# TV Series where you have only seen one episode
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-where-you-have-only-seen-one-episode/632716
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [August 26, 2012, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-where-you-have-only-seen-one-episode/632716 "2012-08-26T14:47:32Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2012, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-where-you-have-only-seen-one-episode/632716/21 "2012-08-27T02:51:58Z")
> [@SpoilerVirgin](#):
>
> I’ve only seen one episode of _The Simpsons_… It just seemed very strange and cartoony to me.
_The Simpsons_ seemed strange and cartoony? I don’t know what to say.
I only saw the pilot of _Justified_, and decided that it was one of the modern trends in TV that I am not interested in. Similarly, I have seen only 5 minutes of _Dexter_.
If you added up all the ten minute snatches of _Buffy The Vampire Slayer_ I’ve watched, it may total a single episode. Joss Whedon’s popularity continues to baffle me.
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### Author:  [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2012, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-where-you-have-only-seen-one-episode/632716/22 "2012-08-27T03:23:04Z")
> [@blondebear](#):
>
> [Turn On](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turn-On) (easy, because there was only one episode)
The funny thing is I was sure someone was going to mention this and/or “Emily’s Reasons Why Not” which also only aired once.
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### Author:  [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2012, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-where-you-have-only-seen-one-episode/632716/23 "2012-08-27T03:28:06Z")
The Sopranos. After hearing years of rave reviews I gave it a try. Rented the first episode from Netflix. I didn’t like it. I could have predicted it – stories about the Mafia don’t interest me at all.
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### Author:  [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2012, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-where-you-have-only-seen-one-episode/632716/24 "2012-08-27T03:39:38Z")
Sopranos for me too. I caught one episode in a hotel with free HBO while on a business trip several years ago.
Come to think of it, same deal with Curb Your Enthusiasm.
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### Author:  [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2012, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-where-you-have-only-seen-one-episode/632716/25 "2012-08-27T06:43:00Z")
Parks & Recreation, and The Wire. The first episode of neither grabbed me, though consensus seems to be that I should’ve stuck with them.
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### Author:  [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2012, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-where-you-have-only-seen-one-episode/632716/26 "2012-08-27T06:47:27Z")
One episode of 30 rock, and I loved it.
One episode of CSI, it was meh.
One episode of New Adventures of Old Christine, just to see Julia again… it was just ok.
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### Author:  [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2012, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-where-you-have-only-seen-one-episode/632716/27 "2012-08-27T13:29:31Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#):
>
> _Friends_. Really. The wife and I were staying in the hotel that was inside the old train station in Kuala Lumpur in October 1999. Late one night, we finally watched an episode after hearing rave reviews from friends for years. But then the TV blew up shortly after that. Literally a small explosion took place. We called the desk clerk, someone came and took it away, and we never got a replacement, so could not watch it on subsequent nights. (They were showing old reruns locally each night.) Have not seen it again. But I recall the episode we watched was pretty funny.
_Friends_. I was in the hospital, had spent the night in intensive care, and had been upgraded to a regular room. After about 10 hours I felt up to raising my head off the pillow and turning on the TV, but I found that it got only three or four channels. One of them was playing _Friends_. I’d never seen it. I was stunned by how horrible these people were. Never again.
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### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2012, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-where-you-have-only-seen-one-episode/632716/28 "2012-08-27T13:59:00Z")
_True Blood._ I changed the channel when a redneck character said that he didn’t want vampires to receive “special rights”. Give me a fucking break.
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### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2012, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-where-you-have-only-seen-one-episode/632716/29 "2012-08-27T14:07:30Z")
> [@Alessan](#):
>
> _True Blood._ I changed the channel when a redneck character said that he didn’t want vampires to receive “special rights”. Give me a fucking break.
The first season or two were written to be somewhat analogous to the gay rights movement. It’s pretty obvious, right there in the opening credits is a big sign that says “GOD HATES FANGS”. The vampires were doing everything they could to be accepted with everyone else etc etc etc. After that fangs/fags thing sort of takes a back seat to everything else going on.
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### Author:  [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2012, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-where-you-have-only-seen-one-episode/632716/30 "2012-08-27T15:36:01Z")
> [@Sigmagirl](#):
>
> _Friends_. I was in the hospital, had spent the night in intensive care, and had been upgraded to a regular room. After about 10 hours I felt up to raising my head off the pillow and turning on the TV, but I found that it got only three or four channels. One of them was playing _Friends_. I’d never seen it. I was stunned by how horrible these people were. Never again.
Oh, me, too! I tried. I tried hard to watch one episode, because, hey, it’s on all the time. Couldn’t do it. I hated every single person on it, unto this day.
We watched the first episode of the Star Trek series after the original, the series with Patrick Stewart as captain. We agreed it was pretty good, and we both just loved loved loved Patrick Stewart! But never watched that series again. (I also took an instant dislike to Beardy McBeard, though I did see a few eps some years later just to watch Brent Spinner as Data!)
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### Author:  [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2012, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-where-you-have-only-seen-one-episode/632716/31 "2012-08-27T15:59:10Z")
> [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](#):
>
> Parks & Recreation, and The Wire. The first episode of neither grabbed me, though consensus seems to be that I should’ve stuck with them.
I would suggest giving both a second try. The first Season of P&R is by far the weakest. I jumped back in in the middle of season 2 (and since went back and caught up) and it is one of my favorite shows.
I also had a rough time at first with The Wire as I had a hard time keeping track of everyone but stuck with it and loved it.
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### Author:  [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2012, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-where-you-have-only-seen-one-episode/632716/32 "2012-08-27T16:06:13Z")
The only full episode of \*\*Seinfield \*\*I watched was the final episode. I’ve been around others who have had it on from time to time, so have seen snippets, but the finale was the only one I sat down to watch start to finish.
Also, back when **Sex & the City** was all the rage, I decided to Netflix it. I don’t watch much TV at all (other than sports) so Netfilx is my way to catch “must see TV.” I’ve watched all of Buffy, Angel, the Sopranos, the Lost that way. About to start on Mad Men and Breaking Bad.
But I digress. Where was I?..oh, **Sex & the City**. Yeah, watched the first episode and, uh, no. Not going to happen. Not sure why I thought I would like it in the first place.
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### Author:  [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2012, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-where-you-have-only-seen-one-episode/632716/33 "2012-08-27T16:32:44Z")
I do this all the time with new shows. The one with the dinsoaurs where they go back in time because the future Earth is dying is the most recent example.
There’s also a couple that I’ve watched on an airplane for free but never sought out after the flight ended. King of Queens or Everyone Loves Raymond or stuff like that.
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### Author:  [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2012, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-where-you-have-only-seen-one-episode/632716/34 "2012-08-27T17:23:36Z")
> [@Quimby](#):
>
> The funny thing is I was sure someone was going to mention this and/or “Emily’s Reasons Why Not” which also only aired once.
Before I saw your post, I was going to list _EMWN_, _The Will_, and T_he Rich List_. (Reportedly, one of the reasons TRL was cancelled after one episode was, a number of contestants won over $100,000, but there was a clause in the contracts that said the producers didn’t have to pay if the show was cancelled before their episodes aired.)
As for shows with more than one episode, I’m pretty sure that I’ve seen just the last episode of _something_, but I just can’t think of any at the moment. I was also going to say _Star Trek Voyager_, but I’m pretty sure I have seen two of those (the first episode, and the one with the planet that has a copy of Star Fleet Headquarters/Academy). Usually, I will give a show two episodes before dismissing it.
How about a show where all I saw was commercials for it because that’s all that ever aired? _Our Little Genius_ (best described as The $64,000 Question with kids) was cancelled about two weeks before its premiere was supposed to air because the executive producer discovered that some lower-level producers had given some contestants, depending on the version of the story, a more specific category than would have been made public (e.g. if the category was “literature,” the questions may have been limited to 20th Century American literature), some of the questions, or even some of the answers.
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### Author:  [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2012, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-where-you-have-only-seen-one-episode/632716/35 "2012-08-27T17:36:25Z")
_Seinfeld_. I found it boring and unfunny and never bothered to watch it again.
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### Author:  [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2012, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-where-you-have-only-seen-one-episode/632716/36 "2012-08-28T01:53:18Z")
I watched the pilot of _New Girl_. It was better than I imagined, but I didn’t love it, either. I kind of think that part of me was put off by the whole “adorkable” marketing campaign.
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### Author:  [@Blackberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackberry)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2012, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-where-you-have-only-seen-one-episode/632716/37 "2012-08-28T02:20:58Z")
One episode of **Dexter**. People kept telling me I’d like it, and I didn’t _not_ like it and I guess I could see getting into it maybe, but I haven’t bothered to watch it again. I’ve never had HBO so it wasn’t worth the trouble to try to find it online and for me watching TV online kind of sucks anyway. Maybe if I start getting into TV again one day I’ll see if Netflix streaming has it, or maybe I’ll try the books.
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### Author:  [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2012, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-where-you-have-only-seen-one-episode/632716/38 "2012-08-28T03:45:10Z")
I’ve seen one episode each of **Two and a Half Men** (the pilot) and **Small Wonder** (the episode where Child Services thinks the robot girl’s parents are raging alcoholics). Both shows creeped me out to a shocking degree.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2012, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-where-you-have-only-seen-one-episode/632716/39 "2012-08-28T14:14:48Z")
Malcolm in the Middle
Buffy
Raymond
First two didn’t do anything for me. I actively hated Raymond.
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### Author:  [@psiekier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psiekier)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2012, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-where-you-have-only-seen-one-episode/632716/40 "2012-08-29T16:20:25Z")
There’s a rule that states if you’ve only seen one episode of a show, when you turn on the TV and that show is on again, the one episode that’s being re-run right now is the only one that you’ve seen.
I never watched _Family Ties_ when it was on, and only saw one episode. It was the Christmas episode where despite having a cold, Alex P. Keaton seems to be making an extra effort to be a real [del]dick[/del] jerk to his family (imagine that!) on Christmas Eve, and he is [visited by the ghosts of Christmas](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Carol) showing him what the Christmas used to be like when he was younger and what it will be like in the future. In the future, the ultra-rich Alex lands his helicopter out in front of his family’s run-down house, crushing their wheelbarrow - their “only mode of transportation.”
For _decades_, I have occasionally slipped in the “only mode of transportation” line when discussing wheelbarrows or other odd modes of transportation, and my wife is in on the joke now, too.
We turned on the TV shortly after hooking up the DirecTV receiver in the new house, happened to check out TVLand, and _that_ was the episode of _Family Ties_ that was on.
I had it saved to our DVR for quite a while.
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