History HarsherInHindsight / LiveActionTV

** The episode "[=iRock=] the Vote" features a parody of ''Series/AmericanIdol'''s 2007-08 season in which Music/DavidArchuleta beats contestant Wade Collins, who turns out to be a massive jerk who tries to gain people's sympathy with a sob story about his mother having a terrible illness, a reference to David Cook's mentions of his brother's brain cancer (and implying that's what led to his victory that season). Three months after the episode aired, Adam Cook died from his cancer, and David's loss ended up making the show's parody of him come off as far crueler and petty in hindsight.

* In early episodes of ''Series/ThePriceIsRight'', it was common for female contestants who got their Contestant's Row bid exactly right to retrieve their cash bonus directly from Bob Barker's pocket. Then he was accused of taking liberties with some of the models on the show...

** The UnexpectedlyDarkEpisode "[[Recap/DrakeAndJoshEpisode48JoshIsDone Josh is Done]]" focuses on how Drake Parker's life falls apart without Josh Nichols to bail him out. It hits harder in 2021, considering Creator/DrakeBell's scandal of getting charged with child endangerment and Creator/JoshPeck managing to make a decent name for himself.
** Drake Parker's status as a ChickMagnet was PlayedForLaughs. Far less funny in 2021, after Creator/DrakeBell pled guilty to child endangerment.

* ''Series/TheMonkees'': In the episode "Monstrous Monkee Mash", Peter, Mike and Mickey are roaming around a Transylvanian castle trying to find a missing Davy. When Mickey tries to [[LoveableCoward get the others to abandon the search]], he says "We can form a trio." Davy Jones died in 2012, and The Monkees did indeed carry on intermittently as a trio for reunions. Then Peter disappears, and Mickey says "we could become a duet!" Peter Tork died in 2019, and Mike Nesmith and Mickey Dolenz did carry on the group as a duo. Then Mickey panics, asking what would happen if Mike disappeared, saying "I'd have to be a single" and timidly tries to sing the show's theme song as "Hey, hey, I'm a Monkee...". Mike Nesmith died in 2021, leaving Mickey Dolenz as indeed the last living Monkee. Though out of respect for his bandmates, he's retired the Monkees name and does appear as a strictly solo act.

* UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardsCeremonies:

* The 2006 [[UsefulNotes/EmmyAward Emmy Awards]] featured an opening skit in which Creator/ConanOBrien survives a plane crash, in what was meant to be a parody of ''Series/{{Lost}}''. However, it ended up airing just hours after the deadly crash of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comair_Flight_5191 Comair Flight 5191]], with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o67XXwVrts4 at least one NBC affiliate station]] broadcasting it alongside a [[{{Crawl}} news ticker]] providing updates about the crash. Given the unfortunate timing, Creator/{{NBC}} was widely criticized for not pulling this portion of the opening sequence at the last minute.

** In the fourth season episode "My First Kill", Dr. Cox tells J.D. that every doctor eventually kills a patient. When J.D. asks if ''he's'' ever killed a patient, Cox replies, "No, but I'm the exception that proves the rule". The following season, he ends up killing ''three'' patients and becomes [[HeroicBluescreenOfDeath almost catatonic with guilt]].

*** In "[[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E21Symbiosis}} Symbiosis]]", Merritt Butrick (better known to ''Trek'' fans as David Marcus, Captain Kirk's son) played an alien suffering from a plague. Less than a year after the episode aired, Merritt Butrick died of AIDS. What makes things even harsher is the (probably unintentional) RealitySubtext, as the entire reason why Buttrick took the role was that he needed money for his AIDS medication.

*** In "[[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E21Symbiosis}} Symbiosis]]", Merritt Butrick (better known to ''Trek'' fans as David Marcus, Captain Kirk's son) played an alien suffering from a plague. Less than a year after the episode aired, Merritt Butrick died of AIDS.

*** In "[[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E21Symbiosis}} Symbiosis]]", Merritt Buttrick plays a man suffering from a worldwide plague. Less than a year later, he died of AIDS. What makes things even harsher is the (probably unintentional) RealitySubtext, as the entire reason why Buttrick took the role was that he needed money for his AIDS medication.

* In the first episode of the 2017 season of Series/ImACelebrityGetMeOutOfHere, Declan Donnelly joked that his co-host was "the gorgeous Holly Willoughby" before sharing a [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments sweet moment]] with his [[Creator/AntAndDec longtime hosting partner]] Anthony [=McPartlin=] -- rumors had circulated that [=McPartlin=] wouldn't be able to host that series because of his admittance to rehab earlier in the year. By the time of the 2018 season, [=McPartlin=] was unable to join Donnelly due to taking a year-long hiatus from TV hosting after a drink driving arrest, so he had to be replaced... by Holly Willoughby.

* ''Series/IDreamOfJeannie'': One of the final episodes was "Mrs. Djinn Djinn", an episode where the other characters mistakenly believe that Jeannie is pregnant and shower her with baffling gifts and praise, all while trying to coax out her (non-existent) secret. In real life, Creator/BarbaraEden was struggling with infertility: her second child (conceived shortly after the cancellation of ''I Dream Of Jeannie'') died in utero and she was forced to carry it to term despite knowing the child was already gone. She kept the tragedy a secret and endured two months of strangers congratulating her and asking when "the little genie" would be born without saying a word...the trauma eventually broke up her marriage.

* ''Series/TheITCrowd'' has an episode where Douglas unknowingly dates a trans woman, culminating in the two getting into a violent fight. The episode already wasn't the most sensitive depiction of trans people but has since become ''deeply'' uncomfortable to watch due to creator Graham Linehan becoming openly, actively, and intensely transphobic over the following years (made even worse seeing as, according to some sources, it was the offense taken by the trans community at this episode that really kicked off his subsequent views and behaviour).

** In the episode "Fathers and Sons", Martin suspects that Dr. Leland Barton is Fraiser and Niles' real father before he finds out that Barton is actually gay. Creator/DavidOgdenStiers, who played Barton, came out as gay in 2009, expressing great sorrow that he'd stayed closeted for so long.

* Series/TheHardyBoysNancyDrewMysteries: the episode "Arson & Old Lace". An arsonist torches a tall skyscraper, trapping Frank Hardy and Nancy Drew in the penthouse with a non-working elevator and the access stairs to the roof welded shut, and Joe Hardy on the office floors with panicking office workers. After helping others find the stairs through heavy smoke and flames, Joe discovers a small child trapped in a dentist's office with leaking chemical tanks nearby. He shields the child from the horrific explosion with his own body, then convinces the child to jump with him out of the shattered window/wall as the fire has cut off all escape routes. Post-9/11 and the WTC tragedy, this episode is hard to watch: people on the upper floors of the WTC were not only trapped by the raging fires below them but couldn't use the access stairs to the roof, as the doors to the stairs had been sealed shut. Many of those jumped to their deaths, rather than be burned alive. On top of that, the explosion in the episode blows out windows and a huge chunk of the outside wall; shot from outside at ground level, it looks disturbingly like '''an airplane crashing through the building,''' a nightmarish pre-echo of all the 9/11 footage that caught the jets crashing into and through the WTC. Produced in 1978, the episode had only been meant as a ripoff to ''The Towering Inferno'', but still...