History Anvilicious / LiveActionTV

** "Pangs", where Willow rants about how evil Thanksgiving is and how every person is responsible for the wrongs committed against Native Americans. This is taken to the point where she doesn't want the team to stop a murderous Native American ghost. Finally the evil, soulless vampire Spike tells her to quit bitching, since what happened to the "bloody Indians" was no different than what happened to every other conquered nation throughout human history.

'''Xander''': Good. Just so that's clear.

'''Giles''': You know it was beer!\\
* The drugs/magic episode, "Wrecked", is probably the most blatant metaphor in the whole show.

** The original series was unique for its era in that it was likely the only show [[EverybodySmokes in which no one smoked]]. GeneRoddenberry had originally cast Majel Barrett as the second in command of the Enterprise, a feminist first for the time, but was put under pressure by his producers to put cigarettes into the show. He refused, so they gave him the ultimatum, cigarettes or Majel. Majel did finally make it in in a more traditional role as Nurse Chapel.

*** Part of the reason for the angry reaction to the pro-life aesop is that the episode is not exactly subtle when it continually refers to the creature as a 'baby'. The episode then tries to pass itself off as pro-choice by giving all the female characters the choice to kill the creature while the (all-knowing) male character takes off with a casual "It's not ''my'' planet." Clara makes the choice not to kill, and [[BabiesMakeEverythingBetter everything turns out okay]], with all the natural disasters and deaths caused by the creature being forgotten about.

* The New Zealand TV soap ''ShortlandStreet'' does this ''all the time''. The 1998 episode in which Jenny Harrison appeared on a television show to rant about the poor state of the New Zealand health service is probably the most anvilicious scene of Shortland Street in its 16-year history.

*** Part of the reason for the angry reaction to the pro-life aesop is that the episode is not exactly subtle when it continually refers to the creature as a 'baby'.

* The US version of ''QueerAsFolk'' was a tutorial on how to be an "acceptable" gay person in the US, running along the lines of: get married in Canada, [[NoBisexuals don't be bi]], don't be angry at homophobes, remember that God loves you after all, adopt children and be nice to your mother.

* The final scene of the final episode of ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'' is a ridiculously anvilicious message about the dangers of overdeveloping modern robotics. Or maybe "Treat your creations with respect", or "do not enslave artificial lifeforms".

* ''MacGyver'' had several of these episodes. Mostly about the environment.

* ''TylerPerry's'' ''Meet The Browns'' is chock-full of them: shoplifting, carrying a gun to school, growing marijuana, birth control, drinking, molestation, teen pregnancy, credit card over-reliance, and tons of others. At some point, they made it too obvious to miss. "Meet the Interrogation" touched up on how lotto addictions bleed you dry. "Meet The Christmas Spirit" went as far as to play up the Christmas spirit cliche by having an angel befriend Joaquin. But the real hum-dinger was "Meet the Big Payoff," sugarcoating that texting while driving will get you killed, which was basically a thinly-veiled obligatory public service announcement.

* [[Creator/{{NBC}} Green Is Universal]], a concept so heavy-handed and self-righteous that it couldn't be contained on just one network. Indeed, this bi-yearly theme appears on every cable and broadcast channel owned by NBC. NBC in turn is owned by General Electric, a polluter so massive and frightening that even CaptainPlanet would fear to confront it. [[{{Hypocrisy}} The irony]] is so thick and juicy that you could cut it with a steak knife.

* ''FullHouse'' invariably ended in someone learning [[AnAesop a lesson]]. Usually 'it's okay to pick on Kimmy Gibbler'.
** ''FamilyMatters'' was just as bad, especially during its first six or so seasons. With the episodes "Like A Virgin" and "The Gun" being the most {{Egregious}} examples.

* ''BoyMeetsWorld'' had many anvilicious [[AnAesop aesops]], particularly of the CantGetAwayWithNuthin variety. Perhaps it was the force of all those anvils that led the main character to be so unhinged in the final seasons.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E10InTheForestOfTheNight "In The Forest of the Night"]]. Trees are good. Don't bother them.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone'': Several episodes written by RodSerling come off as terribly heavy-handed today ([[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gift_(The_Twilight_Zone) "The Gift"]] is an {{egregious}} example, made worse by casting with UnfortunateImplications)-- but given that Serling created the show due to ExecutiveMeddling with his more socially conscious scripts ([[http://www.ithaca.edu/hs/depts/theatre/news/3163/ the story]] about his script based on the lynching of Emmett Till is a doozy), it may just be that one generation's subversive social commentary is the next generation's dropped anvil. It's easy to forget that Emmett Till's funeral was recent at the time of the script, and that having a righteous black man surrounded by corrupt racists was, well, so out of the ordinary it is amazing it aired. Sometimes it's difficult for those who grew up in the 80s and 90s to remember that some of those classic programs were on the air before (or at the very start of) the civil rights movement. It's jarring to remember that, at the time, showing non-whites as stupid, worthless, and/or actively evil was generally considered ''just fine''.

** "World Without Oil" has all of the oil reservoirs in the earth disappear overnight. Given the world's dependence on oil, everything goes to shit as the oil-dependent social infrastructure crumbles. It's a large dose of horror and ParanoiaFuel that is obviously meant to get viewers to want something done about the oil crisis as soon as possible.

* While the cable anthology horror series ''Series/MastersOfHorror'' tends toward good old-fashioned gore and nudity, Season One's ''Homecoming,'' directed by Joe Dante (of ''Film/{{Gremlins}}'' and ''Film/TheHowling'' fame), is anvilicious to the extreme. For no clear reason, the soldiers killed in Iraq rise from their graves as shambling zombies -- not to eat us, but simply to ''vote against the current president.'' The supporting characters are all [[CaptainErsatz pastiches]] of RealLife political heavyweights (Karl Rove becomes "Kurt Rand," Ann Coulter is [[BlondeRepublicanSexKitten "Jane Cleaver"]]). When the zombies garner enough sympathy to sway public opinions, [[spoiler:and the election outcome favors the opposition, the zombies' votes are thrown out to skew the results (in Ohio and Florida, natch).]] Of course, the zombies won't stand for this, and [[spoiler: suddenly ''all'' of America's war dead (all the way back to the ''Civil War'') rise from the grave to get revenge.]]

* ''SeaQuestDSV'' featured an annoying episode involving Lucas and condoms.

* An episode of ''UglyBetty'' basically had the message "cults are bad, they'll take all your money, and they'll [[ForTheEvulz drug you for no real reason]]." Most episodes have at least one kind of social message that the writers pound into our heads repeatedly, but this one was just really blatant (and annoying).

* Critics have been universally fulsome in their praise for ''MadMen''. But they have a lot of good-natured fun pointing out that the show is way too insistent that women were treated poorly in the late '50s and early '60s, and that was ''awful'', OK?
* ''SaturdayNightLive'' pointed out the same thing in an episode hosted by Jon Hamm. Hamm played his ''MadMen'' character in one sketch, and fellow ''MadMen'' actors John Slattery and Elisabeth Moss guest starred. Hamm asked Moss for the time, and she said, "Oh, I'm just a woman. I'm not allowed to wear a watch in this day and age."
* ''SeventhHeaven'' is pretty bad with hitting viewers over the head with morals in nearly every episode. The most notable example would probably be from the episode "Tunes". When Simon starts taking a liking to rap music, he (and the audience) has to endure lectures from everyone in his family about how rap music promotes violence towards women. At the end, Simon stops listening to rap for this reason. This episode basically stated that if you listen to rap, you're supporting abuse towards women so you need to stop. Needless to say, it left a bad taste in the mouth of many viewers (especially the ones who WERE women that listen to rap music themselves).

* ''Series/TheAndromedaStrain 2008'' remake as a TV miniseries changed the novel's white scientists to a race-mixed cast with one homosexual member who keeps his head cool when others don't. Director Robert Shenkkan, true to form, claimed it was his "obligation" to do so.[[note]] Shenkkan's full quote: "If you're going to update the story, which is our mandate, you have an obligation to reflect the world as it is." There are gay scientists, there are scientists who aren't white. There wasn't a line where someone went 'Hey, isn't it great we work in such a diverse environment 'cos we'd sure as hell stand no chance of defeating this killer virus from the stars if we was all straight honkies', was there, hmmmmmnn?[[/note]]

* ''Series/{{Dinosaurs}}'' was notoriously anvilicious as they depicted their characters seemingly being the first living beings on this Earth to deal with issues that are today nearly cliche. But as the series reached its end, it got DarkerAndEdgier, and even more anvilicious. This led to a KillEmAll DownerEnding where Earl had a hand in wiping out not just dinosaurs, but ''[[ApocalypseHow all life on Earth]]''. While a few chalked it up to SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped with a message on irresponsible business practices, many more felt the ending was entirely too dark for what was originally advertised as a sitcom even considering [[ItWasHisSled dinosaurs ultimately meet their end anyway]].

* News and news commentary in general can get pretty bad with this trope, but Television news is worse. Televised news commentary takes the cake for anviliciousness, as sending a message about opinion of current events is practically the entire point of the genre.

* ''SeaQuestDSV'' featured an annoying episode involving Lucas and Condoms.

** Another Vietnam-oriented episode was "A Private Little War", which has two native cultures fighting against each other. It would be a "Prime Directive" issue, except the Klingons are supplying one of the tribes with weapons...just like China with North Vietnam. It gets to the point that Kirk and McCoy even ''discuss'' TheVietnamWar (with all the names conveniently left out), and note that the best solution would've been to supply the South with weapons and advisors (basically, Kennedy's approach--and what would later become known as the [[UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan "Reagan Doctrine"]], instead of fighting the war for them.

** The drugs/magic episode, "Wrecked", is probably the most blatant metaphor in the whole show.

* Subverted by the premise of ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'', which relied on the mandate "No hugging, no learning." Demonstrated especially in the last episode, in which the four characters [[spoiler:end up in prison specifically for being assholes completely lacking in empathy, and pretty much continue to behave in the same way they had throughout the series. And of course, this angers the audience into one great big WhatTheHellHero reaction.]]