# Best Written Episodes of a Series you Love **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 24, 2009, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-written-episodes-of-a-series-you-love/494180 "2009-04-24T03:24:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-written-episodes-of-a-series-you-love/494180/41 "2009-04-24T17:34:12Z")
Never mind. ---
**Author:** ![Emily\_Litella](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emily_litella/32/3370_2.png) [@Emily\_Litella](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emily_Litella)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-written-episodes-of-a-series-you-love/494180/42 "2009-04-24T17:41:10Z")
**Grey’s Anatomy** A two parter: “It’s the End of the World” and “As We Know It”, about the guy who comes into the Emergency Ward with the bomb lodged in his chest. ---
**Author:** ![Emily\_Litella](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emily_litella/32/3370_2.png) [@Emily\_Litella](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emily_Litella)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-written-episodes-of-a-series-you-love/494180/43 "2009-04-24T17:42:15Z")
> [@Meeko](#): > > My Mom bought the entire Season 6 of Frasier, Just for that Episode. Oh, my, yes, I’d do the same. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-written-episodes-of-a-series-you-love/494180/44 "2009-04-24T18:28:26Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > No. The one where Dick is convinced that the hospital switched Ritchie at birth with a baby with a similar name, so he calls the other father and invites him over. > > The other father was played by Greg Morris. > > Dick: Why didn’t you tell me? > Greg: And miss seeing the expression on your face? Was that before or after he played Sticks Mandalay on the show? ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-written-episodes-of-a-series-you-love/494180/45 "2009-04-24T18:43:54Z")
_Twin Peaks_ Pilot episode. ---
**Author:** ![Meeko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-written-episodes-of-a-series-you-love/494180/46 "2009-04-24T18:58:11Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Whose Line Is It Anyway?–The one with Richard Simmons > > If you saw either of these, you know what I am talking about. **YES.** Win. I mean Whose Line is Great period. But Richard Simmons… I mean, This show is shown in reruns on ABC FAMILY. F A M I L Y . Explain that! ---
**Author:** ![Meeko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-written-episodes-of-a-series-you-love/494180/47 "2009-04-24T18:59:41Z")
Annie, Thought occurs to me though. Whose Line was not ““Written””. But, Best Episode of US Whose Line, nonetheless. ---
**Author:** ![Meeko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-written-episodes-of-a-series-you-love/494180/48 "2009-04-24T19:02:37Z")
I’m showing my age here. (Or lack thereof) The finale of Newhart, or The Bob Newhart Show. The More recent of the two. I expect a fellow SD to help me out here. ---
**Author:** ![Meeko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-written-episodes-of-a-series-you-love/494180/49 "2009-04-24T19:04:22Z")
Oh hey, look! Meeko points to a Can of worms. The label says “I Love Lucy”. That’s a funny label for a can of worms. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-written-episodes-of-a-series-you-love/494180/50 "2009-04-24T19:24:00Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > The Gong Show: The one with the Popsicle Twins. > > If you saw either of these, you know what I am talking about. Maybe it’s because I watched it last year on YouTube and not in the 70s on TV, but the Popsicle Twins didn’t seem all that dirty to me. There were a few seconds where my eyes bugged out when I realized that got on broadcast TV, but for the most part it was two teenage girls eating popsicles and there’s really only one way to do that. ---
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-written-episodes-of-a-series-you-love/494180/51 "2009-04-24T19:27:51Z")
The pilot of Freaks and Geeks. Absolutely perfect in every way. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-written-episodes-of-a-series-you-love/494180/52 "2009-04-24T19:30:47Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > Agreed. I know it’s de rigeur to hate the later seasons, but this episode freaked the _shit_ out of me. I loved the different levels of conversations. Buffy had that funny conversation with the vampire she’d gone to high school with, Spike was weird and creepy, Willow had a sort of fucked up psychological thriller type conversation with not-Cassie that was ultimately probably the scariest of the conversations, and Dawn had a full-on horror movie experience. They balanced each other out beautifully. > > ETA: It’s been a long time - was Xander even in that episode? Nope. No Xander. If Cassie had replaced with Tara, and if Xander had been visited by Jesse (presuming, of course, that Jesse had ever been acknowledged after dying), then it would have been perfect instead of great. > [@ivylass](#): > > What’s the Scrubs episode where Ben dies and we don’t realize it until the end, when Cox shows up to what he thinks is his son’s birthday party?? I like that one and My American Girl, when Eliot gets her makeover on. My Screw-Up, as mentioned. It and My Lunch, the episode I named, are generally considered Scrubs’ two best, and both are about Dr. Cox coping with senseless death. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-written-episodes-of-a-series-you-love/494180/53 "2009-04-24T19:33:54Z")
I don’t _love_ The Boondocks series, but “A Date with the Health Inspector” is fantastic. It’s by far the best Iraq War parody I’ve seen, with Samuel L. Jackson as a thug version of Donald Rumsfeld, Charlie Murphy as wannabe-thug version of George W. Bush, and throws in a Monty Python spoof that came out of nowhere and cracked me up. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-written-episodes-of-a-series-you-love/494180/54 "2009-04-24T21:39:05Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > Nope. No Xander. If Cassie had replaced with Tara, and if Xander had been visited by Jesse (presuming, of course, that Jesse had ever been acknowledged after dying), then it would have been perfect instead of great. I seem to recall reading that the Buffy people wanted Amber Benson to come back for that episode, but she declined because it would be too upsetting. I think she might have been right about that, too. The First Evil’s “messages” from Tara passed along to Willow were upsetting enough as it was. ---
**Author:** ![cactus\_waltz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@cactus\_waltz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cactus_waltz)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-written-episodes-of-a-series-you-love/494180/55 "2009-04-25T00:06:41Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I’d say The One Where They Build a House and Immaculate Election. The rock-paper-scissors stuff in House is fantastic. It was covered by the papers! ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-written-episodes-of-a-series-you-love/494180/56 "2009-04-25T00:36:23Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > I seem to recall reading that the Buffy people wanted Amber Benson to come back for that episode, but she declined because it would be too upsetting. I think she might have been right about that, too. The First Evil’s “messages” from Tara passed along to Willow were upsetting enough as it was. I believe you’re right, but I don’t like it. It’s always felt cheap to me that she was visited by someone who she didn’t even have much interaction with when Tara had just died a dozen episodes previously. Buffy’s conversation with Holden is acceptable because Joyce was haunting Dawn and she didn’t really have any other dead people in her past that wasn’t a vampire, and we didn’t need another Angel cameo. It’s just one of my peeves. ---
**Author:** ![Stauderhorse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Stauderhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stauderhorse)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-written-episodes-of-a-series-you-love/494180/57 "2009-04-25T00:38:35Z")
Quantum Leap: “Justice”, when Sam leaps into a member of the Ku Klux Klan. You can actually feel the anger and disgust that Sam feels for the situation he has been put into and the helplessness he feels when things look bad. Out of such an amazing series, that was the episode that stuck out for me the most. ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-written-episodes-of-a-series-you-love/494180/58 "2009-04-25T01:09:43Z")
**The Wire** - That’s Got His Own **Arrested Development** - Afternoon Delight **It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia** - Sweet Dee’s Dating A Retarded Person **Seinfeld** - The Betrayal **The Simpsons** - Homer at the Bat ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-written-episodes-of-a-series-you-love/494180/59 "2009-04-25T01:36:44Z")
**Battlestar Galactica** - Scar. A few different establishing shots give the whole show a different feel, and watching Starbuck turning into an emotional wreck because she found something worth living for (the anti-Sheridan) was a treat. ---
**Author:** ![pope\_hentai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@pope\_hentai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pope_hentai)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-written-episodes-of-a-series-you-love/494180/60 "2009-04-25T01:58:00Z")
lexx - the beach: stanely tweedle dies. and is a jerk. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-written-episodes-of-a-series-you-love/494180.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-written-episodes-of-a-series-you-love/494180.md?page=4)