Election

One or more characters run for a political office or school government.

Mork & Mindy

Appearances

• The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis: Season 1, episode 15, "The Smoke-Filled Room" (1960). Thalia convinces Dobie to run for junior class president against Milton Armitage in the hopes he'll have a future in politics and make lots and lots of money.
• The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis: Season 3, episode 13, "Blue-Tail Fly" (1962). Dobie decides to run for student council to impress a girl. His opponent is Chatsworth, who uses old protest songs to boost his popularity.
• The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis: Season 3, episode 14, "I Do Not Choose to Run" (1962). Mr. Gillis decides to run for planning commissioner, and a key campaign issue causes Dobie to support his opponent instead of him.
• The Patty Duke Show: Season 1, episode 9, "The President" (1963). Patty and Cathy find themselves running against each other for president of the Girls' League at school.
• Gilligan's Island: Season 1, episode 6, "President Gilligan" (1964). The castaways decide to hold a vote for president of the island, and the Skipper runs against Mr. Howell, but the write-in vote elects Gilligan.
• The Addams Family: Season 2, episode 5, "Gomez, the People's Choice" (1965). After a disappointing meeting with the mayor, Gomez decides to run for mayor himself.
• The Dick Van Dyke Show: Season 5, episode 16, "I Do Not Choose to Run" (1966). A city council member and local business owner ask Rob to run for city council. He agrees, but struggles with his decision when he sees what's involved in campaigning.
• The Mary Tyler Moore Show: Season 4, episode 12, "We Want Baxter" (1973). Phyllis's Concerned Democrats of Minneapolis group nominates Ted to run for City Council (even though he's a Republican), which means he has to resign from his anchorman job.
• The Odd Couple: Season 5, episode 7, "The Odd Candidate" (1974). After Oscar writes an article condemning a city councilman who wants to tear down playgrounds, Felix gets Oscar nominated to run against him.
• Sanford and Son: Season 4, episode 17, "Strange Bedfellows" (1975). To impress his date, Lamont calls into a radio show and speaks passionately about unemployment in the community. A local campaign manager hears him and encourages him to run for state assembly.
• The Bob Newhart Show: Season 3, episode 17, "Think Smartly--Vote Hartley" (1975). When Emily and the other teachers at her school get fed up with the regularly-absent school board chairman, they nominate Bob to run against him.
• Welcome Back, Kotter: Season 1, episode 5, "The Election" (1975). Vinnie is running for student body president, but Mr. Kotter thinks he's doing it all wrong and tries to make him change his image.
• What's Happening!!: Season 3, episode 21, "Dwayne's Debate" (1979). Some fellow students ask Dwayne to run for student body president. He doesn't want to do it, but when Snake accidentally mentions Dwayne's possible campaign in front of Dwayne's dad, he gets excited, and Dwayne doesn't want to let him down.
• WKRP in Cincinnati: Season 2, episode 6, "Carlson for President" (1979). Mr. Carlson runs for city council, but after accidentally outing his opponent for being an alcoholic, he throws the race by working hard to lose votes.
• Mork & Mindy: Season 2, episode 6, "Mork vs. Mindy" (1979). Mindy's cousin, Nelson Flavor, announces he's running for City Council, and Mork and Mindy compete to work on his campaign.
• Soap: Season 3, episode 18 (1980). After Burt learns that he's not dying, he wants to help his fellow man, so he launches a campaign to run for sheriff.
• Diff'rent Strokes: Season 2, episode 14, "The Election" (1980). An old friend talks Mr. Drummond into running for city council and suggests he appear with his children to make him look good to the public, but Mr. Drummond refuses to exploit them for votes.
• Newhart: Season 1, episode 3, "Hail to the Councilman" (1982). Dick decides to run for town council and finds out it's not all it's cracked up to be.
• Domestic Life: Episode 8, "The Candidates" (1984). Martin convinces Harold to run for student body president at school.
• Night Court: Season 1, episode 7, "Once in Love with Harry" (1984). Dan runs for city council and loses to a man who died two weeks before the election.
• Newhart: Season 4, episode 5, "Candidate Larry" (1985). When the incumbent mayor proposes bulldozing the woods, Larry decides to run against him in the upcoming election.
• Night Court: Season 4, episode 19, "Paternity" (1987). Bull runs for bailiff shop steward against the terrifying incumbent, who retaliates by "murdering" his ventriloquist dummy.
• Mr. Belvedere: Season 3, episode 22, "The Auction" (1987). Heather and Angela run against each other for class treasurer, and Angela is worried she doesn't have a chance against Angela, so Wesley decides to help her with her campaign.
• Cheers: Season 11, episode 21, "Woody Gets an Election" (1993). To make a point about how ignorant the general public is about politics, Frasier bets Sam that he can put Woody on the ballot and win 10% of the vote. Woody is against, but Kelly insists, so he agrees.
• Wings: Season 3, episode 5, "If Elected, I Will Not Live" (1991). Roy is running for town council, and his only opponent just had a heart attack, leaving Nantucket with Roy as their only option. When Joe makes an impassioned speech about it, the gang convinces him to run against Roy. Fay volunteers to be Joe's campaign manager, and she pays a visit to the editor of the local paper to convince him to endorse Joe, but instead, the paper endorses Fay.
• 3rd Rock from the Sun: Season 2, episode 6, "Dick the Vote" (1996). When Harry accidentally chains himself to a tree while trying to lock up his bike, some nearby protestors think he's trying to save the park, and the media labels him a local hero. When he gets home, he gets a mysterious phone call asking him to run for city council.
• Dharma & Greg: Season 1, episode 8, "Mr. Montgomery Goes to Washington" (1997). After Greg wins a big case, Edward convinces him to run for Congress, but his official announcement is ruined when he realizes his fly is open. Then a reporter snaps a photo of him and Dharma doing it in their car, but to Greg's surprise, the photo only endears him to the public.
• Dharma & Greg: Season 2, episode 16, "See Dharma Run" (1999). When Dharma gets a bunch of tickets for putting change in strangers' parking meters, she's determine to prove the law is wrong, so she goes to the city Board of Supervisors, and the supervisor she speaks to gets fed up and drops dead, so she decides to run in the special election for his spot.
• Malcolm in the Middle: Season 6, episode 7, "Hal Sleepwalks" (2004). A bully nominates two of the Buseys, Hanson and Zoe, for student council president as a prank, so Dewey gets revenge by nominating him for president and running a smear campaign against him. Meanwhile, the competition gets to Hanson and Zoe, and they start fighting with each other.
• Arrested Development: Season 2, episode 14, "The Immaculate Election" (2005). At Ann's encouragement, George Michael decides to run for student body president, but when Michael finds out he's running against Steve Holt, he worries George Michael isn't cool enough to win, so he enlists Gob to help run his campaign. Gob makes a video designed to make George Michael look cool, but he made it using what is apparently the Bluth family's only tape, and at the end, the whole school saw George Michael practicing light saber moves while wearing headgear.