Trapped in TV Land: Difference between revisions

 

It's an unspoken rule that, somewhere in the universe, there is a show similar to ''[[Star Trek the Original Series]]''.

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* In ''[[The Blue Dragon (Fanfic)|The Blue Dragon]]'' series, the two primary protagonists (Demex in the first, Josh in the second) get sent to the [[The Legend of Spyro]] universe.

* The famous ''[[Star Trek]]'' fanfic "[[Refugee From TV Land|Visit to a Weird Planet]]" eventually spawned a sequel, "Visit to a Weird Planet Revisited", which appeared in one of the early Star Trek fanfic anthologies. While the characters were on set, the actors were struggling to deal with a crisis involving a Klingon ship.

* ''[[Sleeping With the Girls]]'' is all about this, fused with semi-uncontrolled reality hopping. Before you ask, no, there's no sex, the title's just like that. A guy who is an anime fan in real life is, for unknown reasons, being teleported to the side of eight of his favorite anime characters. The problem? He is transported the instant he falls asleep, and the characters he likes are a) always asleep when he teleports to them, and b) they tend to run in the [[Tsundere]] category. One of the most realistic takes on a self-insert, he nearly dies several times because they can throw punches he can't survive, not to mention that he almost never gets enough sleep. He's cycling through eight separate worlds, each one one of his favorite anime/manga. Currently in the middle of its second of what the author claims is a three-volume story. See the trope page for more details.

* ''[[Mass Vexations]],'' is probably one of THE examples of Trapped in TV Land done right. Another self-insert story, it shows Art, a quirky college guy, suddenly transported to the world of Mass Effect. He doesn't gain super-powers, and it shows how a fan of the game could realistically interact with a fictional world, while trying to hide that he knows pretty much every single outcome from when he arrives (near the beginning of [[ME 1]]) to the end of [[ME 2]].

* ''[[The Icicle Thief]]''

* ''Andy Colby's Incredible Adventure''.

* Anyone murdered by the killer in ''Midnight Movie'' becomes trapped in the black and white [[Hillbilly Horrors]] film he originates from.

* In ''Delirious'', a soap opera writer gets hit on the head and wakes up as a character [[Author Powers|inside his own show]].

* The ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' story "The Mind Robber" features the Second Doctor and companions getting stuck in the Land of Fiction, where characters from every story ever written are real (the [[Doctor Who Expanded Universe]] returns to the Land on a couple of occasions).

* Reversed in ''[[Hi Honey Im Home|Hi Honey, I'm Home!]]'', which featured a family from a [[The Fifties|50's]] sitcom that has been canceled. They are relocated to the [[Real Life|Real World]], in a typical 90's suburb. [[Cold Sleep Cold Future|When overwhelmed by the complexities of the world in which they now live]], they seek comfort by using a device known as a [[Applied Phlebotinum|Turnerizer]], which causes themselves and their home environment to [[Good Old Ways|revert]] to [[Deliberately Monochrome|monochrome]]. The outside world (as seen through open doors, etc.), as well as anyone ''from'' the outside world, are [[Splash of Color|unaffected]].

* In ''[[Charmed (TV)|Charmed]]'':

** The sisters are trapped in an old movie ("Kill it before it dies") in the episode "Chick Flick". Meanwhile, the handsome hero of that movie and villains from slasher movies [[Refugee From TV Land|escape into the real world]].

** A [[Cooking Show]], with Rufus as the secret ingredient

** A [[Talk Show]]

* ''[[Teen Titans (Animation)|Teen Titans]]'' has the science fiction nerd/supervillain Control Freak (who is oddly enough ''not'' a [[Control Freak]]) design a piece of tech to do this intentionally. Beast Boy was the couch potato/cliché expert. Shows they visit include:

** A [[Soap Opera]]

** A [[Sci Fi]] [[Martial Arts Movie]] show, where Control Freak gets some [[I Know Karate|training]]

** The local [[News Broadcast|news]]

*** [[DC Comics|Jonah Hex? The Trigger Twins? The Whip? Bat Lash?]]

*** [[Cattle Punk|Robotic gunslingers]], [[Take a Third Option|actually]]. A shame.

** A parody of one of Steve "The Crocodile Hunter" Irwin's nature shows

*** "Now watch as I introduce my fist into Beast Boy's rectum..."

* ''[[Futurama]]'' did it with classic (and handily public-domain) ''books'' in one episode: ''Tom Sawyer'', ''Moby Dick'' and ''Pride and Prejudice''.

** Also, in a comic, the characters of ''[[Futurama]]'' end up in a ''[[The Simpsons|Simpsons]]'' comic. Both shows have the same creators.

** Garfield being trapped in a TV was also the main plot of the Sega Genesis video game ''[[Garfield Caught in The Act]]'', which brought him through stages themed after Horror, Pirates, the Stone Age, a [[Film Noir]], an Egyptian pyramid, and the final level being called the "Season Finale".

* A segment of one of ''[[The Simpsons]]''' "[[Halloween Episode|Treehouse of Horrors]]" episodes used this plot, with Bart and Lisa sucked into ''The Itchy & Scratchy Show''. At one point they changed channels, appearing in a ''live action'' snippet of ''[[Live With Regis And Kathie Lee]]''.

* The first half of the ''[[Darkwing Duck]]'' episode "Twitching Channels" follows this plot, as Darkwing chases his [[Psycho Electro|electricity-themed enemy]] Megavolt through the fictional universes of many [[Show Within a Show|TV shows]]. The second half of the episode becomes a [[Welcome to The Real World]] plot, as Darkwing and Megavolt both discover that they themselves are just TV show characters in our universe.

* The 70s ''[[Super Friends]]'' did it at least twice, in one episode the Legion of Doom put them into random fairy tales, in the other Mr Mxylpic puts them in "The Wizard of Oz" with Aquaman as the Scarecrow, Supes as the Tinman and Wonder Woman as the Cowardly Lion.

* The Ralph Bakshi-era ''[[Mighty Mouse]]'' had him stuck in a tv, going from one parody cartoon show to another at the whim of a bored kid constantly changing channels.

 

 

== Web Original ==

** Worth noting, the lead-in to this video had Paw and company depicted as modified ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'' sprites and fighting Dark Paw in the classic turn-based style.