Catfish
A character lies about themself in letters to a romantic interest or friend. Often they write the letters to a friend as an imaginary "secret admirer."
Taxi
Appearances
- The Patty Duke Show: Season 2, episode 28, "Pen Pals" (1964). Patty starts writing to a pen pal called "Lancelot," whom she found through an ad in a magazine, and she calls herself "Gwenivere." She falls in love with Lancelot and dumps Richard for him, only to find out that Richard is Lancelot, and she and Richard have been unknowingly corresponding with each other.
- The Dick Van Dyke Show: Season 4, episodes 17-18, "Stacey Petrie" (1965). Stacey has been exchanging letters with a woman named Julie, who thinks she's been writing to a friend of his named James Garner. When Stacey makes plans to finally meet Julie in person, he has to reveal his true identity to her.
- The Addams Family: Season 1, episode 31, "Uncle Fester's Toupee" (1965). When Fester's pen pal, Madelyn, decides to come visit him, he reveals to Morticia and Gomez that he stretched the truth in his letters, and Madelyn thinks he's a "Carey Grant" type and former football player with a full head of hair.
- Gilligan's Island: Season 3, episode 19, "Lovey's Secret Admirer" (1967). Someone is writing anonymous love letters to Mrs. Howell, and an outraged Mr. Howell interrogates the other men on the island. Eventually, the other castaways discover that Mr. Howell was writing the love letters to help his wife feel better about herself. Of course, it doesn't go over the way he thought it would.
- Taxi: Season 2, episode 12, "Elaine's Secret Admirer" (1979). Elaine is getting romantic poems from a secret admirer, and she's anxious to find out who it is. She thinks she has it figured out, but then Jim confesses to Alex that he wrote the letters because he noticed she's been feeling down lately, and he wanted to cheer her up.
- Cheers: Season 4, episode 7, "2 Good 2 Be 4 Real" (1985). Carla places a personals ad and hasn't received a single reply, so Sam, Woody, Norm, and Cliff put their heads together to think of a way to cheer her up and they come up with the genius idea to write a fake reply from a fictional man, and they end up starting a long correspondence, but when a real guy answers Carla's ad, they have to find a way out of it.
- Mr. Belvedere: Season 2, episode 18, "Valentine's Day" (1986). Heather tells George upset because she hasn't received any cards for Valentine's Day, and the very next day, she receives a mysterious candygram from a secret admirer. At Wesley's Valentine's Day dance, George dances with Heather and confesses he sent the card. At first, Heather is horrified, but eventually she forgives him.
- The Golden Girls: Season 2, episode 10, "Love, Rose" (1986). When Rose doesn't receive any responses to her personals ad, Blanche writes her a letter from a fictional man named "Isaac Q. Newton." Blanche tells Dorothy what she did, and Dorothy helps her write more letters to Rose as Isaac. Then Rose tells them she wants to meet Isaac, so Dorothy and Blanche write her saying he's being transferred to Saskatchewan. To their surprise, Rose finds an Isaac Q. Newton in the phonebook and calls him to set up a date before he leaves.
- It's a Living: Season 5, episode 12, "A Pen Pal for Your Thoughts" (1987). Amy has been corresponding with a convict named Ernie, who tells her he's 28 years old and has blue eyes. When he gets released and stops by the restaurant, he confesses that he "shaved a few years off" of his age in his letters (about 30).
- Head of the Class: Season 2, episode 12, "Will the Real Arvid Engen Please Stand Up?" (1988). Arvid has been writing to his pen pal, Nancy, for six years, and she sends him a letter saying she's coming to meet for the first time, but Arvid is nervous because he sent her a picture of Eric instead of him.
- Murphy Brown: Season 2, episode 24, "Fax or Fiction" (1990). When Miles receives a romantic fax from a secret admirer, and Murphy can't resist writing back to her. She ends up sending 16 faxes to "Miss X" as Miles, and finally arranges for her and Miles to meet. At their date, Murphy meets a man who was apparently the one writing the letters for "Ms. X," and they go to dinner together.
- Wings: Season 2, episode 17, "Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places" (1991). Roy has been writing to a woman he met through a personals ad in a magazine, and she's coming to the airport to meet him, but Roy is panicking because he hasn't exactly been truthful with her.
- The Nanny: Season 2, episode 1, "Pen Pals" (1995). Fran's pen pal, Lenny, is coming to New York and wants to meet her for the first time, which prompts her to admit to Mr. Sheffield that she has "stretched the truth a little" over the years and told Lenny she was a rich, famous olympic gold medalist and astronaut. Meanwhile, Brighton has a pen pal of his own named Veronica, to whom he's been leaving notes every day in third period so she can read them in fourth period. When he finds out Veronica wants to meet him after school, he declares "it's over" because he told her he looks like Brad Pitt.
- The Larry Sanders Show: Season 5, episode 10, "The Book" (1997). Beverly has been receiving love notes with flowers and chocolates from a secret admirer, and she's convinced it's a handsome network executive named James, so she starts shamelessly flirting with him, but James adamantly denies sending them. Eventually, Brian confesses that he was the secret admirer, and Beverly is enraged that she embarrassed herself in front of James.