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Leg Focus / Live-Action TV

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  • Our Miss Brooks: Notably in "Friday the Thirteenth", where Miss Brooks produces a photo of herself in a "French-model bathing suit" for the school yearbook. Walter Denton, Stretch Snodgrass and Mr. Boynton notice her legs.
  • 'Allo 'Allo!. While Michelle typically hides her charms under her Conspicuous Trenchcoat, she gets annoyed when Rene praises the legs on a pin-up photo that Monsieur Alphonse took, claiming that hers are better.
    Michelle: Now look very carefully, I shall show this only once.
    (Throws off her trenchcoat and puts a gorgeous stocking-clad leg up on the chair)
    Alphonse: (Dramatic Sit-Down) Oh, my dicky ticker!
    Rene: Now look what you have done! (to Alphonse) Do you want your pills?
    Alphonse: No, my camera!
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Buffy possesses them. They get a good showing in "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered". In the unaired pilot, we're introduced to our heroine via a Male Gaze look at what's below the hemline of her miniskirt.
  • The Bugaloos: Joy was the subject of many a youngen's prepubescent crushes in The '70s, thanks mainly to her costume that really highlights her legs. If some people don't even remember this series, they're sure to remember Joy and her legs.
  • On Happy Endings, Jane is tall and slender with legs that are almost constantly on display. This is pretty much invoked by the character, who usually wears very really short shorts and says she 'needs a lot of validation'. In one episode, she even mimics the Angelina Jolie Oscar leg-bomb.
  • Richard Diamond: In the 1950s detective show, Diamond's answering service lady Sam (played by a pre-fame Mary Tyler Moore) was only seen from the legs down. When she posed for a magazine spread - fully clothed, but allowing viewers to put a face to the legs - she was fired and Roxanne Brooks replaced her.
  • Sally on 3rd Rock from the Sun. Subverted in that Dick et al. say they're a failing of hers along with her perky breasts and long flowing locks, and she agrees. Then Mary tries to cheer her up after a breakup by saying that she's got legs — and Sally cuts her off, saying "You don't have to rub it in!" It is presumably because Sally is implied to be a rather macho male of the alien species early in the series. Her boyfriend, Don, defends his choice to date her with "Alright, so she's crazy. But she's got legs up to her face!"
  • Bebe Neuwirth, a dancer, has shown off her lovely legs as Lilith Sternin on Cheers and Frasier on numerous occasions. In an episode of Will & Grace, she commented, playing herself, that she could pull her legs over her head.
  • Daisy Jones & The Six: Daisy wears a lot of outfits that emphasize her legs. Warren and Eddie comment about Daisy's great legs until Daisy tells them to stick it.
  • Doctor Who:
    • Tegan Jovanka, Companion to the Fourth and Fifth Doctors, referred to herself as "a mouth with legs". And the Doctor Who Role-Playing Game gave each Companion a three-to-five word description; Tegan's included "great legs."
    • Amy Pond. Her actress, Karen Gillan, knows she has legs fit for this trope; it was her decision to stick to short skirts over wearing trousers most of the time to play up the fanservice. In "The Impossible Astronaut", the Doctor codenames River Song as "Mrs. Robinson", Rory as "The Nose", and Amy? "The Legs". Or as Neil Gaiman put it, "Karen's legs are impossible!" Also lampshaded when the TARDIS shows Clara pictures of the Doctor's numerous female companions.
      Clara: Dear... God that woman is made of legs. That's the most legs in any living human!
    • Lampshaded in "Time Heist". Clara is wearing heels and a skirt, but the Doctor just thinks she needs the heels to reach a high shelf.
  • In The Jeff Foxworthy Show, we get one episode in which the girls — Karen, Jeff's pregnant wife; DeeDee, Wayne's girlfriend and former Louisiana stripper, and Gale, Karen's eternally depressed sister — have a girls' night where they put on make-up and dress up. The viewers see Karen hide behind a wall and shows nothing but leg in a way that shows she retains extreme flexibility despite pregnancy. Even Hollywood Homely Gale is shown to have some attractive legs. As for DeeDee, she can be summed up by stripper music playing when she appears.
  • Cerie from 30 Rock: Her office attire, which usually includes a tiny denim miniskirt, is used for comedic effect as well as fanservice. The leggy outfits are a distraction to the male characters on the show, and Liz has confronted Cerie about her wardrobe to no avail. Also alluded to in the character's short-lived web series.
  • Shannon from Lost wears an assortment of shorts, skirts, and bikinis, and was nicknamed "Sticks" by Sawyer because of her long legs.
  • Entertainment Tonight hostess Mary Hart had a special "leg light" under the anchor desk just to show hers off... and, as with many of the Real Life examples, hers were insured.
  • While she was hosting alongside Regis Philbin on what became Live With Kelly, Kathie Lee Gifford was well-known for displaying hers ("down there").
  • Keeping Up Appearances: Despite being in her fifties, Mary Millar who played Rose had an amazing set of legs. Many of the characters even commented on them, with Emmett, in particular, calling her: "The one with the friendly legs."
  • Dean Winchester of Supernatural has had a slow pan up his legs at least twice.
  • The West Wing: Amy Gardener said: "I have wit, I have charm, I have brains, I have legs that go all the way down to the floor, my friend."
  • Marcia Gay Harden's character on Damages spends a fair amount of time leisurely putting on her stockings after trysts with different men. Nobody is complaining about this.
  • Gossip Girl's Serena van der Woodsen, in keeping with her status on the show, possesses such things and is fully aware of how to utilise them.
  • Glee's Rachel Berry. You'd figure at 5'2" they wouldn't be that impressive.
    • Santana Lopez, Brittany S. Pierce and Quinn Fabray, due to being cheerleaders. Although Quinn was no longer a cheerleader as the story progressed, her regular outfits were still able to show her nice gams.
  • Castle: Katherine Beckett does show those legs of hers several times. And aren't we fans glad of it. Given a specific lampshading in Episode 4x10 "Cuffed":
    Richard Castle: I always liked your legs, but now I respect them.
  • Chuck loves to remind viewers that Sarah has a killer set of legs. Her wardrobe frequently consists of swimsuits, bathrobes, short skirts, stockings, heels, and tight leather pants that all show off the shape of her legs, (with frequent camera focus on her stems) and her fighting style often involves high kicks. Accompanied by characters frequently commenting on Sarah's leggy-ness.
    • Anna Wu had her share of leg focus in the first two seasons, as she tends to wear very short skirts and heels.
    • And subsequently the ladies who go by the codename Greta, especially Summer Glau and Stacy Keibler.
      • The introduction of Greta #1 (Olivia Munn) is via a slow pan up her legs. During a slow-motion walk towards Chuck and Morgan. Giggety.
  • In Lizzo's Watch Out for the Big Grrrls, the Grrrls are told to create a stage persona, involving a makeover with Lizzo's glam team (hair, makeup, clothes). Charity is encouraged to wear short shorts to emphasize her legs. She wows the judges by strutting confidently down a runway, pulling her long coat as if to show a little leg, then dropping it back with a flirtatious "Nuh-uh!" gesture.
  • Ally Dawson from Austin & Ally is another example of a short girl with long legs.
    • If we're going to be on the subject of Disney Channel Kid Coms, then Jessie certainly lives up to this trope too.
      • As do both Liv and Maddie, what with their being twins. Is it a Disney requirement or something?
  • As Cat Valentine's male fans will tell you, Nickelodeon is no slouch in the "short girl with long legs" department either.
  • Several of the female characters on Revenge live and breathe this trope (Emily Thorne, Victoria Grayson, her daughter Charlotte, Amanda Clarke), but Ashley Davenport is the undisputed champ - there aren't many scenes she's in where her long, very sexy legs aren't on view. Until her Put on a Bus moment, anyway.
  • Ruby in Once Upon a Time, especially during the first half of season one when she was usually seen wearing a skimpy diner waitress outfit. Once her true nature is revealed, her mode of dress becomes more conservative, symbolic of her maturity. This is illustrated vividly in the season 2 episode "Welcome to Storybrooke" which features a flashback to the early Season 1 era and shows the character wearing her revealing outfits again.
  • Even though Rayna Jaymes towers over Juliette Barnes on Nashville - for the most part - the latter matches the former in the "I've got legs and I know how to use them" department.
  • In Coupling, Jeff falls in love with a woman after repeatedly seeing her leg (and, in one case, the back of her head) on the train a few rows ahead of him. Eventually, fate puts the woman in the seat opposite him, and he strikes up a conversation with the words, "You look just like the back of your head." It gets worse from there.
  • In Pretty Little Liars — a show with Fanservice everywhere already — the camera always seems to find Spencer (Troian Bellisario, daughter of Donald P. Bellisario) wearing very short skirts or cutoffs, and making sure her legs are in full view.
  • In an episode of Zoboomafoo focused on creatures that live in sandy areas, we see Jackie walking along the edge of a beach in a bathing suit, and we're treated to a nice pair of long yet shapely legs.
  • Eliza Dooley (played by Karen "That woman is made of legs!" Gillan), the main character of Selfie, has stems till Tuesday.
  • Kara "Supergirl" Danvers has quite the set of pins on her, in and out of uniform; so does her boss (in season one, anyway) Cat Grant.
  • Riverdale's Cheryl Blossom and Veronica Lodge (and the latter's mother Hermione). This is not your father's Riverdale.
  • This is one of the more obvious and inescapable fanservice elements in television News Broadcasts and Talk Shows.
    • Taking this to a nearly-comical extreme are the female personalities on the Fox News Channel. All of them. This was apparently a particular obsession for network president Roger Ailes, before he resigned for... we'll say related reasons.
  • Wonder Woman: Lynda Carter in her satin tights could not help but do this. And the director of many episodes made sure to take advantage.
  • Schitt's Creek: Alexis Rose has beautiful legs and shows them off in a series of mini dresses, mini skirts, and short shorts, often with very high heels.
  • The Jeopardy! category "Long Lovely Ladies" was about women who qualify for this trope.
  • Xena from Xena: Warrior Princess certainly qualifies, and in the intro, it's pretty much the first thing we see!
  • Dr. Caitlin Snow from The Flash while usually conservatively dressed for her profession is no stranger to showing off her glorious gams, with many of her outfits being mini-skirts and or dresses that end just above her knees. Off the clock and hanging out with her friends, however, and that dress line gets a lot higher.
  • Lovecraft Country: Leti wears a short skirt that shows off her very nice legs.
  • Beverly Hills, 90210: In one Season 6 episode, Donna and David shoot a music video for a band where Donna dresses up in short shorts & fishnets. Tori Spelling may not exactly be the first thing that comes to mind when it comes to Fanservice...but she's got legs.
  • Carly in iCarly wore miniskirts increasingly often as Miranda Cosgrove matured.
  • DS Sally Donovan in Sherlock has lovely legs and shows them off in short skirts.
  • The card dealers in the 1980s version of Card Sharks wore very short skirts designed to show off their legs.
  • Tidelands (Netflix): Cal, Adrielle and minor female characters often wear outfits that display their long bare legs, with the camera focusing on them very often.
  • The Order: Since Shapeshifting Excludes Clothing, the Knights tend to lounge around in bathrobes after a patrol. Lilith's favored robe is black and silver, and short enough to show off her bare legs. When not in her robe, Lilith tends towards tight leather pants, or rarely shorts. The camera sometimes lingers on them.
  • You Me Her: Izzy and Emma both get long shots of their shapely legs in stockings or while putting them on, which is clearly erotic to Jack.
  • Mystery Science Theater 3000: Played for Laughs in "Tormented", when Joel spends an entire host segment dangling helplessly from an upper level, with only his surprisingly impressive legs on camera. When they head back into the theater, Crow compliments him on his "nice calves".
  • Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: This occurred frequently in season one, not with Kimberly but Trini, a fact often forgotten by fans of the show. While it is true that Kimberly was the one more often wearing shorts, many episodes featuring Trini wearing shorts were ones in which she was the only cast member in shorts (when Kimberly wore shorts, usually one of the male cast members was also wearing shorts). During episodes were Trini was the only one wearing shorts, there was a lot of camera focus on her legs and she would become a Kick Chick for that episode in contrast to her usual Kung-Fu based fighting style.

Alternative Title(s): Live Action TV

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