Basic Trope: A TV show must be viewed as it's broadcast.
- Straight: Alice makes sure she's home in time on Thursday evening to watch this week's episode of Prime Time Soap.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice gets anxious (to the point of panic attacks) when she gets stuck in traffic on the way home, or if it looks like she'll miss even just the first few minutes of Prime Time Soap.
- Alice plans every waking minute of her day around the TV schedule.
- Downplayed: Prime Time Soap airs the same episode twice on its premiere date; once at 10 AM and the next at 10 PM. Alice tries to make sure she can see it at least once.
- Justified:
- Alice is living in a time before things like DVRs, TiVo, and Streaming; she is at the mercy of the TV networks' schedules. She also might not have a VCR or VHS tapes on which she can record her favorite shows.
- Alice has planned a pizza party for all her Prime Time Soap-loving friends to watch the show and eat together.
- Alice is watching a sports broadcast
- Alice is watching the New Year Countdown.
- Alice is watching a Reality Show or Game Show that relies on some form of Audience Participation (for example, voting someone off, or choosing the best contestant)
- Alice cannot afford a DVR or a TiVo system, or those things are not available to her.
- Alice doesn't have streaming (or it doesn't exist in this setting), and doesn't have any kind of recording device (not even a VCR). All she has is her antenna.
- Alice wants to program her DVR, TiVo, or VCR to record.
- Prime Time Soap is a very popular program, meaning that all of Alice's friends, coworkers, family members, and people she follows on social media will all be talking about it the next day. Alice doesn't want to be left out of the loop, and she doesn't want Spoilers, either.
- Reruns are few and far-between, or nonexistent. (For example, an old-school Soap Opera, or a Sitcom taped in front of a live audience.
- Inverted: The TV networks schedule their programming lineups around Alice's schedule.
- Subverted:
- Alice knows that she won't be home in time to watch it, so she sets her DVR or TiVo (or her VCR, depending on the time period) to record the show for her.
- Alice accepts Bob's invitation out on a date, which just happens to be at the same time Prime Time Soap is running.
- Alice watches her show on an On-Demand channel or app, or on a Web-based streaming service like Netflix.
- Alice catches a Rerun of the show at a later time.
- It's 1948, and Alice doesn't have a TV set, much less cable or a streaming service.
- Double Subverted:
- She really would rather be at home watching Prime Time Soap than at work/school/etc.
- When she realizes that the date will conflict with her TV show, Alice calls Bob, asking if she can reschedule.
- Or, she tells him that she's sick, just so she can stay home and watch her show.
- She has to wait a couple of days for the episode to be put onto those media; it just isn't the same...and she risks getting spoilers or feeling left out of conversations about it.
- She does, however, have a radio, and tunes in faithfully to her favorite radio dramas every day.
- Parodied:
- Alice's day-planner is a copy of the TV Guide
- Alice's entire city watches Prime Time Soap as it is broadcast. It is considered very rude to interrupt someone during the program, and some people even disconnect their phones as it airs.
- Zig Zagged: Alice is particular about watching some shows as they are broadcast, but not others.
- Averted:
- Alice does most of her TV-watching on her own schedule, with the aid of technology.
- Alice doesn't watch TV.
- Alice lives in an era that's Older Than Television, and Older Than Radio.
- Enforced: The networks' schedules, plus the (real-world and online) social aspects of TV-watching.
- Lampshaded: "Oh, no! I'm going to miss Prime Time Soap!"
- Invoked: Alice adores Prime Time Soap, and so do all her friends, who will all be talking about it the next day...or (in the Internet age) as soon as the credits roll.
- Alice secretly wrecks the household DVR so she and her roommates have to watch the show together.
- The network refuses to put the show on a streaming service, and broadcasts it with a special signal that makes it un-recordable.
- Exploited: Bob asks Alice out, but she is, for whatever reason(s), uninterested. She uses her show as an excuse.
- Defied: Alice decides to record it later, or catch a rerun.
- Discussed: "We gotta get home in time for Prime Time Soap!"
- Conversed: ???
- Implied: Alice has to work a late shift. The day after, when someone asks her about Prime Time Soap, she gets moody and refuses to reply, hinting that she missed it.
- Played for Laughs: Alice runs at superhuman speed through a variety of absurd obstacles just to make it home in time for Prime Time Soap.
Hurry up, or we're going to miss Appointment Television!
