If you really love a TV show and would recommend it to others, here’s the challange.
You have to pick ONLY one episode of the TV show and show it to others to convince them WHY the series you like so much is worth watching.
For instance I like the Simpsons. I would pick the episode where Maggie says her first word “Daddy,” (voiced by Liz Taylor).
Or for South Park, I’d pick the episode where they parodied the black/white thing in the town of South Park. Where the character of “Token” is black but well off, so he invites other wealthy black people into South Park. Then the poor people (who happen to be all white) discriminate against the rich people, who just happen to be black.
So that’s it
If you have a favourite TV show, give me ONE episode to convince me to start watching the series
From Babylon 5 I’d pick the episode, from the third season, “Passing Through Gethsemane” It’s my favorite depiction of people(not all of them human) and how they act on their religious beliefs. Also, the exchange between Garibaldi and Delenn, on the issue of capital punishment, is a gem. They hold diametrically opposed views, but both are shown to be good people. The writers didn’t take the easy way out and make one a villain forsupporting the death penalty, and the other wasn’t wussy for opposing it.
For Supernatural, I’d pick “Mystery Spot.” It’s has everything that makes up Supernatural - humor, drama, sad brothers hugging, and the ripping off of other people’s ideas.
For Futurama, I’d go with “Love Labor’s Lost in Space.” It’s early in the show’s run, so it’s still introducing characters, it’s a good sci fi story, and it has one of my all time favorite moments on the show - Kiff following Zapp up to the obervation deck for some ‘musing’.
For MST3K, one must start with Space Mutiny. There is no other starting place.
How i Met Your Mother “The Pineapple Incident.” If you don’t find that funny, we can’t watch sitcoms together.
The X-Files “How The Ghosts Stole Christmas.” Considering this is my favorite episode ever, and I watch it every year, I’ve actually made several people watch it.
It was the first episode I ever saw and it got me hooked. It’s in a very different style than a usual House episode, but it tells some great House backstory, it’s creative, funny, and dramatic.
CSI “Butterflied”
This is my favorite episode ever, probably. It’s also slightly different than most CSI episodes - there is only one case the team works. It has some great Grissom/Sara stuff and a really interesting case.
A lot of good choices from The West Wing, but I’m going with one from (I think) the first season, “The Midterms.” A lot of the really excellent episodes that came later, IMO, you had to have some back history on the show to really appreciate.
“The Midterms” had the memorable Jed Bartlet quote:
“One last thing. While you may be mistaking this for your monthly meeting of the ignorant tight-ass club, in this building when the President stands, nobody sits.”
Farscape; Revenging Angel - D’argo is in a bad mood (again!), accuses John Crichton of frelling with his ship, and knocks him unconscious, putting him into a coma, a good percentage of the episode is HeadCrichton discussing his strategy of how to wake up/defuse things with D, the other part takes place in a Warner Brothers-esque Road Runner cartoon world, with D as Wile E. Coyote, Super Genius, and John Crichton as the Road Runner
Stargate SG-1; 200- the entire episode pokes fun at the entire sci-fi/fantasy genre, and it even includes the inevitable Farscape parody scene (Ben Browder and Claudia Black were the lead actors in 'Scape)
Sledge Hammer!; the old '80s Cop show parody, specifically the Hammeroid episode, Hammer gets catastrophically injured fighting off an android that’s stealing the police pension fund, and is turned into a cyborg to hunt down the android thief, a parody of Robocop
FLCL/Furi Kuri/Fooly Cooly: Oh, any of them will do, if I had to pick I’d say episode 5 because at least then if they don’t like it I can be smugly convinced their brain will never operate the same way again. Episode 2 was a close second and deserves an honorable mention, just for the giant Canti-cannon™
I want to pick a new Doctor Who, but the best stories have all been two-parters. If I could bend the rules and pick one, it would be “The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances.” If I had to pick a single episode, it would be “The Girl in the Fireplace.” (“Blink,” being a Doctor-lite episode, is not sufficiently representative for a new viewer.)
I came in to mention this show. But, I had the idea of showing them the first episode while pretending that it was a later episode. I saw it randomly one night on Adult Swim, and thought " I have to watch the earlier episodes, because there’s surely something I am missing here."
Firefly - Ariel - I think the A-Team reference would lure in non-fen, and it gives a good overview of most of the setting and characters. It’s not my favourite episode, but I don’t think “Out Of Gas” would work for everyone, as it’s light on the main River/Simon arc.
For Firefly, what’s wrong with the pilot? The damn show only has 13 episodes, it’s not like there are huge drops and gains in quality that you want to ignore/point out.
For Buffy, I think I’ll say Dopplegangland. Yeah, there’s a lot of backstory someone wouldn’t get, but it’s not that hard to pick up on. (Like, why is Cordelia so happy to see Willow in the bookcage? OH, because she stole her boyfriend. Okay.) It’s really everything you could want in a Buffy episode: there’s some ass-kicking, some laugh-out-loud lines, and straight guys especially might be intrigued by Alyson Hannigan in a leather catsuit.
I wanted to pick apart Small Hen’s nomination of Mystery Spot for Supernatural, but the more I thought about it, the more I liked it. It’s funny, sad, not only does it rip off ideas from someone else, they’re totally honest about the fact that they’re ripping off ideas from someone else, Dean dies and Sam goes crazy. It’s the whole show in one episode!
I agree. The Firefly pilot is the best series pilot I’ve ever seen. It does everything you’re required to do in a pilot: introduce the characters, introduce the universe, set up the relationships, set up the conflict. But it also has tons of action, witty dialog, and is completely engaging the entire way through. I’d recommend this episode not just because it’s so great, but because it best meets the requirements of the challenge. What better way to get a new viewer hooked than to start with the pilot episode?
[sub]you hear that Fox? It’s fucking common sense![/sub]
Oh, don’t be silly. Why show episodes in order when you could air them out of order? Obviously, it’s the best way to gain an audience. Fox knows what they’re doing.
