We need to make TV great again by implementing the following:
- At least one clip show episode per season
- Heavy-handed anti-drug plots and messages, preferrably featuring gangs that look like they’re from The Warriors selling crack
- “Very Special Episodes” about topical real-world issues like acid rain or stranger danger, ending with segments with the actors talking to the audience and making some kind of call to action
- Episodes that are built entirely around stock footage from recycled old films that the studio or production company owns
- Related to the last point, episodes that are built entirely around existing sets from the studio’s other productions, such as generic Western towns
- crossover episodes that imply that every show on the network exists in the same universe
isn't the entirety of Law and Order apparently some child's nightmare or coma dream or something because of this?
There was a medical drama called St. elsewhere(a slang term for a cheaper but more excepting hospital than wherever a patient gets rejected from) or something like that, and the last episode showed it was an autistic non verbal kid imagining everything while staring into a snow globe with a hospital. There was no reason for this in series. The show was popular and had a decent run, so they had several crossovers. And some of the crossovers had crossovers, so it spreads like a disease through the TV world.
That's it, i was struggling to remember the name.
I think because of one crossover from that to Homicide caused a whole web of links, mostly due to Richard Belzer's character Det. John Munch being canonically the same character in Homicide, X Files and Law & Order
I dunno if you've ever watched MacGuyver but the show goes from him doing super secret spy stuff in the first season to working in a youth center in the inner city and trying to stop a young Cuba Gooding Jr. from joining a gang by the fourth :data-laughing:
Early TNG and MacGyver were definitely some of the shows I was thinking of
Episodes that are built entirely around stock footage from recycled old films that the studio or production company owns
Related to the last point, episodes that are built entirely around existing sets from the studio’s other productions, such as generic Western towns
Okay but unironically this shit slaps. That and bottle episodes are usually surprisingly good considering they're meant to be budget friendly. Hell, some of the best Stargate episodes are "wander around BC wilderness with the first 7 props we pulled from the cancelled medieval show we did".
If you basically dont have anything but writing to carry an episode, as long as the writers are competent you can generally get interesting characterization out of it.
Every show needs to be about how an awkward white guy can still get the girl. Nothing more is needed.
On a very special episode of the urkel show urkel gets offered a marijuana and learns about global warming.
Whatever drug the character is addicted to, they'll shrug off the withdrawal symptoms by the next episode.
Of course they do, since every episode is going to be self-contained
I knew Whoopi Goldberg and that blue guy were up to no good
:jesse-wtf: Jesse, we need to cook!
:NOOOOO: Mr. White, we can't, yo! It's the cops! We have to cheese it![URKEL SLIDES INTO FRAME] Did someone say... CHEESE?
Peep Show is good. Rare Anglo media W. Cautionary tales from beginning to end
Like every sitcom or cartoon with a potential kid audience from the 80s and 90s. Maybe the 70s and early 2000s as well, but I'm not sure about expanding the range that far.
Episodes that are built entirely around stock footage from recycled old films that the studio or production company owns
This actually, every modern show should just be MST3K
Episode where a drastic change happens (someone dies or gets divorced idk) and then the next episode goes back to the status quo without acknowledging what happened
Let's not forget about introducing character traits that are just blatantly contradicted in following episodes
One episode showing main character having a crippling fear of clowns stemming from a traumatic childhood experience, 3 episodes later they say they learned juggling at clown college
I like when in the first episode of the first season of the walking dead they canonically establish that zombies get more active at night, then after that episode the writers completely forgot about and it's never an important lore detail ever.
As cringy as that episode is, I've always liked how Gates McFadden's face acting was front-and-centre, and on point. The scene where she's watching the two transport ship pilots get their fix really showcases her skills.
