Hollywood Homely / Live-Action TV

Examples of Hollywood Homely in Live-Action TV

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• 30 Rock:
  • Liz Lemon is seen as unattractive and gross by most of the other characters on the show. This is despite being played by Tina Fey, who is far from ugly in real life. She's not as much portrayed as unattractive as she is unappealing and undateable. It's suggested she is a woman whose life is out of order, wears inappropriate clothing, eats horribly, works too much, and doesn't get enough sleep. The people who call her ugly are Jenna (who is crazy and jealous), Jack (who usually just points out her horrible choices), and Jack's associates (who have extremely high standards and are rich person mean). This portrayal could instead be the result of Unreliable Expositors, given that she surrounds herself with horribly vain, manipulative people, and is ordinary only in comparison. Her perceived attractiveness does seem to fluctuate at times, since Frank does say he considers her bone-worthy, to the detriment of Jenna, and Liz herself tries to invoke Beautiful All Along when she goes to her high school reunion, only to find out her schoolmates never found her too unattractive, but rather mean. Her Heel Realization comes from the reveal that she was her own Unreliable Expositor.
  • This is lampshaded in the episode "Cleveland". When Liz goes to Ohio she is offered a modeling contract and is complimented by people on the street.
    Jenna: We're all models west of the Allegheny.
  • Also justified in-universe in a scene where Liz walks in front of a high-definition camera and the monitor shows her as a horrifically ugly woman.
  • In the season 2 episode "Somebody to Love", Edie Falco explains that six reconstructive surgeries made her much better-looking than she used to be, and Alec Baldwin gets a slap for saying she did make love like an ugly girl. In the Lifetime movie about the Falco character, the ugly version is played by Hollywood homely Kristen Wiig.
• That '70s Show: Big Rhonda was made up to look homely, but the actress (Cynthia Lamontagne) who played her wasn't. This is seen in the episode "It's a Wonderful Life", where in an alternate timeline she was dumped by Eric and appears at the gang's ten-year reunion without the whole Big Rhonda look. She also played a fembot in Austin Powers.
• Absolutely Fabulous: There was a constant stream of fat jokes at the expense of Jennifer Saunders, even though she didn't even look fat. Meanwhile Julia Sawalha, who was and still is a very attractive woman, is given oversized glasses, an unflattering wardrobe, and a bad haircut and cast as the "frumpy" Saffron.
• Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Agent Fitz saw himself this way in the first two seasons. Even though actor Iain De Caestecker is by no means ugly, he's attractive in a boyish sense. In the show, he's insecure about his appearance and feels he can't compete with the tall, manly, and muscular Ward and Tripp for the affections of Daisy or his longtime crush Simmons. He grows a backbone over time, however, and does eventually win his lady.
• The Andy Griffith Show: Andy and his girlfriend help out a farmer's daughter by giving her dresses and makeup in order to make her look good. Her "non-beautiful" state consisted of the (beautiful) actress with a few dirt smudges instead of rouge.
• Angel:
  • In "Belonging", an obnoxious commercial director bullies Cordelia◊ for being unattractive. It's lampshaded as unreasonable in-universe by her appalled friends and Angel tries to stand up for her.
  • Doyle refers to himself as "homely" in comparison to Angel when he's played by the cute Glenn Quinn, who just has odd fashion choices and the slightest hint of a beer belly.
  • "Lonely Hearts" had a monster that switched hosts through sex. It transferred from a male host who looked like an underwear model to a girl described as "Sarah plain and tall" that Cordy declared must be loaded to have such an attractive paramour. She's a gorgeous blonde girl who is no less attractive than anyone else on the show. Then again, this is before Cordy (fresh out of Buffy at the time, and still known for being rude and shallow) got some much-needed Character Development. The demon then shows that it really knows how to make its hosts look good.
• Arrested Development:
  • Ann's not really played as "ugly," as much as that she's boring/unmemorable.
  • Played for comedy with Kitty Sanchez, who is played by the attractive Judy Greer. While George Bluth Sr. keeps her as a mistress, Lovable Sex Maniac Gob finds her repulsive. Her "ugliness" is achieved by crossing her eyes when she's not wearing her glasses and having frizzy hair when she lets it down. To play the ugliness up further, she also gets a pair of unfortunate breast implants.
  • Lindsey's inability to attract attention from men is a recurring theme throughout the show, despite being played by the gorgeous Portia de Rossi.
• The Big Bang Theory: While the characters vary considerably in their stated levels of attractiveness, the actors playing them are never ugly. They are, however, portrayed as shameless nerds, horrible dressers, and with unflattering hairstyles. If you want to see how they can look better, check out some of the◊ later photo shoots◊.
• The third Blackadder series has the Prince frequently referred to as fat (as historically he was) and having trouble with women, in spite of being played by the very thin (and popular with women) Hugh Laurie.
• Bones: In the episode "The Witch In the Wardrobe" Booth and Brennan spy on a group of Wiccans who perform their ceremony naked and Booth asks, "Why doesn't this ever happen with people you'd want to see naked?" Yet when we see coven members in the full light of day (and clothed alas), none of them register as less than slightly above average in looks.
• The Brady Bunch:
  • The fact that Peter and Jan tend to be more socially awkward than Greg and Marcia is the only way that episodes like "The Not So Ugly Duckling" or "Cyrano de Brady" are plausible; the general consensus amongst viewers is that the middle children were actually the best-looking of the Brady kids. Over the course of the series they went through visible pubescent awkward stages and in the last season they were so clearly attractive that the writers gave in and reversed course. These episodes focused on Peter juggling a date with two girls on the same night and Jan ran for "Most Popular Girl" at school, and won.
  • Greg and Marcia also deal with this trope (indirectly). In the late third-season episode "My Fair Opponent," Marcia plays the sympathetic friend when an awkward and butt-ugly classmate named Molly is nominated (as a cruel joke) for hostess of Filmore Junior High's Banquet Night... only for the makeover to work out too well and Molly becomes an insufferable snob. Greg's instance (in Season 5's "Peter and the Wolf") is averted: he merely is led to believe, based on old photographs and memories of his girlfriend, that his girlfriend's cousin still wears pigtails and braces and is horribly undesirable; the cousin turns out to be a total hottie.
  • Marcia when she had to wear braces. This is Truth in Television.
    Marcia: [sobbing] I'm ugly! Ugly! Ugly!
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • Xander, despite Nicholas Brendon being an incredibly attractive guy, and the character rather witty, is near the bottom of the social barrel at Sunnydale High with only nerds like Jonathan being lower, and numerous cracks are made at his inability to get girls (except demons in disguise who want to eat him). He dates the cheerleader Cordelia from Season 2 onwards. He was told to stop working out by producers because they didn't want Xander to look too buffed. Joss mentions this trope in the DVD commentaries:
    Joss Whedon: Of course, Nicholas Brendon is way too good-looking, but this is Hollywood, so get over it.
  • Willow Rosenberg, played by the very attractive Alyson Hannigan, is in the same boat. In the original, never-aired pilot, Willow was played by Riff Regan, who is more plain. This is also part Executive Meddling, who requested that Willow be "more hip, like Buffy".
• When Charmed (1998) wanted to show that Piper had been plain and uncool in high school, they show a picture of her with braces, Nerd Glasses and some acne. She ends up seeming rather cute, and as an adult is positively stunning. Holly Marie Combs even said ahead of the first season's premiere that she wasn't "the typical Spelling babe".
• Charlie's Angels:
  • Farrah Fawcett, the beauty who swept the hearts of many boys in the 1970s with her gorgeous visage, plays Jill, who goes undercover with a hair bun and eyeglasses, at which point another character says, "Jill, you look terrible."
• Chuck: Chuck himself, who is supposed to be average and dorky-looking. Even Big Mike, who habitually points out that Chuck is the only reason the store functions, is in disbelief he managed to get a woman like Sarah. Realistically, Zachary Levi is pretty much textbook tall, dark, and handsome; so he's dressed in ill-fitting clothes and given a very silly haircut. This has been acknowledged by the creators, who admit that the only reason that Chuck can pass as an ordinary guy is because his love interest is so good-looking that she makes him appear normal by comparison. Like standing a 6'4" guy (which incidentally, is Zachary Levi's actual height, hence literally Tall, Dark, and Handsome) in the middle of a 7' basketball team and calling him short.
• Cobra Kai:
  • Downplayed with Johnny. In the beginning he is considered unattractive, in spite of being William Zabka with red eyes and a Beard of Sorrow. One he starts getting his life back together, however, he is considered very attractive, and manages to score several dates in quick succession and even win the heart of a younger woman.
  • Similarly, Eli is originally outcast and severely bullied for the scar from his cleft palate repair. However, it is all but stated that his low social status and withdrawn nature, rather than his appearance, is the real reason he isn't considered attractive. When he takes up karate and gains some muscle, along with a lot of confidence, he definitely doesn't want for female attention. And, of course, he is played by the highly attractive and borderline Pretty Boy Jacob Bertrand.
  • Tory is supposed to be a "trailer trash"-type character, but even unflattering make-up, flannel and ripped jeans can't hide the fact that Peyton List is a drop-dead gorgeous glamour girl by birth, trade and inclination.
  • Daniel himself, in the movies and the series is occasionally called ugly too. Ralph Macchio is perhaps one of the most iconic cases of Older Than They Look who looked and sounded like a teenager till his early thirties and even in his sixties looks like an attractive man approaching his forties.
• Community:
  • Annie Edison (Alison Brie) ended up as this for the first couple of episodes. The original conception of her character was much different prior to her being cast, and there were still artifacts of that in the early scripts, with some male characters treating Annie as something of an Abhorrent Admirer and getting the tacit agreement of even the more sympathetic characters; the fourth episode, for example, has Professor Duncan giving her a Backhanded Compliment by rating her an "American 8, which is a British 10". By the end of Season 1, pretty much everyone has caught on to the fact that she looks like a real-life Disney princess, and her lack of romantic success is attributed instead to her relative youth and naivete compared to the guys she tends to fall for. Season 2 attempts, belatedly, to justify the earlier use of this trope, with Annie explaining that post-rehab she has lost a lot of weight, has better skin, and has dropped a lot of less-appealing character tics. This does explain why Troy initially fails to recognise her despite them having attended school together for years (and why he might be less than thrilled that she had a crush on him), though it's still a mystery why the rest of the study group (who'd only just met her and had no idea what she looked like before) also found her unattractive to begin with.
  • There are a few jokes based around Britta not aging the best. In one episode, after telling Annie that a bar won't check Annie's fake ID because pretty girls are good for business, Britta gets her legitimate ID scoured and double-checked after Annie is waved through without incident. Professor Duncan also tells Jeff that he's attracted to Britta because she's slightly past her prime and realizes that she's going to have to settle. The show also occasionally nitpicks her appearance, such as one joke that lampoons her "vacuous mannequin eyes." Of course, Gillian Jacobs is exceptionally attractive.
• Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Twelve-year-old Rebecca at one point acquires enormous frizzy hair, a retainer, and bad skin, which is supposed to freak out her dad a bit, but she's still cute. Which makes it even more implausible when she's later described as having had, at some point, a hormone imbalance which made people mistake her for a guy.
• Criminal Minds: In the episode "Legacy", a Serial Killer is preying on impoverished streetwalkers and homeless people. But his victim du jour in the episode is played by an actress with the most perfect, straight, gleaming-white teeth — the very personification of a million-dollar smile.
• On CSI, a witness describes the female victim of the week as looking "like hell" just before her death. In the flashback, we see the woman has...perfectly done makeup and straight, neat hair, and wearing a tank top and sweatpants, both clean, neat, and tailored to her body. How hideous.
• Desperate Housewives: Eva Longoria is supposedly over the hill and has to play The Mom when she tries to return to modeling. Eva Longoria is considered a "Hag". Sadly, this is a reflection of the modeling industry. High-Fashion models obviously have a short shelf life, and 26 is considered old; many retire (if they're lucky) or never find work again (if they're not).
• Disney Channel Live-Action Universe:
  • Look around for the Mitchel Musso music video 'The In Crowd' for a textbook version of this. Katelyn Tarver, who plays 'the plain girl' is obviously beautiful — and to 'make her plain', they give her glasses, put her in jeans and a flannel shirt, tie her hair into a messy ponytail, and have her act 'goofy'.
  • Most, if not all, of the actresses playing "geeky sidekicks" (Emily Osment, Ashley Tisdale, Jennifer Stone, Sierra McCormick, Sarah Gilman, and Anneliese Van Der Pol, for example) are at least as attractive and charismatic as the shows' stars, but play awkward or Cloudcuckoolander characters in nerdy clothes or glasses. The only time they actually cast an "unattractive" actress into such a role was with Raini Rodriguez in Austin & Ally.
  • Debby Ryan seems to play these a lot. Despite being as attractive as any other Disney channel star, her character's looks are constantly derided, such as in The Suite Life on Deck, Jessie, and Radio Rebel.
• Doctor Who: The scientist Osgood in "The Day of the Doctor" is told by the Zygon taking her form that she's the ugly one, unlike her pretty sister. Osgood is played by an extremely attractive actress with an unflattering hairstyle, nerd glasses, and a Doctor Who-fangirl scarf^note Although considering the audience this was meant for, that might have been the intention all along. Possibly justified in that the Zygon was going off her own opinion of herself rather than objective reality. (The justification was later confirmed in "Dark Water", where another character says that Osgood is 'so pretty' and really should have a higher opinion of herself.)
  • Somewhat subverted with the Doctor himself, who is usually portrayed by relatively plain or normal-looking men (with exceptions, depending on whom you ask), but particularly in New!Who it's pretty clear people find him attractive anyway.
• Dollhouse: Mellie, played by the actress Miracle Laurie, complains that she's pudgy and can't get dates because she lives in LA and has to compete with all the girls who aren't. Her love interest doesn't care, and neither does the audience, because despite being a little bigger than a size 2, she's still cute. Later exploited when it is revealed that she is a planted agent with a timid personality specifically designed to ensnare her target.
• Downton Abbey: Edith Crawley may be outshone by her sisters (her less outgoing personality and slightly dowdy outfits have something to do with it), but she certainly isn't ugly. Yet her sister Mary and even their parents constantly harp on how Edith is homely and destined to be a lonely spinster.
  The casting of Edith was a challenge. Just as you would never cast a boring actor to play a bore, so, when you are casting a plain character, the last thing you want is a plain actress. It’s a trick, really. You need someone who is attractive, but in a different way, allowing the others to act as if she were plain. This will give the audience the sensation that they can see her inner beauty. But of course they’re not looking at her inner beauty, they’re looking at her outer beauty. Laura Carmichael is just as pretty as Michelle Dockery and Jessica Brown Findlay, but she’s got that slightly more reserved English face. The characters act that she’s the least fetching of the sisters, but she isn’t. They are, all three, very beguiling.

  —Julian Fellowes, The Complete Scripts, Season 1, page 322.
• Ray Vecchio in Due South is often compared unfavorably to his very handsome best friend Fraser, and women ignore him to pay attention to Fraser, especially when Ray has a bad wardrobe in Season 1. Never mind that Ray has beautiful green eyes and a lovely smile. He does get even more attractive in Season 2, when he has a new haircut and classier clothes, and a few women pay attention to him and not always Fraser.
• Deconstructed in Euphoria with Kat Hernandez, who is quite heavyset but not unattractive, nor is she unpopular (her best friend is one of the most popular girls in school) or lacking for admirers (her classmate Ethan has an obvious crush on her), but suffers from low self-esteem because her childhood crush was a little shit who dumped her when she gained weight during a family vacation, and she's internalized the notion that she's ugly and has dressed in a failed attempt to hide her figure. After suddenly becoming infamous when a sex tape of her leaks onto the Internet, she gets a large boost in confidence and starts dressing in ways that play up her curves, and suddenly finds herself turning a lot of heads.
  "There's nothing more powerful than a fat girl who doesn't give a fuck."
• Faking It: Rita Volk plays Amy, who's faking a lesbian relationship with her best friend Karma, played by Katie Stevens. Everyone in the show (including Amy herself!) immediately pegs her as "the butch one". Characters call her the Ellen to Karma's Portia, and the principal automatically assumes she'd wear the homecoming crown rather than the tiara. This from an actress who convincingly played a parody of a Jennifer Lawrence character in a previous movie. Dialogue in episode 2 suggests that Amy is supposed to be plain and unconcerned with her appearance.
• Family Matters.
  • Steve Urkel: As proven by the 'Stefan' persona, Jaleel White is by no means unattractive, but give him thick glasses, a funny voice, and suspenders and everyone treats him as a repellent geek.
  • One episode, that is supposed to be about how true beauty comes from within, has Eddie meeting a witty, charming girl and asking her to the school dance. When he tells Waldo and Weasel who he's taking, both react as if he's going on a date with Swamp Thing, calling her a "dog". Eddie breaks the date in order not to be embarrassed when he's seen with her, but Laura calls him shallow for caring more about her looks than her personality. In the end, he decides her personality, which is what attracted him in the first place, is more important. The girl in question is, of course, a total hottie by any objective standard.
• Father Ted's housekeeper, Mrs. Doyle, is played by the very cute Pauline McLynn under dowdy hair and makeup and a lot of goofy faces. You could almost wonder if Father Hernandez's lusting after her isn't him being weird so much as being perceptive.
• In both Frasier (and earlier on in Cheers), Lilith's general unattractiveness was harped on. Later in Frasier, though, they do play up the fact that Bebe Neuwirth is really hot when she turns off the frump and stops being so cold.
  • Frasier's agent and one-off romance Bebe is definitely Hollywood Homely, especially by contrast to Frasier's usual sort of date. She makes up for it with personality and being a very good example of a Big Beautiful Woman.
    • Both cases seem to be more of an example of extremely ugly personalities, with Lilith seeming very cold and uncaring and Bebe hovering between cloying supplicant and ruthless she-devil.
• The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air:
  • Carlton is often portrayed as not just dorky, but unattractive. Problem is, he's played by the handsome and surprisingly buff Alfonso Ribeiro, and his main dorky attributes (a fondness for White conservative culture) actually would have made him more attractive than Will Smith to the type of girls who attended a private Beverly Hills high school in the 1990s.
  • One episode involved the Girl of the Week bribing Will into going on dates with her, despite him not being attracted to her. At one point, Judge Carl Robertson makes fun of her appearance. However, it's pretty obvious that the girl in question is a pretty actress who just happens to have unflattering hair and clothes, and glasses. Hilariously, said girl eventually reveals that she views Will as the Hollywood Homely with his stupid haircut and his big ears, and only bribed him to go out with her to raise her own popularity. This is Will Smith.
• Friends:
  • Ross and Chandler are definitely this. Especially Chandler in the first few seasons where all women seem to treat him like he's repulsive when actually he's quite cute and very funny. It gets better when the writing focuses on how he's socially awkward rather than unattractive. On a more notable level, Fat!Monica.
  • It's actually worse with Fat!Monica, because everyone on the show reacts as if she's monstrously huge, when in fact she's just kinda pleasantly plump. If she wasn't given unflattering clothes and 70's hairstyles (as well as a meek, wallflower personality), the song "Low" could be about her.
• Feud is really hard on the appearance of Bette Davis. In her time, she was seen as ugly by studio heads, but these days is considered one of the great screen beauties. She didn't age particularly well by the '60s when the series happens, but she's played by Susan Sarandon — who has aged well.
• Future Man: The title character is presented as an unattractive loser, unable to get a girlfriend even when he's a wealthy pro-gamer, despite being played by a teenage heartthrob. The same trope is averted with his unnamed gamer friend, played by rapper Awkwafina, who is described as desirable and sexually active in spite of her nerd glasses and odd behavior.
• Game of Thrones:
  • Brienne of Tarth is called Brienne the Beauty as an Ironic Nickname because she's supposed to be ugly. Her literary counterpart fits this description and is described as comically hideous. Meanwhile in the show she's played by, Gwendoline Christie, a model who isn't uglied up much beyond a few facial scratches and men's clothing/armor. It's apparently a case of Adaptational Attractiveness, and the nickname has more to do with her being a woman, though characters still treat her like she's unattractive, likely due to her butch manner and the Deliberate Values Dissonance of the setting.
  • The same can be said of Tyrion Lannister, described as severely deformed and hideous, yet played on the TV adaptation by the quite handsome Peter Dinklage. Even though some fans theorize that Tyrion could be perceived as uglier and more deformed than he actually might be because of how society reacts to his dwarfism, including himself, George R. R. Martin mentioned that Dinklage is remarkably more handsome than the way he made Tyrion Lannister to be in the books.
  • Plenty of Walder Frey's (grand-)daughters, especially those who don't get put forward by his snarky comments, are mostly uglied up with unflattering clothing and greased hair.
  • They also tried giving Obara Sand a mannish appearance◊ in an attempt to be consistent with how she's described in the books, and at one point Olenna Tyrell tells her she looks like an "angry boy." Needless to say, Keisha Castle-Hughes is every bit as beautiful as her onscreen sisters.◊ The biggest indicator is that she's Ms. Fanservice in many of her pre-Thrones roles.
• General Hospital: Part of the backlash on Spinelli is that he's a greasy-haired, geeky nerd with Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness...on a Soap Opera, where anyone under a 9 is ugly. This was stretched even more when they brought in a similarly geeky girl...and hid her behind glasses, Girlish Pigtails, and clothing that went out in the mid-'90s.
• Gimme, Gimme, Gimme lampshades the way British TV generally doesn't care about the idea of Hollywood Homely and goes out of its way to demonstrate that if a role calls for a physically unattractive actress, then it's going to bloody well get one. Enter Kathy Burke, an actress who knows she wouldn't win a beauty contest and has in fact made a career of gleefully playing her lack of conventional good looks for all it's worth, as the hyper-unappealing Linda.
• Glee:
  • Rachel Berry is supposedly less attractive than Quinn Fabray. Now, Quinn's actress, Dianna Agron, is gorgeous, but Rachel's played by Lea Michele◊. In one episode, Finn describes Rachel has having "a smoking hot body...if you don't like boobs." Rachel is noticeably curvier than Quinn. In an interview with the actress she mentions how the character is not supposed to be seen as attractive in the show. Once she got bangs, started wearing more flattering clothing, and became more friendly with the glee club, the show stopped being shy about the fact that she's beautiful.
  • In the season 2 finale the coach of their rivals, Vocal Adrenaline, describes the whole club as "hideous". Admittedly Lauren is the Brawn Hilda ^note  although she's pretty When She Smiles, but the rest? Four hunky football players, one Bishōnen gay boy, three sexy cheerleaders, and Rachel, Mercedes and Tina (all of whom are also pretty)? Even the resident nerd Artie (or at least◊ his actor) is pretty damn attractive, chair and all. The only way this makes any is sense is as Trash Talk.
• The Golden Girls: frequent sport was made about Dorothy being physically unattractive. Now, Bea Arthur was in her sixties when they made that show, so she wasn't a supermodel, but it's hard to argue that she was less physically attractive than Rue McClanahan, whose character was generally portrayed as being catnip on legs for every man over the age 45. This had less to do with her appearance than the fact that Dorothy had a mannish and abrasive demeanor that often caused men to overlook her in favor of outgoing and flirty Blanche and sweet-natured Rose.
• BBC adaptation of Gormenghast: Steerpike was described by Fuchsia as "so ugly", despite the fact that he is played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers, who is most famous for playing Mr. Fanservice roles. They would've been better off not mentioning the character's looks at all, as it only drew attention to this fact.
• Gotham: Oswald Cobblepot, as one would expect, is constantly called a creepy freak in-universe, with one character referring to him as a "freakish little man." This would be more convincing if he wasn't played by the rather good-looking Robin Lord Taylor with a tiny nose prosthetic, dark undereye shadows, blotchy makeup, and stained teeth — and even the last two of those disappeared in later episodes.
• Green Wing: Karen Ball is described as plain and having a "furry face", but this is mostly due to her meek and somewhat whiny personality and plain dress sense than the actress actually being ugly, though she is very flat-chested. The fact she has to work in close proximity to Rachel and Kim might also have something to do with it.
• The Ugly Stepsisters in the Cinderella-inspired episode of Grimm. The older one would be prettier if she smiled, true, but the younger one is very pretty indeed.
• The Honeymooners: When Audrey Meadows first auditioned for the part of Alice Kramden, Jackie Gleason rejected her for being "too pretty". So she had a photographer come to her house early in the morning and photograph her just after waking up, morning hair, no makeup, etc. Jackie took one look at the pictures (without knowing it was Audrey) and hired her on the spot.
• Hot in Cleveland: The premise is a Lampshade Hanging of this trope, wherein a bunch of aging Hollywood actresses have a flight layover in the title city and decide to stay after discovering that they're considered attractive there in a way they wouldn't be back in LA. One of them is Valerie Bertinelli, who was one of the most beautiful women on TV in the early '80s, and is still prettier and better-built than women years younger^note She did get somewhat pudgy in the 2000s, but not grotesquely so, and she had lost the weight again over a year before the series started.
• iCarly: The Chew Toy Lewbert is played by this guy◊. In the show itself they mention that Lewbert used to be a male model, until a psycho ex-girlfriend caused him enough grief to make a giant wart grow on his face, and at that point, he seemed to throw in the towel on hygiene.
• I Love Lucy:
  • Ethel was the source of constant fat jokes, despite being about the same build as Lucy. To compensate for this, the producers had her wear clothes that were several sizes too small. This was intentional on the part of Vivian Vance. She reasoned that if Fred threw fat jokes at Ethel, and she were actually fat, people would feel bad for her; if she was called fat while actually slender, the hypocrisy and dissonance would make it funny. The Urban Legend that she was contractually obligated to gain 20 pounds is untrue.
  • In-Universe, Lucy herself is considered pretty but not quite young or skinny enough for the entertainment industry — which matters when she wants to perform in her husband's show.
• Inspector Lynley: (BBC Homely?) A mild case in the televised version of the mysteries; in the books, DS Barbara Havers is committedly unattractive — middle-aged, plain, overweight, and badly dressed. Sharon Small may not fit the supermodel aesthetic, but she is stunningly pretty, and no bad haircut or baggy clothes can completely hide this, with the result that Barbara Havers is adorable for the first four series, and then genuinely pretty (they let Sharon grow her hair out for series 5 and 6). Elizabeth George, who wrote the novels, was quite upset by this until she saw Small's performance in the pilot.
• The IT Crowd:
  • The show often tries to play up Jen as looking "like a man" with freakishly big feet, but Katherine Parkinson is quite attractive and Jen certainly gets a lot of dates for someone supposedly unattractive.
  • Simlarly Moss is often treated and acts like a ridiculous geek even though he's played by the very handsome Richard Ayoade dressed up in sterotypical dorky attrie. Moss also attracts multiple women in the show and is way more charming than Roy who is the more realistic nerdy guy.
• It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia:
  • Averts this trope with Margaret McPoyle who is hideous. As it turns out Margaret McPoyle is played by the very attractive Thesy Surface under a lot of makeup. Don't believe it? Margaret McPoyle vs. Thesy Surface
  • Zig-zagged with Dee and Charlie. While they are played by the pretty Kaitlin Olson and the adorable Charlie Day, their long list of character flaws and poor personal hygiene routinely earns them scorn from the other members of the gang. Dee in particular manages to entice several potential romantic partners before later driving them away with her awful personality. Although what's worth noting is that Olson much prefers playing the "ugly Dee" over a standard closer-to-Earth female character.
  • The Waitress gets this treatment, too, from just about everyone besides Charlie (who is, interestingly enough, played by Mary Elizabeth Ellis's real-life husband). Shallow Dennis talks about her as if she were downright repulsive, but she is actually quite pretty. It can be assumed that she's rejected by most men because of her alcoholism and parasitic and toxic behavior.
• iZombie:
  • In the second episode of the second season "Zombie Bro", a frat boy house has an apparent tradition of "dog fight parties" where each frat bro brings the "homeliest" girl they can find, the winner being the one to bring the girl you'd "last throw a bone". The winner is played by the actress Andrea Ware, and while they do add a smidgen of fake acne, jogging clothes, and frazzled ponytail to her, even if that's not already utterly transparent at first glance one look at her IMDb page clearly shows they simply cast an absolute stunner with an oddly square jawline.
• Just Shoot Me!:
  • Maya conducts an experiment to prove beautiful people get social perks by sending both an illiterate male model and a well-qualified "ugly" guy to a job interview. She ends up proving herself as shallow as everyone else by rejecting the charming "ugly" guy and dating the clueless himbo — much to her own self-loathing. However, the actor cast as the "ugly" guy wouldn't have been out of place in GQ.
  • Maya herself was treated like this in the show's first season. While this was possibly justified by the show's setting (a high-fashion magazine), by season two they stopped trying to make anyone believe that Laura San Giacomo was in any way "homely".
• Kamen Rider OOO: episodes #23-24. Sakura is tempted by a Yummy because she doesn't want to be "ugly", which is shown by wearing a lab coat, thick-rimmed glasses, and covering her hair. It was obvious that she was attractive under all that and it was just covered up. Date agrees.
• The King of Queens: Doug and his friends find out that an attractive female worker at the bowling alley is quitting and being replaced by a less attractive woman. The men mock this woman like she's the deformed lovechild of Jabba the Hut and a toad, and is even given a "mercy flirt" by Doug. Many viewers would find the actress pretty.
• Gui Gui plays Huang Yueying in a parody of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms called K. O. 3an Guo. She is certainly far more attractive than her character is supposed to be in legend.
• The Legend of the Condor Heroes (2008): The Protagonist, Guo Jing, is described as stout and muscular, and is not known for being handsome or refined. As a matter of fact, several characters make the comparison of his relationship with Huang Rong as "A beautiful flower planted in cow dung". This becomes wince-worthy when he's played by Chinese teen heartthrob Hu Ge, who is a Real Life equivalent of a Bishōnen. To underplay his looks, he tied his hair back and slightly frizzed, along with his clothes stuffed with more material so he would look a bit bulkier◊. He can still look prettier than some of the female cast, and halfway through the series, they don't bother trying to uglify him (straightening his hair◊ and giving him more flattering clothes◊).
• Ben from Lost. He's played by Michael Emerson, who is a bit strange looking compared to the rest of the cast (slightly hooked nose, unusually small mouth, wide, staring eyes), but can be quite attractive and appealing with the right clothes and haircut. He's clearly meant to be the ugly guy to Alex's hot daughter, and his eyes are the butt of many jokes.
• Mad Men: Peggy Olson is supposed to be deliberately keeping herself dowdy in order to be taken seriously at work but she's played by the gorgeous Elisabeth Moss. The character was also shown gaining weight throughout Season One, presumably for the same reason. As we learn in Season Two, she was actually pregnant with Pete Campbell's child. Once Peggy has her "date" with Kurt in season 2 and starts dressing herself more fashionably and wearing her hair differently, the show presents this as her harnessing the power of "being a woman" as Bobbie advised.
• The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis:
  • Zelda Gilroy said there's nothing to love about her appearance. Really, the only problem was that she wasn't as supermodel hot as the other girls Dobie would chase. Being a bit of an Insufferable Genius probably didn't help.
  • Dobie himself. He's not described as ugly so much as he's "average", but even still.
• Married... with Children:
  • Bud Bundy is depicted as unattractive and someone that only a woman with no standards would date or have sex with despite being played by the not-remotely-ugly David Faustino. For all the women turned off by his looks, far more are repulsed by his personality. As he matures both physically and emotionally (and stops trying far, far too hard) he starts having more success.
  • Marcy also came in for a lot of jokes about her looks even though the actress playing her, Amanda Bearse, is quite far from ugly. For example, in the episode "The Egg and I", she shows off her body in lingerie; Al screams "I'm blind! My eyes, my eyes!" but the studio audience Wolf Whistles.
• Subverted on Martin. He often describes his Sitcom Arch-Nemesis Pam as looking like a man and/or various kinds of animals. However, only Martin seems to have this perception. Pam gets all kinds of positive attention from men on the show, as well as from viewers. She also becomes part of the Beta Couple with Tommy. But before long it became clear that Martin ragging on her appearance and Pam ragging on his short height was just part of their Vitriolic Best Buds dynamic.
• The Mary Tyler Moore Show: Playing with a Trope with Rhoda. Because she's not the star she can't outshine the star, but in the Season 3 episode "Rhoda the Beautiful" Rhoda got her own show. She was given a supposedly less attractive sister to make sure everyone knew that now that she was the star she was now officially pretty.
  • One thing that makes this even funnier in reruns is that putting Julie Kavner in "old lady clothes" while dressing Valerie Harper more stylishly was a large part of it, but unless your own personal fashion sense is stuck in the 1970s the main thing you'll notice is that both of them are wearing clothing that's laughably out of date.
• The Mentalist: In episode "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" this◊ woman has trouble getting a date, so she has to resort do a dating service.
• Played for Laughs with Howard Moon from The Mighty Boosh who true to his Butt-Monkey status frequently gets derided for his looks, with multiple characters making fun of his “beady eyes” or outright saying he looks like paedophile. In actuality Julian Barret who plays Howard is quite pleasant looking if not outright sexy◊ and The Mighty Boosh Live he gets the most wolf whistles from the audience so these In-Universe remarks over his appearance are ludicrous.
• Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers's nerdy character Billy Cranston was played by David Yost, who was initially auditioning for Jason and asked to read for Billy but got turned down because he was deemed too good-looking for it. He reappeared later now wearing Nerd Glasses, with his hair messed up, and won the part. Throughout the first season, they put him in baggy clothes to hide that he was in incredible shape (he was also a champion gymnast). During filming of the movie, he went without the glasses and wore flattering clothes from then on.
• Mimpi Metropolitan: The main trio Bambang, Alan, and Prima are just average looking, but every character blunt enough (including themselves) call them ugly just for being not as attractive as Alexi, Juna, and Melani. Funnily, Madkucil noted that his female fans says that Bambang is more handsome than his usual (curly-haired) self.
• The titular character of Miranda (2009). She is frequently called "sir", and she cannot for the life of her find a man; while perhaps not conventionally attractive, she is nevertheless average at worst and distinctly feminine-looking.
• The Mission: Impossible episode "Homecoming" features a mystery concerning the murders of young, beautiful women. It turns out that the killer is a local barmaid, ostensibly unattractive, who is jealous of how much attention the pretty women get from a man she is in love with. The homely barmaid is played by Loretta Swit.
• Modern Family has Alex, who explicitly states in the first few episodes that she's not as pretty as her sister Haley. In reality, she was definitely as pretty as Haley. Then she hit puberty. Since then they've been stuffing her into frumpy sweaters to hide her curves and even gave her a much less flattering pair of glasses with thicker rims. This has, naturally, done nothing to slow down her fanboys.
• In Mrs. America we hear over and over that Betty Friedan is nowhere as beautiful as Gloria Steinem, another prominent feminist, this is something Phyllis Schlafly delightfully exploits in a debate, while the real life Friedan was average at best, her portrayer Tracey Ullman is still cute in her age.
  • To a lesser extent, the anti-feminists say this about some of the Women's Libbers, who (like the anti-feminists) range average or plain at worst and cute or beautiful at best.
• Mystery Science Theater 3000 parodies this when they watch the educational short Body Care and Grooming. The short tries to pull off a She Cleans Up Nicely scene, but Crow thinks the actress looked better before her offscreen makeover, and Joel eventually agrees with him.
  Narrator: [scornfully] Look at your hair...
  Crow: I like her hair!
  Narrator: Look at that blouse...
  Crow: I'm looking, I'm looking!
  • The thoroughly ordinary-looking Mike Nelson gets reguarly described in unflattering terms ("Mike, you're huge and pink, you must have some potatoes around there.") by the Bots and the Mads because it's funny.
• NCIS: In a season 6 episode, a hot young woman's attraction to Gibbs is portrayed as odd. Gibbs is played by Mark Harmon, who is one of the few people named EW's Sexiest Man of the Year twice. Perhaps their confusion stems from his irascible personality, though he can be charming when needed.
• One episode of Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide dealt with "bad hair" days. Ned's hair is stated in the episode to be really messy...even though it's at most very slightly more unruly than how he usually has it.
  • Lisa Zemo was this for the first two seasons, playing the role of Abhorrent Admirer to Cookie. This situation was flipped over during the final season when Lisa got rid of the glasses and braces, and changed her wardrobe and hairstyle.
• Never Have I Ever seen a trope played so straight in modern day. Devi (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), her friends (Ramona Young and Lee Rodriguez, who ''modeled''), and rival Ben (Jaren Lewison)◊ get this treatment where Ben calls them "Unfuckable Nerds" and Ben being described as a scrawny and undesirable nerd. Looking at the cast, one must wonder if there was a shortage of Vitamin A in their hometown of Sherman Oaks.
• The New Adventures of Old Christine: The beauty and shapely figure of Julia Louis-Dreyfus is ignored by the people around her, even though her wardrobe often shows off what one would consider damn fine assets.
• New Girl: Nick is constantly called fat. For the most part, this was considered mostly a joke by Schmidt who is Formerly Fat and obsessed with body image. However, other characters have gone onto refer to Nick as chubby despite the fact he really isn't.
• The Night Of: In the third episode, a shelter guy says people just like purebreds/pretty cats, and the cat that's getting locked up is referred to as an " ugly cat." That cat was cute as hell.
• Parodied on the Adult Swim show NTSF:SD:SUV::. Jessie, the head lab tech, is called ugly by everyone else on the show. Jessie is played by Rebecca Romijn wearing a lab coat and glasses. A later episode reveals that the other lab techs are similarly viewed as unattractive and are all played by male models.
• The Office: Andy and Michael flirt with a couple of waitresses at a restaurant and attempt to get them to come to a party. They show up at the party with two different waitresses, the joke being that the first two refused and they had to settle for supposedly less attractive ones. Unfortunately, as co-creator Greg Daniels admitted, poor casting meant the actresses hired were too good-looking and the joke fell flat.
• One Tree Hill: Millie appears completely and utterly gorgeous, except for a thick pair of glasses. (She later becomes a hit as a model)
• Orphan Black dances rings around this trope, featuring as it does multiple very different-looking clone characters all played by the very attractive Tatiana Maslany. Thanks to superb makeup and subtle performance, it is often impossible to tell they are the same person, and chances are you will find yourself calling one of them "the pretty one". This is particularly true of Krystal, the vapid, Valley Girl manicurist and the one character whose makeup is specifically designed to enhance her attractiveness. She even lampshades this in Season 4, declaring that she can't be a clone of the main character because "She's a 7 on a good day, and I've been told I'm a 10."
• Picket Fences: Kenny can't seem to appreciate Maxine's physical beauty because she's a fat tomboy with a weird face, so he has to learn to love her personality.
• A Pocketful of Rye, an ITV adaptation of the Miss Marple story had the supposedly-plain Elaine Fortescue played by the decidedly beautiful Hattie Morahan, looking her best in fashionable clothes and an elaborate hairdo. Despite this, the other characters were at pains to point out how unattractive she was.
• Popular: Of the two lead characters, one is supposed to be an extremely beautiful Alpha Bitch who leads a posse of popular blondes, and the other is supposed to be a frumpy, unattractive, unpopular nerdy girl. As far as the audience can tell, they're both very attractive, and viewers can't agree on which one is hotter.
• Pretty Little Liars: Mona used to have frizzy hair, thick glasses, braces and wore frumpy, dorky outfits. This made her the main target of Alpha Bitch Alison’s bullying. Alison invited Mona’s best friend, Hanna, to join her clique, and pressured her to ignore Mona. After Alison went missing, Mona removed her glasses, straightened her hair, got her braces out, and rekindled her friendship with Hanna. Hanna and Mona were both overweight and spent the Summer losing weight, and getting nicer, trendier clothes, with Hanna teaching Mona about fashion, which Hanna had learned from Alison. Mona also picked up several traits of Alison, as well as becoming the new Alpha Bitch of the school.
• Queer as Folk (US): Ted's status as this is meant to lampshade the impossibly high standards of appearance that many gay men place on themselves (and each other). Women check him out all the time, much to his annoyance. And also Michael Novotny's self-depreciation, despite that Hal Sparks is unendingly adorable no matter what Sears-type button up shirts they put him in.
• Red Dwarf:
  • Arnold Judas Rimmer is considered a repulsive smeghead by just about everyone and was rejected by many women when he was alive, even his “best friend” Lister mocks him for his “flared nostrils”. The truth is, as noted by many female fans, Chris Barrie who plays Rimmer is very handsome and quite fit, as seen in the famous Shirtless Scene in “Terrorform”, and as a Hologram he somehow manages to attract multiple women. Although to be fair it’s more Rimmer’s distinct personality than his appearance that makes him unattractive to people.
  • Kryten the Mechanoid also gets mocked for his rubbery, angular head, earning him nicknames like “novelty condom head”. Out of universe, however, fans simply adore Kryten, considering him Ugly Cute at worst, and Robert Llewellyn who plays him is very pleasant looking without the heavy make-up.
  • The series has made repeated jokes from the outset about Dave Lister being overweight, despite the fact that Lister's actor Craig Charles was in fact rather skinny.
• Reaper: In episode "Business Casualty", Sock is set up with a friend of Nina's. His reaction to her is that she is hideous beyond all imagining; he tries to get away from her as quickly as possible. In fact, the character is played by a beautiful woman wearing a minimal amount of make-up and wearing average clothes with her hair in a ponytail. There isn't even any of the usual Hollywood Homely attempts to disguise this: she doesn't wear glasses, have braces, wear hideous clothes, have bad hair, or prosthetic makeup. She looks like someone going out to run errands.
• Revenge keeps trying to pass Nolan off as someone who has trouble getting laid. Even if he wasn't played by a model, he would still be rich. Having trouble forming relationships, that's understandable, but getting laid?
• On Rome, both Lucius Vorenus (Kevin McKidd) and Titus Pullo (Ray Stevenson) repeatedly refer to themselves as "ugly brutes," despite both being quite hunky (and even having some beauty qualities unlikely for the period, like good teeth). Semi-subverted in that they both grapple with feelings of guilt and self-loathing over their violent and immoral actions over the course of the series, at least proving the "brute" part accurate.
• Rules of Engagement has Liz. Descriptions of the character indicate that she's overweight and highly unattractive. Visual inspection begs to differ.
• Sabrina the Teenage Witch tried to treat Valerie as this when she first appeared — she acted as though it would be impossible for her to get a date. Emphasis was placed on her being socially awkward, but Lindsay Sloane was just as gorgeous as the other female stars. The show eventually abandons this and gets Valerie providing plenty of Fanservice (even an episode where she wears a Spy Catsuit).
• Scrubs: Ted the lawyer is a aversion created with makeup and an ill-fitting suit. The actor has been quoted as saying that after seeing him in the pilot episode, his mother called him up and asked if he was ill.
• Seinfeld: Ada, George's secretary in "The Secretary." George rejects attractive women for the position of secretary but Ada is not much more unattractive despite the implication.
  • George himself could be this trope to many viewers as well, his lack of attractiveness having more to do with his height, glasses, baldness, and neuroses.
  • Additionally, a woman George dates in one episode is basically very average, and certainly not less attractive than George himself. However, she's still implied to be extremely ugly, with George only going out with her because she's the daughter of the woman reviewing his unemployment claim.
• Sex and the City:
  • The character Miranda (played by Cynthia Nixon) is supposed to be the ugly one of the four lead characters.
  • Charlotte's second husband Harry. While played up as Ugly Guy, Hot Wife due to his baldness and slight weight, his actor Evan Handler has a cute face, and is hardly less attractive than many of the character's guys of the week over the years. In the last season, they dropped the Ugly Guy, Hot Wife angle.
  • Charlotte was this for exactly one episode, when she turns 36 and is freaking out about being an "old maid". She may be the most prudish of the bunch, but it is highly unlikely she would really wear a frumpy button-up blouse on a trip to Atlantic City!
• She-Hulk: Attorney at Law has the very pretty Tatiana Maslany as lawyer Jen Walters, and yet she only gets attention as the green Amazonian Beauty alter-ego She-Hulk. Jen's endeavor in a dating app only led to her being ignored aside from one unsuccessful date. She decides to do another profile after Hulking Out, and the matches quickly enter the double digits.
• Silicon Valley: The inhabitants of the Hacker Hostel are all meant to be seen as rather unattractive to the point that it's quite a big deal when one of them gets a girlfriend. The main actors however, really aren't all that ugly.
  • Gilfoyle in particular is played by Martin Starr, who gives the character a subdued hot nerd vibe, with the only "ugliness" being his unkemptness.
  • Jared is seen as almost anorexically thin in-universe, some characters even say he's akin to a skeleton. Making it a shock when it turns he's The Casanova. But his actor Zach Woods looks like a relatively fit person.
  • Richard is described as ugly by many characters but Thomas Middleditch looks average at worst.
  • Dinesh is seen as very ugly in-universe, to the point that he’s called “dogface” in one episode. But he’s played by the decently handsome Kumail Nanjiani.
  • Erlich’s appearance has been described in the show as akin to that of a “manatee”. While T.J. Miller certainly doesn’t have the body of a supermodel, his face really isn’t that repulsive.
• Skins: The cast constantly say Sketch is ugly. She doesn't get all dolled up like most of the other girls on the show, but she is definitely pretty.
• Smallville: Lampshaded when Clark thinks of himself as plain, but as the high school reunion and even his friends (such as Pete) have mentioned, he is quite handsome. He's played by a former underwear model.
• Stranger Things
  • Somehow Joyce Byers and Barb Holland are supposed to be less attractive and feminine than Karen and Nancy Wheeler, yet they are played by Winona Ryder (even with the necessary Beauty Inversion to make her look like a stressed out single mom in an impoverished home, still looks gorgeous) and Shannon Purser (who is a natural redhead with classic features and a Big Beautiful Woman who does modeling in real life). It could be a reflection of of how shallow and narrow-minded their town is to not recognize the worth of people, inside and out.
  • By the same token Jonathan Byers is treated as an awkward loser by Pretty Boy and Jerk Jock Steve Harrington and the "cool kids" clique, despite Charlie Heaton looking like a young Norman Reedus. This is probably just shallow bullying due to his alternative appearance and second-hand clothes, since Nancy falls for Jonathan, his estranged father's girlfriend Cynthia thought he was attractive, and Samantha, a random girl from the Halloween party, started flirting with him.
  • Mike Wheeler has been called "Frog Face Wheeler" by bullies and even his father cannot believe he would be hiding a girl in his room for a week, yet Mike has attracted the psychic Eleven, and he is played by Finn Wolfhard, who has a legion of fangirls in real life.
  • Max is also portrayed as an unattractive teen outcast who only Dustin and Lucas are crushing on, despite being played by the very good-looking Sadie Sink.
  • Eddie “The Freak” Munson is treated like Quasimodo by the social elite of Hawkins and Jason is adamant his girlfriend Chrissy would never even talk to him let alone hang out with him. This despite the fact Eddie is played by the good looking Joseph Quinn whom clearly charmed Chrissy even in her depression (her actor Grace Van Dien even confirmed she would’ve left Jason for him if things had turned out differently). There’s some Deliberate Values Dissonance by today’s standards someone like Eddie would be the coolest and probably as popular as Jason or Steve, but in the 80s the small town kid who’s into both Heavy Metal and D&D is simply gonna be regarded as a weirdo.
  • Season 4 does it’s hardest to make Eleven out as someone who would be unpopular and mocked in High School. But baggy clothes are simply not enough to make Millie Bobby Brown unattractive.
• The miniseries adaptation of Stephen King's The Stand (1994) features the "fat ugly" Harold Lauder... played by Pretty Boy Corin Nemec.
• The makeover series The Swan received lots of criticism for the extensive plastic surgery the contestants had to get. One personal trainer even stated that most of the women could have just been given a good gym program, a trip to the salon, and tips on what clothes would be flattering — as opposed to multiple cosmetic surgeries.
• The Tudors:
  • In Season 3, Joss Stone appears as Anne of Cleves. Henry VIII claims he cannot tell her from his horse (which speaks either very poorly of his eyesight or very well of his horse) and is unable to consummate his marriage to her because she is so ugly. This is based on something Henry historically said, but contemporary reports suggest that she was quite pretty. An alternative explanation suggested by other characters is that he's turned off because Anne is a virgin who doesn't know what to do. We also know that Henry was almost 50 years old and as heavy as 400 pounds, so he may have had performance anxiety of his own. Either way, it's most likely all in his head.
  • This is used in Philippa Gregory's novel, The Boleyn Inheritance, where Anne of Cleves seems very frumpy at first because she is wearing modest (read: baggy) and unflattering clothing that she brought with her from Germany. After Henry VIII divorced her, she was free to wear English clothing and hold her own court in her own household. The next time she showed up at court, everyone thought that she looked very pretty. There are several historical accounts that support this theory. Henry slept with her in Season Four.
  • A case can also be made for Henry himself in his later age. King Henry was a fit and athletic man in his youth, and even still is given an Historical Beauty Update with the casting of Jonathan Rhys Meyers. In his later years, Henry is plagued by age, injury, illness and obesity, but he's still played by the same actor with only minor cosmetic changes.
  • A similar case happened with the portrayal of the Emperor Charles V, who appears in The Tudors with the huge Hapsburg chin and all (even though the actor Sebastian Armesto is quite handsome without the prosthetic), compared to Charles V's portrayal in Carlos, Rey Emperador, where he's remarkably more handsome◊ than any painting of his historical counterpart, and receives the same ageing process than Jonathan Rhys Meyers by the end of the series.
• Deliberately invoked and used in-universe in The Twilight Zone (1959) episode "Eye of the Beholder" in that a woman, convinced that she's hideous, undergoes plastic surgery to improve her appearance. When the wrappings around her head are removed, she looks the pinnacle of beauty (at least according to the fashion at the time of this episode's production) but is horribly upset she's still hideous. The faces of the other people around the hospital are then revealed, which appear grotesque and inhuman but are deemed normal to attractive by the standards of their world. The episode sends the message that human perceptions of beauty and ugliness are created through observation of other people.
• Ugly Betty plays with the trope by casting the obviously cute America Ferrera underneath a battery of accessories to hide her appearance. The idea is that she's working at a fashion magazine, which has a very high and conventional standard of beauty. It's not that Betty is ugly; she's just not made up like a model. Indeed, season four has a Dream Sequence in which Betty is "beautiful," but the beautiful version is just America Ferrera without her "ugly" accessories.
• Victorious:
  • Trina, who's played by the far from unattractive Daniella Monet, is subject to this a lot. In "Ice Cream for Ke$ha", she offers to kiss a boy who previously came on to the other three main female characters and he turns her down. In the episode "Wifi In The Sky" Beck and Andre are horrified at getting a close-up shot of her behind as she leaves her seat. Several male viewers would be gratified if they were in their place. Unlike most examples of this trope, there is no effort made to make Daniella look anything less than gorgeous. If anything, Trina's unattractiveness is entirely an Informed Flaw. (Though in all fairness, her terrible personality probably turns a lot of people off.)
  • Robbie gets this too. He's pale, skinny, wears glasses and has an unflattering hairstyle, but he's average-looking at worst. Yet people seem to find him repulsive. Robbie gives himself a makeover in "The Slap Fight" and he looks pretty good.
  • Invoked when the reason the gang had to participate in Sinjin's game show in "The Worst Couple" is that the original contestants were deemed too unattractive for television, because they looked like average teenagers.
• Vieja yo?: The Venezuelan soap played with this. Margot is a housewife who has just turned 50 and has been trying to be an actress for years; thanks to her skills she ends up fronting for an old man to discover who are the really honest people in his company. Everybody keeps calling her "old hag" (even her very unfaithful husband and her three kids), and they treat her like she truly is a hideous old prune. Of course, she is portrayed by Mimi Lazo◊, who is the Venezuelan poster lady for Silver Vixen, and all the name-calling comes from the mouths of people who are either envious of her luck and/or looks, or far older and uglier — people who have valid reasons to dislike her and just use the "old hag" card to hurt her. Unfortunately, her younger Love Interest fell into the Informed Attractiveness category, as he gained weight during the soap and was put in clothing too formal for the poor man in an attempt to become more visually suitable for the heroine. Yet he was still referred to as the second hottest man in the setting.
• The 2016 BBC adaptation of War and Peace cast Jessie Buckley as Princess Marya Bolkonskaya, whose only redeeming physical feature is her gorgeous, doe-like eyes and who is constantly derided as plain (though not outright ugly) by pretty much everybody. While Buckley's eyes are certainly lovely, so is her everything else◊, too. Of course, this version was only following in the footsteps of Robert Dornhelm's 2007 production of the same, which cast the sultry Italian beauty Valentina Cervi◊ as Princess Marya.
• The White Queen: Faye Marsay, who plays Anne Neville, may not be the classic beauty some of the other women are, but she's still cute as a button. Margaret of Anjou explicitly calls her "a plain little thing," and when Richard of Gloucester makes clear his intention to marry her, George of Clarence assumes that he's after her fortune, because he can't possibly be attracted to her.
• In The Witcher (2019), Yennefer is considered deformed and ugly by the other villagers, but not even a hunchback prosthetic, a facial appliance, and a bad wig can fully hide Anya Chalotra's natural beauty.
• Wizards of Waverly Place:
  • Justin. In one episode his family couldn't believe that a pretty girl would consider dating him. At one point, Alex said that Justin was not cute all. How are we supposed to believe this when he's played by the hot David Henrie?
  • While it's never stated that Harper is unattractive, her personality quirks and bizarre dress sense probably shouldn't have been as effective as they were at repelling boys. While Jennifer Stone struggled with her weight for part of the series, she is definitely not ugly — many would say far from it. Harper was eventually paired up with Justin's socially awkward but somewhat handsome friend Zeke.
• WKRP in Cincinnati: Many male fans insist this one was (unintentionally) inverted wherein Jan Smithers as shy and nerdy Bailey came off as a hotter than 'blonde bombshell' Loni Anderson. Loni Anderson stated that the trope was being intentionally averted and that she enjoyed playing on a show where the two attractive women were loyal co-workers and good friends.
• Wonder Woman: Give Diana glasses and her hair in a bun and suddenly she's nowhere near as attractive as her superhero counterpart. As with the Maya/Just Shoot Me example, the second season (which fast-forwarded 30 years) stopped trying to convince audiences that even a bespectacled, ponytailed Lynda Carter was homely. Her supposed homeliness is highlighted in an exchange between Steve and Diana in the season 1 episode called "Beauty on Parade", where Nazis have infiltrated a beauty pageant.
  Diana: Perhaps if we could get one of our own agents into that beauty contest...
  Steve: ...it might flush them out. It would take a really beautiful girl, though. Someone with all the right qualifications.
  Diana: Well, I'd be willing to try.
  Steve: Thanks, Diana. I know you'd do a wonderful job. But I'm afraid this calls for a really gorgeous girl. Someone who looks great in a bathing suit. Say, I won't be needing you for a while, is there anything you'd like to do?
• Yo soy Betty, la fea, the Colombian soap opera on which Ugly Betty is based, looks a bit more convincing◊ into characterizing Betty as ugly, even when the main actress is quite pretty. See this comparison◊.
• Zoey 101:
  • Quinn Pensky, played by Erin Sanders. Though the less we say about the relative attractiveness of someone under the age of 18, the better.
  • Coco Wexler. She is neither so fat nor so horrible as they say in the series. The fact that her supposed ugliness is accompanied by a series of romantic failures ultimately has Unfortunate Implications, even though her role is the Butt-Monkey.
  • One episode where the kids have to give two male nerds a makeover. The ugly nerds in question were two hunky twenty-somethings with glasses and bad clothes.
  • Chase is supposed to be seen as a plain dork with bushy hair.

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