History UnintentionallySympathetic / LiveActionTV

** [[AdiposeRex Robert]] [[FailureHero Baratheon]], as well. Back in Season 1, he's portrayed as a pathetic man who is stuck in the past, particularly for how he's unable to let go of [[TheLostLenore Lyanna]]. The showrunners clearly intended Robert to be an unsympathetic ruler due to his hounding of GloryDays as well as his whoring attitude. However, TheReveal of the true nature of her and Rhaegar's relationship through this episode painted Robert in a more sympathetic light in the eyes of fans. To realize Robert destroyed his life pining after a cheating woman who never loved him, which ruined his marriage and caused his death. Also, for all misunderstandings of Rhaegar's motives, he still saved the realm from the Mad King. [[spoiler:And Robert was further vindicated in Season 8, where his views regarding the last Targaryens were completely right, with Daenerys, the woman Robert wanted to execute, finishing the plot her father started, and being generally right in regarding the Targaryens and the Dothraki as a threat.]]

* [[MagnificentBastard Paul Young]] from ''Series/DesperateHousewives'' has this. In season 1, [[PosthumousNarration his wife]] commits [[DrivenToSuicide suicide]]. As it turns out, she was being blackmailed by [[NosyNeighbor Martha Huber]], who didn't even care, she just wanted money. Paul then murders her with the blender she stole from him. After this, we meet [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute her sister]], Felicia Tillman, who knew Paul from the past. Suspicious of Paul, but lacking proof, she [[FramingTheGuiltyParty cuts off her fingers and spills blood in his house]]. He's caught, arrested, and sentenced to life in prison. During this time, not a single one of his neighbors, who were best friends with his wife and had known him for years, came to visit him. When Felicia is discovered, he is released. Unsurprisingly, he [[RoaringRampageofRevenge wants to ruin the lives of those who betrayed him]]. And, when you consider what the housewives have pulled, involving leaving a man to die, and that they have forgiven far greater acts, like [[MurderTheHypotenuse Katherine Mayfair]], who can honestly blame him?

** In "The Bozeman Reaction", Sheldon and Leonard's apartment is broken into and ransacked with numerous valuables stolen. For the remainder of the episode, Sheldon is paranoid about the burglars returning, is uncomfortable sleeping and being alone in the apartment, asks for a security system to be installed, and finally decides he no longer feels safe in Pasadena and is moving to Bozeman, Montana. While moving to a different state is admittedly a bit of an overreaction, all of the other ways Sheldon reacts to the robbery are perfectly understandable after dealing with such a frightening experience, yet the cast treats it like it's his usual antics. In fact, Leonard seems more upset with Sheldon's behavior than he does over the robbery despite the fact that his laptop was stolen as a result.

* The DesignatedVillain of ''Series/{{The Twilight Zone|1959}}'' episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E8TimeEnoughAtLast Time Enough at Last]]", where a bookworm type who spends the whole episode being abused by every person he meets, and only wants to be alone with his books. Then a nuke wipes out the city while he's safe in a bank vault, and he's finally free to read his books in peace...until his reading glasses break. While WordOfGod says that this was his just punishment for [[LonersAreFreaks his misanthropy]], the character comes off as very sympathetic in a world where people act like such jerks. Serling's case is further hurt by one scene in which as a cruel joke, the bookworm's wife asks him to read poetry from one of his books to her; he eagerly obliges, only to find that she has drawn lines over the text on every page.

* ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'' has Dr. Kelmer from “The Good Doctor” is a depicted as an [[DomesticAbuse abusive]], {{Jerkass}}, ControlFreak and while that is true throughout the episode he generally comes across as just a guy whose wife has repeatedly disappeared before and he's just tired of dealing with her and her enabling friends and family. [[GoodAdulteryBadAdultery His wife is shown to be cheating on him, repeatedly disappears on binges and has a history of drugs abuse, multiple affairs and suicide attempts]]. Her enabling family who don't deny any of this while [[OffstageVillainy claiming he was abusive yet nothing is ever shown onscreen]] instantly suspect him when he calls looking for her don't even seem to care about finding her body making him the only one actively looking for her. They had no body, no forensic evidence; they couldn't even prove that she was dead. Goren even flat out stated that he wanted to prosecute the guy because of how smug he is. Even the circumstantial evidence they did have didn't hold up to AudienceAwarenessAdvantage. His flight was shown but he didn't have a body as the attendant was there with him when he took off. Her cousin said her therapist told her that he was going to harm her yet the therapist stood behind doctor patient confidentiality. In the end it is out right said that he was convicted for being a SmugSnake. While he wasn't a nice guy nothing shown proved that he was a killer and given the MoralMyopia he had to deal with his actions come across as far more understandable.

* Wyatt's sisters on ''Series/CrashAndBernstein'' are intended to be seen girls who don't seem to respect the fact that Wyatt is a boy who likes boy things and are trying to get rid of Crash. However, it's easy to see things from their perspective: they're fed up with all the hijinx Crash is causing around the house and in their lives in general, so it's hard to blame them for not liking him. But no, TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong.

** Adar (an Elf who was captured and corrupted by Morgoth) garnered a great more sympathy than intended particularly in the scene where Galadriel is brutally interrogated by him. His anguished cries while chained up that he has as much right to live as much anyone else in the world is utterly heartbreaking and Galadriel responding to this by stating [[FinalSolution he’s a blight that needs to be wiped out]] is horribly cruel. Not helping this is that Galadriel got AdaptationalJerkass into a DarkerAndEdgier and less likeable character so it’s not too difficult to feel sorry for Adar in this instance.

* ''Series/{{Empire}}'': Cookie's older sister Candace is portrayed as an uptight, snobbish sell-out who married a rich white man [[MRSDegree she met in college]]. The implication is that she forgot [[WrongSideOfTheTracks where she came from]] after marrying into money, whereas Cookie has always been true to her roots. However, Candace still grew up in the ghetto and watched both of her sisters get mixed up with drugs: Cookie became a convicted felon for selling dope, and Carol sank into addiction. Candace may be a snob, but her only "crimes" are seeking out a better life for herself and her children, and wanting little to do with the endless complexities of Cookie's life.

* ''Series/StrangersWithCandy'': The whole show is a DeconstructiveParody of 1970s Series/{{Afterschool Special}}s and anti-drug [=PSAs=]. But if you actually take Jerri Blank's life into consideration -- her history of prostitution, drug abuse, issues with her appearance, relationships with her family and the world at large, her lack of general common sense -- it makes scenes like the end of "A Blank Stare" a bit poignant: [[spoiler:Jerri, saved by her friends and family, but still rejected when she attempts to hug them, simply wraps her arms around herself while standing alone in a basement]].

*** In "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS04E11Homefront Homefront]]", O'Brien discusses the recent bombing of a diplomatic conference on Earth, lamenting on how frustrating it can be to see something you care about in danger and be powerless to help. Quark attempts to empathize by talking about the dwindling of his financial investments during a. economic crisis, but it's written off as typical Ferengi greed. Yet for someone who does not live in a post-scarcity utopia, living through an economic crisis actually can be a severely stressful experience (just ask anyone who lived through the 2008 recession).

*** Spot, Data's cat, is meant to be seen as a badly-behaved pet, yet the only bad things he does are [[HairballHumour cough up a hairball]] (which couldn't be helped), break a vase (which could have been an accident, and even if it ''was'' on purpose, it's relatively minor), and scratch Riker, who, as he admitted, hates cats (cats are known to dislike, or even be nervous of, those who dislike them).

* ''Series/StrangersWithCandy'': The whole show is a DeconstructiveParody of 1970s {{Afterschool Special}}s and anti-drug [=PSAs=]. But if you actually take Jerri Blank's life into consideration -- her history of prostitution, drug abuse, issues with her appearance, relationships with her family and the world at large, her lack of general common sense -- it makes scenes like the end of "A Blank Stare" a bit poignant: [[spoiler:Jerri, saved by her friends and family, but still rejected when she attempts to hug them, simply wraps her arms around herself while standing alone in a basement]].

* ''Series/StrangersWithCandy'': If you actually take Jerri Blank's life into consideration -- her history of prostitution, drug abuse, issues with her appearance, relationships with her family and the world at large, her lack of general common sense -- it makes scenes like the end of "A Blank Stare" a bit poignant: [[spoiler:Jerri, saved by her friends and family, but still rejected when she attempts to hug them, simply wraps her arms around herself while standing alone in a basement]].