MASH* also had an episode, all in B&W, about a Murrow-esque TV journalist interviewing the gallant surgeons and support staff of the 4077th for the edification of the folks back home.
I loved the backwards episode of Seinfeld, where they go to India for Sue Ellen’s wedding. One of my favorites. “Good night, Jugdish!”
Northern Exposure had a show set at the time of the founding of the town, where everyone in the cast was playing some long-ago predecessor.
Some of The X-Files comedy episodes played like one-off shticks. Don’t know how well they fit into series canon (if there is such a thing).
How about “That 70s Show” - a double whammy, a guardian angel (Newman from “Seinfeld”) shows Eric what his life would have been like if he hadn’t hooked up with Donna. Aside from the “It’s a Wonderful Life” conceit, it fast forwards the characters into the 1980s briefly.
There were two of these episodes. The Interview, from season 4, and Our Finest Hour, from season 7 - which was an hour long (as I discovered when I was looking to confirm how many interview episodes there were for my earlier post), which means there are 3 in syndication.
Roseanne did an episode riffing on stereotypical 50s sitcoms, complete with 50s sitcom commercials. One of the commercials was when a bald guy (think Mr. Clean, but without the clean) magically appeared to offer Roseanne a “pick-me-up” tonic. “Wow, I feel better!” “Of course you do! It’s 80% alcohol!”
The episode of “Law & Order” where they “killed off” Jill Hennessey’s character which had no crime to solve. Instead, it focusses on the effects on the Principals of witnessing an execution and how it brutalizes them - McCoy and Briscoe bury themselves in drink, Curtis cheats on his wife (with a young Jennifer Garner!) and Kincaide decides she can’t work in a system which sponsors the DP. It was one of the very very best L&O stories.
They also did a few “clock is ticking” episodes - perhaps the best was when Briscoe was trying to get through the day so he and Logan could go to a basketball game and people just kept getting murdered!
Buffy did an episode (Superstar that revolved around Jonathan, who had not been seen before on the show AFAIK. He was inserted into the credits to make it seem like he was the central member of the Scooby Gang - I was wondering if I had missed an episode until everything was explained.
There’s also the episode The Zeppo, which everybody apparently hates, but which is one of my favorite episodes. That episode purely depicts Xander’s point of view (and actions to save the world), while the rest of the gang is only seen at times, mostly from afar, wrestling with some kind of demon.
[nitpick on] The Will & Grace ep of which you speak took place in a bathroom in Karen’s mansion; and it was the second “live” episode they did - the first one being earlier that season with guest star Alec Baldwin where it was revealed Stanley Walker had faked his death.[nitpick off]
There are some types of one-off episode that appear repeatedly, in all sorts of series. One is The Musical Episode and another is The Live Episode, both already mentioned.
Another is The Minor Character episode, which takes the viewpoint of someone other than the leads; sometimes the leads don’t even appear (or barely appear). The X-Files did this in “Musings of A Cigarette-Smoking Man”. Others of this type have already been mentioned.
Then there are the movie ripoff episodes:
The Rashomon episode, telling the same incident from more than one viewpoint. Even Mama’s Family did one of these–and it was one of their best episodes. Done properly, this can be very clever. The X-Files’ Rashomon, “Bad Blood”, is one of their best (and funniest) ever.
The It’s A Wonderful Life episode, or “What would life be like if X had never been born?” (Variant: “What if X and Y had never met?”) Beauty and the Beast did one of these, and at least one other is mentioned upthread. The X-Files, oddly, never did one of these.
The Freaky Friday episode, in which characters swap bodies. (Variant: Characters are reincarnated in each others’ bodies.) The X-Files did this too, the two-parter “Dreamland”.
A newer one is the Groundhog Day episode, with the same event taking place over and over until someone gets it right. This was “Monday” on The X-Files. (I hate these.)
Then there are Time Travel episode (suddenly all the characters are in a World War II movie or something. X-Files again: “Triangle”), the Black and White episode (X-Files: “Post-Modern Prometheus”), and the dreary Flashback episode that airs clips from past episodes while the characters wait for another character to come out of a coma (Charlie’s Angels) or some other event (the X-Files saved this for the finale).
First of all, Jonathan has always been a recurring character in the Buffyverse (he actually appeared in the unaired pilot, but his scene was cut from the real pilot). He appears in a good dozen episodes before “Superstar.”
And nobody hates “The Zeppo.” In those “What’s your favorite Buffy epiode?” threads it’s in the top five for sure.
Then there are the episodes which are actually pilots for some other show. The characters suddenly vanish and the entire story is some different group of characters in some other situation.
Star Trek – Kirk and Spock go back in time to watch Gary seven and Terri Garr save the world.
Green Acres – Oliver and Lisa go on a vacation to Hawaii and watch a sensible father and wacky daughter run a luxury hotel.
All In The Family – Edith gets sick and her cousin Maude comes to help out
Boston Legal recently did an episode that was intercut with flashbacks from a movie William Shatner did in the 1950’s called “The Defender.” The episode was called “Son of the Defender.”
Star Trek does one-offs all the time but the one that stands out is “In A Mirror Darkly” which was set entirely in the Mirror Universe and had opening credits that showed the military glories of the Empire set to dramatic music rather than space exploration set to pop.
He does? My bad - it’s been some time since I watched the whole season, I thought those appearances were in the episodes afterwards. But maybe I just remember him better after that episode.
And I’m glad there is some approval for “The Zeppo”, I seem to remember people violently opposed to it because they hated Xander.
Even ST:TNG’s “Cause and Effect”? That was my first experience with this storytelling method and remains to this day one of my favorite TNG episodes. It certainly has the most attention-grabbing teaser ever.
Tonight’s episode of Doctor Who was similar. A spaceship will crash into a star in 42 minutes. The Doctor must save it. The episode runs in real time with frequent cuts to a computer counting down the time left.
); what was the teaser?