Line #50 Creator/Lifetime


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4	[[quoteright:150:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lifetime_logo17svg.png]]
5
6	'''Lifetime''' is an American cable TV channel with programming geared towards female audiences. Through Lifetime Entertainment Services, the channel is currently owned by [[Creator/AAndE A+E Networks]]; a joint venture between Creator/{{Disney}} and the Hearst Corporation. The channel was launched in 1984 as the result of a merger between two networks co-owned by [[Creator/AmericanBroadcastingCompany ABC]] and Hearst -- the Cable Health Network (which explains why in Lifetime's early days, the lineup included reruns of ''Series/MarcusWelbyMD'') and Daytime.
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8	Originally focused on {{talk show}}s, Lifetime later added game shows (most notably ''Series/SupermarketSweep'' and ''Series/ShopTilYouDrop'') and syndicated programs to its lineup. These days, Lifetime is best known -- and infamous -- for giving rise to a subgenre of {{Made For TV Movie}}s that [[LifetimeMovieOfTheWeek feature similar plots and themes]], as well as its flagship reality series ''Series/DanceMoms'', the reception to which has been polarizing to say the least. Critics also argue that Lifetime's programming merely panders to, or even exploits, its target audience.
9
10	Even so, the network's programming has long provided a training ground for up-and-coming talent, and at the very least delivers on the "female-centered" promise; practically every Lifetime movie passes UsefulNotes/TheBechdelTest in its first few minutes. It's also provided opportunities for women behind the camera, making something of a specialty out of featuring work produced by well-known actresses (like Creator/VivicaAFox with ''Film/TheWrong'' movies, while Creator/WhoopiGoldberg and Creator/AngieHarmon have also produced recent Lifetime movies).
11
12	!!Lifetime is the {{Trope Namer\|s}} for
13	* LifetimeMovieOfTheWeek
14
15	!!Original works with their own pages
16	[[index]]
17	* ''Series/OneEightHundredMissing''
18	* ''Series/AbbysUltimateDanceCompetition''
19	* ''Series/AgainstTheWall''
20	* ''Film/AmandaKnoxMurderOnTrialInItaly'' (2011) starring Creator/HaydenPanettiere
21	* ''Series/AmericasMostWanted''
22	* ''Series/AnyDayNow''
23	* ''Series/ArmyWives''
24	* ''[[Film/TheBadSeed2018 The Bad Seed]]'' (a 2018 remake with Creator/RobLowe and Creator/MckennaGrace)
25	** ''Film/TheBadSeedReturns'' (2022 sequel with Grace, who also co-wrote and co-produced it)
26	* ''Film/BadSister''
27	* ''Film/BigDriver''
28	* ''Series/BloodTies2007''
29	* ''Film/BondOfSilence''
30	* ''Film/TheBrittanyMurphyStory''
31	* ''Film/TheBrideHeBoughtOnline''
32	* ''Film/ABridesRevenge''
33	* ''Film/TheCheatingPact''
34	* ''Cheer! Rally! Kill!'' (2019); ''Fear the Cheer'' (2020 and after--an annual "movie event", with multiple cheerleader-themed thrillers debuting over several weeks)
35	** ''Film/TheCheerleaderEscort''
36	** ''Film/DyingToBeACheerleader''
37	** ''Film/IdentityTheftOfACheerleader''
38	** ''Film/TheSecretLivesOfCheerleaders''
39	** ''Film/UndercoverCheerleader''
40	** ''Film/TheWrongCheerleader'' (also part of ''Film/TheWrong'' franchise)
41	* ''Film/TheCollegeAdmissionsScandal''
42	* ''Film/Custody2007''
43	* ''Film/CyberSeductionHisSecretLife''
44	* ''Series/DanceMoms''
45	* ''Film/DeadlyDaughterSwitch''
46	* ''Film/DeadlyGarageSale''
47	* ''Film/DeadlyInfluencer''
48	* ''Film/DeadlyMileHighClub''
49	* ''Film/DearChristmas''
50	* ''Film/DeathOfACheerleader'' (2019 remake of ''Film/AFriendToDieFor'', which is frequently rerun on Lifetime as ''Death of a Cheerleader'')
51	* ''Series/{{Debt}}'' (1996-98)
52	* ''Series/DeviousMaids''
53	* ''Film/DirtyTeacher''
54	* ''Series/TheDivision2001''
55	* ''Series/DropDeadDiva''
56	* ''Film/DyingForACrown''
57	* ''Film/EscapingDad''
58	* ''Film/FabFiveTheTexasCheerleaderScandal''
59	* ''Film/FifteenAndPregnant''
60	* ''Film/{{Flint}}''
61	* ''Film/FlowersInTheAttic'' (The 2014 version. Since then, Lifetime has done many more Creator/VCAndrews adaptations and has acquired full rights to the Andrews catalog)
62	* ''Film/GraciesChoice''
63	* ''Film/GrumpyCatsWorstChristmasEver''
64	* ''Film/HomecomingRevenge''
65	* ''Series/HumanTrafficking''
66	* ''Film/IfYouBelieve''
67	* ''Film/KillerDreamHome''
68	* ''Film/KillingForExtraCredit''
69	* ''Film/LethalSoccerMom''
70	* ''Film/LivingProof''
71	* ''Film/LizAndDick''
72	* ''Series/TheLottery''
73	* ''Film/TheMadamOfPurityFalls''
74	* ''Film/MarryMe2010''
75	* ''Film/MiracleRun''
76	* ''Film/MommysSecret''
77	* ''Film/MyDaughtersPsychoFriend''
78	* ''Film/MyDoctorsSecretLife''
79	* ''Film/MySistersSerialKillerBoyfriend'' (aka ''Sister Obsession'')
80	* ''Series/OddGirlOut''
81	* ''Film/{{Overexposed}}''
82	* ''Film/PartyFromHell''
83	* ''Film/PartyMom''
84	* ''Film/ThePerfectBride'' (originally aired on Creator/USANetwork, but it's one of Lifetime's movie perennials)
85	* ''Film/PrayersForBobby''
86	* ''Series/ProjectRunway''
87	* ''Series/TheProtector2011''
88	* ''Film/PsychoBFF''
89	* ''Film/PsychoDaughter'' (aka ''The Wrong Daughter'')
90	* ''Film/PsychoWeddingCrasher''
91	* ''Film/ARecipeForSeduction''
92	* ''Film/RevivingOphelia''
93	* ''Series/RitaRocks''
94	* ''Film/TheSantaCon''
95	* ''Film/SecretsOnSororityRow''
96	* ''Film/ASevenDeadlySinsStory'' (telefilm series with four installments, 2021-2022)
97	* ''Series/ShopTilYouDrop'' (1991-95)
98	* ''Film/SinisterStepsister''
99	* ''Film/SleepwalkingInSuburbia''
100	* ''Film/SmugglingInSuburbia''
101	* ''Film/SocialNightmare''
102	* ''Film/SororityMurder''
103	* ''Film/SororitySecrets''
104	* ''Film/StalkedByMyDoctor''
105	* ''Film/StalkedByMyMother''
106	* ''Film/StalkedByMyNeighbor''
107	* ''Film/StolenFromSuburbia''
108	* ''Series/StrongMedicine'' Developed by (or co-created by, depending on the season) Creator/WhoopiGoldberg
109	* ''Series/SupermarketSweep'' (1990-1995; rerun until 1998)
110	* ''Series/{{Supernanny}}'' (revival 2019-present)
111	* ''Film/SurvivingTheSleepover''
112	* ''Film/TiesThatBind2010''
113	* ''Film/ToBeFatLikeMe'' (2007) starring Kaley Cuoco
114	* ''Film/TrappedTheAlexCooperStory''
115	* ''Film/TheTruthAboutJane''
116	* ''Film/TurkeyHollow''
117	* ''Film/TwistedTwin''
118	* ''Series/{{Unreal\|2015}}'' (2015-18) (the final season aired on Creator/{{Hulu}} in the summer of 2018)
119	* ''Film/VanishedInYosemite''
120	* ''Film/WhoKilledOurFather''
121	* ''Series/WildCard''
122	* ''[[Film/TheWrong The Wrong...]]'' (a neverending movie series produced by Creator/VivicaAFox, who also acts in it)
123	* ''Series/{{You\|2018}}'' (2018; moved to Creator/{{Netflix}} for later seasons)
124	[[/index]]
125
126	----
127	!!Tropes found in other Lifetime shows and movies include:
128
129	* TheAce: Lifetime's TeenDrama movies almost always feature a heroine who's pretty, a standout student, and usually also a sports star (especially soccer) or cheerleader.
130	* AllMenArePerverts: A lot of the male characters in their movies are sexual deviants or rapists.
131	* AmbiguousEnding: ''Long Lost Daughter'' has a very rare example for a Lifetime movie. [[spoiler:Cathy's seven-year-old daughter Michelle disappeared, and twenty years later she meets a woman also named Michelle, and becomes convinced that she's her daughter, though Michelle denies it when Cathy confronts her about it. Then Cathy imprisons Michelle in the other Michelle's childhood bedroom. Michelle discovers a cassette tape in an air vent and plays it on a boom box, and it features audio of Cathy's husband being abusive toward young Michelle. Next time she sees her, Michelle tells Cathy that she ''is'' her daughter, which could plausibly be just a ploy to get Cathy to let her go, but Michelle's anguish also suggests StockholmSyndrome, or, shockingly, that she's telling the truth. The search for the tape in the vent also points toward Michelle really being the daughter, since it's an oddly random place to dig around in when you've been unjustly trapped by a deranged woman, but makes sense if it was something she hid there as a child and suddenly remembered. The movie ends with all three possibilities still open, without a resolution.]]
132	* BasedOnATrueStory: A good chunk of their movies and miniseries (either theirs or bought from other networks) are this. And their ''Intimate Portrait'' series was basically "Biography" for women.
133	* {{Camp}}:
134	** Once they caught on that the LifetimeMovieOfTheWeek had attracted a cult following based on NarmCharm, they largely dropped the serious "cautionary tale" and "prestige" variants and started specializing in lurid thrillers done in a "we know this is cheesy, you know this is cheesy, and [[IKnowYouKnowIKnow we know you know this is cheesy]]" spirit, with StrictlyFormula plotlines, cliches turned up to eleven and TookTheBadFilmSeriously acting. They're so over the top that when the network engages in SelfParody, like Creator/KristenWiig and Creator/WillFerrell in ''A Deadly Adoption'', or the extended KFC ad ''Film/ARecipeForSeduction'' with Creator/MarioLopez, it just [[PoesLaw ends up looking like the real thing]].
135	** Their RealityShow presentations like ''Series/DanceMoms'' even more blatantly fit the category.
136	* {{Crossover}}: An unusual example for the network's movies with ''Film/StalkedByMyDoctor: A Sleepwalker's Nightmare'', which has that franchise's VillainProtagonist Dr. Albert Beck treating Michelle Miller, the sexsomniac wife from ''Film/SleepwalkingInSuburbia''.
137	* DeadManHonking: In ''Sleeping With The Devil'', a woman deliberately invokes this (although she's merely injured, not dead) in an attempt to call for help, having just been shot several times by the hitman hired by her ex-boyfriend to kill her.
138	* ADeadlyAffair: A ''lot'' of their movies that feature adultery will have one of the three key players--the cheating spouse, the cuckolded spouse, the other woman/man, turning homicidal against one of the others.
139	* DependingOnTheWriter: Lifetime has a core group of production houses they get movies from, and each one has an identifiable SignatureStyle. Johnson Production Group[[note]]Founded by the former producer of ''Series/DrQuinnMedicineWoman'', of all things.[[/note]] (the ''Film/StalkedByMyDoctor'' franchise, ''Film/DeadlyMileHighClub'')--trashy, over-the-top, often becoming {{Camp}}. Reel One Entertainment (''Film/TheCheerleaderEscort'')--extreme {{Melodrama}}, often centering on an {{Ingenue}} who gets into a dangerous situation. Hybrid LLC (''[[Film/TheWrong The Wrong...]]'' franchise)--almost like a mix of Johnson and Reel One, but with an emphasis on {{Fanservice}} (male and female). [=MarVista=] Entertainment[[note]]Which first made its name with Creator/DisneyChannel movies starring the likes of Creator/DebbyRyan.[[/note]]--lots of mayhem and action, with titles like ''You May Now Kill the Bride''. Some other companies are starting to become Lifetime favorites, like Incendo (similar to Reel One--both companies are based in UsefulNotes/{{Montreal}}--but more polished and with more character-oriented writing).
140	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Before the LifetimeMovieOfTheWeek settled on "sordid thriller" and RippedFromTheHeadlines as its main modes, many Lifetime movies were LighterAndSofter, with lots of examples of RomanticComedy and light fantasy. Eventually those styles migrated to the Creator/HallmarkChannel (except for Lifetime's annual slate of Christmas [=RomComs=]).
141	* EitherOrTitle: Some movies have alternate titles, which may be left in the end credits. If you look at some of the movie posters, they may have a completely different title than what the movie officially has. This is largely because Lifetime buys movies from independent production houses, then often gives them punchier titles than whatever they were originally filmed as.
142	* EvilTwin: One of the most frequent examples of a RecycledPremise in Lifetime movies. The Evil Twin inevitably poses as the Good Twin, with either FrameUp or IJustWantToBeYou motives.
143	* GenreAnthology: The offshoot LMN network is essentially this for the LifetimeMovieOfTheWeek, with daily movie slates centered around a theme.
144	* HalfwayPlotSwitch: ''Stalked By My Husband's Ex'' is a wild example, crossed with GambitPileup--[[spoiler:Kristen, the "My" in the title, is indeed stalked by Lisa, the "Husband's Ex", but with a half-hour left in the movie Lisa is murdered, and it turns out that Matt, ''Kristen's ex'', has been stalking Kristen at the same time, was responsible for a death Kristen blamed on Lisa, and killed Lisa because she was getting in his way.]]
145	* HereWeGoAgain: With some dramatic films, {{Yandere}} films specifically, the VillainProtagonist sometimes finds someone new that they obsess over.
146	* LiveActionCartoon: The more campy Lifetime movies qualify, with absurdly virtuous heroines and fiendish villains depicted doing things like SlippingAMickey and VehicularSabotage.
147	* MamaBear: With the whole "female empowerment" vibe that the network tries to embody, naturally their thrillers tend to have women tenaciously protect their children when they're in danger.
148	* MyBelovedSmother: A few movies include very overprotective parents who attempt or succeed in killing their child's significant other. One of the more prominent examples is Diana Donahue from ''Too Close to Home'', who clung to her 30-year-old son and killed her daughter-in-law for trying to take him away from her. She was actually based off a [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Ann_Duncan real woman]] who was the exact same way.
149	* NetworkDecay: Lifetime's programming, ''especially'' their original movies, has devolved into parody, stereotypes, and cliches.
150	** The most common criticism of Lifetime is that, despite being geared towards women, much of their acquired programming is generic filler, that is, shows with no connection nor relation to each other nor to Lifetime's original programming. It can be argued that some of these shows may be popular with women, such as crime-related programming, medical dramas, and romance-themed sitcoms. Yet, ultimately, these shows are aimed at a general audience. On a plus side, quite a few cases on ''Unsolved Mysteries'' were solved by viewers who watched it on this channel instead of on its [[Creator/{{NBC}} original station]].
151	* NextSundayAD: The movie ''Look Who's Stalking'' debuted on July 23, 2023, but since it's supposed to be taking place a couple of months after a death depicted in the opening scene, and the gravestone of the person who died has a September 2023 death date, the film was technically set about four months after its debut.
152	* NonActorVehicle: The 2022 movie ''Dying to Win'' stars gymnast and social media personality Mia Dinoto (as a [[CastTheExpert gymnast and social media personality]]).
153	* NonIndicativeName: A huge chunk of the movies and MiniSeries that they air were actually created by Creator/{{CBS}}, Creator/{{NBC}}, Creator/{{ABC}}, or are theatrical films, despite often adhering to the typical "woman in jeopardy" plot.
154	* NotGoodWithRejection: For romantic thrillers, the protagonist tends to fly off the handle when their loved one rejects their feelings.
155	** Devon from ''The Perfect Teacher'' makes up a story about Jim, her teacher and the object of her obsession, raping her after he rejects her advances. She offers to get him reinstated and deny the story if he agrees to love her.
156	* OnlySoManyCanadianActors: As with [[SugarWiki/AHallmarkPresentation The Hallmark Channel]], a good chunk of their movies are filmed in either Vancouver or Ontario, creating lots of YouLookFamiliar moments.
157	* ThePeepingTom: A lot of their movies feature these. They don't just settle for looking in Windows, instead opting to install cameras in their target's homes so as to monitor everything they do.
158	* PoliceAreUseless: Lifetime's movies tend to make the police as incompetent as possible. This usually results in the hero/heroine stopping the antagonist on their own. It's pretty rare to see police officers portrayed correctly with this network.
159	* PosthumousCredit: The channel debuted ''Girl in Room 13'' on September 17, 2022, a little over a month after the death of its star Creator/AnneHeche.
160	* RearWindowHomage: ''Film/StalkedByMyNeighbor'', in which a paranoid high school girl who just moved to the suburbs takes pictures of her neighbors from her bedroom window and suspects one neighbor of murdering another.
161	* TheRemake: The network has recently put out several of these of movies originally aired on Creator/{{NBC}}--''Film/NoOneWouldTell'', ''Mother, May I Sleep With Danger?'' (which added the twist of making the stalker a PsychoLesbian), and ''Death Of A Cheerleader''. The latter two even included [[RemakeCameo the main stars of the original]] in supporting roles--Tori Spelling played the DamselInDistress in the original ''Danger'', the concerned mother in the remake, while Creator/KellieMartin was the killer in the original ''Cheerleader'', an FBI agent in the remake.
162	* RescueRomance: Inverted with the ''Stalked By My Doctor'' movies. Dr. Beck becomes obsessed with [[DirtyOldMan young women]] that he saves. His deranged mind creates fantasies where these women reciprocate his feelings, thus making him believe that this trope is in effect on both sides.
163	* RippedFromTheHeadlines: While still adhering to the typical "woman in peril" plot, their better movies are the ones based on RealLife events--the kidnapping of [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidnapping_of_Elizabeth_Smart Elizabeth Smart]], the murder of [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reeva_Steenkamp Reeva Steenkamp]], the [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariel_Castro_kidnappings Ariel Castro]] abductions, etc.
164	* SelfPlagiarism: Pick any Lifetime movie, and odds are you can find another Lifetime movie with almost the exact same plot. One particularly blatant case was in 2020 when, within two weeks of one another, they premiered ''two'' movies (''The Au Pair Nightmare'', ''The Captive Nanny'') about a NaiveEverygirl who goes to work as a nanny for the precocious child of rich, eccentric, overly strict parents, with TheReveal that the mother is obsessed with a male celebrity (including a hidden StalkerShrine to them) and thinks the celebrity is her child's father.[[note]]Most likely they were both independently conceived as [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory loose fictionalizations]] of the bizarre 2017 murder of Sophie Lionnet, a French au pair in London who went to work for Sabrina Kouider, the deranged ex-lover of Mark Walton of the BoyBand Boyzone. Kouider was convinced that Lionnet was sent by Walton to ruin her family.[[/note]]
165	* SharedUniverse: Johnson Production Group, one of the main content providers for the channel, seems to have one for their movies, centered around Whittendale College[=/=]University, a fictional elite school that seems quite popular among young, pretty, nubile [[TheIngenue ingenues]] (they either attend the school, or, if they're still in high school, want to attend it). Unfortunately, it turns out that Whittendale is basically to [[TheOldestProfession prostitution]] and sexual exploitation what [[Franchise/LawAndOrder Hudson University]] is to murder.
166	* SportingEvent: A&E Networks signed a three-year deal with the National Women's [[UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball Soccer]] League in 2017, buying an equity stake in the league. Under this deal, Lifetime broadcasts an ''NWSL Game of the Week''.
167	** In its early years, Lifetime had aired coverage of the WNBA and events such as the America's Cup.
168	* StalkerWithACrush: A healthy percentage of the channel's original movies are basically rewrites of ''Film/FatalAttraction'', with the villain falling in obsessive love with the protagonist (or the protagonist's boyfriend[=/=]husband).
169	* StrictlyFormula: Lifetime's movies have a bunch of stock plotlines and stock characters, to the extent that they're probably closer in profile to CommediaDellArte than any cinematic tradition. Even the basic structure is pretty consistent from movie to movie: heroine gets some kind of new start (new school, new job, new town), gets into a hairy predicament, some sort of important revelation or turning point happens halfway through, and the heroine gets confronted by the villain in last few minutes.
170	* TeensAreMonsters: In select movies, teenagers can be brats, bullies, or even juvenile delinquents, and, in the worst cases, murderers.
171	* ThematicSeries: The channel's original movie lineup has a loose bunch of these, grouped together by Mad Lib-type titles (like ''Stalked By...'', ''Deadly...'', ''...in Suburbia'', ''Psycho...'', ''... at 17'' (which Lifetime even got a MediaNotes/{{Trademark}} for), ''The...She[=/=]He Met Online''), but otherwise unconnected. ''The Wrong...'' movies are tied together more closely by having Creator/VivicaAFox in a different supporting role in each one (and she usually gets to make the TitleDrop at the end).
172	* VillainProtagonist: For the {{Yandere}} movies, they focus on this type of protagonist who is slowly losing their mind because of their obsession.
173	* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: The aforementioned Whittendale College. There are contradictions as to its location. Some movies place it in New England (''Film/SororityMurder'' outright places it in the fictional town of Whittendale, UsefulNotes/{{Vermont}}),[[note]]Though in the movie the role of Whittendale is played by Trinity Western University, located in the UsefulNotes/{{Vancouver}} suburb of Langley, BC.[[/note]] other movies place it in the Los Angeles area.[[note]]''Film/StalkedByMyMother'' shows Whittendale's school colors as orange and black, which, if you go with a California location and Whittendale being an exclusive private college, might make it a FictionalCounterpart for [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occidental_College Occidental College]].[[/note]]
174	* {{Yandere}}: For all types of people, all types of age groups, and all types of love.
175	* YoungerAndHipper: Starting in 2016 and running for a couple of years thereafter, Lifetime's original movies went through an odd teen-focused {{Horror}} phase, including a vampire-themed remake of the classic 90s {{Thriller}} ''Mother, May I Sleep With Danger?'' and a movie called ''Zombie at 17'', seemingly in a bid to compete with similar offerings on Creator/TheCW and Creator/{{Netflix}}.

Context Creator / Lifetime