# Shows that have one WTF? Episode **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted\ **Created:** [April 10, 2021, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-have-one-wtf-episode/939754 "2021-04-10T15:31:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2021, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-have-one-wtf-episode/939754/81 "2021-04-13T18:21:22Z")
_Star Trek: Deep Space Nine_ had “Far Beyond the Stars”, in which Sisko and the other main characters are all 1950s science fiction writers (framed as a hallucination Sisco is experiencing). IMO it’s a pretty good episode, but it is kind of weird in the context of the rest of the series. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2021, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-have-one-wtf-episode/939754/82 "2021-04-13T18:28:29Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > Fairly certain there was an episode of Roseanne where they had to write a character out of the show, and they decided to just have him randomly get abducted by aliens. And the final shot of the episode is literally said guy happily hanging out with two aliens in their space ship, and the guy is never talked about again in the rest of the show. I wonder if that’s where the creators of the _Itchy & Scratchy Show_ got the idea to get Poochie off the show? 😀 [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/4tvAjX5ACPo/hqdefault.jpg "Itchy and Scratchy - Goodbye, Poochie") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tvAjX5ACPo) ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2021, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-have-one-wtf-episode/939754/83 "2021-04-13T22:41:52Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > _Star Trek: Deep Space Nine_ had “Far Beyond the Stars”, in which Sisko and the other main characters are all 1950s science fiction writers (framed as a hallucination Sisco is experiencing). IMO it’s a pretty good episode, but it is kind of weird in the context of the rest of the series. The entire last season of DS9 had a holographic Vegas lounge singer, including an episode where the crew were forced to pull off a casino heist. Weirdly, apart from the heist episode it kind of worked. ---
**Author:** ![Bootb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19b73/32.png) [@Bootb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootb)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2021, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-have-one-wtf-episode/939754/84 "2021-04-13T23:36:48Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Buffy the Vampire Slayer had both the amazing musical episode (Once More, With Feeling) but also the very, very divisive WTF? episode (Normal Again) where the entire Buffyverse was a figment of an insane Buffy’s mind. It seems that **every** long-running fantasy/SF series eventually succumbs to the temptation of asking “What is real?” ST:DS9 did the same thing, where Sisko was a frustrated and insane writer, and the whole series was a product of his fevered imagination. “Once Upon a Time” also did that. Those are the only examples I can think of at the moment, but I’m sure there are plenty of others. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-have-one-wtf-episode/939754/85 "2021-04-14T23:04:10Z")
I just remembered an episode of “The Brady Bunch” which put the entire bunch in a ghost town’s jail. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-have-one-wtf-episode/939754/86 "2021-04-14T23:09:26Z")
> [@Jay\_Z](#): > > The episode on Law & Order where they witnessed the execution and went off to their normal lives. I don’t remember that. If an execution was involved, I would have assumed that Briscoe and Green would be interviewing the executioner as a witness to some other crime, and rather than stop and talk to them he would just carry on executing the guy while answering their questions. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-have-one-wtf-episode/939754/87 "2021-04-14T23:25:16Z")
> [@Bootb](#): > > It seems that **every** long-running fantasy/SF series eventually succumbs to the temptation of asking “What is real?” _Legends of Tomorrow_ does this at least once a season. Offhand, there was: - The time they got turned into puppets - The one where they were trapped on TV - When the Legion of Doom created Doomworld For a true WTF _Legends_ moment, it would have to be the time that the Legends realized their main villain Mallus sounded like actor John Noble [because he really was voiced by John Noble]. So they travel back in time to the set of _The Lord of the Rings_ in New Zealand, and got John Noble (dressed up in full Denethor costume) to record a few lines so that they could trick one of Mallus’ (voiced by John Noble) minions. The episode was entitled “Guest Starring John Noble”. ---
**Author:** ![Redcanoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b487fb/32.png) [@Redcanoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Redcanoe)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2021, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-have-one-wtf-episode/939754/88 "2021-04-14T23:34:40Z")
The Simpsons episode where Skinner was an imposter. If you listen to the DVD commentary even the writer is having a hard time defending it. ---
**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 14, 2021, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-have-one-wtf-episode/939754/89 "2021-04-14T23:41:09Z")
This one is the one that led to the death of one of Jack’s assistants (she gave Brisco a ride home after he had been drinking, and got into an accident (leading to Jack’s later vendetta against a drunk driver)). Jack also goes to a cop bar and gets drunk. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-have-one-wtf-episode/939754/90 "2021-04-15T00:00:32Z")
> [@Terminus\_Est](#): > > The time they got turned into puppets “Smile Time” - _Angel_ Totally for the WTF? factor the writers intended. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-have-one-wtf-episode/939754/91 "2021-04-15T00:26:25Z")
All the talk about SF shows that did the “what is reality” stuff reminded me of an episode of Growing Pains where Ben wakes up to find out that his life is just a TV show. As expected, It’s All Just a Dream. I seem to remember that plot showing up on other sitcoms, too. It could be a dream, or it could be some eerily similar in-universe TV show. I remember Boy Meets World did the latter. Family Guy does the version where the main characters’ lives actually inspire an in-universe TV show. Though the latter show, being a cartoon, has too many weird shows for that to count as a WTF show. Such would have to be extremely outrageous, going beyond even the characters playing Star Wars. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-have-one-wtf-episode/939754/92 "2021-04-15T00:37:42Z")
I remember an episode during the final season of the 80s action series _Riptide_ that was deliberately parodying _Moonlighting_, with fourth-wall breaking and characters resembling Maddie and David. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-have-one-wtf-episode/939754/93 "2021-04-15T01:23:23Z")
Another one from _The Simpsons_: “Brick Like Me,” a 2014 episode done almost entirely in LEGO animation. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-have-one-wtf-episode/939754/94 "2021-04-15T03:15:11Z")
I recall liking the capital punishment episode of L&O while thinking it was a really odd episode for the series. > [@Riemann](#): > > I don’t remember that. If an execution was involved, I would have assumed that Briscoe and Green would be interviewing the executioner as a witness to some other crime, and rather than stop and talk to them he would just carry on executing the guy while answering their questions. This is hilarious, though! ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-have-one-wtf-episode/939754/95 "2021-04-15T06:12:33Z")
Episodes of television shows (and other things) where someone discovers that their life was not real are not that uncommon. In the Twilight Zone episode _A World of Difference_ (first shown on March 11, 1960), a man’s life turns out to be a just a television show, but then later it turns out to not be a television show. In the 1959 Philip K. Dick novel _Time Out of Joint_, a man’s life turns out to just be a constructed reality to keep him from knowing what’s really going on in his life. There’s the 1998 movie _The Truman Show_. There’s the Robert A. Heinlein short story “They” published in April of 1941 about a man discovering that the whole universe is a delusion constructed to fool him. There’s the 1999 movie _The Matrix_. There’s even a (not officially recognized) psychological condition called _The Truman Show_ delusion in which people claim that their life isn’t real. Then there’s the message board called The Straight Dope in which . . . um, oh, never mind. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-have-one-wtf-episode/939754/96 "2021-04-15T12:05:18Z")
Every episode of _Eerie, Indiana_ was WTF, but they did have one where Marshall finds he’s an actor in _Eerie, Indiana_. ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-have-one-wtf-episode/939754/97 "2021-04-15T16:06:27Z")
_Starsky & Hutch_ did a “vampire” story. John Saxon played the “vampire” (not an actual one, just a guy draining blood from women for a Satanic rite to resurrenct his dead wife…yeah, so that’s believable). Hutch, the more rational one of the pair, refuses to believe they are chasing a vampire, until there’s a rooftop chase and the guy (who’s fairly athletic) leaps from one roof to another. Hutch is stunned: “He _flew_!” Their regular informant Huggy Bear starts selling vampire kits (garlic, stakes, holy water). Hilarious episode. I think _Miami Vice_ did something similar, but with “aliens”. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-have-one-wtf-episode/939754/98 "2021-04-15T16:07:42Z")
I’m guessing that was the Halloween episode. Lots of shows ran weird stuff around then. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-have-one-wtf-episode/939754/99 "2021-04-15T16:31:04Z")
I can’t believe no one’s mentioned the clown rape episode of _Little House on the Prairie_ yet. [Sylvia Part 1](https://littlehouse.fandom.com/wiki/Episode_717:_Sylvia_(Part_1)) [Sylvia Part 2](https://littlehouse.fandom.com/wiki/Episode_718:_Sylvia_(Part_2)) ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-have-one-wtf-episode/939754/100 "2021-04-15T17:06:54Z")
Nikki and Paulo being buried alive in “Lost” certainly was not what I expected. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-have-one-wtf-episode/939754.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-that-have-one-wtf-episode/939754.md?page=6)