Bottle episodes and other televisual novelties

I admire, even if I don’t always enjoy it, when show runners try to do something different within the 30/45/60 minutes they have.

‘Fly’ in Breaking Bad or more recently ‘Blow-Up’ in Only Murders in the Building for example. What examples do you rate for pushing against the format’s constraints.

Family Ties did one where it was just Michael J. Fox addressing an (unseen?) therapist over the recent death a friend.

twin peaks the return: gotta light?

Pine Barrens obviously (if that counts)

Teddy Perkins episode of Atlanta

I've rarely enjoyed a musical episode of a "straight" series (okay, Bob's Burgers), but I'll give the producers credit for trying to stretch the medium.

also a trope at this point: the silent episode (Buffy, Bojack)

Only Murders did a silent episode as well. I think they make a point of doing one "televisual novelty" episode per season.

The Seinfeld episode that runs in reverse (the one where they go to India for a wedding). It's not really clear why they chose to do that either, just to do something different I guess.

The life-not-lived episode, where you get an alternate path for the main character, like with George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life. The Leftovers and Mr. Robot did this...not really a dream episode (like The Sopranos one where Tony, in the hospital dying, became a salesman at a convention), but with those two shows, it was a little hard to tell.

every season of The Righteous Gemstones has a flashback episode with a de-aged John Goodman, obviously a lot of shows do flashback episodes but these go back 30 years which means none of the rest of the cast (outside of Walton Goggins) are in them

amusingly in one of them I spotted a VHS copy of The Flintstones movie, wonder who starred in that in the Righteous Gemstones universe

https://i0.wp.com/frockflicks.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Moonlighting-1986-wedding2.jpg?ssl=1

In addition to the silent episode, Bojack Horseman also has “Free Churro” which is entirely him giving a eulogy. Maybe goes in the same bucket as the Family Ties one.

The Homicide episode "Three Men and Adena."

Not sure how you'd classify it, but Six Feet Under's "That's My Dog" was bizarre and very love-it-or-hate-it.

Only Murders did a silent episode as well.

I did like the conceit of that one, though -- fully made sense given the character POV.

Penny Dreadful had a good stand-alone episode on Joan of Arc's origin story

Two episodes of WKRP in Cincinnati:

- a reality show starring Herb Tarlek's family (and workplace)
- everyone of the staff has a fantasy segment while listening to Mr. Carlson deliver a speech

on the short-lived Comedy Central sitcom That's My Bush there was an episode where Dubya gets impeached and has to find a series of new jobs, each of which becomes its own sitcom with its own theme song

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia has a ton of these, one that comes to mind is when they re-did the episode where they try to break Wade Boggs' record for beers on an airplane but with the female characters instead, it wound up being pretty bad though

Is there a term for what Mythic Quest has done each season, an episode using none of the principal cast? Feel like I've seen other shows do it

always sunny had the "one-take" episode "charlie work"

oh yeah that's probably one of the best episodes they ever did

there was a recent one which wound up centering around a long psychopathic revenge fantasy by Dennis that he has while in the doctor's office for high blood pressure, it's not clear it's a fantasy though until the very end when he pulls someone's heart through their chest

Inversely related...Greatest series ever that didn't do a single weird thing in the course of five seasons: Friday Night Lights. (I guess you could say a new school the last two seasons was weird, but not the weird of this thread.)

has a flashback episode with a de-aged John Goodman

I know this isn't the point of the thread, but my wife and I were watching A Man on the Inside, the fluffy Ted Danson thing on Netflix, and it opened with a de-aged Danson that was absolutely terrifying to see.

Was going to post it, but the only screenshot I could find is hosted on X and fuck sharing a link to that cesspool.

twin peaks the return: gotta light?
― johnny crunch

I was going to nominate The Return as the series were "weird" loses all meaning.

futurama's "the sting" featured a nested series of hallucinations. also had a body-switching episode that posed a logical conundrum complicated enough that they needed to bring a mathematician in to solve it

The X-Files had that episode about Mulder and Scully being on a ship during WWII that could be a dream/hallucination/past life.

Is the TNG time loop episode (Cause and Effect) weird?

30 rock's queen of jordan episodes, which were structured like episodes of a bravo reality show

The Homicide episode "Three Men and Adena."

Also "Night of the Dead Living", set entirely within the squad room.

X-Files had a few. Like that baseball alien episode.

EastEnders two-hander with just Dot and Ethel was practically Pinteresque.

ER had an episode that went out live.

Directed by Tarantino IIRC

LEXX had two virtually identical consecutive epidoes called "the net" and "the web". they were, as per usual with LEXX, concoctions of primitive CGI, spooky synth noodling, and riduculous high pomp space opera costuming

* episodes, duh

xp - Nah, I don't think his was the live episode:

"Motherhood" is the twenty-fourth and penultimate episode of the first season of the American medical drama ER. Written by supervising producer Lydia Woodward and directed by Quentin Tarantino, the episode was first broadcast on NBC on May 11, 1995.

In the Mother's Day-themed episode, Susan Lewis helps her sister Chloe give birth, John Carter learns the true outcome of his surgical internship application, and Peter Benton is told tragic news about his mother. Writing the episode, Woodward said she did not create the script with Tarantino in mind, but that she did try to "gross out" the screenplay after learning he would direct.

B&W newsreel episode of MASH

There's a lot of MASH ones. In addition to the newsreel one, there was the 'real time' one; the one with the dying soldier's out of body experience; and the notorious "Dreams" episode.

xxp - ah u right, I just remembered two big event episodes of ER and assume they were a combo package

Girls had a handful of episodes that focused (almost) solely on one of the leads with no real B-plots: "One Man's Trash" & "American Bitch" for Hannah; "Japan" for Shoshanna; and "The Panic In Central Park" for Marnie.

Despite doing a series re-screen/catch-up last year, I don't remember if Jessa got her own episode or not.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead-type episodes where the a minor character is the focus and the main cast are relegated to the background. Or we see a previous episode's events from a minor character's POV. I know I've seen a few of these but I can only specifically remember Lost's "Nikki and Paulo" episode at the moment.

I was just looking up the Marnie episode of Girls, which is the only episode of that entire show I remember fondly tbh (similar to the Mystic Quest standalone).

PVMIC, but just looked back at the Girls episode guide IMDb, and "Japan" is actually a fairly normal episode but for the bits filmed in Japan, so strike that one.

There was also the "Cooperative Calligraphy" episode of Community, where the characters are locked into a room in order to specifically create a bottle episode.

The Troy McClure-hosted clip show and spinoff showcase are all-timer simpsons eps that break out of the world of the show; the vh1 behind the music one they did a few years later is less successful. They’ve probably done it a dozen times since

(Then theres the treehouse eps but they quickly became a tradition so don’t count)

Seems like The Monkees was maybe the first (American) show to really lean hard into this?

-The fairytale episode
-The one where they quit the shoot during the first scene and go to Paris, with occasional cutaways to studio with Bob Rafelson waiting for them to come back.
-The concert documentary

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead-type episodes where the a minor character is the focus and the main cast are relegated to the background. Or we see a previous episode's events from a minor character's POV. I know I've seen a few of these but I can only specifically remember Lost's "Nikki and Paulo" episode at the moment.

Lower Decks is the Star Trek: The Next Generation version of this, which lead to an animated spin off series I have never watched

Broad City: "Mushrooms" with all the animations.

buffy's "the zeppo" is another rosencrantz ep

there was an episode of angel where he transforms into a puppet

the best of the late Angel episodes

Lower Decks is great. You should totally watch it xps

i liked angel season 5 but i am prob in the minority there

xp

Community was where i first heard the term bottle episode. and they had a few, including one set in a van done up like a spaceship. typically done because they were cheap.

in fact the entire run was full of special episodes - fancy dress, paintball, floor is lava, pillow fort, puppets, dungeons and dragons, holodeck, video game, the one with the timelines...

^^IIRC, the term "Bottle Episode" was either fairly new or just gaining traction outside the industry when Community referenced it.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead-type episodes where the a minor character is the focus and the main cast are relegated to the background

Babylon 5 did one like this as well as Trek, B5 one was "A view from the Gallery". It wasn't all that great tbh.

Agree re the Mythic Quest standalones.

What about "Long, Long Time" from the Last of Us? not 100% standalone but mostly?

in fact the entire run was full of special episodes - fancy dress, paintball, floor is lava, pillow fort, puppets, dungeons and dragons, holodeck, video game, the one with the timelines...

Ha, yeah, my post upthread about Community started to go down this path but I couldn't even remember all of the themed episodes and gave it up lol. Also the holiday Claymation episode!

The episode of All In The Family where Archie and Meathead wind up locked in the storage room of Archie's Place following a burglary, and spend the entire show chatting away until help arrives, learning sad truths about each other.

I didn't see it, but that series about the Menendez brothers had one episode that was just the younger brother monologuing to his therapist. Might even have been one long take.

"and spend the entire show chatting away until help arrives, learning sad truths about each other."

Shoebootie!

an unforgettable moment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LPqWM-0nTA

I think about that every damn time I put my shoes on (I'm a sock-sock-shoe-shoe guy)

The X-Files definitely experimented with its format quite a lot - another example is the COPS “crossover” episode. Also two specific episodes from the perspective of the guest star, where the principals barely appeared. And of course a lot of people were surprised when they started doing humorous episodes, beginning with “Humbug” in S2. Whatever his flaws, Chris Carter did allow and encourage a lot of freedom to play around and push the format’s limits.

The "clip show ep except none of the scenes are from actual eps" Gambit was done by Community but I think others too.

Atlanta's been mentioned once, but they did a bunch of weirdly disconnected episodes, many of them with none of the four lead characters appearing.

There's the "Access" episode of The West Wing where it's framed from the point of view of a documentary crew following CJ around for the day. The Rookie has done this as well with the characters being interviewed and shadowed for a true crime documentary. The West Wing also has the live Presidential debate which went out live.

9-1-1 has a bunch of these scattered throughout the first few seasons where each character gets their own episode which is basically their backstory and features none of the other characters much. Also has a ton of meta shit where a couple of the characters are consultants on a drama about LA firefighters.

I didn't see it, but that series about the Menendez brothers had one episode that was just the younger brother monologuing to his therapist. Might even have been one long take.

If only Seinfeld had done this

The Troy McClure-hosted clip show and spinoff showcase are all-timer simpsons eps that break out of the world of the show; the vh1 behind the music one they did a few years later is less successful. They’ve probably done it a dozen times since

― the babality of evil (wins), Wednesday, 29 January 2025 bookmarkflaglink

Was hoping someone would mention the 138th show spectacular, its like a commentary/pisstake on this thing.

That Menendez episode is actually pretty great. If it somehow wasn't done in one long take, the editing must be amazingly seamless. There's a moment where the actor (who is fantastic) playing Eric clearly makes a mistake in his dialogue, but he just smirks, corrects himself (in character) and goes on. I love that.

Mind you, the rest of the series is icky in that usual Ryan Murphy way.

What about "Long, Long Time" from the Last of Us? not 100% standalone but mostly?

Ahhh yes, this is one of the ones I was trying to think of when I mentioned Mythic Quest. Standalone episode, barely or not at all featuring principal cast

radio but very relevant

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0002r1h

Life on Egg, Harry Hill, 'Hold'

a bottle episode with harry hill on the phone to his insurance company whilst doing a crossword clue, the answer to which is 'bottle episode' and which the bloke on the other end of the phone explains to him

Master Of None's second season had that episode centering on the intersecting lives of different New Yorkers.

The "Beard After Hours" (aka Coach Beard's Night Out) episode of Ted Lasso.

There's the Rashomon style episode structure, where you see the same events retold from different characters' perspectives. I know Star Trek TNG did this with the episode "A Matter of Perspective". I've seen this before elsewhere too but can't recall where. Seems to be a big sitcom trope.

Coupling did the Rashomon thing really well - Steven Moffatt flexing his timey wimey thing long before getting the Doctor Who gig.

Newsradio did one of those. Also a dream sequence one where everyone’s hallucinating because the AC went out in the office. Also an “in space” one and a “we’re on the Titanic now for some reason” one.

loads of examples listed of this on the Rashomon Wikipedia page with the most intriguing being:
Mama's Family, in 1983, (Season 2, Episode 5; "Rashomama"), in which Thelma gets hit on the head with a kettle and Naomi, Eunice, and Ellen all have differing accounts of how it happened.

kind of a niche interest of mine, tv episodes that "fuck with the formula" in some way or another. even shows where "the formula" seems a nebulous enough thing to begin with can accomplish this, imo. for instance, there's the episode of The Prisoner where the whole show is a western for no reason explained until the end of the episode. Or "The Girl Who Was Death". kinda makes me wish the show had gotten a second season just to see what kind of fucked up shit they'd pull with alexis kanner on board.

adult swim i think _was_, at least, well-known for pulling weird shit like that. i remember one episode of space ghost which was basically just space ghost methodically tracking a fire ant across various static landscapes. when you have no budget and you're showing stuff at midnight for an audience presumed to be college students stuff like that winds up happening.

technical constraints inspire a lot of the "bottle episodes", i think. modern doctor who i think started doing "doctor-lite" and "companion-lite" episodes to start dealing with the workload of making 13 45 minute episodes every season (which they don't even try to do, these days)... "blink" was one of them, "midnight" was another. so in that show i think it does tend to bring out the best. sometimes. sometimes you get "love and monsters".

anyway given how doctor who started there are a number of weird one-offs of the sort that happen when you're doing 40+ episodes a year. there was the episode where, for technical reasons, they had one episode left to film but the entire cast and crew had filmed all their quota of episodes for the year, so they made up some shit with the daleks killing some random people in space. a couple months later they were in the middle of a 12-part (or 13-part, depending on how you count it) epic and episode 7's broadcast date fell on christmas, so they decided to dispense with the alleged plot of the story and have the cast larking about in a police station and a silent movie set.

LEXX had two virtually identical consecutive epidoes called "the net" and "the web". they were, as per usual with LEXX, concoctions of primitive CGI, spooky synth noodling, and riduculous high pomp space opera costuming

― massaman gai (front tea for two)

hmmm. anything like the infamous "endless eight" episodes on season 2 of "haruhi suzumiya"? those episodes pretty much broke the fanbase. there are some anime episodes that mix things up as well. i'm told there was an episode of "star of the giants" which told the entire story of a baseball game from the point of view of a baseball. the show apparently pioneered what're now known as "filler episodes". for that matter there's the fabled 26th episode of the 1971 pacific war anime documentary _animentary_, which is just a live action interview with a baseball manager because, uh, i guess they ran out of stuff to show? nobody's seen it since its original broadcast. then you have stuff like the episode of lupin iii part 2 which is a crossover with _rose of versailles_. which is a historical anime set during the french revolution. in contrast lupin iii's episodes are set in something vaguely approximating "present day" (that phrase becomes less meaningful when you're talking about a show that aired close to fifty years ago).

it does tend to bring out the best. sometimes you get "love and monsters"

otm

I'm team sic there, but it's worth pointing out that 'special' episodes can be very marmite by their nature - you can get situations where the fans get grumpy at them, particularly if they feel there's a lot of people who if they hear someone likes the show, immediately steer the topic to those episodes.

I am dangerously close to being that second type of person for the X-Files vis-a-via the Darin Morgan episodes, one of which explicitly breaks the show - you can't take any other episode at face value after it.

"This is good despite that" vs "no, this is good because of that" isn't new of course - it'd go back to Moby Dick at least.

I started the X-Files with a Darin Morgan rewrite episode and gave up when my occasional viewing hit too many mythology episodes in a row (probably = two)

(went back 22 years later having made a list of the standalone eps by good writers. had a great time.)

I just watched "The Doomsday Machine" from the second season of Star Trek which is entirely set on the Enterprise and another identical (but damaged) starship, written specifically to save the cost of building any sets. The episode consistently ranks among the best of TOS episodes.

Not mentioned on the Rashomon website is there is a deeply moving episode of Bluey called "Early Baby" that uses that structure and that I highly recommend.

practically every single episode of Xavier: Renegade Angel is one of these but in particular the episode that uses a lot of fan made stuff and live action footage and several different animators is particularly odd

it does tend to bring out the best. sometimes you get "love and monsters"

otm

― joey crack, aka kaiser saucer (sic)

i'm mixed. i was on team love and rockets.. monsters, sorry, monsters... but my ex-wife _hated_ the ending with ursula. when i first saw it, to me it was affirming, the idea that people could have bad things happen to them and still be people, and still be worthy of love. very pro-disability. my ex-wife saw it and said "ok, but what if ursula says 'no' to elton?" that affected me for a while.

thinking about it, i guess it doesn't bother me like it did when she pointed that out. it's not like cw sa it mattered to her when i said 'no'.

it's one of those things that i love, but i think of as more "interesting" than "great", like "kill the moon". it's this idea of navigating what's normal, what's acceptable, in a family show. it's a very adult story, in an emotional sense. i guess a lot of it does come back to my past relationship. my ex-wife didn't like that the episode with a monster created by a nine year old ended with a blowjob reference, but thinking on it that really was her problem. she was extremely sex-negative and it's something i still struggle with.

"It's Always Sunny" has had several stunt episodes, but the first that comes to mind is their relatively recent trip to Ireland.

Do musical episodes count? The Daria musical definitely feels like the writers doing something unexpected. Also from the same season, the infamous "Depth Takes a Holiday", reviled by about 90% of the fanbase (at the time anyway). A relatively grounded show suddenly doing a really bizarre fantasy episode - maybe less pushing at a show's constraints than "WTF were they thinking?" Still a pretty funny episode, though.

Lower Decks is the Star Trek: The Next Generation version of this, which lead to an animated spin off series I have never watched

Then there's that Lower Decks episode that focuses on the senior bridge crew (who admittedly are the minor characters on the show).

Not really in the spirit of the thread but the decision to do each episode as a single hour long shot is interesting. https://www.avclub.com/adolescence-trailer-netflix

30 Rock had that live episode with a few different jokes for different timezones.

Plus the other live episode with a few different jokes for other timezones.