Columbo was on her tail from the beginning!
…but for which murder?
Isn’t the person who hires a hit man equally guilty of murder?
Oh, I’m not taking issue with that; my point is, Columbo apparently susses out that she murdered somebody else before the episode even started, and he apparently lets her get away with that one (which she really doesn’t want her niece to find out about) when she confesses to the howcatchem that, y’know, the audience got to see.
Wasn’t there another Buffy episode where a minor character took center stage for no apparent reason?
“X Files” “Home” was kind of a WTF ep too.
“Superstar” with Jonathan - though that episode restored the normal status quo (with a few lingering effects)
There was also “The Zeppo,” which showed Xander while the others were fighting.
Xander is very hurt to be considered a minor character 
QFT…
I recall back in the ancient days of Usenet when “Jose Chung’s From Outer Space” was first broadcast. Someone made a request to the group: “I missed last night’s ‘X-Files’ episode. Can somebody post a brief plot synopsis?”
Clearly, the correct answer to that question is “no”.
The show Maude had one by the name of “Captain Hero” in season 5. Her cousin arrives and is dressed like a super Hero the entire episode which was odd for that show. Definitely the worst episode of the series
There was that episode of Lawrence Welk.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=one+toke+over+the+line
But it contains one of my favorite Homer Simpson (private thought) lines ever: “Keep acting shocked … and move slowly toward the cake…”
Family Ties is a show which I watched regularly as a kid but looking back on it now, it was pretty dire. They had a handful of WTF eps. several of which involved Alex’s “best friend” who was in both situations someone we’d never heard of or seen before.
Season 3, his “best friend” Doug (played by Timothy Busfield) announces he’s getting married and Alex feels he’s losing his best friend. First and last time we saw this best friend.
Season 5, when Alex’s “best friend” Greg is killed in a car crash, and the rest of the show is a surreal psychiatrist session with Alex ultimately declaring that he believes in God. Once again, we’d never heard of Greg before and didn’t afterwards, nor did Alex show any particular religiosity going forward.
And let’s not forget the time the family went to England so Alex could study at Oxford for about a week (which is how scholarships work, right?) and he joins the rowing team and spies are chasing a microfilm hidden inside Mallory’s hairbrush. Or the dream sequence episode where everyone is transported back to 1776 and Alex helps Thomas Jefferson write the Declaration of Independence (“Here, use this yellow crinkly paper!”
Just try telling me there wasn’t a lot of drug use happening in that writer’s room.
Dream sequences that take sitcom characters back to historical events are a pretty routine feature of TV.
@Andy_L Indeed, I seem to remember a Happy Days (another show that is utterly baffling to watch in reruns now) episode where Mrs. C. tells the story of The First Thanksgiving with all the parts played by the cast members. Equally ridiculous.
Yep. That was the first one to come to my mind.
Sarah Vowell on sitcom Thanksgivings
Mr. Ed, the talking horse, tells the tale of the pilgrim horse who saved the first Thanksgiving. And if you were under the impression that the Salem witch trials ended because rich and powerful people started getting accused of witchcraft, think again. It was Samantha on Bewitched. Or take that Happy Days Thanksgiving episode in which it’s revealed that the person who gave us Thanksgiving was not Squanto or William Bradford but the Fonz. That’s right, the Fonz.
Here’s how it went down. All the pilgrims were afraid of the Indians except pilgrim Fonzie, who was their friend. Then Joanie gets her foot caught in one of Potsie’s stupid beaver traps. That Potsie. But you know that thing Fonzie does with the jukebox? Where he whacks it with his fist and the music plays? Turns out that works on beaver traps too. They open right up. But he won’t free Joanie until everyone renounces their racism, and acts nice to the Indians, and invites them to dinner. Fonzie, he’s the Martin Luther King of candied yams.
A corollary to this is the sitcoms that did a cheesy take on “A Christmas Carol”. Those episodes were always stupid and unimaginative-- I hated them as a kid. They were second only to clip shows in their disappointment.