History ScrewedByTheLawyers / LiveActionTV

* ''Series/TheCharmings'' got complaints by the Creator/{{Disney}} Company when ABC was run by Capital Cities since it was an unauthorized parody of ''WesternAnimation/{{Snow White|AndTheSevenDwarfs}}''. It's unclear whether this or low ratings ultimately led to its cancellation. Disney does now own ABC, opening up the possibility of a DVD release, though the heavy discouragement of press comparisons with the later show ''Series/OnceUponATime'' by the network suggests that it considers it a DorkAge program. It should also be noted that ABC never owned the rights to ''The Charmings''. Sony currently owns the program, so a chance of a DVD release seems moot.

* Creator/TheBBC halted all US VHS releases of ''Series/{{Jackanory}}'' due to CBS/FOX Video not doing a major licensing contract of the classic children's show from the 60s up until the 90s and beyond as these are replaced with Playhouse Video's own CBS Videobreak US VHS releases. Jackanory was only released in the UK on VHS and could not be played in North American Video Cassette Recorders at all unless CBS/FOX retained their NTSC rights of the classic children's show by dropping the "Jackanory" name, showing only the name of the book on screen (similar to their CBS Videobreak US VHS releases). Unfortunately for Creator/{{Disney}}, the US VHS release of ''Literature/WinnieThePooh'' does violate the company's trademark rights of the cartoon character of the same name being shown on a slipcase of the actual UK show's episode.

** The show got hit with this during the Volume 10 release of [=DVD=]s. One of them was ''Film/GodzillaVsMegalon'' and had been available for a short while. Then, Toho stepped in and refused. A Volume 10.2 was soon released with a special Host Segment created to show why the movie wasn't included.

* In the ''Series/RedDwarf'' episode "Cured", Lister sings a duet with a version of Hitler who has been cured of evil, which was originally meant to be "Africa" by Toto. However, when the licensing company found out Hitler was involved they refused to license it, and several other companies rejected alternative songs. They settled with "The Happy Wanderer" because it's no longer in copyright.

* Series/AshVsEvilDead: Bruce Campbell implied in an interview that nothing that could explicitly be tied to ''Film/ArmyOfDarkness'' was included because Universal (who own the rights to that entry) wanted an obscene amount of money for using elements from it. These issues were cleared up in time for seasons 2-3 as both openly reference and acknowledge the events of ''Army of Darkness''.

* ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'': In 2019, then-president UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump despised their negative parodies of him and considered filing a FrivolousLawsuit against them to stop it. Trump grudgingly backed out when told that satires are protected speech under the First Amendment. Late night comedians Creator/JimmyKimmel and Creator/StephenColbert trolled Trump for being unable to accept being mocked.

** Until 2013, Creator/ShoutFactory couldn't release the episode featuring ''Film/{{Pumaman}}'' because no one knew who to contact.

* Series/AshVsEvilDead: Bruce Campbell implied in an interview that nothing that could explicitly be tied to Film/ArmyOfDarkness was included because Universal (who own the rights to that entry) wanted an obscene amount of money for using elements from it.
** These issues were cleared up in time for seasons 2-3 as both openly reference and acknowledge the events of Army of Darkness.

* Then-President UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump considered suing ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' and ''Series/JimmyKimmelLive'' to get them off air for their parodies of him in 2019. He grudgingly backed out when told that the FrivolousLawsuit itself would be mocked in court for its silliness as satires are deemed free speech. When told about this, Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert joked that Trump reacts poorly to criticism and has NoSenseOfHumor whenever he's mocked.

* Then-President UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump considered suing ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' and ''Series/JimmyKimmelLive'' to get them off air for their parodies of him in 2019, but grudgingly backed out when told that satires are considered free speech and that the suit itself would be mocked in court for its [[FrivolousLawsuit frivolousness]]. When told about this, many late-night comedians joked that Trump reacts poorly to criticism and has NoSenseOfHumor whenever he's ridiculed.

* Then-President UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump considered suing ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' and ''Series/JimmyKimmelLive'' to get them off air for their parodies of him in 2019, but grudgingly backed out when told that satires are considered free speech and that the suit itself would be mocked in court for its [[FrivolousLawsuit frivolousness]]. When told about this, Kimmel joked that Trump has NoSenseOfHumor whenever he's ridiculed.

* Then-President UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump considered suing ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' and ''Series/JimmyKimmelLive'' to get them off air for their parodies of him in 2019, but grudgingly backed out when told that parodies are considered free speech and that the suit itself would be mocked in court for its [[FrivolousLawsuit frivolousness]].

* Then-President UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump considered suing ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' and ''Series/JimmyKimmelLive'' for their parodies of him in 2019, but grudgingly backed out when told that parodies are considered free speech and that the suit itself would be ridiculed in court for its [[FrivolousLawsuit frivolousness]].

* When Creator/LouisTheroux decided in 2021 to do a follow-up to his 2011 documentary on Joe Exotic and the GW zoo in light of the surreal events that had occurred in the interim, he was surprised to discover that the producers of ''Series/TigerKing'' had locked down most of its cast in exclusive contracts that made it impossible for them to appear in any other documentary works, especially since none of the 8 or so people he had contacted mentioned this to him. He's even forced to edit out the appearance of a man under a similar contract when he accidentally walked into frame.

* When Creator/LouisTheroux decided in 2021 to do a follow-up to his 2011 documentary on Joe Exotic and the GW zoo in light of the surreal events that had occurred in the interim, he was surprised to discover that the producers of ''Series/TigerKing'' had locked down most of its cast in exclusive contracts that made it impossible for them to appear in any other documentary works, especially since none of the 8 or 10 people he had contacted mentioned this to him. He's even forced to edit out the appearance of a man under a similar contract when he accidentally walked into frame.

* When Creator/LouisTheroux decided in 2021 to do a follow-up to his 2011 documentary on Joe Exotic in light of the surreal events that had occurred in the interim, he was surprised to discover that the producers of ''Series/TigerKing'' had locked down most of its cast in exclusive contracts that made it impossible for them to appear in any other documentary works, especially since none of the 8 or 10 people he had contacted mentioned this to him. He's even forced to edit out the appearance of a man under a similar contract when he accidentally walked into frame.

* When reruns of ''Series/NickArcade'' moved to Nick [=GaS=], twenty episodes were pulled from the rotation. One theory as to why is because the show used a lot of music videos in its puzzles, and Nickelodeon couldn't clear (or didn't feel like clearing) the music rights for every episode. The entire series eventually made its way to Creator/ParamountPlus in 2021. While the theory hasn't been confirmed, it's interesting to note that every episode omitted from [=GaS=] had a music video.

** In August 2019, CBS and Viacom re-merged into one company, so there's at least a possibility of some synchronicity with the ''Star Trek'' and ''Mission: Impossible'' franchises again. This was first shown in ''Discovery'' Season 3 when the Kelvin Timeline (the official name for the reboot universe) is mentioned as an example.