This is a sitcom staple almost all sitcoms have and often gets overlooked, or at least I haven't seen it discussed enough for my liking. A to the rescue moment is when one sitcom character is in trouble with a bully or worse and another pops in and saves the day or at least tries too and takes the beating with the other. Anyway, let's get started. There are too many great ones to post here so I will probably have multiples of these.
5.
https://youtu.be/AW9pklBXqk4
This is a great example and one of my favorites. Will and Carlton are assumed car thieves by racist cops, and forced into a confession. When Uncle Phil and Viv see it on the news they rush down to get them out. This is a classic example of a to the rescue moment that worked out perfect. Phil comes in, lets them know they that he is a lawyer and he knows they didn't book them right and he will take them to court and it will be a legal mess if they don't let them out, so the cops cave.
Here is an example of a to the rescue moment that didn't go according to plan. Cory's first day of high school he makes a real mess, ending up making school bully Harley Keiner angry and is about to receive a beating when Erick comes to the rescue. But that doesn't go well, as they are both about to get a pounding until Mr Turner comes to the rescue. Harley asks Mr Turner "Could I take you?" and Mr Turner replies "Nah" and Harley declares "But I could have taken the kid though." Just a great scene.
Poor Ted made false claims of sleeping with Laura, hurting her reputation, and Eddie is not one bit happy about it. He threatens to beat Ted badly until Ted sets the record straight and apologizes publicly. What I like here is that Ted's friends are both like "You going to let him talk about us like that?" and Ted is like "Yeah."
That's classic, but my favorite thing about this is that it's one of the first times Eddie really stands up for Laura. They usually insult each other, but at this moment Eddie goes full big bro mode for her. Another great example.
Family Matters is full of these.
This is one of my all time favorites. Fisher beats Jackie and you can see by Dan's reaction what comes next. Dan goes and beats Fisher and is arrested later in the episode for it. I like when Dan returns with a bucket of chicken and Rosanne says "You didn't beat up Fisher then go get chicken did you?" Dan responds "No I got the chicken first." That's probably my all time favorite Rosanne moment.
This is a good one from Step By Step. I like this one because it teaches a great lesson about standing up to bullies. I like how when the guy is just talking, Cody says to ignore him, but when someone puts hands on you, you have to fight back. That is the way I was taught to handle things growing up and I think people should go by that with bullies. Sure sometimes I got beat up but no one ever has the right to lay hands on you.