon, Eden and baby Jewel without a second thought if they returned to their own time, and in ''Greentown'', henchman Maska threatens to 'break' Jewel if Boomer doesn't return his bag. In ''Laketown'', [[spoiler:Timon tries to kill Jewel whilst under the Nennog's influence, but can't bring himself to do it (whether or not he would have done it if the Fantasia had failed is a moot point, though he certainly seems to think he would).]]
* Certain criminals like Carl Buford in "Profiler Profiled" and Karl Ahnold in "The Fox" in ''Series/CriminalMinds'' have no trouble hurting and killing children. Some even specifically target kids!
* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' has an AntiHero example in Noah "HRG" Bennet, who is willing to shoot [[spoiler:Molly Walker, whom the Company is using as a human superhero-tracking system, in order to keep them from finding his own daughter Claire. He is only stopped by Mohinder holding him at gunpoint]].
* ''Series/{{Fringe}}'''s dear, loveable MadScientist Walter Bishop... experimented on children, occasionally frightening them to obtain results, and with often devastating consequences for them in adulthood; he also kidnapped his alternate-universe son and lied to him (for his own good, admittedly). Meanwhile, [[WouldntHurtAChild his ruthless alternate-universe counterpart, Walternate, absolutely refuses to experiment on children]] (though he apparently has few qualms about potentially lethal adult trials).
** At least until season four. Then he does try to kill a child...specifically, [[spoiler: his own grandson.]] This leads to much debate in both universes about [[GrayAndGreyMorality which Walter is the greater evil.]]
* Children are rarely the MonsterOfTheWeek in Series/{{Supernatural}}, but that doesn't mean never. When it does happen, it's always a debate about what to do. One episode had Castiel try to stab a child to death before the boy realized he could [[RealityWarper warp reality]] as he what was TheAntiChrist.
* This is done in an ''extremely'' horrific fashion by Basco in ''Series/KaizokuSentaiGokaiger''. In an attempt to get one of the Great Powers, he uses his Ranger summons to stop a badly hurt young boy from being taken to get medical attention, knowing full well the boy could die. He then one ups himself [[MoralEventHorizon by lowering his gun to shoot the kid!]] And is ''smiling the entire time!''

* ''Series/{{Dexter}}'': In the fourth season, [[spoiler:it is shown that the Trinity Killer]] has no qualms about [[spoiler: hurting his children for insolence or disobedience (though they are now teenagers). But the worst example is the fact that he periodically kidnaps ten-year-old boys, holds them prisoner, drugs them and then kills them by [[BuriedAlive BURYING THEM IN WET CEMENT. WHICH THEN SETS]].]]
** The spoilered space is also why he went uncaught for so long. The killer's name, MO, all of it, was an accidental misnomer, because nobody ever knew about the FOURTH victims in each set representing himself.
* On ''Series/{{Justified}} 14''-year old Lorretta is kidnapped and locked in the trunk of a car by a pedophile. In a later episode she is almost killed by Coover Bennett. A season later Dickie Bennett breaks into her house and it is clear he would hurt or even kill her to [[spoiler: get the millions that Mags Bennett left Loretta]]
** In season 3 [[spoiler: Robert Quarles ]] carjacks a mother and her two sons. He uses the two boys as hostages to get Raylan to give up his guns and then drive them all to Noble's Holler. It is clear that once he gets what he is looking for, he will kill Raylan and the children.
* ''BoardwalkEmpire'': [[TheWoobie Fan favorite]] Richard Harrow has a very sweet connection with Margaret's two young children [[spoiler:and in season three, Jimmy's son Tommy]]...but he doesn't hesitate to offer to kill the entirely D'Alessio family, [[WouldHitAGirl including the mother and sisters]], and does in fact shoot the youngest brother in the face. He's only 14 and is crying as he frantically attempts to load his own gun, before raising his hands, trying surrender. Whoops.
* ''Series/{{Teen Wolf}} geriatric antagonist Gerard Argent is a master of this trope with teenagers: he violently drowns the (admittedly not innocent) [[spoiler: Matt ]], kidnaps Erica and Boyd and holds them in prolonged electrical torture, kidnaps and beats the absolute snot out of Stiles, stabs Scott in the gut, and tries to murder [[spoiler: his own granddaughter, Allison]]. It's a little disturbing to watch.
** In the beginning of Season 2, Isaac Lahey's father throws a glass at him and the shards nearly put his eye out. We also see implied evidence of his severe physical abuse.

* Many of the villains from ''Series/TheWildWildWest''. Highlighted in "The Night of the Amnesiac" when Furman Crotty steals and then holds for ransom the vaccine supply during a smallpox epidemic. While trying to recover the vaccine, one of the main characters comes across a funeral service in progress. The coffin is a small one. Very, very small.
* ''{{Series/Angel}}'' both Angelus and the torture expert vamp from 'In the Dark'
* ''{{CSI NY}}'' The guy who killed Lindsay's friends in her backstory.
* ''ForeverKnight'' had [=LaCroix=] make a child vampire once and a killer in the present day part of that story trying to kill a girl who saw him kill someone.
* ''Series/{{JAG}}'': SerialKiller Charlie Lynch in the 4th season.
* In ''Series/IClaudius'', children get executed without so much as a blink. When reminded that it's against the law to execute a virgin, "Then make sure she's not a virgin when you kill her!"

* In ''{{Lost}}'', [[spoiler:Sayid]] shoots a 12 year-old boy in the chest [[spoiler:(Ben Linus in 1977)]], believing it to be for the greater good.
* In ''SonsOfAnarchy'', [[spoiler:Cameron Hayes]] holds [[spoiler:Abel Teller]] at knifepoint and then kidnaps him. As part of her effort to get him back, [[spoiler:Gemma Teller]] holds another baby at gunpoint.
* ''TwentyFour'' memorably subverts this in its second season. At one point Jack [[spoiler: orders the execution of an innocent child all while his terrorist father watches]] in order to break him into revealing where a nuclear bomb is being hidden. [[spoiler: Then after the terrorist is taken out of the room, it's revealed that the entire execution was elaborately staged and the boy is alive.]] On the other hand, villains can play it very straight, such as some of the fifth season's antagonists.