Throughout television history various writers have crafted interesting storylines that just so happen to predict real-life events. Certain shows predicted certain fads and trends, but every example in this list foreshadowed an event that effected society as a whole.

Continue swiping and find out more about these TV shows that made insane predictions.

Person of Interest

S1 E22: No Good Deed

Prime

In this sci-fi drama, a reclusive tech billionaire creates an AI, referred to as the Machine, that predicts crimes and identifies persons of interest. He then hires an off-the-grid former NSA agent to help him put the Machine to good use. In episode 22 of season 1, the latest person of interest is an NSA agent who discovers the Machine’s existence and decides to make that information public. This episode aired just over a year before former NSA employee Edward Snowden leaked information about the lengths the NSA went to collecting data on U.S. citizens and cooperating with other countries to keep tabs on the world.

Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In

S2 E23

Philo

In this popular sketch comedy show, there’s a bit where Dan Rowan acts as a journalist who reports on future events. Jokingly, he reported on a day 20 years in the future (1989) when East Berlin tore down the Berlin Wall. It was meant to be a joke about how unlikely it is for this to happen, given the long standing Cold War. In fact, Rowan was very accurate, as the wall was toppled on November 9, 1989.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

S3 E11 - 12: Past Tense

Pluto TV

In this revered sci-fi spin-off series, Captain Sisko and Dr. Bashir get trapped in San Francisco in the year 2024 due to a transporter issue. The pair witnesses the city’s unhoused population being forced into a sanctuary district in order to hide them from rich people, similar to how the San Francisco police moved unhoused people off the streets during the 2016 Super Bowl. There’s also a period of political unrest sparked by the the police’s treatment of a Black man, which eerily resembled the tragic murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020.

The Jetsons

1962 - 1963

Boomerang

Set 100 years in the future, quite a few of the creative gadgets from the Jetsons actually do exist today. Flat screen TVs, talking alarm clocks, smart watches, and robots that do household chores are all things that eventually came to fruition once the necessary technologies were available.

Supernatural

S5 E4: The End

Netflix

In a 2009 episode of this long-running drama, Dean Winchester gets a glimpse into the future and sees what was basically the COVID-19 pandemic. He experiences a world where all public events were shut down and no one was walking streets. Dean discovers that a demonic virus that coincidently starts with the letter ‘C’ is responsible for everyone sheltering in place. The main difference between reality and what Dean saw is that the Croatian virus in Supernatural turned people into zombies.

The Lone Gunmen

Series Premiere

The Lone Gunmen was a short-lived X-Files spin-off that centers around three recurring characters from the latter show. In the series premiere the team of conspiracy theory-following hackers catch wind of a terrorist plot to intentionally fly an airplane into the World Trade Center. Given the episode originally aired in March of 2001, the writers made a rather timely prediction.

The Simpsons

S11 E17: Bart to the Future

FOX

Back in 2000, an episode of The Simpsons made one of the wildest predicts of any TV show. The episode was a time hop to the future, where Lisa Simpson had just become the U.S. president. She talks about inheriting a budget crisis form the previous president — non other than Donald Trump. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the episode’s writer Dan Greany said that at the time a Trump presidency, “just seemed like the logical last stop before hitting bottom. It was pitched because it was consistent with the vision of America going insane.”

Scrubs

S6 E7: His Story IV

Hulu

In this 2007 episode, a tense, yet hilarious conversation ensues about the United States’ intentions behind the War in Iraq breaks out. In the episode’s last scene the Janitor suggests that the military should be looking for Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan instead of Afghanistan. Later on in 2011, President Barack Obama ordered an operation that saw the CIA and a group of Navy SEALs located and eliminate Osama Bin Laden in northern Pakistan.