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openNo Title Live Action TV
Is there a trope used to define a special episode like Buffy the Vampire Slayer's musical episode, and town-wide-laryngitis-epidemic or Supernatural's Changing Channels episode where the Winchester brothers find themselves in different TV shows, or the episode where they find out they really are in a tv show, or the time loop episode where the day that Dean dies never ends? I explored The Gimmick, but that trope didn't prove to be the correct one, and instead a gimmick of characters rather than an episode that tries to change the natural flow of a tv show with an element to make it stand out such as previously listed.
Thank you! List as many close ones as you can.
Edited by IziahejfopenNo Title Live Action TV
Is there a trope covering a person running for President of the US? Not anyone from the two major parties, or even a possibly viable third party candidate; a crank with no conceivable chance of victory.
Edited by randomsurferopenNo Title Live Action TV
Someone wants to kill or punish a character for crimes committed his parents or more distant relatives.
Babylon Five has it under Sins of the Father but that redirects to a Fan Fic.
openNo Title Live Action TV
Is there a trope where a person talks to an of apparition of someone they know but isn't actually there? It's something along the lines of a character talking to a memory of a person.
Example: In 19-2 Berrof talks to his partner Harvey who is rendered brain-damaged and later dead after being shot in the head in the first episode.
Edited by oneeightactualopenNo Title Live Action TV
What do you call it where a series of rapid Jump Cuts is used to portray insanity? I thought it was a Joss Whedon thing, but then I saw an excellent use in The X-Files.
Edited by wixo30openNo Title Live Action TV
What's the trope for when an episode is skipped during the rotation run, but the episode isn't missing, isn't a Banned Episode, and they do have the righta to show it?
For example, on ITV 4, Police Camera Action has often skipped over these episodes:
- Safety Last (Series 1, 1995)
- Don't Look Back In Anger (Series 2, 1997)
- Learning the Hard Way (1998)
- Rogue's Roadshow (Series 3, 2000)
- Fair Cop (Series 3, 2000)
- Highway of Tomorrow (Series 3, 2000)
- Ultimate Pursuits (Series 5, 2007)
Is there such a trope for this? Or is it Missing Episode?
openNo Title Live Action TV
Is this No, Except Yes, Right for the Wrong Reasons, or something else?
Alice is a member of a category (often religious). She complains about something. Given the thing complained about Bob understandably asks "Are you offended because of [your category]? Alice replies "No, I'm offended because [something else].'
- Seinfeld: Jerry's dentist converts to Judaism and then starts telling jew jokes. Jerry goes to the man's former priest to complain. Priest: "And that offends you as a Jewish person?" Jerry: "No, that offends me as a comedian."
- WWE: Shawn Michaels complains about the Katie Vick angle. "And that offends you as a Born Again Christian?" "No, it offends me as a wrestling fan!"
openNo Title Live Action TV
I read a Doctor Who novel where the Tenth Doctor and Rose go to ancient Rome, and the Doctor wears a toga. But when there was an actual TV episode where he went there (with Donna Noble), he saw no need to change out of his regular clothes.
So the situation is that the novel presented the idea that the Doctor would wear a toga in Rome, but the TV episode debunked that. It's like Joss but with Expanded Universe material instead of fan theories.
Is that a trope?
openNo Title Live Action TV
So Genre Savvy is getting cleaned up for misuse, which has also happened on The West Wing. But with a couple of those examples, the characters are talking about how something is going to play in the media/news cycle. Would that still count as Genre Savvy?
openNo Title Live Action TV
I am totally sure that this trope is here somewhere, but do you guys know, where can i find about how 'Good' seems to get away doing not so nice, humiliating things. It happens lots of times, the good guys made a funny, practical joke on the soon-to-be antagonist/minion/goon, and we are like, thats okay, 'coz they are the good guys, but what the other bad guy did to revenge it is far more worse. But there are times, where I think its not true, it just seems like the good side is in some kind of positive karma debt, which sliding the scales in favor of them becoming some kind of minor karma houdini, or something like that. So, can you help me, whats this trope is?
(sorry, if i have made mistakes, english, isn't my first language)
openNo Title Live Action TV
I have tried to find this trope here but it seems it hasn't been codified yet. When the Hero is on the run, he find someone to help him (almost always an elderly gentleman with a shaddy past trying to atone for his sins). They sit at the dining table, chat while drinking alcohol. Hero then leaves, but seconds after the bad guy comes knocking at the door of the gentleman, asking about the hero. gentleman lies and seems to be getting away with it until the bad guy look t his table and see two glasses instead of one. The main part of this trope is that the hero is betrayed by dishes on the table.
I have seen this scene a dozen times in both television and movies. Is it worthy of note?
Edited by MajorStrangeropenNo Title Live Action TV
Is there a trope for when someone bets to "eat their own hat" or similar?
Seems pretty common to me. although no one ever goes through with it (at least outside cartoons)
openNo Title Live Action TV
Is there a trope for a certain camera trick/angle where people who are standing in a straight line when seen from a head on perspective, but are suddenly "stacked" so you can see all their faces when filming the line from the side. While the example I have in mind is Live Action TV, the page pic for Cheeky Mouth shows pretty well the what I'm talking about.
Edited by randomsurferopenNo Title Live Action TV
Is there a trope for when a departed character is replaced by a series of surrogates? The classic example is Dobie Gilis's endless parade of Girls of the Week following the departure of Thalia Menninger. Other examples are the various best friends/partners in crimes introduced for Beaver Cleaver and Lucy Carmichael in the absences of Larry Mondello and Vivian Bagley.
On the other hand, Chatsworth Osborne, Jr. made everyone forget about Milton Armitage. Other characters who completely overshadowed their precursors are Mr. Mooney, Chachi and Michael and Stephanie on "Newhart."
The opposite of Chatsworth Osborne, Jr. is Warren Ferguson. Is there a means of distinguishing between a failed Suspiciously Similar Substitute and a successful one?
openNo Title Live Action TV
Is there a trope for something like Accidental Insult? Where someone says something innocently, but it could be interepreted as insulting. The person saying it may not even notice but explains nonetheless.
- The Dick Van Dyke Show: In "The Man from My Uncle" G-men are investigating a neighbor of Rob's. The one sent to do the stakeout is black (played by Geoffrey Cambrige).
G-Man: Where should I set up?Rob: I'll take you to the boys room. note "Boy" is historically a belittling word to call a black manG-Man: I beg your pardon?Rob: [oblivious to the insult] Richie, my son.G-Man: Ohh.
openNo Title Live Action TV
The promotion or narration of a TV show deliberately promises more than it can possibly deliver. This isn't just about clever editing to suggest a show has more action than it does, it's about an explicit statement that's meant to make you believe something about the content that the show can't deliver.
The classic example would be the opening narration to the 1979 series Salvage 1. In the original pilot movie the characters built a rocket out of junk and travelled to the moon to salvage all the NASA equipment that was left there.
The strong ratings for the TV movie led to it being picked up as a series. The opening sequence for the series featured numerous space-travel clips from the pilot and included the narration "...and they went to the moon! Who knows what they'll do next?"
Obviously, that promises adventures even more incredible than going to the moon... which on a regular series budget, they couldn't possibly hope to deliver. They never went into space again and had regular Earthbound adventures, which is probably why they made 20 episodes but only showed 16 before the show was pulled.
Edited by AVR2openNo Title Live Action TV
I know we have this, just don't remember what it's called. Life Equals People. The specific example was about Star Trek where they'd go to some lush green planet with birds chirping in the background and confidently declare "no life signs," meaning no humanoid or other intelligent life. Plants and birds don't count as life.
Edited by randomsurferopenNo Title Live Action TV
Is there a trope for a businessman/captain of industry/etc. who has a portrait of themselves in their office? Taken Up To Eleven on The Colbert Report where Colbert has a portrait of himself standing in front of the previous portrait of himself, standing in front of the previous portrait of himself.
openNo Title Live Action TV
What's the trope for when a character becomes several years older or younger after an Other Darrin? Hey Dad..! had Jenny get substantially younger and Boy Meets World had Morgan grow substantially older. There was also one soap where a character went upstairs a little boy and came down a little girl in a following episode.

Fulfill your dreams so we can kill you at the end of the episode...
Trope often found in long-running TV series.
Near the beginning of an episode a character fulfills one of their lifelong dreams, apologizes to their parents to whom they held a grudge for decades, tells their friend to hold onto their important plot item, and/or tells all the important characters around them to leave to pursue their dreams... all while having no idea they are about to die. This makes the eventual crying audience member more willing to accept their death as "not being that bad".
I looked for it here, and the closest things I found were: I'm Dying, Please Take My MacGuffin, Almost Dead Guy, Take Care of the Kids, and Bequeathed Power, but these all refer to people doing it as they are dying, not at the beginning of the episode in which they will later die.