# The most ludicrous episode in TV history **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 6, 2009, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-ludicrous-episode-in-tv-history/520166 "2009-12-06T04:45:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2009, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-ludicrous-episode-in-tv-history/520166/1 "2009-12-06T04:45:27Z")
I was surfing YouTube when I caught this jem–the “punk rock” episode of “CHiPs”. Part One is [here.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=398BJ8EU0bc&feature=related) This episode is great in so many ways: –the “new wave” band wears long hair, plays studio pop, and uses words like “happening”. –said band is fronted by the redheaded girl from “Eight is Enough” –she’s worried about winning a battle of the bands, even though her brother owns the club –has punks who cheer a shiny shirted off duty cop singing “Celebration” What other TV episodes have you wondering if they were parodies, because they’re too ridiculous to be sincere? ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2009, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-ludicrous-episode-in-tv-history/520166/2 "2009-12-06T05:02:49Z")
Well, I guess you are talking about dramas or other tv shows that take themselves somewhat seriously, vs comedies that are always over the top. Probably the most surreal one for me was the Wonder Woman episode featuring Wonder Woman’s newly arrived cousin, Wonder Girl, from Paradise Island, played by none other than Debra Winger. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2009, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-ludicrous-episode-in-tv-history/520166/3 "2009-12-06T05:37:53Z")
_Jump the Shark_, dude, actually jumping the fucking damn shark. ---
**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:** [December 6, 2009, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-ludicrous-episode-in-tv-history/520166/4 "2009-12-06T05:48:56Z")
> [@installLSC](#): > > I was surfing YouTube when I caught this jem–the “punk rock” episode of “CHiPs”. Part One is [here.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=398BJ8EU0bc&feature=related) This episode is great in so many ways: > –the “new wave” band wears long hair, plays studio pop, and uses words like “happening”. > –said band is fronted by the redheaded girl from “Eight is Enough” > –she’s worried about winning a battle of the bands, even though her brother owns the club > –has punks who cheer a shiny shirted off duty cop singing “Celebration” That episode is awesome. Ponch’s version of “Celebration” is almost as good as the original. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2009, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-ludicrous-episode-in-tv-history/520166/5 "2009-12-06T05:57:53Z")
Star Trek: Voyager’s episode [Threshold](http://www.agonybooth.com/recaps/Star_Trek/Voyager/Threshold.aspx). Even by the standards of Voyager, it is ridiculous and all-around terrible. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2009, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-ludicrous-episode-in-tv-history/520166/6 "2009-12-06T06:22:43Z")
DRAGNET had several, but my favorite was the LSD-Blueboy episode. [Clip](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcjqSkAr2cY). I love the good girls who are saved from running with a wild crowd: “Haven’t touched any more of that acid, that’s for sure!” [Peter McWilliams](http://www.mcwilliams.com/books/aint/501.htm) gave a great rundown of it as well- exerpts from that: > [@](#): > > In search of the boy, they visit an LSD party. It looks something like _Laugh In’s_ cocktail party, but much slower and without jokes. Friday calls some uniformed police. They arrive within thirty seconds. (Ah, the good old days.) Everyone at the party is arrested. Talk about a bad trip. The boy, unfortunately, is not there. > > Fortunately, however, a pharmacy calls in: they have just sold 1,000 empty gelatin capsules to a young man fitting the description of the boy. > > …after being shown mug shots, the pharmacist… gives Friday the address of where the capsules were delivered. (Which means the boy came in, ordered 1,000 empty gelatin capsules, which must weigh about five ounces, and then said, “Here, deliver these.” Yes, this boy was clearly on drugs—or the scriptwriter was.) > The landlady happily provides Detective Friday with a passkey. Friday enters (apparently having no use for that seven-letter four-letter word: warrant) and finds a friend of the boy, who says of the boy, “He kept taking more and more pills. He kept wanting to go far out, far out, far out . . .” “He made it;” intones Friday, “he’s dead.” > … > After the commercial, we are told that a coroner’s inquest found the boy died of an LSD overdose. (Barbiturates are mentioned somewhere in there, parenthetically.) Yes, ladies and gentlemen, for the first and only time in history, LSD kills. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2009, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-ludicrous-episode-in-tv-history/520166/7 "2009-12-06T06:30:05Z")
Correct link for above: [“Best of” clips from DRAGNET “Blue Boy” episode](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0zgIzqgxFU) [Complete episode Part 1](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Brc4nuU5yM) ---
**Author:** ![Mississippienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mississippienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mississippienne)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2009, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-ludicrous-episode-in-tv-history/520166/8 "2009-12-06T07:35:03Z")
There was an episode of _Little House on the Prairie_ where blind sister Mary’s (entirely fictitious) baby was being kept by a housesitter or something while Mary and her (equally fictitious) husband were gone. The house catches on fire and the housesitter grabs the baby and _bashes it against a window_ to break the window and escape, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2009, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-ludicrous-episode-in-tv-history/520166/9 "2009-12-06T11:53:04Z")
I remember a Love Boat episode with Sonny Bono playing a punk rocker by the name of “Deacon Dark” complete with a song, Bash It, Take a Hammer and Smash It! ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2009, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-ludicrous-episode-in-tv-history/520166/10 "2009-12-06T12:02:19Z")
Roseanne winning the lottery. Not just one episode, an entire season. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2009, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-ludicrous-episode-in-tv-history/520166/11 "2009-12-06T13:31:28Z")
> [@Max\_the\_Immortal](#): > > Star Trek: Voyager’s episode [Threshold](http://www.agonybooth.com/recaps/Star_Trek/Voyager/Threshold.aspx). Even by the standards of Voyager, it is ridiculous and all-around terrible. I never saw that one. I have trouble imagining that it could be more ludicrous than the [Spock’s Brain](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spock%27s_Brain) episode of TOS. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2009, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-ludicrous-episode-in-tv-history/520166/12 "2009-12-06T14:52:43Z")
Wasn’t there an episode of Star Trek TOS where they encountered a planet of hippies. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2009, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-ludicrous-episode-in-tv-history/520166/13 "2009-12-06T15:00:16Z")
IIRC, there was also an episode of _Lost in Space_ where they encountered space hippies as well. LiS was one of the most dichotomistic shows ever - from my memory, the early black and white episodes tended to be drama heavy, with “scientific” issues actually mattering (for example, they landed on a planet with a highly elliptical orbit, so that the ocean of ice that they crossed earlier in the episode melted by the end), but once they switched to color it was pure camp. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2009, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-ludicrous-episode-in-tv-history/520166/14 "2009-12-06T15:09:12Z")
Yup. [Space Hippies](http://www.tv.com/lost-in-space/the-promised-planet/episode/125291/summary.html?tag=ep_guide;summary), the scourge of 60’s sci-fi television. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2009, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-ludicrous-episode-in-tv-history/520166/15 "2009-12-06T16:01:43Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Yup. [Space Hippies](http://www.tv.com/lost-in-space/the-promised-planet/episode/125291/summary.html?tag=ep_guide;summary), the scourge of 60’s sci-fi television. Or [Hippies meet Space](http://www.tv.com/the-monkees/mijacogeo-a.k.a.-the-frodis-caper/episode/74700/recap.html?tag=episode_recap;recap), the weirdest Monkees episode of them all. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2009, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-ludicrous-episode-in-tv-history/520166/16 "2009-12-06T16:09:35Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > Wasn’t there an episode of Star Trek TOS where they encountered a planet of hippies. > [@JohnT](#): > > IIRC, there was also an episode of _Lost in Space_ where they encountered space hippies as well. > [@JohnT](#): > > Yup. [Space Hippies](http://www.tv.com/lost-in-space/the-promised-planet/episode/125291/summary.html?tag=ep_guide;summary), the scourge of 60’s sci-fi television. > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Or [Hippies meet Space](http://www.tv.com/the-monkees/mijacogeo-a.k.a.-the-frodis-caper/episode/74700/recap.html?tag=episode_recap;recap), the weirdest Monkees episode of them all. A topic so weird not even the Muppets would touch it. ---
**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:** [December 6, 2009, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-ludicrous-episode-in-tv-history/520166/17 "2009-12-06T17:15:46Z")
[The “'Roid Rage” episode of “Simon & Simon”.](http://www.hulu.com/watch/45527/simon-and-simon-psyched-out) ---
**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:** [December 6, 2009, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-ludicrous-episode-in-tv-history/520166/18 "2009-12-06T17:42:20Z")
I’ve mentioned “Brainchild” before, not by name but as [the Disneyfication of “Walker, Texas Ranger”](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=9402391). ---
**Author:** ![koufax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7ea924/32.png) [@koufax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koufax)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2009, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-ludicrous-episode-in-tv-history/520166/19 "2009-12-06T18:09:56Z")
> [@Lute Skywatcher](#): > > [The “'Roid Rage” episode of “Simon & Simon”.](http://www.hulu.com/watch/45527/simon-and-simon-psyched-out) One of the worst series of all time. Brothers who look nothing alike. One talks like a prissy Ivy Leaguer and the other like a macho southerner. San Diego? I drove by them shooting an episode on Wilshire Blvd. in Santa Monica, way way north of San Diego. So I nominate ALL episodes of this ridiculous embarrassing series. ---
**Author:** ![RachelChristine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ab992/32.png) [@RachelChristine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RachelChristine)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2009, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-ludicrous-episode-in-tv-history/520166/20 "2009-12-06T19:07:51Z")
> [@Mississippienne](#): > > There was an episode of _Little House on the Prairie_ where blind sister Mary’s (entirely fictitious) baby was being kept by a housesitter or something while Mary and her (equally fictitious) husband were gone. The house catches on fire and the housesitter grabs the baby and _bashes it against a window_ to break the window and escape, IIRC. Don’t forget Albert’s girlfriend getting raped and pregnant by the blacksmith dressed up like a clown! Or Albert addicted to morphine. Or any of the other weird episodes from this “wholesome family show”. \ [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-ludicrous-episode-in-tv-history/520166.md?page=2)