Line #97 ArtifactTitle/LiveActionTV


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13	[[folder:Terminology]]
14	* As with the musical version of this trope, this can also apply to jargon and terminology within the field as well. Like when people talk about shows "airing" and "being broadcast" on ''cable'' networks, or (now) on on-demand streaming services—a term that only makes literal sense for wireless mass television.
15	* {{Soap opera}}s are called that because the earliest examples were radio serials that were sponsored by soap manufacturers. Modern soap operas aren't--though ''Series/GuidingLight'' and ''Series/AsTheWorldTurns'' were produced by soap and detergent manufacturer Proctor and Gamble's in-house production company up until 2008.
16	* UsefulNotes/AmericanFootball has aired on a number of telecasts named after a night of the week, including ''Series/MondayNightFootball'', Sunday Night Football, and Thursday Night Football. Usually these games actually do take place on the named night, but on occasion (especially during holiday times when schedules are different, or if games are considered to be part of specific rights packages for contractual reasons -- such as the Thursday-night NFL Kickoff game and Thanksgiving primetime game, which are part of NBC's package) the network with the rights to one of these nights will air a game on a different night, but still brand it under the same blanket title (although sometimes, if possible, the broadcaster may try to downplay this on-air). This titling was used for quite a few special Sunday and Thursday broadcasts of ''Monday Night Football'' in the 80s, where ABC kept the original title, but branded each such broadcast as a special ''Sunday Night Edition'' or ''Thursday Night Edition'' of ''Monday Night Football''.
17	* Despite the fact that more than half of all American households now receive cable TV, many UHF stations are still branded primarily by their over-the-air channel number rather than their cable number. This is largely due to differing cable systems placing the stations on entirely different channels, with no consistency for the UHF station to use in marketing. Furthermore, since the switch to Digital TV most OTA stations actually run on UHF channels but are still branded by their original channel number.
18	* As mentioned under the Web Original category, many "tv" shows today run on streaming platforms like Netflix and Hulu, which you can watch on your computer, tablet, phone, etc. Even though there are various ways to watch streaming platforms on your television, you're still accessing a website on the internet rather than watching an over-the-air broadcast. Still, since most shows on streaming platforms are 30 minutes to an hour in length, are produced by major Hollywood studios, and require a subscription fee, they're conceptually close enough to television for most purposes.
19	[[/folder]]
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21	[[folder:Networks]]
22	* See NetworkDecay for examples of television networks. For example:
23	** The channel Creator/{{MTV}} (Music Television) [[MemeticMutation hardly ever plays music these days]]. In fact, the initials "MTV" now no longer stand for anything.
24	** Likewise, its subsidiary Creator/VH1, which once stood for '''V'''ideo '''H'''its 1, started focusing more on RealityTV by the mid-2000s.
25	** Creator/{{HBO}} stands for "Home Box Office," and its initial purpose was to be a pay-cable channel that aired theatrical films with no edits or cuts, no bleeping of profanity, or censorship of nudity. There was always some original content--mostly talk shows and comedy programs--but these weren't the network's main draw. Nowadays HBO rarely promotes the theatrical films it gets unless they're blow-away blockbusters. They still take up most of HBO's time, but the days of viewers subscribing primarily because of their film library has long passed. Their streaming services mainly promote their original content: films, hourlong dramas, talk shows, comedy specials, etc.
26	** ABC Family's programming became increasingly less family-friendly as its lifespan went on; the most prominent examples include ''Series/{{Greek}}'' and ''Series/TheSecretLifeOfTheAmericanTeenager''. Contrary to popular belief, there was no demand from channel founder Pat Robertson that the "Family" part had to stay in the title, meaning Disney basically allowed the channel to suffer from this trope for many years before finally renaming it Creator/{{Freeform}} in 2016.
27	** Creator/AnimalPlanet became this after largely dropping nature documentaries from its lineup in favor of reality shows about people, some of whom worked with animals but many of whom just did things like build elaborate treehouses (and also started showing reruns of ''Series/DirtyJobs'').
28	** Creator/TheHistoryChannel now shows reality television more than it does any history.
29	** Creator/{{TLC}} used to stand for "The Learning Channel" back when it aired programs that were actually educational about science and stuff. Now, well, it depends if you consider child beauty pageants and families with large numbers of children to be educational.
30	* Creator/{{ITV}} stands for Independent Television, initially referring to its 'independence' from the [[UsefulNotes/StateBroadcaster publicly-funded]] [[Creator/TheBBC BBC]] (ITV was the UK's first commercial TV network). Nowadays, of course, there are plenty of other non-BBC networks.
31	* When Creator/Channel4 launched in the UK, digital television was not yet born and so every TV set had the same channel attached to every number. This is no longer the case - for example, it's still the 4th numbered channel on Freeview, but not on Sky or other satellite packages.
32	* The call letters of New York City's Creator/{{PBS}} station, WNET, is an artifact of when it was part of the National Educational Television network, a precursor to PBS, in the '50s and '60s. Many, many local TV and radio stations also have artifact call letters. You'll have to check Website/ThatOtherWiki for examples in your area.
33	* When MSNBC debuted in 1996, the network was a joint venture between Creator/{{NBC}} and Microsoft; the name is a portmanteau of MSN (Microsoft's web portal) and NBC. Microsoft's ownership share gradually dwindled until the company ended the partnership in 2012, with NBC now owning 100% of the network.
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36	[[folder:Series]]
37	* ''[[Series/AtMidnight @midnight]]'' changed its time to 11:30 p.m. but kept its title -- host Chris Hardwick lampshaded it by stating that it made sense because they would still be declaring a winner ''at midnight''. Occasionally other programs at 11:30 bumped it back to midnight again.
38	* ESPN's ''[[Series/ThirtyForThirty 30 for 30]]'' is a double example. The series was intended to run 30 episodes to celebrate ESPN's 30th anniversary, featuring stories from the "ESPN era" (from the time of the network's launch in 1979). Following the last of the original 30 documentaries, there were 13 more episodes under the banner ''ESPN Films Presents'', which expanded the timeframe to pre-1979 stories. In 2012, it was decided to revive the ''30 for 30'' title with a new volume of 30 documentaries. A third volume began in 2015 and is already confirmed to have a new installment premiering in 2019 - ESPN's ''40th'' year.
39	** Another example comes from one of [=ESPN2's=] talk shows, ''Series/NumbersNeverLie''; originally debuting as a panel show with an emphasis on stats and analytics, ESPN then felt that the subject matter was too advanced for most viewers, so it got dumbed down into a vaguely number-themed panel show. Even host Michael Smith felt that the title didn't really fit anymore; ESPN eventually corrected this, renaming it ''His & Hers'' (after Smith and co-host Jemele Hill's podcast of the same name). The show would later be replaced by a distinct 6 p.m. edition of ''[=SportsCenter=]'' hosted by the pair in 2017 (which was cancelled only after about a year on-air)
40	** A more recent example on ESPN is ''High Noon,'' which originally aired at noon Eastern time. There was also some lampshading as the logo also said "(9 Pacific)" in small letters. But the show's name didn't change when it was moved to 4 p.m. Eastern so that it could be peer of a block with ESPN's other "Sports Experts Arguing" shows such as ''Pardon the Interruption,'' ''Highly Questionable,'' and ''Around the Horn.''
41	* ''[[Creator/{{TLC}} 1000-lb Sisters]]'':
42	** The reality series documents the attempts of the Slaton sisters to lose weight (the shared weight between the two equaling roughly 1000 pounds), with the intent of the show being to invoke this trope through their mutual weight loss. However, while Amy loses 100 pounds throughout the first three seasons, Tammy gains 100 pounds, ironically keeping the title more-or-less accurate.
43	** The spinoff ''[[Creator/{{TLC}} 1000-lb Best Friends]]'' plays the trope more straight by featuring a central cast of four women whose combined weight considerably exceeds 1k pounds (although their total weight loss may eventually result in said title being accurate.)
44	* An in-universe version on ''Series/ThirtyRock'': The TV show Liz writes for was originally called ''The Girlie Show'', a sketch comedy show for women, until Jack [[ExecutiveMeddling added Tracy to the cast]] and renamed it ''TGS with Tracy Jordan''. Liz and Jenna both keep original ''Girlie Show'' memorabilia in their offices.
45	* The CBS news show ''Series/FortyEightHours'' (not [[Film/FortyEightHrs that one]]) began life as a series of documentaries examining certain topics over the course of 48 hours, inspired by the well-received 1985 CBS special ''48 Hours on Crack Street'' (about the US drug crisis). Later it was [[ReTool retooled]] into a true-crime documentary series under the titles ''48 Hours Investigates'' and later ''48 Hours Mystery'', eventually reverting to the original title of ''48 Hours''. The original idea of examining a subject over a time span of 48 hours is long gone, making ''48 Hours'' almost a WordSaladTitle at this point.
46	* The title of ''Series/The100'' originally referred to the 100 people sent from an orbiting space station to explore the surface of post-apocalyptic Earth. The title went out the window almost immediately, as an extra person snuck onto the shuttle and then two of them died, so The 100 are now the 99 before the pilot was half over. It's become even more nonsensical in subsequent seasons when hundreds more survivors have come to the surface.
47	* ''The 700 Club'' is a Christian talk show known for its far-right politics, but the title is actually a reference to the ministry's original 700 donors.
48	* [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]], in a LeaningOnTheFourthWall kind of way, in ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD''. [[spoiler:Since S.H.I.E.L.D. is officially disbanded in "[[Recap/AgentsOfSHIELDS1E17TurnTurnTurn Turn, Turn, Turn]]" and the team erases themselves from the agency's records in "[[Recap/AgentsOfSHIELDS1E18Providence Providence]]"]], they start wondering whether they really can still be considered "agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." or if they're "agents of nothing" now.
49	* When ''Series/AmosNAndy'' switched from a drama serial to sitcom format -- and, later, when it became a TV series -- Amos was a peripheral character, and most of the plots revolved around Andy and Kingfish (the latter of whom was voiced on radio by the same actor who played Amos).
50	* Series 7 onwards of the UK version of ''Series/TheApprentice'' has nothing to do with an apprentice, as the contestants are now competing for £250,000 and Lord Sugar as a business partner. Which mirrors the US version, which since season 7 has been exclusively celebrity versions, with none of the winners becoming a Trump apprentice.
51	* ''Series/{{Atlanta}}'' was still titled that during the third season, which took place during Paper Boi's tour of Europe. Three of the four non-cast anthology episodes that season were set in Atlanta, however, with the fourth in New York City.
52	* ''Series/AufWiedersehenPet'' was so-named because it was about British workers (primarily from Newcastle) in Germany ('auf wiedersehen' being German for 'see you later', and 'pet' a Newcastle-area term of affection). Or at least, Season 1 was about British workers in Germany.
53	* ''Series/{{The Avengers\|1960s}}'' got its name because it was [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness originally]] a gritty crime drama about a doctor (David Keel) teaming with a government agent (John Steed) to avenge the murder of Keel's wife. This story was resolved after two episodes; this was the last time in the series that any ''avenging'' took place. Keel left the series altogether after Season 1, but the title remained for all six seasons. The American opening narration of the Season 4 episodes ''attempts'' to justify the title:
54	-->''Extra-ordinary crimes against the people, and the state, have to be '''avenged''' by agents extra-ordinary...''
55	* This was a point of contention in ''Series/BarRescue'' between Jon and the owner of the Canyon Inn since "inn" no longer refers to taverns and such. The manager mentioned they routinely received calls asking what their rates were. Jon tried to change the name to the Canyon Saloon, but the owner switched the name back within days, determined not to admit defeat.
56	* The BBC Scotland gardening show ''The Beechgrove Garden'' started in 1978 and was named for the location of the garden on the grounds of the BBC studios on Beechgrove Terrace, Aberdeen. When the grounds were sold off in 1996, the show moved to a new location elsewhere in the city, but the name was retained. In 2019 the title was [[OfficiallyShortenedTitle officially shortened]] to just ''Beechgrove'', thereby dropping everything ''except'' the artifact.
57	* ''Series/BetterCallSaul'' was named after Saul Goodman's iconic [[CharacterCatchphrase Catchphrase]], but the actual show depicts the periods of his life before and after he uses the phrase to promote himself. In fact, the actual phrase is only said in three scenes in the entire series (two of them coming from the same clip from ''Series/BreakingBad''). Nevertheless, the phrase is so iconic and so tied with Saul's character there was hardly any other title that could have being given to the show.
58	* ''Series/BlakesSeven'' no longer had Roj Blake in it after Series 2 (except for the final episodes of both later seasons).
59	* ''Series/BoyMeetsWorld'' ended after seven seasons with the title character ''married'': very much no longer a boy.
60	* By the final season of ''Series/BrothersAndSisters'', a drama following the lives of the Walker family, it has been revealed that [[spoiler: neither Sarah nor Rebecca are biological Walkers. With the divorces between Tommy & Julia and Justin & Rebecca, this leaves Kitty as the only technical Walker "sister".]]
61	* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'':
62	** As the seasons go by, Buffy fights things that are clearly not vampires with so much more frequency that "Demon Slayer" would be more appropriate. In the show, she's formally just the Slayer. This happened fairly early; the first episode past the two-part pilot was deliberately about something other than vampires to make it clear to the viewers, and Giles outright states in the last scene of the pilot that there will be a variety of threats to deal with.
63	** Despite the rule that only one Slayer can exist at a time, a second Slayer is called as early as the Season 1 finale due to Buffy's [[spoiler: momentary death.]] This remains the status quo until the series finale, technically making Buffy no longer "the Vampire Slayer" but "a Vampire Slayer".
64	* At the beginning of Season 5 of ''Series/BurnNotice'' Michael Westen was shown working directly with his former employers and seems to be no longer blacklisted, effectively reverting his [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burn_notice_%28document%29 Burn Notice]] that the series was based on. While Michael's personal situation may have changed, the show's MythArc became less about his search for the truth and more about the organization that operates by burning spies.
65	* The "del Ocho (8)" part of ''Series/ElChavoDelOcho'' was there merely to promote the fact that the show aired on Canal 8 (Channel 8). At some point, [[ChannelHop the show moved to Canal 2]] and the series title was shortened to "El Chavo", but the character was still mentioned with his "last name" in the show and an InUniverse reason was given that it meant he actually lived in the (never seen) Apartment 8, rather than the barrel he uses as hideout. In syndication, the title is always "El Chavo", yet the show is still most commonly known by the full name.
66	* ''Series/ChicoAndTheMan'' lasted for one more season after the suicide of Chico's actor Creator/FreddiePrinze, necessitating his character to [[TheCharacterDiedWithHim die with him]] and introducing Raul as a substitute -- yet the series wasn't renamed to ''Raul and the Man''.
67	* Inverted in the Czech {{Sitcom}} called ''Series/{{Comeback}}''. The main character, a forgotten '80s pop star and a music shop owner, goes on his comeback tour in the second season.
68	* ''Series/CougarTown'':
69	** The series {{Lampshaded}} this by giving Season 2's title cards extra phrases on them, such as "still Cougar Town", "badly titled Cougar Town." The title was originally a DoubleEntendre as the town's high school football team was called the Cougars; this never appeared again after the pilot, until season 3 when Travis tried to kidnap the cougar statue on the college grounds and questions what cougars have to do with the town anyway.
70	** For the second season, [[NewSeasonNewName ABC and the producers seriously considered a name change]]; both proposed renames were rejected for similarities to other shows and movies at the time. Another name change, possibly ''Friends With Beverages'', was being considered for the third season.
71	* The first two seasons of ''Series/CrazyExGirlfriend'' is about the protagonist obsessing over her ex-boyfriend and trying to get him back, and the next half a season is [[PsychoExGirlfriend her trying to ruin his life for jilting her.]] After that, she finally admits that he's neither the solution nor, ultimately, the cause of her problems and spends the remaining season and a half actually trying to fix her life, and her status as anyone's ex-girlfriend becomes largely irrelevant to the story.
72	* ''Series/CSICyber'', the third SpinOff of ''Series/CSICrimeSceneInvestigation'', does not actually involve a CSI department. Instead it focuses on the FBI Cybercrime Division.
73	* The British sitcom ''Series/{{Cuckoo}}'' is about a straight-laced med student who returns home to Britain during a gap year having married an American hippie called Cuckoo, played by Creator/AndySamberg. Samberg left the show after the first season, so the show no longer had its namesake character. In season two, Creator/TaylorLautner joined the cast claiming to be Cuckoo's son, which provides a tenuous link back to the title until he inexplicably leaves after the fourth season.
74	* Creator/TheBBC's MedicalDrama come PoliceProcedural series Series/{{Dangerfield}} was about a rural doctor, and police surgeon called Paul Dangerfield, who proved to be better at solving the MysteryOfTheWeek than the local police force were. Or rather it was, until the start of series five, when the actor playing the eponymous character decided to quit. A SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute called Jonathan Paige was brought in to take over, making the show's title completely redundant at the same time.
75	* Most of the main characters on ''Series/DesperateHousewives'' are no longer housewives - Bree and Lynette are career businesswomen (Edie too for that matter), Susan is teaching, and Susan, Bree, and Gabrielle have all spent time unmarried on the show. Gabrielle gets a job in the last few episodes as well.
76	* ''Creator/DickClark's Series/NewYearsRockinEve'' has kept that title long after Clark's death in 2012. Nowadays it's officially called ''Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Creator/RyanSeacrest'', as Seacrest took over hosting duties in 2007, but it retains the Dick Clark reference in honor of the tv legend.
77	* ''Series/ADifferentWorld'', the groundbreaking 80's-90's sitcom about life at a historically-black college, had this happen before the show even premiered. It was originally meant to focus on Maggie, the TokenWhite girl played by Creator/MarisaTomei, and her experience as one of the few white students at the school. In that context, the school being "a different world" made sense. It was later in the show's development that it became a spinoff of ''Series/TheCosbyShow'' starring Creator/LisaBonet's character Denise, with Maggie as her roommate. One could argue that the "different world" referred to how the show addressed social issues that ''The Cosby Show'' avoided, like racism, gang violence, and AIDS. But both actresses were PutOnABus after the first season, shifting focus to the quirky supporting cast instead, making the title truly artifactual as there was no "original" world to compare it to.
78	* In-universe, the Rowdy Three of ''Series/DirkGentlysHolisticDetectiveAgency'' originally had three members while working for Blackwing. The addition of a fourth member made them uncontrollable but they kept the name. This continues into season two when [[spoiler:Amanda and Vogel are the only free members]].
79	* The title of ''Series/DoctorWho'' originally reflected the fact that the two main characters, Ian and Barbara, had been kidnapped by a mysterious old mad time-traveller only known to 1960s Britain as "the Doctor" who could have been anyone or anything (it even gets a TitleDrop in the second-ever episode when the Doctor asks "Doctor who?"). Naturally, future episodes explored his identity quite a lot more (not least explaining that he is known ''only'' as "The Doctor"), but in the process readjusted the title to be a reference to [[TheNthDoctor regeneration]] — it makes sense that a Doctor who can change his entire face and personality from time to time would have a fairly questionable identity. Then, the reboot's Series 7 began using "Doctor Who" as ArcWords, making the Doctor's real name an important MacGuffin. The title character has also acquired a bevy of nicknames over the years, many of them [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast extremely ominous]], but their real name has still not been revealed.
80	* ''Series/DowntonAbbey'': InUniverse: the name of the titular estate, we learned in the last season, came from the building having been a monastery in the Middle Ages until Henry VIII [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissolution_of_the_Monasteries seized and sold it]]. It became a residence for the peerage but kept its original name. This is true of several British stately homes in real life.
81	* ''Series/DrPimplePopper'': The original web series, also titled ''Dr. Pimple Popper'', has a few clips of Dr. Lee removing those pesky little pimples that make up traditional acne. While the TLC show expands the scope to a larger array of dermatological conditions and their treatments, simple pimples are never featured nor popped.
82	* ''Series/EmptyNest'', a spin-off of ''Series/TheGoldenGirls''. The pilot was about a couple whose children had moved out, but the series flipped it to be about a guy whose daughters move back in after his wife dies.
83	* In ''EscapeToTheCountry'', the original format was that people seeking a home in the country would be shown presentations of several houses and then select two to view for themselves, out of the ones they'd been shown and an additional "mystery house" they knew nothing about. However, fairly early in its run, the show was re-tooled so that they would view ''all'' the houses offered, including what is still called the "mystery house" even though there is no longer any mystery about it. It ''is'' different to the others in that it deliberately breaks from the househunters' original brief -- but "mystery" has been a misnomer for well over a decade.
84	* The ''Series/EurovisionSongContest'' began as an attempt to foster unity between the nations of Europe post-World War II. The notion of it being limited to geographic Europe soon went out the window with UsefulNotes/{{Israel}}, UsefulNotes/{{Turkey}}, UsefulNotes/{{Armenia}} and UsefulNotes/{{Azerbaijan}} all being included in the line-up. In 2015 ''UsefulNotes/{{Australia}}'' was invited to compete as part of the [[MilestoneCelebration 60th Anniversary]] of the contest, prompting many jokes about just how loose the definition of "Europe" has become. Officially, entry is open to all nations with a network that is an Active Member of the European Broadcast Union who fall within the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Broadcasting_Area European Broadcast Area]]. Australia's participation is technically subject to invitation each year, however as of 2021 they have yet to be uninvited. Their contract will expire in 2023, though, so it remains to be seen if they will continue to participate afterward.
85	* ''Series/{{Extras}}'' series one was about Ricky Gervais and Ashley Jensen both working as extras in film/TV, but by series 2, Gervais' character had got a job as writer-star of a sitcom and no longer worked as an extra.
86	* ''Series/FamilyAffairs'' was a British soap with the gimmick that, instead of focusing on a particular area, like ''Series/EastEnders'' or ''Series/CoronationStreet'', it focused on a specific family; the Harts and their in-laws the Gates. In its first ReTool (of many), the ''entire Hart/Gates family'' was written out.
87	* ''Series/GameOfThrones'':
88	** The series' title itself. The literary series/franchise's title is ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', ''Literature/AGameOfThrones'' is only the first book in that series (roughly covered by the first season).
89	** Even ''Series/HouseOfTheDragon'' has ''Game of Thrones'' above its title.
90	** InUniverse, the "Seven Kingdoms" is a reference to the political composition of Westeros before Aegon became the Conqueror. The Riverlands were ruled by the Ironborn, and the Crownlands--territory controlled directly by the monarch rather than local nobility--didn't exist yet. Following Aegon's conquest, the name remained, but there was really only one kingdom divided into nine regions.
91	** The ''Histories and Lore'' segments reveal that the Iron Bank originally stored its assets in an abandoned iron mine. The bank has subsequently branched out massively, but the original mine remains one of its reserve deposits.
92	* ''Series/GeneralHospital'' was a MedicalDrama almost entirely set at the hospital in its early years, but by TheEighties the focus shifted to romance, adventure and CrimeDrama, though almost all the characters could still be connected to the hospital in one way or another (for example, with the SuperCouple of Luke and Laura, Luke's sister was a nurse and Laura's mother was a cardiologist). By the early 2000s, it really started flirting with this, as the hospital took a back seat and mob boss Sonny Corinthos became the main character. The last decade or so it's recovered a bit, included the revival of the annual Nurses' Ball.
93	* ''Series/GetShorty'': The series is a [[AdaptationInspiration loose adaptation]] inspired by [[Literature/GetShorty the original novel]] with a new cast and story. However, the title doesn't make a lot of sense given that, unlike the original story, there is no "shorty" that the protagonists are trying to "get." The closest interpretation would be the police trying to arrest Amara, the short crime boss who employs our protagonists. In the second season, main character Miles starts calling his daughter "Shorty," and the season has a significant subplot involving getting partial custody of her.
94	* ''Series/{{Glee}}'':
95	** The series became this halfway through Season 5. Starting in Season 4, the show split its time between the Glee Club in Ohio and the graduates who moved to New York City. Eventually the New York storylines became more prominent, leading to Season 5 where the very Glee Club the show was named after was disbanded, and the last of the original characters graduated from high school. All of the action now takes place in New York focusing on the grads who moved there.
96	** Season 6 made the name relevant again when Rachel and Kurt returned as coaches of the newly reinstated glee club. The series finale ends with them moving on again, but with [=McKinley=] becoming an arts school and the glee clubs, the original New Directions as well as new glee clubs, becoming permanent fixtures at the school.
97	* ''Series/TheGoodPlace'' is named after how they call [[{{Heaven}} where the show takes place]]. However, [[spoiler: the end of Season 1 reveals that the humans have actually been in a Bad Place the whole time. Chapter 23 takes this a step further with the destruction of this fake Good Place.]] This may qualify as an inversion, as they only get to live in [[spoiler:the ''real'' Good Place]] during the final two episodes.
98	* The title of the soap opera ''Series/GuidingLight'' originally referred to a lamp in the study of one of its earliest main characters - the Rev. John Ruthledge, local pastor - which served as a sign to the townsfolk that they could come for help when needed. Later on, succeeding preachers carried on Rev. Ruthledge's work, becoming the keepers of the "guiding light." Over time, the show left its original locale - a fictional suburb of Chicago known as Five Points - and other families took over the spotlight. By the time the show moved to television in the 1950s, the meaning of the title had largely been forgotten. It was replaced with a lighthouse, indicating the light that guides one's path in life.
99	* ''Series/HappyDays:''
100	** There was no Arnold at "Arnold's Drive-In" for the majority of the series' run; it is owned by Al Delvecchio. Previously, it was owned by a man named Matsuo Takahashi, who was ''nicknamed'' Arnold because he had purchased Arnold's Drive-In from a man who ''was'' named Arnold. Lampshaded on one episode in which the gang learn that Arnold was not his name and Arnold points out how expensive the sign change would be letter by letter.
101	** When the original Arnold's burned down, Al and new investor Fonzie rebuild the restaurant. Al wants to call it "Big Al's" and Fonzie wants to call it "Fonzie's." Eventually they compromised by calling it Arnold's. [[note]] Fonzie & Big Al, Proprietors[[/note]]
102	* ''Series/HeyHeyItsSaturday'', an Australian variety series that originally aired on Saturdays from 1971 to 1999, aired on Wednesdays when it was revived briefly in 2010.
103	* ''{{Series/Homeland}}'' starts out being about an attempted terror attack in America's homeland. But once series 4 rolls around, the main characters are tracking down other terrorist in far-flung countries.
104	* ''Series/HoneyIShrunkTheKids'' only has a handful of episodes that involve the shrink ray. Most of the episodes involve Wayne's other inventions.
105	* The first episode of the ''Series/HoratioHornblower'' television adaptation is titled "The Even Chance", after the first short story in ''Mr. Midshipman Hornblower''. In the original, the title referred to Hornblower's calculation of the best way to duel Simpson, with only one gun loaded, chosen blindly, and fired point-blank. Thus, an "even chance" that would compensate for Horatio's lack of skill. (Captain Keene then arranged for ''neither'' gun to be loaded and sent Horatio to the Indy where he'd do better.) In the film, the duel is fought as a standard TenPacesAndTurn affair. While Horatio does refer to it as an even chance, his meaning here is a more open expression of his internal feelings: that he's fine with dying because it would also mean an end to his misery.
106	* An intentional inversion in ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'': the titular mother only appears in the final season of the show, and the entire series (especially the final season) is a slow buildup to the day she meets the protagonist. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in the finale where Ted's kids point out that their mother was barely in the story and it was more about [[spoiler: his relationship with and feelings for Robin]].
107	* Recent seasons of the ''Series/IceRoadTruckers'' franchise have been set in mountainous tropical regions overseas. Current programs use the "IRT" abbreviation to downplay the fact that the trucks haven't been driving on ice for some time.
108	* ''Series/IDidntDoIt'' originally had its cast getting into [[HilarityEnsues wacky situations]] and trying to explain their involvement (or lack thereof). This premise was dropped for the second season and now the characters are just off-kilter teenagers.
109	* Early in the third season of ''Series/JaneTheVirgin'', Jane has sex for the first time. Afterward, when the title is displayed, "the Virgin" is crossed out and sometimes replaced with another descriptor.
110	* Late-night talk show ''Series/JimmyKimmelLive'' was in fact aired live when it premiered in 2003, but in 2004 it began taping in the afternoon like all other late-night talk shows. The title of the show was not changed.
111	* ''Franchise/KamenRider'' is called such because the main character of [[Series/KamenRider the original series]] wears a mask ("kamen" being the Japanese word for mask) and ''rides'' a motorcycle, but over time the franchise introduced heroes who lacked one or both of these traits. [[Series/KamenRiderAmazon Amazon]] (and later the [[Series/KamenRiderAmazons Amazons]]), [[Film/ShinKamenRiderPrologue Shin]], and all of ''[[Series/KamenRiderHibiki Hibiki]]''[='=]s Oni transform into monstrous biological creatures rather than costumed/armored heroes, meaning they aren't wearing masks at all -- those are their faces. On the other side of the equation, [[Series/KamenRiderBlackRX Black RX]] had both a motorcycle and a car and swapped between the two; Hibiki likewise owns both but prefers his ordinary Honda Civic because he isn't very proficient with the bike. [[Series/KamenRiderRevice Revi]] doesn't have a motorcycle but he can transform his demon buddy Vice into a hoverbike and a skateboard, both of which are seldom used due to CoconutSuperpowers respectively of the CGI and "needing a professional skateboarder as a series regular stuntman" sorts. [[Series/KamenRiderZiO Zi-O]] had both a time-traveling TransformingMecha and a bike, but the former saw more screen time. [[Series/KamenRiderDrive Drive]], in the meantime, was actually marketed with this ("This Rider...is a ''Driver''!"), using a car and never once touching a motorcycle[[note]]His Second Rider Mach makes up for it, not only owning a bike but actually being [[ShapedLikeItself a Kamen Rider themed after a motorcyclist]][[/note]].
112	** The franchise as a whole started being hit with this in the 2000s as a result of [[RealLifeWritesThePlot real life writing the plot]]: thanks to having fewer places to film and Japanese laws tightening up on what qualifies as "street legal", the number of motorcycle scenes has suffered a noticeable decline; while Riders still have them, they usually only use them for ordinary travel and not the high-speed battles of yesteryear.
113	** ''Series/KamenRiderDecade'' the TV show is named for marking the first decade of ''Kamen Rider''[='=]s Heisei era and InUniverse, Kamen Rider Decade the superhero's main superpower is PowerCopying the Riders of that decade. The character's name became a NonIndicativeName when return as a supporting character in ''Series/KamenRiderZiO'' upgraded his power set so that he can draw from the Riders of the decade succeeding his own show. Granted, "Kamen Rider Two Decades" doesn't have the same ring to it.
114	* ''Series/TheLastManOnEarth''. At the end of the first episode, Phil Miller, who believes himself to be the last man on Earth, meets Carol Miller, the apparent [[NoManOfWomanBorn last woman on Earth]]. In fact, [[spoiler:they later meet several other survivors, all of whom had a period of believing they were the last person on Earth.]]
115	* ''Series/LastWeekTonightWithJohnOliver'' was clearly intended to be a weekly version of ''Series/TheDailyShowWithJonStewart'' when it was created and named. The parallel name suggests Creator/JohnOliver's weekly show was, like its daily predecessor, to feature humorous discussions of current news first and foremost. However, Oliver's episodes are now mostly dedicated to deep-dives on topics of interest that usually (but not always) fall outside the week's news, with current events relegated to quick recaps at the start of the show. John lampshades this from time to time.
116	-->'''John:''' We're actually going to dive straight in with our main story this week, which, unusually for us, concerns the week that we just had. It's one of the rare times we're actually living up to our show's title, unlike what should probably be called "[[SelfDeprecation 28 Minutes on the Corn Tax or Whatever the Fuck with John Oliver]]".
117	* ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' featured the recurring comedy skit "[[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture In The Year 2000]]"...[[PlayedForLaughs even after the year 2000]]. However, it was upgraded to "In The Year 3000" after Conan took over ''Series/TheTonightShow''.
118	* ''Series/LaterWithJoolsHolland'', the popular Creator/{{BBC}}2 music programme, was so named because it was originally given a slot following ''The Late Show'', an arts magazine programme. ''Later...'' has an irregular schedule, but is still going strong. ''The Late Show'' stopped broadcasting in 1995.
119	* ''Series/LaverneAndShirley'', which saw Shirley leaving the cast in the final season. Since the actor who played Lenny was also missing in action for most of the last season, Gary Marshall jokingly considered changing the show's name to ''Laverne & Squiggy''.
120	* Israeli news show ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_et_Kirschenbaum London & Kirschenbaum]]'' continued running under the same title even after its co-host Moti Kirschenbaum died.
121	* ''Series/MadTV'':
122	** The show's references to [[Magazine/{{Mad}} the magazine]] started fading fast after the first few seasons.
123	** The "Vancome Lady" on (the bigoted lady with the heavy makeup, "tcha, you know what?") is an Artifact Title herself; she is named for the place she worked for in her first appearance (in the first episode of the series), a [[BlandNameProduct parody of the Lancome counter]], but started hopping from job to job after getting fired from Vancome in that first sketch.
124	* ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'' somewhat became this in spite of the fact Malcolm really did become the middle child at some point, he was hardly the main character in later seasons (as the plot went from the misadventures of a child prodigy to showing what crazy scheme the rest of his family would do that week).
125	* Brazilian SoapOpera[=/=]TeenDrama ''Malhação''. The title means "working out", which fits the gym which was the initial setting. Then, four years later, it changed to a high school (and it continues to be set on schools, [[LongRunner only not the same one]]).
126	* ''Series/TheManFromUNCLE'' featured ''two'' men in the title role after the first couple of episodes.
127	* Narrowly averted with ''Series/MarriedWithChildren''. The show's working title was ''Not The Cosbys'', a TakeThat to ''Series/TheCosbyShow''. Given that ''Married With Children'' began three years after ''The Cosby Show'' and continued long after ''Cosby'' ended, ''Not The Cosbys'' would quickly have become irrelevant.
128	* The BBC's soccer highlights show, ''Match of the Day'', was so named because it originally only featured one match per Saturday. After only four years it started showing highlights from multiple matches, and it now shows highlights of every Premier League match played that day.
129	* The U.S. version of ''Match of the Day'' on NBCSN goes even further into the ArtifactTitle rabbit hole since the program was adapted from the BBC version after the BBC version began showing portions of every match. ''Match of the Day II'' is ''Match of the Day,'' but on Sundays - or the occasional Monday - and includes bits of Saturday (or even Friday) matches too. Weekday games, however, have yet to result in incrementing the roman numeral further. And, just to bring things full circle, NBCSN's ''Match of the Week'' shows a single match.
130	* ''Series/McLeodsDaughters'' began its 8-season run with Claire and Tess [=McLeod=] being left the family farm by their father Jack. Claire died in Season 3 and Tess left in Season 6. By Season 7, the farm is left to be run by [=McLeod=]'s nieces, who are technically daughters of his brother Hugh [=McLeod=].
131	* For the 2015 US TV season, Fox premiered a TV show based on the movie ''Film/MinorityReport''. However, it's set ten years after the time of that film, in which the "precogs" have been released to live ordinary lives and are not used in anticipating uncommitted crimes. So that means that the title is an artifact since in both the movie and the Creator/PhilipKDick novel it was based on, the title refers to the idea that one of the three precogs might see a different future, something that can't happen with the changed premise.
132	* ''Series/MiracleWorkers'' went the GenreAnthology route: The first season features angels working on a CelestialBureaucracy performing miracles, with Creator/SteveBuscemi playing God. The second series just took place during TheDungAges and Buscemi's character was a ditch cleaner. The third, during TheWildWest, has him as an outlaw. Satirizing religion is still part of the series.
133	* German family show ''Die Montagsmaler'' ("Monday's scribblers"). When ExecutiveMeddling moved their time slot around, they rather kept their AlliterativeTitle than to rename. Uhm, "Dienstagsdrudler"?
134	* The title ''Series/MysteryRoad'' comes from the [[Film/MysteryRoad original movie]] that the series is a sequel to. Neither season of the TV series takes place anywhere near the eponymous Mystery Road.
135	* ''Series/MythBusters'' started as a show that checked out urban legends and other, well, myths. The show has over time significantly broadened its definition of "myth" to frequently include things nobody reasonably believes are true, such as movie stunts.
136	* ''Series/TheNanny'': During the sixth and last season, Fran Fine is no longer "The Nanny", [[WeddingFinale having married Maxwell Sheffield in the fifth season finale]]. Although, [[ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything she had basically stopped working as a nanny long before that]].
137	* ''Series/NewGirl'': In the pilot, Jessica moves into an apartment with three men, and is thus "the new girl" of the apartment. In the very next episode, one of her roommates is swapped out for another person, Winston, meaning that she's no longer the newest person in the apartment. However, this is {{handwave}}d when Nick says that Winston used to live there before moving back in, so Jessica is still "the new kid." As the seasons go on, Jessica becomes increasingly established in the apartment and no longer "new."
138	* ''Las Noches del Futbol'' from the Monterrey, Mexico-based Multimedios sounds like a [[UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball soccer]] fan's dream show (the show's title translates to "Football Nights"), but since its premiere during the 2006 [[UsefulNotes/TheWorldCup World Cup]], it slowly and eventually ditched all of the soccer discussion and subjects and has since become a VarietyShow hosted by Ernesto Chavana with singing, dancing, a regular segment dealing with the paranormal, and even a ShowWithinAShow RealityShow involving the family of regular guest/luchador/rap artist Konan Big. The only talk about soccer was limited to the network's sports division cutting in with generic Monday morning training session video from Monterrey and Tigres during sports reports. Eventually Multimedios finally realized the title was a confusing artifact, and in October 2016 moved the title to a new Saturday night show with an actual focus on soccer, while the original show with Ernesto Chavana became ''Es Show'' (though the '''new''' show also devolved rather quickly into a skit show due to ratings issues).
139	* ''Series/OneTreeHill'' became "Les Frères Scott" (The Scott Brothers) in France because Lucas and Nathan Scott initially were the main protagonists. It became a bit awkward after [[PutOnABus Lucas left the series]].
140	* ''Paris by Night''--a long-running series of Vietnamese-language variety show productions--was originally filmed in Paris; it made sense, as France has a sizable population of Vietnamese expats (because it spends much of its time taking [[TakeThat pot shots]] at the government, ''Paris by Night'' is [[BannedInChina banned in Vietnam itself]] and is mainly aimed at disapora), and it was effectively a French cabaret. However, it's also been produced in other countries, particularly Canada and the United States. Even worse is the fact that it has not been produced in Paris since 2003.
141	* ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'': as of Season 7, none of the main cast work in the Parks and Recreation Department anymore, and only three of them work for the regional parks service. Additionally, only a handful of episodes feature any scenes within either the local or regional Parks offices.
142	* ''Series/{{Primeval}}'' became [[CharacterNameAndTheNounPhrase 'Nick Cutter et les portes du temps']] in France. While the "doors of time" are still here, it turns out AnyoneCanDie. It got shortened to 'Les portes du temps' for season 4.
143	* ''Series/PrisonBreak'': Tthe second season is not about breaking out of a prison. In Australia, the second season was titled ''Prison Break: On The Run''. As if the writers/producers realized the problem too late and got desperate, they implemented two ReplacementArtifact devices: in season 3, Michael ends up in another prison, from which he is compelled to escape, and in season 4, Sara is put in prison, and they plot to break her out.
144	* The trope is applicable in multiple ways to ''Series/TheRealHousewives'' franchise:
145	** The first series, ''The Real Housewives of Orange County'', was a clear reference to the then-new ''Series/DesperateHousewives'' (and possibly also ''Series/TheOC''). As later iterations were set in other locales, the "Real" became an artifact as there were no corresponding fictional ones in the same area.
146	** Like on the fictional show, many of the ladies featured are divorced, widowed, and/or have careers of their own, making the "Housewives" aspect of the title irrelevant too.
147	** The show continued long after ''Desperate Housewives'' ended its run in 2012.
148	* ''Series/RedDwarf'': The eponymous spaceship was completely absent in the sixth and almost all of the seventh series of the show and had little importance in series 5 and the ''Back to Earth'' special.
149	* ''Series/ResidentAlien'', based on comics by the same name, is called such because the HughMann alien blends in by taking on the identity and job of a human doctor. However, by the sixth episode he has been replaced at the clinic by another doctor and by the eighth, the other most major character on the series knows that he's alien and was never really a doctor.
150	* ''Series/ReturnOfUltraman'', despite its name, does not actually star the original Series/{{Ultraman}}, but rather a totally new Ultra who strongly resembles him. This was a leftover from the development process in which the series was originally envisioned as being about Ultraman returning to Earth and merging with Hayata to fight monsters and aliens again. In the final product, however, the hero was instead a new but similar-looking character simply known as New Ultraman (and eventually given the official name of Ultraman Jack in 1984 - nearly 15 years after the series ended).
151	* ''Series/{{Revenge}}'' starts out as a thriller about a young woman seeking revenge against the people who framed and murdered her father. After Emily more or less succeeds in her mission in [[spoiler: the Season 3 finale]], the show transitions into a more standard-fare soap opera about life in the Hamptons and the rivalry between Emily and Victoria. Further adding to its artifact status is the revelation in the Season 3 finale that [[spoiler: David Clarke, the man Emily spent all this time avenging, has actually been alive the entire series]].
152	* In later seasons of ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'' Sabrina was no longer a teenager and was less focused on using magic. In fact, the producers ''wanted'' to shorten the name to just ''Sabrina'' after the title character graduated from high school, but at the time Franchise/ArchieComics required that they keep "The Teenage Witch" in the title.
153	* ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'':
154	** The Spanish version was this from the beginning since it aired on ''Thursdays''. No wonder it got canned so fast. The Brazilian one, on Sunday, had a similar end.
155	** Even the real SNL will, from time to time, air clips show specials (or even original-content specials) on Thursdays but still call them "Saturday Night Live primetime specials." In 2008 and 2009, the original specials "Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday" became a double artifact title, as it aired neither on Saturday nor on the weekend. Traditionally, such specials preserve the SNL style of having an opening segment that ends with somebody saying "Live from New York, it's Saturday night", even though it's Thursday night and the segment could be pre-recorded.
156	** Towards the end of the 2019-20 season, the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic forced SNL to produce sketches from the homes of the cast and crew, titling these shows ''Saturday Night Live at Home''. However, for the first time in the history of the series, all these segments were pre-recorded rather than staged live. Creator/KateMcKinnon lampshaded this, opening the April 11, 2020 show with [[SubvertedCatchphrase "Live, from Zoom, it's sometime between March and August."]].
157	* ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' refers to both the clothing worn in a hospital and to the main characters being inexperienced newbie doctors, but the latter lost its meaning when J.D., Turk, and Elliot eventually became full-fledged attending physicians (they started the show as lowly medical interns). The 9th season, subtitled ''Med School'', brings a new generation of newbies. The German version is even worse, being subtitled "Die Anfänger" - The Beginners.
158	* ''Series/SearchParty'' initially centres on the search for a missing girl conducted by a group of aloof millennials with passing connection to her. This premise is swiftly discarded after the Season 1 finale where [[spoiler: said girl is finally located.]] The repercussions of this search lead the show [[GenreShift further and further away from its initial premise,]] going from [[spoiler: psychological thriller in Season 2, to courtroom drama in Season 3, to horror in Season 4, to cult apocalypse in Season 5.]]
159	* ''Series/SesameStreet'':
160	** When the show was dubbed into German (renamed ''Series/{{Sesamstrasse}}'') there were complaints that the "street" scenes didn't appeal to German children so they were taken out and replaced with the antics of a boy named Bumfidel and his mother. Since these stories did not take place on a street, the show's title was temporarily rendered incomprehensible. In 1978, a street set and new characters that would be more relevant to German children were introduced.
161	** Telly Monster was originally a television-obsessed FlatCharacter. His personality changed to the neurotic monster he's better known as but his name stuck.
162	** The general shop on the street is still named "Hooper's Store" several decades (and three owners) after Mr. Hooper died as a tribute to the character.
163	* ''Siete Vidas'':
164	** The long-lived Spanish sitcom ''Siete Vidas'' ("Seven Lives") was named for its premise of "HormoneAddledTeenager falls in a coma the day before he expected to lose his virginity, wakes up 18 years later, and [[FishOutOfTemporalWater has to get used to the current world]]. HilarityEnsues."[[note]]In Spanish, the stock phrase is that a cat has seven lives, rather than nine as in English. The main character's "resurrection" was compared to what you would expect of a cat.[[/note]] Not only was [[TheArtifact this premise dropped halfway into the first season]], but said main character was eventually PutOnABus. WordOfGod later claimed that the title referred to the seven main characters since there were 7 mains at the time... but afterwards there were seasons with 6 or 8 mains.
165	** The SpinOff ''Aída'' had the eponymous character [[PutOnABusToHell going to jail]] and disappearing when [[RealLifeWritesThePlot her actress had to leave]]. They attempted to remedy this by introducing Aída's granddaughter, also named Aída, but she was a tertiary character with comparatively barely any screentime or importance to the plot.
166	* ''Series/SleepyHollow'' becomes this in Season 4, as the action moves from the titular town to Washington D.C.
167	* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' was set in Smallville, Kansas for the first five seasons. Starting from season 6, the action largely takes place in Metropolis. The title could be interpreted as referring to Lois' nickname for Clark, alluding to the main character rather than the former main locale.
168	* British SketchComedy ''Series/SorryIveGotNoHead'' got its name from a series of segments it showed, which featured Headless Bill, who [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin has no head]]. The Headless Bill segments did not appear in Series 3; despite this, the show kept its name.
169	* ''Series/SoulTrain'' began featuring more than just soul artists by the late 1970s as disco began to assert itself, and as hip hop came into the picture by the late 1980s and soul and R&B largely faded, those artists dominated the show. Yet the title was never changed throughout its entire run.
170	* ''Series/{{Space 1999}}'' begins in September 1999, but after the Moon passes through several space/time warps, the year on Earth is 2120.
171	* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
172	** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' came out from under the shadow of ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' not only surpassing it in terms of episode count (178 episodes to the original series' mere 78), but also evolving the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' universe in ways never seen before with countless spinoffs following it. The "Next Generation" part of the title was probably FairForItsDay back in 1987 when the new series really had to prove itself, which it eventually did. Although the subtitle was definitely dropped when they started their own movies, the 24th century era is still colloquially referred to as the ''TNG'' or "Next Gen" era, for lack of a better name.[[note]]"Picard-era" hardly works due to ''Deep Space Nine'' and ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' having different captains; also, that term more appropriately refers to the era of the TV show ''Series/StarTrekPicard'' which is at least two decades removed from the previous 24th century shows.[[/note]]
173	** ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' takes place in a space station around the planet Bajor. A stable orbit does not quite qualify as a "trek." This was one reason the writers gave the crew the starship ''Defiant'', but even afterwards, there isn't a lot of trekking going on.
174	* ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody'' referred to the fact that the first series was set in a hotel ''suite'' in Boston. When the spinoff, ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOnDeck'' began (which continued into ''Film/TheSuiteLifeMovie''), with most of the major characters (including Zack and Cody Martin) returning, the events were set on a luxury cruise liner, rather than a hotel, but the "suite life" pun in the title remained.
175	* The classic ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' comic story ''Comicbook/ForTheManWhoHasEverything'' is set on Superman's birthday, with the [[LotusEaterMachine Black Mercy]] as an ironic "present" from one of his villains. The title is obviously a reference to the phrase "What do you get for the man who has everything?" about gift-giving. The ''Series/{{Supergirl 2015}}'' adaptation is called "[[Recap/Supergirl2015S1E13ForTheGirlWhoHasEverything For the Girl Who Has Everything]]", but it's not [[Comicbook/{{Supergirl}} Kara]]'s birthday and the Black Mercy is not shown as being a gift, even ironically.
176	* On the first season of ''Series/{{Survivor}}'', the contestants were referred to as "castaways" since the show was set on a desert island and began with them being "shipwrecked". They've continued to be called "castaways" ever since, even in seasons that take place in locales where the term doesn't fit--such as the African savanna, the Australian Outback, the Amazonian jungle, etc. The whole focus of "surviving" in the wilderness was quickly dropped when it became clear that viewers were more interested in the contestants scheming than doing basic survival tasks.
177	* ''{{Series/Taggart}}'' no longer had a Taggart in it after the actor, Mark [=McManus=], died and TheCharacterDiedWithHim. In fact there were ''far'' more episodes without its title character than with him.
178	* ''Series/TalesOfTheGoldMonkey'' only featured a single episode - ThePilot - where the monkey statue was the focus of Jake and Sarah's adventures, and at the end, it's found to be made of brass. It's relegated to the background for the remainder of the series's run.
179	* ''Series/TheTerror'' is a miniseries with a DoubleMeaningTitle, being a terrifying story that involves a ship called ''The Terror''. When the series was turned into a GenreAnthology with a new story every season, the second season was named ''Series/TheTerrorInfamy'' even though the ship ''The Terror'' or anything else from the first season is not involved; it's now just a show title informing that it's an horror series.
180	* ''Series/TodaysSpecial'': Set in a department store, the series originally involved learning about whatever product was on special when the store opened, with each episode's title literally being "today's special". As the seasons progressed, the storylines got more varied, and by the final season, the episodes' titles rarely had anything to do with the store's merchandise, so the series title had lost its meaning.
181	* ''Series/TotalDivas'': Wrestling/{{WWE}} haven't called their female performers "Divas" since April 2016, yet the show's title remains intact.
182	* Partway through its run, the game show ''Series/TriviaTrap'' had its rules changed. It originally had teams playing trivia questions and working to omit all the ''wrong'' answers while avoiding the "trap" of the ''right'' one. Host Bob Eubanks didn't like the format, so it was just changed into a generic Q & A game with no real "traps" to speak of.
183	* ''Series/TwoAndAHalfMen'':
184	** The "half" originally referred to Jake, who was just a boy when the series began. Jokes from fans and critics about how this would become an Artifact Title began almost immediately, but they did their best to deflect it for most of the show's run. In Season 9, Charlie was replaced by ManChild Walden Schmidt, the implication being that Walden was the new "half." However, both Walden and Jake went through significant CharacterDevelopment during that season and came into their own as men, so the title briefly fell victim to the trope. (Some have made the case that the "half" could refer to the emasculated Alan.) When Angus T. Jones left the show, Jake was replaced by Jenny, a 20-year-old lesbian DistaffCounterpart of Charlie, possibly an attempt at keeping the title relevant, with the idea that Jenny's youth and womanizing ways qualified her as half a man. However, by the time the show ended, it was only about Walden and Alan and the title had no real meaning.
185	** The show's name in France is "Mon oncle Charlie" which menats My uncle Charlie. Guess what happened to the title when Charlie Sheen left?
186	* ''Series/TwoGuysAGirlAndAPizzaPlace'' was changed to just ''Two Guys and a Girl'' after the Two Guys quit the Pizza Place, thus averting that artifact. The rest of the title would still be an artifact, as by the end the cast consisted of three guys and two girls.
187	* Intentionally invoked with ''Series/UglyBetty''. Many fans expected a long-awaited makeover of the title character (as per the original telenovela on which the show is based) and were even surprised when this transformation failed to occur in earlier seasons. Over the course of Season 4, however, Betty gradually loses her "unattractive" qualities until she can by no stretch of imagination be considered "ugly" anymore. This change is even explicitly lampshaded in the series finale, where the closing title fades from "Ugly Betty" into just "Betty".
188	* ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'' ended up [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig Zagging]] this once it dropped the device of Elena and Stefan reading from their diaries as a narrative lodestone. The first three seasons include various historical journals and documents linked to the town's history which kept the title relevant, but as the backstory went further back in time they eventually stopped appearing. Other arcs found ways for Elena's diary to make an appearance, but it rarely figured into the actual plot. The final season brings back the narration, this time in the form of other characters writing entries for [[spoiler:Elena, who is in a magical coma,]] and functions as a WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue in the final episode, with Elena [[BookEnd Book Ending]] the series with one final diary entry.
189	* ''Series/{{Veep}}'' becomes this at the end of its third season, when President Hughes resigns and Selina [[RankUp moves up]] from the vice presidency to the presidency, meaning she's no longer the "veep." The writers tease the title becoming relevant again when the vicissitudes of Selina's political career cause her to be offered the vice-presidency slot on a later ticket, but she immediately and aggressively refuses.
190	* In the first season of ''Series/VigilBBC'', DCI Amy Silva was investigating a mysterious death on a Royal Navy submarine, HMS Vigil. By the second season, she's moved on to investigating murders perpetrated using a Royal Air Force drone in a fictional Middle Eastern country and, aside from the drone in question having "VL-1" on the side, there's no further connection to the title.
191	* ''Series/TheWalkingDead'':
192	** Cable channel AMC has aired various after-shows hosted by comedian Chris Hardwick. The first, which concerns ''[[Series/TheWalkingDead Walking Dead]]'', is called ''Talking Dead''. With such an obvious play on words, there's no ambiguity about what show that title refers to. Next came the ''Series/BreakingBad'' final season after-show, ''Talking Bad''. This makes sense considering it's the same host and format as ''Talking Dead'', but it's not much of a pun on "Breaking Bad". Recently, AMC announced a new show to discuss ''Series/BetterCallSaul'' -- naturally, its title is ''Talking Saul''. It's not that it doesn't make sense -- it's a talk show about a show with "Saul" in the title -- but it's interesting that continuing the "Talking _______" title format quickly became more important than cleverness or clarity.
193	** ''Series/FearTheWalkingDead'' had an interesting evolution with its ForeignLanguageTitle in Czech, where it is known as ''Živí Mrtví: Počátek Konce (The Walking Dead: The Beginning of the End''. While this was an appropriate title in its first three season which took place during the initial months of the apocalypse, it quickly became obsolete once it caught up to the main series (for a bit at least, time skips in these series' are weird). This was eventually subverted with Season 6, which heavily used the motto ''The end is the beginning'', accidentally perfectly matching the Czech title.
194	* The award-winning NBC News magazine ''Weekend'' began as a once-a-month program, hosted solo by Lloyd Dobyns, airing late on Saturday. When ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' became a hit and NBC started begrudging the one night a month when SNL couldn't air, the magazine was "promoted" to weekly prime-time status... with no definite time slot. New co-anchor Linda Ellerbee found herself introducing one broadcast with "This show is called ''Weekend.'' Yes, we know it's Wednesday..."
195	* In its final season, the namesake character of ''Series/WelcomeBackKotter'' was written out of the show, with the spotlight going to his wife instead.
196	* The ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace'' special "The Wizards Return: Alex vs. Alex" is actually one. With Jerry already mortal when the series began, Max losing his powers and becoming mortal in the series finale, and David Henrie not reprising his role as Justin, Alex Russo is the only wizard returning for the special.
197	* In 2021, it was [[https://variety.com/2021/music/news/mtv-franchises-unplugged-rapsbehind-music-paramount-plus-dave-grohl-1234914548/ announced]] that ''Yo! Creator/{{MTV}} Raps'' would receive a revival... on Creator/ParamountPlus.
198	* Croatian soap-opera ''Zabranjena ljubav'' (translated, ''Forbidden Love'') focused on two twins separated at birth who unfortunately fell in love with each other...and at one point one of the twins dies. The show goes on focusing on the other twin and other characters until that twin gets left out...and the show still went on.
199	[[/folder]]

Context ArtifactTitle / LiveActionTV