Hope and Faith

Hope & Faith was an American sitcom that ran on ABC, starring Faith Ford, Kelly Ripa and Ted McGinley as well as a very young Megan Fox. It ran for three seasons before getting cancelled in 2006.

The show revolved around the two sisters Hope and Faith. Hope is a sensible married mother of three who has a nice calm life until Faith arrives on the scene. Faith is the complete opposite of her sister, an actress whose character on a soap opera has just been killed off and left her unemployed. She moves in with Hope and causes all kinds of disruptions in the family's life.

This sitcom provides examples of:
""Now I would give my life for my country, but my hair!?""
 * A Cup Angst: Subverted. Hayley doesn't mind getting breasts, what she's terrified of is having to go shopping for bras with Hope after Sydney tells her about how embarrassing it was when she did it.
 * Actor Allusion: Faith and Handsome Hal get an audition for a morning talk show as an obvious nod to Regis & Kelly.
 * Affectionate Parody: Faith's soap opera The Sacred & The Sinful is one of American soaps in general, as well as The Bold & The Beautiful.
 * All Men Are Perverts: Hoo boy. Pretty much every single guy you see Sydney with in various episodes is going to act like an sex-drive with legs incapable of keeping it in his pants or staying faithful.
 * All Women Are Lustful: All the women on the show love sex. Faith is a sex maniac, Hope loves it too (though she's not exactly open about it), Sydney is incredibly excited about it at her age and even Charlie's mother says she goes mad if she doesn't have sex with her husband regularly.
 * Brainless Beauty: Faith and Sydney.
 * Brought Home the Wrong Kid: Faith takes care of a baby doll in one episode and brings it to the park one day, only to bring home a real baby. Being Faith, she assumes the doll came to life.
 * Can't Get Away With Nuthin: Justin steals a chocolate bar and returns it...only for the shopkeeper to call the police.
 * Child Prodigy: Hayley. She's 12 but actually gets skipped two grades to high school.
 * The Cobblers Children Have No Shoes: A minor example as Faith's therapist alludes to her husband leaving her.
 * Dawson Casting: Much like Eight Simple Rules there was a 16-year-old character played by a 26-year-old actress. In season 2 Nicole Paggi was replaced with Megan Fox making it 20 playing 17. Ironically Fox looked much older than Paggi.
 * Dumb Blonde: Faith. And her best friend Mandy.
 * Head Tiltingly Kinky: Faith shows the Gooch a diagram of a sex position she wants to try. He turns the paper upside down and says "I don't think I bend that way".
 * Hollywood Pudgy: In-universe example as Faith considers Hope to be overweight but her personal trainer refers to Hope as attractive and thin.
 * I Want You to Meet An Old Friend of Mine: Faith goes to work for a car salesman called "Handsome" Hal, played by Regis Philbin. Both Regis and Kelly hosted their own talk show (Regis & Kelly).
 * Incest Subtext: One episode has Faith pretend she and Hope are a lesbian couple.
 * Ironic Echo Cut: In a flashback to when Hope was pregnant Faith's narration says "Your mother was as big as a house but I knew better than to tell her". Cue Hope and Faith meeting up and Faith saying "Hope, you're as big as a house".
 * Latin Lover: The Gooch.
 * May December Romance: Faith and Hope's father and Faith's best friend Mandy.
 * Me Love You Long Time: In one episode Faith suspects Charlie of having an affair and a series of misunderstandings have her believe the other woman is Wai-Lan, their visiting violinist from China.
 * Middle Child Syndrome: Hayley.
 * Missing Mom: It's revealed in a Thanksgiving episode that Faith and Hope's mother died of a heart attack.
 * The Other Darrin: Nicole Paggi as season 1 Sydney, Megan Fox as seasons 2-3 Sydney. Also a different set of actors played Charlie's parents in two separate episodes in season 2 and season 3.
 * Plenty of Blondes: Faith, Hope, Hayley, Sydney (only in season 1).
 * Single Woman Seeks Good Man: In season 2 Sydney actually spends a while trying to attract a boy scout who is smart and kind.
 * Skewed Priorities: Faith says of joining the army...


 * There Are No Therapists: Played straight until season 3 when Faith is sent to see a therapist and does so regularly. It doesn't really seem to have much effect on her.
 * Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Faith, Faith, Faith, Faith. She literally has no redeeming qualities and is a complete parasite, existing only to mess up Charlie and Hope's lives. She gets a couple of selfless moments every now and then but they don't even begin to cancel out her bad qualities.
 * Very Loosely Based On a True Story: Partly based on the life of actress Joanna Johnson, former cast member of The Bold & The Beautiful.
 * Walk On the Wild Side Episode: A variation where Hope and Charlie decide to sneak off to motels and other places during the week for alone time while lying to Faith about PTA meetings.
 * Wild Teen Party: In season 1 though Sydney and Hayley manage to clear the house before the parents get home.
 * Women Are Wiser: Hope and Hayley are this in comparison to Charlie and Justin. Averted with Faith and Sydney who are even worse.