# The moment a TV show "won you over" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 21, 2010, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-a-tv-show-won-you-over/525773 "2010-01-21T00:51:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-a-tv-show-won-you-over/525773/41 "2010-01-21T20:35:22Z")
> [@Monstre](#): > > Arrested Development: several episodes in, when Lindsay was out trying to save the wetlands, and she actually WENT to the wetlands (and hated it) and… speared the frog. “Do you even know what they want to do with the wetlands?” “Dry them.” “Save them.” “From drying!” ---
**Author:** ![FlightlessBird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/cdc98d/32.png) [@FlightlessBird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlightlessBird)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-a-tv-show-won-you-over/525773/42 "2010-01-21T22:01:47Z")
“I would, but he’s not my friend, he’s my boss; and it’s not his name, it’s his title.” “POTUS?” “President of the United States” That or the end of the Pilot: “I am the Lord your God. Thou shalt worship no other God before me. Boy, those were the days, huh?” ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-a-tv-show-won-you-over/525773/43 "2010-01-21T22:12:11Z")
“I’m out.” ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-a-tv-show-won-you-over/525773/44 "2010-01-21T22:38:12Z")
_True Blood_: When they introduced “V” as a drug. _Lost_: When I read about it the paper before it aired. OK, it was in the pilot when the guy got sucked into the engine. _Rome:_ When I re-watched the first three episodes of season 1 after they had aired. I had too much trouble keeping all the characters straight the first time. _Big Love_: When Juniper Creek started playing a bigger role in the plot. Or, the time Ben tries to wash his own sheets, not letting Nikkie have them and she says something like “I had 18 brothers growing up. Just give me the sheets”. _24_: When I started reading the threads about it on this MB. Or, when Jack told Kim (over the phone) to shoot the guy again after she had already shot him once. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-a-tv-show-won-you-over/525773/45 "2010-01-21T23:00:20Z")
I came very _very_ late to my love of _Quantum Leap_. The first episode I watched was the one where Sam leaps into Oswald, halfway through the last season. I was hooked by the ending, in which Al reminds Sam that the first time around, Oswald killed Jackie, too. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-a-tv-show-won-you-over/525773/46 "2010-01-21T23:40:50Z")
Both the “Darn” moment in _Firefly_ and the cop killer Vic Mackey in the pilot of _The Shield_ have already been mentioned, but that’s what did it for me on those shows. I really can’t put a finger on when I got seriously hooked on _Breaking Bad_; it was about halfway into the 1st season. I had seen the previews for _Breaking Bad_, and thought, “that looks pretty cool,” and wanted to watch it. And then missed half the first season. :rolleyes: Anyway, it was one of the mid-season episodes, I can’t recall which, but Walt (played by greatly underappreciated Bryan Cranston) went from normal, somewhat baffled “Husband/Father/High School Teacher” Walt to focused/driven “Chemist/Drug Dealer/Criminal” Walt with not much more than a subtle shift in his facial expression. I was hooked. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-a-tv-show-won-you-over/525773/47 "2010-01-21T23:45:21Z")
When David Brent says something like “Every bloke in the office has woken up at the crack of Dawn.” Completely caught me off guard. Two very good examples above: the snotboogie scene from The Wire, and the opening music for Twin Peaks. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2010, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-a-tv-show-won-you-over/525773/48 "2010-01-22T00:45:55Z")
The first episode of _The X-Files_ I remember seeing was “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose,” and I knew I would keep watching the show with this line: > [@](#): > > You know, there are worse ways to go, but I can’t think of a more undignified way than auto-erotic asphyxiation. I knew I’d found a show I could really love with this one: > [@](#): > > You don’t. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2010, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-a-tv-show-won-you-over/525773/49 "2010-01-22T01:19:27Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > I was hooked on **Buffy the Vampire Slayer** in the episode in the 4th season “Something Blue.”\* The evil demon d’Hoffryn tries to recruit Willow. She refuses. He says, “Is that you final decision.” Willow says it is. d’Hoffryn sighs and said, “All right. Here is my sigil. If you change your mind, give me a summons.” _sigh_ If you must quote Buffy, quote it correctly: _“Oh well, here is my talisman, if you change your mind, give us a chant.”_ ---
**Author:** ![Sparrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Sparrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparrow)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2010, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-a-tv-show-won-you-over/525773/50 "2010-01-22T12:04:47Z")
> [@FlightlessBird](#): > > " > End of the Pilot: > “I am the Lord your God. Thou shalt worship no other God before me. Boy, those were the days, huh?” I came in to say that. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2010, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-a-tv-show-won-you-over/525773/51 "2010-01-22T14:15:44Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > I came very _very_ late to my love of _Quantum Leap_. The first episode I watched was the one where Sam leaps into Oswald, halfway through the last season. I was hooked by the ending, in which Al reminds Sam that the first time around, Oswald killed Jackie, too. I got into Quantum Leap when I was channel flipping and I saw Scott Bakul ain a Carmen Miranda getup singing “Great Balls of Fire.” ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2010, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-a-tv-show-won-you-over/525773/52 "2010-01-23T00:06:38Z")
Glee: The kids sing _Don’t Stop Believin’_. Truly a goosebump moment. And then, elsewhere, there’s one simple-yet-brilliant self-referential line that cracked me up the first time I heard it: “_ **MOM!** _ Phineas and Ferb are making a title sequence!” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2010, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-a-tv-show-won-you-over/525773/53 "2010-01-23T01:15:36Z")
Vorlons! The first episodes of Babylon 5 were the sort of thing I hoped would get better, but I was with the Vorlon from the start. I had to know what they were up to. I wasn’t terribly disappointed either. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2010, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-a-tv-show-won-you-over/525773/54 "2010-01-23T01:26:10Z")
Lost. I didn’t even need a first episode, I read a little synopsis about it in the TV Guide and something told me I HAD to watch this show. I wasn’t disappointed, but what really made me swallow the baited hook was the early episode where Sawyer shot the polar bear and Charlie said (words to the effect of) “dude - where ARE we?” Malcolm in the Middle - ho hum, another wacky family show…I was sitting there reading the paper, I heard “Funkytown”, looked up to see the dad disco-roller-skating like a pro (eeeee!), and Malcolm looks at the camera and said (words to the effect of) “I don’t know whether to be impressed or mortified”. Well, that moved MitM from time-waster to a really fun show! ---
**Author:** ![meanoldman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@meanoldman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/meanoldman)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2010, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-a-tv-show-won-you-over/525773/55 "2010-01-23T01:26:16Z")
RED DWARF. Episode 1 When Lister puts out the food for “The Cat” (a human-like creature that evolved from a cat). Cat: “You monkeys eat off the floor?” ---
**Author:** ![BobArrgh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobarrgh/32/2881_2.png) [@BobArrgh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobArrgh)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2010, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-a-tv-show-won-you-over/525773/56 "2010-01-23T01:58:50Z")
Back in the 1980s, I started watching China Beach. I liked the story, and Dana Delaney and Marg Helgenberger were hot, hot, hot! Then they introduced Cherry, a girl who had joined the Red Cross as a “Donut Dolly” to be able to come to Viet Nam to find her brother. As far as I was concerned, Cherry was just eye-candy, and her storyline was OK, but not spectacular. Until … Cherry was killed about 6 episodes in! Absolutely blew me away that someone who I thought was moving from 2nd-tier to 1st-tier status could be killed off on what was basically an ensemble show. The show was dramatically different, IMO, after that. ---
**Author:** ![Meeko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-a-tv-show-won-you-over/525773/57 "2010-01-25T05:19:02Z")
> [@meanoldman](#): > > RED DWARF. Episode 1 > > When Lister puts out the food for “The Cat” (a human-like creature that evolved from a cat). > > Cat: “You monkeys eat off the floor?” I first caught the show on PBS. I’m not sure what Series / Season it was but I remember the following as one of the first Red Dwarf jokes I heard: [Lister is searching the Red Dwarf for food, and the ONLY thing he finds is a can of Dog food.] Lister reluctantly starts to eat it. And spits it out. Now I know why dogs lick their testicles! I am sure the entire “Double Rimmer” setup in Future Echoes [Episode 2] would have done it for me, as well, if I hadn’t seen the episodes out of order. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-a-tv-show-won-you-over/525773.md?page=2)