People out of their temporal comfort zone in live-action TV.
- 4400: The returnees all hail from different time periods - Shanice is from 2005, Claudette is from 1958, Doc is from the Harlem Renaissance, Mildred is from the 70's, Rev is from the 90's, and LaDonna is from 2015. As a result, all of them have difficulty with how much has changed since.
- Naturally, the black people from the early 20th century to as late as 2005 are astounded to find themselves in an America that elected a black President.
- Doc, who didn't even understand he was transgender, is amazed to realize how open these people are now.
- At the same time, some will complain that, in some ways, the world hasn't progressed as much as they'd like (especially considering they're still kept prisoner in the hotel).
- The early episodes of The 4400 deal with the adaptation of the abductees to life in the early 21st century. An African-American man from the 1950s discovers that Jim Crow is no longer around, but restaurants are now non-smoking.
- Adam Adamant Lives! was an early TV example of this trope. A swashbuckling Edwardian gentleman (the eponymous Adam) was frozen in 1902 and escaped in 1966. The show apparently inspired Jon Pertwee's portrayal of the better-known contemporary TV time-travelling hero, The Doctor.
- In American Horror Story: Coven, Delphine LaLaurie is dug up after spending over 150 years buried underground. She discovers — to her horror — that not only is slavery illegal, but racism is no longer tolerated and a black man (Barack Obama) is President.
- Buffyverse:
- Having been dismembered and buried underground for hundreds of years, the Judge is quite unfamiliar with modern weapons and technology. When Buffy whips out a rocket launcher to blow him to smithereens, he has no idea what it is and just stands there like an idiot while Angelus and Drusilla get the hell out of Dodge.
- Angel was born in the 1720s, so in one episode where all the characters lose their memories and think they're still teenagers, he becomes confused by modern technology. At one point, when he ventures outside and sees cars, he runs back inside and declares that there are hundreds of demons. When asked to describe what they looked like, he says, "Shiny." Also, one point, when Cordelia turns off the radio, he says, "How did you stop the tiny men from singing?"
- Holtz is brought forward from the 1800s by a demon. This demon explains some things to him, and encourages him to focus on how while technology might be very different, by and large humans themselves are unchanged from his time. His obsessive focus on destroying Angel lets him shrug off most of the culture shock — one of the few questions he asks is how, with all the new weapons they've created since his time, no one has killed Angelus yet.
- The Groosalugg upon following Cordy to Los Angeles.
- Beforeigners is about people from the Stone Age, The Low Middle Ages, and the 19th century arriving in the present day via time holes. This trope is the Central Theme of the series.
- In The Boys (2019), Captain America expy Soldier Boy had been a captive of the Soviets since the 1980s. When he finally returns to America in the present day, he's confused and amused by things like the Seven replacing him and open homosexuality. When Hughie tries to explain modern technology and things like the Internet to him, he accuses him of making it up. Played for Drama soon after, as he really doesn't take The War on Terror well considering that he fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan All for Nothing and resents how "soft" America has become in his absence.
- Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. As the result of an accident during a space mission in 1987, Buck Rogers becomes a Human Popsicle for 504 years and thaws out (due to Harmless Freezing) in the title time period.
- Catweazle was an early 70s British show about a 10th century wizard who tries to cast a spell of flight to escape a group of Norman soldiers, but ends up in 1970 instead. There he encounters such strange wonders like 'electrickery' (electricity), 'tiny suns' (light bulbs) and 'telling bones' (telephones).
- Cinderella Chef: Jia Yao is surprised to see the past isn't the way it was portrayed on television, and the people around her are just as surprised by her behaviour and clothing.
- Continuum is about a police officer and a group of terrorists she was escorting to prison from 2077 sent back to 2012.
- Dark Matter (2015): The crew of the Raza have trouble adjusting to 21st century Earth, and expect for the Android are pretty ignorant of contemporary life (Six even wonders if there are flush toilets). In particular the Android stands out due to her odd syntax. It takes almost no time until some kids follow them to the Marauder and find out they're not who they say.
- Dark Shadows: Victoria Winters switches places with an 18th century governess, who was wrongfully convicted of being a witch and hung in 1795, during a séance. Vicky almost suffers the same fate, but the accusations against her are sparked from her arriving in 1795 as is, wearing her modern clothing and a "charm" bracelet and her inability to keep quiet about future events in a vain attempt to prevent them from happening. She is eventually convicted and sentenced to hang, but the hanging is what sends her back to the present day.
- Dead Gorgeous is about three sisters who died in an accident in 1860. They are allowed to return to earth 150 years later, in 2010. Needless to say, they have some problems adjusting.
- Doctor Who revolves around travelling through time and space in a blue box, so every companion, especially the ones from Earth, is subject to this. Generally, they don't stay around for long.
- Since the classic series originated as a way to teach children history, some of the early companions are from earlier periods in Earth's history — for example, on 18th-century Scotsman Jamie's first few TARDIS trips he insists that an image can't be of the moon since the moon's in the sky, and, upon seeing a Cyberman, believes it to be a ghost and a portent of his death. Also, he's terrified of airplanes. Victorian girl Victoria adapts much more easily, only worrying about her clothes.
- The most extreme case would have to be the short-lived First Doctor companion Katarina. She was born in ancient Troy and, as a result, was convinced the Doctor was a god and referred to the TARDIS as his temple. One reason she accepted the wonders of TARDIS travel so easily was because she believed she was already dead and en route to paradise. Sadly she died in a Heroic Sacrifice before she had a chance to really acclimate to the lifestyle.
- In "The Awakening", Will is not, as the Doctor thought, a psychic projection, but was actually brought forward in time from the English Civil War. Fortunately the Doctor will bring him back.
- Poor Richard from "Silver Nemesis" starts off as a rather sinister henchman for a seventeenth century witch, but one journey three hundred years into the future sees him reduced to a rather pitiful nervous wreck terrified by absolutely everything he comes across. By the end, he's just so happy to discover that the Doctor can take him home that he resolves to completely change his ways.
- "Bad Wolf": Rose gets hit with this trope hard when she winds up on a killer version of The Weakest Link in the year 200,100. Since she's from the 21st century, she comes off to the locals as a very Dumb Blonde who gets most of the questions (except for ones about basic vocabulary and math) very wrong, because they're about an era that from her perspective hasn't happened yet. She gets one about the Face of Boe correct because she met him in a previous episode, but that's about it. The only reason she lasts to the final round is because another contestant votes to keep her in because he figures that since she's "stupid", he'll have an easy time winning if he's against her in the final round.
- In "Blink", the Weeping Angels feed on the potential energy of humans, hurtling them back through time and eating off the life they could have had. Cathy Nightingale is sent to 1920, while Billy Shipton is thrown into 1969.
- In "The Pandorica Opens", Rory Williams, based in 2010 and last seen in 2020 spends months as a Roman centurion, fitted with false memories of a soldier as well as that of Rory himself, being a duplicate created by the Nestene. He then spends the next two thousand years guarding the Pandorica with Amy inside. Though when the timeline gets closer to his native time he ditches the Centurion outfit and simply gets a job as a security guard.
- At the end of "The Angels Take Manhattan", Rory is sent into the past by a Weeping Angel. Since the Doctor can't rescue him without ripping the space/time fabric in New York, Amy chooses to get touched by the Angel in order to be with her husband. River, who is able to visit her parents, confirms that they found one another and lived out their lives happily.
- In Dracula (2020), the Count goes through a very mild adjustment period following his awakening in 21st century England, with his biggest misconception being that he mistakes a dirty lower-class hovel for the home of a person richer than any king, queen or emperor he's ever met. Might also count as a subtle Take That! to the audience to remind them of the luxuries they take for granted every day.
- An episode of Earth: Final Conflict had an Atavus female and a Medieval English monk (who was hunting her) appear in the 20 Minutes into the Future world of EFC. He is initially put off by Renee Palmer, as he expects women to be docile and subservient. After learning her name, he simply assumes she's French and leaves it at that, although he does ask if she's a courtesan or a harlot, given the way she dresses and acts, not understanding why she feels insulted by the question. Interestingly, no one seems to pay attention to a man walking around wearing a monk's cowl. While there are still traditional orders of monks who wear the full habit and cowl, they aren't as common as they once were. Medieval English personal hygiene (or the lack thereof) would however draw significantly more notice.
- Fantasy Island often sent guests back in time to interact with historical figures. Other times characters such as Don Juan, King Arthur, and Jack the Ripper ended up in the 70s.
- The Flash (2014): In Season 5, Nora (Barry and Iris' daughter from the future) joins the main cast, and goes undercover as a CSI. She assures him that in her time, forensic science is super advanced, so she'll be fine — and then immediately contaminates the crime scene by touching something without gloves.Nora: Sorry, you mean you don't have a scene wide modified personic frequency field, to avoid cross contamination?
Barry: I don't even think we have some of those words yet! - Fringe: Walter, as a result of spending the last 17 years in St. Claire's is mildly disoriented during the first season.
- The Ghost and Mrs. Muir: With no one having occupied Gull Cottage since his depth, Captain Gregg is a little ignorant of many of the changes in modern society, such as the march of women's rights.
- The Girl from Tomorrow is mostly about a girl from a distant utopian future ending up in the present, but also takes her present-time friends into a nearer dystopian future. When she first meets said friends, she's surprised a door "won't open" because she's used to automatic doors; the present girl — who doesn't know yet — opens the door for her while acknowledging the lock "is a bit hard at times".
- Downplayed in Glitch with Charlie, Paddy and John. They are a bit puzzled or fascinated by modern developments which didn't exist in their lifetimes, but they quickly figure them out and the incidents themselves only get a few seconds of screen time. The rest of the resurrected characters are from recent-enough decades as to find the present-day sufficiently close to what they already know.
- In Great Minds with Dan Harmon, a different historical figure is temporarily brought back to life in each episode so that they can be interviewed by Community and Rick and Morty creator Dan Harmon. More often than not, chaos ensues.
- An episode of House had the titular character wake a man who had been in a coma ten years. Fish out of Temporal Water moments include House telling the man, when he wants to get new clothes, that we have switched to "recyclable clothes" that one wears once and then eats, and the coma guy stumbling across new music players. "What's this? It says 'IP-ODD'."
- It's About Time, a short-lived Fantastic Comedy from The '60s, wound up using two variations of this trope. The show began with two astronauts becoming stranded in the prehistoric era and befriending a family of cave dwellers; after months of disappointing ratings, a mid-season retool resulted in the astronauts returning to their own time — with the cave family in tow.
- Joy Of Life: Fan Xian, being the reincarnation of a modern guy with perfect memories of his past life stuck in imperial China, is this, and it's used both as a source of humor and a source of drama.
- Averted in Kamen Rider Kiva, when an incident at a fortune teller's causes Wataru to be possessed by the spirit of his late father Otoya. After finding out when he is, Otoya is delighted to discover such things as maid cafes and the Internet, and even helps his friend's daughter get over a personal problem. If anything, Otoya is better-adjusted to the 2000s than his introverted shut-in son.
- The Last O.G. revolves around a ex-convict from Brooklyn who is released from prison after 15 years, only to find out that his neighborhood has been gentrified and that his girlfriend is now married to another man.
- The main character of Life spent more than a decade in prison. Well, the world has changed quite a bit since then...Crews: He sent John an IM. *beat* Reese, what exactly is an IM?
- Life on Mars...sort of. "My name is Sam Tyler. I had an accident, and I woke up in 1973. Am I mad, in a coma, or back in time?" And Ashes to Ashes (2008), though slightly less so.
- Lost Season 5: after many merry adventures on the time-travelling island, Sawyer, Juliet, Miles, Jin, and Daniel end up stuck in 1974. Unlike the usual progression of this trope, the five characters assimilate with the DHARMA Initiative and live happily among them for three years until Jack, Kate, Hurley, and Sayid (also sent back in time) show up and violent Hilarity Ensues.
- Manifest: When Montego Flight 828 experiences a brief period of severe turbulence, the crew makes an emergency landing at Stewart International Airport in Newburgh, New York, where the plane's 191 passengers and crew learn from NSA director Robert Vance that over five and a half years have passed while they were in the air, during which time they were presumed dead, and many of their loved ones have either moved on or have passed away. Not to mention that society is different in 2018 than in 2013.
- Monarch: Legacy of Monsters: A key part of Lee Shaw's backstory concerning his disappearance inbetween the 1950s and the present day. Shaw was trapped in Hollow Earth due to a top secret Monarch mission gone wrong, but time dilation meant that while Shaw only experienced ten days before he returned to Earth's surface, the world that he returned to was in the early 1980s instead of the early 1960s.
- The Munsters Today, initially a Sequel Series to The Munsters, had the Munsters become this in the first season with the premise that they had been in suspended animation for over 20 years and now had to adapt to the culture of the late 1980's. The following seasons, however, ignored this aspect and acted as if the Munsters had never gone into suspended animation with the series becoming a more modern interpretation of the family rather than the original family sent years into the future.
- One episode of Muppets Tonight features Gary Cahuenga, a ventriloquist's dummy who was locked in a trunk for some forty years. When released, he thinks it's time for his appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, and has some initial difficulties adjusting to modern times.Gary: The women-! They're...wearing their dresses up to here! And...tattoos! And the guys are wearing earrings...in their noses!
Bobo: Wait'll he gets a load of Dennis Rodman. - Odd Squad: Orla, introduced in Season 3, is an employee of Odd Squad belonging to a special group of agents known to modern-day employees as "ancient agents". A Child Soldier who fought in a war between agents and villains for control of the Odd Squad Ancient Artifact known as the 44-Leaf Clover, she's been around since at least the 1970s and resided in the Amazon in a dark, spacious cave for all of her life — and that was when she wasn't at the Odd Squad Amazon Headquarters serving as the guardian of the 44-Leaf Clover. When she becomes part of the Mobile Unit department at the end of the season premiere "Odd Beginnings" after helping to save the Clover, she is forced to adjust to modern times and does so pretty well, but still speaks in Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe and frequently comes up with her own terms for objects and places.
- Once Upon a Time:
- Aurora has a bit of this due to her Deep Sleep lasting the entirety of the twenty-eight year curse instead of only a few months. In Storybrooke, Belle has a similar problem, since her only memory of the "real" world is the almost thirty years of being locked up in the local asylum.
- Captain Hook/Killian Jones is shown to have issues with modern technology. He insists on calling phones "talking phones" as he thinks just "phones" sounds silly, and admits he doesn't know how they work beyond Emma answering when he hits the right button (if she doesn't answer, then he considers it useless).
- The Outer Limits (1963) did this with the main characters of their Time Travel episodes ("The Man Who Was Never Born", "Soldier", "Demon with a Glass Hand"), all of whom came from The Future to what was then The Present Day.
- The Outer Limits (1995): In "Lithia", Major Mercer is a soldier who, after being put in cryostasis, wakes up four decades later to find he's the only man left after a war. There is more than simply the fact that only women exist though, as they're also communists, pacifists and blame men for what's happened. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he can't adjust to doing things as they like, and it goes badly.
- Paper Girls:
- The girls go from 1988 to 2019, and have to adjust-they're especially blown away by the Internet, which they find awesome.
- Tiffany wants to find her future self via the phone book only to be informed they're not being published anymore. She looks up her name on Google and finds something called "The Quilkin Institute", but her research is cut short.
- The girls are naturally astounded at the existence of the Internet, cell phones and other devices people in 2019 take for granted.
- Mac tries to put one of her cassette tapes into her now-adult brother's car's radio. When Mac complains, "what kind of cheap-ass car doesn't have a tape deck?" her brother smirks, issues a voice command and the stereo plays their favorite rock song from when they were kids with Mac sitting in wonder.
- Given they barely have a handle on how to drive a car in 1988, it's little wonder the girls have problems with the self-starting type of 2019.
- In Power Rangers Time Force and its Super Sentai counterpart Mirai Sentai Timeranger, the majority of the ranger team are from the year 3000, having come to the present while chasing after escaped criminals. While they adapt for the most part, several episodes see them struggling with certain aspects of 21st century living.
- Power Rangers Dino Charge gives us two out of time Rangers with Blue Ranger Koda (a caveman from 100,000 years in the past that was frozen in ice) and Gold Ranger Sir Ivan (a knight that got sealed inside one of the villains for 800 years). Both managed to survive by bonding to the season's MacGuffin and source of power (which grants the wielder eternal youth)
- The Argentine skit show Poné a Francella had the titular character of "Enrique el Antiguo", a Deliberately Monochrome man that believes he's living in the 1970s even though he's living in the early 2000s. The finale shows he was acting this way deliberately as to make everyone remember of the happier past... but ends up having a Deliberately Monochrome child that acts exactly like he did before.
- Primeval:
- Technically anything that comes through the anomalies is a candidate for this trope, but it is most in evidence when a Medieval Knight comes through and mistakes modern London for Hell (you can see how he might think that though).
- The knight was actually chasing what he thought was a dragon, which turned out to be a dracorex.
- Two other time travelers, Ethan and Emily, show up in Season 4, but this trope doesn't come into play that much because Ethan is actually from the present and Emily just never seems confused about much of the present things. Except high-fives.
- In Quantum Leap and its sequel series, Sam and Ben leap around throughout the past and have to adapt to different time periods, while being seen as a different person in each.
- In Queen In-hyun's Man, Boong Do, a warrior/scholar in 1694 Korea, is flung forward in time to 2012, where he meets an actress who has been cast in a TV show about the events he was experiencing in 1694.
- In Rentaghost, Timothy Claypole, a medieval jester, had problems dealing with modern technology while Hubert Davenport, a Victorian gentleman, had trouble adjusting to modern morals.
- Two episodes of The Sarah Jane Adventures have the cast sent back to an earlier part of Sarah Jane's history, which the Trickster wishes to alter for his own goals.
- Saturday Night Live had "Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer", who milked his temporal displacement for all its worth to win cases.
- A later sketch had a secret military project bring George Washington to the present so that he could hear arguments from the current leaders of Congress and decide who had the best ideas. Things did not go as planned as Washington suffered a complete Freak Out as soon as he arrived.
- In an episode of Scrubs, a man who fell into a coma in The '80s wakes up and starts moonwalking through the hospital in a Michael Jackson costume while doing a Rubik's cube.
- In the Colombian series, Siempre bruja ("Always a Witch"), Carmen, a young slave-woman in mid 17th century Cartagena, is accused of being a witch after she's caught having an affair with her master's son and is sentenced to be burned at the stake. Just before her execution, she makes a pact with powerful warlock to get her out of there, and she's transported into the 21st century, where she learns of the "magic" of the internet, as well as the fact that slavery was abolished, workers have a right to demand fair treatment from their employers, everyone, no matter their social standing, is entitled to a fair trial, and women can go to university and make something of themselves rather than settling for being a housewife.
- Ichabod Crane in Sleepy Hollow, who was put into a magical sleep during the American Revolutionary War and woke up in present day to his bewilderment. Leads to moments such as tossing a gun aside after taking one shot because he's used to guns that only hold one bullet and can't be reloaded in the middle of a fight, getting pissed off at inaccurate museum tour guides, and locking himself inside cars.
- This happened in a couple episodes of Sliders, particularly in one of the earlier seasons when the Sliders end up on a world that was ~20 years behind theirs and Quinn meets his younger self right after his father died.
- Henry from Spirited suffers from this to an extent. It's not too bad, as he only died in the 70s, but he still has to be taught how to use a computer or the internet, and he notes that cars are very different from what he's used to. He's also very impressed with iPods and modern home entertainment systems.
- A few Star Trek episodes had this:
- Khan of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan fame was one of these when he first appeared in Star Trek: The Original Series.
- In "The City on the Edge of Forever" an overdosed McCoy raves on about the terrible surgical methods of the period he's in, with "bodies stitched up like clothes". In an earlier scene, Kirk and Spock show up on a city street in the middle of the day with their Starfleet uniforms on. They don't exactly blend in.
- TOS also had some Klingons-on-Ice.
- As did TNG. The Enterprise dealt with those by letting Worf and K'eylar pretend to run the ship.
- A few episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation had holodeck characters brought to life. Professor Moriarty was "from" the 19th century, but adapted to Star Trek Next Gen's "present day" surprisingly well...
- A similar occurrence in DS9 where Vic (from the 50's/70's) was comfortable knowing he was a hologram in the 24th century.
- Done again in an episode of Voyager when the Hologram of Leonardo da Vinci gets accidentally loaded onto the Doctor's Mobile Emitter and taken by pirates to a nearby planet. He actually adjusts very well, and thinks he's merely in America as he decided to go there before being hijacked.
- Another TNG episode "The Neutral Zone" involved some defrosted Human Popsicles. Perhaps too much, since they were there mostly for exposition of "the present" in the Federation and to get in the way while Picard tried to deal with Romulans.
- Star Trek: Voyager also had a Human Popsicle episode, "The 37's", which involved (among others) Amelia Earhart.
- In yet another Voyager episode, "Future's End", Tom Paris thinks he can avert this trope due to his familiarity with 20th Century Earth. Unfortunately, he hasn't quite got it down to the decade, causing him to play this trope straight.
- Voyager's finale also had an interesting case of 20 Minutes into the Future combined with this trope. Admiral Janeway arrived from 16 years in the future relative to the series' time scale. The Values Dissonance comes from her own clashing views with her younger self, Captain Janeway.
- Scotty in the Next Generation episode "Relics".
- In Voyager's "Natural Law" Seven and Chakotay are stranded on a planet with primitive humanoids (similar to our own ancestors.) This also happened in the Enterprise episode 'Civilisation' (but this species were equivalent to our Renaissance period.)
- There is also the crew of the USS Bozeman, being sent forward in time from TOS to TNG by a Negative Space Wedgie while trying to fight off a Klingon battlecruiser (this part was added by the book Ship of the Line). The book expands on the feelings of the crew. Captain Bateson adjusts fairly well, although he maneuvers himself into being named the first captain of the Enterprise-E over Picard. His Number Two, though, becomes a drunken wreck after learning the fate of his fiancée, who went into Klingon space to look for him after the disappearance and was sent back in pieces after the Klingons learned who she was (the attack foiled by the Bozeman was a great embarassment for them). Riker even muses early on that being trapped in the future is significantly worse than being trapped in the past. At least, in the past, you have a chance of letting your loved ones know what happened to you.
- The Star Trek: Department of Temporal Investigations novel "Watching the Clock" reveals that Lt. Parvana Whitcomb (the woman standing next to Captain Bateson in the episode) arguably had it even worse. After being freed from the loop she learned that her husband and daughter later died in an attack, and her only surviving family member was her formerly younger brother Jamshid - who died two months after Parvana was rescued at the age of 110.
- Star Trek: The Next Generation even has a case of "someone from The Future ends up in The Future" in the episode "A Matter of Time", where a historian from the 26th century goes back to the 24th century to witness an important event that the crew of the Enterprise-D are about to undergo. It's almost all a lie, however — while he is using a time machine that came from the future, he stole it from its original owners as they went to visit his time — the 22nd century — and pretended to be a future historian so he could sneak back 24th century technology, making a major profit on it in his home time. Regardless of the truth, both alleged origin points and the destination are "the future" to the early 1990s audience watching the episode.
- In Supernatural, Samuel Campbell, Sam and Dean's grandfather, is one, after he was brought back to life almost forty years after his death. As Sam so eloquently put it, "He thinks Velcro is big news."
- Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
- After the first episode, Sarah, John, and Cameron travel from 1999 to 2007. On some points (Sarah and John getting cell phones) it's played for light laughs. On others (Sarah learning about the 9/11 attacks)...not so much.
- Derek, being from the Bad Future, also qualifies as this. He brings his values back in time with him and believes that every problem can be solved with a gun. This attitude eventually gets him killed. Interestingly, the place where he feels most at home is at a military academy, where he poses as an instructor and becomes a Drill Sergeant Nasty, trying to prepare young soldiers for what will come.
- In Thunderstone, almost every character in the show prefers their native time to any of the others. The citizens of North Col see Haven as a horribly primitive wasteland where the inhabitants struggle to stay alive and avoid capture each and every day. The Nomads see North Col as a claustrophobic, oppressive prison filled with technology they don’t understand. Much drama comes from characters being frightened or horrified by the society of a time unfamiliar to them.
- Time After Time: H. G. Wells and Dr. John Stevenson (aka Jack the Ripper) travel from 1893 London to 2017 New York City. Stevenson adjusts better, quickly adopting contemporary clothes and technology, while Wells is initially stunned by the experience, especially that his longed-for utopia didn't happen.
- Timeless is centered on this trope, but in one episode, it gets inverted when the team brings John F. Kennedy into the future.
- The Torchwood episode "Out of Time" has three aircraft travellers from the 1950s pass through a one-way Time Portal. Each character reacts differently the initially most nervous one adapts and moves to London, the aviatrix dates Owen but breaks his heart when she takes her chances with the portal (the Rift) again, and the other commits suicide as all his family are dead except his son, who has no children, advanced Alzheimer's, and barely remembers his father.
- Writers of Russian detective series Trace use this trope time to time. The best examples are:
- In "A Trap in Time", a businessman obsessed with the idea of time travel suddenly finds himself in Nazi-occupied Pskov, captured by the Nazis as an apparent spy. He manages to escape, shooting the German officer who interrogated him, and soon finds himself (and the officer's dead body) back in the 21st century. The "time travel" was an elaborate but harmless prank, a gift from his friends, but the director of the company that staged it deliberately put real shells into the gun, since he had a personal vendetta against the actor who played the officer.
- "Wormhole" begins with a Soviet car discovered in a forest, with an old man in Soviet clothing who insists he is a high-ranked Communist party member and refuses to believe he is not in the USSR. The old man was a high-ranked Soviet official, but fled in 1978 under an assumed name to avoid investigation and has been mentally ill since the 1990s. The apparent time travel was a setup by two conspirators to make their victim remember where he had buried his illegally-acquired treasure.
- "Seeking Charon" focuses on the murder of the mobster Kirill Kuzin. His corpse was found dressed in a typical "New Russian"
style, which was typical for the 90s. In fact, he spent 25 years in Portuguese prison and was completely out of touch with the world. For example, he had no idea about the smartphones or broadband Internet.
- This is a common trope in The Twilight Zone (1959). Relevant episodes include "Execution", "Back There", "The Odyssey of Flight 33", "Once Upon a Time", and "No Time Like the Past".
- In Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, the title character has been living in an underground bunker with a doomsday cult since The '90s. After her and her "sisters" are rescued by the FBI, Kimmy tries adjusting to life in 21st century Manhattan.
- The Vampire Diaries:
- Downplayed with the tomb vampires in Season 1, who have been trapped underground since 1864. Some of them are shown marveling at modern technology, such as cars and cellphones, but are otherwise able to adjust surprisingly well.
- After Rebekah is awakened from being sort-of-dead since the 1920s in Season 3, Stefan and Klaus take her out for some shopping. While she is shown to be taken aback by modern music and fashion trends, she is also able to settle in by the next episode (which makes sense, since she's been alive since the Viking Age).Rebekah: There has to be more to this dress.
Klaus: There's not.
Rebekah: So women of the twenty-first century dress like prostitutes, then? You know, I got dirty looks for wearing trousers.
Klaus: You wore trousers so women today could wear nothing.
Rebekah: And what is this music? It sounds like a cable car accident.
Stefan: It's dance... music.
Rebekah: [deadpan] People dance to this?
- Warehouse 13:
- Helena G. Wells via Human Popsicle effect (in an And I Must Scream prison no less). It's mostly culture shock, as the technology present is based off things she either invented or predicted. Even then she adjusts very well, and mostly seems bitter about everyone and everything she cared about being gone.
- Later, Paracelsus is de-bronzed after spending centuries as a statue by his nephew, who took The Slow Path by virtue of being The Ageless. Subverted in that his nephew uses an Artifact to transfer his memories to Paracelsus, specifically to avoid this trope. Despite this, he still walks around in outdated clothing, but that could just be a personal preference.
- The X-Files: The episode "Je Souhaite" concerns a Literal Genie who spends decades at a time dormant in between summonings. Mulder's first clue that she's been out of commission for a while is the fact that the Fonz is a go-to pop culture reference for her.
