You Called Me X It Must Be Serious / Live-Action TV

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• 24 Day 5: Special Agent Aaron Pierce is tied to a chair and given an ultimatum by President Logan: remain quiet about the latter's role in the day's events and receive a cushy job anywhere he likes (except the White House, obviously) or be killed. Pierce then proceeds to give a "The Reason You Suck" Speech at Logan, calling him "a traitor to [his] country and a disgrace to [his] office", vows to make him face justice... and caps it all with "Is there anything else... Charles?". That's right, a Secret Service Agent just referred to the President of the United States by his first name out of sheer disgust.
• The Adventures of Superman: In "The Evil Three", Perry, talking to the terrified Jimmy, calls him "Jim" rather than "Olsen".
• In Ashes to Ashes (2008)
  • Ray almost never refers to Alex by name, and then only as Drake, but when they all get a bit of Character Development in series three and he begins to respect her skills despite her gender he refers to her as "ma'am".
  • In a similar vein, when Gene's in a good mood he calls her Bolly, Bollykegs, Bolly-knickers, Bolls or Mrs-lady-woman over there, when he's angry he calls her Drake and when it's serious, Alex.
• Battlestar Galactica (2003): In an early season, Billy is attempting to get through to Dee, who is in shock. At Roslin's suggestion, he calls her by her full name and rank, which snaps her out of it at least enough to notice them. Referring to her by her affectionate nickname doesn't work.
• In Beverly Hills, 90210, when Donna is being attacked by a known rapist, David arrives home. The rapist forces Donna to tell him to leave, and when she does she refers to David as "Dave". Immediately, it seems as if David does leave, until a second later when the rapist attempted to assault Donna again, David bursts into the room, and both him and Donna beat the rapist into submission.
• Happens with the two Master Computers in Blake's 7 at the moment of their 'death'. When the Liberator is damaged beyond repair, Zen says "I have failed you..." despite always referring to itself in the third person. Slave, the overly-sycophantic computer of Scorpio, always refers to the crew as "Master", but addresses Tarrant by his name after the Ace Pilot makes a futile attempt to stop Scorpio from crashlanding in the final episode.
• Booth in Bones rarely uses Brennan’s first name unless it’s serious. He usually calls her “Bones”. One such example is the series finale, where he calls her “Temperance” after the explosion in the lab injures her. It goes both ways, because Booth hates his first name.
• Breaking Bad: When Jesse calls Walter "Walt" for the first time instead of "Mr. White", it's a sign of how much the balance of power has shifted in their relationship.
• In Broadchurch, DI Hardy refuses to call DI Miller her preferred first name, instead choosing to use Last-Name Basis. He uses her first name when he has to break the news that her husband was the one who murdered Danny Latimer. This only freaks her out further, as she immediately tells him to stop calling her "Ellie".
• Brooklyn Nine-Nine: When Terry's wife finds out he got back on the field without telling her, she says "You are a piece of work, Terrance" and leaves. Terry reflects on her use of "Terrance" and says he's doomed.
• In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy always calls Spike by that name, until she breaks up with him "for real" and calls him William, his name before he became a vampire. Whereas Spike called Buffy by her family name "Summers" when first making his Anguished Declaration of Love.
• On Burn Notice:
  • Sam has called Michael by his first name (as opposed to "Mike" or "Mikey") exactly once, when he found confirmation that a crazy conspiracy theorist who'd been trying to enlist their help was right about a plot to kill several American spies.
  • Sam combines this with Out-of-Character Alert in the Season 2 finale. He's been tasked with getting Michael's mother, Madeline, out of town to keep her safe from the bad guys, but she refuses to run. She jokes around with Sam, offering him a beer — something Sam would never turn down. He slams his hand on the counter and says "I don't want a beer, Madeline!"; refusing the beer and his calling her Madeline (instead of "Maddie") tells her he's dead serious.
  • Like Sam, this is combined with Out-of-Character Alert with Barry the Money Launderer. While helping Mike check a bank account, Barry is caught by Blye, a minor antagonist from Season 1. Blye forces Barry to wear a wire. After the episode's escapades which resolved Blye's and Michael's antagonism towards each other, Michael suggests to Barry if he is ever stuck in a situation like that again just offer to buy Michael or his friends lunch. Barry understands and agrees to this precaution.
• In Castle, co-leads Detective Kate Beckett and writer Rick Castle almost never call each other anything other than "Castle" and "Beckett" (even in more intimate moments!). You know the situation's serious when one calls the other "Kate" or "Rick"... and even worse when Castle calls Beckett "Katie". Come to that, it's also telling if anyone calls Esposito or Ryan "Javi" or "Kevin".
• El Chavo del ocho: When Dona Florinda gets angry at her son, (yes, she does get angry at him at times) she shows him by calling him "Federico" instead of "Quico" or any sweet nickname she usually calls him.
• Criminal Minds:
  • Derek Morgan and Penelope Garcia have many pet-names for each other. When Morgan's calling Garcia "baby girl", "goddess", or "sweetheart", and Garcia's referring to Morgan as "god of chocolate thunder", "sweet-cheeks", or "hot stuff", everything's copacetic. During Garcia's shooting in Season 3, the "Derek"s and "Penelope"s were flying, due to the intense emotional fallout. In Season 5, when Morgan is temporarily promoted to Unit Chief, the first thing he does is curb the unprofessional pet names (though he's right back to calling her "baby girl" again after Hotch retakes the Unit Chief role):
    Morgan: Thanks baby gi— Agent Garcia.
  • Reid, upset that JJ didn't tell him that Emily's death was faked, even though he spent over two months in a deep depression and crying at her house, calls JJ by her first name of "Jennifer". Given that everyone calls her JJ, it was quite unusual to hear, especially out of Reid, who has always had a close relationship with JJ.
  • In the Season 1 episode "Riding the Lightning", Hotch and JJ interview a guy on death row.
    JJ: Agent Jennifer Jareau. My friends call me JJ.
    Suspect: Well... hello, JJ.
    JJ: You are not my friend. You can call me Jennifer.
• In the CSI episode "Grave Danger", it takes Grissom calling Nick by his family nickname of "Pancho" to break Nick out of his panic.
• In Dinosaurs Baby calls his father Earl "Not the Mama" no matter how much Earl tries to get him to say "Daddy". When Baby gets sick, calling Earl "Daddy" proves O.O.C. Is Serious Business and he's really sick. When he gets better he goes back to calling him "Not the Mama".
• Doctor Who:
  • Ace usually calls the Doctor "Professor". She uses "Doctor" only when it's really serious. Of course, technically "Doctor" isn't a name, but it is what he wants to be called.
  • Generally, if the Doctor calls Jack Harkness by his first name instead of "Captain", it's a moment of either affection or duress.
  • The Doctor has occasionally called Amy by her real first name, Amelia, when she's about to do something silly. This is a holdover from the first time they met. Amelia was seven and introduced herself to the Doctor with her full name. About an hour later, she was 19 and preferred to be called Amy. He preferred Amelia, although most of the time he just calls her "Pond". To save Amy's life, the Doctor attempted to destroy her faith in him by telling her he had been using her, to which he referred to her as "Amy Williams" which he had never done before. Amy outright says that he only calls her Amelia when he's worried about her.
  • In "The Angels Take Manhattan", Amy calls her daughter by the name she gave her, Melody, instead of River Song when she's saying goodbye. She also calls the Doctor Raggedy Man. The Doctor also indicates the seriousness of the moment by calling her "Amelia Williams", which he had never previously used, despite her marriage. Perhaps in recognition that her love for and marriage to Rory meant she was going to try to follow him, no matter the consequences.
  • The Doctor typically referred to Danny Pink as "P.E.", but in moments of seriousness will call him by his real name.
  • In "The Time Monster". When Captain Mike Yates and his battalion are bombed by the V-2, the Brigadier tries to contact him on the 2-way radio. After several failed attempts where the Brig addresses him as "Captain Yates" only to get static for a reply, he finally asks, with an unusual note of desperation in his voice, "Mike?"
  • "Face the Raven": Rigsy, to whom the Doctor has always referred by a variety of nicknames, appears to be in mortal danger. The Doctor, making an effort to be empathetic, starts calling him by his proper name. Rigsy asks him to stop because it's just making him more scared.
• In the 12th season finale of ER, R.N. Sam Taggart is secretly taken hostage by her armed ex-husband Steve and his criminal partner. As she is led out of the hospital she calls Dr. Abby Lockhart (referred to as 'Abby' or 'Dr. Lockhart' by staff members, but never her full first name) "Abigail". Abby quickly deduces there is a problem and alerts two nearby police officers. The resulting carnage and escape lead into the 13th season premiere.
• Eureka: Sheriff Jack Carter and several friends become trapped inside his house by its sentient AI. When his deputy Jo Lupo shows up to check on him, Carter wants to let her know what's going on, but, of course, the house is listening. So he tells Lupo that everything is fine, but addresses her as Josefina (which no one ever does) as a way to alert her that something isn't right.
• On Flashpoint Spike is always Spike to his teammates... until the episode "Shockwave", when he puts himself in a dangerous situation. While Parker is begging him to get out of danger, he calls him Michaelangelo, and afterward Ed asks, "Michaelangelo Scarlatti, what were you thinking?"
  • Likewise, Parker is referred to as "Boss" or "Sarge" by the rest of the team while on the job but if Ed wants his attention, he will call him by his first name. One notable example is in "Follow the Leader" where Parker was shot and pinned down by a live shooter, Ed in frantic worry and unable to see his friend calls out Greg multiple times.
• In the premiere episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Will tells Geoffrey to call him Will. Geoffrey states that for reasons of propriety, he can't. Near the end of the series finale, when Geoffrey is no longer his butler, he honors this request.
• Game of Thrones: In "A Golden Crown", Viserys calls his sister "Dany" when he realises he's in deep shit.
• Subverted in Get Smart when Max consoles Agent 99 after the Chief has been shot.
  Max: Don't worry, Ernestine; he'll be okay.
  99: Do you realize that's the first time you've ever called me Ernestine? [Max nods] I wish it were my name.
• During the 100th Episode of Gilmore Girls, Logan, who has always called Rory "Ace" (as in "Ace Reporter") for as long as he's known her, finally calls her "Rory" to get her to stop freaking out for a moment over their relationship (or lack thereof). She points this out immediately before he starts his explanation. This marks the start of their Relationship Upgrade, as the next scenes with them clearly show.
• In the 5th episode of Good Omens, Crowley calls out Aziraphale's name as Azriaphale's bookshop is burning and Crowley is desperately looking for him. Before this, Crowley exclusively called Aziraphale "Angel".
• In the fourth season of House, House has many doctors competing for three spots on his diagnostics team. He gives each of them insulting nicknames which he uses exclusively. One of the doctors senses that she's about to be cut from the team when House calls her by her name instead of her nickname.
  Amber: You didn't call me "Bitch". Is that bad?
• Inspector Lynley: Lynley almost universally calls his colleague and partner Barbara Havers by her last name — until Havers is shot in the line of duty, at which point Lynley goes berserk and can only say desperately, "Barbara? Barbara???"
• Subverted in the JAG episode "Full Engagement". Harm always calls Sarah MacKenzie by her nickname "Mac". During an emergency landing in Harm's Stearman, Harm mutters, "Come on, Sarah." Mac later says she knew the situation was serious because Harm called her Sarah. Harm explains that Sarah is his plane's name; he named it after his grandmother.
• Sort of inverted on Joan of Arcadia — when Joan's classmate Adam keeps calling her "Jane", she gets used to it because Adam's clearly the show's Cloudcuckoolander. When she destroys a sculpture he created in a desperate attempt to keep him from dropping out of school, she tearfully apologizes without giving a full explanation (God told her to keep the statue from being displayed, and she used the first option that came to mind). He coldly rebuffs her and calls her "Joan". From then on, Adam calling Joan by her own name, as opposed to Jane, was a sign of serious trouble, such as after their breakup in Season 2.
  • This is also how Joan usually identifies the random strangers who are God speaking to her — by their calling her by her first name. (This inevitably leads to a scene where Joan flips out on a stranger who knows her name... who just happened to read it off her name tag.)
• Kamen Rider Ex-Aid:
  • Taiga Hanaya usually reffers to Nico Saiba as "she" or "girl", though he might throw in "brat" if she is particularly annoying. When he uses her name, it's because she has only a slim chance of survival and he can't do anything.
  • Hiiro Kagami insistently adheres to calling Emu "intern", which actually is Emu's position at Seito University Hospital, it's just that Hiiro is kind of a smug jackass about everything. The one outlier is to motivate him to turn the tide of a crucial battle they both staked everything on and that only he can win.
• Kamen Rider Zi-O: Geiz usually sticks to "Zi-O" when adressing Sougo in (mostly futile) attempt to keep a distance between them. He uses his name when concerned by Sougo's decision to give up on his dream and then when he is dying following a Heroic Sacrifice.
• On Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Eames generally addresses her partner Goren by his last name, but will occasionally address him as "Bobby" during arguments or emotional discussions. But when he calls her "Alex", you know that either shit is about to really hit the fan, or he's seriously concerned (one notable specific example is when he's talking to her just after she realizes that the wrong man has been doing time for her husband's murder). He also calls her "Alex" in the series finale, which may or may not have been intended as one final bit of Ship Tease from the writers.
• At the end of Season 3 of Lost, Sawyer's in a funk after finally killing Cooper. Sawyer repeatedly addresses Kate by her name instead of "Freckles" or another nickname when she confronts him about what's wrong:
  Kate: Ever since you got that tape from Locke it's like you've been sleepwalking. You don't care about our friends, fine, but it's like you don't care about anything anymore. And since when did you start calling me Kate?
  • It's a sign that things are getting really serious when almost everyone begins referring to Sawyer and Hurley by their given names (James and Hugo, respectively) instead of their nicknames.
• In Lucifer, Lucifer only ever refers to Chloe as "Detective", save for two times: once when she nearly dies in Season 1, and when he tells her he loves her in the Season 4 finale.
• On The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Mary would call her boss Lou Grant, Mr. Grant, ever since the first episode. Every other character would call him Lou, but Mary would only call him Mr. Grant out of respect for him as he was her boss. Even in the first episode, Mr. Grant wanted Mary to call him Lou but she refused. However, when Mary was truly angry or was serious with him, she would call him Lou. She only did this a few times in the whole series. Doing this would make him pay attention and know that she was serious.
• Despite their disdain for military protocol, Hawkeye and BJ on M*A*S*H regularly address Col. Potter by his rank out of respect for his compassionate, thoughtful approach to command. Only once, when Potter has been badly upset by another soldier snitching on him to his superiors and is contemplating leaving the Army, does Hawkeye call him "Sherm," urging him to stay.
  • A slight variation; Winchester always addressed Hawkeye by his last name, Pierce (he mostly called B.J. by his last name as well, though occasionally calling him "Beej"), except in the episode where Hawkeye found out his father was in the hospital and was agonizing over waiting for news. When Charles is trying to comfort Hawkeye by recalling his somewhat strained relationship with his father ("whereas I have a father, you have a dad"), Hawkeye notes Charles has never talked about his own father before, and Charles addresses Hawkeye by his nickname for the first (and only) time, as an indication Charles has never been this personal about anything with him before.
• Merlin (2008): In "The Kindness of Strangers", Kilgharrah calls Merlin "Emrys" for the first time before revealing he is dying.
• On My So-Called Life, Mr. Katimski always calls Rickie "Enrique", which always drives Rickie up the wall. But in the episode "Resolutions", when he has to tell Rickie he's being placed in a temporary facility instead of the place he wanted to go, Katimski calls him Rickie.
• In NCIS, any time Gibbs refers to DiNozzo or McGee by their first names (Tony and Tim, respectively) is usually a bad sign. Or at least a sign that Gibbs wants them to know he's not in 'boss mode' at the moment. Most of the time, a first-name address from Gibbs is his way of saying 'I've got your back'.
• Inverted in Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide, Moze spends an entire episode trying to get her friends to refer to her by her real name, Jennifer. Ned is the most reluctant, but when he finally relents, she's almost ran over because she only responds to him when he says Moze out of habit.
• The Newsroom's Will McAvoy is known as "Will" to everybody he's familiar with, even ex-paramour MacKenzie McHale, so when she finds him unconscious and vomiting blood on the floor of his bathroom, it's a mark of her terror and continued affection for him that she calls out "Billy!"
• In The Patty Duke Show, Patty calls her father "Poppo" 99% of the time. When she's upset or has a problem, she calls him "Daddy".
• Person of Interest:
  • Finch and Reese are usually very formal and only call each other by their last names unless they're really worried the other is in a really bad situation or are really serious about something they're going to say (though occasionally Reese uses Finch's first name when he wants to be especially irritating to his very formal and very private boss).
  • Finch insists on referring to Root as "Miss Groves," her birth name, instead of the hacker name she prefers. When she goes off on a potentially suicidal mission, he reassures a worried Shaw that no matter what happens, "Root is not alone." The use of her preferred name underscores just how serious he considers the situation.
    • He also goes so far as to refer to her as Samantha, her real first name, when he's worried that she's going to start torturing and killing innocent people during her Sanity Slippage Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
  • The Machine designates its creator Finch as "Admin", but when presented with a Sadistic Choice (reveal its location or Finch will be killed) addresses him as "Harold" and later (when its own existence is at stake) "Father".
• The Persuaders!: Unlike most of the other people in the series Lord Brett Sinclair tends to call his friend, self-made millionaire, Danny Wilde, by his full name of Daniel. The nickname is used when Brett sees Danny in crisis or injured:
  • In Death In The Family Brett called out ‘Danny!’ when he found Danny unconscious after an intruder on the Sinclair estate attacked him.
  • In Someone Waiting Brett again used ‘Danny’ when he found Danny sprawled in the garage while the pair is investigating who is trying to sabotage Brett’s return to racing.
  • In Angie Angie, during one of their rare arguments, Brett was trying to convince Danny that his childhood friend, Angie, was involved in less than honest activities. It's very telling that Brett was addressing his friend by the seldom used nickname the entire time.
  • Subverted twice in Five Miles To Midnight in which Brett used the nickname without Danny being injured when he did it. Unless one counts the episode's plot of the pair trying to escort a 'gangster' to a safe haven with other gangsters dogging their trail as a crisis.
• In Scrubs Dr. Cox has a tendency to call J.D. either girls names or "Newbie" even when he's been at the hospital for several years. One episode has him calling him JD while thanking him for helping him recover from his Heroic BSoD after having his patients die.
• In the Granada Sherlock Holmes TV Series, in the episode "The Devil's Foot", Holmes cries out Watson's first name of "John!" as he is recovering from the influence of a psychotropic drug.
• Sleepy Hollow: Ichabod generally refers to Abbie as 'Leftenant' or 'Miss Mills'; if he calls her Abbie then you know he means business. In fact, the first time he calls her that, her face absolutely crumples — because she realizes he really means to let himself be killed.
• Stargate SG-1:
  • O'Neill refers to Carter by her last name at all times, while she refers to him by either his full rank or "Sir". When they start calling each other "Jack" and "Sam", it is a sign that it's literally a life-or-death situation.
  • In "The Enemy Within", it's a subtle clue to the audience that Kawalsky is doomed when Jack spends the entire episode referring to his best friend as "Charlie", rather than his last name as he normally does.
• Starsky & Hutch: Captain Dobey calls Starsky "Dave" when he's been poisoned and has less than 24 hours to live. Starsky and Hutch crack jokes about the lengths required to get a first name out of him.
• In every Star Trek series ever, calling someone by their first name instead of their rank or last name indicates something very serious is going on.
  • This goes all the way back to Star Trek: The Original Series. Spock usually referred to Kirk as "Captain"; he only called him "Jim" when his emotional state was affected, for good or bad. A good example is in "The Doomsday Machine", when he calls him "Captain" and then "Jim" in the same conversation:
    Spock: Captain, you're getting dangerously close to the planet killer.
    Kirk: I intend to get a lot closer. I'm gonna ram her right down that thing's throat.
    Spock: Jim, you'll be killed. Just like Decker.
  • Or his giddy shout at the end of "Amok Time", showing his relief that he hasn't... that is, that Starfleet has not lost a fine captain.
  • Bones, conversely, routinely addresses Kirk as "Jim", and in return Kirk almost always calls the doctor by the nickname "Bones" (their friendship was implied to be long-established prior to their assignment to the Enterprise). It's when Bones calls him "Captain" that you know he's serious.
  • Similarly, the one and only time Scotty addresses Kirk as "Jim" is when Kirk is apparently about to stay behind in the Mirror Universe so the others can get home in "Mirror, Mirror".
  • See Tom Paris and B'Elanna Torres from Star Trek: Voyager sharing a Now or Never Kiss for another example.
• Succession: Kendall and Roman hatch a scheme to oust their father Logan from the family business with a vote of no confidence. Things go awry when Logan remains in the room during the vote and starts influencing the board members. When Roman's time to vote arrives, Logan pressures him not to vote and calls him "Romulus", which seems to be a childhood nickname. In spite of driving the vote, Roman caves and does not vote to oust his father. The name does not come up at any other point.
• Aside from his wife the First Lady, only five people in seven seasons of The West Wing ever called President Bartlet "Jed" to his face — and only Leo has done it twice. In the episode of The West Wing when we first find out President Bartlet has MS, and he tells Leo about it:
  Leo: Jed, of all the things you could’ve kept from me...
  President Bartlet: You haven’t called me “Jed” since I was elected.
  • This trope plays a major part in "Take This Sabbath Day," a Season 1 episode. President Bartlet's parish priest from childhood, Father Tom Cavanaugh, comes to visit Washington; at first, he calls Bartlet "Jed," and Bartlet requests that he use the title "President Bartlet" while they are in the White House, and especially the Oval Office. Father Cavanaugh's visit coincides with Bartlet and his staff attempting to get an inmate off of death row. They fail to do so, and Bartlet has a breakdown, making excuses as to why the young man had to die. Father Cavanaugh challenges Bartlet on every excuse; as the episode ends, the following exchange occurs as the men stand in the Oval Office:
    Father Cavanaugh: Jed...would you like me to hear your confession?
    President Bartlet: (A long pause) ...yes.
• The X-Files:
  • The only time we ever really hear Mulder call Scully "Dana" is when things get deadly serious and extremely dangerous.
  • Scully calls Mulder "Fox" only once and he asks her not to, so she stops and the favor isn't really returned, since Mulder doesn't like his first name. He says he even made his parents call him Mulder (though it's not true and a number of characters call him by his first name, which he takes just fine).
  • The Out-of-Character Alert version is seen in the series, also, when Mulder switches places with someone else or when someone else is pretending to be him. The Not-Mulders assume they're close enough to be on a First-Name Basis and call Scully "Dana," something the real Mulder doesn't do.
• Yellowjackets: In "Storytelling" after watching [Kevyn Tan keel over dead, Jeff is too stunned to react. To get his attention and assistance to move Kevyn's body, Walter tries calling him by his given name:
  Walter: Jeffrey. Does anyone call you that?
  Jeff: Yeah, my mom. (stammers) No, she... she doesn't.

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