All in the Family even did a Rashomon episode, as well as the previously mentioned “baby in the elevatior” episode.
I remember a bunch of “the pilot has gotten sick/passed out/died and someone (oh yeah, the star of the series!!) needs to land the plane” episodes in the 70s. I think it really crossed the line into the inane when The Incredible Hulk had to land the plane!! :rolleyes: Worst part of it - I was babysitting a young fan of the show (the only reason I happened to see it) and I didn’t dare snark about it lest I break Scotty’s heart. But now that Scotty is approaching 40, should he happen to read this - that was a stupid show!!! 
You can make a drinking game out of the “incapacitated pilot” plotline for JAG. Somewhat less dramatic when you remember (as they remind you once an episode) that the main character of the show is in fact a fighter pilot who became a lawyer. The more interesting part is the wide variety of planes that Harm ends up piloting over the course of the show.
Any heist episode.
On his current show, Seinfeld mentions hating that plot and always wanting to do an episode where it looks like that’s where things are going, but five minutes in someone clears it up and the rest of the episode is about something else, with callbacks to the misunderstanding throughout (“I thought he was cheating.” “No, that was his sister.” “Oh.”).
My gripe is the both sides of the “reports of my death have been exaggerated” trope. The ep where the lead is assumed dead and mourned because the last anyone saw they ran into a building that exploded or were in a car that went off a cliff. No body is recovered, but “no one could have survived that.” This typically ties in with the amnesia trope to explain why they don’t contact someone to explain they’re alive.
The other side is the insistence that (usually recurring) bad guy must have died at the end of the ep, with absolutely no evidence. The last one I saw was Castle, where a bad guy fell from a bridge and Beckett was adamant he couldn’t have survived, despite no blood from when he was shot and no body recovered. No one would even acknowledge the possibility he could have survived, which just makes them look dumb. Said bad guy was back in time for November sweeps the next season.
Archerhas a great bit:
Oh, the day-saver is inevitably the troublesome little sister!
Parents brought in: I notice a lot of parents, particularly mothers, are portrayed as haughty, ultra-polite, whiney passive-aggressive WASPs. The mothers wear expensive little designer suits, call their grown daughters “Dear”, and make super annoying suggestions about everything the offspring do. (“Mother! Please!”). I may be thinking of a relatively small sampling of TV parents, maybe now they are more ‘realistic’ a la Roseanne’s mother and grandmother years ago. Not ever having an uptight, well-dressed, ultra-polite WASPy relative, there must be something simply maddening about them for there to be so many.
This isn’t a genre, but more like a plot twist but absolutely has me seeing red every time they do it.
The episode starts out with some kind of exciting action sequence that’s totally unexplained, then just when they get to the cliff hanger…
“Three days earlier”
The rest of the show is leading up to the spoiler at the beginning of the episode. I’ve actually yelled at my screen when the “three days earlier” thing pops up.
Am I older than everyone else who’s posted here so far? How has nobody mentioned two staples of the 1960s: the Husband and Wife Switch Jobs episodes and the One Character Tries to Convince Another Character S/He is Going Crazy episodes?
The wife’s job is “housewife,” which the husband messes up royally, while the wife is so good at the husband’s job, she gets promoted.
The Gaslighting always involved huge, complicated, faked changes in reality. When I finally sat down to watch Gaslight for the first time, I was excited — I figured it would be even bigger and more complicated because it was the grandaddy of them all. I was so disappointed when all he did was move a painting.
From the 80s through today, there’s the one where the main character finds out that a secondary character hasn’t spoken to a given parent or sibling in years. Said relative is now in town, and the main character urges the secondary character to go and speak with them. It always turns out well. Bullshit.
How Hulk land plane.
[ol]
[li]Go in plane boss room.[/li][li]Sit in chair, stare at pretty lights.[/li][li]When plane land itself, go out. Hulk okay because Hulk strong, people on plane weak so they sleeping. Say bye nice people.[/li][li]Hulk Smash.[/li][/ol]
The storyline I dread involves the appearance of a mentally handicapped character. This character is depicted as saintly, doesn’t do anything inappropriate or awkward, and is essentially a non-handicapped person who talks slowly or haltingly. He/she teaches the regular cast members important lessons about kindness and tolerance and so forth.
Inspirationally Disadvantaged, related is Magical Negro. Even better if they are given a named condition, and are either stereotypically so, or exhibit few of the diagnostic criterion. So either an autistic character who speaks in monotone, has freakouts, and is always a savant, or else a character with Asperger’s who is slightly quirky (I guess that’s not much different from reality’s internet self-diagnosis).
But never go full retard.
I can’t believe no one has mentioned “A Very Special Episode Of [fill in name of sitcom].”
Oh, and I’m getting tired of sitcom dad being an idiot.
It was actually less believable than that. IIRC, David Banner (as Banner) was in the pilot’s seat, and the control thing that you pull back on was jammed. So he somehow (as he never did before or ever again) was able to get just a little angry and became Hulk-ish (but not full Hulk) and so was strong enough to pull it back and land the plane, and yet not smash everything. :rolleyes:
I normally hate clip shows, but loved the one on Community where they showed scenes that were never on any episode.
The plot device I’m most tired of is when someone has a car accident, has no insurance, and the judge sentences him to be the other driver’s butler.
An accident (with either paint or food) turns into a full fight.
The dreaded “airhead/half-wit supporting character actually has the highest IQ/test score of everyone” episode.
Or to pull the control yoke out of the floor and crash the aircraft. He then goes “full-Hulk” after landing, jumps out of the plane and runs away across the tarmac. And nobody seems to have given a good description of his appearance allowing people to determine that David Banner is still alive.
Priceless.
Twins trading places, anyone? Yes, because twins also sound, talk, and act alike all the time too.
A character accidentally takes drugs, hilarity ensues.