When you find yourself trying to remember a show (or any works) that's on the tip of your tongue but just out of reach, come here - the collective brain of the TVTropes community can probably help. Post all the details you can remember (examples help). If you're looking for a trope, head over to Trope Finder. Have general questions about tropes? Visit Ask The Tropers!
Find a Show:
openThe Crystal Maze in SPACE Live Action TV
I remember watching a show that was almost literally The Crystal Maze Recycled In SPACE.
The conceit was that the host/commander and his gynoid assistant brought teams onto a derelict space station to compete in tasks and see who can salvage the most supplies. The final task was a timed obstacle course and any team that failed to get back onto the ship would be abandoned.
Does this ring a bell for anybody?
Edited by civetcatcoffeeopenEarly 2000s Kids Show Live Action TV
Source: I remember watching this on basic TV. I believe it was on Fox or WB.
Timeframe: Possibly late 90s but more likely early 2000s. It was on early in the morning before school sometime around 7am PST.
Medium: I believe it was live action. Real people and real scenery with some animated characters added. If not, then it was all real people with some people in costumes for non-human characters.
Show details: The protagonist of the show was a young boy maybe middle-school age. I believe the boy was the only non-animated major character. He encountered an adult character and they together got involved in a plot against the antagonist who was a non-human jester or magician of some sort. The antagonist had minions. I remember the show taking place at the boy's school, and his home. Through the show the boy had to collect medallion or puzzle pieces (I want to say 25 pieces) to complete an object that could stop the antagonist. Or possibly to prevent the antagonist from making the object. I believe that the object was gold with a red orb in the center. It was finally completed in the final episode. The show wasn't that many episodes. It was like 1 episode per medallion/puzzle piece collected.
Random detail that might matter. I seem to remember there being a garden gnome at the boy's house and a character pointed it out.
I know the details are kind of vague but my memory is quite fuzzy on this. This has been bugging me a lot ever since I remembered. Thanks for any help!
openYet another show I saw when I was younger Live Action TV
This show was a lot like Paranormal Witness but much older, it was also played on the old Sci-fi channel, the episode I remember the most is a woman in her house alone in the middle of the night and a ghostly man is standing outside her sliding glass door and she keeps yelling at him to go away and leave her alone, thank you in advance I'm sure it's quite vague.
Edited by ReddLightningopenIs this show even real? Live Action TV
I remember a scene from a show, where a black girl teleports herself inside a cave (not through a device, but like magically). As far as I remember that could've been the base of operation of a group as I remember her being one of the main characters and all of them being able to teleport back to there. I saw this around 15-20 years ago on a Spanish kid TV channel, but it wasn't a Spanish show (maybe European or American) so maybe that helps identifying the kind of show it was. I've been looking for this show for years and the details I remember gets less vivid with time to the point that I don't even know if any of it is real. Anybody has any info on a show like this?
openMovie or TV show about a... Satan orb? Live Action TV
There was a show or movie my dad was watching when I was a kid, and all I remember about it is that there was this silvery little orb, about the size of a tennis ball, that was at least implied to be the antichrist. I very vividly remember an older woman in a graveyard who touched it by accident and started bleeding to death from her nose and eyes. That's all I remember, but I was thinking about it recently and wondered if anyone could help me figure out what it was.
openFrom Tropaholics Anonymous Live Action TV
Two examples found on Tropaholics Anonymous are lacking a title. Please help sourcing them, so they can be uncommented:
- One literal Lifetime Movie of the Week has one of these for a son who'd been beating his mother, engaging in a few Freudian slips in his near-Motive Rant at which the guy he's talking to nods in an irritatingly smug, see-what-you-said-there way.
- Another has a woman going to one for co-dependents after finally being forced to admit that her husband is a sex addict and that she's enabling him.
openStolen Boba Fett figure Live Action TV
I distinctly remember seeing an episode of a police procedural where a son has stolen a Boba Fett figure from his uncle and the uncle wants the boy's parents to replace it, since it was removed from its packaging. The father is dismissive of the uncle's claim of how expensive it is, and ridicules his brother for being "nerdy" and "not as family focused" as him. Initially they believe the son only took the figure because he wanted to play with it, but it turns out he planned on selling it and didn't realise removing it from its packaging would devalue it.
I was reminded of this when I saw a Reddit post describing these exact events. Every detail was exactly the same, and I know I've seen it in a show.
I think it was a Mentalist or Lie to Me episode, but both of those are usually about murders. It could have been a B plot, but it's much harder to search episode descriptions for that.
Edited by BetterCallSorinresolved (SOLVED) 2 children's shows of similar format + story in a different world Live Action TV
Sometime back in grade school (maybe late 2000's or early 2010's), my class sometimes watched an episode of this series a day. I can only guess the show was British since I was attending a British school. Sometime after we finished that show, I recall watching another similar one, just with a different theme. I may not remember too much but here's what I got:
Show #1: Some kids went to a store (like a book/antique/some traditional looking store) and get sucked into a fantasy world. The obstacles they encounter on their quest to return home come off as puzzles, critical thinking or otherwise. The final episode has them return to the real world and back at the store, and (I'm unsure if this was always there since the start of the show, but) closer to the end, a piece of (wall?) decor that looked like one of the fantastical companions the friends made in the other world moved (its face, maybe a smile or a wink), perplexing an adult/older person who happened to see it.
Show #2: Likely a different cast of kids, but trapped Inside a Computer System somehow, and I distinctly remember this show having a villain for the kids to defeat (the first show probably had a Big Bad too, but I don't recall). He was a virus of sorts that looked like a man, and what definitely stuck with me is that he could trick allies of the kid protagonists, namely a teacher in the real world, to help him in obstructing the kids' escape, like by asking her to do something on the computer to help him recover. Puzzle quests were probably in motion here too. The series concludes after the virus man disintegrates upon being defeated, and the kids probably return home.
Thank you all in advance for the help! 🙏
Edited by BlackFaithStarresolved Hoarder cleaning TV Show Live Action TV
I remember that around 2010 (probably more like before 2010), there was this maybe British Reality TV Show about two professional cleaners (a woman with blond hair in a top knot, and another woman with boyish hair and glasses) who were cleaning the houses of hoarders. I specifically remember that the short-haired woman was a microbiologist and she would take samples from the surfaces to analyze in the lab, while explaining what microbes she found, what caused their presence and what they do to the human body. This is where I learned what Salmonella is. The two were ALWAYS wearing white labcoats (or cleaning uniforms that look a lot like labcoats).
Ring any bells?
Edited by LermisopenCommercial with a bunch of people playing instruments in the street Live Action TV
I remember a commercial a few years ago, maybe around 2018/19?, that had a bunch of people playing different instruments in different places that were cut together and there was a guy with stilts? I think it was a cell/phone commercial? People were playing like drums, guitars, violins, trumpets, clarinets, saxophones, etc.
resolved Baby-Focused Game Show Live Action TV
A gameshow where the contestants were mommies and their babies, and I think they competed in baby games, and the grand prize was a cash prize that goes to the baby's college savings.
openNo Title Live Action TV
Ok, this one has driven me crazy for years, and thus far, I haven't found a match on here... Live Action TV show, presumably for kids. I watched it in the early 90's, but the style of the show indicates it may have its origin in the 80's. I remember one specific scene: Kid in jeans about 8-10 is in their room playing with their stuffed animals (who talk like hand puppets with gaping mouths despite being full-bodied). Makes a blanket fort around the dresser and bed, and the stuffed animals were helping them. Then a mummified stuffed animal with glowing red eyes comes out from the dark and starts terrorizing all of them and rips apart a stuffed animal.
openCommander something? Art/sketch instruction show on PBS. Live Action TV
The opening and/or closing credits were made up of some sketch animations that the host did. Like Joy of Painting and This Old House, the show was designed to teach you a skill. In this case sketch artistry. Mainly with pencil on paper. I know that it was on the air roughly from 1990-1992 on PBS. The host was male, looked to be in his twenties. From haircut to shirt he kind of reminds me of one of the Blues Clues guys, but he doesn't talk in any kind of artificial tone. Target demo appears to be teens or young adults.
resolved Fighting Animals Live Action TV
Anyone remember a semi-educational show?
It was shown on Discovery Channel, about some guys analyzing two different animals each episode, then building mechanical versions to and at the end there was a CGI scene showing which one would win.
Edited by ElBuenCuateopenepisode Live Action TV
Trying to remember TV show (or movie) where a character failed to act during a difficult moment. I don't remember what the consequences were, someone got hurt possible. What I remember is the character had kind of a mental breakdown and there were scenes afterwards where the character was in his home and watched the moment over and over from security footage. He timed it on the footage, it was a matter of seconds that he had to act. He then started doing tasks like tying his shoes, or seeing how long it would take to get undressed and get into bed, and he timed each to see it in relation to the difficult incident. I remember the character's friends came over to see how he was doing and assured him there was nothing he could have done, it happened too quick. He said No, it took XXX number of seconds. He told them (I'm approximating this, not sure the exact tasks) No, I could have done something. Do you know what you can do in XX seconds? You can tie your shoes, get undressed and into bed, you can XXXXX, all in XX seconds. Does this sound familiar to anyone? Thank you.
openWorld War 2 Docu series Live Action TV
So I remember watching this show on the American Heros Channel or Military History channel it was a show following special forces raids during WW 2 and I remember three episodes specifically that followed the raid on St. Nazaire, the battle for St. Mere Eglise the night before D-Day and an SAS raid against Rommel in North Africa. The show used this weird cgi similar to how they made the show Dogfights and the narration was done by younger versions of the people who took part in the raids and a central narrator who I’m pretty sure was the American narrator of the show I shouldn’t be alive and I think his name is Qarie Marshall but I’m not sure
openMade for TV (USA Network) 'hood movie from the 1990s Live Action TV
Okay, I remember this made-for-TV movie that aired on the USA Network in the 1990s. It was one of the many films that came out in the aftermath of 'hood films like "Boyz n the Hood."
Details are vague, but I remember this really young gang member, maybe 10 or so, named Little Puppet. He's the main villain's henchman.
openTv show ? Live Action TV
Im new so I hope I did this right! Lol but ok the show is like something about a guy who has some kind of powers. It starts off with a guy who’s on drugs & hes living in an abandoned church with his girlfriend. She ends up overdosing & dies. I honestly can’t remember but I believe he gets clean & with others uses his powers!? That’s all I can remember & it’s literally driving me crazy. So if anyone can help I’d appreciate it
Edited by PbxBaby

i saw this scene sometime during the late 00's on the latin american teen channel boomerang, but it's probably dubbed from an english-language show, or at least not from a spanish-language one.
two teen girls (both white, i think) are in a pool or some other body of water, and they make a blood oath by making a small cut in their palms and then grabbing each other's hand. when they do this, one of them, who may be a brunette, says the line "hermanas de sangre", which translates to "blood sisters". the line may be different in the original language. then the live action scene shifts into a still comic vignette of the girl saying the line. the girl may be antagonistic, and she may have come sort of supernatural power (being a witch maybe?) that might make it dangerous for the other girl to be her "blood sister".
i'm pretty sure the scene was from a "last week on..." recap of the actual show, and i have no real recollection of the plot, so my best bet is on the art shift. has anyone heard of this?