Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny! in Live-Action TV.
- Tracy Jordan of 30 Rock almost refers to this trope by name; his exact words were "...I have Attention Deficit Disor— Jack, your shoes are shiny."
- In the The Big Bang Theory episode "The Luminous Fish Effect," Sheldon is in the middle of proving to Penny why she needs to slow down driving to the supermarket, citing her car's weight & speed, combined with their collective weight when...oh, putt-putt golf!
- Bluestone 42 gives us Rocket. The Colonel summarily executes his beloved pet rat Smokey for trying to eat the Colonel's prized flowers.Rocket: Smokey! You were *sniff* the best pet a boy could want!
Mac: Look, Rocket! Breakfast pizza!
Rocket: Ooh, food! - Valeria Ferrer from Carrusel was very energetic and cheerful, but had serious difficulties staying focused and at the beginning she didn't exactly fit in the class due to how loud and fast-speaking she was. Her teacher Ximena tried to tone her attitude down via putting on a facade and treating her harshly; Valeria, however, got so depressed that she actually got sick.
- The Colbert Report. On more than one occasion, Stephen has begun to speak about something serious, only to be distracted by a feathery cat toy hanging from the ceiling, which he bats and swings at like a kitten. While still very much in character, it's probably meant as an allusion to how real news programs will cut short or tangent off more serious or important stories with more fluff/opinionated pieces that don't require an unbiased view.
- The Daily Show's Jon Stewart believes the press has an attention problem."Ever see six-year-olds play soccer? The ball goes somewhere and twenty-two kids go, 'The ball!' Brbrbrbrbrm, kick, 'BALL!!' Brbrbrbrbrum."
- Doctor Who. The Doctor, Two, especially Four ("Jelly baby?"), Six (the coat), Eight ("These shoes!"), Ten ("New teeth!") and Eleven ("Big flashy lighty thing! That just has me written all over it. Not actually. Give me time... and a crayon." Also, in response to a question about why he put a glass of water on the floor, "I don't know. I think a lot, it's hard to keep track."). Sure, he can focus when it's needed, like when the universe itself is threatened, but most of the time he has the attention span of a squirrel. The odd-numbered Doctors (besides 11) tend to exhibit fewer ADHD traits than the even-number incarnations. The Doctor (at least the Eleventh) does seem to honestly have some sort of ASD*, given the fact that it manifests in other ways than simply inattention (such as difficulty engaging in social interactions, impatience, overlooking things that seem obvious to others, and becoming bored easily, but maintaining excellent focus when he knows what he's doing or he's emotionally invested in something). Given his flamboyant personality, some of the "ADD... Ooh, Shiny" reactions could be intentional exaggerations. In the prequel minisode to (New Who) Series 9 "The Doctor's Meditation", the Doctor remarks that Clara keeps telling him he has "attention deficit, uh, something-or-other."
- The Thirteenth Doctor actually displays many true-to-life signs of ASD; she is socially awkward, can barely complete a thought without going off on tangents, expresses childlike excitement about basically everything, and often becomes overwhelmed when there is too much that needs to be done in a short space of time or too many variables in a situation. When this happens, she has to stop and verbally reassure herself that she can handle it; she just needs to slow down and think through the problem one piece at a time. This is a very accurate depiction of the way an autistic mind works. note
- Drake from Drake & Josh. He gets distracted so easily. One time Josh was pouring his heart out to Drake who was listening, only to walk away when a beautiful girl walked by. Also when Josh was taken away to be submerged in a chemical bath, Drake looks like he's about to do something, only to see someone left mashed potatoes on the floor.
- Father Ted: Father Dougal's attention span is so short that he often forgets events and conversations as soon as they happen. The only times his memory is reliable is whenever something is embarrassing or inconvenient to Ted. He's also easily distracted (and is apparently impulsive enough that he's responsible for an incident in which a plane dumped all of its fuel because he pressed a Big Red Button).
- The Fosters has Jesus, who's a subversion similar to Stiles in Teen Wolf, in that it manifests in impulsive decisions, as well as an inability to remember certain things (like taking his medication), and forgetting things right after he's been told them (such as no skateboarding inside the house). When he goes off his meds to protect his sister, who was selling them, his body language gets more anxious and fidgety, his tendency to make impulsive decisions gets worse, and the tendency to flip back and forth between several activities (fiddling with his phone and listening to music) while simultaneously hyperfocusing on one (flipping through his skating photos).
- In one episode of Friends, Joey is at Central Perk when he realizes he should have been at work two hours ago. Then he gets distracted talking to Chandler and sits back down. Chandler reminds him about work, so he leaves, only to see an attractive girl outside and get distracted talking to her. Chandler yells out the window, "Joey, for God's sake, go to work!" and he runs off.
- Joey has proposed to Phoebe, thinking she is pregnant, then proposes to Rachel, who actually is pregnant. Phoebe is hurt, but says "I'll take you back, Joey Tribbiani... hey, look, a Salami Buddy!" (one of Monica's wedding presents nobody could figure out).
- Jason in The Good Place is so easily distracted that at one point, hoping to forestall an endless string of questions about the Jacksonville Jaguars, Eleanor has Janet conjure up "something shiny" for him. Janet obligingly provides a sparkler, and Jason immediately runs outside to play with it.
- Elsbeth Tascioni on The Good Wife is a brilliant yet scatterbrained lawyer. It's to the point where when Alicia and Dean face her in court in "Shiny Objects" they pretty much render Elsbeth useless for the day by randomly taking magazines with pictures of steamships and penguins out of their folders during her cross-examination. Later we get an Imagine Spot from Elsbeth's perspective featuring random images of a steamship and a clown.
- Growing Pains: It has often been speculated that one reason behind Mike's (Kirk Cameron) poor academic performance is ADD. Episodes have seen him buy a "magic rock" (from a school scam artist) to help him with an extemporaneous essay, stay home from school to catch up on Gilligan's Island and fail to take an IQ test seriously. His possible problems are particularly spelled out in the late 1987 episode "Nasty Habits," where Mike's bad habits, constant distraction, and inability to concentrate for a few minutes have put him in danger of possibly not graduating from high school on time. Here, he struggles to start an English essay that, after putting it off, is due the next day. At one point, he envisions dancing with a pretty girl he met at the pizza parlor (with the Tiffany song "Could've Been" used to frame the scene) ... before he finally is able to clear his mind and write a coherent paper.
- Horrible Histories has hyperactive reporter Bob Hale, who goes off topic exceedingly easily. Somehow he turns a list of Roman emperors into the Macarena
... - How I Met Your Mother: When Ted calls Barney the worst student in the episode "Robin 101", he answers that his teachers said he has "AD... something. Can we have class outside?"
- Kamen Rider Ex-Aid: Parado is all too playful for his (supposed) age, gets bored extremely easily and tends to switch between what he is toying with at a moment's notice. The only thing he focuses on is fighting other riders, namely Emu.
- ADHD was the topic of one episode of Last Man Standing. The school psychiatrist diagnoses Boyd with ADHD after he becomes too disruptive in class and prescribes medicine. Mike goes on a tirade about the situation, feeling that the school just uses ADHD as an excuse to drug kids that are too energetic and Boyd doesn't really have the disorder. He's proven right when Boyd calms down in school after he begins playing ice hockey to burn off energy. However, it's later revealed that Mandy took some of Boyd's medication while studying for her exams and did better than usual, suggesting she actually has ADHD and explaining a lot of her seeming absent-minded personality.
- LazyTown: Ziggy is easily distracted by things, especially candy.
- Battie in Little Lunch is notoriously distractable. Best demonstrated in "The Lost-And-Found Box":Battie: My dad says that I lose stuff because I get distrac... (tails off as he starts staring at the rope in his hand he has been winding up)
- Francis is shown developing a serious case of ADD in an early episode of Malcolm in the Middle: even after his roommate has stripped the room of every possible form of entertainment, Francis still can't focus on his homework, to the point that upon seeing a cockroach on his desk, he prefers to build a racetrack for it.
- In the "Valentime's Day" episode of Nicky, Ricky, Dicky, and Dawn, the quads are looking for reasons their parents don't celebrate Valentine's Day. Dicky finds a large roll of bubble wrap and the quads immediately stop their quest in order to pop all the bubbles. Two hours later...
- It happens in "Sweet Foot Rides" when the quads go to the hotel room to get their father's prototype shoes back from the man they thought stole them. Instead, they go immediately to the bed and jump up and down on it, taking so long that the man comes back.
- Andy on Parks and Recreation has a tendency to lose focus mid-conversation. Or sometimes mid-sentence:Andy: (singing) "Ron and Dianne sitting in a tree / K-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I." (points) "Did you see that bird?"
- Shawn Spencer on Psych seems to have adult ADD. In order to deal with this in childhood, his father taught him how to combine his short, quick observations with his eidetic memory. Instead of being completely unfocused, Shawn can now be incredibly focused but only in short flashes. In "Shawn Takes A Shot In The Dark", he outright says he probably has ADD.
- In the '80s, Saturday Night Live had a series of "Mr. Short-Term Memory" skits starring Tom Hanks.
- Spaced:Tim: Tyres has got a really short attention span; I remember once we were — oh look, wrestling!
- Done as a joke on Taskmaster when the competitors had to write a song about a woman they'd just met.I saw you watching the Hangover DVD,But I was busy with the Hangover Part III,I saw you listening to a Mozart symphony,But my attention span is - hey, look at that tree!
- A gag from a Taxi episode: Louie gets sued by an old lady for hitting her with his cab. Learning that she's a notorious scam artist, he welcomes taking her on in court. Just before the civil hearing, Reverend Jim discovers that this time Louie ironically did injure her for real, and tries to warn Louie:Louie: Ignatowski, get the hell outta here.
Jim: Boss, I think there's something you ought to know.
Louie: The only thing I wanna know is how fast you can get out of my sight.
Jim: Boss, this is really, really important, and you know how short my memory is, so let me tell you before I forget.
Louie: Okay, what is it?
Jim: What's what? - Subverted on Teen Wolf. Stiles does have ADHD, but it manifests more in a somewhat wacky body language, impulsive decisions, and the tendency to ramble. It's stated by one of his teachers that he has trouble focusing in class, but you could make a case for him hyper-focusing on other things. Also, he doesn't ramble that much. More of a zingy one-liner dude. He hyper-focuses as well, as shown in "Wolf Moon" when he ends up spending hours researching lycanthropy on little more than a whim.
- In That's My Bush!, Princess seems to suffer from this:"This is the way we lock the door, lock the door, lock the door. This is the way we lock the door — Oh, what a pretty bell."
- As seen in "A Hero is Born" episode of The Thundermans, King Crab is very easily distracted, even in a battle, by bubbles.
- Sometimes invoked on Top Gear to interrupt an argument during the News segment. None of the presenters will stop talking about whatever topic is going on when Jeremy Clarkson will point at a member of the audience and declare "JESUS IS HERE!"
- Cat on Victorious is this to a T. Especially if you have candy to help distract her with.
