# What is the single best episode of any TV series that you have ever seen? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 3, 2003, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-single-best-episode-of-any-tv-series-that-you-have-ever-seen/179309 "2003-06-03T04:31:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2015, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-single-best-episode-of-any-tv-series-that-you-have-ever-seen/179309/181 "2015-09-11T04:15:26Z")
came in to say “In The Pale Moonlight” from ds9. glad to see someone else has mentioned it maybe not best of all TV, but best of all Star Trek series imho (in my humble opinion) also a big fan of Ozymandias in Breaking Bad eta: Tapestry is my favorite TNG episode and that also has already been mentioned ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2015, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-single-best-episode-of-any-tv-series-that-you-have-ever-seen/179309/182 "2015-09-11T04:58:29Z")
The first one that comes to mind is the episode of _ **Cheers!** _ where Coach’s daughter comes to visit. The best combination of comedy and pathos I’ve ever seen, it’s my favorite episode of the series. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2015, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-single-best-episode-of-any-tv-series-that-you-have-ever-seen/179309/183 "2015-09-11T08:59:49Z")
Sicne we’re updating this I’ll add the **Adventure Time** episode “I Remember You”. Ice King takes some of his old journal pages to Marceline to turn into a song, thinking they’re just song lyrics. At the end the two of them are singing a song about his mental deterioration, with Ice King blithely singing away, being too far gone to remember, and Marceline crying, knowing that he’s forgotten their past and that he sacrificed his own sanity to save her. Heartbreaking. ---
**Author:** ![tafowler87](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f07891/32.png) [@tafowler87](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tafowler87)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2015, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-single-best-episode-of-any-tv-series-that-you-have-ever-seen/179309/184 "2015-09-11T09:02:45Z")
This is not hard at the moment as I am IN LOVE with Parks and Recreation. Netflix has brought us together and it has been an amazing journey thus far. My favorite “moment” (episode) would most definitely be “The Hunting Trip” (though “The Possum” is a very close second). PLEASE CHECK OUT THIS SERIES! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2015, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-single-best-episode-of-any-tv-series-that-you-have-ever-seen/179309/185 "2015-09-11T09:41:18Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > One of my all-time favorite episodes of science fiction, or of any TV show is the episode from the original **Outer Limits** written by Harlan Ellison and called **Demon with a Glass Hand**. It starred Robert Culp as Trent, a man without a memory being hunted by aliens in Los Angeles in the then present-day. He has a computer grafted onto his arm, with a glass exterior, in the form of the hand it replaces, and it talks to him. It tells him a surprisingly complex story – he and the aliens are from the future. The aliens have invaded the earth, but find that all the people have vanished, and that they set off some very dirty atomic bombs that have left fallout behind, which is killing the invaders. The only person left was Trent, who fled into the past (1960s LA). He’s the only one who knows where everyone on earth is hiding. Except he doesn’t remember – his memory is wiped. The computer knows, but the information is stored in its detachable memory – three of the fingers – which it doesn’t have. The alien invaders have them, but can’t access the information. > > So Trent is chasing the aliens to get back the fingers/memory lobes (and to get to the time machine – which the aliens have commandeered – to prevent more of them from coming through), while the aliens are chasing Trent to get the Hand, so it can tell them where all the humans are. > > This complex story works, and it has some surprising twists, and a very poignant ending. Most of it takes place in the very photogenic Bradbury Building in LA (Where scenes from _Bladerunner_ were shot, as well as the ending of the original _D.O.A._). No time paradoxes in this one, which is all to the good – they’re distracting. I just caught that episode on one of the vintage TV channels a few months ago (had seen it before of course, but not for some time). I decided to look up the lead actress to see if she’d done anything else. Turns out that Arlene Martel has dozens of roles over the decades, including T’Pring on _Star Trek_, and I never recognized her. Saw her in something else a month later and still didn’t recognize her. In a way, I find that more impressive than being an instantly unmistakable star like Robert Culp. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2015, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-single-best-episode-of-any-tv-series-that-you-have-ever-seen/179309/186 "2015-09-11T10:10:36Z")
It wasn’t around when the thread started, but I’ll go with Dr. Who’s “Blink.” Runner-up would be the ep of Sports Night where Casey didn’t remember his and Dan’s anniversary or the finale with Coulson (“Quo Vadimus”, I think.) Man, do I kiss Kayla Blake. ---
**Author:** ![danderson400](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bc79bd/32.png) [@danderson400](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danderson400)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2015, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-single-best-episode-of-any-tv-series-that-you-have-ever-seen/179309/187 "2015-09-11T11:52:27Z")
i could add on _China Beach_ when one of the nurses sang “Dedicated to the One I Love” to a dying soldier that made me cry a lot i have never seen a song make cry outside of church than that one ---
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2015, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-single-best-episode-of-any-tv-series-that-you-have-ever-seen/179309/188 "2015-09-11T16:35:45Z")
> [@PSXer](#): > > also a big fan of Ozymandias in Breaking Bad This. The best episode of one of the best TV series of all time. ---
**Author:** ![Tread](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Tread](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tread)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2015, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-single-best-episode-of-any-tv-series-that-you-have-ever-seen/179309/189 "2015-09-13T12:14:14Z")
My Picks… WKRP - Turkeys Away Magnum PI - Did You See the Sunrise Andy Griffith - Mountain Wedding ( The Darlings Second Episode Ernest T Bass’s First ) ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2015, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-single-best-episode-of-any-tv-series-that-you-have-ever-seen/179309/190 "2015-09-13T12:31:57Z")
\*\*Taxi \*\*- Season 2, ep 3: Reverend Jim: A Space Odyssey, The What does a Yellow Light Mean? episode. \*\*WKRP \*\*- Turkeys Away **Barney Miller** : Season 3, Episode 11: Hash, Wojo brought in brownies his hippy girlfriend baked, but they are hash brownies. Old Fish chased down a 20 something year old perp and tackled him only to find out that what made him feel better than he had in 20 years was illegal. “Mushy Mushy Mushy” ---
**Author:** ![Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harvey_The_Heavy)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2015, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-single-best-episode-of-any-tv-series-that-you-have-ever-seen/179309/191 "2015-09-13T13:38:41Z")
Alfred Hitchcock Presents S5 E15: **Man From The South** , written by Roald Dahl and starring Peter Lorre and Steve McQueen. The one with the Zippo. I’ll say no more. ---
**Author:** ![Tread](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Tread](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tread)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2015, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-single-best-episode-of-any-tv-series-that-you-have-ever-seen/179309/192 "2015-09-13T16:27:09Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > \*\*Taxi \*\*- Season 2, ep 3: Reverend Jim: A Space Odyssey, The What does a Yellow Light Mean? episode. > \*\*WKRP \*\*- Turkeys Away > **Barney Miller** : Season 3, Episode 11: Hash, Wojo brought in brownies his hippy girlfriend baked, but they are hash brownies. Old Fish chased down a 20 something year old perp and tackled him only to find out that what made him feel better than he had in 20 years was illegal. “Mushy Mushy Mushy” And Barn telling Harris to get them analyzed … Takes a bite, and says’ Yeah that’s hash" ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2015, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-single-best-episode-of-any-tv-series-that-you-have-ever-seen/179309/193 "2015-09-13T16:46:51Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I don’t seem to have contributed to this thread in the past dozen years. Ha, this was basically my reaction to this thread – “Wait, did I post in this before it got zombied?” But a quick scan through it indicates that I did not. I’m not sure what my answer in 2003 would have been, but the only time I can remember thinking while watching a TV show “This may be the best TV episode I’ve ever seen” was a show that didn’t exist in 2003. It was the “Modern Warfare” episode of _Community_ (2010), aka “The Paintball Episode”. If someone who’d never seen _Community_ before watched this episode I’m not sure what they’d think of it. I assume most people would consider it an amusing action movie spoof, but perhaps nothing especially impressive. In context though, this episode originally aired late in the first season of _Community_ and I thought it was really creative and did a good job of using the characters and setting in an unexpected way that still made sense within the established universe of the show. And while the show had clearly been quirky from the beginning and this wasn’t even its first genre parody, this episode made it clear that _Community_ was willing to go all-out, balls-to-the-wall, for the sake of FUN. I’m actually not even a fan of action movies and probably missed a lot of the specific references in this episode, so I imagine it was even better for action fans. ---
**Author:** ![Bootis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e8c25b/32.png) [@Bootis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootis)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2015, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-single-best-episode-of-any-tv-series-that-you-have-ever-seen/179309/194 "2015-09-13T19:45:57Z")
> [@leftfield6](#): > > This had not aired when this thread died off in 2003, so I’ll add this, and probably take some grief for it. The **Pilot of LOST**. > > Forget the rest of the holes that the subsequent episodes and season never quite filled in. No grief- you can’t have muster up such hatred of your finale without first sucking people in with some fantastic episodes- my choice is “the constant” with Desmond jumping back and forth through his life- as near a perfect hour of tv as you can get ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2015, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-single-best-episode-of-any-tv-series-that-you-have-ever-seen/179309/195 "2015-09-13T21:48:10Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > Ha, this was basically my reaction to this thread – “Wait, did I post in this before it got zombied?” But a quick scan through it indicates that I did not. > > I’m not sure what my answer in 2003 would have been, but the only time I can remember thinking while watching a TV show “This may be the best TV episode I’ve ever seen” was a show that didn’t exist in 2003. It was the “Modern Warfare” episode of _Community_ (2010), aka “The Paintball Episode”. > > If someone who’d never seen _Community_ before watched this episode I’m not sure what they’d think of it. I assume most people would consider it an amusing action movie spoof, but perhaps nothing especially impressive. In context though, this episode originally aired late in the first season of _Community_ and I thought it was really creative and did a good job of using the characters and setting in an unexpected way that still made sense within the established universe of the show. And while the show had clearly been quirky from the beginning and this wasn’t even its first genre parody, this episode made it clear that _Community_ was willing to go all-out, balls-to-the-wall, for the sake of FUN. > > I’m actually not even a fan of action movies and probably missed a lot of the specific references in this episode, so I imagine it was even better for action fans. Community had an abnormal number of truly awesome shows. Paintball, Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas (Claymation), Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design, The First D&D Episode, The Halloween zombie episode (Epidemiology), the 2nd pair of paintball episodes, Contemporary American Poultry (Goodfellas episode) and Remedial Chaos Theory may have been the best. This one explored alternate timelines in a sitcom. Shout-out to for Betty White in an otherwise pedestrian episode but all of her parts and Chang’s Gollum bit at the end were classic. ---
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-single-best-episode-of-any-tv-series-that-you-have-ever-seen/179309/196 "2015-09-14T01:58:37Z")
The Wire S3 E11 ‘Middle Ground’: up there with Dickens and Eliot. On the roof terrace, Stringer to Avon “We ain’t gotta dream no more, man.” At the culmination of this scene I sincerely believed I would never see drama this good again in my life. ---
**Author:** ![pohjonen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pohjonen/32/423_2.png) [@pohjonen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pohjonen)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-single-best-episode-of-any-tv-series-that-you-have-ever-seen/179309/197 "2015-09-14T02:42:06Z")
The Roseanne episode “Inherit the Wind” in which Becky cuts the cheese while giving a speech. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-single-best-episode-of-any-tv-series-that-you-have-ever-seen/179309/198 "2015-09-14T13:50:17Z")
The single best moment in the episode where Beverly announces she’s sold her share of the restaurant. When Roseanne says “How did you find a buyer in this market,” Bev says “Oh, it wasn’t hard” and the camera focuses on Leon Carp just eating that sandwich. The audience laughed so long and hard that Leon (Martin Mull) had to wipe his face with a napkin and take another bite before he could be heard saying his next line. “She kept lowering the price. I just couldn’t resist.” ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2015, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-single-best-episode-of-any-tv-series-that-you-have-ever-seen/179309/199 "2015-09-15T09:54:00Z")
Easy one. “The Rockford Files” when Tom Selleck was playing Lance White. Lance was a Dudley Do-Right/Beaver Cleaver cubscout detective, going up against the hardened criminals with his juvenile rose-colored glasses approach. Rockford got him out of all of the jams and solved the case, and everybody simply adored Lance and totally ignored Rockford, and Lance ended up getting the prize for being the greatest detective in California of the year. Season 5, Episode 4, “White on White, and Nearly Perfect”. Here’s the link, [- YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2Wix6K7tQo) but, the last time I tried to watch it, the sound was too fast, and Magnum sounded like a chipmunk. ---
**Author:** ![TCMF-2L](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tcmf-2l/32/16553_2.png) [@TCMF-2L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TCMF-2L)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2015, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-single-best-episode-of-any-tv-series-that-you-have-ever-seen/179309/200 "2015-09-15T11:29:16Z")
Random recollections: _ **American Gothic** _ - The episode where the lawyer is persuaded to sell out the old black man. _ **Scrubs** _ - The episode where Brendan Fraser’s character (Dr Cox’s brother in law) is revealed to have died. In an entirely different episode the best single moment had to be the ‘Kung-Fu Fighting’ mime in the lift while Dr Cox is telling the board what a great young Doctor they have… _ **Arrested Development** _ - Most episodes great but the episode with the one armed man was particularly well structured. _ **Curb Your Enthusiasm** _ - Episodes are, in my opinion, variable but the Palestinian Chicken Diner was a great one. _ **Xena Warrior Princess** _ - I always wanted the show to be a serious action / drama which it never was. But ironically, sometimes when it went all out for comedy such as ‘Day In The Life’ or ‘Old Ares Had a Farm’ it was very funny. However, some of the other all out comedy episodes were dreadful. _ **Family Guy** _ - I generally find it amusing but particularly liked the additional structure afforded by the episode spoofing the film Taken. TCMF-2L [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-single-best-episode-of-any-tv-series-that-you-have-ever-seen/179309.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-single-best-episode-of-any-tv-series-that-you-have-ever-seen/179309.md?page=11)