Joseph DeMartino
Senior HTF Member
Over in the SD TV DVD section there's a thread about series where the lead character goes blind temporarily. That brought to mind some of the other well-worn plots that every series of the 60s and 70s seemed to use at some point. (Many of which survive to this day.) Anyway, I thought it might be fun to have a thread devoted to the broader topic.
So, can you think of specific series episodes that featured these overly-familiar situations?
Wrongfully Accused: The lead character is framed for (or just unjustly accused of) a crime he didn't commit and either goes on the run to solve the crime hm/hersefl or is stuck in jail while the rest of the ensemble proves his/her innocence.
Less-than Total Recall: Lead suffers a blow to the head and wanders around for 30 or 60 minutes not knowing who he/she is. Uusally develops a whole alternate life and falls in love, has bittersweet moment at the end of the episode musing on what could ahve been.
Vanishing Act: Lead character disappears at the end of the teaser and doesn't reapper (except sometimes as a hand or foot, or when seen from behind or at a distance) until the tag. The secondary characters spend the episode trying to find the lead, and constantly asking, "What would he [or she] do?" This kind of episode was often done so the star could go off and shoot a feature film during the season. This was also often the reason behind...
Body Double: In this episode the mind of the lead character was transferred into the body of someone else This was a staple of SF shows, but sometimes found its way into straight shows through dream sequences or by invoking improbably sophisticated plastic surgery techniques. (This happened to Number Six on The Prisoner while Patrick McGoohan was off shooting Ice Station Zebra.)
"I got better." A variant on "Vanishing Act" in which the lead is apparently killed in the teaser and the rest of the cast spend the episode feeling sorry for themselves and reminicsing - often with the assistance of copious flashbacks. The lead usually returns for the climax at the end of act IV, then explains his/her improbable survival in the tag. This kind of show, in turn, is a variant on...
The Album Episode. An album episode is any show made up primarily of footage from a bunch of earlier shows. Usually used in conjuction with the "I got better", album shows were also popular for milestones like 100th episodes character anniversaries, weddings or permanent deaths of characters. They often literally involved everybody sitting around leafing through the old family album and having memories (flashbacks) cued by photographs. Album show were sometimes produced when the network requested an additional episode in a given season, beacuse the "envelope" footage could be shot in a day and the rest of the show created in post-production. Also used, like Body Double, when one or more major cast members needed time off for outside projects or when late-seaon budget constraints required that they crank out an extra-cheap episode. This was also often the reason for...
"The bottle show." The lead, sometimes alone, sometimes with others, is trapped in a mountain cabin, desert shack, disabled vehicle by a blizzard, sandstorm, hurricane and has to survive by his/her wits. This immediately reduced the budget for sets and the need for lots of complicated camera set-ups. (If the characters were trapped in their own home or office, so much the better. No need to build any new sets at all.) These episodes often involved on the regulars or at most one guest star, which also saved money. If the lead's mortal enemy is one of the people who is also trapped, the two must work together to escape the situation, and in the process develop a grudging respect for one another.
(This was hilariously spoofed in an episode of Babylon 5 when the Narn, G'Kar, is trapped in a wrecked elevator with the Centauri, Londo, after an explosion. The Centauri occupy G'Kar's home world, and have decreed that for every Centauri killed by the reistance, 100 Narn will be executed. Londo gives the usual, "We have to work together or we'll die" speech, and G'Kar basically says, "I'm good with that. I'll die, but I'll get to watch you die first, because I'm in better shape than you. So I get to kill you by simply doing nothing, and there wont' be any reprisals because there won't be any proof." When the two are finally rescued they are still arguing and cursing one another.
)
Regards,
Joe
So, can you think of specific series episodes that featured these overly-familiar situations?
Wrongfully Accused: The lead character is framed for (or just unjustly accused of) a crime he didn't commit and either goes on the run to solve the crime hm/hersefl or is stuck in jail while the rest of the ensemble proves his/her innocence.
Less-than Total Recall: Lead suffers a blow to the head and wanders around for 30 or 60 minutes not knowing who he/she is. Uusally develops a whole alternate life and falls in love, has bittersweet moment at the end of the episode musing on what could ahve been.
Vanishing Act: Lead character disappears at the end of the teaser and doesn't reapper (except sometimes as a hand or foot, or when seen from behind or at a distance) until the tag. The secondary characters spend the episode trying to find the lead, and constantly asking, "What would he [or she] do?" This kind of episode was often done so the star could go off and shoot a feature film during the season. This was also often the reason behind...
Body Double: In this episode the mind of the lead character was transferred into the body of someone else This was a staple of SF shows, but sometimes found its way into straight shows through dream sequences or by invoking improbably sophisticated plastic surgery techniques. (This happened to Number Six on The Prisoner while Patrick McGoohan was off shooting Ice Station Zebra.)
"I got better." A variant on "Vanishing Act" in which the lead is apparently killed in the teaser and the rest of the cast spend the episode feeling sorry for themselves and reminicsing - often with the assistance of copious flashbacks. The lead usually returns for the climax at the end of act IV, then explains his/her improbable survival in the tag. This kind of show, in turn, is a variant on...
The Album Episode. An album episode is any show made up primarily of footage from a bunch of earlier shows. Usually used in conjuction with the "I got better", album shows were also popular for milestones like 100th episodes character anniversaries, weddings or permanent deaths of characters. They often literally involved everybody sitting around leafing through the old family album and having memories (flashbacks) cued by photographs. Album show were sometimes produced when the network requested an additional episode in a given season, beacuse the "envelope" footage could be shot in a day and the rest of the show created in post-production. Also used, like Body Double, when one or more major cast members needed time off for outside projects or when late-seaon budget constraints required that they crank out an extra-cheap episode. This was also often the reason for...
"The bottle show." The lead, sometimes alone, sometimes with others, is trapped in a mountain cabin, desert shack, disabled vehicle by a blizzard, sandstorm, hurricane and has to survive by his/her wits. This immediately reduced the budget for sets and the need for lots of complicated camera set-ups. (If the characters were trapped in their own home or office, so much the better. No need to build any new sets at all.) These episodes often involved on the regulars or at most one guest star, which also saved money. If the lead's mortal enemy is one of the people who is also trapped, the two must work together to escape the situation, and in the process develop a grudging respect for one another.
(This was hilariously spoofed in an episode of Babylon 5 when the Narn, G'Kar, is trapped in a wrecked elevator with the Centauri, Londo, after an explosion. The Centauri occupy G'Kar's home world, and have decreed that for every Centauri killed by the reistance, 100 Narn will be executed. Londo gives the usual, "We have to work together or we'll die" speech, and G'Kar basically says, "I'm good with that. I'll die, but I'll get to watch you die first, because I'm in better shape than you. So I get to kill you by simply doing nothing, and there wont' be any reprisals because there won't be any proof." When the two are finally rescued they are still arguing and cursing one another.
Regards,
Joe
One of the few to really pull this off was Blackadder's Christmas Carol, which dispensed with three of the four ghosts and started out with the main character being terribly nice and turning into a bastard after discovering how much fun evil could be.
