Live-Action TV/Awesome/Other Shows: Difference between revisions

----

* Say what you will about Carlos Mencia. However, he had his moment when he describes his encounter with a Bin Laden supporter who tried to threaten him out of doing middle eastern jokes. His response: http://www.myspace.com/video/vid/1037365820

* Sebastian Stark had his CMoA during the first season finale of ''Shark''. It was also a perfectly executed [[Xanatos Roulette]].

* In ''[[Laverne and Shirley]]'', Shirley's boss promotes her to beer tester in hopes of getting her drunk and having his way with her. When it doesn't work, he tries to rape her and Laverne shows up with Carmine Ragusa, aka the Big Ragoo. The boss threatens the Big Ragoo with firing him; the Big Ragoo informs him that he doesn't work there. When the boss says he's going to leave, the Big Ragoo says that he'll help him out. When the boss asks why he needs help, Ragusa answers "I have the feeling you're going to fall down a couple flights of stairs." You don't piss off the Big Ragoo.

** His awesomeness was not limited to ''[[Laverne and Shirley]]''. In the ''[[Happy Days]]'' episode "Joanie's Weird Boyfriend", Joanie tries to join local gang the Red Devils, but when Richie finds out that her initiation will involve necking with all eight male Red Devils, he confronts them at the school gym before they can begin the initiation. When they point out their superior numbers, Fonzie, Potsie, and Ralph come out of lockers (though Ralph's locker seems to stick, or he's holding it closed) as backup. But when that's not enough to intimidate the gang, the Big Ragoo comes out, and together he and Fonzie deliver a mulekick to the Red Devils.

* In ''As Time Goes By'', Lionel calmly convinces a highly disturbed criminal with a gun to give him the gun. He later doesn't think it's a big deal because he recognized that either the gun wasn't loaded or it was a replica.

* ''[[Brass Eye]]'''s paedophilia special was pretty much Chris Morris' [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]].

* ''[[NYPD Blue]]'': Det. Andy Sipowicz and co. have just brought in a violent criminal, who's repeatedly spitting out the ol' "If I wasn't in chains, I'd show you" line. He calls out Andy in particular, calling him "a bitch" who's only that brave around him because of the handcuffs and backup. Andy - [[Diabolus Ex Machina|who'd been sucker punched by the universe repeatedly lately]] - decides to cowboy up and put the thug in his place. He turns off the interview room's camera, uncuffs the perp, and opens a window (with a visible fire escape), then tells the thug to take his best shot; get past him to that window, he's home free. The thug makes every excuse in the book not to rise up ("It's a set up", "There's cops waiting outside the window", etc.) When it's clear the thug isn't going anywhere, Andy recuffs him and delivers the verbal [[Coup De Grace]]:

* Deputy Head Andrew Treneman's public denunciation of [[Corrupt Church|Corrupt Churchman]] Gerry Preston in the ''[[Waterloo Road]]'' season 2 finale surely qualifies.

* On ''[[Scrapheap Challenge]] / [[Junkyard Wars]]'', the British Buzzards' [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIhRVAp1Qy4 first test flight] of their scrap-built biplane (around 4 minutes into the linked video).

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJriqSXO9BI Reggae Reggae Sauce] on ''[[Dragons' Den]]'' not only provided a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] for the show itself but went on to become a successful product in its own right.

* Ed Deline has several over the run of ''[[Las Vegas]]'', but one of his best comes after an episode where a developer has falsely accused Danny McCoy of raping her, but secretly offered to drop the charges if Ed would help her get approval for a project in Burma. Near the end of the episode, Ed picks up the phone right after Danny leaves the room and says he needs a favor. Cut to Ed's meeting with the developer, where he calmly informs her that her project in Burma has been cancelled. And two others. And the condo in Jersey. And the board of her country club would probably like to have a word with her. And she'd better not use her credit cards. She agrees to drop the charges. When Danny asks Ed if he had anything to do with it, he reminds Danny he needs plausible deniability.

** There's one moment that perfectly combines this trope, [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming]], and [[Crowning Moment of Funny]]. A city inspector has shut down Delinda's restauraunt after she turned him down for a date. Ed and Dee go to his hotel room to "correct" him. Cue "Big Ed" Deline teaching his willowy daughter how to beat the crap out of the guy.

** Then there's Sam {{spoiler|kicking her would-be rapist out of ''his own airplane'' right after he belts her in securely so he can rape her.}}

** After an episode-long bomb threat, {{spoiler|Nessa punches the bomber in the face the second she gets the all-clear.}}

** The team gets psychologically evaluated. When it's Delinda's turn, she asks the evaluator which of several psychological theories he's going to use, complete with pros and cons of each one, before telling the poor guy she used to be a psych major. "Are we done?"

** How is Danny punching Ed for not listed?

* The pilot of ''The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.'' starts its climax with Brisco strapping a saddle to a rocket, riding the rocket to a train that's being robbed, then lassoing the caboose, tying the rope's other end to the saddle horn, and climbing hand over hand to the train. All done completely for real with no CGI, and an undeniable statement about the show's seamless blend of western and sci-fi.

* ''[[Murphy Brown]]'' versus Dan Quayle. Enough said.

* On ''The Law of the Playground'', comedian Lee Mack displayed his old school report, in which it was written that he spends too much time joking and will never get anywhere like that. Then he said "and here's another of my school reports. Oh no, sorry, that's my ''Bafta''".

* The whole of the ''[[The Twilight Zone|Twilight Zone]]'' episode ''The Obsolete Man'' is a CMoA for Romney Wordsworth.

** Just about any of the dying millionaire's dialogue in "The Masks", especially his [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]] against his greedy family.

* ''Bonekickers'': out of context, the statement "Don't mess with me, I'm an archaeologist!" sounds laughable, I know. I giggled when I saw the trailer. But in context...

** No, no, the real Crowning Moment Of Awesome in that sequence is the amazing "Call yourself a Bonekicker?! You know NOTHING!!!" ...Admittedly, I think the show is [[So Bad It's Good]].

*** I always thought of it more as [[Narm Charm]], but [[Your Mileage May Vary]].

* The Middleman, star of, well, ''[[The Middleman]]'', has done may awesome things - hostage rescue from the Underworld, almost beating one hundred masked wrestlers in a straight fight, "Muscle memory, bitch", taking down Ida - but his crowning moment was the entire pilot episode. In just under 45 minutes, he tasers a monster made of body parts, lays down the exposition like nobody's business, walks (unarmed) into the [[Bad Guy Bar|most notorious den of wiseguys in the city]], causing everyone else to run out. Then he tortures a hardcore mobster with a glass of milk. He walks into the villain's hideout, KO's a mook with one punch, and disarms a man from six feet away. While held at gunpoint, he pulls a [[Batman Gambit]] on the [[Big Bad]] with her own damn gun, ''and then'' he gives Wendy back her dad's lighter for bonus [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|heartwarming]] points. And all while not swearing. In fact, if you didn't cheer for the Middleman at any point in the pilot, hang your head in shame right now.

** Impressive, but to some, none of that matches up to Wendy's "please hold."

** It's especially impressive when you consider how the writers lead you to believe this will go the way of previous episodes where Brian or Sam either talks him out of doing research or easily manipulates him into giving up under the pressure (ie, Mike's failed attempt at reading the professor's supposedly racist textbook in "Heroes and Villains"). Up until the climax, there is nothing to indicate than anything in the documents Sam gave him will register.

** Mike's victory on the game show Jackpot, completely unaided despite Sam's attempts to help him cheat.

* Following three seasons of hearing about Benton Fraser's [[Informed Ability|skill at marksmanship without any demonstration]] (as he was unlicensed to use a firearm in the United States), the Mountie hero of ''[[Due South]]'' gets a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] at the climax of "Mountie on the Bounty, Part II" when the ship on which he is being held prisoner crosses into Canadian waters.

** The six minutes or so leading in to this are an extended [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]], as Benton, Ray and a crew of mounties overtake the ship with a small wooden ship, completely taking down the villain's crew. Came complete with [[Crowning Music of Awesome]]. "THIRTY-TWO DOWN ON THE ROBERT MCKENZIE!"

** When Benton and Ray get locked in a bank vault that a heavily armed team of bank robbers is breaking into, Benton sets off the fire sprinklers inside the safe, resulting in a colossal wave once the robbers get it open that disarms all of them.

* The made-for-TV movie called ''The Vernon Johns Story'' was about a civil-rights campaigning Pastor, played by [[James Earl Jones]]. Johns' moment comes when he's forced by the church administration to perform the funeral of the town drunk, whose family gives a lot of money to said church.

* In the ''[[Taggart]]'' episode "Knife Edge", Jim Taggart is faced by about five burly leather clad Hells Angels, one of whom spits on his shoes. Without changing expression at all, the five foot nothing Taggart calmly replies 'The last person who did that to me wore their balls home as earrings"

* In the classic comedy series ''Porridge'', the scene in which Fletcher calmly talks down a mentally unstable gunman who is holding the main characters hostage. The moment is in no way diminished by the fact that {{spoiler|Fletcher thought the gun wasn't loaded}}.

* ''[[Interceptor]]'': [http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=62pIoQtO-DY The tractor ambush]. The Interceptor is a supremely [[Magnificent Bastard]].

* ''[[The Odd Couple]]'': Felix is defending himself and Oscar in court after they've been arrested and charged with scalping tickets. Calling to the stand the woman to whom he'd offered an extra ticket (for free), he gets her to concede that he'd refused the $15 she'd offered for it before she claims he'd "held out for more". Felix tells her to think carefully, and asks if he'd really asked her for more money. "Not exactly", she admits, "I just assumed...", and Felix pounces on this:

Felix: Thank you, Your Honor! Miss Olem, you should never "assume", because when you "ASSUME" (writing the word on the blackboard), you make (circling) an "ASS" of "U" and "ME"! }}

* The Glass House. Oh, the Glass House...

** And the Lauren Burns vibrator scene... 2005 best of, if you want to see it on [[YouTube]].

* Rufus Hound's rap version of the plot of ''Gears of War 2'' on ''Playr''.

** Although as far as "eternal loyalty from the fans" is concerned, there are reports of this coming as early as the first major challenge, in which she "changed" into her superhero costume... in a tree.

* ''Fraggle Rock'' has one in one of the final episodes, where Junior Gorg has spent the entire episode in the Fraggle world learning about the universe after freaking out about becoming king someday. Not only is he {{spoiler|the first one to actually figure out all three levels of their codependant ecosystem}}, he then proceeds to go home to his [[Awesome Moment of Crowning]] and uses his first decree to immediately {{spoiler|declare the universe can take care of itself and abolish the centuries-long useless monarchy}} while his blowhard father looks on and can't do a thing about it.

** While we're on the subject of Discovery Channel, if [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62D88RIR94c this] doesn't make you want to shout victoriously and punch the air, then either 1) you're not human, 2) you're at work, or 3) you're angry that Anthony Bourdain wasn't in this video (a valid complaint, but still).

* [[The Closer|Dept. Chief Brenda Johnson]] gets a truly spectacular one in "You Are Here". Having brought in a perp who carjacked and killed a judge, she promises him that, if he writes down the name of the person who paid him, "the State of California will not charge [him] with any crime." So his face is priceless when the episode closes with this exchange:

'''Brenda:''' "Ah, not exactly... I said I wasn't going to charge him with anything, and I won't, but there's a new law making carjacking a federal offense, and I believe it has the death penalty attached to it. Mr. Howard here will explain all the details." }}

** An arrogant teenager who killed his maid has fled to Mexico with the help of his parents. Mexico won't extradite a prisoner who will face a possible death sentence. When he refuses to return, Brenda hands him over to the Federales... and then reveals that the maid was a ''Mexican citizen''. Have fun spending the rest of your life in a Mexican jail.

* ''Moving Wallpaper''. Annoying internet guy calls Kelly a "cheap whore". Carl -- the middle-aged nice guy who's too shy to act on his crush on Kelly -- immediately steps forward and ''punches him out''.

'''Carl:''' "Neither did I." }}

* New Zealand (and anywhere else) tropers who have seen ''Seven Periods With Mr Gormsby'' will know that the fifth episode from season 2, "Camp Tepapawai" was an entire ''episode'' of awesome. But the highlight was {{spoiler|Hohepa sawing through the boards of Steve's part of the latrine trench so that when Steve went to the toilet, he fell into the trench, and then Gormsby made him walk to the other end of the trench so they could pull him out.}} Fuckin' awesome.

** In addition to the 2009 episode featuring Tim Minchin, when, in one of the games, Alan Brough (team captain 1) commented that every clue Adam Hills (the host) gave them was crap, on which Adam turned around, crossed his arms and what happened next was as follows:

'''Alan:''' It's the reading. }}

** Adam's true Crowning Moment Of Awesome came with his first appearance on ''[[Mock the Week]]'', and the entire conversation about his artificial foot.

* In April 2009, a dumpy, overweight, single, unemployed, 47 year old woman named Susan Boyle appeared on ''[[Britain's Got Talent|Britains Got Talent]]'', stated her ambition to become a professional singer, was laughed at by the audience... [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puPHa_BY3cM and then she started to sing.] Within seconds Piers looks like the sun's just risen for the first time in years, Amanda's jaw is on the floor, and Simon's melting all over the judges' table. One of the most moving renditions of [[Les Misérables (theatre)|"I Dreamed A Dream"]] that has ever been performed.

** The music starts at 1:46 into that clip. That clip, however, contains both the pre-singing snarky anticipation, and all the reaction shots of the judges and the audience being ''totally mindblown'' afterwards.

* ''[[The Unit]]'' is made of these, but Tiffy's turning an invitation from an anti-war group into the debate equivalent of a [[Curb Stomp Battle]] in "Old Home Week" was ''awesome''.

* ''[[Spaced]]''. "Well, Sarah ''obviously'' does!"

** "It's not a bedsit. It's a flat!"

* ''[[Higher Ground]]'':

'''Shelby''': I'm going to open the door for the police. }}

* [[Six Feet Under]] had Ruth at the self-help seminar: "And fuck you too, for not letting me buy that Snickers!"

** From "Javelin":

*** David refusing Reverend Samuels' offer of escape when he's about to be put on trial for treason.

'''David''': I'm worried about my own. }}

*** Jack standing up to his father in the middle of David's trial, knowing the consequences and still choosing (for possibly the first time in the series) to go with [[Honor Before Reason]].

** As much as a chauvinist pig Flashheart is, it's impossible to dislike the character when he not only helps George save Blackadder, but then helps him get revenge on Darling. He doesn't even like Blackadder! And, although it feels a little mean to label it as awesome, nonchalently shooting von Richthofen in the middle of the latter's [[Worthy Opponent]] speech, with the words "What a poof!" Basically, Flashheart is walking Awesome, who could probably get away with just about anything and remain awesome, just for his attitude.

* Peo has one in the Swedish kid's show ''[[Vintergatan]] 5A'' (''Milky Way 5A'') when he punches his way through hordes of mutants to save Henrik and Mira.

* Of all the the things in the world, an MTV Movie Awards opening skit managed to pull off a comedic [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]]. The premise, played out through several preceding skits, is that [[Austin Powers|Doctor Evil]] and his son Scott, played by Mike Myers and Seth Green, have captured Billy Crystal (playing himself, of course) in their latest bid to rule the world. At one point, Scott asks Billy Crystal to sing a song and he gives a lackluster performance, to which Scott shakes his head and replies "you've lost the magic, Mr. Crystal". To which a familiar voice replies "that's cause I'm ''not Billy Crystal'', baby!" and "Billy" rips off a latex mask. Dr. Evil and Scott both give a hilariously over-the-top "Austin Powers?!?" and Austin quickly thwarts them with a fight scene worthy of the '60s Batman series.

* In the Season Six pilot of [[Numb3rs]], Charlie calculates the location of the sniper ''who is currently shooting at them'', using only a pencil, paper, some gun stats supplied by Colby, and his brain. It only feels like a few steps from here to [[Firefly|killing them with mathematics]].

* The Adventures of [[Sherlock Holmes]] features [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjKXFBkNE10L this] delicious scene of Holmes effortless wiping the floor with the local ruffian. It was awesome enough in the book, played by Jeremy Brett only enhances its awesomeness.

* I can't believe [[CSI: NY]]'s season three finale hasn't been mentioned yet. To recap: Flack and other police officers take down a drug ring and make the largest haul in New York City history go into police hands. The remainging gang members want it back, but it's safely in the vault at the labs. They torture Adam to get information on how to get into the labs, and then Danny gets caught by them as well. Then a group of them infiltrate the labs and set off a fire alarm to evacuate the building. Everyone but Mac, Stella and Hawkes leave. Then, as they attempt to take back the drugs that belong to them, Stella and Mac start taking them down while Hawkes gets a guy in the coroner's office. Meanwhile, Danny hatches a plan to get Adam to get something he needs for them to escape, and willingly lets his hand get crushed to let that happen. Adam gets what he needs to get, and when the police storm the warehouse and almost shoot two cops who were set up to look like the hostage takers, Adam saves them by getting in their line of fire. Finally, back at the labs, it's Mac versus the gang leader, and Mac sets up laser trip wires and gets the bad guy to trip one of them, blowing up the lab while Mac escapes to safety. If that isn't one of the best [[Die Hard on an X]] moments ever, I don't know what else is.

* It's not often you see a villain get one of these where you can actually cheer them on in doing so, but thanks to the nature of the plot (a [[Dragon with an Agenda]] who betrays the [[Big Bad]] and starts an [[Enemy Civil War]]), ''[[The Tenth Kingdom]]'' gets to have one of these for the [[Magnificent Bastard|Magnificent Bitch]] the Evil Queen. After her [[Batman Gambit]] to bring down the Troll King, ah, [[Incredibly Lame Pun|bears fruit]], we get this exchange at the Merrypips Apple Orchard, worth quoting in its entirety:

'''Evil Queen''': [[Truth and Lies|As am I]].<br />

'''Troll King''': Where are my children?<br />

::''gives a bow'' Your Majesty, ''I read your book!''

* During the fiasco involving [[Conan O'Brien]] and ''[[The Tonight Show]]'', Jimmy Kimmel hosted a full episode of his show (''Jimmy Kimmel Live'') while doing an impersonation of Jay Leno. Jay invited Kimmel onto his show (''The Jay Leno Show'') the next night, and when given the opportunity, Kimmel [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axwO6BkCtIo verbally eviscerated Leno] ''to his face'' about the massive screwjob he and NBC had delivered to O'Brien.

** But wait, there's more from that same episode. When Conan reminisces about things in Hollywood that lasted shorter than his ''Tonight Show'' stint, he mentioned the on-air absence of his not-11:35-PM-friendly character, the Masturbating Bear... which prompts the Bear to come out on stage. And yes... he does.

* There was an special on the Discovery Channel a while ago devoted to utterly ''demolishing'' the various conspiracy theories behind 9/11. The best part was that each claim they took to pieces, they actually presented the findings to a group of conspiracy theorists, and each time their [[Hand Wave|rebuttals]] sounded feebler and feebler. Pure. Ownage.

* [[Nurse Jackie]]'s chat with the insurance agent in the S2 premiere.

* The ''[[Bewitched]]'' episode “Sisters at Heart” gave a crowning moment to Larry Tate, of all people, in the only known instance of his growing a spine. A somewhat bigoted client, Mr. Brockway, has made the incorrect assumption that Darrin is half of a mixed marriage because little Tabitha and a black playmate like to pretend that they are sisters. He demands that Darrin be taken off his account without stating the reason. When he discovers his mistake, the following exchange occurs:

'''Larry''': Believe me, I’m more surprised than you are. }}

* The 2010 Emmys pulled this off in the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjkDxlhleN8 opening sketch.] Joel McHale, Amber Riley, Jane Lynch, Lea Michele, Cory Montieth, Chris Colfer, Tina Fey, Jon Hamm, AND Betty White? And they're singing "Born to Run"? Mind = blown.

* If there's one person on ''[[Quincy]]'' you'd never expect to have a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]], it's Quincy's superior Dr. Robert "[[Status Quo Is God]]" Asten. And yet in the episode "Hot Ice," our hero - following a successful undercover job in Las Vegas (long story) - has been stabbed with a poisoned umbrella and is on the verge of death. Having ID'd the man responsible, Asten and Brill go to confront him, he tries to escape... and Asten promptly ''judo flips the guy and gets him in a headlock'' before assuring him if he doesn't tell them what poison he used (without which they can't find the antidote) he'll regret it. Needless to say, it works.

* Both Jim and Artie had plenty of CMoAs in the course of ''[[The Wild Wild West]]'', so just one example each - in "The Night of the Human Trigger" two bad guys have Jim flanked on both sides, so if he gets one the other'll finish our hero off...{{spoiler|he gets one with his regular gun and the other with his sleeve-held Derringer.}} And Artie has a rare action scene all to himself in "The Night of the Big Blast" when he has a swordfight with one of the villains - also a CMoA for Ross Martin, as it's clearly him in some (though not all) of the shots.

* HGTV's show ''Income Property" has had a few. In one, host Scott [[Mc Gillivray]] learns that the couple he is helping have become victims of identity theft while in the middle of renovations and have lost thousands of dollars- in fact, most of their savings. Scott gathers the crew, speaks to them, and they agree to work extra hours so that the project will be completely done, even to the extras, before the deadline, in order to save the homeowners the exact amount they lost. In another, the wife of the couple being helped mentions that her husband thought that Scott was just the pretty-boy host and didn't actually do any work. Scott blinks, laughs, walks into the bathroom where the husband is unsuccessfully trying to drain the heavy old toilet that has just been removed. Scott takes the toilet and drains it effortlessly, then carries it out to the balcony and throws it across the sidewalk into the dumpster as the husband watches gaping. For the record, Scott is not a big guy. Also doubles as CMoF since Scott and the husband bust each others chops though the entire episode without actually offending each other once, and as Scott leaves the bathroom, he's yelling "Clear the way! Pretty face coming through!"

* This legendary piece of Vital Information from ''[[All That]]'':