History StatusQuoIsGod / LiveActionTV

* If Status Quo Is God, ''Series/BabylonFive'' regularly commits deicide. Drastic, lasting changes often occur from episode to episode. Even in one relatively standalone episode from Season 2, a race is killed off. This ''is'' the series that gave us the trope name for NothingIsTheSameAnymore. Several of the actors commented that it was a great show to work on because they never knew what would be happening next and it was a given that their characters would change significantly over the course of the show's events.

** One of the most egregious examples occurs in "The Changeling", where the mad computer of the week erases Uhura's memory. Incredibly, she never gets it back, with the crew saying they'll simply teach her everything again. Sure enough, by next week's episode, she's back at her post as if nothing happened.

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'':

* ''Series/ICarly'': Every plot that involves a conflict between Carly and Sam, or a certain incident threatens the loss of one of the ThreeAmigos ends up being resolved in the same episode. They finally had an ongoing plot-arc during the "iSeddie" Season 5, but after the pairing broke up, they have mentioned it exactly once and never again.

** Status quo is why [[LimitedAdvancementOpportunities everyone tends to stay at their same rank]]. Besides Worf and Geordi's promotions after the first season for [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness series reorganization]] and Crusher's [[PutOnABus temporary departure]] in the second, everyone stays on the ''Enterprise'' and at their same rank. Riker and Picard refuse every promotion, and it takes four seasons before Wesley finally goes to Starfleet Academy. This is explained with various plot and character contrivances.

** Looks set to be played straight again in Season 2 with Ward's character: [[spoiler:after deciding not to kill him off as planned at the end of Season 1 and having Creator/BrettDalton renew his contract as main cast for Season 2, the writers now need to find a way to get him out of jail and back in with the team, despite him now being a known enemy. Except they don't; he ends up working with HYDRA instead. Some fans worried that he would have some sort of redemption arc, the closest he comes is when he rescues Skye from some bonds, expecting her to team up with him to escape, and she promptly shoots him and leaves. Ward himself remained as a major character up until his death almost midway through Season 3, but even then, Dalton himself remained for the rest of the season as Hive having inhabited Ward's body]].

** Looks set to be played straight again in Season 2 with Ward's character: [[spoiler:after deciding not to kill him off as planned at the end of Season 1 and having Creator/BrettDalton renew his contract as main cast for Season 2, the writers now need to find a way to get him out of jail and back in with the team, despite him now being a known enemy. Except they don't; he ends up working with HYDRA instead. Fans worried that he would have some sort of redemption arc, the closest he comes is when he rescues Skye from some bonds, expecting her to team up with him to escape, and she promptly shoots him and leaves]].

* ''Series/Station19'': The major crux of Andy Herrera's arc is that she seeks to become the captain of 19 like her father before her. Multiple occasions occur in the series in which it seems she'll get the position, only for her to be passed over in some way, meaning even interim is not even an option--and another time, her father Pruitt didn't think she was ready due to a recent tragedy, and she was passed over yet again. The clear design of the arc is for Andy to go through a lot of hardships, difficulties and learning experiences until she really is truly ready to ''actually'' take on the job someday.

* For the most part, ''Series/{{Emergency}}'' played this straight. Even major health problems [[HollywoodHealing healed completely between episodes]], such as Gage's rattlesnake bite or Dr. Early's heart surgery. When an eccentric old lady named the paramedics as her heirs, taxes and other bequests ate up most of the estate, leaving them with just a few dollars each. Any time a main cast character was facing a major decision such as taking a promotion, you knew they would choose to remain where they were.
** Averted with Dr. Morton, however. Over the series run, he progressed from being an arrogant, wet-behind-the-ears intern to a confident, competent, experienced ER doctor. By the sixth season, his skill was accepted to the point that when a heavy rainstorm isolated the paramedics in a rural fire station with no road access to a hospital or even a doctor's office, Morton's arrival by helicopter with fresh supplies was enough to tell both the paramedics and the audience that the medical situation at the station is under control.

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' started out like this too before ending with heavy serialization -- the early episode "Hard Time", O'Brien is convicted of a crime and sentenced to live twenty years in prison... and is then given the memories of a twenty-year stint in a maximum security prison that included every bad event you can imagine happening in such a place. The rest of the episode deals with the fact that, even though he ''physically'' was never in prison, he still has PTSD and his behavior patterns are now those of a ruthless prisoner and how he has trouble relating to his wife and friends anymore, and so on. This traumatic, life-changing event, or its supposedly long-term effects, are never mentioned again once the episode is over with no explanation as to why it suddenly goes away other than "a different writer is penning the next episode."

** An accusation sometimes leveled at the series. Stranded 70 years from home with no support or backup, with corridors and shuttles being blown to crap every week, and the ship is in perfect mint condition by next episode like nothing ever happened, leading to one episode where Chakotay insisted they already had a full complement of shuttles (in early season 6, mind you) even though he is [[CaptainCrash the one most responsible for losing them]]. All of this despite the fact that they can't go to drydock for repairs or resupply. Characterization was at a complete dead end, with practically all of them being no different from how they were in their introduction. Anything resembling development for them would be forgotten by the next episode and they would always end up back at square one. Few characters were promoted, despite many displaying competence that is wildly out of proportion to their rank; Harry Kim, in particular, spent seven years as bridge crew without a promotion, on the grounds that "somebody's gotta be the ensign". Doubtless this was due to [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration TNG's]] mammoth success in syndication, where viewers could jump into the show at dinnertime and not miss anything.

** It's worth noting that unlike it's predecessor, Enterprise did eventually moved on from the episodic formula in favor of a more serialized storytelling with stakes, consequences and character development.
* ''Series/Station19'': The major crux of Andy Herrera's arc is that she seeks to become the Captain of 19 like her father before her. Multiple occasions occur in the series in which it seems she'll get the position, only for her to be passed over in some way, meaning even interim is not even an option--and another time, her father Pruitt didn't think she was ready due to a recent tragedy and she was passed over yet again. The clear design of the arc is for Andy to go through a lot of hardships, difficulties and learning experiences until she really is truly ready to ''actually'' take on the job someday.

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' started out like this too before ending with heavy serialization -- the early episode "Hard Time", O'Brien is convicted of a crime and sentenced to live twenty years in prison... and is then given the memories of a twenty year stint in a maximum security prison that included every bad event you can imagine happening in such a place. The rest of the episode deals with the fact that, even though he ''physically'' was never in prison, he still has PTSD and his behavior patterns are now those of a ruthless prisoner and how he has trouble relating to his wife and friends anymore, and so on. This traumatic, life-changing event, or its supposedly long-term effects, are never mentioned again once the episode is over with no explanation as to why it suddenly goes away other than "a different writer is penning the next episode."

** An accusation sometimes leveled at the series. Stranded 70 years from home with no support or backup, with corridors and shuttles being blown to crap every week, and the ship is in perfect mint condition by next episode like nothing ever happened, leading to one episode where Chakotay insisted they already had a full complement of shuttles even though he is [[CaptainCrash the one most responsible for losing them]]. All of this despite the fact that they can't go to drydock for repairs or resupply. Characterization was at a dead end, with practically all of them being no different than they were in their introduction. Anything resembling development for them would be forgotten by the next episode and they would always end up back at square one. Few characters were promoted, despite many displaying competence that is wildly out of proportion to their rank; Harry Kim, in particular, spent seven years as bridge crew without a promotion, on the grounds that "somebody's gotta be the ensign". Doubtless this was due to [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration TNG's]] mammoth success in syndication, where viewers could jump into the show at dinnertime and not miss anything.

** An accusation sometimes leveled at the series. Stranded 70 years from home, with corridors and shuttles being blown to crap every week, and the ship is in mint condition by next episode, leading to one episode where Chakotay insisted they already had a full complement of shuttles even though he is [[CaptainCrash the one most responsible for losing them]]. Characterization was at a dead end, with practically all of them being no different than they were in their introduction. Anything resembling development for them would be forgotten by the next episode and they would always end up back at square one. Few characters were promoted, despite many displaying competence that is wildly out of proportion to their rank; Harry Kim, in particular, spent seven years as bridge crew without a promotion, on the grounds that "somebody's gotta be the ensign". Doubtless this was due to [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration TNG's]] mammoth success in syndication, where viewers could jump into the show at dinnertime and not miss anything.

** An accusation sometimes leveled at the series. Stranded 70 years from home, with corridors and shuttles being blown to crap every week, and the ship is in mint condition by next episode, leading to one episode where Chakotay insisted they already had a full complement of shuttles even though he is [[CaptainCrash the one most responsible for losing them]]. Few characters were promoted, despite many displaying competence that is wildly out of proportion to their rank; Harry Kim, in particular, spent seven years as bridge crew without a promotion, on the grounds that "somebody's gotta be the ensign". Doubtless this was due to [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration TNG's]] mammoth success in syndication, where viewers could jump into the show at dinnertime and not miss anything.

** {{Averted|Trope}} after about Episode 10 of Season 1, when the MythArc really kicks in, and nearly every episode ends with some life-changing event for at least one character. Taken UpToEleven by the end of the season; the show and most of is characters are basically unrecognisable from the pilot, a mere 22 episodes ago.

** It's worth noting that unlike it's predecessor, Enterprise did eventually moved on from an episodic formula in favor of a more serialized storytelling with stakes, consequences and character development.

* ''Series/BetweenTheLions'': Inverse Example: In the "Cliffhanger" shorts, no matter what he does to escape the edge of the cliff, he always ends up back there at the end of each one. The episode "The Last Cliffhanger" had what was akin to a GrandFinale of the shorts with him finally escaping, but again, in universe, the series was resurrected due to fan demand and Cliffhanger ended right back up on the edge of the cliff.

* ''Series/MimpiMetropolitan'': Bambang and Alan is normally jobless while Prima is WaitingForABreak in Bybyr Agency and the series is partly about their attempts to find a steady income. So unless it's a job in Bybyr Agency, don't expect any job Bambang, Alan and Prima get to last. Inversely, when Prima gets fired from Bybyr Agency, it doesn't take long before things go back to normal.

* ''Series/{{The Fugitive}}'': No matter how many times Kimble saves Gerard’s life, it doesn’t change anything. Gerard will keep trying to capture him. Lampshaded by Kimble in the episode “Corner of Hell”.
* ''Series/BetweenTheLions'': Inverse Example: In the "Cliffhanger" shorts, no matter what he does to escape the edge of the cliff, he always ends up back there at the end of each one. The episode "The Last Cliffhanger" had what was akin to a GrandFinale of the shorts with him finally escaping, but again, in universe, the series was resurrected due to fan demand and Cliffhanger ended right back up on the edge of the cliff.
* In ''Series/BreakingBad'', no matter what epiphany Walt may get to stop cooking meth, he will inevitably be drawn back to it for various reasons. And also, whenever the opportunity for the [=DEA=] to get close to Heisenberg arises, Walt will inevitably avoid detection and capture. [[spoiler: He eventually stops cooking meth once he has more money than he could possibly spent, and the episode where Walt is ''finally'' exposed as Heisenberg to the rest of the world is considered one of the best episodes for averting this trope.]]
* In ''Series/{{House}}'', on three separate occasions House regains the use of his leg without pain and no longer has to walk with a cane, but due to various circumstances he never stays that way. Twice he rejected a method of eliminating the pain, believing that his own personal misery was a necessary ingredient for doing the job well. Similarly, House has a vicodin addiction for most of the series, and while he does remain clean of vicodin for more than a season, he eventually does start taking it again.
* ''Series/SavedByTheBell'' was the king of this, with new girlfriends constantly introduced for Zack and disappearing after their one episode. There was the case of the homeless girl who, along with her father was about to move into Zack's house, as well as Slater's previously unseen sister. While Lisa didn't disappear after the episode where she and Zack started dating, the relationship was dropped after one episode. The only non-main cast girlfriend to stick around was Stacy during the "Malibu Sands" mini-season, and she was never mentioned after the Malibu Sands recap episode at the beginning of the senior year season. Earlier, Violet disappeared without explanation after a several episode run that left Screech without his girlfriend and pining for Lisa again.
* ''Series/ICarly'': Every plot that involves a conflict between Carly and Sam, or a certain incident threatens the loss of one of the ThreeAmigos ends up being resolved in the same episode. They finally had an ongoing plot-arc during the "iSeddie" Season 5, but after the pairing broke up, they have mentioned it exactly once and never again.

* ''Series/{{JAG}}'' & ''Series/{{NCIS}}'': Both have a strong emphasis on character development, continuity, and story arcs, so this trope really just applies to some aspects of the shows. Any attempt to dissolve the teams is crushed mercilessly or repaired by the season premiere and any new {{Love Interest|s}} is evil.
** Of note is Harm returning to flying duty in the fifth season. One multi-episode story arc later, and his commander advises him to transfer back to JAG, because he can do more good there than in the cockpit[[note]]He ended up acting as legal council for a junior pilot who mistakenly attacked friendly peacekeepers who he mistook for a Serbian unit on the verge of attacking refugees. Harm got him cleared of charges [[OffOnATechnicality because the peacekeepers did not check in to update their position as required]], and then had the pilot [[ReassignedToAntarctica transferred to a non-flying billet]].[[/note]]. The fact that Harm was out of the flying community for at least eight years and therefore has insufficient flight hours and carrier landings to be competitive with his peers for promotions also factors in.
** Season 9 has Harm resigning from the Navy to go rescue Mac upon being denied leave to do so, then finding himself unemployed when the angry admiral won’t [[UnprocessedResignation undo his resignation]]. Harms goes to work for the CIA as a pilot for covert insertions and extractions, but is fired when his daring feat to land a heavy cargo aircraft on a carrier is captured on the news and his identity is compromised. He ultimately returns to the Navy because a colleague faked her credentials and the Navy needs lawyers to pick up her caseload.
** ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' is so notable for having all of its characters screwed up to some degree that it was notable that when Ellie Bishop joined the show in Season 12, she was the ''first person'' in the show's run to join the team and be HappilyMarried ''and'' to have come from a normal, happy family, pretty much the opposite of nearly everyone. But sure enough, she's well on her way to having the same tragic, screwed-up love life that everyone else has, with her marriage becoming increasingly strained to the point where her husband admits to an affair and them divorcing, and her new boyfriend being killed off just before she would have accepted his proposal.
* Often PlayedForLaughs on ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment,'' whenever the narrator says "next time on ''Arrested Development.''" What he says will happen never happens in the next show, but is most often a brief explanation how everything ends up exactly the way it was before in time for the next episode. For example, when [[spoiler: Micheal]] set fire to the Banana stand, he is shown rebuilding it during the "next time." When he was arrested after a misunderstanding involving the forced abduction of a Hispanic housekeeper, he is shown being set free because she could not identify him in a police lineup.
* ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' both follows and averts this trope. Most of the time, the monster is defeated, and things go back to normal (with any damage being repaired by next episode). But there's times when they get new Zords, a new ranger, or a new Big Bad, who tends to stick around until the end of the season. This trope is especially played straight in the early seasons. After the fifth season, the series tries to avert this trope more and more by introducing dynamic story-elements. Most seasons, especially in the early seasons after the Zordon Saga, ended with the Rangers' zords and/or base destroyed, their powers lost (sometimes burned out to kill the BigBad) and often with the team going their separate ways. By the time for the crossover with the next series rolls around (to say nothing of reunion/anniversary specials), their powers will be back, at least for a while.

* The first five seasons of ''Series/TheMentalist'' was notorious for this. Each season would end with Patrick Jane seemingly that much closer to finding the BigBad Red John, only for some twist or swerve to appear to derail him. The most blatant example was in the S3 finale, where Jane thought he was coming face to face with Red John himself, [[spoiler:even shooting him dead]]. It's all undone by the third episode of S4, when he [[spoiler:cons the jury into setting him free, manipulates his employers to hire his old friends back (they had been fired for standing with Jane) and it's revealed that the person Jane killed wasn't Red John after all, just an accomplice]]. S6, which saw [[spoiler:Jane move on to the FBI after finally resolving the Red John arc]], ended this dynamic.

* ''Series/BurnNotice''. Whatever happens and whatever Mike does, he's going to stay in Miami. The change is in how Mike deals with it, and by the middle of season three, he's reconciled himself to giving up figuring out who burned him. Lampshaded when Mike returns at the beginning of Season Four, only to find Sam and Fi are already embroiled in a case-of-the-week as if he had not disappeared into a secret prison for several weeks. He protests this, and Fiona reveals [[spoiler: they'd taken a client out of respect to him and his memory]].

** Season VI episode "Emohawk: Polymorph II" has a particularly egregious example of this. Rimmer has all of his bitterness sucked out by the Emohawk and gets turned into a version of [[TheAce Ace Rimmer]]. He openly admits he doesn't want to go back to being [[IHatePastMe his usual self]] and it's unlikely the [[VitriolicBestBuds rest of the crew]] would want the old Rimmer back. The episode ends with them planning to restore his bitterness and, sure enough, the character is back to normal by the next episode.
** PlayedForLaughs in "Timeslides", where various TimeTravel antics cause Rimmer to inexplicably come back to life - until he puts his fists through two crates of explosives.

** In the episode "Operation - Annihilate!" Spock is afflicted by an alien parasite, and it is discovered that extremely bright light can kill it without harming the host. Well, except for rendering Spock permanently blind. Mere minutes from the end of the episode Spock suddenly turns up on the bridge with his eyesight restored, and it is handwaved by explaining that Vulcans have a secondary inner eyelid which protected him from permanent blindness. Said physical feature was never mentioned before, and never brought up again until late in ''Enterprise''.

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' started out like this too before ending with heavy serialization - the early episode "Hard Time", O'Brien is convicted of a crime and sentenced to live twenty years in prison... and is then given the memories of a twenty year stint in a maximum security prison that included every bad event you can imagine happening in such a place. The rest of the episode deals with the fact that, even though he ''physically'' was never in prison, he still has PTSD and his behavior patterns are now those of a ruthless prisoner and how he has trouble relating to his wife and friends anymore, and so on. This traumatic, life-changing event, or its supposedly long-term effects, are never mentioned again once the episode is over with no explanation as to why it suddenly goes away other than "a different writer is penning the next episode."

* ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}''
** Although the plots implicitly offer up an unlimited number of hilarious, deliciously complex, irony-steeped [[AnAesop Aesops]], the characters never, ever learn anything from them and in every episode they are as shallow and petty as they were in the previous one. In fact, in nine years of adventures, the only change they ever went through was that by the Finale they ran out of new things to talk about and [[BookEnds started repeating what they had been talking about in the Pilot.]]
** The show even had a season long arc playing with and lampshading this trope. Season 7 began with George and Jerry coming to a mutual realization that they both need to grow up and stop acting so immature and petty, and the two of them make a pact to turn themselves around. This leads George to propose to his old Girlfriend Susan, meanwhile, Kramer talks Jerry out of his half of the pact, and George spends the rest of the season trying to regain Status Quo by getting out of the engagement to Susan.
** One episode had Jerry discovering that he has this as a ''superpower''. No matter what happens to him, he'll always end up no better or worse than when he started. For example, Elaine takes a $20 bill from him and tosses it out the window to see if he gets the money back. Sure enough, when he puts on his jacket to leave, he puts his hand in the pocket and finds a $20 bill. Kramer dubs him "Even Steven".

* If Status Quo Is God, ''Series/BabylonFive'' regularly commits deicide. Drastic, lasting changes often occur from episode to episode. Even in one relatively standalone episode from Season 2, a race is killed off. This ''is'' the series that gave us the trope name for NothingIsTheSameAnymore. Several of the actors commented that it was a great show to work on because they never knew what would be happening next and it was a given that their characters would change significantly over the course of the show's events.
* When's the last time an episode of ''Series/{{Monk}}'' changed something in the continuity? Even the "Trudy bomb" is losing its impact because the last several episodes that involved her case in some way didn't change anything or reveal anything. ''Monk'' has been mired in its' own status quo for quite a long time, and the season finales haven't really changed anything.
* ''Series/Merlin2008''. It wasn't so apparent in series one, because nothing terribly earth-shattering happened, but then it looks like things were finally going to get shaken up a little, only to reverse it all at the start of series two - Merlin is forced to go back on his vow not to speak to the dragon again; Morgana finds out for certain about her magic, freaks out, and runs away, but at the end of the episode she's back and things are more or less exactly as they were; Gwen and Arthur start to fall in love, only to agree that it wouldn't work out; Merlin gets a girlfriend and vows to run away with her, but by the end of the episode she's dead, and the chances are he'll be over it by next week, And then worst of all, Arthur finds out the truth about his birth and ''tries to kill his father'', only to be persuaded it was all a lie and go back to his "all magic is evil" attitude. However, while there were certain changes during the show's run (the dragon being released from beneath Camelot and [[spoiler:Uther's death]]), other parts of the format were frustratingly entrenched, to the point that Arthur doesn't find out about Merlin's magic until ''the last episode''.
* ''Series/TheMightyBoosh'' has Howard Moon. An unwritten rule seems to be that anything that could possibly maybe lead to him being happy will be killed off or revealed to be some horrible prank.
* ''Series/MimpiMetropolitan'': Bambang and Alan is normally jobless while Prima is WaitingForABreak in Bybyr Agency and the series is partly about their attempts to find a steady income. So unless it's a job in Bybyr Agency, don't expect any job Bambang, Alan and Prima get to last. Inversely, when Prima gets fired from Bybyr Agency, it doesn't take long before things go back to normal.
* ''Series/{{Roseanne}}'' arguably played this relatively straight for eight seasons, then in the last season decided to avert it entirely, with the Conners winning the lottery, not losing it by the end of the episode. They remained rich until the end of the season [[spoiler: when it was revealed that Roseanne had been making up the entire thing to try and cope with Dan's death]].
* ''Series/{{Eureka}}'' averted it in a bold move; despite some sacrifices (Poor Jo Lupo) when the 4th season saw them travel through time and permanently alter their present, introducing Grant from the year 1947 and making reassigning Lupo and Fargo to superior roles.
* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'':
** While it does have some story and character arcs, there are a surprising amount of {{Filler}} episodes in which something will upset the balance of the main characters lives only to be completely ignored forever after. A couple of examples are the girl who moved in upstairs and became something of a rival to GirlNextDoor Penny (but she disappears in the next episode and is never heard from again) and the trip the four guys take to the arctic (they are instantly back at the beginning of the next episode with very little lasting change).
** Averted at the end of season 7. In addition to Penny quitting her waitressing job, the last three episodes have events that shake up everything. Sheldon realizes that string theory is a dead end and decides to change his field of study, Professor Proton (a longtime hero and somewhat-friend of Sheldon and Leonard) dies, Penny and Leonard finally get engaged, and Stuart's comic book shop burns down. If that's not enough, the prospect of his friends' marriage forcing him out of the apartment coupled with the possibility that the university might not let him change his field of study causes Sheldon to ultimately decide to get on a train bound for an unknown destination.
* Lampshaded on an episode of ''Series/{{Cheers}},'' when an old man came into the bar and commented on how he hadn't been there in 20 years, and noted how many things had changed-- including, he said, "the wallpaper behind Norm."
* In the ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' episode "Blitzgiving," we are introduced to Ted and Marshall's college buddy "The Blitz," who possesses a curse that makes awesome things happen... right after he leaves a room. Over the course of the episode, the curse is passed to Ted, then Barney, but it returns to The Blitz during [[TheTag the end credits]].
* ''Series/{{Smallville}}''
** While many aspects do change in the show, there are at least two things that remain the same. The first is it will not take long before a BroughtDownToNormal Clark regains his powers. The second is that the people who are destined to know he has powers will be the only ones to keep that information. When Clark wanted Jor-El to restore Chloe's memories [[KeepingSecretsSucks without her knowing his secret]], Chloe remembered two episodes later. The characters who aren't supposed to know will have EasyAmnesia.
** In a short-term example, Clark spent an awful lot of time keeping Lex and Tess alive because they were on the opening titles, while letting Villains of the Week who were a lot less dangerous than them die.
* The goal of the leads in ''Series/PersonOfInterest'' is to resolve bad situations. At the same time, they know going into it they will ultimately fail and die having only made minor changes in the world. ...At least until the Season 3 finale. [[spoiler:Team Machine has helped along a major change in the world: it is now watched over by a malevolent Machine that functions to attack the population, rather than defend it. NothingIsTheSameAnymore and our heroes are in hiding.]] Talk about AvertedTrope.
* Like any other trope on ''Series/{{Community}}'' this was played with, though ultimately averted. Over the course of six seasons, five out of the original seven Study Group members left Greendale altogether (though one was only because of their death.) Jeff's seeming inability to leave Greendale behind completely was also treated as a major plot point rather than an excuse to keep the status quo in place.
* Lampshaded on ''Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir''; one season ended with Will moving back to Philadelphia. The next season started with NBC studio execs showing up to kidnap him and drag him back to Bel Air, and the whole thing was never mentioned again.
* At the beginning of the fourth season of ''Series/ModernFamily'', the Dunphys' eldest daughter, Haley, leaves to go to college, a move which she'd realistically spent a lot of her time worrying about the previous season. Four episodes later, however, she gets arrested trying to flee a party and is ... expelled from school, allowing her to live at home again.
** Alex actually lasts an entire year at school (albeit one only 50 miles from home). But in the beginning of the following season, she gets mono and conveniently decides to just take the entire semester off. Time will tell if or when she ever goes back.
* In ''Series/MythQuest'', the kids have to be extremely careful to not change the myths that they go into, as changing the story in the myth world changes it in the real world as well, and after a short amount of time, within memory as well. This tends to have ripple effects, one of which is to make escaping the myth world easier for Gorgos.
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'':
** Anything that could potentially separate Sam and Dean, be it a bad argument, demon trickery, a trip to Purgatory, {{death|IsCheap}}, or [[TheGrimReaper Death]], will be quickly resolved because Sam and Dean just can't be apart. If it cannot be fixed quickly in-universe, they will use a TimeSkip. Over the course of 10 seasons, the longest they're ever separated is two episodes ("Free To Be You And Me" and "The End" in season 5).
** The season 8 finale ends with Castiel [[BroughtDownToNormal losing his angelic powers]]. The season 9 premiere introduces Ezekiel, another angel who allies with the heroes. Nine episodes later, [[spoiler: he's revealed to be a bad guy. In the same episode, Cas gets his powers back]]. As much as WordOfGod complains about the StoryBreakerPower of the angels, they sure want to keep one around to help clean up after Sam and Dean.
** At the end of season 9, [[spoiler:Dean becomes a demon]]. This lasts less than three episodes.
* ''Series/TwentyFour'' is a show that generally does change its status quo up, there does seem to be one universal rule to that always has to be kept. Jack Bauer can never be happy, probably because TrueArtIsAngsty or something like that. Any time he is in even a remotely good mood or has something to keep him moving on, it will be violently [[YankTheDogsChain taken away]] from him. For the majority of the series it seems that the one other constant was Jack working with the CTU no matter what. This hit especially hard in both the fourth and sixth seasons, both which tried to have Jack go in different places but soon saw him working with it again all too quickly. After that, the series made sure to avoid this: Season 7 averted things by not having the CTU appear at all, while Season 8 subverted things by having him once again work with them (albeit their New York City branch this time around) [[spoiler: and then had him split off just a little halfway through, becoming a [[AntiVillain borderline terrorist]] in order to get the bad guys on his own]]. The upcoming ''Live Another Day'' mini-series, which many fans are calling "Season 9" is averting this as well, as things will be taking place entirely in London.

* ''Series/{{Victorious}}'': An incredibly annoying example comes from the episode "Helen Back Again". Helen, a character from ''Series/DrakeAndJosh'', comes to Hollywood Arts to be the new principal. She decides to implement a new rule that every student must audition again in order to continue attending. Since Trina's original audition was a fluke, she obviously can't pass legitimately. After a mix-up that almost sends Tori packing instead of Trina, Tori stages a mugging to make Trina look like a hero in front of Helen. Not only is Trina unaware of Tori's plan, meaning their sibling dynamic remains as toxic as ever, but Helen never appears again in the series – rendering the whole episode useless as anything other than a semi-crossover.
* ''Series/FamilyMatters'', in addition to being the poster child for AesopAmnesia, often had Urkel do some pretty extreme damage to the Winslows' house. From shooting through their roof with a jet pack to destroying their entire garage. By the next scene(!), everything would be completely repaired and said damage would never be mentioned again.
* ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'':
** No matter what happened, or what kind of creature the sisters got turned into (be them vampires, warlocks, valkyries or even demons), by the end of the episode the transformation was undone.
** Subverted in "[[Recap/CharmedS6E19CrimesAndWitchDemeanors Crime and Witch-demeanors]]" where [[spoiler:Phoebe is stripped of her powers, not regaining her premonition until the next season]].
* ''Series/{{Castle}}'':
** In the Season 6 premiere, Beckett accepts a job in Washington, DC. It takes but four episodes for her to be back as an NYC police detective, and that's only because budget cuts prevented her from returning to duty immediately upon being fired from her DC job in the 3rd episode. It is again played straight with the opening to season 7 when [[spoiler: Castle is abducted and disappears for two months just as he and Beckett are about to be married, obviously thus delaying the wedding and allowing them to have status quo in terms of their relationship]].
** However, the main series itself averts this, in order, [[spoiler:Captain Montgomery]] is killed to save Beckett. Then she's shot anyway, at which point Castle admits that he loves her. Then she gets amnesia and doesn't remember. Then he overhears her saying that she ''did'' remember. This pushes him away, just when she's about to open up about her feelings. Then he tells her he knows, just as she's about to go after a man involved in her mother's murder. After she's nearly killed, she realizes she loves Castle, and they start a relationship. As they engage in increasingly transparent shenanigans to hide their relationship, they finally take down Joanna Beckett's killer. Oh, and that FBI thing? That was ''after'' Beckett accepted Castle's marriage proposal.
** In a slightly more minor capacity this is also played straight in various episodes in which Castle and Beckett are given a situation in which her usual authority is not valid(generally when they are out of her jurisdiction) or that they otherwise shouldn't be working together normally (like when Castle was briefly a fugitive or when Beckett was working for the feds), but that they generally keep doing things as normal partners by the second commercial break.
* ''Series/{{Frasier}}'' has flipped between playing the trope straight and inverting it. For example, the end of Season Five has the radio personalities getting fired. Frasier, however, is never able to find a permanent girlfriend so he can remain a bachelor. Ditto Martin, until the end of the series when it doesn't matter anymore.
* Sort of zig-zagged with Anthony Bourdain in ''Series/NoReservations''. On one hand, he thinks a chef that sticks with a specialty dish will be the death of him or her. On the other, he has a hard on for food stalls that specialize in one dish because they do it well.
* A common complaint about ''Series/{{Friends}}'' is that, despite the many changes that happen in the six characters' lives throughout the series (new jobs, new apartments, etc.), they (except Chandler and possibly Rachel) never really grow or evolve as people. Instead, continuing to make the same mistakes and maintain the same unlikable traits (which are, if anything, amplified due to {{Flanderization}}) from season to season. In a sense, the series both plays straight and averts this trope.
* Both [[PlayingWithATrope played straight]] and {{averted|Trope}} in ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'':
** {{Averted|Trope}} after about Episode 10 of Season 1, when the MythArc really kicks in, and nearly every episode ends with some life-changing event for at least one character. Taken UpToEleven by the end of the season; the show and most of is characters are basically unrecognisable from the pilot, a mere 22 episodes ago.
** Played straight with the Bus, the plane on which the team live and work. Any damage it takes, no matter how catastrophic, will usually be fixed by the beginning of the next episode at the latest; if it's stolen, they'll always manage to get it back in the same amount of time. [[spoiler: Then subverted when it really is destroyed for good in "The Dirty Half-Dozen", but by that point Coulson's team had gotten their own base and stopped using the Bus nearly as often]]. And by the start of season 3, [[spoiler: Coulson's replaced it with an even fancier plane, Zephyr One]].
** Looks set to be played straight again in Season 2 with Ward's character: [[spoiler:after deciding not to kill him off as planned at the end of Season 1 and having Creator/BrettDalton renew his contract as main cast for Season 2, the writers now need to find a way to get him out of jail and back in with the team, despite him now being a known enemy. Except they don't; he ends up working with HYDRA instead. Fans worried that he would have some sort of redemption arc, the closest he comes is when he rescues Skye from some bonds, expecting her to team up with him to escape, and she promptly shoots him and leaves]].
* ''Series/{{ER}}''. This was all but guaranteed anytime it seemed that a character might be leaving the hospital for another job. As long as it was known that their portrayer didn't intend to leave the show, there was no reason to angst.
** Doug Ross is fired a third of the way into the second season and by the beginning of the next episode, accepts a job offer at a prestigious clinic. However, said episode was the legendary "Hell And High Water". By the episode after ''that'', the hospital administration was so impressed by his heroic actions that they offered him his previous job back.
** In the second-season finale, Carol gets fed up with the red tape she constantly has to deal with and quits. By the third season premiere, she's back at work, with absolutely no explanation as to how she got her job back and aside from one other person snarking, "Well, you could always quit again" when she was complaining about something, no references to it were ever made.
** At the beginning of the ninth season, Elizabeth Corday was shown to have returned to London (with her husband's death, she no longer had any ties to Chicago. It was also completely plausible, given the longer time frame). By episode's end, being very unhappy and having realized that she no longer fits in in England, she decides to return to Chicago. By the very next episode, she's back at work, having resumed her job and moved back into her house without the slightest blip.
* Season 3 of ''Series/{{Elementary}}'' begins with Sherlock having recruited a new protege to replace Watson and Watson herself having started her own detective business and found a steady boyfriend. After season 3's winter hiatus Kitty's CycleOfRevenge character arc was speedily resolved, Watson's boyfriend was killed by Elena March, and Watson decided to move back in with Sherlock. This was spread across five episodes to make the reset a little less obvious.

* ''Series/FatherBrown'' carries on its PoliceAreUseless stance in contrast to the titular AmateurSleuth through six seasons of ever more pointedly ignoring Father Brown's {{Cassandra Truth}}s, three lead detectives in Kembleford, and even helping one detective ClearTheirName after a murder charge.
* ''Series/SiliconValley'': The show doesn't stray far from its premise of a tiny start-up of programmers working on a project that has the potential to be worth billions. Whenever it looks like they're about to break through and really start to become successful, they're smacked back down and forced to continue slaving away in poverty. After four seasons, T.J. Miller left the show and cited this trope as one of his primary reasons for departing. The fifth season takes some steps toward departing from the formula.
* Completely averted in ''Series/TheGoodPlace''. Every season changes direction and motivation. Actress Jameela al Jamil even said that she likes to think of each episode as its own season. The story takes many turns throughout each season. The reveal at the end of season one that [[spoiler: the Good Place is actually the Bad Place]] was only the first of many.
* ''Series/{{Mash}}'' has the matter of the Korean War ending, so that everyone can go home. It eventually did, after 11 years. Downplayed in that some of the personnel ''do'' have their service at the 4077th end before then.
* At the end of the first episode of ''[[Series/{{Blackadder}} Blackadder the Third]]'', Prince George makes Baldrick a lord. This drastic shift in group dynamics has been forgotten by the start of the second episode.
* ''Series/KirbyBuckets'': Just when it seems Kirby and Dawn will finally get along, something through no fault of their own will inevitably happen that will put them back at each other’s throats.

* ''Series/Angel'' Also applies to his time in Buffy, but no matter how much sense it makes, they never fix Angel's Curse. There is no logical reason to leave Angelus a key out of his prison, considering he's a Complete Monster.