Hey, gang, I just had a terrific idea for an episode.
One star of the show rides a motorcycle, right? And then they have him jump over a swimming pool and guess what – there’s a shark in it!
There will always be only one serious plot happening at once. Anything else that happens to be taking place at that time is light-hearted and humorous, yet generally insignificant.
As long as we use in jokes we can reuse plots from “classic episodes” of other sitcoms. People will think we’re doing a hommage rather than ripping off the original writers.
Oh my god, did you see last night’s episode? The husband was buying a big-screen TV, and it was supposedly for the wife’s birthday, so he was trying to keep it secret. She overheard him talking to the salesman on the phone with things like:
“It’s just too small. I need it bigger. For her!”
“I just think she would like a bigger one. If it were bigger, I think she’d get a lot more enjoyment out of it!”
She thought he was talking about his PENIS!
What’s worse is, to keep his loudmouth buddy from blabbing the secret, he told him that he was buying her a new umbrella instead! So the buddy is dropping hints to her like:
“He wanted something you’d be proud to take out in public!”
and
“I’ll give you a hint - it’s about this long!” (hold his hands apart about four feet).
Oh man, it was hysterical!
Don’t forget the inevitable Miracle on 54th Street rip. One of the show’s characters is down on the Christmas spirit because they’re still bitter over not getting the Easy Bake Oven they wanted when they were five, until they meet a wise streetcorner/department store Santa who shows them the error of their ways, and in the end they find a mysterious box under the tree marked “From Santa” and when they open it, it’s the Easy Bake Oven!
And don’t forget the Gift of the Magi episode where two characters sell something of personal importance to afford a special gift for the other, unwittingly cancelling out the usefulness of the other person’s gift in the process!
People! People! You’ve forgotten the wackiest, zaniest, the most outrageous plot ever! Y’see, the family is visited by the father’s mother, who needs to stay with them for some reason, and for the whole visit, the grandmother terrorizes the mother, critiquing her for everything, until the mother has had enough and tells him off.
Yeah! Woo-hoo! Clap clap clap! Woo! Clap clap! Yeah! Clap clap clap clap clap! Woo-wee! Clap clap! Clap clap clap clap clap clap! Clap!
Also, we can’t forget the episode where the outrageous side character that we’ve previously seen for one or two episodes moves to a new city and we see all kinds of wacky, outrageous characters (including a wacky neighbour) we haven’t seen before but something tells us we’ll be seeing them, and then the show’s main family visits them and everybody hugs.
And won’t you know it - just in time with this episode there starts a new spin-off show centered around the outrageous relative and his/her wacky antics! Hilarity ensues!
Remember the episode where the main character was losing his faith, only to have his spirits reinvigorated by a saintly and mysterious stranger?
Hey, how about that episode where the distant relatives from “The Old Country” stay for a week, and help the children through their problems with folk wisdom? They also had hilarious accents and were naive about American society.
Then there was the famous episode in which mom insisted everyone do communty service, and volunteering at the homeless shelter taught everyone a lesson about how well off they reall yare. Except for Stumpy Joe. He still wasn’t crazy about being all stumps.
BTW, Terrifel, that was a good post.
Don’t forget the “don’t drink and drive episode” in which a character we’ve never seen before, but one of the kids is in love with, dies after being in a car with a drunk driver.
Or the pregnancy scare episode, when the oldest daughter realizes just how close she came to missing out on college.
Or the one where the youngest son has his first kiss and then thinks he might have mono.
And who can forget the classic episode where we first met the nutty guy next door who later became such an important part of the show that he even had his own doll come out. What an engaging character. What an original catch phrase.
So many memories. And what about when the Daughter’s nerdy best friend is so depressed about being so ugly. But when the Daughter gives her a makeover (consisting only of her removal of her glasses and wearing a shirt that is no longer 4 sizes too large) and comes down the stairs…hubba hubba! Boy was Daughter jealous!
Whahuh?
How can we forget the episode where one of the female (or male) characters walks into the bathroom and sees a male (or female) (friend/relative of wife or husband/neighbour/employee) naked!
Much hilarity ensues after that because they are very unconfortable for the rest of the episode, but they can’t tell anyone what happened! If either of them is married, the spouse will find out and that could cause a strain in their relationship, but nothing that can’t be solved later by talking and hugging. Of course by the end of the episode, the tables are turned and the female (male) walks into the shower by accident while the other was in there! Now they have both seen each other naked! The irony of this solves everything and much hilarity ensues all around.
Remember that episode where hilarity ensued? That was great.
Still, nothing can beat the one where wackiness ensued.
Or how about the one where it turned out that the wacky neighbour had been writing to the folks back home about what a big success he was, and then they announced they were coming to visit Mr. Bigshot! Everybody joined in in pretending that the whole story was true! Was that wacky or what?!
Hey, do you all remember that post in this thread where someone took a traditional sitcom device that’s often used, or sounds like it’s often used, and then presented it as is, with liberal sprinkling of phrases “hilariousness ensued”, “wacky” and “then they all learned a valuable reason”? That was a great post.
It looks like the end when the husband forgets their anniversary and invites his boss (and his wife) over for dinner that same evening. The wife leaves him in a snit and he has to pretend that she is in the bathroom/kitchen/woodshed while doing all the cooking and hosting by himself (his raise in on the line after all).
Fortunately, when the wife returns to the house to pick up something she forgot, she overhears him saying how beautiful/wonderful/great mother she is and suprises him and the boss by suddenly making an appearance from the kitchen when he had just said she had gone to the store to get more cranberry sauce.
He ends up with the big raise and a promotion… and their loving example gives the boss and his wife a lesson on how to get along.
Final scene freezes on both couples in mid laugh over a very bad pun,
There is also the co-worker/employer/relative/neighbour who always comes in and spoils everyone’s fun because he is somehow bitter. When confronted, it always turns out that he was somehow hurt in the past and really deserves a second chance.
It looks like the end when the husband forgets their anniversary and invites his boss (and his wife) over for dinner that same evening. The wife leaves him in a snit and he has to pretend that she is in the bathroom/kitchen/woodshed while doing all the cooking and hosting by himself (his raise in on the line after all).
Fortunately, when the wife returns to the house to pick up something she forgot, she overhears him saying how beautiful/wonderful/great mother she is and suprises him and the boss by suddenly making an appearance from the kitchen when he had just said she had gone to the store to get more cranberry sauce.
He ends up with the big raise and a promotion… and their loving example gives the boss and his wife a lesson on how to get along.
Final scene freezes on both couples in mid laugh over a very bad pun.
Something like that happened to Bobby Brady. A girl kissed him, he “saw fireworks,” went and kisse her again and she said she might be sick. It could have been mumps, though. Mono was Richie Cunningham.
…and I remember that.
I want to thank Terrifel for a very special post. I think we all learned a valuable leasson.
Next week:
The hot-looking teen daughter, who has brought home a string of really grungy, loser boyfriends, announces she’s going out with a guy who sounds too good to be true. He’s bright, polite, has a great future – and when she finally introduces him, he’s black.
Her parents, who think they are really with it, have to face some Ugly Truths about themselves. Meanwhile, the boyfriend’s parents don’t like the idea of their son going out with a white girl, so we get all sorts of hilarious shoe-is-on-the-other-foot racism good for lots o’ laughs.
The white girl’s parents learn some valuable etc.
Then the episode ends, the black boyfriend conveniently goes away and is never seen, heard from or referred to again.