The Mythbusters tackled the shooting in the air problem. They found that the bullet returned to earth at the speed of a falling object, 32ft per sec per sec till terminal velocity. Enough to make you say ouch but not enough to seriously injure you.
That's only partly true.
If you fire straight up, the bullet rises until it loses momentum, then it begins to fall back to earth back end first at the terminal velocity based on object weight.
However, if you fire upward at any type of angle the bullet follows a nose first ballistic trajectory based on angle and velocity and can retain enough energy to cause injury at extreme ranges.
And that isn't from TV, that's from physics.