Extreme Doormats in Live-Action TV.
- Kenneth Parcell on 30 Rock. Partly from being The Pollyanna, and partly because being a page at NBC requires a tolerance for running errands and other undignified tasks for employees higher on the career ladder. This trait of Kenneth's is most frequently abused by Liz, Jack, Jenna, and Tracy.
- Edith Bunker on All in the Family most of the time, partly due to her being The Ditz and partly due to having a bad-tempered, chauvinist husband. However, on one occasion she did realize she had taken all she could stand from Archie and memorably told him off. And throughout the course of the series she successfully fought off two (yes, two) attempted rapists.
- The plot of the The Baby-Sitters Club (2020) episode "Mary Anne Saves The Day" is Mary Anne trying to deal with this aspect of her personality after getting in trouble with the rest of the club for allowing a prospective client to violate a club rule rather than tell her "no". At the end of the episode, she realizes she's stronger than she thinks she is after circumstances require her to stand up for one of her sitting charges.
- Bar Rescue:
- Most commonly, this is an issue when the owners or managers are employing their friends or family members. Understandably, people have a hard time separating their private relationships with their professional ones.
- The worst case of this by far had to be the owners of Rhythm N' Brews. Their bar was overrun by a biker gang to the point where bikers were going behind the bar to make themselves drinks and having free run of the kitchen. Eventually, one of the owners managed to work up the nerve to kick out several bikers who showed up during the stress test. He had originally failed in his goal to keep them from getting inside in the first place, but it was a definite step up from before.
- A close second would be Russell City. The owner never put his foot down and clearly had a problem asserting himself. The result was his friend Church allowing himself behind the bar when his bartenders told him he couldn't be there. His bartender L Boogie starting a fistfight with Church for being back there, which extended to every male worker in the bar (to be fair, that was partially Church's fault for assaulting the guys trying to break it up). Two of his bartenders, Nykita and Pineapple, act like middle schoolers taking pictures behind the bar, arguing in front of customers, and storming out when he starts to take some control.
- The owner of TJ QUills hired his friends which as mentioned can make it difficult unfortunately these guys crossed lines even most people would put the friendship aside over. The bouncer didn't check IDs and got caught twice letting underage patrons in, the bartender would drink 1 shot per customer, and the worst was Spellman who would hit on female patrons and understandably scare them off. It's telling three people got fired this episode. Even Jon Taffer said the owner was a Nice Guy he just had no spine, luckily the outstanding new concept and decor along with his new management style has kept the place open to this day.
- In Barry, the titular Hitman with a Heart has a pathological need to be liked that causes him to frequently put the wishes of others above his own happiness. However it's Zig-Zagged as he won't hesitate to kill even people he called friends if they jeopardize his double life.
- Leonard from The Big Bang Theory is seen to be too meek to not let others push him around, whether it be his roommate Sheldon, his crush/neighbor Penny, and even his own mother! This more-or-less changes in the later seasons where he Grew a Spine, though some of his pushover behavior remains.
- Blackadder II:
- Lord Percy sticks by Lord Edmund whenever he's in trouble, offering to pay his debt, creating gold (or in this case green) and posing for a less than wholesome portrait for his friend; while all the while Blackadder steals his money, insults him and takes advantage of his generosity all the way through the series and Percy does nothing to complain.
- Though the nicest member of the family tree, Ebenezer Blackadder is also a complete pushover and everyone takes advantage of his generosity, until the Spirit of Christmas arrives and inadvertently inspires him to be mean like his ancestors.
- Darryl Morris on Charmed has done everything for the Charmed Ones. He even forgave them after Phoebe and Paige stole his soul. He managed to grow a spine after getting put through the wringer one too many times without so much as a "thank you" and put some distance between him and the girls. They didn't understand why. He's pretty much the trope namer, at least according to Television Without Pity.
- One of the patients of the day in Chicago Med has an influencer who has his life dictated by his online followers and that also includes his medical treatments. It gets to the point where the chat's votes are putting the young man's life in danger because he would rather listen to his followers instead of making his own decisions. Dr. Charles decides to wheel the patient to the roof and asks his followers if their idol should jump off the roof. The majority vote yes, which has the influencer deciding to go with the surgery after all.
- Deconstructed in the Cold Case episode "The Sleepover". Ariel is fixated on Brandi and will do anything to be her friend, despite Brandi's terrible behavior. Ariel kills Rita after Brandi said that she does not want to be friends with either of them. Ariel then told Brandi about the murder, and she lets herself be blackmailed for years just so Brandi will continue needing her.
- Colonel March of Scotland Yard: March's niece Emily in "Present Tense". Just before he attempts to murder her, her husband Ernest expresses his contempt by saying:"No man can long be in love with the mat on which he wipes his feet."
- Degrassi: The Next Generation: Anya MacPherson was an Extreme Doormat to her best friend Holly J before she gained a bit of a backbone.
- Doctor Who:
- The Ood are first introduced as a Slave Race to the humans of the 43th century. They act and are treated as a race of expendable Extreme Doormats. It is later revealed they were actually a free race that was lobotomized and separated from their Hive Mind, making them an ideal Slave Race...until they rebelled.
- The Tivolians, natives of the planet Tivoli, are very infamous for this behavior in-universe. They basically allow their planet to be conquered and enslaved by whatever hostile species lands on it and their entire culture revolves around them appeasing whoever took over their planet. Because of this, the planet Tivoli is known as "the most conquered planet of the universe". The Doctor considers this to be an aggressive form of cowardice, as the meek behavior of the Tivolians causes them to be Beneath Notice, allowing them to outlive all of their conquerors.
- The Actives on Dollhouse are pretty much like this when in "blank slate" mode. They act like
Purity Sues except even more obliging and unambitious. They're basically like children on Valium. - Family Matters: Steve Urkel pines for Laura throughout most of the series and gets taken advantage of quite often. Eventually he sees this and even accepts that this is his role. But only for Laura.
- Played with in The Fast Show. One of Paul Whitehouse's characters tries to have opinions about the topic du jour whilst talking with his mates in the pub, but refuses to disagree with any of them for fear of offending. As a result he fails to come to a conclusion about anything and lives his life in a state or perpetual bewilderment.
- Forever: Oscar is extremely non-confrontational. In the first episode, we see June yelling at him while he remains mild. In the seventh episode, June discovers that he secretly rearranges the dishwasher after she loads it to avoid arguing about it. She marvels with disgust at the lengths to which he'll go to avoid confrontation. When giving Mark advice, Oscar says that he is the "peacemaker" of the relationship and that every couple needs one.
- Niles Crane on Frasier was portrayed as this, at least to his wife Maris, almost completely ignoring the fact that she treated him like crap and running to her pretty much whenever she snapped her fingers. He got better about this tendency over the years, eventually culminating in his divorce from Maris and learning to be on his own.
- Game of Thrones:
- King Tommen Baratheon isn't a bad king because he makes bad decisions. He's a bad king because he can't make any decisions on his own terms as a ruler, having grown up sheltered all his life. Virtually everyone pushes him around, his mother undermines him at every turn and because he does not want to spill any blood, the Faith Militant runs roughshod over King's Landing. This comes about due to the decision to age him up from being a nine year old, where his lack of independent decision-making was understandable. He's such a doormat, that the first decision he makes on his own in the series is killing himself.
- Tytos Lannister was this by reputation, which thus directly contributed to the rebellion of his vassals House Reyne of Castamere.
- In The Good Place, Doug Forcett had a revelation while high on shrooms about the exact mechanisms of the afterlife and how to get there. Determined to reach the eponymous heavenly afterlife, he has dedicated his life to making all other living beings happy at his own personal expense, including letting other people, including a preteen bully, take advantage of his extreme generosity. Sadly, this is All for Nothing as despite him getting the mechanics right, the nature of the modern world combined with the unchanged nature of the afterlife points system mean that pretty much from early childhood he already had a deficit impossible to overcome in life and he's already doomed to the Bad Place. And if Doug can't escape it, no one can.
- House of Anubis:
- Fabian was this until the middle of Season 2, when he Grew a Spine. He even began to call himself a pushover. It was just a bad combination of kindness and shyness. When he did stand up for himself, the results were glorious. Of course, it took him a while to learn balance between being passive and being too assertive. Most people didn't try to take advantage of him, however, at least not intentionally.
- Alfie also was pretty subservient; mostly to Jerome and Amber, who were pretty good at manipulating him or taking advantage of his crush, respectively. He got tired of both of them for this, turning on Jerome for Sibuna and breaking up with Amber (However, even after he tried to break up with her, she insisted they were together and still pushed him around, up until he nearly died going into a tunnel she convinced him to crawl through despite her drawing the short straw). When he made up with both of them, he was wound up treated more respectfully, as they knew he could say no to them if he wanted to.
- On How I Met Your Mother, the titular Mother is revealed to be this in "Bass Player Wanted". She let a Jerkass take over her band and even quit before he could boot her off. She's afraid of confronting him even after Marshall calls her out on being a doormat.
- Million Yen Women: Midori at the beginning, as shown by her getting regularly shaken for money by her former foster brother.
- In a Monty Python sketch, a couple goes to marriage counseling. The counselor instantly seduces the wife right in front of the husband, who can't bring himself to utter a word of protest.
- Olive from Odd Squad was this back when she was an agent-in-training. She had absolutely no self-confidence and went along with Todd's orders when he wasn't handling cases himself, even going along with him calling her "Scribbles" as a harsh nickname. When he attacked Precinct 13579 with a released pienado, Olive didn't have much of a spine to stand up to him initially, and begged him to stop before being shut down by his Motive Rant and his attacking of both Oprah and Oscar before his departure. Oprah relied on Olive to be the precinct's last hope and gave her some words of encouragement just before she got knocked out by another pie, which instilled confidence in her and helped her to stop the pienado from completely destroying Headquarters and taking more lives, being the Sole Survivor of the entire ordeal and making her a Shell-Shocked Veteran.
- Once Upon a Time:
- Rumplestiltskin. Dear Lord. Crippled (no political correctness about this in Fairytale Land), poor, insulted in public by his wife, insulted in public again by the man she runs off with, deeply humiliated by a soldier in front of his own son and threatened with losing that same son. His inability to fight back is explained in part by the fact that he has next to no combat knowledge, is only ever seen walking with the help of a crutch, and is often up against soldiers backed up by the Dark One who are likely to do even worse to him if he speaks up. Still, a conversation with his son implies that in some situations, like the war, fighting is at least possible. Later on, of course, he gains some power...
- Prince Henry is this to his wife Cora and daughter Regina. In "The Miller's Daughter", he does show concern over his father's treatment of peasants, but lacks the spine to stand up to him either.
- Jiminy Cricket used to be this; unable to stand up to, much less escape, his thieving, sociopathic Jerkass parents. His attempt to use magic to get away ends up getting Gepetto's parents killed. In the end, he is ''more' than glad to trade his humanity to the Blue Fairy and accept a geas to aid Gepetto just to leave them. He's still pretty meek, just don't get between him and his patients.
- Parks and Recreation:
- Jerry is constantly the butt of jokes and barbs from everyone in the office, even the nicer co-workers, and he rarely objects with anything more than an exasperated sigh. He puts up with it because his home life is absolutely amazing (where he's very Happily Married to a beautiful wife and has three beautiful children who adore him).
- Ann is very passive compared to Leslie and is always pulled into Leslie's plans. Also, due to the Florence Nightingale Effect and Weakness Turns Her On, she's very inclined to allow boyfriends to take advantage of her (as exemplified by the first season when she waited on her much less mature boyfriend Andy hand-and-foot after he broke his legs).
- Ben has some shades of this as well. Although he's capable and authoritative in a professional setting, it's revealed he's easily walked over in his personal life. He struggles to confront April and Andy about issues when rooming with them and a big milestone for him and Leslie is her realizing she can't just steamroll him and his feelings. He even lampshades this.
Ben: My family is very non-confrontational. My parents' method of problem solving is to kind of keep everything bottled up and just subtly hint at what's bothering them. - Psychopath Diary: Dong-sik starts out as one. He stops being one once he becomes convinced he's a psychopath.
- Scrubs: Flashbacks show that this is how Ted, the hospital's lawyer and resident Chew Toy, pretty much became Dr. Kelso's personal assistant. The janitor also takes advantage of this from time to time ("I'm a follower"), though one episode has him teach Ted to to stand up for himself, which caused him to turn against the Janitor and start a rival group to the Brain Trust, though this change is short-lived.
- Seinfeld has Elaine's friend Noreen, who does pretty much whatever Elaine tells her to, up to and including joining the army and then going AWOL. Later on, she falls under Kramer's influence and becomes so unhappy she contemplates jumping off a bridge.
- Star Trek: The Next Generation: In the episode "Tapestry", it's revealed that Jean-Luc Picard has an artificial heart because back when he was at Starfleet Academy, he got in a fight with a group of Nausicaans and got stabbed in the heart, almost killing him. Because he regrets this part of his past life, and especially this event which more or less crippled him for life (at least in the sense that he needs regular checkups on his artificial heart), Q offers him the chance to go back in time and allow him to not fight the Nausicaans. The aesop was, of course, that this was actually a crucial point in his life that shaped his entire career. Without the stabbing that almost cost his life, Picard never realized how fragile life is and how important each moment must be, he never got the motivation, drive and ambition to live life to the fullest and become a great man, and he instead became basically an extreme doormat who never achieved anything of any importance, never taking any risks, always playing it safe and never seizing any opportunities to advance in his career.
- Succession has a few of these:
- The deadbeat loser Greg is a Fish out of Water among the fantastically wealthy Roy branch of his family. He's trying to suck up to them to get a piece of their money, so he takes all of their bullying and mockery with little attempt to stand up for himself. This is exacerbated by his mental issues, which make him awkward and flustered in social situations.
- Tom comes from much more humble beginnings than the Roy clan and, similar to Greg, has essentially made himself a sycophant to the family while dating Shiv. For his part, he seems to enjoy having Greg around, as there's now someone lower on the totem pole than him, and he bullies Greg mercilessly when they're alone.
- Tom's parents reveal that he was cut from the same cloth as them. At Tom's wedding, they say that had lots of fun waiting for hours at the airport to be picked up and are embarrassed to ask for a drink when they arrive. Whether they're always this passive or just overawed by the Roys' wealth is ambiguous.
- Of his siblings, Roman is easily the most submissive to their abusive father Logan, frequently fawning over him and insisting he's the greatest man to ever live, and insisting he's not hurt literal seconds after his father smacks him so hard, he loses a tooth. It's a coping mechanism to deal with the abuse (especially since he's seen how standing up to Logan tends to work out for people), and he'll often take out his anger and hurt on some unsuspecting bystander rather than confront the fact that his father is a terrible person. Shiv snarks at one point that Roman is attracted to fascism because he's so accustomed to licking the boot that kicks him.
- Supernatural: When it comes to his family, Dean is so like this it's scary. He thinks he deserves the verbal abuse or blame from just about anybody, and is so needy when it comes to Sam that he sells his soul to bring Sam Back from the Dead. He's saved from living here by being opinionated and obstinate in everything else.
- In "Hunted", he's kidnapped and used as bait after Sam just abandoned him in the middle of the night, dismissed him with a "he means well", and didn't even try to contact him until he needed him. And all Dean can come up with is a "You ever do that again and I'll...". Do what, Dean? Grow a spine when it comes to dealing with your family?
- In Season 4, Sam stops just short of choking Dean to death after Dean calls him a monster on top of Sam's hallucinations of Dean loathing him in one episode. Guess who calls to apologize to whom. Of course, that might be as much practicality, since Dean needed to get Sam to go to back to Bobby's to continue the incredibly painful process of detox. Or at least stop following Ruby's plan. His apology probably would have had the desired effect, too, if the angels hadn't meddled with the message.
- It gets so much worse in Seasons 5 and 6. No wonder Famine accused him of being empty: he's got nothing left to give, not even to Lisa and Ben, because he's given it all to Sam and John, who never needed him as much as he needed them.
- Angels, it's implied, are supposed to be this — follow your orders and don't ask questions — and the higher-ups don't like it when the doormats start questioning.
- Castiel can also be an Extreme Doormat, although Depending on the Writer and his mood, sometimes he just straight-up rebels and loses his shit. During his breakdown in Season 5, he tends to sacrifice himself and obey the Winchesters (particularly Dean) without question, no matter how much it hurts him. Castiel is even demoted and tortured by Heaven because he is getting too emotionally attached. A physically and psychologically broken Cas takes on all the damage a time travel trip requires (to the point that he cannot stand up), in order to make sure Sam and Dean survive. Given how readily and unquestioningly the millennia-old Cas sides with Dean, and Castiel's (obviously untrue) claims about angels not having emotions, it's likely that he was just so eager to have someone he could believe in telling him what to do that he so willingly switched from being Heaven's doormat/bitch to being Dean's doormat/bitch.
- In a flashback episode of Taxi, we discover that none other than Jim Ignatowski was this during his days at Harvard, "a simpler time" in his own words.
