Bowling for Ratings

Ah, bowling! The sport of the common man. Generally when TV shows portray someone as an everyday working class hero, the writers make him a member of a bowling team. Could result in just references to a team, a singular bowling episode or a chance for a character to be Bested At Bowling. Trope name is a parody of Bowling for Dollars, a syndicated American Game Show format of The Seventies.

Sometimes, a Canadian series will have that country's distinctive five pin variant: five pins with rubber rings around the wide bottom and smaller balls with no finger holes. But neither Canada nor the United States will ever show any other type of bowling (sorry, candlepin and duckpin lovers).

Anime and Manga

 * A "singular bowling episode " example: Excel Saga spoofs bowling as a sport in episode 9, "Bowling Girls".

Live-Action TV

 * 7th Heaven: Eric delays telling the family that he needs an open-heart surgery, so he decides the family should go bowling.
 * All in The Family
 * The Big Bang Theory, in which Sheldon (who is not "working class" at all) named their bowling team "The Wesley Crushers"
 * Cheers
 * Dead Like Me: George joins Happy Time Temp Agency's bowling team in one episode. There's also the Plague Division of reapers from the extended pilot, which spends its time lawn bowling and intently watching rodents for signs of another epidemic.
 * Dexter: Dexter joins a bowling team in Season 2.
 * His biological father also became an avid bowler after turning his criminal life around.
 * Ed
 * Eureka: An episode had the show's bowling league playing against that of Area Fifty One.
 * The Golden Girls
 * Happy Days
 * Home Improvement
 * The Honeymooners
 * King of Queens: Doug and Carrie and their friends Deacon and Kelly are on a bowling team.
 * Laverne and Shirley
 * Malcolm in the Middle had one of the best examples of this, with a Rashomon type episode showing what would happen if Lois took the boys bowling, or if Hal took them instead.
 * Married... with Children
 * My Wife and Kids
 * The Odd Couple
 * The Office (US): Where Ryan is working when Micheal recruits him for The Micheal Scott Paper Company.
 * Parks and Recreation: Leslie hosts an appearance at the bowling alley as part of her campaign for city council (and to show up someone who criticized her in a focus group).
 * Regular Show: Skips Strikes. In typical RS fashion, the game's stakes are taken ridiculously high thanks to Rigby betting the team's souls in a bowling match against Death and his accomplices.
 * Rocko's Modern Life
 * That '70s Show: S4 Ep11, "The Third Wheel".
 * Touched By an Angel: "The Perfect Game". Not to be confused with the other TBAA ep entitled "The Perfect Game", which is a baseball episode.
 * United States of Tara
 * Veronica Mars: Season three features a painful-if-you've-been-in-this-situation "not a date" bowling episode.

Video Games

 * Pac-Man

Western Animation

 * The Flintstones
 * Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: And fittingly enough, the episode's name is The Big Lablooski.
 * The Huckleberry Hound Show
 * King of the Hill: In one episode Peggy is afraid to go bowling since her embarrassing shoe size would be displayed on the heel.
 * The Looney Tunes Show
 * My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: The Cutie Mark Crusaders attempt to get bowling cutie marks at the start of The Cutie Pox.
 * The Roman Holidays
 * Rugrats
 * The Simpsons
 * Wait Till Your Father Gets Home