History ContrivedCoincidence / LiveActionTV

* The ''Franchise/{{CSI}}'' franchise:

*** A few other coincidences pop up regarding the twins: they have the same taste in watches, are listening and singing along to the same song shortly before Amanda dies (appropriately titled "Two Of A Kind"), and have similar handwriting. To top it off, Amanda had signed up for a photography class at the local university... and Jill was going to be the teacher. Had they not been murdered, the twins would have finally met.

* Lampshaded in an episode of ''Series/{{CSI}}'' when the killer, a bitter TV actress, sarcastically suggests how the "hypothetical" murderer could have pulled off her crime, which ends up evolving into an increasingly convoluted, soap opera-ish plot. When Brass interrupts to snark about how much of a Contrived Coincidence one development in her scenario is, her response is, "that's alright, you're allowed to have one per episode."

** On ''Series/{{CSINY}}'', a therapist's plan to frame a patient for her husband's murder could have worked...if it wasn't for the fact that when she shot the guy "in self-defense," a team of cops and CSI techs were on a roof literally across the street investigating a different murder. Lampshaded by Stella commenting that there's no way the woman could have known they'd all be close enough to hear the gunshot.

* Parodies in ''Series/TheComicStripPresents''

** One episode took place that took place at a [[FurryFandom furry convention]] featured a man getting shot while wearing his full fursuit. At the end of the episode, it's revealed that the murder was a complete accident: the victim just so happened to be suffering from food poisoning and wandering around the deserts of Nevada at night, just so happened to crouch over to vomit in an open field, and just so happened to be in the sights of a local farmer who was afraid that coyotes were after his animals. The coincidences lined up to make the victim look like an ''actual'' coyote on all fours, so the farmer fired.

* ''Series/{{Angel}}'': In the episode "Guise will be guise", Wesley is kidnapped at gunpoint because he's pretending to be Angel (it's complicated). Cordelia, attempting to locate his whereabouts, searches through mug shots attempting to find his assailant. After spending some time on this and getting bored, she takes a break and reads through a celebrity tabloid magazine, and wouldn't you know it, the guy she's looking for happens to be a bodyguard of a celebrity. Awfully convenient that the picture of the celebrity also included a good quality shot of the man she's looking for. On top of this, she doesn't look for a particular article in the tabloid, just decides to skim through it quickly and almost immediately finds this picture.

** Mid-season two, Walter is out one night after a meeting with Jesse and abruptly decides to drop into a bar by himself to grab a beer (something which, by his own admission, he never does), and happens to sit down beside and fall into conversation with a friendly stranger, who just so happens to be the father of Jesse's girlfriend. This occurs immediately before Jesse's girlfriend chokes to death on her own vomit while Walter does nothing to help. The astronomical unlikelihood of this chance meeting is lampshaded and {{handwave}}d by Walter himself in a later episode. [[spoiler: That father also happens to be an Air Traffic Controller who later, still preoccupied over his daughter's death, negligently causes a mid-air collision right over Walter's house. Which makes Walt indirectly responsible for the crash.]]

** Also in season two, Skyler goes into labor at just about the same time that Walter is told he has one hour to deliver his first shipment to Gus Fring. Walter makes the dropoff, but in doing so, misses the birth of his daughter.

** In Season three, after the cousins' attack on Hank, he's brought to the same hospital in which Jesse was recovering from the beating Hank gave him. And Hank's ambulance just happens to arrive while Jesse, just discharged, is waiting outside in a wheelchair to be picked up by Skinny Pete.

** In the finale season: [[spoiler: Walter is in hiding in New Hampshire. After he tries to reconnect with his son and is roughly told off, he calls the DEA and settles in to let them trace the call to the bar where he is drinking and arrest him. Before they find him, the bartender randomly starts channel flipping, which allows Walter to see an interview where his ex- and old business partner badmouth him on TV and minimize his contribution. This angers Walt so much he chooses to escape and return to New Mexico for his vengeance]].
** In the finale episode: [[spoiler: Walter is about to be taken out back and shot by the Neo-Nazis at their hideout, which would screw his whole plan to kill them all with an M60. While they're grabbing him to take him out back, he starts screaming at Jack about Jack's promise to kill Jesse, alleging Jack partnered with Jesse instead. In doing so, Walt hits a MAJOR nerve Jack has (and Walt didn't even know about): his hatred of snitches. Jack is so incensed at the implication he's working with a rat (Jesse), he keeps Walt alive just so he can see Jesse is their slave, not a partner. This, however, buys Walt enough time to grab his keys off the pool table and trigger the M60]].

* ''Series/DirkGentlysHolisticDetectiveAgency'': Several people on the show are favoured by fate in this way, most notably Bart, the "holistic assassin". She stumbles upon random people who deserve to die, and then kills them with the most casual blind luck possible. Guns pointed at her jam, her own shots never miss, and she never kills people who don't deserve to die. Her absurd luck gives her some rather glaring gaps in her education. For example, she has no idea that you're supposed to fix a car if it breaks down. In her experience, if a car breaks down, it just means she's supposed to be at that location; the car will be working again when it's time for her to leave.

* ''Franchise/StarTrek'': Moving the {{Adventure Town|s}} trope into space often leads to coincidence as the landing party or shuttle crash just happens to arrive on the correct part of a planet.
** In "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E5TheApple The Apple]]" the crew know nothing of Vaal, the computer that runs the world, yet despite the entire planet having a virtually constant climate they beam down within walking distance of Vaal.

** In [=DS9's=] "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E02RocksAndShoals Rocks and Shoals]]", the crew's disabled ship not only finds a conveniently close nebula to hide in, but they find a planet in the nebula, and crash within walking distance of similarly shipwrecked Dominion troops.

** This was practically a RunningGag with Joey, although the show never acknowledged it as such. Since he had a [[ExpansionPackPast vague past]], it was easy for the writers to put him into situations that he always just so happened to have the credentials to solve. Jesse wants to go skydiving before his wedding? Surprise--Joey has a pilot's license! Michelle is upset because her teacher is out sick? Guess what--Joey's actually an accredited substitute teacher and can help! Bloggers like [[https://therealfullhousereviewed.wordpress.com/ Billy Superstar]] have suggested that these constant new skills in later seasons because Joey was something of TheArtifact--while it made sense for him to move in with Danny and help raise his daughters immediately after Danny's wife's death, his presence gradually became unnecessary because the girls were old enough to take care of themselves and had more relatives, like Aunt Becky, to help them out. As such, the writers seemed determine to shoehorn Joey into plots by inventing skills for him that were promptly never mentioned again.

* A season seven episode of ''Series/FullHouse'' has two storylines: Jesse buys tickets to a Little Richard concert, only for Nicky and Alex to cut them up, and Joey campaigns for the position of P.T.A. President of Michelle's school, only to have his rival Mrs. Carruthers outdo him, prompting Kimmy to suggest a fundraiser with a celebrity guest. Immediately after this suggestion is made, Michelle's friend Denise casually mentions that her musician uncle (who she's never brought before) could do the job--and immediately after she says this, there's a knock at the door. It's her uncle. Guess who he is. No, go on--guess. The Quotes page has an excellent summary of this phenomenon.

** On ''Series/CSINewYork'', a therapist's plan to frame a patient for her husband's murder could have worked...if it wasn't for the fact that when she shot the guy "in self-defense",a team of cops and CSI techs were literally across the street investigating a different murder.

* In one episode of ''Series/GrowingPains'', Chrissy thinks fun things happen after bed time, so Jason lets her stay up late to see nothing exciting happens at night. Unfortunately, [[NotHelpingYourCase a string of events occur that result in a party]].

** Happened all the time (usually for [[RuleOfFunny comedic effect]]). It was one of the elements that became {{flanderiz|ation}}ed as the series progressed, but [[TropesAreNotBad this didn't stop it from being funny]].

* In one episode of ''Series/GrowingPains'', Chrissy thinks fun things happen after bed time, so Jason lets her stay up late to see nothing exciting happens at night. Unfortunately, a string of events occur that result in a party.

** In "The Millennium", George is offered a better-paying job with the New York Mets than he has with the Yankees; the catch is that he has to be fired from the latter to seal the deal. He thus tries numerous schemes to get himself in George Steinbrenner's bad graces, but every single time he comes up with something, Steinbrenner loves it. George wears Babe Ruth's jersey and covers it in strawberry jam? Steinbrenner loves his "out with the old, in with the new" philosophy. George streaks across the field wearing a bodysuit? Steinbrenner thinks that George is creating a new, exciting character called "Bodysuit Man". And when George finally ''does'' get himself fired, his own boss shows up and claims responsibility...and then tells George that the Mets made him a similar offer.