People Share Their Favorite TV Fan Theories
Part of following our favorite shows involves us adhering to the belief that whatever happens in that show’s universe happens for a reason. Logic goes completely out the window when we’re watching certain programs (even if they take place in our own world). To help justify the weirdness, we’re supposed to believe on our screens. But sometimes the fans have to fill in a few plot holes. Once that happens, it doesn’t take long for certain fan theories to become canon or considered more fact than whatever the show says. Once those start popping up, entire seasons of fan content come flooding in like someone forgot to close the gate. While not every idea is groundbreaking or show-changing, we’ve found some of the weirdest, most believable, and surprising theories from fans! Did your favorite series get the fanfic treatment?
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
It’s Always Sunny is one of those (not-so-guilty) pleasure shows. The writing is fantastic, the plots bizarre, and the characters perfectly acted. Because it’s great at showcasing how terrible the cast are at being people. Their choices land them in situations they almost always deserve for some stupid reason or another. How can intelligent adults get so messed up all the time? It’s either bad luck or a gas leak.
Did you know that carbon monoxide lacks a smell but can kill you if not discovered and handled? A carbon monoxide leak in a home can cause people to do bizarre things without even realizing it! It can also cause a slew of health problems. Maybe the It’s Always Sunny gang isn’t unlucky and terrible. They may just be slowly getting poisoned over the seasons.
Modern Family
Despite not being every parent’s cup of tea, a lot of us grew up watching Married…With Children. Along with Roseanne, this show painted a more realistic picture of family life for many in America. It also helped launch a bunch of great careers to fantastic heights. Like most great shows, it ended way too soon.
In fact, fans have been clamoring for some sort of continuation for YEARS. Maybe they got it without realizing it? Some people are holding on to the (interesting) idea that Modern Family is basically Married…With Children part TWO! Once you line up all the characters it kind of makes sense…
The Office
We’re kind of surprised that this one isn’t considered fact. While it’s obvious that each of the characters in The Office is based on tropes and stereotypes, it’s weird that Kevin is so quickly written off. Sure, he’s played a bit slower and less knowledgeable than others. However, doesn’t it seem weird that an accountant could be so clueless?
Sure, Michael gave him the job instead of his originally applied warehouse role, but that’s no excuse. A lot of what he does has to be for the cameras, right? This theory reads more like some behind-the-scenes knowledge about the character’s inner workings. As long as the chili scene was authentic, everything else can change.
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!
While common in a variety of other countries, there hasn’t been mandatory military service in the States before. Okay not completely true, there was the draft for a while. When the Vietnam War was in full swing, it wasn’t uncommon for American citizens to be drafted to serve in the military. To avoid that, many people tried to find ways out of the draft!
Those who didn’t have viable reasons were often called “draft dodgers”. With the timeframe of the war lining up with when Scooby-Doo and his friends were investigating places, this kind of makes sense. Maybe the crew had to keep traveling to avoid being caught by the military.
Full House
First off: Rest in peace Bob Saget. Second: The show wasn’t about his character’s family AT ALL. It was about Joey’s. Despite the Tanner clan having a variety of hair colors and styles, Joey always seemed to resemble the younger members a lot more than Saget’s character. While there’s a big chance the mom had blonde hair, genetically, Joey makes more sense.
Maybe he stuck around after she passed because he wanted to be close to his kids? It’s entirely plausible! Plus, with the San Francisco housing market the way it is, it was probably cheaper to just hang out in the house.
Breaking Bad
Part of what makes Breaking Bad such a great show is the fact that we all know that the main character is screwed. Walter doesn’t have all the time in the world. To make the best of what he has, things have to get DARK. That’s basically the premise of Breaking Bad. What if Walter’s story doesn’t end in those final moments on the show?
In fact, with a successful spin-off (Better Call Saul), it’s not out of the realm of possibility to think they’d somehow bring Walter back. Maybe he didn’t even die to begin with! He’s certainly no stranger to cheating death, it’s not unheard of to think Walter has one (or more) tricks up his sleeve.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Buffy Buffs, fans of Sunnydale, and television fans have all at least heard of the best vampire slayer around: Buffy Summers. This teen destined to be the greatest slayer around has many abilities. She can fight the undead, survive whatever caused her to fall for Angel AND Spike, and still get great grades school.
That’s more than ANY normal human can achieve (even with good writers). There has to be something more going on. Maybe she’s actually a mutant that Dr. X didn’t reach out to? While it sounds weird, just think about it. That would explain her powers pretty well! She’s strong, just not X-Men strong (yet).
Firefly
This is less fan theory and more after-the-show fact. However, here ya go: Inara isn’t going to make it much longer. While her mysterious past with the Companions Guild was explained somewhat well, her own future isn’t delved into that much. Probably because the show had a lot of other stories that needed to be told. Unfortunately, since it was canceled, we’ll never know what could have been.
What we do know, thanks to the books, is that Inara actually was very sick! Even in their universe, the Firefly crew can’t escape some things. She has a mysterious terminal illness that isn’t revealed until the book “Love Signs” that Inara is suffering from Kiehl’s Myeloma (a rare blood cancer)!
Arrested Development
We could do an entire article on the weirdness and unanswered questions from Arrested Development. However, one theory, in particular, is just strange and ridiculous enough to be true. It’s no secret that Lucille Bluth was a little out of touch with reality. After amassing enough of her husband’s ill-begotten fortune to live comfortably, she forgot certain things (like the price of bananas and who Buster’s father is).
Yes, Buster’s dad may be the same as everyone else’s. If we use the same logic as the characters, wouldn’t it make more sense if he wasn’t related to George Sr.? A few fans are pretty sure his dad is Oscar! Why the name Buster? Because Lucille was BUSTED when someone caught her in the act.
Grey’s Anatomy
Grey’s Anatomy was named after more than just a famous book. While Meredith Grey has been putting out fires (sometimes literally) for years, she’s also been battling some other issues. One of the biggest was how to live with her overbearing mother, Dr. Ellis Grey, and how to process her death once she passed. While Meredith’s mother was a brilliant doctor, she wasn’t always the best mom. Towards the end, things just got worse.
Her eventual diagnosis of Alzheimer’s made things crystal clear, but also very tough, for her daughter. Given that your chances of developing Alzheimer’s are increased if a parent has them, some fans think that’s exactly where the show is headed. In the end, they wouldn’t be surprised if all of these highly detailed episodes were just memories being read about from Meredith’s journals in the future.
Supernatural
Being demon hunters isn’t all it’s cracked up to be for the Winchester brothers. Supernatural is one of those shows that expertly combined humor, horror, and drama into a multi-season romp through some of the best fantasy-based storytelling on television. With the variety of demons and adventures for Sam and Dean, there were no shortages of stories to be told.
However, one of the greatest mysteries may have been explained early on. You’d think after years of hunting monsters the Winchesters would have been able to turn their luck around. Bad things are constantly happening around them. Some people believe it’s all brought on by the mirrors they kept smashing to defeat Bloody Mary!
The Flintstones
Ready to travel back in time to Bedrock? Well, guess what? That’s not possible. Why? Because it doesn’t exist…yet. The Flintstones is a light-hearted kid’s show about one of history’s earliest sitcom families. Due to the evidence stating none of what happens in the Bedrock is possible, we have to believe it’s all fiction. However, what if it wasn’t…because it hasn’t happened yet.
Sure, thanks to cartoons, Fred and the crew can achieve a lot of peculiar things. If you think about it, none of the references make sense (even for the cartoon world). Maybe because we haven’t hit the NEXT stone age yet? Once you start thinking of the Flintstones as living in a post-nuclear world things start to make a lot more sense.
Lost
Deep breaths everyone, find your center? We’re here to open up the Pandora’s Box that is Lost. For every mystery solved we received ten more throughout the run of this head-scratchingly frustrating (yet completely engulfing) show. Even after it ended a lot of fans are still trying to make sense of what we saw on screen.
One of the biggest mysteries, the smoke monster, is still floating around with very little answer. A fight between good and evil is fine in theory, but that’s not concrete enough for most viewers. What if the smoke was made up of nanobots? Does it make sense? No. Does it still somehow fit with the show? Absolutely.
Breaking Bad & The Walking Dead
Some of the best fan theories are the ones that try to bridge two series. Take two television juggernauts: Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead. Both shows feature dark themes that somehow get darker as the show progresses, some messed-up stuff happened on our screens when watching both. Just imagine if they were somehow connected!
What if the special blue meth Walter was cooking up somehow caused the unexplained zombie apocalypse/super-sickness that ended the world?! It could have started off a chain reaction that ends up with some guy waking up in a hospital in front of a giant sign that says, “DON’T DEAD OPEN INSIDE!” This is what happens when you don’t plan ahead.
Psych
Detective shows never run out of mysteries to solve. We get it. The world’s a massive and scary place full of questions that must be answered. Are there really THAT many cases to investigate through deductive reasoning and common sense? Do they somehow involve a predictable twist that you catch at the last minute to save the day? Things don’t work that formulaically in the real world.
Something is afoot in the world of Psych and the smell’s coming from inside the house. It makes sense to think someone’s parent would set them up for success. If people can lie for kids on college admissions paperwork then they definitely can set up cases like this to be conveniently solved.
Dexter
What’s better than a show about a serial killer? A show about a serial killer who only goes after other killers (with a serial attitude towards their work). Dexter scratches a weird itch a lot of people didn’t know they had. While the seasons continued to build to an incredible ending, many were LIVID with what they were given. Regardless of how you feel about the finale, this theory would’ve been a much better conclusion.
How could someone like Dexter get away with what he does for so long? It’s not enough to be careful. You also can’t expect to hide your trophies in an air vent and expect them not to get found eventually. When/if he ever gets caught, this would have made a lot of sense as the show’s ending.
That 70’s Show & Happy Days
Happy Days was a feel-good sitcom that brought us The Fonz. For that, we’ll forever be grateful. It was also the beginning of some wildly impressive careers and shows that would go on to live in the annals of television history. It’s also a gateway show linking a bunch of other things that we still watch! This theory makes far too much sense to be a coincidence.
While the formulaic sitcom family trope can be applied to a lot of instances, this is actually pretty interesting. What if Fonzie was the one holding everything together? Once he jumped the shark and drove off those happy days faded into the seventies lickety-split.
Sesame Street
As kids, we loved watching Big Bird, Bert, Ernie, and all of the Sesame Street crew! We still do! What we didn’t realize until a few minutes ago was that not everyone sees the same monsters that we do. It’s no secret that Snuffleupagus is Big Bird’s imaginary friend. Even toddlers know that! What they, and us adults, didn’t know was that an imaginary friend means he’s imaginary.
Only Big Bird can see him! Well, at least for a while. Before Snuffie broke out of Bird’s noggin, nobody paid him any mind. In fact, only BB talked to him! Why did everyone ignore poor Snuff? Because they couldn’t see him! Why? He’s imaginary. Minds blown.
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
Even when they were dealing with some dark and upsetting topics, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air was a sitcom first and a life-lesson/family show second. What if the entire premise of the show was born out of tragedy? It kind of was. Will Smith even details everything that leads up to him arriving in Heaven. Oops, we mean Bel-Air!
That little fight he had with a couple of guys who were up to no good? Maybe they actually won. They cut from Will getting his butt handed to him to someone who was definitely NOT his mother saying he’s moving. Maybe he was seeing a dead relative and was moving ONWARD to a better place (not in California).
Doctor Who
Has Doctor Who always been this interactive? Those villainous statues are a bane to everyone’s existence. How much sleep have people lost just dreaming about them? Imagine if they happened to be real. Maybe they are and we’re all doing our part collectively to keep them at bay. They just get to pretend to attack the actors in the show to prevent them from going insane.
The viewers are stopping them from doing any real damage or harm. This is kind of genius and almost like a Doctor Who episode on its own. Oh wow, did they finally break the fourth, fifth, and sixth walls?
Friends
Part of what makes Friends such a great show is its reliability. We’re not talking about their apartments. Those aren’t even possible with a time machine and genie’s lamp. Nobody working those jobs could afford those apartments in any economy. Regardless, each friend was so unique and relatable that we saw ourselves in each of them. Phoebe, by far the superior and best of the group (writer’s opinion that’s completely valid and true) had one of the more interesting stories.
Her entire character arc was learning how to navigate and be part of a loving family unit after a life of living on the streets. What if that story was THE driving point of the show? At least through Phoebe’s eyes, it would be (if she knew the people she saw in the coffee shop).
How I Met Your Mother
TED MOSBY is a jerk, Do not date him!!! Anyone who’s seen How I Met Your Mother clearly knows that. The only person who doesn’t, despite being in the middle of all the drama, is Ted Mosby. Yes, he’s not nearly as bad as Barney. The problem is, we only ever got Ted’s version of Barney. What if he’s bad, but not as superhumanly evil and suave as Ted makes him out to be?
Surely someone can’t always be that perfectly suited up! Well, maybe if you’re NPH. Then you’ve never looked bad in your life. Either way, when you’re in control of the narrative, it’s very easy to make sure you look the best (or at least, not the worst).
Community
Going back to school and pursuing more education is always a great thing. Follow your head and heart to new heights! If those heights are a community college study group, then so be it. Just make sure it’s not this particular study group. The Community bunch isn’t made up of the best students. Though that doesn’t matter when you’re the best of friends.
In fact, good grades don’t even matter. They’re pretty meaningless after a while. They’re even more meaningless when you’re not in school. Some people believe everyone on the show is actually too busy to study. Their schedules involve undergoing psychiatric care for whatever landed them in a mental hospital!
Ed, Edd n Eddy
Those really weird cartoons from the late 90s and early 00s were peak after-school vibes. Whenever the classics came on we were in for a treat. Ed, Edd N Eddy is one such show. The weirdness and simplicity of following oddly drawn kids in an adultless cul-de-sac were too much for our brains. We were all in love with this series.
The adventures of the Eds were too funny for us to pay that much attention to the lack of adults. They weren’t central to the plot, so naturally they weren’t there. Perhaps there was another reason they were never around. What if there was some horrible accident and the kids landed in purgatory without their parents?
NCIS
The typical forensic investigative show is pretty easy to follow. There’s a grizzled old-school person, a modern but still relatable to the middle-aged crowd detective, and a couple of edgy tech people for the younger generation to fawn over. Now you’ve caught up with the entirety of NCIS. Take away all the cliches and stereotypes and you’re left with another complicated crime drama that has even more complicated endings.
As criminals are getting more technical, so are their means. Now how can you explain stuff like that to the average viewer? Just pretend the entire thing isn’t that complicated because the main character doesn’t understand how it all got solved!
Seinfeld
Making a show about nothing is a lot more complex than you’d think. While you have to make sure the stories are pointless (but still poignant) the characters can’t be too out-there. They have to be believable. Even Jerry, the successful comedian with a two-room apartment in New York City, has to be real.
If that’s his chosen profession then he has to be both really good at it and working nonstop. A comedian on the road is rarely at home (gotta pay those bills). It would make sense that whenever he’s home people always want to be around him. They’ve got to catch up for the lost time!
Murder She Wrote
Even our most classic television programs aren’t safe from modern fan speculation. The television epic Murder She Wrote is one of the most beloved shows from the golden age of television dramas. Each week the (not-so) lucky writer found herself in the middle of some weird crime or another. How can someone with such intimate knowledge of murder always seem to be in the middle of one?
Her case count is higher than most decorated detectives! Only someone like Dexter could match…wait a minute! Is Jessica Fletcher a serial killer?! We’re not saying all signs point to yes, but it seems odd. She just knows a bit too much, and shows up a bit too everywhere, for any of this to be coincidental.
Scrubs
Fun fact: Scrubs isn’t as medically inaccurate as you might think. Another fun fact: some people don’t think season nine was real. Even the main actor, Zach Braff, tweeted that the entire ninth season takes place inside a single character’s head: Janitor. While he is THE janitor, he also responds to Janitor.
This quirky and often-sarcastic antagonist to all things related to JD is a pretty big deal. He’s an anchor for the show and helps deliver some super funny moments. If this fan theory is to be believed, he’s also responsible for an entire season of the show! That’s a lot of power! He knows it, too.
House M.D.
When it comes to medical shows with a twist, nothing beats House. While more of a drama with some comedic moments, this show has very little similarity to series like Scrubs. The villains are true villains. The hero is also a villain. Everyone is bad. They didn’t all start out that way. Some fans believe that House is a sequel to a much-less dramatic show: Doogie Howser, M.D.
With House’s interesting past and ridiculously acute medical know-how, some people think he’s been in the business since he was a kid. Some fans think he’s the adult Doogie Howser! It would explain a whole lot. We’d love for this to happen, but also be really sad that this is how Dr. Howser turned out.
The Magic School Bus
Enough burying the lead. This is the theory we’re standing behind. It just makes so much sense. Remember that episode of The Magic School Bus when the Frizz took everyone to space? Things started out fine, like any other Frizzle field trip. People were learning, everyone was having fun. Then, it was time to visit Pluto. If you’re confused about why they went to Pluto, let’s explain: IT’S A PLANET. Now that that’s settled, let’s return to why this theory holds water.
Arnold, the know-it-all sourpuss of the group, decides to take his helmet off on Pluto. His head freezes immediately in a flash of cosmic horror. After a while, he’s fine (it’s a kids’ show). However, what if he wasn’t? That trip may have been his last. Nobody else deprived themselves of oxygen like that! He probably is a ghost that’s forever stuck complaining about nonsense that could have been prevented.