ST:TOS - And the Children Shall Lead (as well as all the other crap episodes mentioned in this thread).
ST:TNG - Skin Of Evil (the one where Tasha Yar is killed. I think the producer must have been on holiday that week–the quality of the film is awful), Legacy, The Perfect Mate
ST:DS9 - Umm… Too many. Probably that one where Ezri Dax goes back to her home planet and does precisely nothing for 45 minutes. I can’t even remember what it was called.
Meridian? (the one where the planet’s going to disappear in twenty-four hours or something). His Way (or pretty much any other Vic Fontaine episode).
ST:VOY - Again, there’s a fair few. A very up and down series. Perhaps ‘Jetrel’ but maybe that’s cause I’ve seen it far too many times. ‘Threshold’ is crap too.
The episode of Twin Peaks where Miguel Ferrer’s Acerbic Forensic Examiner comes back to town, walks into the room and he and the Sherriff (Who’s been his mortal enemy since day one) hug each other like old buddies. Nothing like doing a complete 180 on a character to screw up a perfectly good episode.
Sports Night - The letter to home episode. Nothing like completely ripping off MASH (without irony).
Dawson’s Creek - This ones had it’s fair share, but the Blair Witch ripoff episode took the cake.
X-Files - The Finale. Talk about phoning it in.
Roseanne - The Finale. It difficult to remember, but Roseanne in it’s prime was a brilliant show, up until it’s star started letting her personal life creep into the show. However after two very poor seasons. the finale showed exactly how poor it became. It waas a fairly average show as finales go, until the final ten minutes, which consisted of Roseanne at a typewriter revealing the last two seasons had been made up by her, her daughters had actually married each others husbands, her sister was gay not her mother(Did any show match Roseanne in the Token Gay Character tally?) and that her husband was actually dead. Not only confusing, but told in such a tedious montone that it made me very glad the series was over.
The episode of Twin Peaks where Miguel Ferrer’s Acerbic Forensic Examiner comes back to town, walks into the room and he and the Sherriff (Who’s been his mortal enemy since day one) hug each other like old buddies. Nothing like doing a complete 180 on a character to screw up a perfectly good episode.
Sports Night - The letter to home episode. Nothing like completely ripping off MASH (without irony).
Dawson’s Creek - This ones had it’s fair share, but the Blair Witch ripoff episode took the cake.
X-Files - The Finale. Talk about phoning it in.
Roseanne - The Finale. It difficult to remember, but Roseanne in it’s prime was a brilliant show, up until it’s star started letting her personal life creep into the show. However after two very poor seasons. the finale showed exactly how poor it became. It waas a fairly average show as finales go, until the final ten minutes, which consisted of Roseanne at a typewriter revealing the last two seasons had been made up by her, her daughters had actually married each others husbands, her sister was gay not her mother(Did any show match Roseanne in the Token Gay Character tally?) and that her husband was actually dead. Not only confusing, but told in such a tedious montone that it made me very glad the series was over.
However, I’m not sure whether it ranks as the single worst episode. The one where Homer and Bart get tethered together offers a pretty stiff challenge.
Basically, any “holiday themed” episode of a series that doesn’t take place in our “normal” world. Unless the characters are actually celebrating Christmas, Halloween, etc. (in which case the fact that they are celebrating the holidy becomes integral to the plot), throwing in holiday-related references or themes just jars. This is espeically true when the episodes later get run in syndication at all times of the year.
For example, the Halloween-themed “Catspaw” episode of ST:TOS wherein the crew got to run around in a haunted castle for an hour. Sure, maybe it was cute when it was originally run on October 27 (1967), but seeing it at other times just renders it incomprehensible and very, very stupid.
[The exception to this rule being, of course, the annual Simpson’s “Treehouse of Terror” episodes.]
Les goes to Washington for a big network audition and Mother Nessman shows up. No pacing, no laughs.
ER
Abby or someone puts a vibrator in Weaver’s locker and the gang gets sent to sexual harrassment class. The episode played out like “The Breakfast Club.”
While both are worthy suggestions, neither plummeted to the depths of “Kill the Alligator and Run” AKA the Spring Break episode with Kid Rock. Worst (non-clip show) episode ever.
Star Trek: “The Omega Glory” (Yangs and Comms) stunk. At least “Spock’s Brain” and Space Hippies can be enjoyed on a camp level.
DS9: The one where Lwaxana Troi’s illness causes everyone on the station to lose control over their emotions. All of DS9’s attempts at comedy sucked (except Trials and Tribble-ations), but this added in the most repellent recurring character. C’mon, Roddenberry was already dead, no need to kiss up by putting his wife on.
X-Files: “First Person Shooter” was stupid (but the chick was hot), “Jump the Shark” pissed me off by killing off my favorite minor characters, but “Hollywood AD” takes the prize as worst ever. Started out promising, but the second half was a completely self-indulgent inside joke laden crap-fest. Worst line: Scully, refering to Tea Leoni’s character, “I think she likes you, Mulder”. See, cuz in real life, hold on, wait for it…the actors are married!! Ha ha ha ha, oh David, you kill me!! Although I did like all the other episodes Duchovney directed.
Fawlty Towers: “The Anniversary Party”. The only blemish on what was otherwise the greatest comedy show in the history of television. Basil was just too damn stupid in this one, the final scene in the bedroom just seemed forced. Although everything is relative. The worst Fawlty Towers was still better than 90-95% of all the other stuff to hit the airwaves.
Actually, IMHO, that was a “jump the shark” moment on that series. Cheers was one of the best sitcoms ever on TV, but the last season decended into mediocrity and worse.
Oh, and because it hasn’t been said yet, “Brain, brain, what is brain?!”
You can’t be serious. Smithers dancing with the Village People. Antartica having its own battleship manned with penguins. Its up there with my favorite Simpsons. Eh, different strokes I guess.
Mystery Science Theather: Boggy Creek II: and the Legend Continues. A truely awful film that they just couldn’t mock well enough. There are plenty of bad movies out there. Why didn’t they pick one they could do better with?
“Depth takes a Holiday” And yes, doing it on purpose is no excuse.
(though of the “normal” episodes, the last-season one with the scholarship competition was lame)
ST’s “Omega Glory” with its Yanks and Commies seems a runaway antifave around here (a sentiment I endorse). Haven’t seen any mention of “Your Final Battlefield”, though, the one with the black-n-white guys ( “Isn’t that in the southern part of the Galaxy?”) .
May I add that any insertion of a “________, The Musical” episode in a non-comedy series gets a nomination for this list.
MST3K: Blood Waters of Dr. Z. Blargh, the movie was a complete bore-fest and they weren’t funny at all. I think I fell asleep during this one.
The Simpsons (this is keeping in mind that I’ve completely given up on it the last few seasons): Alone Again Natura-Diddly. So bad that it marked the end of my watching new episodes regularly. I don’t consider it a jumping the shark moment, though. That happened earlier.
South Park: Fourth Grade. I was really afraid the show would suck forever after this, but thankfully it was just a single really, really, really bad episode before a return to quality.
Batman, The Animated Series: The Underdwellers. Truly a WTF episode. It really sticks out among all the gems in this series.
MST3K: Blood Waters of Dr. Z. Blargh, the movie was a complete bore-fest and they weren’t funny at all. I think I fell asleep during this one.
The Simpsons (this is keeping in mind that I’ve completely given up on it the last few seasons): Alone Again Natura-Diddly. So bad that it marked the end of my watching new episodes regularly. I don’t consider it a jumping the shark moment, though. That happened earlier.
South Park: Fourth Grade. I was really afraid the show would suck forever after this, but thankfully it was just a single really, really, really bad episode before a return to quality.
Batman, The Animated Series: The Underdwellers. Truly a WTF episode. It really sticks out among all the gems in this series.