# The moment that best sums up a TV series **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 9, 2013, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-that-best-sums-up-a-tv-series/670780 "2013-10-09T16:09:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Strassia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e8c25b/32.png) [@Strassia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strassia)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-that-best-sums-up-a-tv-series/670780/1 "2013-10-09T16:09:37Z")
In a good or great TV show, there always seem to be a single scene or moment that best captures what that show and why I loved it. It may be a pivotal scene that tells you what this show is all about, or it could be a throw away that just captures the spirit of the show. First type: Firefly, The Train Job (first episode aired). At the end of the episode when Mal is telling the crime lords enforcers to take the back the money and leave them alone: > [@](#): > > Mal: Now this is all the money Niska gave us in advance. You bring it back to him, tell him the job didn’t work out. [Crow spits.] We’re not thieves — well, we are thieves. Point is we’re not takin’ what’s his. Now we’ll stay out of his way the best we can from here on in. You explain that that’s best for everyone, okay? > Crow: Keep the money. Use it to buy a funeral. It doesn’t matter where you go, or how far you fly. I will hunt you down, and the last thing you see will be my blade. > Mal: Darn. [Mal kills Crow by kicking him into the engine intakes. A second henchman of Niska is brought forward.] Now this is all the money Niska gave us in advance… > Henchman: Oh, I’m good. Best thing for everyone. I’m right there with you Clearly shows who and what Mal is. Both his honor code (a thief, but not that kind of thief), and his ruthlessness in protecting his crew. Second type: Friends, Season 7, The One With all the Cheesecakes. The last [scene](http://friends.wikia.com/wiki/File:What_are_we_having). The B plot has been about Chandler and Rachael, repeatedly hijacking cheesecakes. The fight over the last one and accidentally smash it all over the hall. Over the credits it shows them with forks searching for any pieces not actually touching the floor. Joey walks in, they freeze, Joey reaches into his pocket and pulls out a fork and asks, “What are we having?” This was the best part of Friends to me, the goofiness of trying to navigate the road from a kid to a grown up. The characters just being quirky friends, without the drama and the romance threads. So anybody else? What one scene best captures an entire TV series? ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-that-best-sums-up-a-tv-series/670780/2 "2013-10-09T16:48:27Z")
Another moment on Friends that summed up their transition from kids to grown-ups: “I thought you were just doing it – I didn’t know you were in love!” ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-that-best-sums-up-a-tv-series/670780/3 "2013-10-09T16:57:15Z")
**The Rockford Files** Jim has just been beaten up by a couple of goons. Rocky is tending to a bruise on the side of his face. “Two inches to the left, and you’d be missing that eye!” “Well, two inches to the right and he’d have missed me completely.” ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-that-best-sums-up-a-tv-series/670780/4 "2013-10-09T17:07:10Z")
> [@Strassia](#): > > In a good or great TV show, there always seem to be a single scene or moment that best captures what that show and why I loved it. It may be a pivotal scene that tells you what this show is all about, or it could be a throw away that just captures the spirit of the show. > > First type: Firefly, The Train Job (first episode aired). At the end of the episode when Mal is telling the crime lords enforcers to take the back the money and leave them alone: For that episode I would have gone with the scene where Mal brings back the drugs and is caught by the posse and explains he didn’t have a choice in doing the job, and he didn’t have a choice in doing what was right and returned the drugs when he found out what they’re for and why they’re needed. ---
**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-that-best-sums-up-a-tv-series/670780/5 "2013-10-09T17:22:09Z")
“As god is my witness, I thought tuckeys could fly.” Anybody need a cite? ---
**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:** [October 9, 2013, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-that-best-sums-up-a-tv-series/670780/6 "2013-10-09T17:30:48Z")
The last exchange at the end of the opening two-parter for BtVS does it for me. - **Rupert Giles:** We are at the center of a mystical convergence here! We may, in fact, stand between the Earth and its total destruction. **Buffy Summers:** Well, I gotta look on the bright side. Maybe I can still get kicked out of school. **Xander Harris:** Oh yeah, that’s a plan. 'Cause a lot of schools aren’t on Hellmouths. **Willow Rosenberg:** Maybe you could blow something up, they’re really strict about that. **Buffy Summers:** I was thinking more along the lines of excessive not-studying. **Rupert Giles:** The Earth is doomed.\* ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-that-best-sums-up-a-tv-series/670780/7 "2013-10-09T17:31:33Z")
> [@ZPG\_Zealot](#): > > “As god is my witness, I thought tuckeys could fly.” Anybody need a cite? How does this sum up WKRP? ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Dollar\_Tallboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Two\_Dollar\_Tallboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Dollar_Tallboy)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-that-best-sums-up-a-tv-series/670780/8 "2013-10-09T17:31:38Z")
The Steve Earle musical montage at the end of season 2 of The Wire. Despite all the work McNulty & Co. put in, it was all ultimately futile. The criminals are all still doing their thing and the innocents are still being affected. Even though they feel alright, as the song says, and they solved all 15 Jane Doe murders plus shut down corruption on the docks, they didn’t really change anything in the bigger picture. ---
**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:** [October 9, 2013, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-that-best-sums-up-a-tv-series/670780/9 "2013-10-09T17:32:23Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > How does this sum up WKRP? Hapless meets hip, with a side of sexy. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-that-best-sums-up-a-tv-series/670780/10 "2013-10-09T17:38:50Z")
> [@ZPG\_Zealot](#): > > “As god is my witness, I thought tuckeys could fly.” Anybody need a cite? Rupert Murdoch, talking about [_The 1/2 Hour News Hour_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_1/2_Hour_News_Hour)? ---
**Author:** ![Cognoscant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Cognoscant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cognoscant)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-that-best-sums-up-a-tv-series/670780/11 "2013-10-09T17:54:17Z")
_The X-Files_, season 3, “Paper Clip”. Fox Mulder: “They took my sister…why her? Why not me?” Well-Manicured Man: “It’s not for me to say but your life is in danger now too. You also threaten to expose the project. You have become your father.” Mulder: “Why are you telling me this?” WMM: “It’s what you want to know…isn’t it?” In four lines, that conversation hit pretty much every major theme of the show: the main plot thread of Samantha Mulder’s abduction, Fox Mulder’s legacy as his father’s son, “the project” which took years to fully be explained, Fox’s relentless pursuit of the truth and how more often than not it got him into trouble, and how even when Fox got to the truth more often than not he didn’t understand it. Shame this conversation happened, not at the end of the series finale, but during episode two of the third season of a series that limped on for another six years. Those 20 seconds might be the highlight of the entire series–after the “Anasazi-The Blessing Way-Paper Clip” trilogy _The X-Files_ had its good points but it never had the same bite again. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-that-best-sums-up-a-tv-series/670780/12 "2013-10-09T17:59:07Z")
The very last scene of the pilot episode of **The Shield**. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-that-best-sums-up-a-tv-series/670780/13 "2013-10-09T18:13:38Z")
Lost, Season 1 Episode 4. The end of the episode cuts back and forth from Locke, in a wheelchair, yelling angrily at the world to Locke, right after the plane crash, wiggling his toes and standing up to Locke, staring at his wheelchair as it burns and smiling. Pretty much tells you what the show is about, that there was a plane crash on an island, and some people were changed, for the better. ---
**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:** [October 9, 2013, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-that-best-sums-up-a-tv-series/670780/14 "2013-10-09T18:18:54Z")
No, Lost is best summed up by a line Claire says in the previous episode: _ **Claire:** Bloody useless._😛 ---
**Author:** ![Astroboy14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-that-best-sums-up-a-tv-series/670780/15 "2013-10-09T19:52:57Z")
M_A_S_H_; when Radar comes in to the operating room and announces that Col. Blake had been killed in the plane crash. Total silence for a beat, and then everyone gets back to work. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-that-best-sums-up-a-tv-series/670780/16 "2013-10-09T20:26:54Z")
Numb3rs: The sprinkler scene. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-that-best-sums-up-a-tv-series/670780/17 "2013-10-09T20:37:10Z")
**Breaking Bad** : Walter White’s wife, Skyler, confronts her husband about her fears that, because of Walter’s involvement in the Meth business, one day some crooks will knock on their door to kill him and harm his family. Walter tells his wife: “I am the one who knocks”. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-that-best-sums-up-a-tv-series/670780/18 "2013-10-09T21:08:40Z")
ST:NG, the Enterprise is in dry-dock for decontamination. Terrorists get on board ship to steal highly explosive stuff, stabilized by a little widget. Final showdown between head bad guy & Picard; HBG leaves Picard to die, taking the tank of highly explosive stuff and transporting out. Picard opens his hand and looks down at the stabilizing widget as the terrorist’s ship begins to warp out, then explodes. Look on Picard’s face: “Do not FUCK with my ship.” ---
**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:** [October 9, 2013, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-that-best-sums-up-a-tv-series/670780/19 "2013-10-09T21:28:11Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > **The Rockford Files** > > Jim has just been beaten up by a couple of goons. Rocky is tending to a bruise on the side of his face. > > “Two inches to the left, and you’d be missing that eye!” > “Well, two inches to the right and he’d have missed me completely.” I always think of Rockford Files as summed up by the line “you karate guys, always expect everybody to fight fair” which Rockford delivers after he’s defeated a karate expert through a series of dirty tricks… ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-that-best-sums-up-a-tv-series/670780/20 "2013-10-09T21:35:07Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > The very last scene of the pilot episode of **The Shield**. The flash-forward sequence that concluded Everyone’s Waiting, the series finale of **Six Fee Under**. It sums up the series perfectly. _Nothing_ else compares. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-moment-that-best-sums-up-a-tv-series/670780.md?page=2)