# I describe the episode, and you name the tv show **URL:** \ **Category:** Thread Games\ **Created:** [November 10, 2025, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-describe-the-episode-and-you-name-the-tv-show/1024717 "2025-11-10T05:44:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2025, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-describe-the-episode-and-you-name-the-tv-show/1024717/1 "2025-11-10T05:44:14Z")
And if you guess right, you describe an episode and the _next_ person guesses _that_ show. Decent guy played by Larry Linville helps out a stranger played by Dick Van Dyke who wants to return the favor…by possibly murdering Linville’s wife. ---
**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:** [November 10, 2025, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-describe-the-episode-and-you-name-the-tv-show/1024717/2 "2025-11-10T13:55:53Z")
Is that Columbo? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2025, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-describe-the-episode-and-you-name-the-tv-show/1024717/3 "2025-11-10T14:46:40Z")
I don’t think blind-guessing shows that had guest stars is going to cut it here. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2025, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-describe-the-episode-and-you-name-the-tv-show/1024717/4 "2025-11-10T17:44:23Z")
Clue: Short-lived series. ---
**Author:** ![f.coli](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eada6e/32.png) [@f.coli](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/f.coli)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2025, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-describe-the-episode-and-you-name-the-tv-show/1024717/5 "2025-11-10T20:45:43Z")
Supertrain. I looked it up on IMDb. I hope that isn’t against the rules. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2025, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-describe-the-episode-and-you-name-the-tv-show/1024717/6 "2025-11-10T20:47:08Z")
Beats the hell out of blind guessing from many thousands of shows, I would say. Have you got one to replace it? ---
**Author:** ![f.coli](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eada6e/32.png) [@f.coli](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/f.coli)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2025, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-describe-the-episode-and-you-name-the-tv-show/1024717/7 "2025-11-10T20:53:07Z")
Jack Klugman plays a high stakes game of pool against Jonathan Winters. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2025, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-describe-the-episode-and-you-name-the-tv-show/1024717/8 "2025-11-10T20:57:15Z")
I know that one, but I’ll leave it to the next player…for now. I love the fact that in both shows normally comedic actors play their roles seriously. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2025, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-describe-the-episode-and-you-name-the-tv-show/1024717/9 "2025-11-10T22:37:55Z")
Twilight Zone. Not sure of the episode name without looking it up, but definitely old Twilight Zone. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2025, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-describe-the-episode-and-you-name-the-tv-show/1024717/10 "2025-11-10T22:41:17Z")
Decent guy, played by Dick Van Dyke, sends a coworker on a blind date with a wife beater. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2025, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-describe-the-episode-and-you-name-the-tv-show/1024717/11 "2025-11-10T22:42:34Z")
A person, and not a shirt, right? ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2025, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-describe-the-episode-and-you-name-the-tv-show/1024717/12 "2025-11-10T22:44:57Z")
Yes, a man that beats women, including his ex-wife(s). ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2025, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-describe-the-episode-and-you-name-the-tv-show/1024717/13 "2025-11-10T23:07:09Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Decent guy, played by Dick Van Dyke, sends a coworker on a blind date with a wife beater. That’s actually an episode of the Dick Van Dyke Show. Try this: Former schoolteacher convinces a teenager to stay in school by teaching the kid what an atom is in 60 seconds. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2025, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-describe-the-episode-and-you-name-the-tv-show/1024717/14 "2025-11-10T23:10:35Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > That’s actually an episode of the Dick Van Dyke Show. It is. I posted about it a while back too. Such a serious topic for a comedy show from the 60s. [Here’s the scene](https://youtu.be/HlkSD6Rdj1g?t=1334). It’s cued up right after Rob and Laura find out he’s not going on another date with either of the women they set him up with…for fear of hitting them. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2025, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-describe-the-episode-and-you-name-the-tv-show/1024717/15 "2025-11-11T00:12:33Z")
I’ve posted about that too [Shows that have one WTF? Episode - #116 by Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-have-one-wtf-episode/939754/116) ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2025, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-describe-the-episode-and-you-name-the-tv-show/1024717/16 "2025-11-11T00:16:04Z")
WKRP in Cincinnati. Souvenir collector inadvertently convinces John Wayne to apologize to William Holden ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2025, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-describe-the-episode-and-you-name-the-tv-show/1024717/17 "2025-11-11T01:10:25Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > I’ve posted about that too Ninja’d by two years: > [@Absolute WTF, 'what were they thinking' plots and subplots in old movies and TV shows](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolute-wtf-what-were-they-thinking-plots-and-subplots-in-old-movies-and-tv-shows/995229/129): > > A while back I was watching The Dick Van Dyke show. Rob and Laura had a new neighbor and decided to set him up on some blind dates. Afterwards, they asked which one he would go out with again, to which he told them that he wouldn’t go out with either of them again. As it turns out, he has a habit of hitting women that he likes, so he doesn’t want to go out with either of his dates again for fear of what he might do. I mean, it shows great restraint on his part, but a bizarre topic for an episo… > [@Absolute WTF, 'what were they thinking' plots and subplots in old movies and TV shows](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolute-wtf-what-were-they-thinking-plots-and-subplots-in-old-movies-and-tv-shows/995229/130): > > Interestingly, they could have left that out and just made the part about him being divorced (at least) 3 times as the controversial reveal that would have scared everyone off. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2025, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-describe-the-episode-and-you-name-the-tv-show/1024717/18 "2025-11-11T01:27:27Z")
My ghod-Y’all might have stumbled across the very first “_Very Special Episode_”! ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2025, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-describe-the-episode-and-you-name-the-tv-show/1024717/19 "2025-11-11T01:40:59Z")
I posted about it in 2019 > [@Unexpected Different Attitudes In Older Works](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-different-attitudes-in-older-works/835178/166): > > That reminds me of a real doozy. In an episode of the Dick Van Dyke show (the Lady and the Tiger and the Lawyer), Rob and Laurie each set up the new neighbor on dates - Rob sets him up on a date with his coworker (Sally) and Laurie sets him up on a date with her cousin. Both dates apparently go very well - the guy likes Sally, and he likes the cousin. Which one is he going to call for a second date? Apparently neither - but why? The reason why is that the neighbor has a problem - he beats u… ---
**Author:** ![f.coli](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eada6e/32.png) [@f.coli](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/f.coli)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2025, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-describe-the-episode-and-you-name-the-tv-show/1024717/20 "2025-11-11T12:45:31Z")
The TZ episode was named “A Game of Pool”, a pretty straightforward title. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-describe-the-episode-and-you-name-the-tv-show/1024717.md?page=2)