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openIs There A Trope For Someone Using Outdated Expressions Live Action TV
Is there a trope for when someone uses outdated expressions or slang? An example would be an aging hippy still saying "far out," and "groovy."
resolved No one makes an appointment to see this important character Live Action TV
OK, I've only seen this twice done serially, usually it's one offs. Basically, an important character like Da Chief, the leader of a faction or even an antagonist very regularly has other characters angrily storm into their office making demands or accusations. To the point it seems they either have no secretary, security, door locks, or simply have an "open door policy" that lets everyone in, no questions asked.
I first noticed it in Smallville where Lex had just about everyone do this to him. But more recently in Land of the Lustrous where the hero at least twice storms into the office of the head antagonist / frenemy during their explicit off hours to discuss things.
openLet's get married at work Live Action TV
Shows centered around workplaces do this... Two characters are getting married, but their wedding plans fall through in a series of comic mishaps, so they decide to just get married in the workplace, reasoning that all their friends are already there, and it's a place that means a lot to them.
Brooklyn 99 did this, so did Parks and Recreation, and even the medical drama New Amsterdam.
It sticks out like a sore thumb, because it's so unrealistic. TV shows are unrealistic all the time, but when they're unrealistic for the sake of saving money on sets, it really pulls you out.
Plus, is it really healthy to be that attached to a workplace? And who has *all* their friends in one workplace?
Perhaps this is less of a trope, and more just a thing that coincidentally happened on three different shows. But it could also be part of a larger trope of significant events happening in mundane familiar places, to save on sets. Pregnant characters giving birth in workplaces for contrived reasons is something I feel I've seen a lot.
openSmart people do this dumb people do this Live Action TV
This could be two different tropes, when a smart person goes up to a piano they will play Für Elise. When a dumb person goes up to a piano they will play chopsticks.
openParent realizes what the child has done Live Action TV
A man who abused his wife but was a "good father" ends up in the hospital. The hospital staff conclude that he hadn't been taking his medication, which they believe could only be because of Medication Tampering—someone had emptied the medicine capsules and filled them with sugar or salt. When the wife is accused of this, she explicitly denies it; when they suggest that her son knows more than she thinks, she suddenly realized that he had tampered with her husband's medication.
openParenting/work conflict Live Action TV
The mother wants to go to her daughter's recital, but work constraints prevent her from doing this. She does show up at her son's big game, but is called away in the middle of the game to work.
openPrefers not to know about his employees' private lives Live Action TV
To quote the boss:
In hindsight from next season, it likely has to do with this boss having Asperger Syndrome, although no one in the series even suspects he has it at this point.
openEmployed, but not for the expected job Live Action TV
A person applies to a photographer for a job, but on the first task it turns out the potential employee gave a Very Fake Résumé. However, the employer has No Social Skills (and it will turn out he probably has Asperger Syndrome, though at this point no one suspects it; the seriesin question does have a regular who is known from the beginning of the seriesto have Asperger) and the clients enjoyed the interaction with the employee, so she got the job of the social aspect of the business.
openLie to potential employer Live Action TV
Sarah is looking for a job. She goes to a photographer to deal with the arrangements for the family photo, notices they're looking for a new worker, and claims—falsely—that she has experience.
openRomantic interest in boss Live Action TV
A female employee shows romantic interest in male boss. This is completely one-way—the boss is Happily Married and has no romantic interest in the employee.
Edited by Someone1981openGoes crazy if a promise is broken Live Action TV
Max has several tantrums throughout the series, but most of them are over broken promises (or perceived promises). In addition, one day he had been promised to go to the museum (he lives in Berkeley and the museum in question is in San Francisco) and no one could take him, he ran away on his own with the intention of going to the museum (given the point in the season, this would have been close to his 11th birthday).
openInconsistent Nomenclature Live Action TV
Where something is named inconsistently in different episodes, possibly due to lack of collaboration between different production teams and/or no established standards.
My primary example is from The Jetsons. The machine in the Jetsons' kitchen that automatically (and instantly!) prepares meals is called a "food a racka cycle" in some episodes, and a "food-a-matic" in others. Similarly, the video telephone is called either a "Visaphone" or a "Televiewer", depending on the episode.
Also, in the prehistoric equivalent show, The Flintstones, the quarry where Fred works is known by at least 4 different names throughout the series.
Edited by SquirrelGuyopenStealing the boyfriend Live Action TV
Haddie has been going out with a boy named Steve. After one major fight between them, her cousin and close friend Amber convinces her to break up with him—and then Amber herself starts going out with Steve.
openTongue of Concentration Live Action TV
A character sticks their tongue out of the corner of their mouth to indicate concentration. I just saw Adam do this in the Mythbusters episode where they test the accuracy of different gun firing poses. You see it all the time in fiction with little kids filling out tests or working on art.
resolved Scope Creep Live Action TV
This could be for other things besides TV, but that's where I've seen it the most obviously. The tone doesn't shift, the genre doesn't shift, the character motives are still largely the same, but things go from focusing on small-stakes, inter-personal drama and action to large stakes, "we have to save the world!" action. Kinda a MCU-ification of the show's direction.
A couple of examples spring to mind. Penny Dreadful starts out as a gritty, realistic depiction of Victorian England mixed with occult, where the focus is on the characters dealing with supernatural threats and the very mundane threats of a restrictive society and its own burdens/expectations. But by the last season everyone has super powers and they're on a quest to save the world from being swallowed by demons or what have you.
Firefly/Serenity also does this. The show starts out with a 'not exactly smugglers' crew struggling to make ends meet while dealing with their personal struggles and history, but by the end of the show (the movie), they are on a quest to uncover a secret, and basically topple the government / start a new revolution.
The MCU up to the Avengers Endgame movies is like this, too; the first few movies are pretty independent, with (bizarrely) low emphasis on the superpowers and magic. They focus on smaller villains that are a lower-stakes, personal challenge/threat to the hero. Eventually everyone has superhuman abilities (explained in-universe or not), flinging spells and lasers and whatever in a big battle to save not just the universe, but every alternate universe as well!
The tropes in Tone Shift don't really fit, because there is no change in the genre, or adding magic where there wasn't before, or anything like that. Fantasy Creep is the most overlap that I can see, like the entry for John Wick, but a lot of shows start out with a imho more interesting premise that is explored in the early seasons but as the characters become more powerful, and defeat all their lesser foes, bigger foes and greater stakes move in and the show changes from the initial premise to "we must save the world from existential danger!"
I feel like this is already on here but I can't find it!
openLine from the past in an episode with a visit to the past Live Action TV
Dr. McCoy, from Star Trek: The Original Series, is well known for I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder lines. In the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode where the main cast visit Dr. McCoy's time, Dr. Bashir has such a line.
resolved Didn't Go to the Funeral Live Action TV
Alice is mad at Bob because Bob didn't show up at Charlie's funeral - usually, this is serious enough to have the two of them not speak for years.
When they do reconcile, Bob explains he wasn't being disrespectful by not going, he was just so sad about Charlie's death he was in denial.
What's the closest trope to that situation?
openName for trope where Hollywood thinks women need less screen time so they tend to rewrite scripts Live Action TV
Am watching an episode of Northern Exposure. Ed the indie filmmaker has written a screenplay and hopes to get Hollywood interested in it. A guy from a studio comes up and says the script is OK but it needs to have some female roles reduced and some removed. Occurred to me in-universe this happens occasionally and in real life happens a lot. Hollywood, especially 90's Hollywood, thought that female characters did not always lend themselves to mass ticket sales and tends to minimize women as characters, more common in film than TV but happened a lot with both. Theres not too many examples of this happening in-universe because Hollywood rarely likes to call out its own crap or make itself look sexist, even when it is very sexist. I cannot think of a name for this trope. technically its executive meddling but its a very specific type and I wondered if somebody named a trope for this phenomenon.

What trope is used when a character refers to something reported in the real world news? It could be anything from a major world event to just a bit of celebrity gossip.
Thanks.