I've always found it interesting when a tv show clearly is trying to do something other than the show's normal MO, whether the episode itself was good or bad. One of the best examples I can think of is the Felicity episode Help for the Lovelorn, a black and white tribute to The Twilight Zone that clearly exists outside the normal continuity of the show, and serves simply to highlight some of the emotions the characters were going through at the time.

House did it quite well with their Three Stories episode last season. For a show that had been fairly formulaic for the first part of the season, Three Stories was both welcome and unbelievably good. The time-jumping was done again this season with The Mistake, which was very good in wrapping up the relationship of Chase and his father, but not quite as hard hitting as Three Stories.

Personally, I'm a fan of the NewsRadio episodes "Space" and "Sinking Ship," which concluded seasons 3 and 4, respectively. Both episodes opened with Phil Hartman monologues asking if we the viewers ever wondered what NR would be like if it took place in space/on the Titanic. I always thought that "Sinking Ship" was the better of the two, but they were both entertaining episodes and definitely deviated from the show's regular fare.

Who remembers the Moonlighting Shakespeare episode where they adapted The Taming of the Shrew?

And of course the yearly Buffy stunt episodes like the silent episode and the musical episode.

ER has done too many of these. For example, the Memento-type episode where everything began at the end was really poorly done. Since ER relies on "what's wrong with this patient" twists, it was boring to see in the beginning what the problem was and then see them come in in the end. It broke the flow of the show. Also, in Memento the time sequence made sense because of the short-term memory loss. On ER, not so much.

I remember several later-season episodes of Blossom where they tried to do something different. I usually ended up hating those eps. For example, they did one at Disneyland, one where they all made short movies, etc. I think there were some fantasy ones as well. I tend to see those eps as a sign that writers are running out of ideas for the regular themes of the show.

Seinfeld did the two LA episodes in season 4, which in my opinion worked well. There were more scenes outdoors than usual, and they got to explore different sides of the characters; I particularly liked Kramer as a wannabe actor/screenwriter. I rarely like "visiting a city" episodes because they tend to be like travel ads for the city, but these ones were OK.

I haven't seen them myself, but a girl in my thesis seminar is making her MA thesis on the Will & Grace "Fagmalion" episodes where they teach a guy how to be gay. Sounds like a lot of fun.

To go a little old school, the first time MASH did the show as if it was a news program was quite affecting. The second time? Not so much.

The Drew Carey Show used to have a lot of these episodes. Live episodes, "guess how many mistakes we made" episodes, episodes where it's done as a sketch show (complete with obligatory musical guests) rather than a sitcom, the Very Special Episode about Very Special Episodes, etc.

Medium, of course, with the 3-D episode, even though it blew.

But I think X-Files did one-offs very well. JOse Chung's From Outer Space was a great episode. The one where they made the movie was also great. I don't know if it fits the criteria because there were many episodes that strayed from the story arc, but since they did not play in regular one hour drama format, I think they do.

One of the best Seinfeld episodes was the backwards one.

Absolutely. Both the ones you mentioned (the movie one is Hollywood A.D.) and X-Cops comes to mind. I love that one, especially the way Scully treats the cameramen.

I liked The West Wing's episode it did, Isaac & Ishmael, I think it was called. They aired it in TWW's first airing after 9/11. They even had a little intro to the show that said this was supposed to be removed from the time and plotlines of the other episodes and was meant to be sort of a stand-alone. I know there were inaccuracies and deabatable points in it, but I thought it was interesting and thought-provoking, and I enjoyed watching it.

Also from MASH were two other different episodes that I liked. There was the one where they showed it from the patient's pov and the other was when a patient came in with an injury that needed immediate attention. They had the half hour to treat it or the kid would be damaged (or die? I don't remember) permanently. They had the clock ticking at the bottom of the screen. I liked those.

I'm also probably the only person that liked the ER episode where they did the whole thing live. The interview set up seem like a bit of a cop-out, but all in all, I liked it.

And finally, Mad About You did the episode where they shot the entire show with one camera. They made it a bit easy on the actors by keeping them in one room and then, when they had to move, it was into the room directly behind them, but still, it was a challenge. It basically meant that if anything went wrong, they'd have to start the entire show over again because there wouldn't be another camera angle to edit it properly.

I love Three Stories.

Also, Without a Trace did two excellent episodes like that -- one where the case was seen through the eyes of the parents whose child was missing, another where we got a glimpse into Jack's psyche via a totally bizarre episode which turned out to have been a dream of Jack's. (I know the latter episode wasn't very popular around here, but I loved it.)

ER's live episode. I don't think I've ever seen it on repeats.

Roswell had one where one of the aliens imagined how her life would be like if it was a sitcom in the style of Bewitched. It was a kind of cute idea but the constant switch from the normal style of the show to the "laughtrack-sixties-fashion-candy-colored-comedy" style was very annoying and the writing wasn't all that great. At this point too many people involved in the show were just phoning in.

For the pure cheese factor: The Dawson's Breakfast Club episode. It actually wasn't that much of a deviation, but I thought it was a cute homage. Also, I believe there is a Mighty Ducks joke in there, which at the time I thought was awesome. Awwww, Pacey.

Word on the love for the NewsRadio Space and Titanic eps. Those were so random and out-there... and totally fitting for the show. I guess they kind of pointed out how NewsRadio wasn't really a "workplace" comedy. It was about the characters, and it would have been good regardless of where it took place. Also, they allowed the madcap silliness of the show to come full circle. So great.

I hate most of the really gimmicky stuff, like "live" episodes and crap like that... unless it seems to have a point. Buffy was great at breaking formula but making it seem organic rather than gimmicky. Plus, the supernatural element of the show made it easy to eliminate dialogue and have everyone break into song and still have it make sense.

It's because they could never afford to pay Clooney to come back.

I loved the anniversary shout-out Deep Space Nine did to the original Star Trek by inserting characters from DSN into The Trouble with Tribbles. I thought it was very well done without disrupting the canon. My favorite part was where they put Basheer and O'Brien in line with the crewmen Kirk was disciplining after the fight. They replaced the crewman Kirk singles out with O'Brien and you couldn't tell he wasn't supposed to be there.

I do! Wow, I haven't thought of that in ages... and it was such a great episode, too. Not to mention a pretty good adaptation of the play. I had it taped on an old VHS, complete with crappy 80's commercials, but I lost it awhile back.

I think I remember a Roseanne episode that was played like a 50's-type sitcom, a little like Leave It To Beaver. It wasn't a particularly great episode, but I liked that it wasn't just a poke at how supposedly bland, innocent, and obliviously wholesome those types of shows were -- which seems to be the standard "50's cliche" -- but kind of biting and snarky about how much it sucked for women. I think I remember that Jackie, now Roseanne's "wacky neighbor" gave a line about having to hurry home and get dinner ready, or her husband would have to beat her, which was followed by a burst of the laughtrack.

The Buffy Musical is the first one that comes to mind. It was campy, but well done, like the show itself.

There was an episode of Charmed where Paige and Brody get sucked into a book and the entire episode is done in black and white, like an old time movie. I didnt like that particular episode, but the idea was good.

Hush owns this thread. I was 13, all alone and decided to watch Buffy for the first time. Guess what episode was airing? It freaked me out so much that I called my parents asking them if they could please hurry. Once More With Feeling was also amazing. I'd never thought that a musical episode could work.

ETA: just remembered a bad one: the musical episode of 7th Heaven. What the hell was that? The show is awful under normal circumstances but a musical episode? One of the most horrible things that I've ever saw on television.

How about that time Amazing Race decided to change things up and use families of four instead of teams of two? And instead of going to exotic locations and challenging the racers with cultural and environmental differences, they had them stay in the US and drive RVs to giant, rusty office chairs?

Oh.
Never mind.

I don't know if that counts but I loved the "real time" Friends episode where everybody had to get ready to go to Ross' museum benefit and it all happened in Monica's apartment.

"And in the words of A.A. Miles, get out of my chair, dillhole!"

I loved the Halloween episodes of Two Guys and a Girl. They made no sense and were completely out of the show's continuity. Which was a good thing. One year, Berg murdered everyone, another year everyone switched brains. I think one year they became their worst nightmares (Berg became ugly, Ashley became stupid, things like that.) They episodes themselves were just this side of embarrassingly bad, but from what I recall, they were hysterical.

I liked the Friends "The One That Might Have Been" or something with Rachel cheating on Barry, Ross and Carol, Phoebe's heart attack, Monica and Chandler hooking up anyway. That one was great. I also loved a lot of the flashback episodes, like "The One with all the Thanksgivings".

para: I was just gonna mention that Roswell episode - that was bad. The sitcom bits were done way too wackily and seemed out of place. I've only ever seen a few eps of Roswell, so when I saw that, I was very confused. I had to read the recap to get it and.. well, I still don't get why they did it like that.

The Roseanne 50's episode sounds cool. Too bad we only got the first two seasons of Roseanne ages ago. I would have loved to see that, if it actually had a "message" to it as well.

ETA: Oh, and that awful Ally McBeal "musical" episode?! It was so horrible. Someone's telling someone about their problems, but instead of dialogue, we hear Vonda Shepard singing, "she's got the blues! He's got the blues!" And then all the characters sang, so badly. Only the 7th Heaven musical could be worse, but that one I haven't seen, thank the Lord.

Those were the days, my friend. No, scratch that, those definitely weren't the days. And I don't even know you. The only thing worse would be Linda Weaver replacing Jeff Probst on Survivor. Or Jonathan getting a sitcom, that would be pretty bad. Or Jonathan getting a sitcom with Linda Weaver. Scary!

I recall an episode of St. Elsewhere in which they showed the doctors from twenty or thirty years prior to the time the show was set. They were all wearing old doctors and nurses uniforms and everyone was made up to look younger -- some pulled it off better than others.

Natchou that reminds me of the episode of Mad About You (yes, I admit I used to watch it) where the baby is crying and they spend the whole episode outside the door in real time.

Seinfeld's parking garage episode and the chinese restaurant, both had unique backdrops. "Cartwright! Cartwright!"

I never watched The X-Files, but I remember lots of praise for an episode that was done COPS style, on video and with no music.

Similarly, the Buffy episode The Body was made entirely of lengthy real time sequences with no music. It almost singlehandedly redeems season six.

"The Body" was an amazing episode. I was OK until Anya's speech about halfway through and then the tears didn't stop. In retrospect, however, I've come to hate the episode for being the kiss of death to the Buffy I loved.

"The Body" is an excellent example of doing something different. It's from season 5, though ;)

Malcolm in the Middle pretty much owns this thread, and I'm still amazed that even though it did take a dip in quality, TPTB can churn out a great episode like "Blackout" this season, in which the whole episode was a single joke, but it had three separate plots that were contrived to set up the puncline. To add to that, we also have "Forwards Backwards," "If Boys Were Girls," "Billboard," and of course, "Bowling," one of the greatest things ever created by human beings.

One of my favorites was the episode of Just Shoot Me that was presented as an episode of A&E's Biography. Wendie Malick's character got her own Biography segment ("Nina Van Horn: Trouble Be Thy Name"), hosted by Biography's real host, Harry Smith.

Matt Groenig co-owns this thread due to The Simpsons Treehouses of Terror and Futurama's Anthologies of Interest.

There's a couple more personal favorite M*A*S*H episodes that fall into this thread that haven't been mentioned yet.

One shows the events at the 4077 over the course of an entire year. The opening and closing vignettes are at the New Year's party, with Col. Potter dressed as Father Time making the exact same toast at both, but the second one with more tears in his eyes because he knows it's the same toast. "Here's to The New Year. May She be a damn sight better than the old one, and may we all be home before She's over."

The other follows some random soldier from ambush to evac to the 4077 where he's DOA. But we stay with his spirit as he follows the regulars around, watching them go through their jobs. At the end, he joins a long trail of dead soldiers, just walking off through the countryside, bound for an unknown destination.

The X-Files ep "Bad Blood" is the first thing that popped into my mind when I saw this thread. The he said/she said set up allowed us to see how Mulder and Scully see each other, and how they see themselves. Plus, it's funny as all heck. Mulder singing the Shaft theme is one of the best. Things. Ever.

I liked the Scrubs episode with the laughtrack. It was nice and not too cheesy for me.

Was that the Scrubs where everything was filmed like a sitcom? That drove me nuts to the extent where I turned over. It was too self-regarding and annoying for me.

That was the first thing that came to mind for me: "Point of View" is one of the finest episodes M*A*S*H ever did. Entirely subjective camera, seeing only what the soldier sees, starting in combat, going through copter evac, and ending up in a vehicle shipping out to go home, seeing the 4077 fade away in the distance. I can't explain why this device brings tears to my eyes every time, but it has something to do with the interconnectedness of humanity and how we all see just little slices of each other's lives.

"Three Stories" is blue-ribbon TV on its own merits (it was the first episode of House I ever saw, and it blew me away); but I can see that it must have been all the more effective as an unexpected change from the hourly formula that had developed.

And of all the "musical episodes" that various series have done, "Once More with Feeling" has to be the standout. Far from a stand-alone, it combined and resolved some longstanding plot elements; it provided a solid reason (within the series' reality) for everyone to be singing; and it was put together and written by people who really understand and appreciate the "rules" and conventions of writing good musicals.

Me too. One reason I actually like Scrubs is the absence of a laughtrack. I was worried they shot the show that way because they were testing the viewers and contemplating including one.

Without a Trace did this recently, from the victim's POV, and it was refreshing and realistic in the sense that the authorities disclose as little as possible in the early stages of an investigation (I imagine).

I loved NewsRadio's Space episode but, because Sinking Ship turned out to be Phil Hartman's last episode, it's difficult to watch in reruns.

One MASH ep that still tramatizes me is the dreams one. Where everyone has different dreams. Hawkeye's is the worst, He dreams his legs and arms get cut off.


You don't need spoiler tags for something that aired a bazillion years ago. Thanks.

"The Simpsons: Behind the Laughter" is, IMO, hands-down the winner.

"The fame was like a drug. But what was even MORE like a drug, was the drugs."

I love that one!

I also love the episode where they show mini stories about the supporting characters.

"Some folks'll never eat a skunk and then again some folk'll. Like Cletus the slack jawed yolkal."

Three that haven't been mentioned stand out for me:

The Prisoner: Living in Harmony. A straight-on western until the twist at the end. A neat summation of the series' themes in a new context, and a giant raspberry to Bonanza, which wound up killing The Prisoner in the ratings.

Xena: The Bitter Suite. The Buffy musical ep could not have existed without this one paving the way.

And for the holdays, ThirtySomething: The Mike van Dyke Show. A brilliant study of Jewish assimilation into American (Christian) culture.

The Simpsons did another one minute vignette, this one revolving around Flanders, with an appropriately cheesy theme: " Hens love Roosters, Geese love Ganders, Everybody else ... loves Ned Flanders ! ". They repeated the theme at the end with one small variation. After the last line Homer pipes in with " Not me ! " and the singers repeat the line as " Everyone that counts ... loves Ned Flanders ! ".

How about the episode of Quantum Leap where Al "leaped" and Sam wound up in the imaging chamber ? Or the episode where Sam leapt into Al's life ? Great examples of playing with the shows formula, yet they didn't seem like a stunt for "sweeps".

Word to the first page love for the Seinfeld backwards episode. I gained a whole new level of appreciation for it after watching it in a college English class after reading Harold Pinter's play Betrayal, on which the episode is based.

Someone already mentioned ER's live episode.
When there were rumors of The West Wing doing a live episode, all I could think of was how John Wells relied so much on specalized episodes.

The live episode for TWW was also unique because it was presented as if viewers were watching a real debate.
There were mixed reactions and initially, I liked it. I realized, later that while it was good television, I thought, it wasn't The West Wing.

CSI did an episode with converging storylines told in non-linear fashion. I also liked the "Hollywood Brass" episode which was all about our favorite snarky cop with only one CSI in the show. It had nice continuity with Jim's relationship with his daughter and some backstory on his character.

Wasn't there an episode of Moonlighting that was set in the 1940's and shot in black-and-white? I think David was a trumpet player and Maddie was a singer or something.

I know that it's a little past its prime, but I really loved the episode of CSI where Catherine was kidnapped by that guy who had killed his mistress, but was pretending that he was trying to get money to pay her ransom. And he had his lawyer dress up as the giant rabbit to collect the money? Catherine continued to leave clues behind so that the team could figure out where she was going and how to help her.

Plus, the Lady Heather episodes and the Nick-gets-buried-alive were good, even if it seemed that the Lady Heather episodes were stunts.

I also really enjoyed the season premiere of NCIS, everyone's reactions to Kate's death, and imagining she was there.

I would also like to point out that the Smallville episode "Spell," owns this thread. I didn't hate the episode as much as everyone else did, but that may be because the use of magic, while never before or since used on the show, has always been a part of DC comics (Supergirl remarked in the latest issue of her newest run that magic was sometimes trickier than Kryptonite).

I really enjoed it when the creators of ST:TNG said "Let's do something different this week, and not focus the entire fucking episode on Data," particularly when they would focus on Deanna. I know Deanna was never really well accepted as an actual crew member, but I feel like that's just because she was never given much to do. Episodes like "Frame of Mind" (Riker may or may not be trapped in an asylum that mirrors a play he is in), "Lower Decks" (A day in the life of Nurse Ogawa and friends), "Dark Page" (Troi explores her mother's subconscious to discover the long buried secret of her older sister's death), which focused on characters besides Data and Picard, were always out of the box and likable.

I rarely enjoyed a holodeck centric episode, though. The only likable part of "The Big Goodbye" was Beverly swallowing the chewing gum, not knowing what it was for. Ditto on "A Fistful of Datas," "Evolution," the Data-wants-to-be-a-comedian subplot of "The Outrageous Okona," and "Elementary Dear Data," although this did spawn the good holodeck episode "Ship in a Bottle." The worst, however, had to be the one with Lwaxana (whose appearances were usually fun and nominally 'something different') and Alexander in the mudbath.

With all the Buffy mentions, I'm surprised that no one's said anything about "Normal Again" yet.

I wanted to throw one more Buffy episode in...the one where they all fall asleep in Buffy's living room and all dream with the First Slayer showing up in their dreams. It sticks out in my mind because the dream sequences were so good...there is a part where Buffy is having a conversation with her mom as she is bricking a wall, and Willow finds out she is in a play, and everyone is wearing these crazy costumes, and the play turns out to be Death of A Salesman. I don't remember it too well, but I remember with the random dialogue and shifting scenes made it seem so much like how dreams really are, and not the way most tv shows portray them.

"I got here on time, so I get to be Cowboy Guy!" We still say that at home. Also, "I wear the cheese. It does not wear me."

Loved that episode!