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Appointment Television

 Appointment Television
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 Appointment Television
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Appointment Television
 Appointment Television
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AppointmentTelevision
 Appointment Television
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Modern technology has changed the way we eat, work and recreate. The act of watching a television show, itself, has become flush with options: We can watch shows streaming off of the internet, we can have our recording devices copy them for watching later, and we can even simply watch entire seasons of shows on DVD.
Interesting, then, that we still feel compelled to watch our favorite shows the night that they are first broadcast. "I can't talk now, Steve, I have to get home to watch The Conners."
This phenomenon is called Appointment Television.
This is still common with respect to live broadcasts whose results will be all over the news the next day, such as sporting events and awards shows.
Aversions can take place when a character purposefully misses a show that he had planned to see or normally plans on seeing (perhaps as an alibi). Inversions take place when a character watches TV all the time, and must make appointments to do anything else.
A variant of this trope is when someone is using the aforementioned alternate methods of watching a show, and has an appointment to watch the recording. In this case, they are vulnerable to Spoilers.
Video Games can invoke this effect by incorporating mechanics that require gamers to Play Every Day, or by having online events at specific times in which players gather together for something special, possibly featuring loot that will never appear again.
To avoid cluttering the page with personal anecdotes, please include only examples of this when used in works of media.
 Appointment Television
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2024-04-03T11:08:05Z
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2024-04-03T11:08:05Z
 Appointment Television
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Appointment Television
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And Julius on Everybody Hates Chris.
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And Red on That '70s Show.
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This isn't even the first time it's happened to him. Back on Cheers, he had taped a television movie with the intention of watching it later. Unfortunately, the other guys at the bar spoiled it for him. He retaliated by spoiling the endings to a few movies. (Said endings had all achieved It Was His Sled status.)
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The Simpsons:
Selma religiously watching MacGyver becomes a major plot point in "Black Widower", as it allowed Bob to set up her assassination by planned gas leak.
In "Who Shot Mr. Burns" two-parter, Smithers thinks he may have shot Mr. Burns while he was drunk, but realizes why he couldn't have: his favorite television show was on at the time of the crime, and he never misses it.
In "Homer Simpson in: Kidney Trouble" Abe's kidneys burst because Homer refuses to stop the car to let him use the bathroom, because he'll miss Inside the Actors Studio.
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Ninja Sex Party: In "unicorn wizard", Danny states that he protects the weak "almost all of the time" except on Sundays. ''Game of Thrones is on."
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In Matilda, the Wormwoods dislike Miss Honey coming to see them because she interrupted their TV show. (Something similar, although only involving Mrs. Wormwood, happens in the book as well, with the line "I can't talk now, Harry is about to propose to Angelica!")
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There was a subplot of Scrubs where Dr. Cox is trying all episode to avoid being spoiled on the score of a football game, because he has it recorded to watch later. It's not hard to guess what his sadistic co-workers do (especially the Janitor who Cox had just told It Was His Sled about the years old Sixth Sense).
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In "Homer Simpson in: Kidney Trouble" Abe's kidneys burst because Homer refuses to stop the car to let him use the bathroom, because he'll miss Inside the Actors Studio.
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Rain Man: Raymond is obsessed with watching The People's Court every day, which becomes a big problem when Charlie forces him to take a road trip.
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Married... with Children: In one episode, Al goes for a vacation at a mountain cabin and is forced by Peggy and Marcy to take them with him. He comments that the only time they stayed quiet other than when he asked who misplaced his baggage was during Oprah's show in spite of the place having no TV for them to watch it on.
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Work It Out Wombats!: In "Summerweenie Halloweenie," Mr. E is annoyed when the wombats come to his house, since he was in the middle of watching "The Bakey Bakey Show" and they were about to do the big strudelecause reveal.
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Ben 10: Alien Force "Can't we skip the threats and get with the fight part? There's a Sumo Slammers marathon at 8:00 and I forgot to set the DVR."
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On The Big Bang Theory, a flashback to Leonard moving into the apartment showed that Sheldon put this into the roommate agreement.
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Scud the Disposable Assassin once used this to taunt Voo-Doo Ben, urging him to come out and get killed so Scud could make it home in time for Oprah.
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Ready Jet Go!: In "What's a Satellite?", Sydney is very anxious when the satellite TV service comes on because she doesn't want to miss the new episode of Commander Cressida. Mr. Peterson is also frustrated when his sports game fizzles out. Carrot isn't that bothered by his cooking show being interrupted though, just very, very confused.
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In PCU, Pigman inverts this trope when he must watch TV 24 hours a day in order to finish his senior thesis, which is that you can find a Michael Caine or Gene Hackman movie on television at any time, all the time. He eventually proves his thesis when A Bridge Too Far comes on, starring both Caine and Hackman. Pigman is then free to spend his time as he likes.
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In Lucky Star, Konata once complained that extracurricular activities make her miss new anime. (Note that anime in Japan is rarely rerun, to motive people to buy home release.)
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In the ''Arthur episode "The Last Of Mary Moo Cow" DW's favorite TV show Mary Moo Cow airs at 3:30 and she drags her mom home from errands or tells the guy fixing the TV to hurry up when it's around that time.
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This was the B-plot for the Bizaardvark episode "Promposal Problems" where Dirk does not like it when Ameila and Viking Guy spoil the finale of Cali Beach High before he can even watch it with his brother that weekend. When he finally does watch it and was ready to dish, Amelia and Viking Guy end up spoiling the next show that replaced it- Zombie Beach High, making Dirk give up in frustration. The moment Dirk said to them that they can say any spoiler to him, it ends with this:
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Futurama
The royalty of a race of aliens a thousand light years from Earth became addicted to Single Female Lawyer. When they learn that the resolution of the series finale was never aired, they angrily travel to Earth with their fleet of warships. This forces the Planet Express crew to badly improvise a new ending, which the aliens found to be passable, but not great. They then leave, telling Earth they need to get back home to catch a thousand-year old Jay Leno monologue.
There is another episode using this trope, where the crew must make sure they watch the episode of All My Circuits with Calculon's wedding. However, Bender's antenna keeps interfering with the television's reception (in addition to various problems in the apartment building), so he was forced to be evicted.
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In Teen Titans, there was an episode where Beast Boy inverts this trope by being so addicted to a television show that he couldn't remember the last time he went outside.
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It happened on Home Improvement too, with Tim taping a sports game and a friend excitedly talking about the game-winning play just as he's about to watch it.
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The Oprah Winfrey Show was so huge that daytime television revolved around it, and there was a seismic shift in local programming schedules when it went off the air. Some stations scheduled programs featuring Oprah's friends, like Dr. Oz, to air at the same time that she used to (and before then, they were contractually disallowed from airing against Oprah). Others moved stronger programs into her former time slot, relieved that the ratings juggernaut was out of the way (thus Ellen has now become this in the current age). WABC in New York City basically conceded that nothing could replace the show by launching a 4 P.M. newscast.
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SpongeBob SquarePants: In "Appointment TV", SpongeBob rushes home after work to watch the long-lost episode of Mermaid Man. It's noted that once the episode airs, it'll never be shown again. SpongeBob doesn't make it in time, and goes into a Heroic BSoD. However, his friends make it up to him by putting on a live re-enactment.
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In the Sushi Pack episode "Taming the Gaming," the villain is defeated because there's an all-day marathon of his favorite show, and he keeps going back to watch it (and uses all his security camera monitors to watch it). In his next appearance, he mentally congratulates himself for thinking to actually tape the show this time.
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Shows that build experiences around social media like Twitter, such as Scandal or Pretty Little Liars where cast and crew members join in the discussion pretty much depend on their viewers being there at the time their shows start because watching on DVR removes the social experience and part of the fun. Some shows even do separate sessions based on what time zone it airs on—one on the East Coast and one on the West Coast. (Most of the cast will say to the lines of "Thanks for joining us East Coast—West Coast, you're next!" in such cases when it happens)
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And both Giles and Spike on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
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How I Met Your Mother: The gang has to miss the Super Bowl to attend the funeral of a bartender from MacLaren's. So, they tape it and try to avoid finding out who won before they can watch it. Only Ted succeeds.
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Selma religiously watching MacGyver becomes a major plot point in "Black Widower", as it allowed Bob to set up her assassination by planned gas leak.
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Frasier had recorded an episode of a drama to watch later. He spends the entire day avoiding spoilers (even having to run through the hallways at work because of everyone wanting to discuss the show with him), and when he finally gets home he keeps getting distracted by his family and arising obligations. Right when he finally has time to settle down and is about to watch the tape... Daphne spoils it for him.
This isn't even the first time it's happened to him. Back on Cheers, he had taped a television movie with the intention of watching it later. Unfortunately, the other guys at the bar spoiled it for him. He retaliated by spoiling the endings to a few movies. (Said endings had all achieved It Was His Sled status.)
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The royalty of a race of aliens a thousand light years from Earth became addicted to Single Female Lawyer. When they learn that the resolution of the series finale was never aired, they angrily travel to Earth with their fleet of warships. This forces the Planet Express crew to badly improvise a new ending, which the aliens found to be passable, but not great. They then leave, telling Earth they need to get back home to catch a thousand-year old Jay Leno monologue.
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Dharma & Greg took advantage of the fact that everyone in the city would be watching the Seinfeld finale to have sex in public without getting caught.
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The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 Appointment Television
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Discredited Trope
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Appointment Television
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