A wedding, any wedding, and most especially a wedding where an old flame shows up.
A cop, firefighter, soldier, etc. doing something dangerous just before retirement. Extra demerits if the something dangerous is defusing a bomb, and the bomb has a timer.
In sci-fi, someone develops increased intelligence and promptly Goes Evil for no apparent reason other than having superior intelligence.
On Bonanza, any engagement to one of the Cartwright boys was more lethal than anthrax to the actress that fell in love with Adam, Little Joe or Hoss. I was just a kid during the show’s prime time run, but even at the age of 9 I knew any future Mrs. Cartwright was a goner by the end of the episode. Hell, even old man Ben had sired his 3 sons by 3 different wives, all of whom had bit the dust before the series started.
Haven’t seen one of these recently, but any show involving a tomboyish female character who, for whatever reason, is shown the error of her ways and learns how nice and wonderful it is to wear pretty dresses and makeup and attract boys!
A callback to the lead actor’s previous show. It was cute the first time, Castle, but for gods’ sake it’s time to stand on your own.
Again, free pass for Newhart…
Which was also a spoof of another show (Dallas). That’s another one I hate.
Aah, yes, this one is so aggravating! Or the more general case, any misunderstanding that could be trivially dispelled in 30 seconds if only some character just opened their mouth and said what’s up, but somehow everyone expects ESP or thinks their point is too obvious.
How?
Also, especially in sitcoms, everything that can go wrong does. If I recall correctly, I think the series Coach stands out for this. Christine is trying to plan the perfect wedding and at some point during the ceremony ends up swinging from a chandelier.
This is the one I came in to mention. Without even trying I can think of three “baby in the elevatior shows” All in the Family, Benson, and Night Court did it. Any others?
And more specifically- remove glasses and straighten curly hair. Because no one with glasses and curls can be pretty
I think that’s why elevators now have emergency stop buttons you pull rather than push, but I think the elevators on sitcoms were grandfathered in so an errant elbow can still cause laffs to ensue.
Still bitter about Dawn, huh?
Here’s a popular soap trope but it’s happened in primetime dramas, too, I guess we can thank “Gone With The Wind” for it; no pregnant woman should ever go near stairs because she is going to fall or get pushed down them and lose the baby.
You don’t see much of them anymore, but around the '70s several shows did “Twelve Angry Men” episodes, where one of the characters had jury duty and held out for the accused person’s innocence against the other 11 jurors. These irrated me because in every case the lone juror was vindicated; some information emerged that proved that person’s innocence beyond a doubt. In “Twelve Angry Men,” the accused’s actual innocence is left unknown even after his acquittal–an important part of the play’s whole point about the nature of the judicial system which the sitcoms seem to have completely missed.
It’s kind of like that with Doctor Who. If there’s a pretty girl who would be an awesome companion, but who isn’t an official Companion, she will die.
I liked one of Stargate’s ones, Disclosure.
The existence of the Stargate program is being revealed to a few more major powers for the first time. Senator Kinsey spends the entire episode poisoning them against the SGC, right up until Thor stops by to hand him his ass.
I’m not a big fan of Abaddon on Supernatural, nor did I much like the Leviathan. I don’t like invulnerable, indestructible, unstoppable villains and the long, boring, drawn-out storylines to find the one teeny tiny thing that will take them down.
While that did happen on Buffy a lot, I did like how it was deconstructed too, with the miniature demon or the one they blew up with the rocket, no weapon known to man.
The Odd Couple did one in a stalled subways train, with a dog, rather than a human.
That’s not true; It’s a Wonderful Life was an adaptation of the short story “The Greatest Gift,” which was nothing at all like Dickens.
Didn’t happen to Sally Sparrow, who was clearly companion material (Moffat described her as such in the original script).
I’m tired of any story about a rich family. Rape and abduction cases depress me, although I enjoyed “Taken.” I hate any movie whose setting makes you think of slums in Iraq, Turkey, and general Somalia. The Hurt Locker might well be the last movie I’ll watch about Iraq/Afghanistan.
Lastly, nice rich girls who break away from their “stuffy” rich families to join good-for-nothing rebels is sooo 50s.
I know the origins of the film.
Thanks.
However, it is being exceptionally charitable to state that both The Greatest Gift and It’s a Wonderful Life can’t be traced very closely back to Dickens. A magical being appears and shows a person how his life is supposed to be?
Also, the short story The Greatest Gift is so different from IAWL that they barely resemble one another. The protagonist’s job is different, the S&L subplot isn’t there, George’s wife isn’t a spinster, but is married to a different man. There’s no subplot about the druggist almost poisoning a child by mistake and George stopping him. The name of the town doesn’t change.
The Clarence the angel subplot is isn’t there nor is the now famous ( but rather trite) ending about bells ringing/angel’s wings.
After RKO purchased the story, the director and writer performed extensive rewrites upon so that it barely resembles its source material. The main premise is the same ( a suicidal man sees how life would be without him) but almost none the remainder is.