History PromotionToParent / LiveActionTV

* In the ''{{Series/Bones}}'' episode "[[Recap/BonesS4E23TheGirlInTheMask The Girl in the Mask]]", Ken Nakamura raised his sister Sachi, leading Booth to refer to him as a parent.
** Bones herself is an aversion; when their parents disappeared, her nineteen-year-old brother allowed her to be put in foster care because he didn't think he could take care of her. Years later she's still bitter.
*** This crops up in an episode where Bones becomes very close to the older brother of a deceased victim, largely because the brother accepted the Promotion To Parent her own brother could/would not. This makes it all the worse when [[spoiler: the older brother is revealed to be the killer.]]

* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}''

* ''Series/TheVampireDiaries''

** Dean was the one who looked after Sam when they were kids since their dad John was too busy going around trying to find the demon that killed their mother. Hell, Dean was the one who pulled Sam out of the fire that killed Mary, and he even uses the BecauseISaidSo line, like in "Bedtime Stories." Dean arguably replaces their mom even more when the three are reunited, as he regularly acts as peacekeeper between Sam and John. In Season 12, Dean outright states that he had to be a big brother, father, ''and'' mother to Sam (John clearly couldn't be any) which was damned unfair to expect of a child.

* The premise of ''Series/{{Summerland}}'' is that the protagonist, Ava, now has to raise her nephews and niece after the death of their parents. She lives in a beach town with three friends (one of whom is an [[AmicableExes Amicable Ex]]), who help her with this task.

* In the ''{{Series/Bones}}'' episode "The Girl in the Mask", Ken Nakamura raised his sister Sachi, leading Booth to refer to him as a parent.

* Tom Jennings on ''Series/{{Dark Shadows}}'' was apparently a very good parent to his much younger sister, Amy, [[spoiler:then he got turned into a vampire.]] His twin Chris took over but seemed content to let [[BigScrewedUpFamily the Collins]] look after her [[spoiler:because he's a werewolf]].
* Sean on ''Series/{{Degrassi}}'' is taken care of by his older brother because he doesn't want to live with his parents after being expelled from his old school for a violent incident.

* ''Series/{{Roseanne}}'': For a time, the family's next-door neighbors were a widowed dad and his two daughters, Charlotte and Molly. Eldest daughter Charlotte basically had to become the new mother, keeping house while their father worked long hours, to the point that even Roseanne felt bad for her not being able to enjoy her teen years:

* ''Series/{{Roseanne}}'': For a time, the family's next-door neighbors were a widowed dad and his two daughters, Charlotte and Molly. Eldest daughter Charlotte basically had to become the new mother, keeping house while their father worked long hours, to the point that even Roseanne felt bad for her:

-->'''Molly:''' ...Oh, I use that in my meatloaf recipe.

-->'''Roseanne:''' Meatloaf recipe?! You're a teenager, go pierce something!

** ''Series/QueenCharlotteABridgertonStory: Adolphus IV of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Queen Charlotte's older brother, had to act as the paternal figure to Charlotte since their parents died when they were still young.

* Animal sort-of example in ''Series/TooCute''. The Tonkinese cat Queenie and her eldest daughter Princess [[HasTwoMommies raise their litters together]], but [[SickEpisode Queenie gets sick]] so Princess finds herself with her paws full by taking care of both her siblings and her own babies until the matriarch gets better.

* Happens on some occasions in ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'':

People who were [[PromotionToParent promoted to parent]] in live-action TV.

* ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'': Season 3's "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS3E16AndS3E17WarZone War Zone]]" has this happen to Dana and Keith Reno, whose father, Logan, a fellow Texas Ranger and former partner of Walker's, is killed by a gang of bank robbers in clown masks. Dana, a Texas State Trooper wanting to become a Ranger like her deceased father, has since taken on the duty of being Keith's legal guardian, as their mother, Molly, had also passed away several years earlier, while Walker goes on the hunt for Logan's killer.

* ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'': Season 3's "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS3E16AndS3E17WarZone War Zone]]" has this happen to Dana and Keith Reno, whose father, Logan, a fellow Texas Ranger and former partner of Walker's, is killed by a gang of bank robbers in clown masks. Dana, a Texas State Trooper wanting to become a Ranger like her deceased father, has since taken on the duty of being Keith's legal guardian while Walker goes on the hunt for Logan's killer.

* ''Series/{{Bridgerton}}'': Anthony Bridgerton and Kate Sharma found themselves to be BirdsOfAFeather, because of this; following their fathers' death when they were still teenagers, they were forced to take over their old men's positions as the head of the house and sacrificed their own desires for the sake of duties and families.

* ''Series/{{Bridgerton}}'': Anthony Bridgerton and Kate Sharma found themselves to be BirdsOfAFeather, because of this; upon their fathers' death when they were still teenagers, they were forced to take over their old men's positions as heads of houses and sacrificed their own desires for the sake of duties and families.

* ''Series/{{Angel}}'' has a short-lived example at the beginning of Season 4: Angel and Cordelia have disappeared and Wesley is on the outs with the group, so Gunn and Fred are now in the parent role for Connor. Fred even notes that the reason that he keeps arguing with Gunn is because he's now the "alpha male" target of his teenage rebellion. Angel is found by the end of the season premiere, however.

* In ''Series/TheBorgias'' , after his father, the Pope [[spoiler: is poisoned]] Cesare goes ballistic and takes charge, [[spoiler: making arrangements for his beloved sister's wedding the day after his brother's funeral]] even undermining [[spoiler: Rodrigo himself.]]

* Tom Jennings on ''Series/{{Dark Shadows}}'' was apparently a very good parent to his much younger sister, Amy, [[spoiler:then he got turned into a vampire.]] His twin, Chris, took over, but seemed content to let [[BigScrewedUpFamily the Collins]] look after her [[spoiler:because he's a werewolf]].

* ''Series/DesperateHousewives'': Though it hasn't been elaborated on much, it's indicated that Lynette was this to her two younger sisters, since their father was out of the picture for as-yet-unspecified reasons and their promiscuous, alcoholic mother alternated between abusive and neglectful. This may also provide some insight into Lynette's initial reluctance to the idea of having children.

* In ''Series/{{Firefly}}'', after Simon rescues River he is put in a position where he has to protect and take care of her due to the [[MindRape results]] of what was done to her at the Academy. He is also considered responsible for her actions in the ship and is expected to keep her in line, though this sort of blurs as the series progressed, with the rest of the crew starting to care for River as well toward the end. Notably, Simon and River's parents never actually died; Simon was just the only member of the family willing to do what it took to [[AFriendInNeed rescue]] and [[BigBrotherInstinct protect]] River from the government.

** "Whac-a-Mole" had its patient of the week being a teenaged boy whose parents died in a car accident, leaving him to raise his younger siblings. [[spoiler:When faced with the choice of getting cured from his disease or having his siblings placed in foster care, he actually chooses the second, feeling that he can't handle parenthood.]]
** Another episode has a young man playing the role of parent to his schizophrenic mother, and lying to Social Services about his age. Fortunately, [[spoiler:it turns out she's not actually schizophrenic but that it's a symptom of a medical disorder, and she's able to resume being a parent after she's treated.]]

* ''Series/TheIrregulars'': After their mother dies Bea becomes this to her sister Jessie when they are sent to the workhouse and later run away to live on the streets.
* One of the students in the sixth season of ''Series/KinpachiSensei'' has parents who are too busy to take care of their kids. However [[spoiler:the boys older brother is a JerkAss drug user [[BigBrotherBully who abuses him]] and takes money from him. He ends up beating him up and abandoning him.]] It's played with later on when it's revealed his parents were overworking to try and make their children's lives better than theirs were. They end up reconciling their bond [[spoiler:after the older brothers gets put in jail]].
* On ''Series/TheLWord'', Shane is forced to take care of her half-brother Shay for part of Season 4 after both his parents abandon him. She grows to care for him deeply, and is devastated when their father Gabriel returns and takes him away. Despite the fact that Shay has minimal lines, he is shown to have drawn a picture of himself and Shane when assigned a drawing of "family" at school.

* Marc Vilaseca, original prankster/good guy of Catalonia based series ''Series/{{Merli}}'' gets promoted to parent his younger brother Pau because their mother works at night. Problems occured.

* Promotion To Parent is the fundamental premise of ''Series/PartyOfFive'', in which 24 year-old Charlie is given the responsibility of legal guardianship of his four younger siblings (with ages ranging from 16- to 1-year-old), after both parents are killed by a drunk driver.

-->'''Mycroft:''' ''[pouring tea]'' I'll be 'Mother' [for non-Brits: the highest ranking Female of the party that serves the tea] \\
'''Sherlock:''' [dryly] And that is our entire childhood in a nutshell.

** Dean was the one who looked after Sam when they were kids, since their dad John was too busy going around trying to find the demon that killed their mother. Hell, Dean was the one who pulled Sam out of the fire that killed Mary, and he even uses the BecauseISaidSo line, like in "Bedtime Stories." Dean arguably replaces their mom even more when the three are reunited, as he regularly acts as peace-keeper between Sam and John. In Season 12, Dean outright states that he had to be a big brother, father, ''and'' mother to Sam (John clearly couldn't be any) which was damned unfair to expect of a child.

** Both used and averted in ''Series/MahouSentaiMagiranger'', in which the oldest of the five Ozu siblings brings home the paychecks and grows vegetables for food, while the middle sibling uses said paychecks to handle the bills and does the cooking/cleaning. Only the youngest sibling is school age, but since all five are superheroes, the whole WakeUpGoToSchoolSaveTheWorld thing isn't an issue anyway.

** Elena's aunt Jenna, after her parent's are killed. [[spoiler:After Jenna is killed, Elena becomes this towards Jeremy. Although she eventually leaves for college, leaving Jeremy in the custody of her boyfriend, Damon.]]
** Elijah and Klaus are this to their younger siblings, Rebekah and Kol, since there parents are [[ParentalAbandonment dead]] and [[AbusiveParents horrible]].

* Michael Lee of ''Series/TheWire''. His father is unknown, his step-father is in prison, and his mother is a drug addict, so he has to take on the role of parenting his younger brother Bug. When his step-father returns, there's a power struggle between him and Michael over who is a better father figure for Bug, complicated with the [[spoiler:implication of sexual abuse]] in their shared past.