There was that episode of Family Ties that took place on a nearly bare stage as Alex underwent therapy to help him get over the death of his (never before heard about) best friend.
And never mentioned again, as far as I remember.
Drew Carey: What’s Wrong with This Episode. Especially notable is the fourth installment’s use of The Sims.
Pinky and the Brain: Pinky POV.
The did the whole episode from Pinky’s POV. Which was hilarious because you got to hear Pinky’s inner thoughts and why he would come up with such bizarre and seemingly random answers whenever Brain would ask him: “Pinky, are you pondering what I’m pondering?”
Pinky: “I think so Brain, but this time YOU put the dress on the rhinoceros!”
Nah, even before that there was the hacking episode that was pretty interesting structured. Very tense even though nothing happens except people sitting in a room looking at computer monitors. And I feel like there’s other examples, but as said I would need to go back and watch it to remember.
In terms of uniquity you have to give Cop Rocksome props. Maybe there’s a reason they don’t make other singing cop shows.
Like Mayhem of the Music Meister on the animated Batman: the Brave and the Bold.
There was an episode of Monk in which the cast is at a party for the airing of a TV documentary about Adrian Monk, and he solves a murder while watching the show.
In The Prisoner episode Living in Harmony, the whole episode was done as a Western with no opening titles and no explanation (until the end). For the first fifteen minutes, I thought the regular show had been preempted and replaced with a different series.
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An ER Episode called Time of Death that followed Ray Liotta’s liver failure patient’s treatment from beginning to end. I’m not sure it was the whole hour as there may have been stuff in the very beginning, but once Ray Liotta rolls into the ER, he is the sole focus of the episode. I remember it being quite harrowing and I probably wouldn’t want to watch it again, but at the time I was riveted.
There is no such thing as “most unique”, but there was the interesting episode of Breaking Bad all about a fly getting in the meth lab.
They had an episode that was mostly the characters playing Dungeons & Dragons, and they didn’t opt for a goofy mind’s eye portrayal of what was happening in the game with the cast in fantasy costumes and whatnot. The audience just sees the players sitting around the table, playing the game (albeit with some sound effects added), and it’s immersive enough to drive the plot of the entire episode.
Then there was “Remedial Chaos Theory”, where Jeff rolls a die to decide who goes to get the pizza they ordered, and we see how events unfold differently in each “timeline” based on who is absent.
And there was an episode done in the style of a Civil War documentary.
P.S. How about “most distinctive”?
The DVD contains a version of the episode in normal order. It’s actually pretty dumb. It works much better backwards.
Moonlighting did a whole episode in the style and costumes of Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew.”
Are you thinking of the one where the Angel was a microscopic computer virus?
The second season finale of Third Rock from the Sun, “A Nightmare on Dick Street”, drastically departed from the usual sitcom format, both structurally and technically. The episode featured extended dream sequences for each of the main characters. I remember Harry’s was a meticulously choreographed musical number, and Sally’s was done in some bizarre cinematic style. I think all of them were shot and broadcast in 3D, which required viewers to obtain special glasses from tie-in promotions.
Frasier also did this with part of one episode. The first act has no dialogue at all, and features Niles disastrously failing to iron out a crease in his pants.
Apparently yes, but I had forgotten about that part and I think I was maybe conflating it with “The Day Tokyo-3 Stood Still”, where they were being attacked by another human faction. So I guess no hacking, just good ol’ microscopic angel virus.
Which is a good thing I think. If it works forwards the fact that it’s backwards is just a gimmick.
The last season of The West Wing had a live debate. The did it twice once for each coast.
I remember some years back WGN broadcast a Cubs game “throwback style”, where they started in the 1920’s with a single black and white camera on the roof behind home plate, then every few innings would move up a decade, adding more cameras and simulating the angles and graphics, so then the main camera was from right behind home plate, then it moved out to center field, and there were no instant replays until about the third or fourth inning.