Examples of
Adorkable in live-action television.
- Atypical:
- Sam has his moments, particularly when he awkwardly tries to hit on his therapist Julia.
- Paige. A super smart, highly motivated girl with a very excitable personality who does some of the darndest things to gain Sam's affections. Even dressing like a penguin at one point.
- Beth. A sweet-natured and physically/socially awkward girl who makes hammy foodie videos, bakes Casey a chocolate cake as a "Thank You" for sticking up for her when she's being bullied over her weight, etc.
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.:
- Leo Fitz and Jemma Simmons, the resident cute scientists. They're prone to geeking out about their areas of interest (tech in Fitz's case, biology in Simmons'), they're a couple of unabashedly nerdy non-action scientist surrounded by secret agents, and they have a very sweet friendship.
- Phil Coulson is pretty darn adorkable, with his love for his car Lola, all his old-timey collectibles and his general Nice Guy personality.
- Skye has a tendency to Squee over anything fantastic or superhero-related, though she does this less and less as she becomes more experienced as an agent.
- Gary Bell of Alphas, played by Ryan Cartwright. Sweet, cute smile, though not exactly nerdy, but he does have a computer-related superpower and unusual mannerisms and is socially awkward. A lot of his behaviour is explained by being Autistic, though. Even the other characters consider him The Woobie of the group, though he is starting to outgrow that role and become more independent. (They still won't let him drive, though.)
- Angel:
- While in Buffy he was more of a dark aloof badass, in his own spinoff, Angel is adorkable with much humour coming from not knowing how to deal with his friends and being socially awkward.
- Fred. She's sweet, cute, awkwardly rambles a lot, and is a massive science geek. She is practically the embodiment of this trope.
- A.N.T. Farm: Olive Doyle. Not entirely the stereotypical dork, but she has a large brain capacity, which she fills with very advanced subjects such as physics and calculus, she finds homework and extra credit assignments fun, is the youngest person ever inducted into Mensa and has long blonde hair, and a Stalker with a Crush although it's just Angus.
- Felicity in Arrow. She's a computer whiz and brilliant in general, but has a tendency to turn into a Motor Mouth when she's nervous. And generally when around Oliver, she's prone to an awful lot of accidental innuendo.
- Murdock from The A-Team falls into this, mostly when he's trying out a new persona. For instance, in a Season 2 episode where the A-Team protects a cab company from being taken over by dangerous rivals, Murdock becomes a superhero called Captain Cab and even makes a cloth mask and cape for himself, all while talking to his sock puppet, Socky. Face is terribly embarrassed by his antics and B. A. wants to murder him (more so than usual), but the way Murdock goes about it is just so darn cute!
- Austin & Ally: Ally Dawson is a shy, neurotic Cute Bookworm who suffers from stage fright so badly she'll wreck a television studio to get away from the camera. She has many adorkable moments particularly when she's dancing, or nervously chewing her hair. Or when she's doing her vocal warmups.
- Billy, from Battlestar Galactica (2003), whose attempts to talk to women all seem to involve bumbling attempts at compliments.
- The Big Bang Theory:
- Sheldon Cooper, a man who can somehow make wearing a plaid suit almost sexy. There's something endearingly innocent in his total inability to behave like a normal human being. But there's the heart and soul of a hero under those geeky t-shirts. Later in the series, he's seen as cute and hot by his girlfriend Amy. One female student had a crush on him and thought that Penny had to be into him too.
- Leonard Hofstadter. He's too geeky for words, and not too great with social interaction, but he tries, and it's adorable. He has a hard time to find a girlfriend, but there are some women seriously interested in him. Notably Dr Stephanie, Raj's sister Priya, a cute chick he met in a comic book store, and Sheldon's assistant. His big love Penny has moments when she definitely finds him irresistibly adorkable.
- Howard's girlfriend and later wife Bernadette. She's a petite and cute woman, and her squeaky voice is adorably weird. We see on-screen her ex who is a dashing man, and Howard's friend develops a crush on her because she's always so nice to him. Just don't make her mad or upset Howard in front of her.
- Bones:
- Insufferable Genius Dr. "Bones" Brennan. Cute, geeky, and socially awkward.
- Doctor Sweets. He's a cute, young genius who goes "squee" at dead bodies.
- Intern Vincent Nigel-Murrey. His tendency to enthusiastically spout off interesting but useless bits of trivia is adorkable in the extreme.
- Detective Amy Santiago from Brooklyn Nine-Nine is both an incredibly cute woman and an incredibly dorky one. Just witness her various attempts to impress, compliment or generally suck up to her superior officer, Captain Holt, all of which generally end with her blurting out complete nonsense, cracking jokes which completely fall flat, falling victim to That Came Out Wrong, or just generally making herself look goofy. The rare occasions she does manage to impress Holt generally result in her punching the air or a doing very gleeful but also very physically uncoordinated happy dance, and her typical reaction to receiving a compliment is to giggle like a five-year-old. She furnishes her home in a way that makes people think she lives with her grandmother, has very dorky interests such as stationery and organising, and gets giddy whenever anyone refers to her as a Teacher's Pet. And the less said about her impression of a vulture, the better.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
- Willow in the early seasons where she's shy and quietly pining after Xander.
- Spike, before he was turned. Human William was the sweetest poetry-writing, bespectacled Victorian mama's-boy this side of of the Industrial Revolution. His poem to Cecily... textbook adorkable. Even after he was turned, he remained a sweetie pie, which is one of many reasons which he is a fan favorite and part of why James Marsters cites him as a favorite role.
- Buffy herself falls into this trope. Sure she's a mega badass Action Girl, but she can also be a socially awkward dork a lot of the time.
- Durkin, from The Call of Warr. He's a kind, sweet, and awkwardly dorky fellow, who doesn't really fit-in with the other soldiers. In-universe, this attitude certainly works on the girls, who take a quick liking to him, despite Mabel not even trusting soldiers as a general rule. It even works on Prince, who calls him "sweet", "funny", "handsome", etc.
- With her oversized glasses, genuine sweetness, and bright smiles, Sister Bernadette of Call the Midwife definitely fits.
- Chuck: Chuck embodies this trope. The guy is a member of the Nerd Herd for crying out loud. He's also adorable, and very shy.
- Community:
- Annie is a neurotic, compulsive over-achiever, but her innocence, cuteness and naivete make her adorable.
- Troy, once his jock traits start to be dropped over the course of the show, showing more his nerdy side along his endearing childish and energetic behavior.
- CSI: NY:
- Mac Taylor, handsome head of the Crime Lab, who's a Ronald Reagan Fan Boy, has an odd collection of things in his apartment (everything from antique machinery to a Joe Namath-autographed football), has Encyclopaedic Knowledge of many subjects, seems serious most of the time but has a really nice smile when he chooses to share it with anyone. Over the course of the series had 2 serious girlfriends, but a number other women fell for him as well, including Inspector Shelby, a roller-derby chick named Polly, and Stalker with a Crush Ella McBride.
- Lab Rat Adam Ross. Cute, messy-haired Techno Wizard who knows all the latest clubs and fads. Flirts with girls even while at work.
- M.E. Sid Hammerback. Kinda cute in his own way, overshares about his exploits/tastes including three-somes. Twice divorced, flirted with Stella when he joined the show & with Jo when she came aboard.
- Sage, Lance's girlfriend in Dark Oracle. She's a little odd-looking, and a total weirdo, bordering at times on Cloud Cuckoolander. And she's just so cute doing it.
- Degrassi:
- Imogen, post Lady Macbeth plot, is an odd and eccentric thing, who is far too whimsical and energetic, things like 'For Realzies' and 'I must be dreaming, somebody pinch me!' in a completely earnest manner.
- Maya is a down to earth band geek who wants to be a rock star, giving her a punky-style of dorkery that does not mesh with her age. The end result of mixing 'band geek', 'cool rock star', upbeat songs, and awkward niner.
- Wesley hit this note during Season 10 as The three Tennors. Attempting to be cool but overall missing the mark by miles. Yet he tried so hard, and his trying earns him this trope.
- The Dick Van Dyke Show: Rob Petrie is definitely one of these. All the clumsiness and flubbing is just so endearing because of his sweet nature that it's entirely plausible for someone like Laura Petrie (Mary Tyler Moore) to fall for him.
- Doubutsu Sentai Zyuohger: Misao Mondo is awkward, always apologizes and has three settings: Keet, normal and Corner of Woe. He swings between them rapidly. When in somewhat balanced state, he is actually competent, sweet guy.
- William and Daisy from Downton Abbey:
- William is very sweet and innocent (and constantly being picked on). Part of why it's so sad when William dies.
- Daisy is cute and pure, and her slight lisp is terribly endearing.
- Benton Fraser from Due South gets much of his charm from this. While he is conventionally handsome and quite capable of going into Action Hero mode when required, his sheer earnestness, quirkiness, and lack of familiarity with the conventions of American big-city life are important defining features of his character.
- Steve Urkel from Family Matters is the ultimate nerd with his glasses, suspenders, laugh and high-pitched voice. He's extremely awkward and clumsy, and quite annoying, but you can't help but sympathize with him because of his good heart, determination and undying love for Laura.
- Flashpoint: Spike is always cheerful and smiling. Loves cracking jokes. Calls his anti-bomb robot "Babycakes" and treats it like a girlfriend. Check. Check. Check.
- The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air: Carlton, Will's preppy cousin. An annoying yet lovable geeky goofball, often wearing polo shirts and sweaters, and always the butt of Will's jokes because of his short stature and naivete. And he invented the hilariously dorky Carlton Dance.
- Friends:
- Ross is a major dinosaur and science geek and swoops in with dazzling lines like "would you rather burn or freeze to death?" Sometimes it works and ladies like it, but at times he strikes out.
- Chandler often wears vests and suits. He makes awkward jokes and is very insecure. He makes up for a fight with Monica by expressing his feelings for her through a dictionary definition. When she asks him how he got so cute, he says his grandfather was Swedish and his other grandfather was a tiny little bunny, which gives him bonus points in cuteness.
- Monica has her moments when it comes to having eleven groups for sorting towels, ironing wrapping paper and vacuuming the vacuum cleaner. Though she's very attractive in a non-geeky, non-dorky way and is a classic beauty.
- David the science guy who Phoebe dated and was crazy about. She couldn't stand Ross's obsession with science, but she loved David's lab and thought he was extremely clever and extremely cute.
- Game of Thrones:
- Sam is a timid bookworm, and just about the nicest guy in the Night's Watch.
- Pod is nervous, bumbling, shy, and nearly impossible to dislike.
- Game Show host Bill Cullen fits the "just so darn lovable" mold perfectly, especially in his early shows such as his first seasons as a I've Got a Secret panelist.
- Girl Meets World: Riley is awkward and really friggin' cute.
- Glee: This series is absolutely full of these, in part to do with its main subject matter, which is showtunes and high school.
- Good Girls Revolt: Cindy, who’s sweet, wears glasses, and often fumbles and stutters awkwardly.
- The Good Place: Chidi is a socially awkward professor whose desire to be as ethical as possible causes him crippling anxiety, and Michael's enthusiasm for humanity and his accomplishments can also push him into this - just look at his glee over his first solo project in the first episode. This appears to be Michael's real personality even with The Reveal that he was Evil All Along; he remains nerdy in the second season, when his demonic nature is known, he's outright charmed when he's given a bunch of tat with which to enact human experiences like losing his car keys.
- The Good Wife: Elsbeth Tascioni is charming in her quirky scatterbrained awesomeness.
- The Goodies:
- The scatter-brained gadgeteer Graeme embodies this trope with his fascination with technology, aside from wearing Nerd Glasses and sporting bushy muttonchops.
- Billy's child-like demeanor and tendency to panic when things go weird (almost Once an Episode... to say the least) also qualify.
- Gotham:
- Young Ed Nygma. Nerdy glasses? No Social Skills? Squeaky voice and talks way too fast? Interest and profession in science? Check, check, check, and check. His "swearing" consists of "oh dear," "oh crud," and other such antiquated phrases. Even after his Face–Heel Turn, he keeps his dorky and eccentric personality in a Creepy Cute kind of way.
- Heck, even young Bruce Wayne, with his overly polite, formal way of speaking, his eclectic knowledge, his wide vocabulary, and his love of turtleneck sweaters. Even Selina seems to find him Endearingly Dorky. He mostly grows out of it when he hits puberty and gets some street smarts, but he's positively squee-inducing in the first season.
- Monroe of Grimm qualifies, especially when dealing with his attraction to Rosalee. Sure, he's also a Badass Bookworm, but that doesn't make him any less Adorkable.
- The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries: The show tried to do this to Joe Hardy in 1st season and a bit of 2nd season, when they made him wear a nerdy plaid sweater, be heavily into forensics and fingerprints and likely to start expounding on fingerprints at the drop of a hat, and he was portrayed as a socially awkward younger brother. But then the writers realized they were up against Shaun Cassidy and gave it up as a lost cause.
- Max Bergman from Hawaii Five-0 is normally pretty stiff, but will geek out over Star Trek and is one part awkward, one part incredibly sweet when interacting with Sabrina. When the team dresses up in formal wear, his suits are always a little kitsch; tie-die bowties or extremely ruffled cravats are apparently in style somewhere in his head. He's played by Masi Oka.
- Hawking (BBC TV drama) portrays the twenty-one year old Stephen Hawking this way. Picture a young Benedict Cumberbatch wearing Nerd Glasses and flirting by means of science trivia.
- Heroes: Hiro Nakamura. His childlike enthusiasm about his powers and anything superhero related makes him so endearing.
- Despite generally being rather reserved and stoic, not to mention a Badass Bookworm, Horatio Hornblower. has his moments in Series One. Particularly in "The Duchess and the Devil" when he attends a high-society dinner party and appears out of his social depth, or really any time he's around the Duchess and doesn't know how to take her flirting and attempts to teach him "conversation".
- House of Anubis:
- Fabian who is nerdy, shy and loved by plenty of girls both in and out of universe.
- There's Mara, the smartest person in the House... who is rather pretty, and gets pretty adorable when she's happy about something.
- Mr. Sweet in the first two seasons. He's a Bumbling Dad who quotes random Latin phrases and loves classical music, and the students call him "Sweetie".
- How I Met Your Mother:
- Ted. All Ted's friends refer to him as their resident "dorky dad". He sometimes plans to charm women with his cool architecture tools.
- Marshall has quite a few geeky interests like watching Star Wars or singing songs about what he's doing. He's charming, but very few women can manifest that because he and Lily are quite a steady couple.
- Ravi from iZombie is positively gleeful
to discover that he's working with a zombie, and spends most of his time between fanboying over Liv's abilities, making completely inappropriate and goofy remarks at crime scenes, playing video games, and searching for a cure to zombie-ism. All while being British, snarky, and wearing lots of knit sweaters.
- While Sportacus from LazyTown is conventionally attractive, well-muscled and very fitness-oriented, many fans still consider him adorkable due to his constant optimism, boyish over-excitement, hopeless naiveté and awkward English. His baby-blue eyes and cheesy grin only help the matter.
- Kamen Rider Den-O: Ryotarou Nogami is softspoken, easily frightened and often the butt of cosmic jokes. This crosses into Badass Adorable as he is about as hard headed as primary riders usually are and it just takes more to get him there.
- Kamen Rider Zi-O: Sougo Tokiwa is a cheerful Cloudcuckoo Lander with (seemingly) silly Goal in Life - to become a king. He is also unfailingly polite Nice Guy, who tries to befriend even the people who he should rather keep away from.
- Legion: When David Haller sees Sydney Barrett for the first time, his instinct is to grab Lenny's Twizzlers so that he can offer Syd one as an excuse to speak to her, much like a schoolboy who gives candy to a girl he has a crush on. As David waits for Syd to finish taking her pills, he looks somewhat shy and nervous. As a kid, he was an astronomy geek, and his bedroom is full of toys, books and posters related to the subject.
- Life of Riley: Ted is a stereotypical nerd, complete with well-groomed features and spectacles. He is a frequent bully magnet and is certainly in touch with his feminine side. Any mother would love to have a little boy like him, especially one who keeps saying the weirdest things.
- Yousef from Little Mosque on the Prairie is tall, handsome, and muscular. However, he becomes adorkable due to his gentleness and good-natured willingness to please everyone.
- Matlock
- Cassie Phillips, whose first appearance saw her fumbling her way into Matlock's employ on a misunderstanding that he was going to offer her a job. She's very sweet and sympathetic and you just want to hug her because she's trying to do the right thing in spite of inexperience and though she messes up, she's a very fast learner.
- Cliff Lewis, Matlock's associate in the last three seasons. He's hired by Matlock because his father, Billy, guilts Matlock into. Though a lawyer, he spends a lot of time as Matlock's investigator. Cliff also gets wrongfully accused of murder twice.
- Every member of The Munsters to some degree, as they're all hopelessly naive about how scary they are (or in Marilyn's case, how scary her family can be), but they're incredibly friendly and eager to make friends with their neighbors. This is especially true for patriarch Herman, who enjoys cartoons, befriends children, and accidentally breaks things all the time but has a very sweet nature.
- Murdoch Mysteries:
- Detective William Murdoch is an extremely-educated Science Hero who often sports steam-punk-ish devices as his attire. He can be endearingly awkward, which is probably a major reason why the likes of very attractive Dr. Julia Ogden and Enid Jones fall for him.
- Constable George Crabtree can be very weird but he's always cute. His theories on the paranormal are extremely far-fetched but he takes them super-seriously. However, he's also surprisingly sensitive and open-minded, and he's not just a copper, but a moderately successful mystery writer, too. He's a funny Malaproper who cares for animals such as dogs, horses or cats which is very sweet. If a lady doesn't like his boss, she's almost sure to flirt with George.
- Simon "Cookie" Cooke from Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide is the graphic description of "Black and Nerdy": Socially awkward, clumsy and easygoing.
- Katie Andrews from No Ordinary Family. She's 30-year-old virgin and brilliant lab assistant who is socially awkward and overly yet adorably knowledgeable about superheroes.
- Jess, Zooey Deschanel's title character in New Girl. She's even branded as such in promotional material for the show. She's clumsy, keeps singing and humming, dances chicken dance and she wears funny fake teeth. She's a Nice Girl and a teacher.
- NCIS:
- Abby's the resident Perky Goth Lab Rat. She loves hugs, is fueled by Caf-Pow, gives names to her lab equipment and owns a stuffed hippo that farts. And very, very cute.
- Tim McGee a geeky tech nerd turned federal agent. In the beginning he was a lovable socially awkward rookie though he's become more confident as of late and passed that role on to...
- Jimmy Palmer. Ducky's assistant medical examiner who is a big goofball that always stick his foot in his mouth.
- Ellie's husband Jake, played by the very good-looking Jamie Bamber, thanks to his glasses and his schoolgirl-like admiration of the rest of the team, especially Gibbs.
- In Night and Day, Tom Brake, for the most part. Introduced to viewers by his cousin Jane with the line: "Still a virgin, Tom?", he's a sweet, sensitive boy who fits many of the traditional geeky stereotypes - social awkwardness, academic brightness, braces, and a camcorder perpetually glued to his palm. Subverted in later in the series once he loses his virginity, and turns into a bit of a player.
- Crime-fighting mathematician Charlie Eppes of NUMB3RS who is a springy-haired, mild-eyed Absent-Minded Professor; perceptive, savvy, and just naive enough to be a master of Adorkable.
- Felix Unger in The Odd Couple (1970) is usually seen as a lunatic (especially by Oscar) because of his Neat Freakness and constant hamminess, however his good heart and child-like enthusiasm win over any annoyance he causes.
- Once Upon a Time: Killian. In his days in the navy, though he has his moments when he doesn't understand modern references or technology. His dorky reaction to learning secondhand that Emma refers to him and her as "together". It's even more profound in "Operation Mongoose", where he's essentially his pre-pirate self, awkward nervousness and all.
- The Outpost: Janzo is a cute, clumsy uber nerd who's highly intelligent and very knowledgeable of science, though he has No Social Skills (at first anyway). He attracts the attention of two different beautiful woman (the first was his sister, unfortunately, though neither knew at the time, but Janzo gets with Wren later in Season 3).
- Our Miss Brooks
- Miss Brooks' Love Interest, Oblivious to Love Mr. Boynton. Mr. Boynton takes Miss Brooks on dates to the zoo, has an avid interest in frogs, is painfully shy when it comes to romance. Mr. Boynton and Miss Brooks finally marry at the end of The Movie Grand Finale
- Squeaky-voiced teenager Walter Denton, who drives Miss Brooks to school.
- Parks and Recreation:
- Plaid-shirt-wearing, skinny-tie-donning, sci-fi-loving former boy mayor/state auditor/current assistant city manager Ben Wyatt.
- The main character herself, Leslie Knope, who keeps binders for her types of binders and is obsessed with waffles, news, work, and caring for her friends. One of the many reasons fans think that Ben and Leslie have such great chemistry as married Birds of a Feather
- Power Rangers is FULL of them. Notable examples are:
- Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: Billy, bespectacled science geek and the only member of the team without any prior fighting skills.
- Power Rangers in Space: Andros, stoic badass who'll crash a party of all the known forces of evil, endearingly naive and clueless about Earth and adorably hopeless trying to ask out the girl he likes.
- Power Rangers Lost Galaxy: Kendrix, bespectacled scientist and The Heart balancing out the at-times overprotective and mean Kai.
- Power Rangers Time Force: Trip and his encounters with human culture in either year 2001 or 3000.
- Power Rangers Ninja Storm: Cam is unfazed Deadpan Snarker and secretly a fan of Power Rangers. He also really wants to be a ninja even through his father's disapproval.
- Power Rangers S.P.D.: Bridge, resident Cloudcuckoolander with odd leaps of logic and physical inability to saying butter without wiggling his fingers.
- Power Rangers Mystic Force: Chip, super hero geek with Bizarre Taste in Food. His first reaction to finding out his hometown is close to dimensional border? Pretty much squee in delight.
- Power Rangers Jungle Fury: Fran, sweet bookworm who goes off on weird monologues about pizza and can get so excited she forgets to breath half way through. She crossed into Badass Adorable at one point of time when she succesfully gave a Death Glare to half of the team.
- Power Rangers RPM: Dr. K wears fluffy bunny slippers, plays violin and is just completely clueless when it comes to social interactions. She hid a cannon in fridge and controls the ventilation systems of Ranger's base with said violin.
- Power Rangers Dino Charge: Tyler is loud, easily excitable, makes puns at monsters and nicknamed his zord Rexy. He also deflected laser blasts with a shovel.
- Lindsay Dole from The Practice, particularly in the early seasons. She's cute, incredibly smart and eager to tackle the world of law.
- The word "Adorkable" is used verbatim in this (scroll to the last paragraph) Rizzoli & Isles recap where the author is talking about Dr. Maura Isles. And she isn't exaggerating. Maura is socially awkward but highly intelligent and beautiful, in addition to coming with a geeky adorableness that Sasha Alexander absolutely perfects.
- The Sarah Jane Adventures: Luke Smith, a genetically grown child who is "younger than he looks" can wire a cell phone into a spaceship computer, and is so adorably dorky that he's the first one to be kissed within the first series. In the books based on the series, Maria even calls him adorkable.
- From The Sarah Silverman Program, Laura Silverman's portrayal of herself. Nice to the point of being a little awkward, infinitely patient with her near-psychopathic sister, seems to live to help others (mostly her sister, but she's also an RN).
- Saturday Night Live: Quite a few cast-members over the years. From the current cast there's Melissa Villaseñor, who often comes off as weird and awkward, best lampshaded by the series of sketches with her roleplaying in bed. Her unusually deep voice definitely helps.
- Saved by the Bell: Samuel "Screech" Powers is a quirky, eccentric, goofy genius. He usually wears extremely loud and mismatched clothes, loves science and is a member of the chess team.
- Scrubs:
- JD is an incredibly friendly and nerdy guy who has fantasies in his head and narrates all the time in his head. It's one of the reasons his patients and friends like him so much because he's so approachable.
- Like JD, Elliot is a pretty good combination of this in her early years. She was very shy, short in stature, and had a tendency to cry under pressure; but her determination to become a doctor kept her going. In the later seasons, she shows shades of this, but it's overshadowed by her confidence and neurosis.
- Both main characters of Selfie:
- Eliza is an understated example, as she's usually fairly sexually forward and very attractive. However, in the episode "Un-Tag my Heart", the nervous way she tries to feel out her casual sex partner to see if he wants a deeper relationship, is very cute. "Would you ever want to, like, go outsiiide, with me?" She's not nearly as confident as she seems, and her insecurity just makes her more endearing.
- Henry, on the other hand, is a more traditional example, he's nerdy-cute, dresses sort of like a dandy, isn't on Facebook (but is on LinkedIn), and is very into his PR job.
- JohnSimm in Sex Traffic, with his cute glasses, klutziness, stutter, and darn niceness, fits the bill perfectly.
- Sherlock:
- Martin Freeman's John Watson, a Big Damn Hero in an oatmeal-coloured woolly jumper. Being much shorter than the dramatic and intimidating Sherlock also helps. He spends a lot of time being the most caring friend, and types with one finger from each hand.
- The dramatic and intimidating Sherlock has a moment of adorkability, after John proves his complete willingness to lay down his life for him. Very unusual, and VERY sweet, and at the same time awkward since he didn't expect ANYONE to do it for him. Which definitely proves that, despite the fact that Sherlock IS rude, he's probably one of the only guys who understands John. In Series 3, Sherlock awkwardly admits admiration for his friend, in an adorable way during his best man's speech.
- Jim Moriarty seems to deliberately invoke this trope; being diminutive in stature, large-eyed, and Irish (with the sing-song accent to match) definitely helps. He makes ridiculous expressions and speaks in a very soft voice... only to charmingly follow it up with a creative, chilling threat. Luckily Sherlock doesn't let Moriarty kill his friends. And in the episode "The Sign Of Three" Sherlock admits how much John means to him, in his best man's speech with those bloody-awful social skills.
- Molly; she's quiet, sweet, has a crush on Sherlock, and he hardly notices it. She even looks adorable while calling him out on his rude behavior, and while slapping him in the face 3 times and calling him out on his stupidity for doing drugs.
- Ichabod from Sleepy Hollow. He's ridiculously educated and impossibly courteous and formal, even to Yolanda from Northstar customer support, to the point that he feels obligated to thank her for her assistance by entertaining her with a story that makes her cry.
- Stargate Atlantis: Fans of the show have been credited before with coining this term for Rodney McKay and the actor who plays him, David Hewlett. And he's not the first in the Stargate 'verse.
- Stargate SG-1: The term easily applies to Daniel Jackson, resident civilian Woobie, Mr. Fanservice, Cunning Linguist and ancient culture expert. He becomes more physically competent and appears far less geeky as the series goes on, however.
- Star Trek: Discovery: Ensign Sylvia Tilly. Even when she geeks out and talks too much, it comes across as endearing rather than annoying.
- Malcolm Reed of Star Trek: Enterprise. He's quiet, reserved, socially awkward and a huge weapon geek. This particularly comes to the fore when he interacts with Trip Tucker, especially in later seasons when they have developed a proper friendship.
- Cousin Greg on Succession is goofy and good-natured, and often wins people over due to his naiveté and odd demeanor.
- The Suite Life of Zack & Cody:
- Cody Martin is endearingly dorky and awkward, as well as incredibly sweet and sensitive, so he naturally qualifies...until the second season of the sequel series, wherein he Took a Level in Jerkass.
- Bailey Pickett from The Suite Life On Deck sequel series. Her naivete from her Country Mouse background combined with her enthusiasm, cheerfulness, and unabashed nerdiness make her adorably dorky.
- Supergirl: Kara is acknowledged to be adorkable in universe by Cat Grant. She giggles and adjusts her glasses every time she gets nervous, and gets excited about things as simple as takeout and TV with her sister.
- When Nia Nal is first introduced, she's acknowledged in-universe as being very much like Kara, Motor Mouth, klutzy nature, and all. Later, she turns out to be a Pop-Cultured Badass as well, and makes puns about her powers with a totally straight face.
- Supernatural: Dean pretends to be all macho but the way he gets so completely overexcited about movies and LARPing and even mini golf places him firmly in this category — he's a cute dork.
- Teen Wolf: In a sea of stoic, badass supernatural creatures Stiles Stilinski is an nerdy, hyperactive blabbermouth, geeks out about werewolf mythology, is hopelessly awkward with girls and has a tendency to fall over his own limbs at the slightest provocation. There's also a Running Gag of his frustration at everyone else's lack of Star Wars knowledge and he's declared himself both Scott's Yoda and Robin.
- Peter Capaldi, a.k.a. Malcolm Tucker of The Thick of It. Listen to the commentaries, realize he's a huge geek with knobby knees, and your head asplode. It asplode even more when you learn that Malcolm Tucker's Girly Run isn't an act.
- Alan in Two and a Half Men, specially in earlier seasons: While still "mourning" over his divorce, he often gets pretty much excited if something interesting happens.
- Uchu Sentai Kyuranger: Stinger is usually stoic badass bordering on Comically Serious. End of Space 21 has him apologize for his Roaring Rampage of Revenge, which is an immensely awkward scene as he fumbles through it in stark contrast to his usual confident behavior. Also, it reveals he created plushies of the team to cheer up a friend he acknowledged only recently. Others even note that he has a cute side.
- Ultraman Mebius: Mirai Hibino. He's extremely, extremely gentle, kindhearted, and sincere towards people (especially his friends), but also very naive to hilarious levels. The fact that he's literally Ultraman Mebius in a human form makes him even more endearing.
- Queen Victoria in Victoria. On numerous occasions she acts basically like a 19th century equivalent of a nerd. She's unable to grasp euphemisms for a woman still being a virgin, much to the amusement of those around her. Then there are her repeated attempts at visiting people incognito which fool no one (and is repeated enough to qualify as a running joke). She seeks out advice on contraception, only to be given an old wive's tale involving jumping up and down ten times. The visual of her doing so became one of the show's major promotional images.
- Wizards of Waverly Place:
- Justin is a studious, intelligent nerd, has nerdy hobbies and likes comics and action figures. He desperately tries to look cool in front of girls, but what make them like him are usually his nerdy traits.
- Justin's friend Zeke. He's nerdy, easygoing, kind of a Cloudcuckoolander and passionate about robots. He is also part of an "alien language" club and he and Justin often speak "alien" to each other.
- Zeke's girlfriend Harper Finkle. She's cheerful, dorky, kind, a bit naive and known for her outrageous (and often ridiculous) fashion sense.
- The Young Ones has Neil: Unlike his roomies, he does want to study and he's totally gentle.
