Revolvers have historically tended to be smaller, lighter, more reliable (in most - not all - conditions, but don't worry, we'll get to that later), and simpler to use than comparable automatic pistols (especially prior to 1980; advances in design make this less universally true in the 21st century, making them a Boring, but Practical option): just pull the trigger, no need for things like safeties or a loaded chamber. Versus an easier reload and more ammunition, the traditional argument has been that you rarely need more than six bullets in a gunfight. Up until the seventies, it was commonly known that revolvers were much more accurate than semi-automatics. They do tend to have a better trigger, and the reputation tends to stick even today.
Revolvers are immune to many of the malfunctions that can occur in semi-automatic handguns (failure to feed, failure to eject, failure to battery, double-feed, triple-feed, mis-feed, and misfire) since it does not load from a magazine, and does not eject spent casings autonomously. Most of the listed malfunctions simply are not possible, and the one that is (misfire aka a dud cartridge) is nullified by simply pulling the trigger again and rotating a new round into place.
That is not to say there are no malfunctions that can affect a revolver, though. Revolvers can jam from foreign objects, which can range from common things such as loose primers and mud getting into the action and impinging on the cylinder (things that are just as much of a danger to revolvers as they are to any other type of gun), all the way up to more unusual dangers such as pocket change. This is a particularly bad problem on revolvers given that they have large exposed openings in their action that even the older and more poorly-sealed semiautomatic guns simply don't have.
This makes them a good choice for civilian self-defense and similar applications, where their low ammo capacity, slow reloading, and vulnerability to WW1 trench mud is usually not an issue. This is also the reason why they are usually recommended for people who have never fired a handgun before (meaning that Revolvers Are for Amateurs is Truth in Television). In addition, for single-action revolvers (mostly those designed in the 19th century), the Dramatic Gun Cock is actually standard procedure; more modern designs are "double action," meaning that the trigger both cocks and releases the hammer in a single motion. Even with double-action, however, cocking the hammer on the first shot greatly reduces the weight of the trigger pull, making the gun easier to fire accurately.
Revolvers are also a better choice for someone who suffers from arthritis or may otherwise lack hand/arm strength. Some semi-auto pistols have stiff recoil springs which can make it difficult to rack the slide. High-capacity magazines are often called "thumb-busters" and sometimes require a special tool to compress the follower spring when loading them. A revolver, by comparison, requires very little strength to load and unload.
They do have a few downsides. Most people know of more difficult reloading - versus loading a single box into a semi-auto, one has to either load six single bullets, or load six bullets into six holes at the same time; this can be quite difficult at times and is very hard to do one-handed, though in some revolvers, the actual cylinder can be pulled out and replaced with a loaded one. This can be mitigated of course by using a pre-prepared speedloader which allows the user to load all six bullets simultaneously. They're also very watch-like mechanically and many owners never open up a revolver because of the incredibly complex internal mechanisms. On a tightly-fitted revolver, carbon buildup on the cylinder face can cause the action to lock up (necessitating vigilant cleaning), and poor ammunition can allow bullets to slip forward in the chambers, jamming the revolver known as a bullet jumping or breaking crimp. The advent of inexpensive semi-automatics also means they can be more expensive unless one seeks out a used model. And there is the traditional problem - lacking capacity, though many designs have more than the normal five or six, some .357s packing eight roundsnote .
Revolvers are often shown to be more "powerful" than semiautomatic handguns, and this is true to some extent: revolvers can utilize much more powerful ammunition (such as this one
, pictured on the Hand Cannon page) because they usually have a solid frame and therefore are physically stronger. Semi-automatics have to cycle in some manner (necessitating a design that opens), and the vast majority are recoil operated, which places an upper limit on cartridge power. Recoil springs can only be made so strong and still fit into something that a person can hold in one hand. Some semi-autos are chambered for powerful revolver cartridges, most notably the Desert Eagle but they are gas operated, which has its own drawbacks.There is also some real world reason for this trope being reasonably common in Live Action TV and Film. Most automatic firearms require modification to allow blank ammunition to cycle them (using live ammunition on a film set is incredibly dangerous), as they either fail to produce enough gas pressure, or haven't enough recoil. They can be fitted with adaptors on the muzzle to increase the back pressure to cycle the action (blank-firing adaptors) but these are both bulky and obvious, and decrease the muzzle flash and report, making the blank shot much less dramatic. Revolvers or manual action (pump/lever/bolt/break) weapons, being cycled by user effort, don't require any alteration to allow them to cycle with blanks.
Another reason is cultural, at least in the US. Revolvers are associated with cowboys and cops: heroic archetypes with ties to older traditions and the subtle implication that someone who uses a "six-shooter" is old-fashioned or at least Boring, but Practical in outlook, if not necessarily politics. This is true even today, despite most police departments having traded in their revolvers for semiauto pistols in the 1980s & 90s (although in some small, rural departments, long-serving cops can retain their revolvers). Then, too, especially in the 21st Century, someone who by preference uses a weapon holding only six rounds - when more modern designs holding several times that much ammunition are readily available - may be perceived as being confident in his skills ("Beware the man with one gun").
For some reason, top-break revolvers seem particularly affected by this trope, which is odd because they can't fire most high-pressure rounds due to the inherent weakness of the top-break that a swing-out cylinder doesn't have (the stress of firing is centered almost entirely on the pin holding the two halves of the gun together on a top-break design - the one such revolver designed for .357 Magnum, the MP412 REX, never entered production at least in part because of this), and are for the most part rather rare.
