History Series / TheLastManOnEarth

*** This is a massive subversion. In real life, nuclear reactors have fail-safes to prevent this exact scenario, called the SCRAM system. If a reaction was to go critical (due to a lack of maintenance), inert lead rods drop between the active radioactive material while the chamber itself floods with a combination of deuterium and bromide known as 'heavy water.' The nuclear disasters of the age (Chernobyl and 3-Mile Island) occurred ''because'' the SCRAM system was taken offline to test different solutions. The last thing to consider is that when reactors run out of fuel, they simply shut down, not explode, much like when an automobile or a campfire simply stops working when out of fuel. When fires and cars run out of fuel, they do not then explode. For further information see ArtisticLicense:NuclearPhysics.

*** This is a massive subversion. In real life, nuclear reactors have fail-safes to prevent this exact scenario, called the SCRAM system. If a reaction was to go critical (due to a lack of maintenance), inert lead rods drop between the active radioactive material while the chamber itself floods with a combination of deuterium and bromide known as 'heavy water.' The nuclear disasters of the age (Chernobyl and 3-Mile Island) occurred ''because'' the SCRAM system was taken offline to test different solutions. The last thing to consider is that when reactors run out of fuel, they simply shut down, not explode, much like when an automobile or a campfire simply stops working when out of fuel. When fires and cars run out of fuel, they do not then explode.

*** This is a massive subversion. In real life, nuclear reactors have fail-safes to prevent this exact scenario, called the SCRAM system. If a reaction was to go critical (due to a lack of maintenance), inert lead rods drop between the active radioactive material while the chamber itself floods with a combination of deuterium and bromide known as 'heavy water.' The nuclear disasters of the age (Chernobyl and 3-Mile Island) occurred ''because'' the SCRAM system was taken offline to test different solutions. The last thing to consider is that when reactors run out of fuel, they simply shut down, not explode, much like when an automobile simply stops running when out of fuel, or a campfire. When fires run out of wood (fuel), they do not then explode.

Not to be confused with the 1964 Creator/Vincent1Price film [[Film/TheLastManOnEarth of the same title]].

* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMothers: Karl has long telephone conversations with his mother. While he's on the run in Mexico, he takes the time to call her and try to prep her for the shock of discovering that he's a killer.

* BitchInSheepsClothing: Phil #2 seems like a cool, sensitive, capable and all-round perfect guy, but there are several suggestions that this trope might be in play. [[spoiler: In the Season 1 finale he ultimately proves ruthless and cold-hearted enough to abandon Phil #1 in the desert with barely any supplies instead of driving him to another town and leaving him there. This is in direct contrast with Phil #1, who plotted to do the same thing to Todd but ultimately couldn't go through with it. Carol decides that for better or worse she'd rather be with the Phil who couldn't do something like that to someone no matter how big a jerk he might be on the outside rather than the Phil who would do something like that, no matter how perfect he otherwise seems.]] In season 2, his {{Jerkass}} tendencies have been ramped up to contrast with Phil #1 trying to atone for his previous bad behavior.

Not to be confused with the 1964 Creator/VincentPrice film [[Film/TheLastManOnEarth of the same title]].

* NoDeadBodyPoops: [[spoiler: Subverted. In Season 4 Episode 11, while Karl is getting ready to be shot and killed by Phil, he mentions that he put on some brown underwear "for obvious reasons", to which Phil replies "Of course."]]

The news montage of Republican government figures who ascended to the Presidency and immediately died of the virus in "Got Milk?".

* TokenMinorityCouple: {{Averted}} in that while the two black characters, Erica and Phil #2, do have a relationship, they break up. Phil #2 had also already been in a (brief) relationship with Carol, and Erica was interested in Tandy (before he customarily blew it). On the other hand, it's telling that [[spoiler: they were the first couple to conceive a child. Tandy and Carol would shortly afterward too]].
* TomboyishName: Carol's middle name is "Andrew." She provides no explanation.

* AnswerCut: Phil asks God for a do-over. Enter Gail and Erica.

** In "Dunk the Skunk", a man speeding toward Tucson in a sportscar is presented in an ominous manner. When he finally arrives, it turns out to be Todd, who is nice and non-threatening.

* EarlyBirdCameo: Although she wasn't officially introduced until Season 3's "Got Milk?", Pamela was revealed to be controlling the drone that spied on the survivors in Season 2.

* HeterosexualLifePartners: While Phil initially only pretended to be "bros" with Todd as a way of sabotaging his relationships with the women of the group, CharacterDevelopment on Phil's end has caused them to become this for real. By the third season, Todd is Phil's strongest and most consistent form of moral support after Carol, and Phil is repeatedly shown to value preserving their friendship over improving his own reputation within the group.

* TakeThat: The news montage of Republican government figures who ascended to the Presidency and immediately died of the virus in "Got Milk?".

* TemptingFate: Since this universe exists to torment Phil, any prediction he makes falls squarely into this category; one specific example is his reassuring Todd that no one will show up to take Melissa away from him.

* TheFriendNobodyLikes: '''''PHIL.''''' The other survivors just barely tolerate his antics.

* TookALevelInKindness: Phil takes a big one in season 2. Compared to season 1, where he is only interested in having sex with the women and sabotaging the men, he is now dead set on bringing the group closer together.

''The Last Man on Earth'' is a FOX Network television series that debuted on March 1, 2015 and ended on May 6th, 2018. It starred Creator/WillForte, Creator/KristenSchaal, Mel Rodriguez, Cleopatra Coleman, January Jones, and Creator/MarySteenburgen. The series was created by Forte himself with Creator/PhilLordAndChrisMiller producing. [[note]]They also directed the pilot episode.[[/note]]

After ratings struggles during seasons 3 and 4, Fox cancelled the show following its season 4 finale.

* ButtMonkey: It's a running theme in the series that everything bad that happens to Phil is a result of his own actions:

* CelebrityParadox: In season 3, Tandy drives around in one of the modified [=DeLoreans=] from the ''Back to the Future'' films. If he were to watch ''Back to the Future Part 3'', he would find that Doc's love interest Clara Clayton looks exactly like Gail.

* CharacterDevelopment: WordOfGod has stated the focus of the show is Phil using the apocalypse to grow into the man he never could be before it happened. He spends most of the first season trying to sleep with an attractive woman. In the second season, his goal is to bring the group together and reestablish trust with them. He's achieves this by the end of the season; in the third season premiere, the group only has mild qualms from Pat and Lewis' assumption that Phil is the "leader" of the group.

** Fox officially canceled the series at the end of season 4, leaving an AmbiguousSituation that will never be answered pertaining to the [[spoiler:huge group of survivors who surrounded Tandy and the gang after Mike drove off to parts unknown]].

* ComicallyMissingThePoint: Tandy does this three times in "Hair of the Dog":

** After mocking this while watching ''Film/CastAway'', Phil winds up with a whole crowd of Companion Cube balls with drawn-on faces, keeping him company. He always goes to them for advice whenever something doesn't go his way, which is to say, at least OncePerEpisode. [[spoiler: In the second season finale, he bequeaths the balls to Mike so that, if Mike dies of the virus, he won't die alone. Then, in "The Open-Ended Nature of Unwitnessed Deaths", when Phil almost checks to see if Mike is alive, he chooses not to enter Mike's childhood bedroom and takes his volleyball friend "Gary" with him back to California.]]

** In season 4, Tandy sticks a toy dog head onto a remote control robot, and finds joy in treating it like it was real. When its batteries died, he even started to dig a proper grave. However, he does knows it's just a toy.

* CosyCatastrophe: The show does not dwell on the harsh realities of living in a world where almost every animal suddenly died from a virus. There are no bodies or signs of destruction. No cars littered around the roads (in fact, the roads and highways are completely empty). It's as if everyone simply disappeared. The survivors don't have to expend much energy on their survival either. They have plenty of food and fuel to sustain themselves. Only in the second season does at least one character start to point out that their lifestyle isn't sustainable. The lack of bodies is also addressed and handwaved in season 2.

* NiceGuy: Todd, in contrast to [[UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist Phil]].

* OutOfFocus: The cow (still unnamed) is mostly unseen and rarely mentioned in season 2, though still important to the plot.

** Tucson's a big town, turns out a sign saying "Alive In Tucson" doesn't guarantee that the survivor will find Phil. [[spoiler: Melissa was actually in town before Carol, but just hadn't run into Phil yet. Todd was on his way out of town when he saw Phil's fireworks]].
** The gang starts to notice that gasoline is going bad, though they still take long vehicular treks after this is established.

** Tandy convinces Lewis to [[spoiler: fly a plane before he feels ready. Cue everyone cheering and showing support as Lewis takes off...and immediately crashes. He wasn't ready.]]

* ArtifactTitle: By the end of the first season there were enough survivors (including two other men) to form a small society. An October 2017 Jeopardy! clue even acknowledged this.

* MenAreTheExpendableGender: So far, only men have died in the series...[[spoiler: unless you count the cow.]]

''The Last Man on Earth'' is a FOX Network television series that debuted on March 1, 2015. It stars Creator/WillForte, Creator/KristenSchaal, Mel Rodriguez, Cleopatra Coleman, January Jones, and Creator/MarySteenburgen. The series was created by Forte himself with Creator/PhilLordAndChrisMiller producing. [[note]] They also directed the pilot episode.[[/note]]

** The situation between Phil and Mike is later reversed in "The Blob". Despite Mike's advantages, he's jealous of Phil because he now has a wife and kids, while Mike doesn't have those things. Which is why [[spoiler:he goes off to find the source of the heat signature, to see if there are other survivors that he can find happiness with]].

** It took until season 3 for one of these moments to involve the entire group. [[spoiler: They had a group hug to console Todd, who was incredibly guilty over accidentally running over Pat.]]

** Todd grows one in "Release the Hounds" after [[spoiler: Erica refuses to have his baby]].

** During his solitary confinement, Phil [[spoiler: puts out the fire house when everybody else is asleep.]]

** In the Season 3 finale, [[spoiler:Pat finds the group and is about to shoot them when he's shot dead by Pamela.]]

** When Phil meets Gail and Erica, he lies about [[spoiler:there being other survivors]] and claims that [[spoiler:Carol was his late wife]]. When the lie is found out, he claims that it was all a prank. It was after this that he realized how much lying he's done and decides to come clean about everything.

* BoobyTrap: In "Barbara Ann", [[spoiler:the group discovers that the house they moved into used to belong to a crime cartel, filled to the brim with cocaine and various explosives.]] Gale decides to check the piano for trap before Carol continues playing. It was trapped with dynamite.

** Phil lies to [[spoiler:Gail and Erica about being alone, then almost immediately runs into his other friends, alienating both groups]].

* ButWhatAboutTheAstronauts: In the Season 1 finale, it's revealed that one astronaut at least is still alive on a satellite orbiting Earth. [[spoiler:Oh, and he's apparently Phil's brother.]]

** Notably averted when Carol uses her ugly quilt as a metaphor for [[spoiler:their failed marriage]]. Phil says that he understands.

* CelebritySurvivor: Subverted. Ads for "The Wild Guess Express" try to set this up a little bit. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, Music/{{Cher}} is very much dead.]]

** Mike, Phil's astronaut brother, has the worms in the space station to talk to. [[spoiler:Pat adopts Mike's last one at the end of "Pitch Black", where he is seen asking it if it likes tennis.]]

** Pamela has her dog Jeremy to keep her company in the bunker. [[spoiler:At least until he runs away at the end of "Got Milk?", kicking Pamela's SanitySlippage into full gear.]]

* ConspiracyTheorist: [[spoiler:Pat from "Pitch Black." He still thinks the virus has contaminated the land and believes the government is somehow behind it.]]
* ConvenientlyEmptyBuilding: PlayedWith in "Pitch Black" (episode 11 of season 2), where [[spoiler:Mike's re-entry to Earth has him land]] smack dab in the middle of a derelict ocean cruise liner. The ship begins to capsize from the impact.

** In "Wisconsin", practical jokes over walkie-talkies get out of hand when Todd [[spoiler:suffers a heart attack]]. He has to say his designated SafeWord to Melissa for her to realize the joke had gone too far.

* DarkerAndEdgier: Season 2 takes a darker turn. Even though the first one occasionally shows a darker side of other survivors, it's mostly Phil being dumb and trying to get laid vs. the morally superior rest of the group. In season 2, [[spoiler:the rest of the group turns out to not be particularly good people either. They all burn down Phil's house out of spite; Phil#2 turns out to be an intimidating and lying dick... and then dies of appendicitis; Todd hides food from the rest of the group and has an affair; Melissa starts to go crazy; a new member dies immediately after Carol frightens him and Gail breaks down due to the new member's death. Also, Mike learns the first man he meets upon returning to Earth is a paranoid loner who fears catching the virus from anyone and ditches the astronaut in Miami. The second season also starts acknowledging some of the hard realities of a post-apocalyptic life, such as the non-sustainability of their lifestyle and lack of proper medical care]].

** "Pitch Black" is one for Phil's brother Mike [[spoiler:as he lands back on Earth]].

** He steals the cow away in order to find it again and be the hero. It didn't work out the way he intended. [[spoiler: He didn't secure the cow so it wandered off. Todd finds it, but gives him credit anyway.]]

** A subversion happens to Tandy in "Baby Steps". He attempts to use a surf board as a stretcher to bring the unconscious [[spoiler:Phil]] back up to the house from the beach, but the fin on the bottom got in the way. He grabs a gun and prepares to shoot it off, but then realizes that [[spoiler:Phil]]'s feet are right next to the fin. He didn't want to shoot his feet off, so he moves the board away to another angle before shooting the fin off.

* DisproportionateRetribution: Sure the first season was Tandy being a manipulative bastard the whole time so the rest of the group had good reasons to not like him, but after seeing him become a much more caring, likable person at the start of season 2, forcing him into a pillory, solitary confinement, and ultimately wearing a shock collar and staying in a tiny patch of lawn and a tiny shed for weeks as punishment was a bit much. The thing that makes it worse is Melissa's constantly torturing him for laughs and the fact that nobody even acknowledges that he's trying to prove himself. Even after [[spoiler: putting out the house fire despite immense pain from the shock collar]] they take off the collar but still shun him.

** In "The Boo", Phil dreams that Carol [[spoiler:went to live with the others in Malibu]], and as he drives after her [[spoiler:he's attacked by Phil #2]]. He wakes up, then finds himself with Melissa, who [[spoiler:shoots him dead]]. Then he wakes up for real.

** In the season 1 finale, after Phil gets confronted about his plan [[spoiler: to get rid of Phil #2]] in front of everyone, he runs off and locks himself in his room. Only, instead of drinking his sorrows away with alcohol, he goes right for the ''toothpaste''.
** In season 2, [[spoiler:Phil #2 gives up on trying to save the group and gets rebuffed by Carol, so he has nothing left to live for and drowns his sorrows. Tandy finds him passed out on the beach, about to get washed into the ocean]].

** In "Valhalla" Tandy discovers that [[spoiler:Phil #2 has a middle name after looking through his driver's license after he dies, even though he specifically said that he didn't have one. It's Stacy.]]

** In "Mooovin' In" Phil finds a cow and hopes that will make the others think he's indispensable, but when Todd shows him up yet again, he takes the cow in the middle of the night with the intent of making the others blame Todd, then bring it back to make himself look like a hero. [[spoiler:It fails when the cow runs away from Phil and Todd finds it again, but then Todd claims that Phil found it because he felt sorry for him.]]

* FakeTwinGambit: After Carol won't speak to him for [[spoiler:lying about meeting Gail and Erica]], Phil tries to pass himself off as his twin brother Mike. Carol doesn't buy it and just slams the door in his face.

** [[spoiler:Pat, the man Mike meets after landing on Earth, has been living at sea since the virus hit and has become paranoid about getting infected.]]

* GreenEyedMonster: Phil's immediate responses to almost all men who join the group are jealousy and annoyance. The only exceptions so far have been [[spoiler: Mike, who he was initially overjoyed with being reunited with until their SiblingRivalry kicked back in full force]] and [[spoiler:Pat, who Phil got along with almost instantly before he turned on the group]]. He seems to have finally overcome this by the time he begins forging a relationship with Lewis, who he consistently (to the point of annoyance) attempts to bond with throughout the third season.

** At the end of "Fish in the Dish", when [[spoiler:Mike finally makes it to Malibu and Phil greets him with a punch to the nuts.]]
** Phil explains to Carol earlier in the episode that he and his friends made a game of punching each other in the nuts when he was young. Which might explain [[spoiler:the whole infertility issue.]]

* HideYourPregnancy: Done InUniverse in "Release the Hounds", when Carol keeps hiding her pregnant belly from [[spoiler:Todd, who is depressed because Erica won't have a baby with him.]]

** His attempt to drive away any other men by painting over a billboard leaves him stranded and definitely not having sex with Gail or Erica. [[spoiler:It gets worse when the charismatic Phil #2 saves him.]]

** His attempts to get back at [[spoiler:Mike]] alone fail most of the time during their prank battle.

* HopeSpot: In "No Bull", Mike sends messages through shortwave radio in the hopes that someone will answer him. He thinks he's found someone when he hears talking through the radio, [[spoiler:but it just turns out to be recordings of his previous messages.]]

* TheAloner: Phil, until he finds Carol. And again [[spoiler:near the beginning of season 2, until Carol finds him]].

** In the second season, Todd is implied to be having an affair. In reality, [[spoiler:he's hoarding bacon]]. [[spoiler:This leads to a HarsherInHindsight moment later in the season, as he actually does end up two-timing both Melissa and Gail.]]

** Notably averted when [[spoiler:Carol uses her ugly quilt as a metaphor for their failed marriage. Phil says that he understands]].

* DisproportionateRetribution: Sure the first season was Tandy being a manipulative bastard the whole time so the rest of the group had good reasons to not like him, but after seeing him become a much more caring, likable person at the start of season 2, forcing him into a pillory, solitary confinement, and ultimately wearing a shock collar and staying in a tiny patch of lawn and a tiny shed for weeks as punishment was a bit much. The thing that makes it worse is [[spoiler: Melissa's]] constantly torturing him for laughs and the fact that nobody even acknowledges that he's trying to prove himself. Even after [[spoiler: putting out the house fire despite immense pain from the shock collar]] they take off the collar but still shun him.

* EmbarrassingLastName: Erica, who comes from Australia, has the last name of [[spoiler:Dundee]]. The ''first'' thing Tandy does upon this revelation is reconfirm the [[Film/CrocodileDundee Australian stereotype]].

* FlippingTheBird: [[spoiler:Mike]] does a childish variant of this by flipping off Phil with his fourth finger instead of his middle one, pretending that Phil should not feel insulted because it's the wrong finger.

** Phil explains to Carol earlier in the episode that he and his friends made a game of punching each other in the nuts when he was young. [[spoiler:Which might explain the whole infertility issue.]]

** [[spoiler: Mike joins near the end of season 2 and only manages to stick around for three episodes before realizing that he is dying of the virus and choosing to leave the group in order to avoid forcing them to watch him die. However, he is revealed to still be alive and returns to the group in Season 4.]]

** They moved out of Tuscon and burned Phil's home just to spite him after the end of season 1.

** "Five Hoda Kotbs" ends with [[spoiler:the group discovering a large office complex with electric power.]]

** "Barbara Ann" ends with [[spoiler:a large number of survivors emerging from an underground bunker and heading in the direction of the group, all the while implying [[Main/TheCuckoolanderWasRight Pat was right all along]]]].

* MinimalistCast: The whole point of the show is that these characters have no choice but to interact with each other because there's no one else on Earth. Outside of flashbacks, hallucinations, and dreams, there have been [[spoiler:17]] human survivors introduced so far (in order: [[spoiler:Tandy, Carol, Melissa, Todd, Gail, Erica, Phil #2, Mike, Gordon, Pat, Daryl, Lewis, Pamela, Jasper, Roy, Glen, Karl]]). Only [[spoiler:7]] have been in the main cast at the same time, with [[spoiler: Mike finding the group a couple episodes after Phil #2 dies, Lewis joining up two episodes after Mike leaves, and Jasper joining after Lewis' death]]. The group limit is soon broken, however, as Erica's daughter Dawn, and Tandy and Carol's twins, are born.

* OncePerSeason: Every season ends with the group moving away from their current home.
** They moved out of Tuscon and burned Phil's home just to spite him at the end of season 1.
** The moved away from the coast in California in season 2 because they feared that Pat was going to hunt them down.
** They moved away from the secret testing complex because of a nuclear meltown in season 3.
** They chose to move away from their home in Zihuatanejo in seaon 4 [[spoiler:after discovering that it used to belong to a drug cartel, and there was still plenty of cocaine, hand grenades, dynamite, and guns stashed all over]].

** "Barbara Ann" ends with [[spoiler:a large number of survivors emerging from an underground bunker and heading in the direction of the group]].