# Clip shows--extinct? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 14, 2018, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clip-shows-extinct/816085 "2018-06-14T12:29:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2018, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clip-shows-extinct/816085/21 "2018-06-14T17:16:06Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > That was because of the “early hiatus” mentioned by **silenus**. It had been over two months since the most recent episode of _WKRP_ had aired, and the show hadn’t had particularly high ratings during that first 8-week run. Episode 9 was something of a relaunch, in a better timeslot (right after the powerhouse of _M_A_S_H\*), with some slight retooling. The clip show format was a deliberate choice to catch up everyone who might not have seen the first few episodes. I remember that. It was a case of necessity instead of laziness or cost cutting. I think the show began to improve from that point, at least for a while. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2018, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clip-shows-extinct/816085/22 "2018-06-14T17:37:17Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > They do that when they’re taking a week off. They could just re-run an old episode, but so much of what they do is based on that week’s current events. The clips they tend to use tend to rely heavily on the parts of the show (like “Not My Job”) that don’t date as much. I’m a dues-paying member, dammit! I expect a fresh show every week! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2018, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clip-shows-extinct/816085/23 "2018-06-14T17:38:39Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > _Rick and Morty_ does them every season: Morty’s Mindblowers, Interdimensional Cable, etc. > [@muldoonthief](#): > > Do those count since they’re all new material? When I think “clip show”, I think of previously aired clips they they’re pasting together to save a few bucks. Hmm; yeah, I guess they would fall under the “ironic” category as defined in the OP. ---
**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:** [June 14, 2018, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clip-shows-extinct/816085/24 "2018-06-14T17:48:54Z")
> [@Scoobysnax](#): > > The ST:TNG clip show is a particularly bad example since it aired during the second season. Most shows have 4-5 years of episodes to pull from, they only had 30-35 episodes. Even worse: it was the season finale! ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2018, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clip-shows-extinct/816085/25 "2018-06-14T18:06:19Z")
I think ST TNG suffered from a writer’s strike at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2018, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clip-shows-extinct/816085/26 "2018-06-14T18:12:32Z")
If talk shows are allowed there’s Joel Mchale on Netflix. Then there’s The Regular Show Halloween specials. ---
**Author:** ![Doubticus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@Doubticus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doubticus)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2018, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clip-shows-extinct/816085/27 "2018-06-14T18:12:51Z")
Seems like every other episode of “American Pickers” is a clip show. Not sure if it fits the criteria of the OP. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2018, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clip-shows-extinct/816085/28 "2018-06-14T18:23:19Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > I think ST TNG suffered from a writer’s strike at the time. That’s what I thought, too, but both wikipedia and Memory Alpha say that this isn’t so. Both sources claim that the clip show (“Shades of Gray”) was done to save money, because they had gone over-budget on previous Season 2 episodes like “Elementary, Dear Data,” and “Q Who” (the episode that introduced the Borg). The frame sequences were apparently shot in only three days (compared to the usual seven-day shooting schedule for a typical episode). Even Maurice Hurley, who wrote the script, called it “a piece of shit.” ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2018, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clip-shows-extinct/816085/29 "2018-06-14T18:25:03Z")
> [@Doubticus](#): > > Seems like every other episode of “American Pickers” is a clip show. Not sure if it fits the criteria of the OP. Never watched _American Pickers_, but by “clip show” I meant an episode made up mostly or entirely of segments of material from previous episodes. I remember that every show used to have one occasionally, but I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen a new one. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2018, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clip-shows-extinct/816085/30 "2018-06-14T18:28:57Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > Maybe because TV has evolved since then, but you don’t see much of it now. I don’t think it’s the evolution of TV _per se_, so much as (as others have mentioned) that the rise of YouTube and on-demand streaming (and, to a lesser extent, VCRs and DVRs and syndication before that) have rendered clip shows relatively obsolete. ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2018, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clip-shows-extinct/816085/31 "2018-06-14T18:38:53Z")
These are still pretty common in anime. They can happen for one of several reasons. One is for “recap episodes”, which attempt to summarize the story up until the current point. Series will do this either because certain characters and plotlines were out of focus for a long while, or because the series itself was on hiatus for a while and they want to remind returning viewers about the original story (and give new viewers a fighting chance of understanding what’s going on). For example, the first season of _Yuki Yuna is a Hero_ aired in fall 2014. The sequel aired 3 years later, in late 2017. So before the sequel proper began, they did a one-episode clip show that recapped the events of the first season. Memories can get pretty fuzzy three years after the fact. Another case I saw recently was in _Re: Creators_. In that case, the series spanned the spring and summer 2017 seasons. To give the production team a break and some buffer time in the schedule (anime production is notorious for running close to the wire), they planned a recap episode between the spring and summer seasons. It was actually really well done and got a lot of praise, as one of the characters narrated the whole thing and was delightfully snarky towards the rest of the cast (and a couple of the scenes were re-animated to be much more flattering to the narrator) There’s also the saddest, and probably the most common, cause of anime clip shows. Remember how I said the production runs close to the wire? Well, sometimes they exhaust all of the buffer in the schedule and are unable to deliver an episode on time for broadcast. When that happens, they’re usually forced to do a clip show of some kind in its place, and the whole schedule is shifted out one week. One particularly notorious example that comes to mind is _Girls und Panzer_, which has the unfortunate distinction of running 2 clip episodes in its original 12 episode run (the originally planned 2 episode finale had to be broadcast months later when they could finally squeeze into the TV schedule). In this case, the clip shows went over background details of various members of the cast. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2018, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clip-shows-extinct/816085/32 "2018-06-14T18:43:59Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > I was also someone who, back in the old days, used to really enjoy clip shows. It was a chance to see some of the best bits again, and in those days before DVR, on-demand, and endless syndicated reruns, chances like that were rare. Me too. I never realized clip shows were so hated until I got on this board. I remember watching syndicated shows as a kid, seeing a clip show and thinking “Oh yeah, I remember when the Jeffersons did that!” ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2018, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clip-shows-extinct/816085/33 "2018-06-14T18:49:46Z")
> [@Rysto](#): > > These are still pretty common in anime. They can happen for one of several reasons. One is for “recap episodes”, which attempt to summarize the story up until the current point. I thought about mentioning anime, as they are some of the worst offenders. It’s the flashbacks, though that really get to me. Sometimes an entire episode will be a flashback. Naruto was a pretty big sinner on this. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2018, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clip-shows-extinct/816085/34 "2018-06-14T18:59:29Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > I’m a dues-paying member, dammit! I expect a fresh show every week! This is why I hate clip shows. They aren’t episodes of the series, yet they are presented as such. I don’t know how the advertisers can stand this stuff either. I have to fast forward through commercials those advertisers paid full price for. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2018, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clip-shows-extinct/816085/35 "2018-06-14T19:14:56Z")
The Office one mentioned above is the most recent one I remember. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2018, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clip-shows-extinct/816085/36 "2018-06-14T19:23:45Z")
> [@Grrr](#): > > If talk shows are allowed there’s Joel Mchale on Netflix… I was addicted to _Talk Soup_, his former snarkfest of a show. Then he quit it to do _Community_ (yes, yes, we’re all glad he did, brilliant, he was wonderful, we couldn’t tell he hated Chevy Chase until he played him in the Natl. Lampoon documentary, but still, we missed Joel making witty comments next to a big screen)… When he started back snarking on Netflix, they opened on him standing on the right, next to a big screen, just like his pervious show. And his first line was “So, where was I? Oh, yes…” and continued as if he’d been interrupted mid-thought. Nice. ---
**Author:** ![caligulathegod](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/caligulathegod/32/9685_2.png) [@caligulathegod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caligulathegod)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2018, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clip-shows-extinct/816085/37 "2018-06-15T00:51:39Z")
> [@digs](#): > > I was addicted to _Talk Soup_, his former snarkfest of a show. Then he quit it to do _Community_ (yes, yes, we’re all glad he did, brilliant, he was wonderful, we couldn’t tell he hated Chevy Chase until he played him in the Natl. Lampoon documentary, but still, we missed Joel making witty comments next to a big screen)… > > When he started back snarking on Netflix, they opened on him standing on the right, next to a big screen, just like his pervious show. And his first line was “So, where was I? Oh, yes…” and continued as if he’d been interrupted mid-thought. > > Nice. That’s actually a reference to Jack Parr when he hosted the Tonight Show. He famously walked off the show after getting censored on a joke (about confusing a water closet for Wayside Chapel), leaving Hugh Downs to finish. “There must be a better way of making a living than this.” He returned to the show a month later saying, “As I was saying before I was interrupted…” ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2018, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clip-shows-extinct/816085/38 "2018-06-15T01:09:44Z")
The show that McHale hosted was _The Soup_, not _Talk Soup_. _Talk Soup_ was an earlier show. It was basically the same idea though. McHale did not quit doing _The Soup_ to do _Community_. He did both at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2018, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clip-shows-extinct/816085/39 "2018-06-15T05:34:39Z")
> [@Rysto](#): > > These are still pretty common in anime. If you haven’t seen Shirobako, you really should. It’s an anime about the making of anime, and a recurring issue is running very close to the wire and should they give up and run a recap episode in their 13 episode runs. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2018, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clip-shows-extinct/816085/40 "2018-06-15T07:22:51Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Even worse: it was the season finale! Think that’s bad? _Full House_ ENDED on a clip show! With the dumb premise that Michelle fell and hit her head getting amnesia and the rest of the family tells her moments from old episodes to try to get her to remember again. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clip-shows-extinct/816085.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clip-shows-extinct/816085.md?page=3)