A running gag on 30 Rock, Jack seems to be effortlessly incredible at anything except things that he finds fulfilling.
From The Adventures of Pete & Pete Artie, The Strongest Man... IN THE WORLD! Was a subversion of this trope. He was ridiculous looking, but from the protagonists' standpoint there was no denying he was quite possibly the Strongest Man... IN THE WORLD! Saves the day countless times, then vanishes.
Spencer from All American, who is a gifted football player and knows the game inside and out and has the physical prowess to excel. It's helped by the fact he's based on real life NFL player Spencer Paysinger.
The Groosalugg falls into this category. Aside from being a bit dim, he really is just that good. That's how he got the title of Groosalugg ("brave and undefeated.")
Exaggerated with the ancient vampire The Immortal in "The Girl in Question", much to the chagrin of Spike and Angelus who consider him their rival. The Immortal is a total badass that dealt with the Roman slayers several times and survived, seduced and had a threesome with his rivalsLove Interests Darla and Drusilla and is described as being a Sex God by them. He also captured and tortured both Angelus and Spike right after. He also climbed Mount Everest several times and wrote a self-help book that is a "life-changer". The Immortal is, simply put, everything Spike and Angel want to be only better. And he always beats them. And he's apparently also sleeping with Buffy, though this was retconned in the comic series as a practical joke on Angel & Spike by Andrew.
Austin From Austin & Ally is very good at singing, dancing, and a ton of instruments. Ally even states that "Good things always happen to you, and you don't even try! Your life is like a gold star".
In one episode he gets auctioned off as a date to a girl who's perfect in every way and Ally gets jealous. Turns of at the end, she has a boyfriend who supported the cause of the auction.
Warren Keffer on Babylon 5 showed up in season 2 because Executive Meddling required J. Michael Straczynski to include this sort of character. Naturally, he didn't appreciate this and had him unpleasantly killed off as soon as he could get away with it.
Starbuck from the original Battlestar Galactica. But see also Starbuck in the 2000s Battlestar Galactica started out this way, but in a subversion, she began slipping over the course of the series due to childhood trauma, her tumultuous relationship with Apollo, and the machinations of the Cylon Leoben Conoy. By the end of season three, the character is a nervous wreck incapable of flying a simple patrol mission without endangering the fleet.
The Big Bang Theory has David Underhill to Leonard. He's a physicist like Leonard except he's smarter, incredibly attractive, suave, and has loads of cool hobbies. He's introduced to Penny and starts dating her almost immediately, when it took Leonard ages to even get one date with her. At the end it turns out he's actually married.
Season 2 has Lord Flashheart (WOOF!)note WOOF!, who is so much of an Ace that on his first appearance, he gets his own version of the Theme Song.
Lord Flashheart, Lord Flashheart, I wish you were the star. Lord Flashheart, Lord Flashheart, you're sexier by far.
Also, from season 3: "Hurrah! It's the Scarlet Pimpernel!"
Hilariously averted in Black Books. One of Bernard's friends tries to extoll his virtues to a girl. "You! What did you say to Kate? She thinks I'm the Renaissance! She'll think I've lied. I have to go along with all this 'reclusive genius' stuff. She's going to be very upset when she finds out I'm a reclusive wanker!"
In Bones, Angela's ex-husband Grayson is an ace. He build a house for her with his bare hands while smuggling medical supplies into Cuba and supporting an orphanage. On top of that, he is simply beautiful.
Mike Ehrmantraut, no matter what task he is given by whoever his boss is, always pulls it off with the utmost professionalism and competence. Even in matters not related to criminal dealings, he is vastly knowledgeable on countless subjects and almost always looked to for guidance in various matters by those around him. The only one to really throw a wrench into his efficiency is...
Eduardo "Lalo" Salamanca is this for the Cartel and the Salamanca clan. While having all of the ruthlessness and personal combat prowess of his other family members, Lalo is able to hide this behind a charming personality that makes him able to seamlessly interact in everyday society. In addition, he has an unparalleled intellect and calculating nature that make him unquestionably the most dangerous member of the Cartel. It is because of these traits that Mike's boss, Gustavo Fring, who treats every other member of his family and the Cartel with barely concealed condescension, actively fears Lalo.
Howard Hamlin. A name partner at HHM, he may owe his success to Nepotism but he is undoubtedly skilled at his role in client development. Howard is charming, smooth and socially adept as well as tall, handsome and immaculately dressed. Seeing him as undeservedly successful, Jimmy hates him with the fire of a thousand suns.
Played with in Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the episode "Superstar". Jonathan appears to be this, and turns out to be using a spell that made him so perfect. Played somewhat straight with Riley on his return episode in season 6.
Castle: Beckett's old flame and mentor is presented as this at first. He later ruins his friendship with her, but the features of the trope are still there.
On Cheers Sam Malone had an unseen older brother who was The Ace. Most of the regulars (with the notable exception of Frasier) treat Sam himself this way at least some of the time, since he's good-looking and was a professional athlete while they're ... well ... the sort of people who hang out with Cliff and Norm.
An episode of China Beach features a hot-shot colonel who comes in with a mustache and sunglasses, talks The Rambo out of his self-pity, goes swiming and kills a shark for dinner, becomes the grand-prize in a sex-lottery among all of the women, and then flies out on a helicopter heroically (and stupidly) standing on the skid, while a poem is spoken about how great he is.
Captain Awesome, who's a Hunk, a skilled surgeon, an athlete (college football player and extreme sport enthusiast), a skilled tango dancer, and just a great guy personality-wise. Hence his nickname.
Bryce Larkin was Always Someone Better to Chuck, as he was skilled at everything. He was just as nerdy a Stanford student as Chuck was, except Bryce was also a handsome and suave CIA superspy.
In the Community episode Beginner Pottery, Rich is introduced as an Ace in the pottery class that Jeff, Abed and Annie take. Rich's inherent brilliance at pottery and life in general (he is also a doctor and just does the class to relax) ends up getting Jeff so mad that he performs "the hilarious guy on guy" variant of ghosting on Rich and then leaves the class.
Dorothy "Ace" McShane herself, of course! She is so proficient in making improvised explosives that the Doctor comes to heavily rely on her skill, despite repeatedly voicing his disapproval of Ace's methods.
The Doctor became the ace to poor Craig in "The Lodger". He's better than Craig at football, and his job, and convinces his Love Interest to leave town, and talks to a cat, and has a sexy Shower Scene, and...
Firefly: In her back story, River excels at absolutely everything she attempts, and is also an athletic prodigy, being a One-Woman Army in hand-to-hand combat despite being a slim, waifish teenage girl. On top of all that, she's also possibly the 'verse's first telepath. By the time the series begins, she's become a Broken Ace due to the Alliance torturing her and conducting brain surgery to turn her into a living weapon.
In For the People, each side of the court has an undefeated lawyer—Kate Littlejohn for the prosecution, and Allison Adams for the defense.
Frasier episode "The Perfect Guy" features Dr. Clint Weber (played by Billy Campbell), an outrageously good-looking (even Frasier's father is stunned) Oxford-certified M.D. (who put himself through med school working as a sous chef, leaving him an expert cook), polyglot (speaking at least English, French and Korean), pilot, squash champion, and generally charming individual. After an episode of slowly giving in to envy after a series of increasingly unlikely upstagings, Frasier gleefully discovers the man can't sing.
Friends: Monica's season 1 boyfriend Allan who was good at sports, is a delight in conversation and apparently well-endowed. The gang didn't take it well when Monica decided to break up with him.
Jon to his fellow recruits and his best friend Sam, and after the Battle of Castle Black, where he was one of the main defenders alongside Ser Alliser, Pyp, Grenn and Dolorous Edd he becomes this to most of the Night's Watch, despite his youth. By Season 6, his exploits are so well known that he's this through all of Westeros. Even someone as overconfident and as dangerous as Ramsay Bolton considers him the greatest swordsman in the North by reputation alone.
Robb is described in these terms by both his brother Jon and their father's ward/hostage Theon — though both Jon and Theon love Robb as a brother and shared very close relationships with him.
Theon: He didn't have to [lord it over me], all he had to do was... be, be who he was born to be. His life fit him better than his clothes. Jon: I was jealous of Robb my whole life. The way my father looked at him? I wanted that. He was better than me at everything: fighting, hunting, and riding... and girls. Gods, the girls loved him. I wanted to hate him, but I never could.
Tywin is a villainous example, setting the standard for House Lannister. He's ruthless and a better schemer than Cersei, a better commander than Jaime, and a better negotiator than Tyrion (compare their handling of Olenna Tyrell) and because he is willing to cross lines that Tyrion won't (such as say, violating guest right) he is a more effective war-time politician. He's The Dreaded for very good reason.
Jaime is easily one of the top swordsmen in Westeros, if not the top — and he knows it. This is subtly combined with Brilliant, but Lazy: when he tries he's almost as cunning, charismatic, and socially dominating as his father and little brother, but he's personally unambitious and is only ever recognized in-universe for his sublime swordsmanship and pretty face.
Littlefinger: I bet on Ser Jaime in the jousting, as any sane man would...
Bronn is a great swordsman, archer, police chief, and even singer in addition to being a Loveable Rogue.
Arya refers to her swordmaster Syrio Forel as "the greatest swordsman who ever lived". Granted, Syrio was probably killed off by Meryn Trant due to wearing no armor but the fact that he stands his own with a wooden sword against six knights in full body armor says a lot. Also, take a look at Arya's fencing abilities - she takes out the Waif who is a skilled assassin as well as Brienne of Tarth, a trained knight almost 2 ft taller than her - and that's after only a few months of being Syrio's apprentice.
A character named Ace appeared in Gap. Prior to his appearance, it was mentioned that he must be awesome to have earned the name, but was revealed to be just a normal person.
Dr. Neil Melendez of The Good Doctor is by far the most technically skilled resident at San Jose St. Bonaventure hospital. Even the chief surgeon himself calls on his assistance. He's very good, but he's also quite full of himself and at times deliberately mean and petty, and he initially doesn't respect Shaun and thinks because of his Autism that he can't be a good doctor.
In Happy Endings Max dates a great guy, Grant, who everybody says is too good for him, and he soon wins over the entire gang (except for Dave, who is being deliberately difficult because he wants to be the gang's cool guy). Subverted when its shown that Grant is needy, and that's why he was trying to impress everybody anyway.
But none of them have anything on Ken Hayakawa, The Hero on Kaiketsu Zubat. He's The Ace to such an extent that he was codifying this trope back when it was an Unbuilt Trope. To put it in perspective, Once an Episode, he'd say to the enemy of the week, who was always a specialist in a certain area of combat that he was the second-best user of that fighting style in Japan. Then, after being asked who was the best, he'd whistle and tip his hat. And to prove that it wasn't just empty words, he would then proceed to prove it.
Kamen Rider Kabuto: Tendou Souji, the title character, is absurdly skilled at everything he does ranging from cooking to sports to music. He speaks at least four languages, is a tactical genius, instantly masters his Transformation Trinket the moment he lays eyes on it, and effortlessly defeats virtually every opponent he encounters. Tendou is fully aware that he's this trope, and exceedingly smug about it.
Kamen Rider Decade: Tsukasa Kadoya is only slightly less proficient at everything he does than Tendou, and his ability to use the powers of every other Kamen Rider there's ever been or ever will be makes him one of the two strongest Riders in the entire franchisenote he's only definitively beaten by Oma Zi-O, who has all the same powers but can use them more quickly. Unlike Tendou, however, Tsukasa's actually terrible at his preferred hobby of photography, and his supporting cast are much more willing to use him as the target of slapstick whenever he starts to get too full of himself.
Kamen Rider Fourze: Ryusei Sakuta presents himself as this during his introductory period, being both an excellent martial artist and an apparent genius at just about every field of study. He's actually not that intelligent, however: he's being backed up by his support staff via radio in order to gain the Kamen Rider Club's trust.
Kamen Rider Geats: Ace Ukiyo (yes, that's his name), the title character, is implied to be the 2,000+ year long undefeated Desire Grand Prix winner, starting to play on the year of Jesus Christ. He's being extremely skilled with every aspect of the game, scoring a total of 2,644,000 on his first onscreen game, while his rival Michinaga Azuma is way behind with 864,000. The most outstanding thing about him, is that after his age of glory ended with the game staff putting a stop to his "dangerous" actions, by either kicking him out or defeating him, he manages in a way or another to get back in.
The title character in MacGyver. He plays ice hockey and climbs mountains (the latter despite his acrophobia) in his spare time, used to serve in the military as a bomb defuser, used to be a race car driver, regularly faces enemies who do have guns and tends to make them look like chumps, is the key to defeating pretty much every security system conceivable, and is now synonymous with the concept of getting a bunch of random trash and making it do something amazing.
Daredevil. He's probably the best street-level hero in all of New York, being an incredible lawyer, a prodigious detective, acrobat and martial artist, has incredible knowledge of the districts of Hell's Kitchen and has immense control over his Super-Senses (including having a "sonar sense" and being a Living Lie Detector). He's also a master of stealth, infiltration and espionage and is a Determinator to rival that of Punisher, Captain America and Doctor Strange. In fact, his exploits are such that other street level heroes (i.e. Luke Cage and Jessica Jones) respect and obey him and he's the leader of The Defenders in all but name. In No Way Home he demonstrates his reflexes are faster than Spider-Man's when he intercepts a brick through the window without even trying... before Peter even senses it coming.
Frank Castle. He was considered a One-Man Army even during his days in the military and almost single-handedly won a battle that would have otherwise gotten his platoon, commanding officer included, killed. He's a genius with basically any weapon you give him, an incredible driver, spy, strategist and martial artist and has extensive experience with interrogation and espionage. His Determinator levels have allowed him to live through beatings and injuries that would have killed any other man and he's very quick to get back into battle. Even when he began his rampage and caught the attention of the people responsible for his family's deaths, they decided not to engage him directly. Why? Because they knew they'd be dead in seconds if they did.And most criminals are flat-out terrified of him anyway.
Kate Bishop quickly establishes herself as the next generation's Hawkeye, showing she shares Clint Barton's creativity, versatility, quick thinking and raw talent. She's also very social and can sway people to her side pretty easily just with her compassion and kindness. Clint himself acknowledges that while she's still got a lot to learn, she's definitely got the talent to go far, implying he sees her as his true successor.
Occasionally seen as a visiting doctor in M*A*S*H. And just as often subverted. One doctor, coerced into visiting by Hawkeye and Trapper, has a Heroic BSoD midway through the episode, just before having to perform a delicate and life-threatening surgery on a patient. He's found in the Swamp, drunk, much to Hawkeye's disgust. A second Ace doctor, filling in for a sick Potter also breaks down just before a suspiciously similar operation. A surgeon, temporarily appointed to the 4077th wasn't even a surgeon, but someone pretending to be one. There was one episode involving an Ace colonel that was played by... wait for it... Leslie Nielson.
The drunk doctor (played by Alan Alda's father) was a veteran of WWI and WWII, and he simply explained that war and age had taken their toll such that experience and expertise were of no avail against the ravages of time and the horrors of war.
Dr. Winchester was an Ace surgeon, dated celebrities and was often able to outsmart Hawkeye Pierce.
Lancelot serves as this during his early appearances on Merlin, mostly showing up the rest of the knights of Camelot in chivalry and in fighting prowess.
The Middleman's main character of the same name. A Gosh Dang It to Heck! type who very rarely curses, drinks only milk, walks in and out of wretched hives of scum and villainy with barely a scratch, and can be an annoyingly perfect Badass Normal. Luckily, he's an excellent Middleman and mentor to his partner, WendyWatson, and his Ace-ness just provides amusing fodder when he isn't quite so perfect.
Only Fools and Horses: Freddie "The Frog" Robdal. A debonair, gentleman thief who was a charming, generous and very clever man, who had a fondness and talent for art, was a hit with the ladies, and whose last job was the successful theft of half a million pounds worth of gold bullion, which he hid by burying it at sea under one of his pseudonyms (which he planned to retrieve using his skills as a diver). The image is slightly ruined by the fact that he died by sitting on a detonator during a later job.
Chris Traeger is blindingly handsome, so positive that his own girlfriend doesn't notice when he breaks up with her, runs at least ten miles a day, and is immediately well-liked by nearly everyone he meets. (The positivity is justified by his admission that he was born with an extremely rare blood disorder and was only expected to live for a few weeks, thus making every day a gift.) It's all subverted by the fact that he actually isn't very good at his job: as a state auditor, he's in the business of making budget cuts, but because he finds it hard to say no to anyone, he never got anything done until he was paired with the comparatively dour Obstructive Bureaucrat Ben.
Justin, who seems to be an ace lawyer and a globe-trotter who impressed everyone around him (except for Andy and Mark, who are mostly threatened by Ann's admiration of him). However, Ron later deconstructs Justin's personality and points out that despite all of his apparent perfections, at his core Justin was a "tourist", a selfish person who was more concerned about the stories he formed rather than the people he was helping, which leads to Leslie breaking it off with him.
Power Rangers in Space had Zhane, the Silver Ranger. As a Sixth Ranger, he'd be expected to be cooler than the rest... but he did it with flash.
Jarod of The Pretender is this. In fact, the main character is written this way which serves to advance the plot.
Now, Jarod himself was inspired by the late Ferdinand Waldo Demara, Jr., who - after running away from home to be at a monastery - then bailed out of that and joined the Army. He later went AWOL, faked his way through a few other names and jobs and, according to The Other Wiki, not only faked being a surgeon, but performed successful life-saving surgeries on several Korean prisoners. It wasn't that he just figured it out on the fly, he did this by speed-reading the textbook. His reason for all his exploits? "Rascality, pure rascality."
Ynon from the Israeli series Prisoners of War, who is hand-picked to take part in Operation Judah due to his physical and mental excellence as a soldier, and who is shown to master new skills — such as the use of a code finger-tapping language — in seconds.
"Ace" Rimmer (what a guy!) in Red Dwarf, the Trope Namer. Interestingly, when the regular Rimmer decides to become the new Ace Rimmer, it appears that he will intentionally avoid acting in the same way the Ace he met did because he found Ace to be an annoying prat.
In Series XI we meet an even more absurd example in Butler the android who's a master painter, sculptor, author, chef, engineer, has conquered all disease in his travels through the universe and befriended usually hostile and genocidal societies, and has the sentient mind of the universe itself on his speed dial.
A few episodes of the ancient detective show The Rockford Files contrasted James Garner's hard-luck PI Jim Rockford with Lance White, a handsome Ace Detective with a snazzy suit and car who needed only to walk into a room or step into a field of weeds to discover the needed clue...Lance was played by Tom Selleck with an XL serving of ham. The annoyed Rockford is left to complain that "It doesn't work that way!"
Dr. Kevin Casey is an example where the Ace has a "hidden" Fatal Flaw in his OCD. His condition means he's practised procedures so many times he's better than anyone else, but then J.D. finds him still washing his hands hours after his last surgery because his OCD won't let him stop.
A first season episode had an intern named Nick Murdoch also appear to be the Ace, handling all of the problems that came his way without flinching, but breaking down at the end of the episode when he realises that there's nothing he can do to save the young boy he's been treating.
Dr. Molly Clock, a brilliant shrink who could not only heal The Todd, make any character realize their problems, but her everlasting good mood couldn't be crushed by Dr. Kelso and Dr. Cox combined either.
Sneaky Pete: Marius is the Swiss Army Knife of hustling. He's the best con-man, gambler, pickpocket and pool player around, and can quickly adapt to new cons on the fly, such as passing himself off as a medium under short notice.
Stargate Atlantis: "Rod" McKay from "McKay & Mrs. Miller" is an imitation Ace Rimmer; he's Rodney McKay from an Alternate Universe and charms everyone on Atlantis (save Rodney himself) while saving the day. It's subverted at the end when everyone says they prefer Rodney because Rod was overbearing and too nice.
Tom Paris in Star Trek: Voyager; designed a warp engine that went to infinite speed, picks locks, leads commando teams, is an ace pilot, and he's the field medic.
In The Doctor's fantasies in "Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy", he is this.
Phlox: But the Doctor does much more than just practice medicine. He has access to the entire ship, and he seems to be an expert on... everything. In fact, the Captain just gave him authorization to command the Bridge! It was a very exciting moment.
Star Trek: Picard: Zani, the leader of the Qowat Milat, describes Elnor as the most formidable and skilled fighter of their order even if his gender means he can never truly be one of them.
Takaoka Eiji of GoGo Sentai Boukenger. Before becoming BoukenSilver, he, alone, in his human form, is an even match for the Ashu demons, whom the other five Boukengers can barely defeat when morphed. He uses the pronoun "ore-sama" and consistently acts like The Ace.
Plus, that was his debut. Once he's more set into the series, he starts getting less badass.
Also in a previous Sentai, Hikari Sentai Maskman, there's Takeru/Red Mask, who'll claim that he's an expert Karateka who became so because one day as a kid, he suddenly declared he wanted to do Karate, as well as being a well-behaving, good, top-scorer and good looking boy back in the days. Would be true in the present too... except when the team went back to the past, they found out that he's anything but The Ace, and it takes the future self's warning that he finally started manning up and starts his way to become an ace. At the end of said episode, the team called out his liesfor laughs.
Avataro Sentai Donbrothers: Taro has been perfect at everything his entire life and as a ranger, is shown to be far more powerful than any other character in the show. The only times he has ever lost a fair fight were after Sonoi had absorbed part of Taro's personality and when he faced the ridiculously overpowered Donkiller android. He is so strong that his full power is only shown in the last two episodes when he instantly defeats a Hitotsuki that everyone else had been struggling to defeat, and then does the same to the Nouto executioners in the finale. But he also is a Broken Ace due to his compulsion to alsways tell the truth making it extremely hard for him to make friends. He also lives a boring life as a delivery boy due to lacking any ambition to do anything with his incredible skills.
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