History AdultsAreUseless / LiveActionTV

** Henry's parents in general. They never realize their son is Kid Danger in spite of some ''very'' obvious hints and are [[PushoverParents too spineless]] to discipline their daughter [[BrattyHalfPint Piper]] when she misbehaves or causes trouble.

* With ''Series/DegrassiJuniorHigh'', this was actually part of the creators' intent. The show was designed as a backlash of sorts to the heavily moralistic, saccharine teen-oriented TV shows of the time, and this included putting the kids and their feelings front and center, without adults telling them what is right and what is wrong. Throughout the whole show there are only three recurring adults: the teachers, and they are just there to teach their subjects, not moral lessons. As for parents, they only sporadically appear as a means of portraying the character's home life, and some of them are actually abusive, or alcoholics. Others, like the mother of teen mom Christine "Spike" Nelson, are very sweet and supportive, but not in a way that's meant to teach you anything.
** This is sort of averted in ''Series/DegrassiTheNextGeneration''. Because four of the adults in the show are characters from the original series, including Spike (whose daughter Emma is a central character), they aren't portrayed in the same disposable way as the adults in ''Degrassi Junior High'', and even are involved in more storylines. Apart from that, original teacher-cum-principal Mr. Raditch is pretty much portrayed as a [[Film/TheBreakfastClub Principal Vernon]] type who is later kicked out because of his failure to stop a school shooting.

* One thing most of the main cast has in common in ''Series/{{Euphoria}}'' how their parents fail them in unique, various ways, from ''causing'' didn’t mean to break ups to barely being able to track their children on what they do:

* ''Series/TheHauntingHour'': The parents are so unhelpful in this series that whenever their child is stalked by the MonsterOfTheWeek or haunted by a supernatural force their kid usually ends up dead [[AndIMustScream or worse off]] by the end because they didn't listen.
** One exception is the dad in "Really You." He's depicted as competent and finding Lily D. and his wife's obsession with her supremely unnerving. To get around this, the script has him go on a business trip, effectively removing him from a large chunk of the plot.

** Based on the end of the episode, "Jasper's Real Girlfriend," how could Charlotte's parents not have heard the commotion [[spoiler: involving their guest attacking their daughter with a mini chainsaw]] in Charlotte's room?

* ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'': The Wilkerson boys are generally able to outwit and overpower their teachers and neighbors, the vast majority of whom are petty and slow-witted: however, in a subversion of this trope, their mother Lois sees through all of their schemes, and rarely fails to nail them.

** The worst offender is guidance counselor Valerie, who rarely provided straightforward, forthright advice and would often make make things worse for Jenna by misunderstanding whatever it is Jenna's telling her about. In [=Se1Ep2=] where a nude photo of Jenna is circulated. And it's Jenna who points out that it's illegal, not Valerie.
*** Valerie's failures and idiocy is eventually made into a plot point where Jenna reveals all the terrible things she had done, which causes Valerie to be fired. But because the other adults on the show are also stupid, Valerie eventually gets her job back.

* ''Series/AreYouAfraidOfTheDark'' featured the CassandraTruth variety. Your parents will never believe your neighbors are vampires.
** Some episodes averted it, though, with adults often believing the kids and assisting them (most memorably the janitor in "The Tale of the Dead Man's Float"), so it was about 50/50.

* Uther Pendragon from ''Series/{{Merlin|2008}}''. All this guy does is make everything worse, he is an egomaniac, massive hypocrite and lacks the competence to make up for his flaws.
* The Australian kids' show ''Series/MirrorMirror'' managed an odd variant, where, aside from the Old Man, who was managing what has to be one of the most epic {{Gambit Roulette}}s ever, all the adults were at least plausibly incompetent (if not outright evil), mainly because only a few of them had any idea of exactly what was going on.
** For the record: The adults in Louisa's family had no idea, and their tutor was in the pay of their rather nasty neighbour, who was hiding the son of Tsar Nicholas II, in a ploy to sell him back to Russia. As for Jo, her father gets clued in, but can't use the mirror. The worst offender would have been Dr Coigley, who was unknowingly working for the Old Man.
* Having incompetent, idiotic adults is ''Series/OddSquad'''s modus operandi. The titular organization is kid-only because adults are often viewed as either villainous, too stupid to do anything efficiently, or both (although adults who are clients of the organization are a bit of a different story). As a result, a majority of adults, up to and including the villains, are very dimwitted, while kids are seen as the smart ones.
* The earlier ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' series do this to frightening levels. Not only do they have a team of six teenagers saving the world, there never seemed to be any kind of competent adult to help even with non-monster related things. This is perfectly shown in the season 2 episode "The Ninja Encounter", where a baby in a stroller is rolling down a hill. The adults jump out of the way, as if the baby stroller was a runaway train, meaning it's left to the main cast of teenagers to rescue the infant.\\\

* Per the docuseries ''Series/MenudoForeverYoung'' Edgardo Díaz, the group's creator had the members' parents to sign away parental rights, effectively putting them in this position so that they could not interfere with his management.

** Also, in "The One After I Do," why is there no babysitter at the kid's table?