# Shows that break reality/introduce supernatural elements but
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** tv-shows-scripted
**Created:** [April 12, 2020, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639 "2020-04-12T17:20:43Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2020, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639/1 "2020-04-12T17:20:43Z")
…its not really part of the show. Or like only .001% part of the show. You know what I mean?
30 Rock: Kenneth is immortal.
Night Court:Aliens exist and beam people out of court.
That sort of thing, other examples?
---
### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2020, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639/2 "2020-04-12T17:35:52Z")
Night Court also had a ghost who’s court case had never been adjudicated.
---
### Author:  [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2020, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639/3 "2020-04-12T18:45:07Z")
Magnum (of P.I. fame) is truly psychic. There are a few episodes that cannot be explained as real without the use of paranormal abilities. But it is easy to overlook as coincidence and insight.
---
### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2020, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639/4 "2020-04-12T18:55:06Z")
How about The Fonz’s “almost magical ability to manipulate technology with just a nudge, bump or a snap of his fingers for things such as starting a car, turning on lights, coaxing free sodas from a vending machine, making girls respond, or changing the song selection on a jukebox” on Happy Days?
(source of quote: [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fonzie))
---
### Author:  [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2020, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639/5 "2020-04-12T19:04:50Z")
Mork from Ork appeared on two episodes of _Happy Days_.
_The Waltons_ had a terrible episode called “The Changeling” about poltergeist-like activity. It’s been years since I saw it, but I think it’s at least implied that poltergeists are real.
On the _Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman_ episode “Halloween,” the spirit or ghost of Sully’s dead wife Abigail appears to Mike several times, saying “keep your damn hand off my husband” or words to that effect.
On _The Mentalist_, Patrick Jane always denies having psychic abilities, disclaims belief in the same, and exposes several frauds. His one-time love interest Kristina Frye is another story. She claims to be a psychic, but it’s left deliberately unclear whether she’s a real psychic, self-deluded, or a fraud.
---
### Author:  [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2020, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639/6 "2020-04-12T19:05:13Z")
^ Not to mention the fact that an extraterrestrial[turns up in one episode](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Favorite_Orkan).
(Full disclosure: I never could stand Happy Days so I’ve never seen the episode in question. I presume there’s just the one episode? Before he disappears off into his own spin-off, I mean.)
j
ETA: Not just ninja’d, but had my question answered as well - how 'bout that?
---
### Author:  [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2020, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639/7 "2020-04-12T19:07:02Z")
In the early seasons of “Frazier”, Daphne had psychic abilities. [One of the shows’ writers explains why it got dropped.](https://kenlevine.blogspot.com/2019/01/friday-questions_18.html)
---
### Author:  [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2020, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639/8 "2020-04-12T19:16:08Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#):
>
> 30 Rock: Kenneth is immortal.
South Park: Kenny is resurrected from the dead every new episode.
ETA: OK, I admit that South Park breaks reality in many other ways, but I couldn’t let that go.
---
### Author:  [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2020, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639/9 "2020-04-12T19:48:50Z")
> [@installLSC](#):
>
> In the early seasons of “Frazier”, Daphne had psychic abilities. [One of the shows’ writers explains why it got dropped.](https://kenlevine.blogspot.com/2019/01/friday-questions_18.html)
I’m pretty sure that all the examples of her ability could be explained as “Daphne believes she has psychic powers and interprets coincidences, etc. as evidence”
---
### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2020, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639/10 "2020-04-12T20:10:52Z")
One episode of The Black Adder indicated that the queen was an actual witch.
“Zubrovnik’s Ghost,” an episode of the first season of _Mission Impossible_, had a medium as part of the IMF conjuring up the ghost of a dead scientist. Even the very skeptical Rollin Hand can’t dismiss it as trickery.
---
### Author:  [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2020, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639/11 "2020-04-12T20:50:36Z")
While the James Bond movies are fairly outlandish at time they still are working in the real world.
This is all throw out the window for Live And Let Die where James Bond literally encounters real voodoo and a bad guy that’s implied to be an immortal God.
---
### Author:  [@Alpha\_Twit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alpha_Twit)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2020, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639/12 "2020-04-12T20:55:40Z")
> [@running\_coach](#):
>
> Night Court also had a ghost who’s court case had never been adjudicated.
[They also branched into animationland when Wile E. Coyote was hauled into court.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh1pZqmxvmM)
---
### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2020, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639/13 "2020-04-12T22:14:21Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#):
>
> I’m pretty sure that all the examples of her ability could be explained as “Daphne believes she has psychic powers and interprets coincidences, etc. as evidence”
IIRC, a **Bones** episode had an injured Booth, who may be hallucinating, get guided to safety by what may be the ghost of a guy he served with. So he can’t say for sure if he thinks the encounter was supernatural; the episode ends as he visits a graveyard with Brennan — who hangs back as Booth walks to a tombstone, so she’s free to chat with a guy who then walks up to her: _that soldier who guided Booth to safety!_
Except, of course, _she doesn’t know that_; as far as she knows, it’s just — some guy in a military uniform. And so Booth had an experience he can explain away, and Brennan had an experience she wouldn’t even think to explain away; it’s something they’d only really need to dwell on if they ever get around to comparing notes.
---
### Author:  [@Nicest\_of\_the\_Damned](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nicest_of_the_Damned)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2020, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639/14 "2020-04-12T22:26:02Z")
There was this episode of M_A_S\*H:
> [@](#):
>
> [“Follies of the Living-Concerns of the Dead”](https://www.mash4077tv.com/2013/09/episode-spotlight-follies-of-the-living-concerns-of-the-dead/)
>
> A feverish Klinger interacts with a dead soldier who wanders through the 4077th trying to come to terms with his death.
---
### Author:  [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2020, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639/15 "2020-04-12T22:35:56Z")
Perhaps not quite what the OP is looking for, but deserves a footnote in the discussion: in _Six Feet Under_, dead people came back to talk to characters on a regular basis, without ever actually affecting the plot. The show’s writer said that they were not supposed to be real ghosts, but rather to represent the inner dialog of key characters.
---
### Author:  [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2020, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639/16 "2020-04-12T22:47:34Z")
Perhaps not quite what the OP is looking for, but deserves a footnote in the discussion: in _Six Feet Under_, dead people came back to talk to characters on a regular basis, without ever actually affecting the plot. The show’s writer said that they were not supposed to be real ghosts, but rather to represent the inner dialog of key characters.
---
### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2020, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639/17 "2020-04-12T23:03:26Z")
On one of the later episodes of _Castle_, they arrest a man who claims to be a time traveler. Whether he actually is or isn’t is kept frustratingly unclear, but he certainly has a lot of information that he would have no other logical way of knowing. Other than that, the show had no SF elements.
---
### Author:  [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2020, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639/18 "2020-04-12T23:31:50Z")
I was just watching _Life of Brian_ with my son last night (great Easter movie!) and I had completely forgotten that at one point, in a totally pythonesque way, a random alien spaceship zooms by and accidentally saves Brian from falling off a tall building, before spending five minutes zooming through space in a wacky space gunfight
(actually, maybe that wasn’t even left in the original theatrical release? I don’t know! It sure was weird though)
---
### Author:  [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2020, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639/19 "2020-04-12T23:53:46Z")
There’s an apparent time traveler in an episode of Barney Miller, who is delighted to be meeting **The** Arthur Diedrick.
---
### Author:  [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2020, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639/20 "2020-04-13T00:13:07Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#):
>
> IIRC, a **Bones** episode had an injured Booth, who may be hallucinating, get guided to safety by what may be the ghost of a guy he served with. So he can’t say for sure if he thinks the encounter was supernatural; the episode ends as he visits a graveyard with Brennan — who hangs back as Booth walks to a tombstone, so she’s free to chat with a guy who then walks up to her: _that soldier who guided Booth to safety!_
>
> Except, of course, _she doesn’t know that_; as far as she knows, it’s just — some guy in a military uniform. And so Booth had an experience he can explain away, and Brennan had an experience she wouldn’t even think to explain away; it’s something they’d only really need to dwell on if they ever get around to comparing notes.
_Bones_ also had a bizarre cross-over with _Sleepy Hollow_, a show entirely about the supernatural. IIRC, neither episode had any overt supernatural elements - except, of course, the existence of Ichabod Crane, one of the main characters of _Sleepy Hollow_, who is, yes, _that_ Ichabod Crane, who spent a couple of centuries in magical suspended animation.
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639.md?page=2)