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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/40264
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/40264
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

One example I have uses this trope for the benefit of the creative team. In the TV show Married with Children, the lead actor was pregnant. I've seen all sorts of ways TV has dealt with pregnant actors, ranging from adding a child to the show (I Love Lucy), completely ignoring it and pretending no one can tell (Will and Grace), or minimizing the use of the actor while also hiding her belly when she was onstage (The Cosby Show).

In this case, the writers made the character pregnant as well. It's unclear to me what the original plans were. Since adding an infant to the cast may not have been something they wanted to do, it's possible the trope was planned all along. But what happened is there were multiple episodes showcasing the actor's pregnant state then the actor herself suffered a stillbirth. They had a couple more episodes with only her voice from offstage, then revealed that her pregnancy had been her husband's nightmare. Whether it was the original plan or not, this outcome seemed the kindest of possible choices.

Another example, with a completely different reason, was the show Roseanne (the original series). In the final season, Roseanne's husband has a heart attack and, as he recovers, the family wins the lottery and becomes super rich. They had several absurd episodes with the family enjoying their newfound wealth. Then they revealed that the husband had actually died from the heart attack and the lottery bit was Roseanne's dream as she coped (by imagining her husband alive and free from stress).

Did these examples work? For the first one, I'd say yes. The show itself was meant to be absurd and unrealistic and incorporating a semi-realistic nightmare fit in pretty well. For the second one, no. I used to love the show but I stopped watching during the lottery episodes (they were so over the top and this was a working-class realistic show) and didn't even see the finale, just heard about it. While I understand the dream portion, it failed in the execution (mostly how long it went on).

Original score: 1