History Anvilicious / LiveActionTV

** In "[[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E21TheDrumhead}} The Drumhead]]", we get an entire episode focused on an overzealous starfleet admiral going on a witch hunt in the Enterprise to find an accomplice of a spy working for the Romulans, accusing an innocent crewman who has the misfortune of being the grandson of a Romulan, and even accusing Picard. A blatant Aesop against those same witchhunts. Even once the evidence proved that the explosion setting off the investigation was an accident, the admiral all but admitted that she didn't care about the truth, only about bringing down Picard for no apparent reason. (Leading to an anvilicious but awesome speech by Picard [[SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped on the subject of the state placing limitations on a person's liberty]] and how a stand must be taken to prevent the state from going too far. Bonus points was that Picard was quoting the admiral's ''father''.)

** Another episode involves a stuttering soldier getting heckled by everyone in his platoon. When Winchester catches ear of this, he suddenly comes unhinged and dumps a cascade of pure anger on all of them. Later in that episode, he hears from his sister on a tape-recorded message sent to the 4077th, and we learn what brought on Winchester's fury: his sister suffers the [[NotSoDifferent exact]] [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming same]] speech impediment.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E3Rosa "Rosa"]] - SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped and to hell with subtlety. Cross a Pakistani and a Black British Companion, TheDeepSouth [[PlaceWorseThanDeath in 1955]], land the TARDIS smack into the Montgomery Bus Boycott, add a batshit crazy time traveling bigot trying to MakeWrongWhatOnceWentRight, and the end result was Anvil Hiroshima.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E3Rosa "Rosa"]] - SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped and to hell with subtlety. Cross a Pakistani and Black British Companion, TheDeepSouth [[PlaceWorseThanDeath in 1955]], land the TARDIS smack into the Montgomery Bus Boycott, add a batshit crazy time traveling bigot trying to MakeWrongWhatOnceWentRight, and the end result was Anvil Hiroshima.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E3Rosa "Rosa"]] - SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped. Cross a Pakistani and Black British Companion, TheDeepSouth [[PlaceWorseThanDeath in 1955]], land the TARDIS smack into the Montgomery Bus Boycott, add a batshit crazy time traveling bigot trying to SetWrongWhatOnceWasRight, and the end result was Anvil Hiroshima.

'''Giles''': You know it was beer!

** ''Series/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.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone'': Several episodes written by Creator/RodSerling come off as terribly heavy-handed today ([[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E97TheGift "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''.

* ''PowerRangersMegaforce'' has the episode "Robo Knight" where the Rangers are appalled that humans are polluting the earth, the [[MonsterOfTheWeek monsters of the week]] are created as a direct result of a toxic factory polluting the earth, and the SixthRanger is introduced whose sole mission in life is to punish those who pollute the earth. About every third line hammers home the message, just in case kids didn't get it.

* The (very short-lived) ''TheWeirdAlShow'', thanks to a rampaging case of ExecutiveMeddling, had one specific lesson for each episode to teach, and that lesson was mercilessly repeated to the point of drawing attention to it in voice-overs before each commercial break. Half of the enjoyment of the DVD release comes from the scathing commentary of Al and others on the anvilicious display of insipid points.

** ''House of Payne'' was the same way: drug use, the pitfalls of teen sex, teen pregnancy, STD's, HIV/AIDS, domestic violence, sexual abuse, divorce, cancer, choosing family over career, going back to school at an older age, pursuing your dreams ONLY AFTER your family is grown and out of your house, autism, interracial relationships, the evils of single parenting, not being a selfish JerkAss, guns, skipping school, the importance of having the Christmas Spirit (complete with a visit from Madea), death, etc.

* ''Series/BlackMirror'' could be retitled "Charlie Booker spends an hour yelling at you about how technology is ruining the world". Also, humans apparently inherently suck and tech is making it worse. It's a wonder Booker hasn't just burned his house down and taken over the Unabomber's old shack by now.

* An episode of ''Series/{{Quincy}}'' when the guy pauses for effect... then declares the cause of death as Punk Rock.

* Creator/NormanLear practically pioneered the trope for American prime-time TV. ''Series/AllInTheFamily'', ''Series/{{Maude}}'', ''Series/GoodTimes'', ''Series/SanfordAndSon'', ''Series/{{One Day at a Time|1974}}'', and ''Series/TheJeffersons'' were all thick with Anvilicious plots and [[AuthorTract Points To Be Made.]] So were his later series, but by then people had become less tolerant of his anvils. Then again, ''Series/AllInTheFamily,'' ''Series/SanfordAndSon,'' and ''Series/TheJeffersons'' had highly sympathetic bigots, which lightened the intended anvils in those series. Which in many ways led to the extreme right-wing and/or racist {{Misaimed Fandom}}s that followed Archie, Fred, George, etc. to the point where paid-up Democrat Carroll O'Connor {{lampshaded}} and subverted the trope in an anti-racist PublicServiceAnnouncement for [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3HBR4r9r-g B'Nai B'rith]] in 1990.

* ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'': ''Mr. Whipple" sees Miss Brooks and her friends try to help an old man whom they believe is destitute and starving. It turns out he's a [[TheScrooge rich tycoon]] on a diet. However, the generosity of Miss Brooks and her friends so affects Mr. Whipple that he takes them out for dinner, and decides to lobby for a new school gymnasium.

* Creator/NormanLear practically pioneered the trope for American prime-time TV. ''Series/AllInTheFamily'', ''Series/{{Maude}}'', ''Series/GoodTimes'', ''SanfordAndSon'', ''Series/OneDayAtATime'', and ''Series/TheJeffersons'' were all thick with Anvilicious plots and [[AuthorTract Points To Be Made.]] So were his later series, but by then people had become less tolerant of his anvils. Then again, ''Series/AllInTheFamily,'' ''Series/SanfordAndSon,'' and ''Series/TheJeffersons'' had highly sympathetic bigots, which lightened the intended anvils in those series. Which in many ways led to the extreme right-wing and/or racist {{Misaimed Fandom}}s that followed Archie, Fred, George, etc. to the point where paid-up Democrat Carroll O'Connor {{lampshaded}} and subverted the trope in an anti-racist PublicServiceAnnouncement for [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3HBR4r9r-g B'Nai B'rith]] in 1990.

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

* An episode of ''{{Quincy}}'' when the guy pauses for effect... then declares the cause of death as Punk Rock.

** In "Oxygen", the Doctor goes snti-capitalist with the subtlety of a jackhammer outside your window at 3 in the morning.

* ''Series/{{Blackish}}'' Other than the obligatory "white people are stupid and lame" message in almost every black sitcom, Blackish has numerous episodes with the message, "it's ok to be male, even masculine" and are remarkably unashamed about it.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E10InTheForestOfTheNight "In The Forest of the Night"]]. Trees are good. Don't bother them. Also if a Child is hearing voices dont give them medication to stop them as they may be alien tree lifeforms

* ''TheSecretLifeOfTheAmericanTeenager'' does this on an episode-to-episode basis about sex, and a ''scene-to-scene'' basis for [[VerySpecialEpisode the moral of the episode]].

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone'': Several episodes written by RodSerling come off as terribly heavy-handed today ([[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E97TheGift "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''.

** The first season even has an episode ("Infection") where the captain defeats an alien super soldier made by an ancient race of Space Nazis by lecturing it while it's shooting at him until it realizes that yes, clearly Space Nazism is a flawed ideology. The episode is widely regarded as the worst episode of the show, period. It was the 4th episode shown, but the first one written and the first one shot. Even the JMS felt that it was too anvilicious, and said that if they'd had enough scripts to be able to do so, he probably wouldn't have shot it at all. [[http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/guide/004.html#JS Clicky]]

** The original series was unique for its era in that it was likely the only show [[EverybodySmokes in which no one smoked]]. Creator/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.
** Another tale mentioned in several sources (including [[Creator/WilliamShatner Shatner's]] autobiography Star Trek Memories) has it that the network's ultimatum was the alien Spock or the woman officer. Roddenberry went with Spock.
** "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield", concerning a race where people who were black-skinned on the left side of their face and white-skinned on the right, were persecuted by the people who were white on the left and black on the right. Anviltastic!
** Another Original Trek episode: "The Omega Glory", described rather accurately by [[http://www.cracked.com/article_17317_p2.html cracked.com]] as "It's common for aliens in the Trek universe to be metaphors created to address contemporary political or cultural issues, but in the case of the Kohms and Yangs subtlety was set on fire, strapped to a dump truck full of dynamite and rolled off a cliff."
** At the height of the VietnamWar, the episode "A Taste of Armageddon" was set in a planet whose two nations were involved in a decades-long, computer-simulated war: citizens of both nations, when "killed" in a simulated attack, obediently marched into disintegration booths. Body counts are bad, mmmkay?
** 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 episode called "The Cloud Minders", in which a culture is divided into a working class and an upper class. The working class living on the surface, working in the mines, and believed to be stupid and therefore inferior, while the upper class live in a floating city in the sky, living like aristocrats and considering themselves superior in every way. When the Enterprise enters the action, the working class is in a state of revolution, and it's discovered the ore they're forced to mine makes them stupid, but otherwise they have the same potential, and thus should be afforded the same privileges, as the upper class, with Kirk championing their cause when he discovers it. The anvil in this episode - an allusion to wealth inequality and Marxist class theory - might even be more applicable in the 21st century than in the 1960s.

** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Symbiosis", where Species A is saving Species B from a deadly virus that hasn't existed in centuries by selling them [[RecycledInSpace space crack]], and we learn that doing drugs is bad. It even includes a bonus speech to Wesley about just why drugs are bad. The speech is hilariously taken out of context on YTMND, where it appears [[http://stardrugs.ytmnd.com/ Tasha appreciates drugs]].
** Another TNG episode: In the fourth season "Drumhead", we get an entire episode focused on an overzealous starfleet admiral going on a witch hunt in the Enterprise to find an accomplice of a spy working for the Romulans, accusing an innocent crewman who has the misfortune of being the grandson of a Romulan, and even accusing Picard. A blatant Aesop against those same witchhunts. Even once the evidence proved that the explosion setting off the investigation was an accident, the admiral all but admitted that she didn't care about the truth, only about bringing down Picard for no apparent reason. (Leading to an anvilicious but awesome speech by Picard [[SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped on the subject of the state placing limitations on a person's liberty]] and how a stand must be taken to prevent the state from going too far. Bonus points was that Picard was quoting the admiral's ''father''.)
** TNG Episode "Force of Nature" about warp drive being dangerous to the fabric of the Universe. Comparing the ozone hole to the destruction of the universe. Real subtle, guys.
** Yet another TNG episode, "The Outcast", had a member of an androgynous species fall for Riker. Turns out she identifies herself as female, which on her planet is considered a psychological disorder. Naturally she's found out and gives a [[AuthorFilibuster long, cliched speech]] about how she shouldn't be considered a "deviant", and how you can't dictate "how people love each other".
** Noting that all the androgynous aliens were portrayed by women [[http://www.cracked.com/article_17317_star-treks-6-most-ridiculous-alien-races_p2.html Cracked.com]] notes: "The episode's message ends up completely garbled. Intended as a condemnation of homophobia, the episode instead comes off as the story of one woman's brave quest for cock in the face of lesbian tyranny." Even Jonathan Frakes commented that it would have been more convincing if his love interest had been played by a man.

** "In the Hands of the Prophets" is an anvilicious reference to the nonsense of religious dogma and the detrimental effects of having it influence politics. While lip service is played to tolerance, Winn quickly went JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope to the point of terrorism.

** The episode "Melora" was blatantly Anvilicious, repeatedly hammering home the point that being in a wheelchair doesn't make you any less of a person. You'd think seeing all those alien races would make such a disability seem positively ordinary.
** "Far Beyond The Stars". It seems that America was pretty racist in the 1950s. Sisko has a vision of himself as someone else in the past, and each of the main characters has a counterpart in his vision. All of the black characters either comment on or demonstrate the oppression against them, and it comes complete with a LargeHam (Benny himself) and NWordPrivileges!

** A particularly notorious example had the characters in ''SVU'' suddenly start [[TakeThat verbally trashing]]--by name--RushLimbaugh, GlennBeck, and [[TheOReillyFactor Bill O'Reilly]] as [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech "a cancer spreading ignorance and hate"]]. Needless to say, O'Reilly in particular was not amused.

* Early on in ''Series/{{Fringe}}'''s fourth season, the dialogue is filled with unsubtle commentary on how it feels like something is missing and there's a void in the world. As if we're going to forget that one of the main characters got [[RetGone erased from existence]] without the other characters talking about it unconconsciously.