Love Potion / Live-Action TV

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• Alien Nation has the Newcomer drug Sardonac, which is meant to be used by existing couples who want to permanently bind themselves together. In the show, it was abused by an unstable Newcomer woman using it nonconsensually on her boyfriends, and then played for laughs when Matt is the first person one of the victims sees. (Fortunately for all involved, the effects of Sardonac go away after thirty days if there's no sex.)
• Amy Acker's screen test for the Buffy spin-off series Angel involved Wesley and Gunn falling in love with every woman they see due to a spell. Hilarity and hamminess ensue.
• The Banjun Drama episode "Love Potion" centers around one of these. Kyung-seok suffers from a one sided crush on his co-worker In-young, whose way is blocked by the star employee Si-kyung. One day, a mysterious man in a bar gives Kyung-seok a magic potion which will make the person who drinks it fall in love with him. Of course, In-young is not the one who ends up drinking it but Si-kyung, and the usual shenanigans follow.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • Xander tries a love spell in "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered". His aim was apparently off, as every woman he encounters falls for him except for the one he actually wanted to target (though hints throughout the episode indicated it was because she did love him, but was in denial or was putting on a facade as though she wasn't).
  • In "Him", a high school student was found to own, unknowingly, a letterman jacket that caused women to find him irresistibly attractive. This prompted the female cast to, respectively, pull off a heist, and attempt murder, suicide, and a sex-changing spell. Their competition dissolved into insane violence so fast that it makes one wonder why no one noticed a bunch of (apparently) criminally insane girls trying to win the boy's love before.
  • Subverted and spoofed when Willow appears to be casting a love spell ("Send me the heart that I desire") but is actually playing poker.
• Farscape's Commandant Grayza had a gland implanted that secreted heppel oil, a very powerful aphrodisiac. Grayza could secrete the oil seemingly at will and render any male unable to resist her commands. This was presented as being morally equivalent to rape, and Crichton picked up psychological scars after it was used on him.
• In the Grimm episode "Blind Love," the gang heads to a fancy hotel to celebrate Monroe's birthday. It turns out that one of the hotel workers is the son of a man Nick arrested, who decides to get revenge by putting a love potion into the gang's wine. The potion is the Love A Specific Person kind, with the Sympathetic Magic deal of needing hair or similar (which he gets from their rooms), and he deliberately sets up multiple Unrequited Love scenarios with the intent that they'll eventually kill each other. Nick falls in love with Rosalee, Monroe falls in love with Eve, Eve falls in love with Nick, Adalind falls in love with Monroe, Wu falls in love with a female hotel worker (who happened to steady a glass when it looked like it was going to topple, and her hair fell into it) and Hank falls in love with his reflection (he took Rosalee's glass). Rosalee was the only one who didn't drink the wine since she's pregnant, and figures out what's going on and puts a stop to it. Creating the potion appears to be the specific power of this kind of Wesen, which is called a Cupiditas.
• H₂O: Just Add Water: The real-life substance ambergris has this effect on mermaids (and smells foul to regular humans). Hilarity Ensues when local douche Nate finds some and Cleo, Emma and Rikki all become completely devoted to him and their love interests Zane (who bought the substance online in the first place), Lewis and Ash have to find a way to break the spell. Fortunately, it wears off with either distance or salt water. Zane and Lewis debate the ethics of the substance before and after the misadventure - Zane suggests to Lewis that it could help his problems with Cleo - before they just decide to get rid of it.
• In the "Love Muffin" episode of Henry Danger, the title object contained a powerful chemical that made someone fall in love with the first person they see. It worked with the villain Gwen giving one to Ray but when Henry was forced to eat one, the first person he saw was Jasper.
• In an episode of I Dream of Jeannie, Jeannie's sister gives her one to use on Major Nelson, along with a Hate Potion to keep other women away. (Naturally, she also switches the labels.)
• Incredible Story Studio had one episode telling the story of a boy who had a crush on a girl, and got a love potion (of the Love First Person Sighted type) from a fortuneteller he intended to use with her. Through a series of contrived events, the potion ends up in the hands of his Sadist Teacher, who drinks it herself, and starts chasing him all over. He's forced to get an antidote from the fortuneteller to put things back to normal, and while he still has some potion at the end, he decides it's not worth it and tosses it into the trash.
• The morality of this is lampshaded in The IT Crowd, where the love potion turns out to be Rohypnol.
• Legend of the Seeker: One of the potions in the episode "Elixir" appears to have this effect, since it makes a girl immediately kiss a boy who takes it. However, she recovers quickly and pushes him away.
• The Librarians 2014 episode "...and the Curse of Cindy" centres around the "love a specific person" kind, with an active ingredient being that person's tears. Jenkins says that "love potion" is a misnomer; "obsession potion" would be more accurate, and it was originally developed for warfare, since it doesn't take much for an affected person to turn violent.
• A villainess in an episode of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman used as massive amount of love potion on the workers of the Daily Planet causing everyone to fall in love with someone else, with Clark being the only one immune to the effects. It also can only work if that person is at least attracted to the first person they saw. Or any person they see before the potion wears off. This also turns into the earliest episode where Lois should be able to discover the identity of Superman. Under the spell, Lois says that Clark looks like Superman; she dismisses this line afterwards, but clearly remembers. However, it is unclear why Lois is not suspicious of Clark's immunity to the spell. She clearly does not accept his claim he has no feelings for her, and if she does she is totally blind to the ways of men. The claim of no feelings does not mesh with how he had interacted with her so far. She clearly remembers what she did under the spell, since she remembers his lines that amount to saying he will not give in because he will not take advantage of her, even though he has dreamed of her doing things along the lines of what she is doing. The moment she comes to is also the moment that he professes a deep desire for her. The one thing that might prevent Lois Lane from figuring out that Clark Kent is Superman is that when Superman gets exposed to the potion, in stopping the even more nefarious plans for it, he pretends to be under its power, and gives Lois the same moral dilemma of resisting or accepting the overtures of a spellbound lover. Why Clark being able to resist where Superman was overcomes does not raise more questions than it answers for the unstoppable, award winning investigative reporter Lois Lane is not at all clear.
• A variation occurs in Malcolm in the Middle where Ida introduces an elderly rich asian fiancee that loves her despite her heartlessness, turns out she's been drugging him. He gets out in the nick of time when she uses the remainder of the happy pills on the family so they're too content to do anything.
• Used in an episode of Merlin (2008) to make Arthur and Lady Vivian fall in love. A much darker example was used a few seasons later in which Lancelot and Guinevere are Mind Raped and given a Hypno Trinket respectively, forcing them to cheat on Arthur.
• Subverted in an episode of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: Rita gives Zedd a love potion that actually works perfectly, leading him to fall in love with and marry her. In a later episode, Goldar pressured Finster into giving Zedd the antidote, but when he does, nothing happens: it turns out that Zedd's love for Rita was real. Awwww!
  • Between the two episodes, there was one where Zedd suggested Rita they should have a child. Not liking the idea, Rita ordered Finster to make a second potion to make Zedd give up the idea. The second potion was never mentioned again and Power Rangers Operation Overdrive introduced us to Rita and Zedd's son Thrax.
  • In the episode where Zedd was given the antidote, Rito Revolto had previously given the Monster of the Week a sample of the love potion. Said monster, on Rito's orders, then gave the potion to several humans, including Kimberly, who fell in love with Skull. Understanding the dangers of messing with the balance of human emotions, Zordon opted for a wait-and-see approach in hopes the love potion would wear off. The human victims became test subjects for the antidote.
  • Zedd himself is no stranger to love potions. He attempted to use a love spell on Kimberly in one episode (technically a spell to make her replace Rita as his regent), it just didn't work for unspecified reasons. The only consequences he suffered were Kimberly browbeating his minions for a while while she feigned the spell's success. Kimberly was dressed like Rita at the time.
    • That example is probably one of the best ones in history. Somehow it managed to be hammier than William Shatner, and a crowning moment of awesome/funny all at once. Someone should have given that girl an award! Best scene in the whole episode!
  • Used in Power Rangers Ninja Storm as well, in which Marah and Kapri attempt to drug the male rangers into falling in love with them. Things get messed up though, with the Cam and Blake lusting over Tori instead. Although there are implications that Blake's feelings are real.
  • A female Monster of the Week in Power Rangers Time Force used a love spell to make the male Rangers fight among themselves for her affections.
  • In the episode "Love is in the Air" from Power Rangers Mega Force, the Monster of the Week, who has a crush on Levira, makes her a cup of tea with a love potion poured into it which will cause her to fall in love with the first person she sees, which the monster hopes is him. The plan backfires though as instead of the monster, Levira falls in love with Jake due to her watching him on a monitor when she had the tea.
  • The Power Rangers Dino Charge episode "The Ghostest With the Mostest" featured the Dino Cupid Charger, which caused the target to fall in love with the first thing they saw. They use it on a group of Mooks, then use mirrors to cause them all to fall for the Monster of the Week. While they're fawning over her, she becomes an easy target and the rangers take her out easily.
    • At the end of the same episode, Shelby accidentally fires it at Chase while trying to clear her jammed blaster. Everyone hides to avoid becoming the object of his affections, but after hearing him waxing poetic about someone they look up to find the he also was holding a mirror, and had fallen in love with himself.
    • In another episode, "Love At First Fight", the monster Beauticruel uses enchanted makeup to make Tyler fall in love with her. It takes destroying the original makeup to break the spell.
  • In Power Rangers Ninja Steel episode "Love Stings", Venoma hits all the boy rangers but Preston with stingers that make them fall in love with her. He pretends to fall under her spell as well in order to get close to her, then snaps her last arrow in order to break the spell on the others.
• Misfits has a tattoo artist whose tattoos cause real-life effects. He induces Single-Target Sexuality with heart tattoos that feature the target's name.
• Parodied in the Monk episode "Mr. Monk and the Voodoo Curse." Stottlemeyer and Disher go to Reverend Jorgensen's Voodoo Boutique shop to question the owner about killer voodoo dolls that they have traced to the store. While browsing, Stottlemeyer finds an apparent love potion called Cupid's Arrow. He tries it out by dabbling a bit of it on his cheeks. After a pause, Randy tells Stottlemeyer it isn't working, and Stottlemeyer is clearly satisified that that is the case.
• In one episode of The Munsters, Grandpa makes up a batch for Marilyn. This is a different variation as instead of the drinker falling love, they would be irresistible to the opposite gender. Naturally, of course, the potion doesn't go to the intended drinker and Hilarity Ensues.
• My Babysitter's a Vampire: The main plot of the episode "Smells Like Trouble". The wise old grandma reminds the protagonists that there is a price and backlash for that kind of magic, which in that case is the love turning into hatred for a proportionate amount of time. Because it ended up affecting every girl in school, they get a mob of women wishing to tear them apart, which includes two literally bloodthirsty vampires.
• In the eighth season of Red Dwarf, Rimmer deliberately infects himself with a sexual magnetism virus in order to have his way with his female shipmates. He gets caught and sent to the brig where he is reinfected in the midst of his fellow prisoners.
• Played with in an episode of Rookie Blue. A witch sold a woman a love potion that would bring the woman's "lost love" back after seven days of using it. When the man does not show up, the woman demands a refund and then steals some jewelery from the witch in retribution. The witch presses charges and the cops arrest the love seeker for theft. Things get complicated when the prisoner than collapses from what looks like poisoning. It turns out that the potion was actually just something that you add to your bath and should not be drunk since the ingredients are toxic when ingested. The witch even points out that the instructions were clearly written on the bottle. In a Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane ending, the woman's old boyfriend shows up in the hospital and explains that he has been trying to reach the woman all day but her phone was busy all the time. Apparently she tied up her line leaving the witch angry voice mails and thus almost sabotaged the very thing she tried to achieve with the love potion.
• Smallville:
  • In "Devoted", a group of cheerleaders had developed a kryptonite-laced sports drink that caused the imbiber to become intensely devoted to whomever he or she had feelings for. The victims also became prone to intense jealousy. Chloë inadvertently drank some and became (overtly) obsessed with Clark. Because of the kryptonite in the sports drink, when Clark tried it, it doesn't make him fall in love but does severely weaken him to the point that he is basically depowered and clobbered by both his teammates during practice and later almost killed by Lana's also effected and murderously jealous boyfriend. His body later is able to expel the Kryptonite. He later pretends to have been affected to spy on the cheerleaders.
  • In "Crimson", Lois was put under a love potion effect by lipstick laced with Red Kryptonite; when she kissed Clark, he became uninhibited, his normal reaction to red K.
• A bizarre sort of subversion in the quasi-realistic Space Island One: after her advances for most of the series are rejected, one crewmember doses the object of her affections with a tailored hormone and pheromone cocktail engineered by the station's doctor, and beds him. No fallout, no backfiring, no sort of indication at all that she'd crossed into morally dicey territory. Rather, he was taken to have been in the wrong for refusing her advances thus far.
• Stargate Atlantis episode "Irresistible" has an herb that, when eaten, makes the consumer 'irresistible' by causing them to give off a pheromone that makes everyone like them. Beckett manages to make an antidote.
• This was used on Star Trek, apparently for the first time in Star Trek: The Original Series's "Mudd's Women" (in 1966) and most recently in Star Trek: Enterprise's "Bound" (in 2005).
• Supernatural:
  • The brothers learn that Heaven, via Cupid, matched their parents, so that Sam and Dean were born.
  • In the episode "Wishful Thinking" a nerdy guy uses a Wishing Well to make his dream girl love him "more than anything." It works - The girl loves him so much that she feels pleasing him is more important than her own happiness, and is willing to commit murder to keep them together.
  • In season seven, Becky uses a literal love potion on Sam. It goes well enough for her, with no one else affected, the potion not being too strong, etc. The only problem is that she doesn't have enough of it, so she has to resort to restraining Sam to keep him from escaping. She decides to let him go when she learns that it would cost her soul to keep him for a few decades.
  • In season 8, there's a man who made a demon deal to make a woman fall in love with him, with the effect dissipitating after the demons collect his soul.
• Tales from the Crypt:
  • In "'Til Death", a slimy land developer tries to win the heart of an heiress by giving her a love potion. He unfortunately gives her too much of it, and she dies... but she doesn't stop loving him. (Cue scene with the land developer running from her festering yet amorously devoted corpse.)
  • The show did its own version of "The Chaser" short story (see the Twilight Zone entry below), which had been previously adapted for EC Comics in 1951. Re-titled "Loved to Death", it follows the same general plot, only sticking in a couple of extra knives at the end: the guy kills himself to escape, the girl commits suicide in despair, horribly disfiguring herself in the process. The chump arrives in the afterlife, where he is joined by the girl, still hopelessly in love with him and still horribly mutilated.
• Owen from Torchwood used a piece of Imported Alien Phlebotinum used as a sort of magnetic aftershave...for both sexes.
• The Twilight Zone (1959):
  • In "The Chaser", based on the short story by John Collier, features a Dogged Nice Guy who buys a love potion for just $1 (!) to win over his indifferent would-be love interest. She becomes his Clingy Jealous Wife and smothers him so much that he shells out $1,000 for a vial of the euphemistically named "glove cleaner" ...and then drops the glass containing it when she startles him with the news that she's pregnant. (It's made quite clear that the potion-seller only charged a buck for the original potion because he knew the chump would soon be back for the "antidote".)
  • In "Jess-Belle", the title character buys a potion from a witch that, when she consumes it, makes her irresistible to the man she loves. Unfortunately, it also turns her into a soulless witch who becomes a leopard at night.
• In Wizards of Waverly Place, Alex tries to use a potion that makes its two drinkers love each other. It goes wrong when she accidentally drinks both halves of the potion and fall in love with herself. The main side effect is all the complimenting herself gives her a big head she periodically has to deflate.
  • Justin accidentally gets shot by Cupid's love arrow and falls in love with Harper.
• The Worst Witch:
  • In the last episode of "The New Worst Witch" Mona makes a love potion, freaking Belladonna out when she thinks it's to use on her.
  • The 2017 series has the teachers accidentally drugged by one, with hijinks ensuing.
• In Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger, a very short term version of this is the result of the Stymero Beast Battery.

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