“Do you even know what they want to do with the wetlands?”
“Dry them.”
“Save them.”
“From drying!”
“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?”
“I’m out.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
I knew I’d found a show I could really love with this one:
sigh If you must quote Buffy, quote it correctly:
“Oh well, here is my talisman, if you change your mind, give us a chant.”
I came in to say that.
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.”
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!”
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.
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!
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?”
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.
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.