Mr. Fanservice/Live-Action TV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Examples of Mr. Fanservice in Live-Action TV include:

  • Community Jeff Winger and his naked pool game. Also, as of Epidemiology, Troy also qualifies
    • Thanks to a scene involving Jeff, a locker, and a shirt that wasn't working, there's probably a lot of happy viewers (both female and male) after "Origins of Vampire Mythology".
  • The entire main male cast of True Blood, along with plenty of Fan Yay. The male characters display far more fanservice than the female ones.
    • Jason the very athletic, insanely pretty, endearingly good hearted, a bit insecure often naked (thank you) Good Ol' boy.
      • For the record, Ryan Kwanten is Australia's gift to the rest of the world. We enjoyed him first, and we want to share. He used to star on an Australia soap opera called Home and Away, and according to popular rumor, whenever a scene called for Ryan's character to be shirtless (which happened often, since he was a surf-life-saver), a lot of women who didn't really need to be on-set would suddenly appear. Can we blame them?
    • Season Three has hit the ground running! In the opener alone, we had shirtless Ho Yay with Sam and Bill which turned out to be an Erotic Dream on Sam's part, more naked Jason, and more naked Eric. We're clearly being spoiled now.
    • An argument could be made that True Blood is made for the ladies first and foremost since it has a female lead and was written by a woman. Jessica was likely added so that the guys would also have someone to obsess over.
  • Pick a doctor, any doctor! Or at least post-reboot. (The first couple of Doctors were rather old.)
    • The Ninth Doctor had a shirtless scene while shackled to a rack and being tortured. This apparently was producer Julie Gardner's idea. Also, Captain Jack Harkness - they even filmed a butt shot, but couldn't get it past the BBC's censors.

Jack: Am I naked in front of millions of viewers?
Robot Hosts: Absolutely!
Jack: Ladies... your viewing figures just went up.

    • Series 5 has a nice scene in "The Lodger", where the Doctor comes charging out of the bathroom clad only in a towel, interrupting his shower because he thought his flatmate was in danger. We get to see quite a bit of Matt Smith's nicely toned, albeit pale, torso.
      • And it was a tiny towel at that.
  • Blood Ties had Henry Fitzroy. Not only is he a bishonen vampire with sexy curly hair and a tragic romantic past, but he spent large quantities of the story with his shirt off or ripped to shreds, lounging/writhing around in bed (again shirtless). He's also artistic, multitalented, superstrong, cute, chivalrous, and has a lot of funny stories about his past. All that, and he can give women orgasms with his bite.
  • Oz has Chris Keller as the most prominent one, but there's also Ryan O'Reilly, and Tobias Beecher, especially when he becomes tougher.
  • Riker was supposed to play this role in Star Trek: The Next Generation but all the Estrogen Brigaders swooned over Captain Picard's silver foxiness instead. Eventually they figured it out, leading to, for instance, the episode where Picard goes on vacation and spends much of the episode wearing an open shirt and very short shorts.
  • Peter Petrelli and Sylar are Heroes' resident male fanservice characters and regularly appear in scenes without their shirts on. Lampshaded in one DVD commentary in which the producers joke about receiving fan mail begging them to keep Milo Ventimiglia naked.
  • Desperate Housewives: John, Gabriel's gardener early on; if he had a purpose other than walking around shirtless, it wasn't in evidence.
  • Even though Tom Welling actually has the main role on Smallville, it's pretty obvious he wasn't hired for his acting.
    • Ollie Queen is definitely an example. Nice blonde hair, cute smile, half of his scenes are shirtless... not to mention his Green Arrow uniform is designed in such a way that it shows off his extremely nice arms.
  • Sayid on Lost. Especially after seeing how well he cleaned up in "The Economist".
  • Ryan Atwood on The OC -- there's a reason 75% of his wardrobe is tank tops...
  • Fox Mulder on The X-Files -- he's got it all, the tragic backstory, the sexy voice, and the smokin' hot body. The Trope Namer for Estrogen Brigade Bait was the David Duchovny Estrogen Brigade from alt.tv.x-files.
    • Mulder's an especially noteworthy example -- unusually for an American show that wasn't particularly aimed at a female audience, Mulder spent a lot more time not fully clothed than Scully did.
    • And let's not forget Alex Krycek. Ratboy to some, entirely different nicknames to others...
      • And the massive amounts of Foe Yay with Mulder, which were clearly deliberate and aimed at the girls who like boys who do boys. Check out the DVD commentary for the episode where he kisses Mulder on the cheek.
    • And don't forget Skinner. Nice build, in great shape for his age, terrific command presence (right up there with Picard), has had his share of troubles, and of course the voice...
      • And that one episode where there's a long shot of him wearing nothing but briefs for no particular reason.
      • And that ep where Mulder shows up with Krycek and he's shirtless. Yes, please.
    • Any time they put Doggett in casual clothes, especially in John Doe. Add in the blue eyes and his voice...there's a reason he wound up with his own Estrogen Brigade.
  • What about our beautiful, traumatized and decidedly Badass Captain Malcolm Reynolds? If his shirtless shot in Serenity wasn't fan-service we don't know what was... not to mention the naked in the desert business.
    • No mention of Simon Tam? It's Sean Maher in a suit!
      • And then there's the fact that he spends a few too-short minutes of the episode "Objects in Space" shirtless. Ahem.
  • Spike. The snark. The badassery. The fact that he spends most of season six of Buffy the Vampire Slayer wearing NOTHING.
  • Again, with David Boreanaz: "Booth is a big, strong, hot guy who wants to save your life. I mean, you actually have a knight in shining FBI standard-issue body armor, so cut him some slack."
    • TJ Thyne at 2:02 in this clip is proof that the makers of the show love you and want you to be happy.
  • An episode of CSI Las Vegas has Nick Stokes shirtless after he realizes it has blood evidence on it and asks lab tech Wendy to remove it. She seems quite pleased with the results.
  • Danny Messer from CSI New York.
    • Delko on CSI: Miami. One episode had him go in theC water to get a body out of a crocodile's mouth, and it was a shame for all the ladies watching that he was wearing a dark shirt.
    • Back to NY for a minute. Every male on the cast (with the possible exception of Robert Joy) is EBB. But especially Don Flack, Jr. His fanbase rivals Danny's any day of the week, and we haven't even had a shirtless scene like every other EBB on the show has gotten. Eddie Cahill actually got a mention on Entertainment Weekly's Must List in 2009 for his portrayal of Flack.
  • Law and Order Special Victims Unit's chronic victim of Clothing Damage Elliot Stabler.
    • And really, let's thank the PTB's for that, because Chris Meloni has a fantastic body. Not that we've never seen it before.
    • Brian, Munch's partner in Season 1. Played by Dean Winters, he was the young, fresh-faced choir boy type to everyone else's experienced cop. He even bedded Olivia at one point though you can bet she'd break his arm before she'd admit it. He left IRL when Dean Winters' Oz character became more prominent and the dual shooting demands became too demanding. On the show, Brian had one of the saddest exits ever; After struggling with some of the nastier cases, Brian is sent, by Cragen, on a solo interview with a young woman Cragen had helped in the past. She had been a victim of sexual abuse when Cragen met her, and when Brian meets her, had been gang raped by her BF and his friends, before the 'good samaritan' who helped her off the beach took a turn too Winters performance as he reccounts the girls story is heartbreaking and beautiful and makes you want to make out/cuddle/protect/be protected by him in one fell swoop. Ultimately, his emotional inabiity to cope gets him transferred to Narcotics, to eventually be replaced by Fin. We miss you Brian.
  • Man vs. Wild. Bear Grylls. An attractive survival expert goes around in the wilderness and works with his hands and inexplicably takes his clothes off a lot. One episode even revealed that he wears Union Jack undies.
    • And how easy must it be to cook for these men?! Bear wins this round, though, because of the British accent.
      • The accent only works if you're not British.
    • There was also that one episode where he had to take off ALL his clothes because they were all soaked. Cue a minute or so of him running around naked trying to get his body warm again. I think the other camera crew were snickering as well.
  • Battlestar Galactica. Lee "Apollo" Adama is one of Galactica's surest sources of Estrogen Brigade Bait. Let's just say we're very happy about the amount of time the crew of Galactica spend in tank tops, or better yet, shirtless (Lee gets a truly spectacular scene in season 2 where he accidentally drops his towel in the pilots' locker room).
    • Lee. Oh, Lee. With his voice that cracks like, all the time, the cheekbones, uh... my mind just went somewhere.
    • Then there's Gaeta with his lovely singing voice and Helo with his lovely, well lovely everything, the actor going on to be shirtless fairly often in Dollhouse, which was surely well appreciated.
    • Gaius Baltar is a source of this trope too.
    • On the Cylon side: Samuel Anders is EBB personified. Anders naked in goo in The Plan! Anders naked in goo in The Plan! With hair. And Leoben Conoy has his own little brigade somewhere in the fandom too.
    • The Chief. Romantically tortured leader of the Workers' Revolution, has a temper but is always there when you need him? Good with his hands? My God, I have this dream about him, dipped in honey... He should be naked in goo in The Plan, too..
  • Rome has a few, but Marc Antony would probably be considered the main one. We don't know much about his troubled past, but he loves to run around with little (read: no) clothes on, and he definitely has the sexy voice. Plus, when he's actually wearing clothes, it's often armour. Which women don't really tend to mind.
    • And towards the end of the series, he was rocking the Eyeliner of Angst an awful lot. YUM.
    • Other candidates for the title are Pullo, Brutus (who is rarely seen shirtless, but does appear completely naked) and, to some extent, Agrippa.
    • Vorenus. Broody? Yes. Soldier? Yes. HAWT? YES. Hey, and he's a redheaded Roman too!
  • He may be 10 years out of his heyday, and overacted to annoying levels, but Tommy Oliver of Power Rangers still got just as many beach scenes as the girls, and many fans today still wish they could be the ones slathering him in suntan lotion.
    • Allow me to Fan Girl squee for a minute. My ten yr old self greatly appreciated the tanks and long brown locks. Squeeeeeee!!
    • He's since chopped off the ponytail, got a ton of tattoos, and transitioned into MMA, but Jason David Frank remains pretty damn hot [dead link].
    • Tommy might be the apex bait in the series, but lets face it, pretty much ALL the guys, even nerdy Billy Cranston was built like an Adonis. It can't be coincidental that there were so many sleeveless scenes where they'd show off their massive biceps.
    • That's the beautiful thing about Power Rangers. Every year, we get a brand new cast of ridiculously hot, athletic and heroic men. And if we're really, really lucky, we'll get more than a few shirtless scenes throughout the season. There's a very good reason Power Rangers has a very strong female and gay male audience, let me tell you.
    • After a while, it seems like they've begun to realize this, because Power Rangers Samurai is full of it. One of the very first scenes in the very first episode was a shirtless (and bandaged, but still...) scene of Mike, whose played by this guy. They made Kevin [dead link] a swimmer, so he's spent at least one scene in nothing but swim trunks. Jayden and Antonio keep the Ho Yay tradition between Red and Sixth Rangers alive. And then there's Deker; Evil Is Sexy Hell-Bent for Leather Deker.
  • Scott Cohen (and Scott Cohen's voice) starring as Wolf, the soft-spoken Troubled but Cute half-(were)wolf and unlikely love interest for the heroine Virginia Lewis in the made-for-TV Fantasy mini-series The Tenth Kingdom. Alternates between Stalker with a Crush, The Funny Guy, The Woobie and Our Werewolves Are Different. Not to mention Wolf suffers (hilariously) from a number of neuroses and (tragically) from at least two instances of No Good Deed Goes Unpunished.
  • Shepherd and Ronon soooo qualify for this on Stargate Atlantis. Good lord, Ronon Dex could have been grown in a lab, so close to physical perfection is he. And he's playing the new Conan too; Loin Cloths at dawn!!
  • Hustle has Mickey Bricks and Danny Blue (one of the most hyped episodes of season 3 involved the two of them being dropped off naked in the middle of London, and Danny has been known to strip off for no apparent reason). Also, depending on your tastes, there's Ash "Three Socks" Morgan.
    • Sean Kennedy from season 5 is pretty cute too
  • Basically the entire male cast of Merlin. After all, when you have a show that includes Anthony Head burning people at the stake and swaggering around in leather as King Giles Uther, Bradley James waving a sword about, looking like a posterboy for Medieval Abercrombie and taking his shirt off at least once every two episodes as Arthur and Colin Morgan doing magic, crying a lot and overloading the screen with cheekbone as Merlin, I think it's more or less fair to say a wide range of tastes are being catered for. And that's not forgetting Sir Leon, Lancelot, the various generally not unattractive Villains of the Week (who have included Adrien Lester, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Will Mellor and Joseph Mawle) and...er...Gaius. Oh yes, even Gaius has his fans... And then Gwaine shows up (also often shirtless) in series three. And Percival (aka He-of-the-Sleeveless-Chainmail)! Thank you Gods of Fanservice!
  • Chuck -- Special mention must go to Captain Awesome, who is quite deliberately fanservice, with the amount of screentime he spends wearing either very little, or something very tight.
  • White Collar: The stunningly gorgeous Neal Caffrey (played by Matthew Bomer, who used to be Bryce Larkin, see above) He breaks out of prison to look for his recently disappeared and possibly double-crossing girlfriend (troubled past, "bad boy", check, check), flirts with every woman he meets, and has been known to study law books shirtless (incidently, his impeccable taste in everything makes him look good no matter what he is or isn't wearing). Also, his smile should be registered as a lethal weapon. This baby blues, too.
    • And for those of us who prefer nice guys, FBI Agent Peter Burke. Jones isn't too shabby either.
  • Seeing as Sex and the City doesn't exactly need Estrogen Bait, Smith is a purer Mr. Fanservice than anyone on this list. An absurdly beautiful twenty-something hunk who is seen naked many, many times. His nudity in a play he was in was seized upon by Samantha to promote the hell out of it, and he later appeared on a billboard in Times Square with a conveniently placed bottle of Absolut. "My dick is three stories high!"
    • Or, if you're not into big blatant beefcake, Mr. Big is certainly very, very blessed with lots of tall, dark, and handsome! Chris Noth also got people panting when he was the extremely hot, very serious, somewhat woobie-esque Detective Mike Logan.
  • The Tudors. Jonathan Rhys-Meyers. Shirtless scenes a-plenty! Of course, he's not the only one in the male half of the cast who's hot.
    • Henry Cavill. Wow, wow, and double wow. Henry VIII has nothing on the Duke of Suffolk.
    • Max Brown has his share of fangirls too. It really is a pity Edward Seymour's wife apparently shags everyone but him.
  • Knight Rider. Old or new. David Hasselhoff was actually quite attractive in the 80s. As for the new series, well, Mike is a rugged military man with dark eyes and a wicked grin, and Billy has boy-next-door appeal and looks about ten years younger than his character probably is. For added estrogen-baiting, KITT is apparently voiced by the Bat-o-licious Val Kilmer. Even Sarah's dad is hot, for an old dude. And Torres ain't bad. Contrast this with three women in the main cast.
  • Earth: Final Conflict featured several EBBs. All had plenty of "dark past" to go around. First and foremost, William Boone and Liam Kincaid. Both were working for the alien Companions and, at the same time, were top members of the Resistance. Ronald Sandoval too, probably, with his wife locked up and his homeland destroyed. Jonathan Doors (for all you fangirls who like older gentlemen) and his young lawyer son. As far as bad boys go, the vampire-like Howlin is definitely among the top 10.
  • Hung features Thomas Jane stripping in the opening credits, culminating in him jumping off a dock into a lake. Naked. With his rather nice behind on display.
  • Noah's Arc has a Cast Full of Pretty Boys, by Trey is a notable example in that he's portrayed as fanservice in-universe.
  • Robin Hood: Richard Armitage. He's sexy no matter what, but in that one he has all the traits: broody bad boy with a sexy voice and all the qualms of a Brad Pitt about losing his shirt for the skimpiest of reasons.
  • Tarrant in Blakes Seven was originally conceived as a battle-scarred middle-aged man. Then Steven Pacey turned up to audition and the producers saw the effect he had on the female office staff...
    • Forget Tarrant! What about Blake and Avon and yes, even Vila?? All adorable, all often shirtless...one with a passion for leather.....(swoon).
  • The entire male cast of Kamen Rider Kiva. Hot Japanese guys in many different flavors? YES PLEASE!
    • Akira Date in Kamen Rider OOO. Occasionally rips off his shirt for no reason other than that it looks sexy.
      • The main character Eiji Hino counts as well, probably more due to the much more constant scenes in which he is in nothing but his boxers.
    • Kamen Rider Double has Kirihiko, who appears nude (in side/behind views) on three occasions. For this reason his Fan Nicknames in Japan are "Shirihiko" or "Ketsuhiko" - shiri and ketsu both being slang for butt.
  • Not your typical Mr. Fanservice, but given the amount of times Sosuke Esumi appears in various states of undress, from a fairly ordinary shirtless bandaged scene in GP19 to going as far as pulling his pants down in order to get rid of an eel that slipped inside his clothes three episodes earlier, and despite the fact that most of these scenes were Played for Laughs, he could probably fall under this category. The fact that his actor is actually quite attractive when he wants to be doesn't help matters.
  • Dollhouse 's Paul Ballard - played by Battlestar Galactica's Tahmoh Penikett - was introduced boxing and shirtless, and wearing low, low-riding pants. From there, he went on to take his shirt off in pretty much every other episode, including the last one, and to have hot yet incredibly disturbing sex with Mellie/November.
  • Jax from Sons of Anarchy is frequently naked, much to the delight of female viewers.
  • Spartacus: Blood and Sand. Good lord, Spartacus: Blood and Sand. Just about every gladiator introduced, including the title character, has some appeal. For the most part, they're all muscular and bronzed, never wear shirts (or pants), and sometimes are shown in the nude, with everything on display.
  • Glee: Mike Chang. He can't sing, but Harry Shum, Jr. can dance. And we get to see his abs.
  • Wizards of Waverly Place: Justin Russo is far too dynamic of a character to be simply eye candy, so all instances with him are possibly unintentional and more due to how well David Henrie has filled out over the years. Still, he has undergone a plethora of costume changes and adopted various personas as well. He has worn a dashing suit and tie, V-necked workout clothes, tennis gear (complete with racket), and even a runner's outfit featuring some very tight, short, revealing, form-fitting, black shorts. In the movie, he can briefly be seen in a pair of swimming trunks. The trunks get more screentime during the crossover. Naturally the costumes are not the only changes; he has acted like a laid-back surfer, a mellow hippie, a spicy dancer, and an innocent little boy. Still, some prefer his default setting off protective and loving older brother (who is cute when he's mad). Want more? He plays the guitar.
    • His monster hunter outfit is alluring for many reasons. Even ignoring his bare arms, the vest has a Rambo-style appeal in and of itself, and is worn while he embarks on dangerous missions. The arc he wears it in is all about hardening him up (unfortunately, only in a metaphorical way). Sure, he has to get saved by his sister at one point, dressed in that oh-so-sexy billowing coat and scarf combination which sends so many vieweres into fits of fangirling.
  • The title character of Sherlock. Just look at those cheekbones (not to mention his voice, ohoho). AND Sherlock has clearly learned that the suit is everything. Seeing as they gave everyone a practically perfect cut. (When I say everyone... I really mean Sherlock (and Lestrade!). I mean, it should be a science: the art of suit wearing bringing sex-appeal to new heights. (There has been an attempt to analyze it [1]. The suit is really all I remember of men's fashion from those shows. So, does this count as writing? Steve Moffatt is attributed with the styling.)
  • Lost Girl has Dyson: cute, sweet, hints at a...complicated past and yes, frequently shirtless.

Kenzi: "Now, can we talk about the elephant in the room? And by elephant I mean sexy, sexy wolfman."

  • Dexter Morgan. Let's see: Troubled but Cute? Check. Nerds Are Sexy? LaGuerta seemed to think so. Shirtless Scenes? Oh yes.
  • Spartacus: Blood and Sand has Spartacus, Varro, Crixus (often with full frontal nudity), Quintus Batiatus and a lot more musclely hot hot Gladiators.
  • Spartacus: Gods of the Arena: Gannicus! Oh oh oh Gannicus.
    • Even though Oenameous is very hot too...
  • The Vampire Diaries: Seriously, can we just go ahead and say that pretty much all of the named male characters fit, considering that most of them seem to have Shirtless Scene clauses in their contracts?
  • Michael Landon, the creator and star of Little House On the Prairie obviously thought he was providing fanservice judging by how often his character had his shirt off.
  • Burn Notice: Michael Weston who spends a lot of time working out shirtless.
  • While there are a few of these in Game of Thrones, the one that stands out the most is Walking Shirtless Scene Khal Drogo, the manliest warrior in a race of manly warriors, who also dearly loves his wife. Considering that he rarely talks and dies in the season one finale, thus eliminating all chance of further Character Development, it seems like he really is just there to be ogled.
  • The recent TV remake of Teen Wolf, while not being the most critically-acclaimed show in the world, has succeeded above and beyond in the eye candy stakes. The entire male cast is gorgeous, and werewolf or human, there are multiple shirtless scenes in every episode.
    • Tyler Hoechlin, who plays the dark and brooding Derek, has a body that has to be seen to be believed. The great thing is, the production crew seems to know this, given he works out shirtless at least once an episode. At least. Bless them for it.
    • Tyler Posey plays the title teen wolf Scott, and aside from being adorable, also gets to be near-naked, a lot.
    • Colton Haynes is the jerk jock Jackson. He's not a werewolf, but there seem to be a lot of scenes of him changing in locker rooms. His best friend in-show is gay, which lends itself to fanfic rather beautifully.
    • Indeed, the only male main character that's kept his clothes on thus far is Stiles, played by Dylan O'Brien, who isn't exactly hard on the eyes either. Let's just say that the producers have made promises to the largely female fanbase regarding Stiles' future state of dress.
  • Robert Irvine. The tight black t-shirts are much appreciated.
  • Barney spends lots of time shirtless. Not that anyone's complaining.
  • Richard in the Sword of Truth adaptation Legend of the Seeker is shirtless in the first scene; it just goes from there. It sets the tone that their fanservice is equal-opportunity. And with Kahlan and Cara (form-fitting leather, much?), it's a high bar he has to meet. Having the lowest neckline in the party helps.
    • The river scene. Full stop.[context?]
    • The bathhouse. Darken Rahl.
  • Let's not forget Grimm. Aside from Nick, Captain Renard had a quite nice shirtless scene recently and isn't exactly unappealing when dressed.
  • Derek Morgan in Criminal Minds anyone? He always wears those tight 'granddad' shirts, and when he's not wearing those, he's coming out of Garcia's bathroom naked all except for a tiny towel (well in one episode anyway).
  • Even The West Wing got in on the act. The first four seasons had Rob Lowe as Sam Seaborn [dead link], who was replaced by Joshua Malina as Will Bailey. Both were catnip to geek-loving girls. Bradley Whitford as Josh Lyman developed an incredibly devoted fanbase. And then there was Jimmy Smits as Presidential candidate Matt Santos [dead link] in the final two seasons. All of the above lost their shirt more than once for absolutely no plot-related purpose whatsoever. Women had a lot of reasons to watch this show.
  • Supernatural. Brothers Sam and Dean Winchester fight the forces of evil, and even when sweaty and bloody they manage to look smoking hot. There have been numerous shirtless scenes, a few towel scenes, and Sam is built like a brick house. Add stubble-jawed growly-voiced blue-eyed pretty boy angel Castiel to the mix, and you’ve got a trio of drool-worthy men. Plus there are plenty other characters that can be added to the list.
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