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Never Trust a Trailer/Live-Action TV: Difference between revisions
Never Trust a Trailer/Live-Action TV (view source)
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{{trope}}
* A Brazlian cable TV trailer for a ''[[
* A trailer for the newest season of ''[[Law and Order Special Victims Unit]]'' used a shot of Olivia looking surprised with a shot of Elliot and Dani about to kiss, adding up to sexual tension at its max. In the actual episode, Olivia never saw the kiss, which was just an [[Accidental Kiss|accidental quickie]] after the two had a few drinks. The trailer made more fans [[Squee]] than the episode.
** ''SVU'' does this a lot, actually, putting small shots together in trailers or just taking them out of context and making them seem far more interesting than they actually are.
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** One of the USA Network’s standard promo for the show has what appears to be Elliot casually asking Fin what his favorite form of torture is while the two are relaxing and playing cards. However this seen never appeared on the show. The clip of the card game is from the episode Class while the torture question was from Uncle and asked to a suspect Elliot was trying to get to confess.
* Those infamous official Korean [[Sherlock]] trailers that make it appear Sherlock and John's relationship is the focus of the series. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFR_Z30d5nQ Any] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GN4xBm44KH0 of] them.
* Nowadays, "[["On the Next..."]]" TV trailers will often include footage and plot points that don't actually appear for several weeks yet. This is [[Egregious]] in ''[[Prison Break]]''-style shows with heavy continuity, as it can give the impression of the story progressing more quickly than it really does. ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' is a major offender here; for example, it incorporated material from the entire first season into the trailer for the second episode.
** [[Smallville]] is a worse offender. There have been several trailers that have cut one line of dialog into clips from several seasons past. The trailer for the seventh season finale was entirely a clip of Lex Luthor looking at the Fortress of Solitude. Not only was this teased two weeks previous, it was cut entirely from the episode it was shot for. Ironically, when a recent episode decided to reveal the adaptation of the Superman Suite, many fans believed they were being played (due to the show's "No Tights, No Flights" rule which is the whole reason why it took eight seasons to make something remotely close to Superman's tights) no one believed it. But the footage was used in the episode being teased.
** Nearly every show nowadays does this after the season premiere and the voiceover usually explicitly says "This season on..." whichever show you happen to be watching.
* In the middle of the Jasmine arc of ''[[
* A trailer for the 2007 ''[[Doctor Who]]'' episode "The Family Of Blood" showed {{spoiler|John Smith getting married and having children. In the episode itself, this was just a Last Temptation to the life he could have if he didn't turn back into his usual self.}}
** The BBC One trailer for "The Waters Of Mars" ends with the [[Blatant Lies|Blatant Lie]] of someone knocking four times just like [[The Prophecy]] said, in the actual episode however, {{spoiler|it was [[Lampshade Hanging]] and the Doctor stopped the villain from knocking a fourth time.}} The trailer repeated the fist knock.
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* ''[[Survivor]]'' has done this. Especially in ''Samoa'', they tried to edit it so that people were thinking about eliminating Russell..except for some incredibly odd reason, seeing the episode brought out ''no'' talks about actually ''doing'' it.
** One of the early seasons of ''Survivor'' featured an episode trailer that vaguely described some kind of horrific accident occurring, while flashing footage of ''crocodiles''. An accident did actually occur (a contestant passed out due to smoke inhalation, was burned by their campfire, and had to be evacuated), but involved no attack by a wild animal of any kind.
* One ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'' episode trailer was particularly bad in this respect, being designed around the line "He violated me" in such a way as to make it sound very much as though Seven was going to be raped by a crew member; the trailer even featured a "Who did it?" sequence with flashes of various male crew members' faces. The actual episode, however, was just about an alien culture trapping her in a laboratory for study and stealing some of her nanoprobes. The plot ''does'' play at [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]], with Borg nanoprobes replacing date rape, but it was still incredibly misleading.
** In regards to ''Voyager'', a website designed to nitpick the show refers to this phenomenon as PAL, for Previews Always Lie. [http://www.nitcentral.com/members/glossary.htm#pal See here.]
** In a comparatively minor case, SPIKE's trademark preview for ''Voyager'' makes it out to be an action-packed, phasers-firing thrill ride. "Network for Men" and all that.
*** ''Voyager'''s action quotient is such that it's not entirely unwarranted. Now, when they tried to do the same with ''[[Star Trek:
** A trailer for some season 7 ''Voyager'' episode during its run that featured Kim saying "Ambassador Spock" in a shocked voice, leading me and many in the audience to tune in in hopes that everyone's favorite Vulcan would show up. As it turns out, Spock was mentioned briefly in one conversation and that 'shocked take' wasn't even in the episode.
** Another trailer similarly name-dropped Captain Picard; the interview review The Cynic pithily remarked "dropping Picard's name will not get them Picard's ratings."
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** A recent trailer for Deep Space 9 on the CBS Reality channel showed how to do it when you've no idea which show you're talking about. It went on strangely in poetic terms, including the line "When the universe sleeps...Enterprise wakes (and basically saves us all)." Huh?
** The trailer for the ''Enterprise'' episode "Cogenitor", about an alien species with 3 genders, made it look like a comedic sex romp by focusing solely on the brief comic relief moments in the episode, such as Phlox offering to show Trip photos of tri-gendered sex and Malcolm awkwardly flirting with an alien. In actuality, it's one of the darkest episodes in ''Trek'' history, raising complex questions about human rights and moral relativism, capped off with a deeply tragic ending.
** Final ''[[Star Trek]]'' spin-off example: UK TV channel Virgin 1 markets ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]'' on the basis of the handful of relatively sexy moments that make up the 4 seasons. While it might have featured more blatant sexual situations than the previous ''[[Star Trek]]'' series, the show was still pretty tame by most modern standards.
* During the early 00s, the British [[Soap Opera]] ''[[Eastenders]]'' featured a number of intentionally misleading trailers. For example, one suggested that Saskia would kill club owner Steve; when the actual episode rolled around, the exact opposite happened. Much later, after Matthew was framed by Steve for Saskia's murder, a specially filmed trailer suggested that Matthew would get his revenge by setting up explosive death traps -- in reality, his actual revenge plan was slightly less violent.
* [[
** And also [http://forums.televisionwithoutpity.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=3155892&view=findpost=8854345 promoting the same show], they managed to combine this with [[Trailers Always Spoil]]: The promos said that a contestant would win more money than anyone else, and said contestant only actually ''tied'' for the biggest win.
* [[Playing
** Sometimes those clips ''would'' appear on the next episode, but the viewer would never expect it [[Peter and The Wolf|because of so many falsities, they would never expect the truth.]]
** Also, in one third-season episode, trailers advertised 3-D, that "the shocking final moments" would be live, and that "[[Tonight Someone Dies|one of these people will die]]". Well, they did come through! ...In underwhelming ways:
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*** For the final scene, only that one 5 second part was done live.
** Sadly, this trope may have led to the show's cancellation. The original TV-spots didn't quite present the show as they should have.
* ''[[
** The [[Word of God]] released a blog post later that made it appear to be a miscalculation by the marketing department of Nickelodeon, who either didn't realize that the episode didn't actually do anything they claimed, or [[They Just Didn't Care]], and release the trailer like that to hype up the episode.
** Inverted with a [[Word of God]] confirmation that the trailer for 'iOMG' ''isn't'' the same as the iSAFW debacle and something major ''does'' happen.
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* There's a trailer for ''[[Supernatural]]'' which makes it look like Dean set Jessica on fire.
** And let's not forget the one that makes it look like the Crossroads Demon seduces Dean. And the episode summary even said that.
* The trailer for the US version of ''[[Life On Mars]]'' is shot like a ''[[Starsky and Hutch (TV series)|Starsky and Hutch]]'' parody. Seriously, watch it.
** This seems entirely in keeping with the UK version.
* A trailer for an episode of ''Hell's Kitchen'' Season 4 did a rather spectacular version of this. The trailer showed that one chef sliced off a portion of his thumb, the team couldn't find it, and mentioned that two professional critics were attending that night's service - with the narrator all but saying that the severed portion of finger would end up on a critic's plate. As it turned out, the finger incident happened in the first part of the show, and was already resolved by the time dinner service rolled around - there was never any risk involved.
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* An interesting case on ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'': the trailer featured D'Anna {{spoiler|telling Roslin that she's the final Cylon who has yet to be revealed. However, the cut revealing who she was talking to caused some speculation that Roslin actually wasn't the person she said it to. It turned out D'Anna ''was'' talking to Roslin, but was just playing a prank on her. Of course, had Roslin been the final Cylon}} this would have been a major case of both [[Trailers Always Spoil]] and [[Lying Creator]] (as showrunner and producer Ron Moore had officially declared that {{spoiler|Roslin is ''not'' a Cylon}}).
* A preview for an episode of ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' revolving around the team being trapped in an unpleasant version of a [[Lotus Eater Machine]], with the trailer using Carter's line "How do we know this is real?" as if it were a serious question and dramatic concern. In the actual episode, this is just the set-up for a final joke to cap off what's otherwise a particularly dark episode.
** For several weeks there, the trailers for ''[[
** ''[[
** Two particular examples for the original ''[[Stargate SG-1]].'' One, where it was hyped up that a team member would end up dying and a clip of O'Neill falling to the ground wounded in battle was shown(It ended up being the doctor who died). The second was set up with Carter finding herself alone on a ship with only illusions to help her. The trailer made it look like she and O'Neill would end up kissing, but in the actual episode it was only a fantasy of hers that passed through her mind for a second- two at the most.
*** To be fair, in the first example, the episode itself actually implied that up until the last five minutes or so. So it wasn't just the creators of the ad, but the writers as well who intended the audience to be misled.
* The trailers for the NBC miniseries ''Merlin'' implied there was going to be a big huge battle between the title character and [[The Fair Folk|Queen Mab]]. In reality, while there was some shrieking, a few fireballs thrown, and other cool magical effects, the whole thing actually ended with {{spoiler|[[Clap Your Hands If You Believe|everyone just turning their backs on her and forgetting her]], [[Gods Need Prayer Badly|refusing to believe in her]]}}. A very effective and creative way to defeat a villain, but it was probably rather disappointing for those who wanted to see Mab turned into a crispy critter.
* On the subject of ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'', a trailer for one episode of the BBC series had Merlin dramatically reveal to the court that he was a wizard. In the actual episode, no one believed him and the scene had no impact on the plot.
** The trailer for another episode made it look very, very much like Arthur was going to find out about Merlin's magic. And just before the episode started, the announcer said 'it had to happen eventually!'. Everyone got very excited about this. Turns out what Arthur saw was just ambiguous enough for him to believe Merlin hadn't done anything.
* ''[[The Sopranos]]'' tended to do this a lot, with the trailers playing up the mob violence that was rarely the center of the upcoming episode.
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** Promos for the third season finale did this as well. They had the announcer ask what the guys would do for the finale with Sheldon saying "We're going to blow up the moon." In the actual episode, Penny's date asks if that's what they're going to do and Sheldon actually says "You'd be crazy to think we're going to blow up the moon."
* Sci-Fi Channel actually used expectations about never trusting a trailer to its advantage for the fourth episode of season three of ''Eureka'', and at the same time did slip in a little bit of a lie. The trailer proclaimed "One of these people won't make it through [the episode]", including flashing up a character we'd never seen before, clearly a one-shot throwaway character, using your expectation that they threw him into the preview to be technically correct when one of "these characters" didn't make it through. {{spoiler|Well, he didn't. But neither did Nathan Stark, series regular.}}
* A rather dated example: The original "On the next" trailer for the ''[[War of the Worlds (TV series)|War of the Worlds]]'' episode "Candle in the Night" showed the aliens desperately tracking a rogue device to stop it falling into the hands of the humans, asking, "Can the team use the aliens' own episode against them? A View to a kill, on the next episode of ''War of the Worlds''!". Answer: No. Because they're ''not even looking for it'': it's a [[Bottle Episode]] about the team organizing a surprise birthday party. The events of the trailer refer to a throwaway B-plot about the aliens trying to find a lost probe.
* A trailer for a ''[[Dexter]]'' episode asked "Which one of these suspects is the ice truck killer". The "suspects" seem to have been chosen completely at random, two are very well established characters who couldn't be the killer barring some bizarre [[Twist Ending]]. Another has the notable handicap of being ''dead''. The [[Trailers Always Spoil|process of elimination]] would seem to point to the fourth suspect who, having been only introduced in the previous episode, seems the natural candidate anyway, but since whoever made the trailer has clearly not watched a second of the show it would probably be hopelessly naive to think so. Another on asked if this was the episode were Dexter would be found out, which only did not happen, but had absolutely nothing to do with the plot.
* Australia's Network Ten does this with all its commercials. Another example is its adds for ''[[Burn Notice]]'', which always end by asking if this is the episode where Michael's plan fails, followed by footage of an unrelated car exploding from later in that episode.
* Australian television ''always'' markets shows like ''The World's Worst Drivers'' as if they're comedies, when almost all take the form of overly tense ''When Animals Attack''-style shows.
* In the trailer for the fifth season opener of ''[[
** And in the trailer for the seventh season finale, Meredith walks in on a cleaned-out bedroom after having a fight with Derek, during which he said he couldn't live with someone who'd {{spoiler|screwed up his Alzheimer's trial}}. In the actual episode, the room isn't even Derek's, and Meredith actually asked that character to move out earlier in the episode.
* Happens far too often on ''[[House (TV series)|House]]''. For example, the trailer for an episode during the Tritter arc had the following exchange:
{{quote| '''House''': This test isn't exactly FDA-approved.<br />
'''Wilson''': You committed a crime! Do something! }}
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** The ad for the sixth season, showed Cuddy with House's voice saying that ''she had said yes, but he heard no'' which could be seen as that House had proposed to Cuddy and she had said yes. {{spoiler|Turns out that he was talking to Wilson about how Cuddy had given him permission for an insane treatment on his patient and House was having second thoughts about it}}.
* Season 5 of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations was bloated with this. Every episode pointed out that he was going to have a bad time at his destination but on the actual show, it was always just a minor moment of discomfort that took place in the first half of the episode, surrounded by Tony loving the place.
* A [["On the Next..."]] trailer for ''[[
* In the network promo for the Season 4 episode of [[The West Wing]] "Election Night," there is a shot of Democratic strategist Will Bailey standing outside the campaign office in a thunderous rainstorm, shouting "NOOO" to the high heavens. In the actual episode, he is in fact shouting "NOW" in an attempt, however serious, to predict (and possibly cause?) the torrential rain that begins seconds later, thus leading to depressed voter turnout and increasing the chances that his liberal candidate, who is dead, might actually win in conservative Orange County.
* A trailer for an episode of the New Zealand TV show [[Go Girls]] has a main character being told by her boyfriend that she's fat, ugly, and that he's gay. In actuality, this was a daydream of what she was expecting him to say-- what he actually does is ask her to marry him.
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* In the lead-up to the ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'' 3-parter "The Wedding," in which Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa get married, Fox did a promo of the "Someone's getting married...who could it be?" variety, and seemed to suggest that it might be one of the Rangers, perhaps Billy, or even [[Official Couple|Tommy and Kimberly!]] Never mind the fact that they're all supposed to be [[Squick|teenagers]]...
* One promo for an episode of ''[[One Tree Hill]]'' outright stated that Peyton was going to once again have feelings for Nathan. Cue the episode where Nathan and Peyton become partners on a project and spend the rest of the episode having fun with no mention of romance at all.
* During the middle of its run ''[[
* On a sleazier note, a trailer for the less-than-stellar dramedy ''Wildfire'' showed one character inviting another to a [[Two-Person Pool Party]], with a clear implication of sex. Since this was on primetime TV before the [[Watershed]], in the actual episode the line was immediately followed by a blunt refusal.
* One episode preview for ''Airwolf'' has Dom complaining about how low they're flying, followed by a cactus being splattered against the window. The cactus was removed from the actual episode.
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* The trailer for a recent episode of [[The Big Bang Theory]] had the narrator announce "this is the episode you've been waiting for", then showed scenes of a hot woman in the guys's apartment and a scene of Sheldon giggling, making it look like he was attracted to her. Needless to say, or it wouldn't be in this category, Sheldon had no romantic interest in the woman whatsoever (she was a fellow physicist he invited to stay with him) and the giggling was taken out of context. (Said woman did have sex, but with Leonard, and later, Raj).
** (But not Howard, or for that matter Leonard, Howard and Raj at the same time. [[Really Gets Around|Though not for lack of trying.]])
* Possibly overlaps with [[Tonight Someone Dies]]: an episode of ''[[
* One episode of ''[[So You Think You Can Dance]]'' was promoted by [[
** One of the later episodes of the Australian version's first season was promoted with the audience booing and leaving the set, with the voiceover saying that someone would perform so badly that the audience would walk out. What actually happened was that the judges asked the audience to leave for a short amount of time (I can't remember why, I think it had something to do with the voting).
* At the end of the cliffhanger finale of ''[[Kamen Rider Decade]]'', a fifteen-second trailer for [[The Movie]] that would end of the story aired. The trailer shows an [[Evil Twin]] of the main character, the sidekick (who closed out the series [[Brainwashed and Crazy]]) with his arm buried up to the elbow in [[The Rival]]'s gut, the female lead trying to kill the hero with a sniper rifle, and more. In the actual film, none of this happened as depicted, though two concepts (the female lead opposing the hero and a tagalong character becoming a Rider) were merged together. It didn't help that it looked like a much better finale than what we actually got.
** The trailer for [[Kamen Rider Faiz]] made us believe that there world be a lead female Rider for the first time. It was very convincing.
* ''[[
** Teasers for upcoming episodes also sometimes feature contestants who never appear or only pop up weeks later.
* The commercials for the U.S. version of ''Masterchef'' only featured Gordon Ramsey as the judge. They completely failed to mention that there's two other judges involved in this.
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* ''[[Mad Men]]'''s main character Don Draper [[Dead Person Impersonation|changed identities with a dead guy during the Korean War]] and has been hiding it ever since. A promo for the season two episode "A Night to Remember" had Joan Holloway announcing, "Someone people think is dead is not dead," in a context intended to make it look like she was going to find out his secret and out him (or threaten to, or something). In fact, she'd spent the episode reading TV scripts for work and was talking about an upcoming storyline on a soap opera.
* It is pretty much a guarantee on the HGTV reality show ''Design Star'' that whoever looks like they are in trouble at the end of the episode is fine, and vice versa. For example, in a recent episode, the judges say, "This is not your best work" and it cuts to a dismayed-looking {{spoiler|Karl}}. In the actual episode, {{spoiler|the criticism is directed at Kellie, who ends up going home, and Karl's look is his stunned relief in having been declared "safe" for the next week}}.
* In October 2010, ''[[
* Late in the run of ''[[Hercules: The Legendary Journeys]]'' the trailers practically guaranteed that a particular episode was the finale of the series. Turns out Hercules ''did'' retire...for about five seconds.
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