Every show has gimmicks on television, a trait, action, or a situation that they keep through out the show. It is what keeps characters and shows alive, or just makes you want to kill the character.

A gimmick I love is 24, it is a great idea. 24 episodes, each episode an hour, the whole season happens in one day. I watched the show only on that knowledge, the gimmick, and I love it it is a great concept/gimmick.

One I hate is on Home Improvement, Wilson how we never see him. I hated that show and the gimmick of him at the fence. The Critic perfectly made fun of that in "Pig Boy and His Dog".

I also hate "We Were On a Break!" on Friends, I believe it is considered a gimmick since season 3 it has been used. I also love/hate the gimmick of Monica being fat, sometimes it is funny and sometimes it is overdone (Monica getting stuck in a bean bag?!)

I love and laugh out loud with Annyong on Arrested Devolopment, especially last week when they realise that he just says "Annyong".

Those are just some gimmicks to start with..

I think Ally McBeal started out interesting and became annoying. At first it was funny to hear John Cage's nose whistle, but after a couple of years it grew old. The gimmicks got worse and worse. OK, we saw Ally kick a dancing baby on the first season, but what about Dame Edna burping and a priest who falls asleep every time he has a strong emotion, and they pull him up with strings. Or Ally fantasizing kicking and hitting her own daughter. I think it was just appalling in the end, and they used all possible diseases and conditions to make the audience laugh (which I doubt anyone did). Less is more.

I hate the "Fat Monica" thing too. It's so out of character and overdone. I think a good Friends gimmick was "Ugly Naked Guy". We never saw him, but he was a good joke, bc you could picture how he looks. A similar gimmick, but done somewhat better, is Maris in Frasier. The stories about her are so wild that it would be a huge disappointment to actually see her. Some eps, like the one where they hide in Maris' bathroom, were just brilliant. I hear they're bringing her back for the final eps, and I can't wait!

Seinfeld owns this topic! Just look at the final episode: revenge of the recurring gimmicks. I think that's why people either loved it or hated it. You either loved the continuity of bringing back those characters that had been running gags or you found them to be annoying and played out. People know all about the Soup Nazi even if they weren't frequent viewers because the character was a very effective gimmick.

ETA: And now I'm a Loyal Viewer after only 2 1/2 years. Revenge of the lurkers!

Word, I love all TV Shows that have "Un-Seen" characters. Will & Grace probably owns that field with Stan, Karen made the best cracks about his weight and we never saw him. When he died Rosario came in with, like, three big jars and they were all Stan's ashes.

The Ally McBeal dancing baby gimmick was perhaps the stupidest thing I've ever seen.

I actually always enjoyed watching Inspector Gadget as a kid, and I think one of the reasons why was because they never showed Dr. Claw. Just his arm, voice, and the cat. I think it worked because the writers and animators knew kids could come up with their own image of Claw that would be more villainous than anything they could come up with. Or maybe they're like me and were just being lazy....

I remember my brother telling me one time that they had a Claw toy in the store, and that it was an actual guy. For some reason that upset me a lot.

I also like the fact that on The Simpsons no one knows the state Springfield is in, even though the writers and creators have stated over and over that Springfield has no state. So when they just came out and said it was in Northern Kentucky on "Behind the Laughter", people were actually enraged! People, seriously, it's satire! It's just a cartoon.

And those poor, poor, castaways.... they never get off the island.

Interestingly enough, they changed it to Northern Kentucky when they put it into syndication. The original airing had them in Missouri.

Probably my favorite TV gimmick is the Simpsons. 15 years and they're still all the same age. Except Apu's children, who are miraculously toddlers now...

The "Unseen Character" goes way back -- before TV, they had a few radio shows with this gimmick, and it's an old staple of stage plays. I get the impression they're so enduring and popular in part because they're fun to write (not being limited by casting, or even the limits of physiology -- witness the vastness of Stan or the impossible thinness of Maris), and also because the audience enjoys filling in the blanks. Everyone had their own image of Norm's wife on Cheers because they managed to keep her hidden for the whole run of the show. Anyone remember "...this is Carlton...your doorman..." from Rhoda? I don't think we ever actually saw him, either. M*A*S*H managed to flesh out the unseen families of the soldiers (Hawkeye's dad, Charles's sister Honoria, Radar's mom on the farm in Iowa, BJ's wife and daughter, Klinger's crazy extended family, Mrs. Potter, etc.) so well that they seemed like full-fledged characters.

Iconic gimmicks that work for the show they're featured on: the voice over (Carrie Bradshaw's VO of her column, adult Kevin Arnold's VO narrating his childhood experiences); the Captain's Log on the various Trek shows; the self-aware cheesiness of Tribal Councils and Philiminations and Trumpified firings (vs. the non-ironic rose ceremonies of myriad reality dating shows); the "head in a jar" cameo rule on Futurama.

TV gimmicks that bug: the overblown entrance of a popular character (Kramer, Fonzie, Lenny & Squiggy's "Hello"); exaggerated mugging and mannerisms of child cast members (Cindy Brady's faux lisp, Arnold Drummond's catchphrases); the improbable dual role played by a lead actor (Gilligan, Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie did this all the time, but TV comedies and dramas have always been rife with Evil Twins & Mysteriously Familiar-Looking Strangers of this sort); using soundtrack songs to substitute for, rather than support the story; Trek's infamous "reset button."

Miki The Brain - heh. Yeah, you know what I mean...the non-speaking characters that the regular characters refer to. Often mythologically awful relatives or crazy old friends.

Wouldn't they ALL have been unseen characters? Just joking- I know what you meant....non-speaking characters....

A lot of shows have started out with gimmicky scene transitions, but most of the shows that last seem to get bored with them after a few seasons and either elimnate them or cut back. Frasier did the title placards. Friends had a standard guitar riff. Judging Amy used black and white stills. Angel has the blipverts. 24 has the split screen and clock noise. You still see these (except JA, which dropped theirs completely), but not necessarily every single time like in season one.

One gimmick I liked was the Boomtown multiple viewpoints. Sigh.

My favourite gimmick is the "Weekly Anomaly" on Star Trek. Voyager was especially fond of this one, along with "Seven Learns to Love", "Neelix Screws Up Yet Again", and "Janeway Destroys an Ancient Civilization".

Ooh, Shelwood, yes, good call! The gimmicky scene transitions -- lots of shows have 'em and then lose 'em. Six Feet Under has kept their "fade to white" so far, L&O's franchise has The Noise and title card combo, and X-Files had their on-screen white Courier typeface caption (scene/date/time), but a lot of shows dispense with these after a few years into their run, it's true.

Another example: the Alias "push-throughs" - whenever the setting changes to some exotic locale, a title card shows the place name with one letter highlighted (e.g., the "x" in Mexico City). The camera then "zooms through" that letter onto some stock footage. Cool enough by itself, but during Season One, the online game used a code composed of all of the push-through letters from the entire season. It's still possible to find long lists of these letters online.

I hate hate hate the Mutant Enemy Gimmick that every character that is going to die or has anything significant happen to him/her always first gets a Very Special Episode and/or Scene or suddenly shows up in the Credits. It goes that far that the moment I saw Mercedes McNab was suddenly in the Angel credits the first thing popping up in my mind was "Okay, she's going to die." I have don`t know exactly what is going to happen to her...but she's suddenly in the Credits so I KNOW something will happen sooner or later. The Gimmick is annoying and it`s bad writing. If you haven`t shown me earlier what a great character it is, don`t try to tell me just before you are getting rid of her/him.

Gimmick I love: Sam Beckett`s "Oh boy." I don`t know exactly why...maybe just because you could always hear what a loveable person he was, just by the tone when he said it.

Speaking of Six Feet Under, I know what you're talking about regarding the fade-to-white. Tied in with that, I'd have to say their best gimmick has been the lead-in deaths. I know I was bummed during S2 when they sort of toned it down. Shit! That was half the fun of tuning in--to see how DGDJ would be knocked off and the inevitable cringing when Alan Ball would try to lead you astray and wind up killing someone else off.

sorority>> You know, that's so true. In The Practice, right before that little mousy guy (I forget his name - he was the DA) died, he got his very own episode. And he began to be on the show much more just a few episodes prior to that.

Shelwood>> That Judging Amy thing was odd. I always wondered who the people in the pictures were - was this supposed to be Amy as a child, or the kid whose case she was handling? And who wants to see black and white stills of kids beaten up or sth? I think it was a bad idea, so I'm glad to be rid of it. Coming to think of it, Strong Medicine uses this negative image for a second, and a dramatic sound. When I watched it for the first time, I expected the scene to have some sinister significance later on, and it didn't. Turns out they have the same dramatic ending in all scenes. It doesn't really work IMO, because it makes you expect something.

I don't know if you can call this a gimmick, but when a famous actor or band visits the show, everybody's a fan. It's really annoying. I did like what Will & Grace did with Cher, though. When Jack tries to impersonate her and she ends up slapping him.

Especially on a show with kids, and the guest is someone like Frankie Valli (who I personally like). And the kids are all like, "We love you, and your hit song, 'Sherry'!" while obviously not having a clue of who this guy is.

There's the Guy-Who-Doesn't-Have-a-First-Name gimmick. Off the top of my head, Quincy, Columbo, and MacGyver did it (although we did eventually find out he's Angus MacGyver).

One of the longest running gimmicks is Saturday Night Live's "Live from New York! It's Saturday Night!" which too often indicates "it's only going downhill from here".

Temporal Anomaly! AHHH!

One of my favorite gimmicks is from South Park. You can tell the episode's drawing to close when someone says: "Y'know, I learned something today..."

Then there were the Crapass Crime Flashbacks (tm Somebody Creative Who Is Not Me) on Oz, which started out to be a really interesting and creative way of introducing the latest despicable character (Adebisi chopping a cop's head off with a machete) or reminding us how guilt-ridden another character was (Drunk!Beecher runs over poor Kathy Rockwell again...and again...and again....) and devolved into what appeared to be nothing more than poorly produced junior high school film class projects (Ashley Hamilton tries to hide his pot plants). Very disappointing.

Name game gimmicks that bring the hate:
"Noooorm!" "Norman."
"I'm Larry, this is my brother Darryl...."
Once or twice was fine, but not forever!

Name game that kicks ass forever:
"Derwood."
Agnes Moorehead never gets old.

But what was a truly great gimmick? The voiceover recapping the previouslys and then setting up the next episode of "Soap." Maybe its just nostalgia, but it was usually hysterical.

No, it's not just nostalgia. It really was hysterical. In fact, the last time I saw "Soap" - not terribly long ago - it still was.

My current fave? On Cold Case Files (the drama - not the real life show) whenever we see a character for the first time who was involved with the original case/crime the scene flips between what they look like now and what they looked like then. This also happens at particularly dramatic moments and at the end when we also see the dead person. This is the main reason I watch that show. I'm always disappointed when the crime was relatively recent and the people still look the same.

Also, Without a Trace does this thing where the camera follows the person who has disappeared (before the disappearance, of course) and we see them until the last time anyone saw them and they just fade out of the scene. I like that.

Re: Southpark. I still enjoy the "he/she/they killed Kenny!" "You bastards!" I like how what's happening in the show affects the delivery.

I love how, on Reno 911, the preview they show at the end never airs the following week. I sort of liked it when they crashed the squad car for the first scene of every ep, until it got old.

Ooh. And I used to loooove when, on Due South, people would ask Fraser what he was doing in Chicago and he'd say the same thing every time: "I first came to Chicago on the trail of the killers of my father. For reasons that don't need exploring, at this juncture I've remained, attached as liason with the Canadian consulate." Heh. That would crack me up every time.

Don't worry! It's nothing that can't be solved by cleverly using the DEFLECTOR DISH!

*smirk*

OK, I know there are many out there that will disagree, but I love the Gumby Goren move in L&O:CI. It's just so quirky, but also effective at getting the perp to look at him.

I love when they show Hugh Laurie twirling his cane (either subtle, minor rotations; or more elaborate full-on color guard twirling) to show House thinking. It's so hard to show thinking on a show that characters have to do something active and I think House does this well.

I so agree with this one, quotidian. But I also really loved Soap.

The backwards episode of Seinfeld was pretty neat, and remained pretty effective when I used a tape of it to watch it in order. Ufortunately, syndication cuts out one of the best uses of the concept: Elaine shows Jerry her chipped tooth, not knowing how she got it, and the next scene has her totally smashed and taking a swig of booze using only her mouth.

For non-Pinter fans, the episode was based on one of his plays called Betrayal, which showed the evolution of an affair in reverse chronological order.

One gimmick I see on all home-improvement shows, which I think is played out is the painting over scene. We see the participants painting, usually in speeded up motion, then one points the brush or roller at the camera and paints over what's obviously a piece of plexiglas specially designed for the purpose. Trading Spaces, While you Were Out, In a Fix, Design on a Dime, Decorating Cents and many, many others do this on a regular basis. Enough already.

As gimmicks go, I thought it was neat the way every Friends episode is titled "The One ..."

"The One with Rachel's Book"
"The One in Massapequa"
"The One Where No One Proposes"
etc.

eta: I had to look those up. I swear I don't just know all the Friends titles...

The "It's " Man on Monty Python's Flying Circus (Michael Palin dressed up as a ragged Robinson Crusoe type of Island survivor (think Lost in twenty years when they run out of razors, intact clothing and hair dye) who muttered exhaustedly "It's" before the title sequence) was a gimmick that was dropped after a while.

They also had John Cleese as the typical BBC announcer at a desk in various exotic places (on a lake, in the woods, in the buff) saying "And now for something completely." They kept the announcer a lot longer than the "It's".

MPFC is a classic and I love all their gimmicks.

The Friends title thing was pretty cool; they knew any titles wouldn't be shown on air anyway, so they just titled them what people who saw the show would likely refer to them as.

I always liked how The X-Files would change the little slogan at the end of the opening credits: The Truth Is Out There, Trust No One, The End, etc. It was a little thing that really caught on as the show evolved.

See, all we have to do is divert main warp power through the EPS conduits on Deck 5, and then charge the main deflector array with a positron pulse, and we can - er - destroy the ship entirely, because positrons are antimatter, and the ship is made of normal matter...

...oops.

And the absolute best use of this was "Bad Blood," when Scully and Mulder argue about the name of the motel. The caption types out one name when Mulder says it, then backspaces and types in the other when Scully corrects him.

Gotta mention the swishpan between scenes in Man from UNCLE and the fade to the drawings in Wild Wild West, which are still so cool.

Watching my A-Team DVDs (shut up!), the building scenes in the show, when they'd build the gizmo machine of the week that would get them out of trouble. Loved that.

Me too, even today as a 38 year old man, if I have to put something together I find myself humming the A-Team theme. God, my kids are right, I am a dork.

Early Seinfelds used to begin or end the show with Jerry's stand up act - presumably to show how his (sur)real life inspired his comedy.

I actually liked the b/w stills on Judging Amy - and yes, they were pictures of the people involved in the plot.

I guess I'm in the minority on this one, but unseen characters tend to make me grumpy. I didn't really mind with Vera on Cheers, but I remember thinking, early in Frasier's first season, "Oh, God, I hope they don't make Maris another Vera." Then when I realized they were, I was, well, grumpy. Same goes for Stan on Will and Grace.

Ugly Naked Guy on Friends was shown in season five, when Ross went to find out about subletting the place. I was actually a bit disappointed that UNG didn't remain unseen.

Another gimmick that usually annoys me is when there's a flashback to another era, and all the old-time people just happen to look exactly like the regular cast, except in period costumes.

I use to like, in the old series Police Squad (where the Naked Gun movies came from) how the "Special Guest Star" was always killed in the opening credits.

Don't forget that Seinfeld did this with Kramer until... COSMO.

Of all the stupid things Mutant Enemy did to Buffy the show, I *did* like their little monster guy at the end ("grrrr... argggh")... especially for the "Graduation Day" episode, where he had a little grad cap on.

I like how Cold Case uses music from the time the crime was committed. Sometimes I think that's the only reason I tune in. I get all excited if the crime is from the early 80's.

Yes! My favorite was In The Big Inning for The Unnatural(the genius that I am, it took me forever to get the joke about the episode title).

Every episode name of Seinfeld starts with "The" something. It's not particularly too clever, but it works. You name an episode and you can pretty much figure out the main plot. They also coin pretty catchy new terms ("The Yadda-Yadda", "The Soup Nazi").

Every episode name of The O.C. starts with "The" something. I absolutely hate it. It is so annoying. This hate may be compounded by the way they try to make up new terms ("The Mallpisode", "The SnO.C.", "The O. Sea").

Wasn't there a show that got cute with episode titles by using one word titles for Season One, two words for Season Two, etc? Wish I could remember which show...

Speaking of one word episode title gimmicks... fucking die, AlMiles! Give Smallville some meaningful titles (and less pink... but that's a rant for another day).

La Femme Nikita did the one word for season one episodes, two for season two episodes... Is that what you were thinking of Shelwood? I thought it was a cute gimmick.

I never thought of it until just now, but Frasier had a *lot* of regular gimmicks:
- Meris the unseen character
- The chapter titles (that's what I call them) between scenes
- Slight changes in the opening title animation from episode to episode
- The (usually) amusing scene taking place behind the closing credits each week

The only episode specific gimmick that I could think of was the episode that was really two half-episodes that depicted different sets of events which occurred based on whether or not Frasier decided to wear a sweater. I'm sure there are others, but my brain needs a tune-up right now.

Frasier also colored its opening FRASIER title a different hue each season.

And there was also the "guess the celebrity voice" during Frasier's radio show. At the end of each season, they'd show "Thanks for calling" and then the headshots of all the famous actors/whatevers who had guest-voiced some of his callers that season.

I like this part of the gimmick - recognising the songs and singing along.

But it is getting so old to have the person who did the crime to walk out at the end. It was alright the first few times but now it is just old.