Someone leaves quickly and their chair spins Live Action TV

Hey folks.

It seems like this is common enough, but I can't find it here. Someone is either caught in a lie, is embarrassed, or for some other reason wants to leave quickly. You see them sitting in the chair first, cut to someone or something else, then cut back, but they're gone and the empty chair is spinning.

Here's an example from Arrested Development, s2e18.

https://youtu.be/9-PkutG_Q2Q?t=70

Thanks! j

Criminal Gives Family Gifts Live Action TV

Is there a trope for when a career criminal arrives home and gives everyone a gift - which he bought with his ill-gotten money? The scenes I have in mind usually involve the mobster pushing some expensive piece of electronics to his mother, the mother complains that it's too complicated to use and pushing it away, then the mobster gets mad because he feels guilty about his criminal life and is trying to buy his family's love as a for of penitence.

Controversial characters? Live Action TV

I'm trying to update Series.Greys Anatomy but am not sure what trope fits these:

• Ava / Jane Doe / Rebecca Pope was divisive amongst the Grey's Anatomy fandom, especially due to the morality of her doctor falling in love with her; the whole Story Arc was seen as questionable at best, with some viewers seeing a Hard Truth Aesop in it, but Word of God is there wasn't meant to be An Aesop.

• The 2018-2019 season was seen as having too much Filler and Jo Wilson was disliked by some quarters of the fandom for having too much of a Trauma Conga Line and not being likeable enough, plus Megan Hunt (portrayed by Abigail Spencer) was someone the fans wanted to see more of, but the actor's schedule did not allow for that.

Visual Euphemism Live Action TV

What, if any, is the trope for when a certain object serves as shorthand for something that's too dirty to be shown or mentioned directly? For instance, tissues and lotion for male masturbation, batteries for female masturbation, toilet paper for Toilet Humor, cigarettes after sex...

Fictional universe and real world simultaneously? Live Action TV

Trying to find a trope for Series.Agents Of SHIELD Double Agent:

• The show uses a dual universe format, mixing elements of reality with Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Format shift? Live Action TV

Trying to find a trope for What Could Have Been and Trivia.Love Island:

• On the 2018 series of Series.Love Island in the United Kingdom there were plans for a Something Completely Different episode where the format was more serious in tone for one episode, and the episode would have felt like it was from a different genre altogether, but this was pulled over fears of it being an Audience-Alienating Premise.

Inconsistancy Live Action TV

When a character is not holding something, then the camera angle changes or there is another take filmed and suddenly he/she is holding something. A variation could be a character's pose changing during above situations.

With the switch there is no reasonable time for the character to pick anything up or change position.

What would this trope be?

Paranoia actually worked? Live Action TV

I'm sure I've seen this trope in some shows:

• Bob is Properly Paranoid, and tells Alice who ignores his paranoia; in the end, his paranoia is actually right and he was largely ignored. Bob's paranoia becomes a useful skill in his A Day in the Limelight episode.

Actual schizophrenia character trope Live Action TV

In the summer of 2020 I found a trope with schizophrenia that wasn't funny schizophrenia or schizophrenia conspiracy. In it I found Grey's anatomy where it said that Alex's mother suffered from schizophrenia, which I couldn't possibly have known at the time because I've never seen it but I started watching it there in the summer and I found out that his mother did indeed have schizophrenia. But I can't find the trope anywhere or the mention of his mother's schizophrenia in the tropes for the show or any other related tropes for that matter. So I'm just wondering what happened to the trope? Was it moved/renamed? If so where is it now? Or was it removed? If so what was it called?

Trope where nobody notices the truth Live Action TV

This trope is common in sitcoms and some kids shows

A character claims something (such as they saw a weird animal, an alien, a monster etc) but none of the other characters believe them. The rest of the episode consists of them trying to find it again (such as searching in the woods, setting traps, going to the location where it happened etc) but it never appears and the attempts to prove them right usually comically fail.

At the end of the episode, they all give up but the thing they were looking for appears but nobody notices because they all left.

Circular trope? Live Action TV

Is there such a trope for this scenario:

• Alice has an invention which won't work without Bob's invention to power it; but Bob's invention won't work without Alice's to move it.

Is that Catch-22 Dilemma or another trope?

Instantly overcoming known plot point offscreen Live Action TV

Might be a subtrope of Offscreen Reality Warp but it does not fit the bill exactly: In H₂O: Just Add Water the main characters turn into mermaids, whenever they get wet and only turn back into human form when they are dry again. Even though they have ways to speed up the process it is made clear that the switch back can take significant time. Nevertheless sometimes the switch back happens offscreen with almost no time lost between two scenes. For example when they chase some bad guys from sea on to land. I don't know if there is a specific trope for that with a catchy title but I think there should be and there have to be more examples from other media.

Televangelist Hair Live Action TV

I've noticed on TV, television pastors often have enormous, fake-looking hair (I don't know if it's a reference to something or tradition), sometimes chalk-white, too. Is there a general trope for that?

Character suddenly has more revealed about them? Live Action TV

What sort of trope would this be:

• In The Good Doctor, Dr. Morgan Reznick was largely The Spook until Season 3 episode "Sex and Death" which fleshed out her background and relationship with her family.
• In a Continuity Reboot of Grey's Anatomy, Amelia Shepherd shows up with no background or exposition and her past is a Mysterious Past other than she's the sister of Derek Shepherd. However, in Season 6, her backstory and motives are revealed via a Whole Episode Flashback after 5 seasons of her being The Spook.

Character's biased retelling is juxtaposed with how an event actually played out Live Action TV

Is there a trope for when a character's biased retelling of a past event is played alongside, in flashbacks, clips showing what really happened, serving as juxtaposition for the retelling? One example is in Cobra Kai, Season 1, Episode 8, where Johnny Lawrence retells to Miguel the story of how his girlfriend left him for Daniel La Russo in the 80s. Johnny Lawrence remembers it as him "having a civil conversation" with her, and defending himself when Daniel attacked after being told to mind his own business. However, the interspersed clips show that Johnny was actually the aggressor in this situation, with Daniel being the one who has to defend himself.

Some kind of missing the point Live Action TV

Early on in "Mr. Monk and the Girl Who Cried Wolf", Monk helps Benji set up a formation of dominoes. Once the dominoes are all set, it's time for the most fun part of all: putting them away one by one. Fortunately for Benji, his mom slamming door causes the first domino to fall on the next one and set off the chain reaction.

I think this is some kind of Completely Missing the Point, except that's been split off to two sub-tropes, neither of which quite fits this thing with the dominoes (though Monk does provide several examples of both, and to a lesser extent the other regulars).

What is this trope of setting up something elaborate to have it fall over or set it on fire or in some other way disturb it, but a character thinks the payoff is neatly putting it away?

Characters not using oven mitts? Live Action TV

Hey, I tried finding anything about this on the site but nothing came up.

I've been watching 2 shows in a row now where the characters pull something that should be freshly cooked and hot out of the oven but aren't wearing oven mitts. Their hands should be burning, but it's all fine.

This happens multiple times on Frasier, especially any episodes where they're trying to throw yet another failed dinner party. I'm watching Regular Show and it just happened again in the season 5 Thanksgiving special.

This is something that seems like more of a continuity error than a plot convention. Is this worth cataloguing, and is it something that happens often enough?

Fantasy girl versus real girl Live Action TV

Guy creates video game, or video game equivalent, with his unrequited crush's image in it. She is, however, much nicer and more simpering than real girl. Usually the girl finds out but not always. Examples that come to mind:

Warehouse 13 where Doug creates Princess Claudia. Real Claudia is not impressed.

Agents of SHIELD where Deke creates fake Daisy. Daisy does not find out in this but Mac does and threatens to tell Daisy often.

Similar to Buffy the Vampire Slayer where Spike gets Warren to build Buffybot. Also a nicer, more acquiescing personality.

Aesop tropes? Live Action TV

I've got two examples but not the trope:

Live Action TV

• Supergirl (2015) had the episode "Confidence Woman" which was A Day in the Limelight, but not a Villain Episode for Andrea Rojas / Acrata. The aesop of the episode was seen as "Not all villainous people are necessarily evil people, just misguided", although one aesop the episode was supposed to show was "Betrayal will happen in your lifetime to you, no matter what you do, we all go through it", yet the actual aesop was more like "What?"

Western Animation

• Dexter's Laboratory had an episode, "Framed", a Speech-Centric Work which was supposed to be about trends and why succumbing to peer pressure isn't the right thing, but the entire point of the aesop was lost at the end when Mandark, the Big Bad showed up in a cameo with a cast on his arm and people were saying how cool it was.

Snarky But Reliable Omniscient Narrator Live Action TV

As in Arrested Development:

Character on the phone: I am so sorry. // V/O: He wasn't.

I did not know. // He did.

I'll do everything to make it up to you. V/O: But he wouldn't.

Villain isn't even threatening and doesn't even harass people? Live Action TV

I'm sure I've seen this trope in a few series:

• On Alice and Carol: The Vacation, the main villain is Katie, and her daughter Jane, who's 25. Katie harasses Alice to the point she's a Broken Bird, but Jane doesn't even want to do anything villainous, and just wants to be friends with Alice. Yet Jane is treated as the villain In-Universe and out-of-universe. Alice wants to be friends with her, and doesn't seem to see her as villainous; Jane does too, but doesn't care about the fact her mom would be furious with this friendship.
  • Katie is the villain, and although she seems Affably Evil, anything can set off a villainous scheme for her and get a Hair-Trigger Temper happening.

Bullies empowered by naive teacher? Live Action TV

Is there a trope for a situation where someone in a position of authority tries to solve a problem in a naïve manner, and ends up making it much worse - for instance, a teacher wants to put an end to bullying by making a presentation with some students, and the students that take part of it end up being bullied (because it's an embarassing presentation, and they're being narcs by siding with the teacher).

This situation is a bit too rare but the general idea applies for different scenarios - a cop tries to do some community outreach but the people who talk to him end up being harassed by gangs, a boss tries to get employees to work harder but they end up as goldbrickers, et cetera.

Actor injury that doesn't carry over to the character, but still influences the writing? Live Action TV

Written-In Infirmity is for characters who have their actors' injuries, but this example is just an actor being injured and the episode being written to prevent her exacerbating her injury.

Specifically, Jenna Fisher injured her back before shooting for Season 4 of The Office and so they had her and Jim walk during the Fun Run, but at no point is Pam said to be injured, so it isn't Written-In Infirmity.

Can I just put it under Actor-Inspired Element?

Adaptation family expansion Live Action TV

Is there a trope where a new version of a property gives the main character a big family expansion?

For example, a series had its main character be an only child and their parents only occasionally appearing, no aunts or uncles, and no children until near the end of the series. Then, a reboot happens, and suddenly the parents are regulars, the main character has siblings, and they not only have kids, but multiple teenagers as well.

Officer-Enlisted Rivalry Live Action TV

Mr. Harridan, a Navy veteran who reached the rank of chief petty officer, expects an apology from Commander Rabb in the JAG episode "Heroes." Rabb wants to talk to Mr. Harridan in private. Mr. Harridan says this is because officers don't like to apologize to enlisted in public. Of course Rabb's not there to apologize, but that's not relevant to this trope.

This is a little bit like Interservice Rivalry and Don't Call Me "Sir", and I thought either of those would point me in the right direction, but no luck.