Swordfish / Live-Action TV

The Password Is Always "Swordfish" examples from live-action TV.

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"Swordfish" examples:

• In the opener to season seven of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. a bottle is capped with a swordfish which reminds a time-traveling LMD Coulson that there was a SHIELD safehouse nearby with a contact at a local speakeasy who used "Swordfish" as a password. Lampshade Hanging ensues when it's pointed out that Horsefeathers isn't out until the following year (1932).
  • In episode 7.05, they go back to the same place, decades later, and find a very sturdy door secured by a numeric keypad and a nine-position alphanumeric display for the password. LMD Coulson types in the keypad... to enter the password SWORDFISH.
• In season 7 of Legends of Tomorrow, "Swordfish" is Nate's (incorrect) guess for the password to a 1925 speakeasy.
• On Mad Men, Roger jokingly guesses "swordfish" when he can't think of the password to an illegal gambling den. (The real one is "Milwaukee", which he remembers too late.)
• Used in No Reservations as the password to a private poker game.
• The password to unlock a garbage can in an episode of Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego is swordfish. Greg doesn't know that, but everyone else does.

Other bad password choices:

• 30 Rock:
  Tracy: Kenneth should have given you the code word.
  Jesse: What?
  Tracy: That's it!
  • In another episode, Liz guesses Jenna's Twitter password in one try. It's "Me69". (1969 is the year Jenna was born, as mentioned in a previous episode.)
• Played for Laughs in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. The verbal pass phrase to disengage Skye's Walking Techbane bracelet is "disengage bracelet".
  Skye: Seriously?
  Coulson: I thought you'd like that.
• In Andromeda, it turns out that the override code for Eureka Maru is "Shut up and do as I say."
• In Arrow:
  • Oliver infiltrates a high security enemy base and has to give the appropriate countersign to 'verify' his identity. Luckily the exchange is a quote from one of the few books that he has read so his cover is maintained. Given that the base is populated by a paranoid paramilitary group it is pretty unbelievable that they would have a countersign that could be answered based on literary knowledge.
  • Played for Laughs and justified in a third season episode when Felicity locks Ray out of his computer system; it's just a way to force him to take a break. When he does, she gives him the password, which turns out to be "password".
  • When hacking into Susan Williams' computer to see what info she has collected on Oliver, Felicity gets in even faster than usual.
    Felicity: Her password is "1-2-3-4" and there's a folder on her desktop labeled "Oliver Queen info".
• Babylon 5: When the command staff have used their command code passwords to reset the station's computer system, it's revealed that the famously Properly Paranoid Security Chief Garibaldi's password is "Peekaboo." Not that bad, as most systems on B5 also require voiceprint or DNA identification as part of two-factor security.
  Ivanova: Peekaboo?
  Garabaldi: Hey, would you have guessed it?
  • Londo's isn't much better. The password to the most important intelligence info he knows? "Wine, women, song".
  • Invoked by Sinclair when sending a password-locked message to Garibaldi in "War Without End", because Sinclair couldn't send Garibaldi the password to open it. So he had to use a password that Garibaldi could guess. There weren't many others who would have been able to guess the password, and those few were trustworthy—it was the opening phrase of the last message (a secure message at that) Sinclair had sent to Garibaldi, over a year ago: "Hello, old friend."
• In Batwoman, the password to the Wayne Tower mainframe is "Alfred". Yeah, no one's ever going to guess that one!
• In The Big Bang Theory Sheldon logs into Leonard's Facebook page and changes his relationship status. When Leonard complains, Sheldons says it is his own fault, because "you always use the same password, Kal-El".
• In Being Human, George is a genius with an IQ in the 150s, but he admits that all of his Internet passwords are "password1".
• In The Blacklist, the FBI's super tough, uncrackable password in order to secure the prison for the notorious prisoner in FBI history is... "Romeo" (ref. "Anslo Garrick (Part 1)".
• Bones:
  • Played straight when genius-level scientist Brennan tries to keep her password secret.
    Booth: I know your password too. It's Daffodil.
    Brennan: I never told you that!
    Booth: What? I got eyes. I mean you guys aren't exactly CIA material.
    Hodgins: Daffodil?
    Brennan: What? They're pretty. And I'm changing my password.
    Booth: Daisy.
    Brennan: How did you know?
    Booth: It's your second favorite flower. I know you, Bones. Try a planet!
    Brennan: (entering password)
    Booth: Jupiter!
  • Episode "The Beaver in the Otter": Booth finds a locked suitcase and asks Bones for the owner's birthdate. He's mildly surprised when that fails, but then realizes that she'd given it to him in scientific order (day-month-year). The traditional order (month-day-year) opens the case.
• Played sadly straight in an episode of Castle, where it's determined that a murdered businessman had a secret bank account... the password to which the businessman had written in pen on his chest... and it was a 6 digit number.
• In Cheers, Rebecca Howe's password into her corporation's computer system is "Sweet Baby", which is what she calls her millionaire boyfriend, Robin Colcord. He uses this to break into the computer system and indulge in some pretty extensive insider trading. Her reaction when she finds out is the unforgettable, "I am too stupid to live!"
• Cold Case: One case gets reopened because a murder victim's ATM card was used, leading the team to reverse-engineer this trope. The team has the victim's PIN from the bank, 747539; they need to figure out why the victim chose it and thus who would be able to guess it. It's the phone-keypad version of RIPLEY, his childhood dog that he shared with his sister.
• Corner Gas:
  • One episode:
    Hank: I came up with the best password, you'll never be able to guess it!
    Brent: Is it "password"?
    Hank: Uhh... No?
    • Hank later changes it and tells everyone that "This time, it's not 'password'!" His new password is, in fact, "notpassword". Then he changes it again... and forgets it. The combined forces of Hank and Wanda couldn't figure it out, but Brent guesses it on the first try (because he was standing next to Hank when he changed it and watched him type it in).
      Wanda: What is it?
      Brent: Your pet's name.
      Hank: Wiggles? We tried that.
      Brent: No, literally the words "yourpetsname".
      Wanda: I have to admit, I was not prepared for that level of stupidity.
• Criminal Minds
  • In the pilot episode, when the password was the song the criminal used to fall asleep ("Enter Sandman").
  • Done very creepily in second season, when the password to a pedophile elementary school principal's computer was "save them"
    • The creepiness is somewhat diminished when it turns out it's just the criminal's chat username (mehtevas) written backwards. Reid figures it out by writing it down on a piece of paper and holding it in front of a mirror, which he wouldn't have done if the criminal hadn't said "I want to save them" out loud. Amusingly, the computer had a good defensive measure in that it had a virus set to wipe out the contents of the HD if three wrong passwords were entered in a row, so the perp only got caught because he didn't think a decent password was needed on top of that.
  • In third season, the teenage criminal's password was his dead mother's name.
  • Penelope Garcia's password to get into a file on her computer was "Gilman Street", after the punk rock club in California, which Garcia may be a fan of.
  • JJ managed to guess the password of a teen's computer because the girl was a fan of vampires — the password was "Cullen". Reid didn't get the reference.
  • Another season three example, Hotch guesses the code to a deceased mans safe after correctly guessing that it was not his wife's birthday, but the U.S Marine corps birthday. The man in question was very proud of his military background. Granted, Hotch guessed wrong the first time, but still.
  • In "Hit/Run", Prentiss is trying to disable a bomb that has been put on Will. She's allowed three guesses and blows two before correctly deducing it's the name of the UnSub's partner/lover. Not that it really matters, as entering the code triggers a secondary activation forcing her to cut a wire instead. Fortunately, she deduces which one.
• In an episode of CSI, the number keys on the safe each play a different note, and the code is "Three Little Maids from School Are We". The safe's owner is an avid Gilbert and Sullivan fan with posters to that effect.
• Played with in the CSI: Cyber pilot, where they have to guess a long alphanumeric password. However, Ryan points out that most people can't remember a random string of numbers and/or letters longer than several digits/characters due to the way the human mind works. And the guys they just busted don't appear to be geniuses capable of such feat. Thus, she figures they must have written down the password somewhere. It turns out to be the dates tattooed on one of the criminals' body, arranged from earliest to latest.
• A warden in Days of Our Lives has "lockdown" as his password. To make matters worse, it's written on a sticky note in his desk.
• Dear White People: Sam is able to break easily into Pastiche's Facebook page because their password is pastiche.
• Averted in Degrassi: The Next Generation. In the opening double episode, Emma's friends try but fail to guess her email password. They then have to do some hasty but plausible research to figure out the answer to her security question.
• Dexter:
  • Season four has Dexter, suffering from short-term memory loss, remember that his password is "Harry", which is a name of his father. An odd choice for someone so concerned with secrecy.
  • In a season eight episode, Dexter tries to get into his sister's account. He tries "PASSWORD", but it's not it. He remembers his sister colourful language and "FUCKING PASSWORD" gets him in.
• Subverted in the BBC4 adaptation of Dirk Gently, in which the time machine self-destructs because the wrong password was entered.
• Doctor Who:
  • In the Tom Baker storyline "The Invasion of Time", the Doctor tries to break an encrypted lock that even the sonic screwdriver won't open. He examines the lock to see if it takes retina or voice scans, before muttering how one of his favorite professors at the Prydonian Academy once told him that "there was nothing more useless than a lock with a voiceprint." He then realizes that the password is the phrase, "There is nothing more useless than a lock with a voice print", spoken aloud. Later in that same episode, the above-mentioned professor (whose office the Doctor was nosing around in) enters his office and opens the secret door by saying the phrase "There is nothing more useless than a lock with a voice imprint" — and the door accepts it, which seems to prove the professor's point since this voice-activated door lock obviously isn't that picky about vocal frequencies (the Doctor doesn't even try to imitate the professor's voice) or the actual phrasing of the password.
  • In "World War Three", the password to every non-nuclear UN-controlled missile launch platform is apparently "buffalo". It's implied that this is either a special password for UNIT or a back door the Doctor himself installed back when he was working with UNIT in the original series.
  • In "Voyage of the Damned", the evil robot angels can be delayed by saying "Security Protocol One". But It Only Works Once.
  • Surprisingly averted with the wifi password in "The Bells of Saint John", which Clara asks the girl she's looking after for. The password is "rycbar123". Clara immediately asks how she's supposed to remember that. Clara eventually comes up with a mnemonic to remember the password, "Run you clever boy and remember". Clara is on the phone with the Doctor as that very moment (she thought she called tech support), and he realizes only Clara would use this phrase.
  • "The Name of the Doctor": The password to get into the Doctor's tomb is his name. His real name, the one almost nobody knows.
• In Dracula (2020), Van Helsing is dismayed to learn that Dracula gained internet access on the tablet computer he was given while in captivity. How did this happen? Because the wifi password is "Dracula". The Harker Foundation really needs to hire some better IT personnel.
• In one episode of Drake & Josh, Megan told the brothers she found out the name of the woman who they thought their dad was dating. When they asked how she found out, Megan revealed that she read Walter's e-mail, and she explained that his password had been so easy and lame. It was "password". When Josh hears this, he tries to subtly walk over to his own computer.
  Drake: You wanna change your password?
  Josh: Maybe...
• The Drew Carey Show:
  • In one episode, Oswald has keylocked his cell phone and forgotten the password. He starts off with 1111, then 1112, getting to 1114 before Lewis throws the cell phone out the window. Oswald then remembers that he wrote down the password, and gets it out of his wallet. The password? 1115. In another episode Mimi guess Mr. Wick's secret password. It's "Mr. Wick".
    Oswald: He used his own name as the password? That's stupid.
    Mimi: At least it's a better password than "password".
    Oswald and Lewis: I already changed it!
  • Later in that same episode we get the following exchange:
    Lewis: Hey Mimi, I bet you'll never guess my new password.
    Mimi: [annoyed and unconcerned] Shut up.
    Lewis: Damn! Well I'll bet you'll never guess my new password.
    Mimi: Who cares?
    Lewis: She's a witch!
    Mimi: I'm gettin' a beer.
    Lewis: STOP IIIIIIIIIIT!!!
• Elementary: In "Rip Off", the Victim of the Week uses the same code on his office security system and his safe. It is '1-2-3' followed by the street number of the business.
• In the Eureka episode where Allison takes over from Nathan as head of Global Dynamics, if you watch closely, you can see that her passcode is 867-5309.
• In an episode of First Wave, a guy whose computer has access to satellites with nuclear missiles chooses his passwords based on whichever comic book character he's into at the moment. Granted, he changes them often, and the computer only accepts three tries before locking, but it's still unforgivably stupid.
• In one episode of Gilmore Girls, Emily tells Lorelei in utmost confidence the password to her panic room is "One... one... one... one... one...." It's the default code and she doesn't know how to change it. In a later episode, after Rory's come to move in with her, she repeats the same password and again warns never to tell anyone. Though Lorelei mocks her, neither one explains how easy it is to guess a default password.
• On Glee, when Sue, Teri and Howard Bamboo "hack" into Principal Figgins' computer, it turns out his password is "1234".
• On Gossip Girl Nate's password has been "soccer" since the fifth grade.
• Gotham: Subverted. Upon reading a letter his father left him, Bruce finds out that the code to get into his father's secret room was "Bruce". This is after he used high explosives to blast the door open.
• Justified in an episode of Hack when the characters are trying to use stolen ATM cards to get cash out of an ATM. Mike notes that the one thing the banks tell you not to make your PIN is your birthday, and reasons that they wouldn't do this unless some people actually did make their PIN their birthday. They try a number of cards before eventually discovering one whose PIN is the owner's birthday.
• In Haven, Nathan guesses the password for Audrey's laptop in one try: "lucy", her "mother's" name. When Audrey finds out, she laments that she knew that password was too easy.
• Heroes averts, spoofs and justifies superhero tropes all the time, yet has a plaintext name with obvious relation to its setter as a password. (And for extra security, the computer tells you when it's incomplete.)
• In Home Improvement, Tim does a Tool Time episode from his house about installing a home security system, by filming himself as he installs his own security system. First Al suggests using the name of a pet or loved one for the security system password, then Tim says his password on the air.
  Tim: For instance, I picked "sabre saw".
  Al: Perhaps now you'd like to choose a password that our viewing audience hasn't heard.
  Tim: [pause] Perhaps. For all you criminals out there, it might not be another tool. It might be a car.
• On an episode of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, the password to shut down some homicidal teddy bears is the word they keep repeating: "Destroy".
• In a episode of Honey We're Killing the Kids, one of the children discovers the password to unlock the television: 0000.
• House:
  • Double subverted in one episode. Dr. House is desperately trying to get into a patient's laptop, and couldn't guess the password. He claims that this proves the patient was lying/hypocritical/etc about his "no secrets" policy. Dr. "Thirteen" suggests that he leaves the password blank. The system logs in.
  • Of course, House encounters no such problems with other passwords, like Cuddy's "partypants", which he calls "a pretty obvious choice".
  • In the episode "Carrot or Stick", Chase admits that the password he used was 'password'.
    Chase: My password was "password".
    Masters: You're a dumb whore.
  • House correctly guesses that Kutner's email password is "Kutner", reasoning that he would have selected it because email services tell you not to use such an obvious personal detail.
• In one episode of Hustle the mark's password is the name of his dog. Who guards the warehouse with the laptop in it. And wears a name-tag. Except the whole thing is a setup: the laptop is a plant, the dog belongs to someone else, and that isn't even its real name!
• iCarly: The password to access iCarly.com is simply "Samlovesham".
• Used in this episode of the Finnish comedy show Ilmisten Puolue or "People's Party". The party chairman, Tapsa, announces that the party's website has been hacked and vandalized. After some questioning, Tapsa admits that, due to his poor memory, he made the password "password" to remember it. After being told that it is the most obvious and overused password ever, he claims that he has changed it to something "unsolvable". Another party member immediately asks if the new password is "123456", which Tapsa confirms. Cue mass Face Palm.
• The Imperfects: Alex Sarkov's password is a Letters 2 Numbers version of "Gregor Mendel", who is considered the father of genetics as they are currently understood. He's a geneticist and Abbi, who is a student in the same field, is the one who guesses it.
• It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
  • A masked orgy is guarded by the password "orgy". (Or, as Danny DeVito puts it, "ooooooorrrrrgggggyyyyyy".) Of course, given the... rather low caliber of the participants, it doesn't look like they're in a hurry to turn anyone down.
  • Another episode has Dennis hacking into everyone's online gaming accounts. This task is made substantially simpler by the fact that everyone had independently chosen "Paddy's Pub", the bar they all work at.
• In the Jonathan Creek episode "Satan's Chimney", a character named Vivian uses her own name as a password. Jonathan correctly deduces that the password was set up by someone else and that they wanted him to find the information it protected.
• In Killing Eve, Vilanelle holds Eve at gunpoint and asks for her phone passcode. Eve admits that it's 1-2-3-4.
• Knight Rider (2008) "Knight Fever": Sarah tries to crack the computer of a scientist she once dated. After a spiel about "512-bit encryption" making it impossible to break in, Mike correctly guesses that the password is "SARAH". Because, apparently, Sarah is such a hottie that anyone who had ever dated her would automatically spend the rest of his life obsessed over her. (Admittedly, this has been true of every former lover of Sarah's the audience has met.) Or the guy's just lazy.
• Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: "Educated Guess" features a man who has been raping his niece since she was 14. When the detectives find a lock box which they believe has evidence of this, they first try his birthday and then his wife's birthday to open it. Then they try his niece's birthday, which does open it.
• In Leonardo, Piero de' Medici guards his "lightning box" with a Clock Punk security system involving a portcullis, a series of numbered levers, and a guillotine. The password is his birthday. The second time Leo tries to get past it, though, he's changed it ... to his son's birthday ... which is the same day, but a different year.
• Lampshaded in Leverage:
  Parker: Forty-two seconds.
  Hardison: What?
  Parker: To rob this bank. One security guard who's never fired his gun before, two closed-circuit cameras outside, one inside, and a Glenn-Reider safe built in the '50s whose default combination is the birthdate of the manager's wife! Get in, get out, forty-two seconds.
  • This trope was once both averted and invoked in "The Reunion Job". The mark's final password was impossible to crack, so the team spends the night implanting a new password via Subliminal Advertising for him to replace it with when Nate told him Elliot was in his office. Ironically, the mark is a cyber-security expert, who really should know better.
  • The code to Parker's home/warehouse is Sophie's real name. At that point in the series only three people knew it, and they are all friends that she trusts.
• In The Librarians, one trap purposely has a simple password (i.e. "password") because it's meant for Ezekiel, who'd never think of it. Except he does because he realizes the trap is meant specifically to fool him.
• On Limitless Brian and agent Harris are investigating what a suspected terrorist was doing in a hospital and realize that the hospital stores radioactive materials on the premises. They ask how secure the storage room is and are told that the door has a keypad lock whose code is a random number that is changed weekly. Brian then recites the current code. Apparently the hospital staff had problems remembering the numbers so they simply wrote the new code on the door frame each week.
• Subverted in Little Mosque on the Prairie, Rayyan tries to get into Amaar's voicemail trying obvious codes like "Amaar" and "Islam" but gives up when she realizes it's not going to work. Double Subverted when at the end of the episode Amaar enters in his password: Rayyan.
• Lois & Clark does it at least twice: in one episode they successfully get into a Citizen Kane wannabe's computer with the password "Rosebud". In another, Lex Luthor's illegitimate son is trying to hack into his dad's research archives. There are four words, and he believes these are the names Lex planned to call his legitimate kids after he married Lois. He gets three names out of her, but has a problem with the fourth until he has a flash of insight that it's the name she chose: "Clark".
  • In a third example, Clark hacks into a program named "Valhalla" by using his super-speed to work his way through an alphabetical list of Norse Mythology names. In this case, Clark was overestimating the cleverness of the programmer, as it turns out he chose the most obvious name: "Odin".
  • In one episode, Lois hides a computer expert who's framed for a crime in her house. When she gets back, he's on her computer, so she reprimands him for hacking into it. But it turns out he didn't have to, he just correctly guessed her password to be "Superman".
    • In that same episode the hacker was helping Lois and Clark deal with a cyber-terrorist who planned to unleash a devastating computer virus on March 15 (the "Ides of March"). Realizing the terrorist's obsession with Julius Caesar, the hacker figured out that his password was "EtTuBrute.
  • It's played with in another episode. Lois and Clark are trying to break in into a warehouse, and Clark uses his heat vision to fry the numeric pad lock. When Lois asks how did he open the door, Clark claimed to have guessed the password to be an important date for the villain.
• In an episode of MacGyver, Mac and Jack Dalton are coerced into breaking into a secure museum exhibit which Mac helped design, though Pete set the access code. They run through the standard gamut of obvious codes (such as Pete's birthday) to no avail. Jack then asks if Pete's has regular gambling numbers to which Mac replies "No, he likes golf...GOLF!". Mac then inputs what turns out to be the correct password: "Arnold Palmer's birthday. Pete's hero."
• In Malcolm in the Middle, after Malcolm finds out that the nice family he's been babysitting for has been secretly recording him, he responds by leaving a video in which he exposes secrets that the couple are likely trying to hide from each others. One of the things he says during the video is "Using your birthday as a password is always a bad idea".
• One episode of Maniac has a keypad lock. The code is 1234; Annie figures this out even more easily than you might expect, as it's written on a Post-it right above the keypad. Later in the episode it gets changed to 5678.
• In the Midsomer Murders episode "Market for Murder", the password on the Reading Group's secret share market account is "Gerald"; the name of the late husband of the group's founder (whom she could not go five minutes without mentioning in conversation).
• An episode of Mission: Impossible had a former dictator's computer protected by two passwords. The first one? The dictator's own name. The second? Anything Goes, his favorite musical which he watches 24/7 and has posters of all over his office.
• Modern Family: Comes up when the family needs to get into Haley's computer when she's gone missing.
  Alex: Try "password".
  Claire: [tries] I'm kinda glad that didn't work.
  Phil: Oh, try her favorite literary character!
  Claire: [tries] Okay, I'm in.
  Alex: What was it?
  Claire: Snoopy!
  Alex: Seriously?
• Motive: In "Crimes of Passion", a mayoral candidate has his laptop password as "I've got your back", which was his campaign slogan and prominently displayed on a poster in his study.
• Murder, She Wrote:
  • In "How To Make A Killing Without Really Trying", the password of a murdered stockbroker was his licence plate number. His rival, who hacked his account, points out it didn't take a genius to figure it out.
  • Another episode featured a deceased computer tycoon who set his PC's password to "OPENDOOR", on the arrogant assumption that nobody would expect him to use something so obvious. The cast stumble upon it through a sudden flash of insight.
• NCIS:
  • Takes this trope to its logical extreme, by having Ducky, who had recently become a forensic psychologist, determine the password of a missing naval officer based on a study of objects collected from her apartment. Since she was a bookworm, it was the title of one of her books. Ducky was even able to guess which book after a few token tries.
  • Double Subverted in another NCIS episode. Tony, breaking into a house, enters in a password easily extrapolated from knowledge of this trope (the password was a birthday, as indicated by the worn out numbers). Unfortunately for him, it's a double-failsafe system. Triple subverted, perhaps, by the fact that the policeman that arrives is the killer.
• On an episode of NewsRadio, the station's owner, Jimmy James, successfully hacks into a reporter, Matthew's, stock-trading account using the password "cat" (Matthew is known to have several cats). In turn, Matthew successfully hacks into Jimmy James' bank account using the password "Mary Ann" (the name of the news director's mother, whom Jimmy is known to have a crush on).
• The Office:
  • Dwight boasts that he has installed password protection on all his accounts to prevent identity theft. Jim asks if the password is 'Frodo.' Dwight immediately denies it, but starts furtively typing on his keyboard. Jim then asks if he'd just changed it to 'Gollum,' which Dwight denies again, before furtively typing some more.
  • When Dwight is (briefly) fired, Karen is given the job of going over all his accounts and files but finds that he has locked each one with a different password (each of which is a mythical beast of some kind)
  • In a later episode, the server goes down, and they need to figure out the password (set by an IT guy who had since been replaced), so after they unsuccessfully try some default ones, Dwight quits trying to guess it and decides to brute force it (manually), starting with 0000000. Jim cuts him off after 0000001, and they go back to guessing swordfish-type passwords, which eventually works.
    Michael Scott: I remember when I heard it, I laughed but Pam got upset.
    Kevin: Try "bigboobs". [Jim tries it, nothing]
    Dwight: Try it with a "z".
    Jim: Ok, we're in.
  • At the end of one episode, there's a scene where three interns who finished their internship are talking to the camera and stating what they learned at Dunder Mifflin. One said she learned that half of the staff have their computer password set as "password".
• Peacemaker (2022): Vigilante is confused when Peacemaker grabs his phone out of his hand and easily gets in.
  Vigilante: ...how do you know my password?
  Peacemaker: I know my own birthday, dude.
• Person of Interest: Sometimes when Finch is hacking into a system, he'll express disgust at their poor password choices, from using their birthday, or using the name of their girlfriend for everything, so on and so forth. One time a guy has no password, which is the first hint that he's not the ruthless and paranoid drug dealer they thought. On the other hand, every once in a while they'll stumble upon someone who is difficult to hack because they practice good security protocols. One girl actually changes her password twice a day, which Finch expresses admiration for even as he finds it annoying.
• Subverted in Power Rangers RPM when Dr. K chose Ziggy's name as her password, based on the fact that everyone thought she hated him, when in fact, she seems to have feelings for him. In fact, it's possible she intentionally pretends to hate him so that no-one will guess the password. Then un-subverted when Summer guesses it anyway.
• Subverted in Psych, where Shawn Spencer Sherlock Scans the room, and then correctly gives the password. When his friend expresses surprise, he points out that the password is written on the bottom of the (raised) computer, and he simply read the reflection on the CD case. Played straight when the clue to a safe code is the physical measurement of a man's wife (36-24-34).
• Raising Dion: Mark has a habbit of using Christmas Day for any lock that requires a four digit code, like the padlock on the shed at his lake cabin.
• On Revenge, Emily's password for her laptop with the information about her father and the Graysons is "infinity", which is a particularly poor choice because she uses two interlocked infinity symbols ("infinity times infinity") as her personal symbol.
• In the Roseanne revival, Roseanne is trying to figure out the wi-fi password of their neighbors, whom she believes are actually terrorists. Her first guess is "DeathToAmerica;" when that fails, she suggests "DeathToAmerica123".
  Darlene: Okay, we're in.
  Roseanne: Really?
  Darlene: No!
  • It turns out that it was "GoCubs". They're baseball fans.
• On Runaways (2017), the gang have to break into the high-tech vault of Nico's mom, Tina, a computer guru. Nico relates it'll be almost impossible to figure out what sort of elaborate code her mother has, citing it could be in any combination of languages or numbers and it could take hours...and in seconds Alex has opened the door. Nico is thrown to realize her mom's password was "Password" with Alex lampshading how someone so busy as Tina would want the easiest code to remember.
• In an episode of Scrubs Ted asks JD not to watch him type his password... then says it aloud as he's typing it (it's "alligator3").
• On one episode of The Secret World of Alex Mack Alex's father's supposedly "creative" password is easily guessed: it is his wife's name backwards. "Creative you ain't," his daughter says to herself upon figuring it out.
• In an episode of Seinfeld the plot revolves around George's ATM code 'bosco'. In one scene Kramer almost guesses it by reasoning out George's personality and sweet tooth.
• Sherlock
  • In the episode, "The Hounds of Baskerville", Sherlock corrects guesses a Major's password to some top-secret CIA information as "Maggie", on the first try.
  • In the "A Study in Pink" episode, one person uses the name of her dead daughter as a password.
  • "A Scandal in Belgravia": Irene Adler comes up with a four digit password that stumps Sherlock for months. It turns out to be SHER with the critical clue actually included on the "locked" screen. Sherlock lampshades this, noting that if she had just chosen a random alphanumeric code, her plan would have gone off without a hitch. Interestingly, he previously tries a password related to him ("221B"), which fails.
  • She also has her safe passcode as her body measurements. Sherlock works it out partly because she hints at it, and partly because he can tell what some of the numbers are based on the key usage. In any case, it's a blind as the safe contains a spring-trapped gun along with the actual valuable. Luckily Sherlock works that out as well.
• In Smallville, Lex Luthor's computer password was at one point his dead little brother's name, Julian.
• In Spooks:
  • Ruth expresses absolute shock that the Americans would use 1776 as the keypad code for a secure storage facility in their embassy.
  • And in Series 3 a major drug corporation is hacked because they never changed the default password on their system.
• Squid Game: When Gi-Hun finally gets his credit card containing his prize money, he wasn't informed what the passcode was. Naturally, he typed out 0456, and it worked.
• Stargate-verse:
  • In an episode of Stargate SG-1, a character mentions this trope and that it's usually "something familiar". Kinsey, whose computer they were trying to access, mentions that he has "a wife, three children, seven grandchildren and various nieces and nephews", but Jack O'Neill figures out that the password is Oscar, the name of Kinsey's dog.
  • Stargate Atlantis:
    • Subverted when Rodney basically needs to hack into their own system.
      Caldwell: We'll use my password.
      Rodney: No, we'll use mine.
      Caldwell: Why? Because you don't trust me?
      Rodney: No, because it's a 26-digit alpha-numeric code that I may have to enter multiple times and I haven't gotten around to memorizing yours yet.
    • Subverted. In trying to access Dr. McKay's account to fix a computer error, Teyla laments about not knowing the password, and Sheppard responds with the following (see the quote). He reveals that the only reason McKay even entered it in his presence is because he didn't think "your typical grunt" would remember it. Unfortunately for Rodney, Sheppard has Mensa-level IQ.
      Sheppard: [typing and speaking] One six four three one eight seven nine one nine six eight four two.
      [computer beeps]
      Sheppard: See? Doesn't take a genius.
      Teyla: ... it doesn't?
      Sheppard: Sixteen Forty Three is the year Isaac Newton was born; Eighteen Seventy Nine, Einstein, Nineteen Sixty Eight—
      Teyla: The year Rodney was born.
      Sheppard: NEVER underestimate the size of that man's ego.
      Teyla: Wait, weren't there other numbers?
      Sheppard: Forty Two. The Ultimate Answer to the Great Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything.
• Subverted in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Brothers" when Data creates an insanely long password to keep the Enterprise crew from regaining control of the ship. The crew is unable to guess the password or even its length and is stuck until Data returns and unlocks the computer.
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:
  • "Through the Looking Glass" has Sisko going to an alternate universe, where the designer of the space station used the same passwords as his duplicate in the "real" universe. Not only that, but no one seems to change the password that activates the self destruct on taking command of a space station. It might be assumed that the password was the designer's fixed back door, except that it's the same as Mirror Kira's password and Sisko was able to change it.
  • "Defiant", where the means of getting entry onto the ship uses not passwords but both a voiceprint AND fingerprint scan (possibly also a DNA check too as Odo mentions later that Will and Thomas Riker's DNA coding is identical—no surprise there). All of this done in front of a security guard too. In Real Life, a fingerprint scan would normally weed out an identical twin, but Thomas Riker is a transporter duplicate of Will Riker, so it's justified here.
• In the Star Trek: Discovery episode "Die Trying" the password to access the Federation's seedbank is the names of the caretakers's daughters.
• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: In the episode "All Those Who Wander" Pike's command override code is "two-four-six-eight-ten." When Pike uses the code to unlock the USS Peregrine computers, M'Benga teases him about still not having changed his code.
• In season 3 of Stranger Things, the combination to the secret Russian vault is Planck's constant.
• In The Suite Life On Deck: Zack hacks into Cody's computer in order to steal one of his old essays. When he's asked for a password he quickly figures it out to be "Bailey", the name of Cody's girlfriend. Zack then mockingly comments on that "At least [Cody] has changed it from 'I Miss Mommy'".
• Subverted, played straight, and both times lampshaded in the Supernatural episode "The Girl with the Dungeons and Dragons Tattoo".
  • While trying to hack into Frank's encrypted hard drive, Charlie thinks she found the password in the remarkably simple "WarGames" when this yields results. Then Frank's hard drive opens a program revealing that it's a false lead and taunts her.
  • Played straight while she's hacking into Dick Roman personal computer, which is locked by the password "W1nn1ng".
  • In "Live Free Or Twihard", a fan of a popular vampire fiction franchise uses the name of one of the actors from the movie as her password.
• In Teen Wolf Scott's somewhat one track mind has a negative effect on his computer security.
  The Alpha: His username is Allison?... His password is also Allison?
  Stiles: Still want him in your pack?
• Torchwood
  • Jack keeps not only his safe's password but also the password for the Rift manipulator written in a notebook. As Owen remarks: "Not so clever, Jack."
  • In Children of Earth, Bridget Spears, a fairly high-ranking civil servant, uses the password "hastings"... and writes it down for her new assistant to use.
• The short-lived Tremors TV series featured a scene where circumstances force survivalist Burt Gummer to reveal that the password to his home/bunker's front door is the name of his long-departed ex-wife.
• The Tribe:
  • The super secret password protecting all research regarding the Virus is please. The resident genius over-thought and didn't think to try it himself.
  • On a related note, some episodes later, the tribe is at the lab they think might help them figure out the antidote—Jack and Dal try to get anything to happen with the computer system, but nothing does until Jack, again accidentally, discovers that the system is voice activated.
• Tropical Heat: In the episode “Poison Ivy”, Nick needs the password for an encrypted computer file that contains information about a poison, that a woman named Ivy developed. The solution is obvious.
• Veronica Mars:
  • Subverted in episode "Like A Virgin". Veronica reports that her account's been hacked, and the system administrator gives her a spiel about password safety. Whereupon she reveals that her password was "GJ7B!X" (with possible variation in case).
  • Subverted again in "Mars vs. Mars." Keith changes the combination to his safe to something of personal significance, then leaves it in a location that would be highly visible to a trained PI. When trained PI Veronica finds the password and opens the safe, it no longer contains files but instead an ink packet that explodes onto her.
• On the tie-in website for Victorious, Robbie mentions that he tried to lock Rex out of the computer. Rex gets back on and then mentions that Robbie should have chose a better password than "Tori Vega loves me".
• In the Warehouse 13 episode "13.1", the password Hugo Miller uses to secure his groundbreaking AI is his cat's name. The length of time the password has been in the system accidentally makes this more secure, as everyone but Hugo has forgotten what the cat's name was. Fortunately for the agents, Hugo's accident left him very talkative.
• The entry PIN for the Paranormal Unit HQ in Wellington Paranormal is initally the single digit 5, which even Minogue finds suspect.
• The West Wing uses swordfish passwords twice. The secret of President Bartlett's MS is signified by "Sagittarius", and to get into the secret operation for foiling Haffley's stem cell vote is the Shave And A Haircut knock. Also in the seventh season, Leo's able to leak a tape using someone else's email because she uses her cat's name as a password.
• On What We Do in the Shadows (2019), Nadja has to rescue Nandor, trapped in a dog form at a pound. She mesmerizes the clerk to give up the door lock combo: 1-2-3-4-5. "Humans..."
• Quite egregious in The Whispers. Minx, a child, is able to access classified defense files by cracking the incredibly easy password of her father. Also, another child is able to break into a safe because his dad hangs three jerseys on the wall which have the safe numbers printed on them.
• In an episode of White Collar Neal's girlfriend easily guesses the password to Neal's laptop since it is based on a piece of art Neal admires. As an inversion at the beginning of the episode Neal figures out her ATM password which amazed her since it was a randomly generated number that had no connection to her. Neal cheated by observing what keys she pressed in a reflection.
• In Wizards of Waverly Place, Justin, in trying to activate the manual override self-destruct mode on a Time Bomb missile to blow up an asteroid, is told that there are 100,000 possible 5-digit combinations. Of course, Alex gets it right on the first guess, with "1-2-3-4-5".
• In The X-Files:
  • When Scully needed to access Mulder's computer, it only took her a few guesses to come up with TRUSTNO1.
  • In "Memento Mori", Mulder and Kurt Crawford, a surprisingly friendly clone, try to hack into a system so that they could download some secret files about abducted women who were treated for cancer. Kurt does not have a clue, but Mulder picks up a snow globe with the word 'Vegreville' on it. Kurt types VEGREVILLE, and they are in.
• In Netflix series You:
  • Joe is able to guess Peach's password on the second guess - it's "beckalicious", a nickname she has for her friend Beck.

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