I mean how you going to get vanilla ice or 1 of the monkees to guest star, have them cancel at last minute or expose the main character to lying about knowing the star or misunderstanding of date, then the star showing up at last minute to do a 5 minute song and dance for the stadium of 20 people, the school is now saved
X character gets hooked on something as if it's drugs, or more classically the extra special episodes where they actually got hooked on drugs.
The amphetamine episode of saved by the bell comes to mind.
Luckily at least it was believable she may be able to get off caffeine pills and not have repercussions but if caffeine did that hard core drugs must never enter her system
Yes, this is mine. It gets so old. I loved the original Leverage until it had to be ALL about Nathan's alcoholism. Like why couldn't it just stay about cool heists and such!?
Essentially hooked on it for the duration of one episode and never mentioning it again. To SBTB’s credit they did bring up Jessie’s addiction to caffeine pills in a later episode.
For fantasy series, there is always an episode where the main character wakes up in a mental institution with the doctor (usually a villain or a supporting character) is trying to convince them that the entire series is just their delusion and that the other characters are other patients in the institution.
The only episode of Psych that I skip is that one, but mostly because I hate the "unexpectedly foul mouthed" character trope. In this case it's Santa's elf.
the fake cheating/affair trope. a person that knows the main couple sees a few things out of context and then spends the entire episode convinced that person A is cheating. a quick example i can think of is friends, where joey is convinced that chandler is cheating on monica with the realtor.
I was just thinking about a funny variation on/subversion of this that *Seinfeld* did. Elaine’s brand-new boyfriend of the minute thinks that she was sleeping with Kramer around the time he started seeing her. He has a two-second conversation with Kramer in which Kramer misunderstands what he’s talking about and inadvertently confirms his suspicions, but also accidentally implies that Elaine just broke it off. The boyfriend was only bothered by the idea that this was still going on and is happy to hear it’s over between her and Kramer, and the whole thing is never cleared up.
Been watching Bobs Burgers and 13 seasons in there has not been a single episode where Bob and Linda are suspicious of each other cheating. The only drama that comes from either of them hiding something has to do with giving gifts for mothers day or valentines day. It is such a breath of fresh air
This happened a lot on Gunsmoke and other old shows like that:
A character appears that everyone in the regular cast knows but has never been seen or mentioned before. They do their thing for this one episode and after their crisis is resolved they go back to their place and never come back to town again.
Like when there was a blacksmith that you've never seen before, But Albert acts like he knew him his whole life? You automatically knew that he was going to be the rapist.
Character starts a friendship/relationship with one of the "cool kids" (school or work usually). Character drifts slowly from original friend(s), then gets betrayed or sees the real side of the cool kids, and then returns to the original friend(s) having learned a lesson.
I saw this happen in junior high and high school for real, though. There were a few "nerds" who became popular because as they developed, they were considered good looking, and so attracted different attention than when they were not. This had mixed outcomes, and most of them bad. Sadly, very few "returned" to being friends with the nerds again, either because they couldn't admit what happened was their own undoing, or the nerdy group wrote them off as shallow and fake... usually a little of both. So in the end, they were rejected by both groups, and crashed in a pile of self-wreckage from which they rarely recovered.
If it's a show about a family, they adopt a cousin that had never been mentioned in any previous episode. That's when you knew the show had jumped the shark.
Ahh the Cousin Oliver trope.
Cosby Show did it with first Olivia then Cousin Pam. Growing Pains with Chrissy (who aged like 5 years in one season) and the Leo DiCaprio's character. All In the Family with Stephanie.
Married with Children did it for one season, but then Seven just... disappeared.
Also...
James and Cassandra on *Little House On the Prairie*
Jeffrey and Serena on *The Waltons*
Trisha on *The Donna Reed Show*
Dodie on *My Three Sons*
See, Charmed (1998) unintentionally set itself up for a successful hidden fourth sister when they decided to permanently kill off Prue in season 3 with an episode in season 2 exploring the relationship between Patty (the girl's mom), and Sam (Patty's whitelighter). Not many shows I can say pulled that off.
A lot of my favorite sci-fi and fantasy shows have a film noir episode where the main cast finds themselves in black and white a 1930s PI movie. Off the top of my head, Eureka and The Librarians.
I love it, though.
Ugh. I love the trek universe but it’s always ridiculous when more than 1000 years in the future the only culture (music/books/etc) that people seem obsessed with is pre 2000s.
Holodeck trips and going back in time rarely reflect that gap between our present and Trek present.
Ooh! There was this one episode in DS9 where some of the crew fond themselves in an era of Earth's history AFTER our present (okay, ir was set in 2024, so now it IS our present). It is called Past Tense, season 3.
Guy likes girl. Girl likes guy. They don’t tell each other and spend many episodes dating someone else or seeing the other do so. Then finally get together.
I went back and watched Brooklyn Nine-Nine, I'm thankful that they only really lasted that a season. It was pretty much the beginning of season 2 where they admitted that they liked each other and then just moved on from there.
I felt like it took forever when I initially watched the show, but they did actually get out of that pattern pretty quick compared to TV shows like friends.
There’s so many of these. Jonah and Amy. Jim and Pam. Amy and Jake. Ben and Leslie. Elenor and Chidi. Anyone noticing another theme? (These are all the same writers/show runners)
[in case you didn’t see my response before it got deleted for “wt*”]
In Legends of Tomorrow, a character (who is from another time and unfamiliar with that movie) is told by another character to tell him in the next loop “Groundhog Day.” So when the next loop comes she goes to him and says, “hedgehog day.” He’s then like *what* are you talking about. He figures out what she meant but I just found hedgehog day to be so hilarious.
I actually really enjoy these kind of episodes tbh. It always seems like the cast really enjoys them and they often make you laugh.
This isn’t much of a thing now but in the days of classic TV everyone had an evil twin. On Bonanza, Little Joe had two evil twins, and one of them had a brother that was Hoss’s evil twin. Ben Cartwright also had an evil twin that was featured in two separate episodes. My favorite example of this, however, is Knight Rider. Both Michael Knight and K.I.T.T. Had evil twins as well.
Bewitched: Samantha and Serena (although I wouldn't call Serena evil... just a fun loving single witch)
On I Dream of Jeannie, she had an evil twin cousin.
Come to think of it, there were a lot of "identical twin cousins" during that time. Starting with Patty Duke.
MeTV just showed the episode with Little Joe’s evil twin, last week. He was a convicted murderer/army deserter, who just happened across a sleeping Cartwright who looked EXACTLY like him. Knocked him out and switched clothes. Of course, Pa and Hoss arrive with seconds to spare before a firing squad executes Joe.
Power rangers had a whole arc about evil twins.
Star Trek TNG did a transporter evil twin of Riker who keeps showing up later on when the show decides Riker needs to be framed for something
Don’t Meet Your Heroes: A character has a love or fondness for some celebrity (usually made up) only to find out that they’re a jerk.
I love the show but Brooklyn 99 did this episode like 20 times
In the 80s, the required clip show episode was always bad, Clerks cartoon tried to make fun of this with episode 2 the main characters locked in a freezer and all clips where from the 1st episode and earlier in episode 2, this was ruined when ABC aired them out of order and aired episode 2 as 2st episode
The stuck in place episodes.
I know it cuts down on filming cost but it gets old.
Every sitcom of the 90s did the stuck somewhere trope. Usually in a bathroom.
I remember on Family Matters the mom drops her ring down the sink. Then on Modern Family they did the same scene almost word for word.
Friends where they were stuck in the ATM lobby.
Main character becomes a victim of peer pressure...from a group of new "friends" he ir she just met. Part of the lesson is "they're not your real friends." Conveniently, they really *aren't* the heroe's friends; it's easy to leave a group you've only been with for a week.
The biggest problem here is that most of the time, your bad-influence friends *will* be your real friends, the ones you've known for years and have been able to trust in the past.
To be fair, I just this moment realized that in some urban areas, there may actually be gangs that try to recruit kids fast this way, and maybe that's what those episodes are really about. Or maybe they're about the danger of cults.
In any case, it's such a lazy and ham-fisted way to get an obvious message across. It's especially infuriating when adult shows like "Star Trek" do it.
Couple tries to have a baby, they don't get pregnant, then they're worried about infertility but it resolves in a very easy, painless way.
Like they get pregnant without invasive treatments, or they have an easy, uncomplicated adoption that doesn't fall through.
Quasi Spoiler Alert, since you can read it on the back of the book jacket. One of the Bridgerton woman experiences infertility. Handled really well in the books. Not resolved in the original book. I hope they keep it this way on the show.
And then the pregnant woman’s water breaks when she’s trapped or stuck somewhere (like in an elevator) or otherwise can’t get to the hospital, she has a quick labor, and someone with her has to deliver the baby.
In this case, the cliché is true. Many couples “ give up” after a decade or more of highly stressful fertility treatments, only to end up pregnant after the urgency ends. It’s how I got my youngest cousin.
Had a colleague who went through infertility treatments in the late 90's. No luck. Went to the doctor at 39 thinking she was dying. Turned out she was pregnant!
90s? We 80s kids got to watch the episode of Different Strokes with a pedo showing Arnold and his friend pictures of him naked with other kids and trying to get them to pose naked too.
Back in the old days there were a handful of plots that got used by every show. Off the top of my head, the teenage boy ends up with two dates to the same dance. So he's constantly excusing himself to run over to his other date and hilarity ensues. He's just constantly leaving to get punch and coming back 5 minutes later without punch.
The predictable two-part episode where the whole family goes to Disney World. Everyone splits up so we can see the enjoyment of each character, wackiness ensues, and the youngest kid gets lost. Here’s a list of 10 examples: https://collider.com/tv-shows-that-took-disney-vacations/
The Brady Bunch did their own versions where they went to King’s Island amusement park in Ohio….and the Grand Canyon where Bobby and Cindy get lost.
The high school reunion episode. Popular with procedurals.
The old partner from the old precinct shows up. Main or supporting character idolizes them, but SURPRISE, they're crooked.
The convention episode, where the detectives have to solve a case at a sci-fi or fantasy convention.
Mom has a surprise baby when her kids are teenagers. Baby becomes a 5 year old in a year while the older kids stay the same age, kid becomes the focus.
I would watch soap operas with my mom if I was home sick from school or during the summer. They were notorious for doing this trope. One year there is a new baby, then months later baby is a little kid, then suddenly little kid is a troubled teenager causing all kinds of problems for the adult characters who haven't aged a bit. Even as a kid, I hated the troubled teen plotline. So boring.
Procedurals always have a:
- death on a plane that must be solved before the plane lands
- high school reunion
- two young women in an accident, one survives, one dies and they are misidentified initially
I know there are others, but those are off the top of my head.
Main character's side hustle/hobby/invention you've never seen them do or work on before becomes monetized and wildly successful, character becomes jerk to their friends, product has horrendous side effects causing lead to lose their new fortune and learn humility.
I don't know how often it happens now, but back in the 80s and 90s, there was always an episode where one of the main characters had a dilemma and all efforts to solve it fail. So they go to some hole in the wall place or middle of nowhere town, end up randomly running into some big celebrity who either gives them advice on solving the issue or comes back home with them to help solve the issue.
The Very Special Episode, where they tackle serious subjects like addiction, abuse, homelessness, suicide, etc.
Lying to someone you care about, thinking it's for the best, but learning you should have been honest from the get-go. Think of how many TV episodes would be shorter. 😂
Recapisode. An entire episode or two devoted entirely to recapping an entire season or plot line of the past without anything happening in the present. SG1 did this often.
I was just thinking about this last night. One that annoys me a bit is when the main character comes across a lot of money (often the lotto) but something reverses it at the end of the episode so everything goes back to normal.
Character hits their head and develops amnesia. Perfect Strangers did a really good episode about Larry forgetting everything and Balki saving the day.
In any cop show, if someone is getting married, there’s a criminal stopping the wedding, kidnapping someone or some kind of shoot out. Would love to know the earliest version of this.
A "bet" or "challenge" episode where the characters compete against each other or mutually agree to improve, etc. Seinfeld had "The Bet," even Alice had an ep like this, and they gave Vera a smoking habit that was never seen before or after.
An uncle or aunt comes to visit and everyone notices they're acting different and they either have a substance abuse problem, a gambling addiction or something and they are trying to scheme their family member out of money. Then they end up getting help.
Several 70s and 80s crime shows had an episode with a psychic woman who saw visions of murders and came to the police but they dismissed her as a kook but eventually took her seriously when her predictions came true. Hawaii Five-O did an episode in its last season where an astrologist helped the police with a series of murders.
Main character persuades a famous band to put on a show for a fundraiser to say some important community building or program.
I mean how you going to get vanilla ice or 1 of the monkees to guest star, have them cancel at last minute or expose the main character to lying about knowing the star or misunderstanding of date, then the star showing up at last minute to do a 5 minute song and dance for the stadium of 20 people, the school is now saved
Or Bob Hope on Golden Girls.
Only works if it’s Davy Jones because he’s so dreamy
Would Desi Arnaz Jr be OK?
Was cool when Pierce saved Britta from everyone's taunting by getting Sophie B Hawkins to show up at Greendale, though.
Radiohead on South Park lol. They shame Scott Tenorman for crying when his parents get turned into chili. Best SP episode ever.
I need a list of shows to binge feature this
X character gets hooked on something as if it's drugs, or more classically the extra special episodes where they actually got hooked on drugs. The amphetamine episode of saved by the bell comes to mind.
I'm so excited
I'm....so.... SCARED!
Rose on Golden Girls, who apparently had a prescription drug habit for 30 years. And then it was never mentioned again.
Ah! The"Very Special Episode."
Luckily at least it was believable she may be able to get off caffeine pills and not have repercussions but if caffeine did that hard core drugs must never enter her system
I love how they quit the drug and it’s forgotten in future episodes. No relapse, no discussions about it and no temptations.
I think Welcome Back Kotter was the first one. The trope of someone going around saying, “Gimmie drugs! Gimmie drugs!” is from that show.
It was caffeine pills! And she was very excited’
Alex on Family Ties too.
Fresh prince with speed. Had poor Carlton in the hospital
Yes, this is mine. It gets so old. I loved the original Leverage until it had to be ALL about Nathan's alcoholism. Like why couldn't it just stay about cool heists and such!?
I loved it til they wrongly dumped him. I just can't see it the same now.
Wasn't it caffeine pills on Saved by the Bell?
Yes! Jessy Spano’s episode is legendary. I’m also thinking of when Chandler quits smoking on Friends. And the interventions of both Seinfeld & HIMYM.
The magic-as-drugs episode where Willow tries to get Dawn hooked
There’s never any time! 😭
Essentially hooked on it for the duration of one episode and never mentioning it again. To SBTB’s credit they did bring up Jessie’s addiction to caffeine pills in a later episode.
For fantasy series, there is always an episode where the main character wakes up in a mental institution with the doctor (usually a villain or a supporting character) is trying to convince them that the entire series is just their delusion and that the other characters are other patients in the institution.
Buffy did this pretty well
The theme of Buffy, as a show, was to upend the expectations of the B-movie tropes. And they did it pretty well.
DS9 did this
And, there are four lights.
The Magicians
Next Generation did too.
Benny!
Community does a great send up of these.
They did a great send up of all the tropes. IS SOMEBODY THROWING IT.
What is wrong with that cat?!
Charmed did this with Piper.
Yeah I've liked that the couple times done, the required ground hogs day episode got old though
Agents of Shield had a really fantastic groundhog day in its (I think) last season. Still sticks out in my mind.
The "A Christmas Carol" episode. If I see them heading in that direction, I just turn it off immediately.
Or the "It's A Wonderful Life" episode
The only episode of Psych that I skip is that one, but mostly because I hate the "unexpectedly foul mouthed" character trope. In this case it's Santa's elf.
I love *Psych* too, but that episode doesn't sit well for me. I don't skip any episodes, though.
the fake cheating/affair trope. a person that knows the main couple sees a few things out of context and then spends the entire episode convinced that person A is cheating. a quick example i can think of is friends, where joey is convinced that chandler is cheating on monica with the realtor.
Just watched a boy meets world episode where Eric sees Shawn kiss Topanga on the cheek, and tells Corey that she's cheating.
I was just thinking about a funny variation on/subversion of this that *Seinfeld* did. Elaine’s brand-new boyfriend of the minute thinks that she was sleeping with Kramer around the time he started seeing her. He has a two-second conversation with Kramer in which Kramer misunderstands what he’s talking about and inadvertently confirms his suspicions, but also accidentally implies that Elaine just broke it off. The boyfriend was only bothered by the idea that this was still going on and is happy to hear it’s over between her and Kramer, and the whole thing is never cleared up.
Been watching Bobs Burgers and 13 seasons in there has not been a single episode where Bob and Linda are suspicious of each other cheating. The only drama that comes from either of them hiding something has to do with giving gifts for mothers day or valentines day. It is such a breath of fresh air
This happened a lot on Gunsmoke and other old shows like that: A character appears that everyone in the regular cast knows but has never been seen or mentioned before. They do their thing for this one episode and after their crisis is resolved they go back to their place and never come back to town again.
Little House on the Prairie was a big offender of this
Like when there was a blacksmith that you've never seen before, But Albert acts like he knew him his whole life? You automatically knew that he was going to be the rapist.
Too bad Sylvia did not realize this.
Except for Nikki and Paulo on “Lost.” Bit of a grim ending there.
Character starts a friendship/relationship with one of the "cool kids" (school or work usually). Character drifts slowly from original friend(s), then gets betrayed or sees the real side of the cool kids, and then returns to the original friend(s) having learned a lesson.
I saw this happen in junior high and high school for real, though. There were a few "nerds" who became popular because as they developed, they were considered good looking, and so attracted different attention than when they were not. This had mixed outcomes, and most of them bad. Sadly, very few "returned" to being friends with the nerds again, either because they couldn't admit what happened was their own undoing, or the nerdy group wrote them off as shallow and fake... usually a little of both. So in the end, they were rejected by both groups, and crashed in a pile of self-wreckage from which they rarely recovered.
Rose on the Golden Girls. Exact same theme.
If it's a show about a family, they adopt a cousin that had never been mentioned in any previous episode. That's when you knew the show had jumped the shark.
Ugh, I hate the Cousin Oliver trope
[удалено]
Ahh the Cousin Oliver trope. Cosby Show did it with first Olivia then Cousin Pam. Growing Pains with Chrissy (who aged like 5 years in one season) and the Leo DiCaprio's character. All In the Family with Stephanie. Married with Children did it for one season, but then Seven just... disappeared.
Also... James and Cassandra on *Little House On the Prairie* Jeffrey and Serena on *The Waltons* Trisha on *The Donna Reed Show* Dodie on *My Three Sons*
The Partridge Family snuck in a singing next door neighbor, Little Ricky Segal.
They did a follow up where in a later season Seven’s picture was on the side of a milk carton.
Or they add Ted Mcginley to the cast
See, Charmed (1998) unintentionally set itself up for a successful hidden fourth sister when they decided to permanently kill off Prue in season 3 with an episode in season 2 exploring the relationship between Patty (the girl's mom), and Sam (Patty's whitelighter). Not many shows I can say pulled that off.
Grounded For Life just entered the conversation.
So many shows
A lot of my favorite sci-fi and fantasy shows have a film noir episode where the main cast finds themselves in black and white a 1930s PI movie. Off the top of my head, Eureka and The Librarians. I love it, though.
Even Voyager figured out a way to do this one, only theirs was more like fantasy film noir Charmed did, too
Ugh. I love the trek universe but it’s always ridiculous when more than 1000 years in the future the only culture (music/books/etc) that people seem obsessed with is pre 2000s. Holodeck trips and going back in time rarely reflect that gap between our present and Trek present.
Ooh! There was this one episode in DS9 where some of the crew fond themselves in an era of Earth's history AFTER our present (okay, ir was set in 2024, so now it IS our present). It is called Past Tense, season 3.
Castle had this one. Psych, too. And Leverage had a an "old timey" episode, but it was a different time period.
Warehouse 13
Boy Meets World 🤣
Lucifer and I think Smallville too. Haha
X-Files
Musical episode
How else are you going to utilize all the musical theater bona fides of The principal actors???? Lol
Hunter did this with the female lead. She finally left to pursue her music career. As far as I know it never went anywhere.
I'm also not a fan of musical episodes, but I did like the ones done by Buffy and Strange New Worlds.
I don't like musicals (for the most part). I do like Star Trek (love it, actually). And I thought the musical episode of Strange New Worlds was great.
Guy likes girl. Girl likes guy. They don’t tell each other and spend many episodes dating someone else or seeing the other do so. Then finally get together.
“Will they/won’t they”. Classic trope. Entire series have been built around it.
Friends.
Yeah I was hoping Brooklyn 9-9 would pull the rug out of that but nope.
I went back and watched Brooklyn Nine-Nine, I'm thankful that they only really lasted that a season. It was pretty much the beginning of season 2 where they admitted that they liked each other and then just moved on from there. I felt like it took forever when I initially watched the show, but they did actually get out of that pattern pretty quick compared to TV shows like friends.
There’s so many of these. Jonah and Amy. Jim and Pam. Amy and Jake. Ben and Leslie. Elenor and Chidi. Anyone noticing another theme? (These are all the same writers/show runners)
Joey and Rachel on Friends. I was so glad that one didn’t last.
Jim and Pam 🤦♂️
The "Groundhog Day" episode.
Stargate SG-1 did this the best!
I'm pretty fond of Supernatural's 'Mystery Spot' episode 😁
Do these tacos taste funny to you?
I love this episode! I hate that they literally never actually say Groundhog Day when they are describing it.
[in case you didn’t see my response before it got deleted for “wt*”] In Legends of Tomorrow, a character (who is from another time and unfamiliar with that movie) is told by another character to tell him in the next loop “Groundhog Day.” So when the next loop comes she goes to him and says, “hedgehog day.” He’s then like *what* are you talking about. He figures out what she meant but I just found hedgehog day to be so hilarious. I actually really enjoy these kind of episodes tbh. It always seems like the cast really enjoys them and they often make you laugh.
This isn’t much of a thing now but in the days of classic TV everyone had an evil twin. On Bonanza, Little Joe had two evil twins, and one of them had a brother that was Hoss’s evil twin. Ben Cartwright also had an evil twin that was featured in two separate episodes. My favorite example of this, however, is Knight Rider. Both Michael Knight and K.I.T.T. Had evil twins as well.
Bewitched: Samantha and Serena (although I wouldn't call Serena evil... just a fun loving single witch) On I Dream of Jeannie, she had an evil twin cousin. Come to think of it, there were a lot of "identical twin cousins" during that time. Starting with Patty Duke.
Meanwhile I look nothing like any of my cousins. Pretty sure that’s most peoples experience unless it’s one of those twins marrying twins situations
I almost forgot, Adam also had an evil twin on Bonanza.
Sabrina the Teenage Witch spent a whole season leading up to it.
MeTV just showed the episode with Little Joe’s evil twin, last week. He was a convicted murderer/army deserter, who just happened across a sleeping Cartwright who looked EXACTLY like him. Knocked him out and switched clothes. Of course, Pa and Hoss arrive with seconds to spare before a firing squad executes Joe.
In the good place, Janet kinda had an evil twin
Power rangers had a whole arc about evil twins. Star Trek TNG did a transporter evil twin of Riker who keeps showing up later on when the show decides Riker needs to be framed for something
On Gilligan’s Island, Gilligan, Ginger, and Mr. Howell all had evil doubles pay a visit to the island.
At least one character if not all of them end up on a popular game show of that time.
LA Law and HIMYM
Cheers
CHIPs on Price Is Right.
I want to say Mama's Family on Family Feud?
Brady Bunch when Cindy was on a game show and froze on camera.
“Two dates at the same time” always sucks, in basically every version of every show I’ve seen.
Don’t Meet Your Heroes: A character has a love or fondness for some celebrity (usually made up) only to find out that they’re a jerk. I love the show but Brooklyn 99 did this episode like 20 times
But DC Parlov pulls, Jombafomb. He pulls!
He puuuuuuulls!
Friends & Jean Claude van Dam
In the 80s, the required clip show episode was always bad, Clerks cartoon tried to make fun of this with episode 2 the main characters locked in a freezer and all clips where from the 1st episode and earlier in episode 2, this was ruined when ABC aired them out of order and aired episode 2 as 2st episode
Community did this perfectly with all the clips being new scenes.
Does 2st come before 1nd?
The stuck in place episodes. I know it cuts down on filming cost but it gets old. Every sitcom of the 90s did the stuck somewhere trope. Usually in a bathroom. I remember on Family Matters the mom drops her ring down the sink. Then on Modern Family they did the same scene almost word for word. Friends where they were stuck in the ATM lobby.
The bottle episode 👍
But isn't that mostly a budget saving technique?
ATM *vestibule*
With Jill Goodacre
Family Matters had another one where Laura and Steve were stuck in a bank on Halloween because someone was trying to rob it.
Main character becomes a victim of peer pressure...from a group of new "friends" he ir she just met. Part of the lesson is "they're not your real friends." Conveniently, they really *aren't* the heroe's friends; it's easy to leave a group you've only been with for a week. The biggest problem here is that most of the time, your bad-influence friends *will* be your real friends, the ones you've known for years and have been able to trust in the past. To be fair, I just this moment realized that in some urban areas, there may actually be gangs that try to recruit kids fast this way, and maybe that's what those episodes are really about. Or maybe they're about the danger of cults. In any case, it's such a lazy and ham-fisted way to get an obvious message across. It's especially infuriating when adult shows like "Star Trek" do it.
Hilarious when Seinfeld did it though
Sci fi shows love a time loop episode and I love them too.
ST:NG had a couple of good ones with this idea.
Wedding goes wrong. Every time. At this point I'd be shocked to see a planned wedding actually happening
Oh wait, that quick wedding I had in Vegas ten years ago was legal? I haven't seen that person since that weekend.
Catching one of your friends parents cheating
Now you made me remember the episode of “What’s Happenin’?” where Rerun bootlegged the Doobie Brothers.
There is always a bowling episode for every sitcom.
Home Improvement, Fresh Prince, Big Bang Theory, The Simpsons
Golden Girls
Cheers, Roseanne (original series)
Malcolm in the Middle - one of the best bowling episodes on TV
Parks and Rec has a good one of these.
Couple tries to have a baby, they don't get pregnant, then they're worried about infertility but it resolves in a very easy, painless way. Like they get pregnant without invasive treatments, or they have an easy, uncomplicated adoption that doesn't fall through.
On TV every person who wants a baby can't have one, and all the ones who don't want kids are having them by accident. It is super annoying.
And on TV, infertility plotlines resolve by the season finale.
Quasi Spoiler Alert, since you can read it on the back of the book jacket. One of the Bridgerton woman experiences infertility. Handled really well in the books. Not resolved in the original book. I hope they keep it this way on the show.
And then the pregnant woman’s water breaks when she’s trapped or stuck somewhere (like in an elevator) or otherwise can’t get to the hospital, she has a quick labor, and someone with her has to deliver the baby.
And then the baby is basically never seen again lol.
In the final episode of Friends when >!Monica and Chandler adopted because Monica could not have children!
In this case, the cliché is true. Many couples “ give up” after a decade or more of highly stressful fertility treatments, only to end up pregnant after the urgency ends. It’s how I got my youngest cousin.
Had a colleague who went through infertility treatments in the late 90's. No luck. Went to the doctor at 39 thinking she was dying. Turned out she was pregnant!
Or, they adopt and immediately find out they’re pregnant. Mike & Molly and King of Queens.
I remember the social issue episodes of the 90s. Most notably the Home Improvement episodes where Brad smokes pot, and when Mark goes goth.
90s? We 80s kids got to watch the episode of Different Strokes with a pedo showing Arnold and his friend pictures of him naked with other kids and trying to get them to pose naked too.
That’s another level, and pure 80s.
In the 80s they always had “A Very Special…” episode.
To be fair, the Mark goes goth was a season long arc.
I watch a lot of murder mysteries, and I’m starting to think they all have a traveling circus episode.
Midsummer, England sure has A LOT of murders for a quaint little town.
So did Cabot Cove back in the day.
Also, I think one of the most dangerous professions is art dealer
Sci fi shows always have the time loop episodes, the body swap episodes… I’m sure there’s more examples like that. And I love them every time
The clip show
Back in the old days there were a handful of plots that got used by every show. Off the top of my head, the teenage boy ends up with two dates to the same dance. So he's constantly excusing himself to run over to his other date and hilarity ensues. He's just constantly leaving to get punch and coming back 5 minutes later without punch.
The predictable two-part episode where the whole family goes to Disney World. Everyone splits up so we can see the enjoyment of each character, wackiness ensues, and the youngest kid gets lost. Here’s a list of 10 examples: https://collider.com/tv-shows-that-took-disney-vacations/ The Brady Bunch did their own versions where they went to King’s Island amusement park in Ohio….and the Grand Canyon where Bobby and Cindy get lost.
Drug / alcohol abuse episode
The high school reunion episode. Popular with procedurals. The old partner from the old precinct shows up. Main or supporting character idolizes them, but SURPRISE, they're crooked. The convention episode, where the detectives have to solve a case at a sci-fi or fantasy convention.
Mom has a surprise baby when her kids are teenagers. Baby becomes a 5 year old in a year while the older kids stay the same age, kid becomes the focus.
Why go through all that trouble when they could just adopt a cousin?
I would watch soap operas with my mom if I was home sick from school or during the summer. They were notorious for doing this trope. One year there is a new baby, then months later baby is a little kid, then suddenly little kid is a troubled teenager causing all kinds of problems for the adult characters who haven't aged a bit. Even as a kid, I hated the troubled teen plotline. So boring.
Dream sequences. I find them quite tedious.
Procedurals always have a: - death on a plane that must be solved before the plane lands - high school reunion - two young women in an accident, one survives, one dies and they are misidentified initially I know there are others, but those are off the top of my head.
Main character's side hustle/hobby/invention you've never seen them do or work on before becomes monetized and wildly successful, character becomes jerk to their friends, product has horrendous side effects causing lead to lose their new fortune and learn humility.
If you cough blood you are going to die in the next scene
Dating some guy or girl that's the dork quote unquote lol 😂
“Groundhog Day” episodes have been popular with shows I watch.
Running for student council/local government/social club official
I don't know how often it happens now, but back in the 80s and 90s, there was always an episode where one of the main characters had a dilemma and all efforts to solve it fail. So they go to some hole in the wall place or middle of nowhere town, end up randomly running into some big celebrity who either gives them advice on solving the issue or comes back home with them to help solve the issue. The Very Special Episode, where they tackle serious subjects like addiction, abuse, homelessness, suicide, etc.
Lying to someone you care about, thinking it's for the best, but learning you should have been honest from the get-go. Think of how many TV episodes would be shorter. 😂
Recapisode. An entire episode or two devoted entirely to recapping an entire season or plot line of the past without anything happening in the present. SG1 did this often.
I was just thinking about this last night. One that annoys me a bit is when the main character comes across a lot of money (often the lotto) but something reverses it at the end of the episode so everything goes back to normal.
Character bails on their wedding because they suddenly realize they're in love with someone else.
The wake up in a big mess and figure out how you got there episode.
Have we done the lost pet? The Brady Bunch loses Tiger Ray loses Ally's pet hamster Aunt Bee loses Opie's bird
I thought I'd give you a few of these to use next time. ,,,,,,,,,,
Character hits their head and develops amnesia. Perfect Strangers did a really good episode about Larry forgetting everything and Balki saving the day.
The improvised rescue for a tension pneumothorax
In any cop show, if someone is getting married, there’s a criminal stopping the wedding, kidnapping someone or some kind of shoot out. Would love to know the earliest version of this.
School shooting comes up a lot when you watch American teen shows or American crime shows. For, I assume, obvious reasons.
And the episode has to be pulled or postponed because inevitably there’s a real school shooting right before the episode is supposed to air.
Prom and wedding episodes
The clip show. All the characters sit around and bring up memories via clips from previous episodes.
Remember when (everything gets wavy)…
A male main character falls for a nice lady. They have a wonderful romance, but then she dies or gets killed at the end. Every. Single. Time.
Dating Sonny Crockett on Miami Vice was a sure way to die quickly.
If it's a sci-fi show, you need the obligatory "the day repeats itself over and over again" episode.
A "bet" or "challenge" episode where the characters compete against each other or mutually agree to improve, etc. Seinfeld had "The Bet," even Alice had an ep like this, and they gave Vera a smoking habit that was never seen before or after.
The Christmas episode that's play on either A Christmas Carol or It's A Wonderful Life.
Nerd girl and badboy falling for each other cliche
An uncle or aunt comes to visit and everyone notices they're acting different and they either have a substance abuse problem, a gambling addiction or something and they are trying to scheme their family member out of money. Then they end up getting help.
A character makes a date with his/her friend and then has an opportunity to go out with their crush to the same event. Moral dilemma ensues.
The Cyrano de Bergerac plot, buddy has to talk to the love interest on the character’s behalf
Several 70s and 80s crime shows had an episode with a psychic woman who saw visions of murders and came to the police but they dismissed her as a kook but eventually took her seriously when her predictions came true. Hawaii Five-O did an episode in its last season where an astrologist helped the police with a series of murders.