# Shows that break reality/introduce supernatural elements but **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted\ **Created:** [April 12, 2020, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639 "2020-04-12T17:20:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639/21 "2020-04-13T00:23:14Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > I was just watching _Life of Brian_ with my son last night (great Easter movie!) and I had completely forgotten that at one point, in a totally pythonesque way, a random alien spaceship zooms by and accidentally saves Brian from falling off a tall building, before spending five minutes zooming through space in a wacky space gunfight > > (actually, maybe that wasn’t even left in the original theatrical release? I don’t know! It sure was weird though) 😃 Guess what I’m watching right now on TV? (in another heathen country where that seems to be a popular movie for Easter.) I thought about starting a thread about movies with completely wacky scenes that come out of the blue! But this thread is a good place for it, too. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639/22 "2020-04-13T00:24:19Z")
There was an episode of Diagnosis: Murder that included a vampire. I forget whether she turned out to be a real vampire or not. ---
**Author:** ![gdave](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gdave/32/3683_2.png) [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639/23 "2020-04-13T00:25:52Z")
Off the top of my head, a couple more examples: _Eureka_ was a SyFy sci-fi show with _very_ rubbery “science”, but by its own terms, it explicitly did not contain any supernatural elements. All of the weird occurrences ultimately had “scientific” explanations. Except that it had a couple of cross-over episodes with another SyFy show, _Warehouse 13_, which centered around explicitly supernatural artifacts. _Benson_ had an episode where Benson played chess against Death for the lives of a busload of school-children. Another episode had the governor see a UFO, and it was strongly implied he had actually encountered an extraterrestrial craft. There was at least some ambiguity in the UFO episode, but the Death episode was very straight-forward. It was literally Death himself. As an aside, it seemed to me at the time that Robert Guillaume’s acting and timing were distinctly off during his scenes with Death, as if he just couldn’t commit as an actor to the bizarre plot. _The Unit_, an otherwise bog-standard military action-adventure series, had an episode where the characters encounter the literal, magical, Spear of Destiny. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639/24 "2020-04-13T00:36:24Z")
Every sitcom that had a Scrooge or Its a Wonderful Life Christmas episode. That’s most of them. ---
**Author:** ![turtlescanfly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@turtlescanfly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/turtlescanfly)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639/25 "2020-04-13T00:36:51Z")
The basic premise of Outlander is of a 20th century woman who time travels back to 18th century Scotland, but time travel, or her knowledge of the future, does not figure heavily in the plot. Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639/26 "2020-04-13T01:31:51Z")
> [@gdave](#): > > Off the top of my head, a couple more examples: > > _Eureka_ was a SyFy sci-fi show with _very_ rubbery “science”, but by its own terms, it explicitly did not contain any supernatural elements. All of the weird occurrences ultimately had “scientific” explanations. Except that it had a couple of cross-over episodes with another SyFy show, _Warehouse 13_, which centered around explicitly supernatural artifacts. > > _Benson_ had an episode where Benson played chess against Death for the lives of a busload of school-children. Another episode had the governor see a UFO, and it was strongly implied he had actually encountered an extraterrestrial craft. There was at least some ambiguity in the UFO episode, but the Death episode was very straight-forward. It was literally Death himself. As an aside, it seemed to me at the time that Robert Guillaume’s acting and timing were distinctly off during his scenes with Death, as if he just couldn’t commit as an actor to the bizarre plot. Maybe, but Benson spinned off from Soap which had any number of possessed babies and UFOs. Also there was a Benson episode where Jessicas ghost visited Benson, it was [quite touching](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOJXlLxFKRY) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639/27 "2020-04-13T02:49:01Z")
_Happy Days_ also had an episode involving a deal with the Devil, IIRC. And on _M_A_S_H\*, don’t forget that Radar was a precog. ---
**Author:** ![Calavera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calavera/32/70_2.png) [@Calavera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Calavera)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639/28 "2020-04-13T02:50:18Z")
A UK TV show _Chancer_ was a real world show about a sorta dodgy guy. One episode he talked to a ghost. No ambiguity, no indication of the paranormal in any other episode. I believe the only logical explanation that fits all the events of the first _Full House_ Christmas episode is “Santa Claus is real and really did speak to Stephanie”, nothing else makes sense. ---
**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:** [April 13, 2020, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639/29 "2020-04-13T02:55:33Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Every sitcom that had a Scrooge or Its a Wonderful Life Christmas episode. That’s most of them. Some of those can be interpreted as dreams (not all, I’ll admit) > [@Chronos](#): > > _Happy Days_ also had an episode involving a deal with the Devil, IIRC. Gosh, I saw the series (“Out of the Blue”) that spun off that episode (in the episode Chachi meets an angel (named “Random”) who helps him out of his deal with the devil. In the series, the angel runs an orphanage for some reason. Quantum Leap was mostly straight science fiction - except for the time that the devil showed up. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639/30 "2020-04-13T03:06:46Z")
I feel like there’s an whole trope of Santa being real, usually with an ending of “That crazy old guy said he was Santa, haha… but how did he know about [childhood memory/desire for gift]?” Despite being sure this was a thing, I couldn’t just list an episode off the top of my head. But I did look and found a Cracked article listing Night Court (that show again?), The Nanny, Home Improvement, ER and Gilligan’s Island as examples. Admittedly, that last one may fall outside of “breaking reality”. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639/31 "2020-04-13T03:28:37Z")
There was an episode of ER years ago where Noah Wyle, the idealistic young Dr. Carter, befriended an old guy (played by Ed Asner) who wanted to establish a clinic for the destitute and (being wealthy) gave him the money. The last scene, he went to the building, just to find it deserted. Was it a dream? was Ed A. ghost? …It gave me chills at the time, till someone told me, ‘dumbass, Ed Asner was a con artist who disappeared with Carter’s money. hard lesson learned!’ so…never mind ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639/32 "2020-04-13T03:29:12Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > Some of those can be interpreted as dreams (not all, I’ll admit) > > Gosh, I saw the series (“Out of the Blue”) that spun off that episode (in the episode Chachi meets an angel (named “Random”) who helps him out of his deal with the devil. In the series, the angel runs an orphanage for some reason. > > Quantum Leap was mostly straight science fiction - except for the time that the devil showed up. And then God of course. Which I was fine with And we see in NuBSG that everything Head Six has been saying since episode one is correct, and it wasn’t “A chip/Baltars a Cylon…etc…” ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639/33 "2020-04-13T03:33:11Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > Quantum Leap was mostly straight science fiction - except for the time that the devil showed up. I dunno, if Sam was a time-displaced angel who flitted through time and space to put right what once went wrong and Al was his invisible-to-all-except-dogs-and-children angel buddy, the show would not have been any different. If there’d been one episode when Sam had to kill someone who was going to be the next Hitler or whatnot, or least do _something_ that was objectively negative in the short term to avoid a worse long-term outcome, I might have thought more highly of the show. I remember giving up on the series after the Lee Harvey Oswald episode. ---
**Author:** ![galen\_ubal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/galen_ubal/32/4440_2.png) [@galen\_ubal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galen_ubal)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639/34 "2020-04-13T03:50:36Z")
_M_A_S_H\* had one “ghost” episode - [Follies of the Living - Concerns of the Dead.](https://mash.fandom.com/wiki/Follies_of_the_Living-Concerns_of_the_Dead_(TV_series_episode)) Klinger has a high fever, and sees and communicates with a soldier who was brought in DOA - Private Jimmy Weston. The episode also follows Weston wandering about, listening in on conversations, but unable to communicate with anyone but Klinger. I remember this one, though it’s been years since I’ve seen it. ---
**Author:** ![GESancMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gesancman/32/2923_2.png) [@GESancMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GESancMan)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639/35 "2020-04-13T04:10:49Z")
Another Quantum Leap episode: I vaguely recall there was one where the person Sam leaps into has a connection to a psychic, who sees Sam for who he really is. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639/36 "2020-04-13T04:18:53Z")
_Twin Peaks_ What the fuck was all that dancing midget and Giant about??? But that gum I like did in fact come back in style. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639/37 "2020-04-13T04:42:58Z")
_The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew Mysteries_ had an episode with a vampire. The vampire was revealed to be a fraud, but as the cops were hauling him away, he walked past a mirror. The mirror only reflected an empty suit and a set of handcuffs floating in mid-air. _McCloud_ had an episode with a vampire. The vampire turned out to be a human lunatic. He falls off of a bridge, leaving his cape hanging on a fencepost. At the end, the cops are searching the river for the body, and McCloud sees a bat fluttering around the cape. _The Six Million Dollar Man_ was not exactly hard science fiction, but it did focus on science and technology. But there was one episode that had a ghost (which turned out to be fake), a pair of psychic twins (who seemed to be real), and a carny fortune-teller who, it was implied, might be a real ghost. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639/38 "2020-04-13T04:45:54Z")
I hate to pick on Bones but any time Cindi Lauper appeared you best be believing in a supernatural episode-- cuz you’re in one! Man, I _hated_ how they liked to make Bones look stupid for not believing that Avalon was really psychic. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639/39 "2020-04-13T04:51:32Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > _Twin Peaks_ > > What the fuck was all that dancing midget and Giant about??? > > But that gum I like did in fact come back in style. I thought someone had cut off their own arm cause it became evil and that arm became the midget…or something. ---
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639/40 "2020-04-13T05:52:18Z")
The Sopranos had a dead character show up reflected in a mirror once. Only the audience sees him, but Tony sort of pauses for a moment like something just happened. Another character sees the Virgin Mary floating on stage at the Bada Bing strip club. There’s also a psychic who seems to know an awful lot about Paulie and poison ivy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-break-reality-introduce-supernatural-elements-but/851639.md?page=3)