History Series / WhiteHousePlumbers

* SmallNameBigEgo: Both Liddy and Hunt think [[WrongGenreSavvy that they are heroic spies valiantly protecting America from communism]] and are valued by Nixon and his administration. In reality, they are a pair of incompetent crooks whom Nixon and his reelection committee view as expendable idiots and the only thing they are protecting is Richard Nixon's political career,([[NiceJobFixingItVillain and ironically they end up destroying it]]). Hunt eventually figures this out, but Liddy, being the delusional fool he is, still thinks he's a big shot all the way to the end.

* DumbassHasAPoint: Several characters chastise Gordon for shredding the Nixon reelection campaign's money, though Liddy defends his decision since money can leave a paper trail that the federal authorities can identify one way or another. Considering what happens when the Nixon White House has Dorthy Hunt pay the Cuban burglars with hush money, which is one of the factors that causes Nixon to resign as President, he's technically right.
** Earlier, Liddy points out that the Dita Beard memo could actually pose a serious problem. His concerns are brushed off by Jeb, who assures him that it'll all blow over. SmashCut to the Senate Judiciary Committee announcing an investigation...

* HowWeGotHere: The first episode begins with the Plumbers attempting to break into the DNC office--and failing. (It's the second attempt of what were eventually four.) Then the series jumps back over a year to Hunt and Liddy meeting and forming the Plumbers.

* StealingFromTheHotel: When Liddy realizes that he'll soon be under investigation for burglarizing the DNC headquarters as the Watergate, he attempts to find and dispose of the little Watergate soaps he brought back home.

** Liddy is introduced showing a secretary how to kill an attacker with a pencil, showing him as an unhinged and self-appointed defender of justice.

* WhoShotJFK: Liddy the weirdo starts pumping Hunt the CIA agent to find out who really killed Kennedy. Hunt says that on the day of the assassination he was in DC having lunch with his wife, "[[CouldSayItBut as I told the Warren Commission.]]"
** In episode 4 Howard, demanding that the White House protect him, says that he knows a lot of secrets about a lot of stuff, including "a certain event in Dallas."
** The idea that the CIA killed Kennedy is pushed again in episode 5 when Frank Sturges tells Howard to keep his mouth shut about the "trip to Dallas."

* WomenAreWiser: Dorothy has a better grasp of the situation than Howard and manages most of the hush money payments to the Cuban burglars. Once Dorothy is killed, Howard's inability to understand that the White House is going to scapegoat him proves to be his downfall.

** During the stakeout on Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist, he mentions to Gordon that his wife Dorthy was uncomfortable about the Nazi speeches, since he fought in World War II to help America stop Hitler's mad ambitions.

** Magruder says, re: the ITT bribe, that "This will blow over, trust me." Cut to a news report saying that Dita Beard has been subpoenaed to testify before the U.S. Senate.

* RunningGag: Gordon Liddy's weird Nazi fetish. Liddy would like to name their special ops group "Project ODESSA" after the operation that smuggled ex-Nazis [[ArgentinaIsNaziLand to South America]]. During a meeting Mark Felt he references [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nacht_und_Nebel Night and Fog]]. When he and Hunt are flying back east after breaking into an office, Liddy asks a stewardess for a beer--"anything German." When Howard and Dorothy pay a visit to the Liddy home, Gordon entertains them by playing Hitler speeches on the record player, much to Dorothy's horror. During the last episode, Liddy sings a Hitler anthem and does the Nazi salute, which one of the prisoners does in return.

* StupidCrooks: Or Stupid Black Ops Specialists, although basically, they're stupid crooks. An attempt at burglarizing DNC headquarters goes awry when they forget their burglary tools. They adopt comically awful disguises for breaking into a psychiatrist's office. The walkie-talkies that they buy for use in burglarizing said office don't work.
** Hunt and Liddy get a CIA camera for use when scouting Dr. Fielding's office. They ''leave the film in the camera'' when returning it, so at the end of Episode 1 the CIA has photos of the two of them on their absurd recon mission.

** When they finally make it into the Watergate, [[HopeSpot everything works perfectly, and they plant the bugs and get out]]--except that only one of [=McCord=]'s several bugs works, and that one only gets a secretary talking about her hairdo. They decide to go back and replace [=McCord=]'s defective bugs, which leads to complete disaster.

* TruthInTelevision: Liddy does indeed become an occasional actor once released from prison but as well as a recurring role on 'Miami Vice' he appeared on 'Airwolf', 'MacGyver' and nearly a hundred other movies and tv show episodes. He would also become a popular public speaker, radio talk show host and author. After prison Hunt would go back to a successful writing career and remarry, having two more children. Both men would die millionaires.

* KilledMidSentence: In episode 4 Dot is spilling the beans about the Kennedy assassination to a reporter on a plane. She says "The truth is, Howard was in a--", and the plane goes into a dive. It proceeds to crash, offscreen.

* SmallNameBigEgo: Both Liddy and Hunt think that they are heroic spies valiantly protecting America from communism and are valued by Nixon and his administration. In reality they are a pair of incompetent crooks whom Nixon and his reelection committee view as expendable idiots and the only thing they are protecting is Richard Nixons political career,(and ironically they end up destroying it). Hunt eventually figures this out but Liddy being the delusional fool he is still thinks he's a big shot all the way to the end.

** During the stakeout on Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist, he mentions to Gordon that his Dot was uncomfortable about the Nazi speeches, since he fought in World War II to help America stop Hitler's mad ambitions.

** Liddy is told that one of the Project Gemstone missions is a go. He says "Which Project Gemstone was approved?" Cut to the gang, looking at the Watergate, at the end of episode 2.

* TheComicallySerious: Liddy. He attacks all his ridiculous missions as if they're the Manhattan Project. He never uses contractions. He talks in an oddly stiff and formal way that the CIA disguise guy laughs at when handing out their silly wigs.

* ExtremeDoormat: Fran Liddy, who shows [[Literature/TheStepfordWives Stepford]]-ish subservience to Gordon. When she ventures to disagree with Gordon at dinner with the Hunts and he says "Shush," she does. As she's driving Gordon to a meeting in episode 4 she chirps that she's only driving the car because he said she could.

* GovernmentConspiracy: One of the most famous of all time. The Whitehouse attempted to undermine its political rivals by underhanded dirty tricks.

** In episode 3 Dot points out that all of Howard and Gordon Liddy's stunts are entirely pointless, that Nixon is going to win reelection with ease so there is no need for all of their comic skullduggery. Nixon won 49 states, but Hunt and Liddy's stupidity wound up driving him from office less than halfway through his second term.

* RetiredBadass: How both Liddy and Hunt view themselves. Liddy's mustache and loud '70s clothing greatly contrast with the conservative, clean-cut image of Hoover's FBI. Liddy wants to use lie detectors, which Special Agent Mark Felt tells him the Bureau no longer uses. Hunt resents Kennedy for not supporting the Bay of Pigs invasion. Hunt writes novels to escape his boring job in public relations.
* RunningGag: Gordon Liddy's weird Nazi fetish. Liddy would like to name their special ops group "Project ODESSA" after the operation that smuggled ex-Nazis [[ArgentinaIsNaziLand to South America]]. During a meeting Mark Felt he references [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nacht_und_Nebel Night and Fog]]. When he and Hunt are flying back east after breaking into an office, Liddy asks a stewardess for a beer--"anything German." When Howard and Dorothy pay a visit to the Liddy home, Gordon entertains them by playing Hitler speeches on the record player, much to Dorothy's horror.

* ShamefulStrip: When Hunt and Liddy have to strip and spread their cheeks for a body cavity search upon reporting to prison. Liddy the freak is not actually shamed at all, but Hunt clearly is.

* WomenAreWiser: Dorothy has a better grasp of the situation than Howard and manages most of the hush money payments to the burglars. Once Dorothy is killed. Howard's inability to understand that the White House is going to scapegoat him proves his downfall.
** Howard's daughter also contrasts Howard's situation with John Deans. She states Dean has clearly listened to his wife and manages to turn whistleblower and then later a celebrity pundit.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: The show implies that the plane crash that killed Dorothy Hunt was murder done to silence her. A vaguely shady guy takes a long look at her as she's boarding, the crash happens while she's confessing a lot of stuff to a reporter about Watergate and the Kennedy assassination, and the closing CreditsGag refers to "a mysterious plane crash." In fact, while CBS News reporter Michele Clark was also killed in the crash, there's no evidence that she and Dorothy ever talked, and the crash of United Flight 553 isn't mysterious: it was [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_553 pilot error]]. Though given the timing and the people involved, it certainly generated a ''lot'' of conspiracy theories.

* WomenAreWiser: Dorothy has a better grasp of the situation than Howard and manages most of the payments to eh burglars. Once Dorothy is killed. Howard's inability to understand that the White House is going to scapegoat him proves his downfall.

* HauledBeforeASenateSubcommittee: Not the first one in American history but the TropeCodifier. Various people testify before the Senate committee on Watergate; Hunt waits too long to give his testimony and John Dean steals his thunder.

* PetTheDog: Liddy keeps himself busy in prison by helping several wrongly convicted inmates file their appeals. He also petitions to enable a Jewish inmate to obtain kosher meals, though he ruins the moment by bursting into a Nazi ballad.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: The show implies that the plane crash that killed Dorothy Hunt was murder done to silence her. A vaguely shady guy takes a long look at her as she's boarding, the crash happens while she's confessing a lot of stuff to a reporter about Watergate and the Kennedy assassination, and the closing CreditsGag refers to "a mysterious plane crash." In fact, while CBS News reporter Michele Clark was also killed in the crash, there's no evidence that she and Dorothy ever talked, and the crash of United Flight 553 isn't mysterious: it was [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_553 pilot error]].

** In episode 4, Hunt gets a phone call from Bob Woodward. It's a voice cameo from none other than Creator/RobertRedford, who of course played Woodward in the definitive movie about Watergate, ''Film/AllThePresidentsMen''.

* CallForward: Mark Felt (Creator/GaryCole) says that the FBI, while unwilling to do anything illegal, is dedicated to ferreting out White House leaks. Felt will soon become the biggest White House leak of all when he starts leaking to the Washington Post as "Deep Throat".
* TheCameo: In episode 4, Hunt gets a phone call from Bob Woodward. It's a voice cameo from none other than Creator/RobertRedford, who of course played Woodward in the definitive movie about Watergate, ''Film/AllThePresidentsMen''.