# Most Unique Structure for a TV Episode
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-structure-for-a-tv-episode/727111
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [August 6, 2015, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-structure-for-a-tv-episode/727111 "2015-08-06T00:10:51Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2015, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-structure-for-a-tv-episode/727111/1 "2015-08-06T00:10:51Z")
(I know “Most Unique” is grammatically wrong but it feels right:))
Modern Family had an episode where the entire show was the desktop of her Mac and all the characters appeared via texts, Facetime and videos. I thought it was pretty clever.
I remember Just Shoot Me structured an episode as if it where an episode of the show Biography (and I realize half the people reading this forget or never heard of either of those shows).
30 Rock did an episode that was a episode of a fictional Reality show.
So what other episodes played with their structure in unique ways?
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2015, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-structure-for-a-tv-episode/727111/2 "2015-08-06T00:21:24Z")
Like the Nina Van Horn Biography episode the Simpsons did a Behind the Laughter episode along the lines of Behind the Music.
News Radio did two fantasy episodes, one set in space, and the other was a Titanic parody.
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### Author:  [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2015, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-structure-for-a-tv-episode/727111/3 "2015-08-06T00:25:24Z")
M_A_S\*H did a whole show in black and white, newsreel style.
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2015, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-structure-for-a-tv-episode/727111/4 "2015-08-06T00:33:38Z")
There was a BBC show called _One Foot in the Grave_ that had a few interesting episodes. In one, it’s just three characters in a car stuck in traffic. And the last episode is very dark for a comedy.
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### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2015, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-structure-for-a-tv-episode/727111/5 "2015-08-06T00:34:02Z")
The X-Files/COPS crossover.
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### Author:  [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2015, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-structure-for-a-tv-episode/727111/6 "2015-08-06T00:34:34Z")
Seinfeld had a [Backwards Episode](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Betrayal_(Seinfeld)).
It worked quite well.
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### Author:  [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2015, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-structure-for-a-tv-episode/727111/7 "2015-08-06T00:47:48Z")
My first thought was of the backwards _Seinfeld_. Harold Pinter did it earlier, of course (with his 1978 play _Betrayal_).
But for “playing with the conventions,” I liked the episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in which the heroics of Buffy et al were seen off in the distance while the story concentrated on the usually-less-heroic Xander. This would be the third season, 1999 episode “The Zeppo” (the title of which annoys me as I’ve always been a fan of the work of Mr. Marx.)
The BtVS episode’s underlying idea wasn’t new, either–it was very reminiscent of Tom Stoppard’s 1966 play _Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead_. But that’s television for you. There’s not a lot that’s genuinely innovative, due to the ‘creativity by committee’ nature of the medium.
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2015, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-structure-for-a-tv-episode/727111/8 "2015-08-06T00:55:32Z")
I always liked the ST:TNG episode where they blew up the Enterprise in the teaser. The time loop episode with Kelsey Grammer. (“Cause and Effect”)
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### Author:  [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2015, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-structure-for-a-tv-episode/727111/9 "2015-08-06T00:57:56Z")
If you accept “Late Night With David Letterman,” one episode they spun the image 360 degrees over the hour. In another one, the reverse-imaged the show.
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### Author:  [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2015, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-structure-for-a-tv-episode/727111/10 "2015-08-06T01:05:41Z")
The Love Boat had an episode where the doc had to actually provide some life-saving surgery aboard the ship. The one where they were shipwrecked on an island with a mad hermit played by John Astin from the Addams Family was maybe the most unique in the series.
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2015, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-structure-for-a-tv-episode/727111/11 "2015-08-06T01:08:04Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#):
>
> If you accept “Late Night With David Letterman,” one episode they spun the image 360 degrees over the hour. In another one, the reverse-imaged the show.
When the networks started doing overnight news, they seemed to all be hosted by smartasses. There was the double-deck bus count when their English correspondent gave the market report. One network did the World News Polka every Friday. And once I swear they gave the hockey scores multiplied by pi.
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### Author:  [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2015, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-structure-for-a-tv-episode/727111/12 "2015-08-06T01:10:29Z")
ST: Voyager. The crew and ship were really a life-form from the demon planet the real Voyager had visited a few episodes before. When the crew figures out their existence, they decide to really be the Voyager crew and travel “home” to Earth. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that scenario (clone/replica/etc.) played out like that before.
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2015, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-structure-for-a-tv-episode/727111/13 "2015-08-06T01:12:43Z")
> [@GreenElf](#):
>
> The Love Boat had an episode where the doc had to actually provide some life-saving surgery aboard the ship. The one where they were shipwrecked on an island with a mad hermit played by John Astin from the Addams Family was maybe the most unique in the series.
John Astin was pretty much the go-to guy for mad hermits back then. Before him, it was Vito Scotti.
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### Author:  [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2015, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-structure-for-a-tv-episode/727111/14 "2015-08-06T01:23:32Z")
> [@Procrustus](#):
>
> M_A_S\*H did a whole show in black and white, newsreel style.
Just finished binge-watching the first 8 seasons.
One episode was from the point of view of a wounded soldier. Another was done in “real time” with a ticking clock down in the corner–it even took in to account the commercials, which hardly seemed fair.
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### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2015, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-structure-for-a-tv-episode/727111/15 "2015-08-06T01:25:24Z")
> [@Quimby](#):
>
> (I know “Most Unique” is grammatically wrong but it feels right:))
>
> Modern Family had an episode where the entire show was the desktop of her Mac and all the characters appeared via texts, Facetime and videos. I thought it was pretty clever.
If you haven’t seen the [behind the scenes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5a702k3gU6A) for that episode, it actually was all filmed with iPhones.
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### Author:  [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2015, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-structure-for-a-tv-episode/727111/16 "2015-08-06T01:27:23Z")
Another example from MASH; the episode in which they portrayed the dreams/nightmares of the characters.
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### Author:  [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2015, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-structure-for-a-tv-episode/727111/17 "2015-08-06T01:28:14Z")
_[The Krusty Krab Training Video](https://vimeo.com/45568879)_.
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2015, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-structure-for-a-tv-episode/727111/18 "2015-08-06T01:30:05Z")
The Drew Live episode of the Drew Carey show was shot live, 3 times for different time zones, and included improv sketches.
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### Author:  [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2015, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-structure-for-a-tv-episode/727111/19 "2015-08-06T01:31:17Z")
One that comes to mind is the _Babylon 5_ episode “The Illusion of Truth”, where the first half follows a group of ISN reporters visiting the station and the second half consists of the propaganda hit piece they constructed out of the footage on behalf of the Clark regime.
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### Author:  [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2015, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-structure-for-a-tv-episode/727111/20 "2015-08-06T01:35:44Z")
One episode of “Hot In Cleveland” was animated. Bertinelli was still cuter than her cartoon character.
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