I’ve heard (from totally unreliable sources) that sometimes a clip show will be done because the production is getting a little further behind schedule every week. The clip show allows for a little catch-up time.
Wasn’t the second episode of the animated version of Clerks a clip show?
Yes, but the joke was that the show had only aired one other episode up to that point, so all the clips were from the first episode. (The first episode produced, that is- the first episode [out of a grand total of two] that ABC aired was not the first one produced, making the clip show joke meaningless.)
As for The Simpsons, they do make fun of the clip shows the network forces them to do. All Singing, All Dancing and Gump Roast feature jokes in songs about clip shows, and The Simpsons’ 138th Episode Spectacular features in the opening credits “Written by Penny Wise, Directed by Pound Foolish”- an apparent jab at Fox’s request for a money-saving clip show.
I thought television shows were finished with season production before the first episode of the season ever aired (meaning most of them would shoot in the spring and summer rerun season… considering that most shows’ runs are only twenty-two episodes long and there’s more than twenty-two weeks in the spring and summer it would be doable). Do they really only finish the episode the week that it airs (in live-action shows)? Could that be why most sitcoms are dreck?
Also, I thought most shows were filmed in digital now. Most dramas, at least, have the look of digital film.
[obligatory anime hijack]
Excel Saga had a clip show. It opened with the director and the animators trying to come up with something because it was near New Year’s and they were too lazy to write a real episode.
[/obligatory anime hijack]
A pilot may be shot in the spring, but regular episodes won’t be shot until the network makes a firm order, usually in May, with writing in June. In fact, actual shooting may not begin until late July or August. Also, series with short orders (fewer than the standard 22-24 episodes) may wind up shooting their 6 or 13 episodes, then hurredly have to come up with more if the network picks up its option.
Re: Barney Miller
Where’s the love for Fish? I swear BM did almost a whole episode set in his house before they spun him off.
When I lived in Qatar there was a weekday afternoon show titled “Clip Show” (in English, although the show itself was in Arabic). It was basically an Arab-language MTV-style Arab music videos venue with a few cute Palestinian girls taking calls on-air and doing intros for the videos. Truth in advertising!
Actually, most sitcoms in the past decade or so have been shot on 35mm. Home Improvement was one of the last major 3-camera sitcoms to be shot on video in the traditional sense. I wouldn’t doubt that there have been several shows that were shot on video and post-processed to look like film, but straight-up video has long been relegated to soap operas and the nightly news.
With the fairly recent advent of 24p high-definition video cameras, sitcoms will likely be headed back to videotape. Unlike Home Improvement or The Cosby Show, however, they will be virtually indistinguishable from 35mm. One single-camera sitcom that already uses this approach is Arrested Development; video is captured at 24 progressive frames per second, with a more filmlike gamma, and therefore offers a cinematic look at a fraction of the cost of film.
I always assumed that clip shows were an attempt by the network (producers?) to have their cake and eat it, too. The cast and crew get to (almost) take the week off, but they still produce a show that is – technically – not a rerun. (My guess is that anything listed as a rerun suffers an automatic drop in ratings.)
Am I the only one who actually liked clip shows growing up?
This reminds me of an idea I had for what I think would have been the perfect “clip show” for Star Trek: Voyager…
While on shore leave on an otherwise friendly planet, Naomi Wildman is seized by the planet’s Chld Protection services, on the grounds that allowing her to return to Voyager would be a virtual death sentence. Unable to rescure Naomi, Janeway has to sit through a hearing in which a child protection official recites (with flashback clips) all the times that Voyager has been in imminent danger of destruction, starting with the very day Naomi was born.
Yes.
To show clips. Clip – Show 
As for the video vs film argument, do we really want to see that silliness happen again?
Interesting thread. And obviously, I was completely wrong. :smack: Live and learn.
No smacky needed. I don’t think a clear concensus was ever met. But the bickering in that discussion got trite.
Doper’s trite? Perish the thought! 
Many animes have a clip show–at least the 24/26 episode ones. I can’t remember if any of the 13 episode ones I’ve seen have a clip show. Generally they are at about the midpoint of the series/season. Problem is, sometimes you don’t know if they’re skippable or not. Sometimes there is still fairly significant plot advancement wrapped around the clips.
The season finale (?) of year 2 of Star Trek TNG was a clip show. Riker had been stung by some beast and they had to stimulate his “memories” to kill it. They found out stimulating the bad memories made the bug stronger, so Troi and Pulaski stimulated the good memories and saved him.
IIRC, there was some writer’s strike going on and they didn’t have a choice but to do a clip show.
I’m pretty sure during the run of Mr. Ed there was at least one clip-clop show.