History Main / TokenTrio

* Older Uniroyal tire commercials had three racers, a woman named "Uni" and two men named "Roy" and "Al."

* In his book ''From Those Wonderful Folks Who Brought You Pearl Harbor'' Jerry Della Femina describes an ad that had three people on a triple bike - a white man, a white woman and a black woman. Their question was, where to put the black woman? Last seemed racist. First seemed a bit obvious. In the middle just looked weird, like a sandwich.

** Alexis was actually supposed to be Vietnamese. However...[[http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/transformers/images/thumb/1/1c/Alexis.jpg/180px-Alexis.jpg Well, maybe she was adopted.]]

* The HumongousMecha show ''Anime/MetalArmorDragonar'' gave Japanese protagonist Kain Wakaba a pair of wingmen, one black, one white whose mechs had paintjobs to match.

* ''Anime/SonicX'' had Chris Thorndyke, a white male from Station Square (itself based on a multitude of cites in the United States), whose friend group initially starts out with Danny and Frances, a black male and white female respectively. In later episodes, they're joined by a second white girl, the wheelchair-bound Helen, making them a GenderEqualEnsemble.

* The main trio of the movie ''Film/{{Stealth}}'' included a white guy, a black guy and a white girl. Before the movie was half over, [[BlackDudeDiesFirst the black guy had died]], and the white girl ejected over enemy territory, leaving the white guy to [[DamselInDistress heroically rescue her]].

* The three main protagonists in ''Film/TheMatrix'': Neo (white [[TheChosenOne messiah guy]]), Morpheus (black mentor guy), and Trinity (white love interest).
** Interestingly, the Wachowskis originally envisioned Creator/ValKilmer in the role of Morpheus, and Creator/WillSmith in the role of Neo.

* Perhaps the prototypical Token Trio was TV's ''Series/TheModSquad'', first aired in 1968. The titular cops were famously billed as "one white, one black, one blonde."

* Even the actual ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' did this when it lacked a FiveManBand. Seasons [[Series/PowerRangersNinjaStorm 11]], [[Series/PowerRangersDinoThunder 12]], [[Series/PowerRangersJungleFury 16]] and [[Series/PowerRangersBeastMorphers 26]] started with these setups (before the arrival of any {{Sixth Ranger}}s), while 11, [[Series/PowerRangersRPM 17]] and 26 mixed it up just slightly by having the minority male be the leader.

** ''Beast Morphers'': Black guy (leader), Indian guy, white girl. Then they added a Latino guy and finished it up with an android (who in the finale was transformed into a white guy).
* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'', back when Clark, Chloe and [[TokenBlackFriend Pete]] were friends. Pete had even undergone a RaceLift for the series!

* The original judge trio on ''Series/AmericanIdol'': Simon (white male), Paula (Jewish female), and Randy (black male).
** The season 10-11 trio also fits the demographics, keeping Randy and adding in Steven (white male) and Jennifer (Latina), though the dynamic isn't quite there since Randy is the senior member of the panel. The season 12 ''quartet'' actually fits better with Randy joined by white guy Keith and a pair of AmbiguouslyBrown females in Nicki and Mariah.

** At at the beginning of the show, The Unholy Trinity was composed of Quinn (white female), Brittany (white female), and Santana (latina). Then Brittany and Santana came out as bisexual and lesbian respectively, qualifying them for this trope. All three could be considered "diverse" depending on if you want to count Quinn (who's dealt with severe mental stress, went through a teen pregnancy, and had a one-night stand with Santana after graduating).

* The [[IronicName Thompson Twins]] - from 1982 to 1986, anyway. Tom Bailey was the white redhead guy, Alannah Currie the blonde chick, and Joe Leeway the dreadlocked black man.

* The APA had Bradshaw (white guy), Farooq (black guy) and sometimes Jacqueline (black woman).

* MNM had a variation with two white guys and a Hispanic woman

* The first ''VideoGame/StreetsOfRage'' video game had Adam (black), Axel (white), and Blaze (white female) as your choices of player character.
** Its contemporary game, ''VideoGame/GoldenAxe'' didn't have the stereotypical black guy. Instead, the fantasy setting used an axe-wielding dwarf.
** ''VideoGame/AlienStorm'', which basically was ''VideoGame/GoldenAxe'' [[RecycledINSPACE in a sci-fi setting]], had Gordon (male), Karla (female) and Scooter (robot).
* The poster party in the ''Franchise/MassEffect'' games tends to be male Shepard, female human party member, and male alien party member. The first game had Shepard, Ashley and Garrus filling those roles, while the second had Shepard, Miranda and Thane. ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' and ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'' also directly invoke this trope in-game, as your starting parties consists of a white female and a black male, with the assumption that your hero would be a white male. However, this can be averted since your character is fully customizable, possibly leaving the white girl as the TokenWhite and/or the black guy as TheOneGuy, at least until other party members are discovered.

** Technically speaking, Valerie Grey could be counted as the Missing Black Woman.

** Granted, things get messed up in part two, when timeline changes make Wonder Woman disappear and at one point make Green Lantern a non-minority ([[MythologyGag Hal Jordan]]).
* ''WesternAnimation/PepperAnn'' had this, with the gender ratio switched to accommodate the main character being female: Pepper as the lead, Nicky as her white best girl friend, and Milo, whose ethnicity is never explicitly mentioned, but whose skin is noticeably darker than that of anyone else in the cast (AmbiguouslyBrown).
* ''WesternAnimation/SpaceSentinels'' was one of the earliest in WesternAnimation. Astraea is an African-American woman, Mercury is a Chinese man, and even Hercules is AmbuguouslyBrown (an early animatic shows him to be a literal caveman).

* Creator/HannaBarbera's [[WesternAnimation/SpaceStars Teen Force]] had Kid Comet (white guy), Moleculad (black guy), and Elektra (white girl).

* ''Series/{{Glee}}'''s Blamtina, to an extent. Sam is a straight white male, Tina is a straight South Korean woman, and Blaine is a gay man who is also Asain (Although the character isn't mentioned to be such)

* The poster party in the ''Franchise/MassEffect'' games tends to be male Shepard, female human party member, and male alien party member. The first game had Shepard, Ashley and Garrus filling those roles, while the second had Shepard, Miranda and Thane. ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' and ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'' also directly invoke this trope in-game, as your starting parties consists of a white female and a black male, with the assumption that your hero would be a white male. However, this can be averted since your character is fully customizable, possibly leaving the white girl as the TokenWhite and/or the black guy as the only male, at least until other party members are discovered.

* Buck Dewey, Sour Cream and Jenny Pizza, aka the Cool Kids, from ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' form a trio like this, with Sour Cream (white male) and Buck Dewey (AmbiguouslyBrown male), although in a twist, the girl of their group, Jenny is Ghanaian, and Buck is their de facto leader, not Sour Cream.