When TV Shows get Serious

[Nighthawk]

You know, I don't think Michelle's amnesia was really a special episode (I mean, they're supposed to teach you something, and how many people get amnesia?). Being the series finale, I think they just wanted a big, emotional storyline.

[Downhome]

I know that Scrub's doesn't really belong in this topic as a whole since it's just about drama/comedy week after week (best show ever to mix the two in my opinion), but I MUST mention the episode "My Screw Up".

 

I'm also happy to see people mention the Will Smith thing.

[Brett Favre]

Even reading that Will Smith monologue gave chills.

 

The other serious episode in the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, with Carlton getting a gun had some funny ass moments too. One of them was when Carlton said the bullet was going to get him, but Will got in front of him and took it for him. Will was like "Well, even if you were in front of me, the bullet still could have hit me from the belly up". Good times.

[Gary Floyd]

You know, I don't think Michelle's amnesia was really a special episode (I mean, they're supposed to teach you something, and how many people get amnesia?). Being the series finale, I think they just wanted a big, emotional storyline.

I also remember thinking to myself "This is the worst series finale in the history of telivision"

[bob_barron]

Steph and Gia met these two guys who were into reckless driving. DJ blackmailed Steph into not going which was good since they ended up getting in a car wreck.

 

The Full House finale was okay- just a bit too cliche. Steve returning was awesome though

[Richard]

The Full House finale was okay- just a bit too cliche. Steve returning was awesome though

it was originally only a season finale but the show got canceled.

[bob_barron]

I don't think so- with all the "We're a family" stuff it was fairly obvious it was a finale. Especially at the end when they showed the cast saying goodbye.

 

From TVTome-

 

This two part, which was originally shown as a one hour episode, was not intended to be a series ending episode. The makers of Full House wanted to bring the show back for a 9th season. The WB network was more than willing to bring Full House to their network, but John Stamos declined to continue to play as Jesse. The makers of Full House ended up having to re-tape this episode to use as a series ending episode.

 

So I guess they reshot it to make more of a series finale

[Vern Gagne]

I know that Scrub's doesn't really belong in this topic as a whole since it's just about drama/comedy week after week (best show ever to mix the two in my opinion), but I MUST mention the episode "My Screw Up".

 

I'm also happy to see people mention the Will Smith thing.

Speaking of Scrubs. I think they tend to overemphasize the drama aspect of the show. Like the episode where the one doctor's friend was in town, and he had to tell him his son was autisitic. Not that kids get be autistic, but this just seemed forced, and they added it to the storyline for dramatic effect.

[BorneAgain]

Remember the show "Dinosaurs". I remember there was a just say no episode which said that kids need to stay away from drugs so that no more "special episodes" can get made. God, I loved that show.

Of course, Dinosaurs ended up doing a "special episode" for the finale, where the dinosaurs went extinct because Earl messed with nature and killed some plants, or something like that.

I think it was something about the carnivores suddenly developing a taste for plants and ate all of them up, forcing the herbivores to declare war on them and a nuclear war erupts, causing a nuclear winter that freezes them all to death.

 

I might be mixing episodes, but I clearly remember Robbie being "drafted" to fight in a war in an episode that was made to look like an old newsreel.

Actually you are mixing episodes. The series finale was entilted Changing Nature and what happened was that all the trees were pushed down and thus to make more, they tried to create rain by setting off bombs in all the volcanos, so that they would make clouds of ash which ended up blocking out the sun.

 

The war episode you're referring to was Nuts to War which had the four legged dinosaurs and two leggers going to war over pisctachio nuts. As silly as the subject matter sounds if was actually a fairly serious episode compared to some of the others. The last sequence between Robbie (the son who went to war) and Earl (the father) actually got to me.

 

Charlene: "I heard somebody got killed."

Robbie: "Yeah, it was some new guy, but we had those four leggers on the run!"

Fran: "What?"

Robbie: "Well I'm just saying it's horrible that guy got killed and all, but we had those four leggers on the run, we could've won it."

Earl: "A boy died, don't you see the fight didn't settle anything?"

Fran: "Come on, Robbie, let's get you out of that uniform, you have school tomorrow."

Robbie: "Forget school, a lot of the guys are talking about setting up base for when they come back, they're working on a whole new line of weapons!"

Earl: "Stop it! You're not a solider, you're a kid. You're going to go to school, you're going to take girlfriends to dances, you're going to drive me crazy like you always have, until it's time for you to grow up."

Robbie: "Dad?"

Earl: "It's allright Robbie, it's over now, you're home."

[Ced]

Remember the show "Dinosaurs". I remember there was a just say no episode which said that kids need to stay away from drugs so that no more "special episodes" can get made. God, I loved that show.

Of course, Dinosaurs ended up doing a "special episode" for the finale, where the dinosaurs went extinct because Earl messed with nature and killed some plants, or something like that.

I think it was something about the carnivores suddenly developing a taste for plants and ate all of them up, forcing the herbivores to declare war on them and a nuclear war erupts, causing a nuclear winter that freezes them all to death.

 

I might be mixing episodes, but I clearly remember Robbie being "drafted" to fight in a war in an episode that was made to look like an old newsreel.

The war against the herbivores was the war over cashews. I distinctly remember the "We Are Right" campaign, the attempt to pronounce the acronym "W.A.R." and their war flag which was of course, a bullseye.

 

I believe the extinction episode dealt with Earl's company Wesayso building over some sort of environmental area that caused plant to go extinct and having a domino effect in the food chain. The last thing that happens is the Wesayso boss guy trying to make clouds by blowing up volcanoes and having the ash fly up into the sky. Of course this causes the Ice Age and the TV reporter signing off with "...and goodbye."

 

And to digress: "I'm the baby, gotta love me/Big, purple eyes I'm very cuddly/Especially when I hit my dad with a frying pan"

 

Damn I can't believe I remember all of that stuff.

[BorneAgain]

Remember the show "Dinosaurs". I remember there was a just say no episode which said that kids need to stay away from drugs so that no more "special episodes" can get made. God, I loved that show.

Of course, Dinosaurs ended up doing a "special episode" for the finale, where the dinosaurs went extinct because Earl messed with nature and killed some plants, or something like that.

I think it was something about the carnivores suddenly developing a taste for plants and ate all of them up, forcing the herbivores to declare war on them and a nuclear war erupts, causing a nuclear winter that freezes them all to death.

 

I might be mixing episodes, but I clearly remember Robbie being "drafted" to fight in a war in an episode that was made to look like an old newsreel.

The war against the herbivores was the war over cashews. I distinctly remember the "We Are Right" campaign, the attempt to pronounce the acronym "W.A.R." and their war flag which was of course, a bullseye.

 

I believe the extinction episode dealt with Earl's company Wesayso building over some sort of environmental area that caused plant to go extinct and having a domino effect in the food chain. The last thing that happens is the Wesayso boss guy trying to make clouds by blowing up volcanoes and having the ash fly up into the sky. Of course this causes the Ice Age and the TV reporter signing off with "...and goodbye."

 

And to digress: "I'm the baby, gotta love me/Big, purple eyes I'm very cuddly/Especially when I hit my dad with a frying pan"

 

Damn I can't believe I remember all of that stuff.

Curse you Ced for being more descriptive and informative then I was.

[Art Sandusky]

I figured someone would have remembered the Mork and Mindy white supremacist episode. All because she was POLISH~!

[Fökai]

Yea- Roseanne pretty much became a drama with comedic overtones in the last half of the series.

 

Dan didn't die- he had a heart attack and when he recovered he got into a huge fight with Roseanne and they seperated. They reconciled and all that lottery shit occurred.

 

In the finale it was revaled Dan did die of the heart attack but that rambling monologue by Roseanne really didn't make much sense.

Everything after Dan's heart attack was the "happy ending" to the book she was writing. In reality, Dan died, and her daughters ended up with the other's boyfriends.

[Guest netslob]

Yea- Roseanne pretty much became a drama with comedic overtones in the last half of the series.

 

Dan didn't die- he had a heart attack and when he recovered he got into a huge fight with Roseanne and they seperated. They reconciled and all that lottery shit occurred.

 

In the finale it was revaled Dan did die of the heart attack but that rambling monologue by Roseanne really didn't make much sense.

Everything after Dan's heart attack was the "happy ending" to the book she was writing. In reality, Dan died, and her daughters ended up with the other's boyfriends.

and Jackie was really a lesbian.

[Vern Gagne]

Charlene: "I heard somebody got killed."

Robbie: "Yeah, it was some new guy, but we had those four leggers on the run!"

Fran: "What?"

Robbie: "Well I'm just saying it's horrible that guy got killed and all, but we had those four leggers on the run, we could've won it."

Earl: "A boy died, don't you see the fight didn't settle anything?"

Fran: "Come on, Robbie, let's get you out of that uniform, you have school tomorrow."

Robbie: "Forget school, a lot of the guys are talking about setting up base for when they come back, they're working on a whole new line of weapons!"

Earl: "Stop it! You're not a solider, you're a kid. You're going to go to school, you're going to take girlfriends to dances, you're going to drive me crazy like you always have, until it's time for you to grow up."

Robbie: "Dad?"

Earl: "It's allright Robbie, it's over now, you're home."

 

 

Wow. A bunch of talking dinosaurs, discussing the evils of War. What's the point of a show like this, going down that path?

[Nighthawk]

I always thought Dinosaurs was bullshit, except for Sherman Helmsley.

[Vern Gagne]

That annoying baby ruined it for me. That, and it did tend to be a little too preachy.

[Slayer]

Wow. A bunch of talking dinosaurs, discussing the evils of War. What's the point of a show like this, going down that path?

Bad attempt at satire

[Vern Gagne]

Wow. A bunch of talking dinosaurs, discussing the evils of War. What's the point of a show like this, going down that path?

Bad attempt at satire

That was a problem with Dinosaurs. Where they jokingly taking a stand towards an issue, or was it all tongue in cheek?

[Gary Floyd]

Wow. A bunch of talking dinosaurs, discussing the evils of War. What's the point of a show like this, going down that path?

Bad attempt at satire

That was a problem with Dinosaurs. Where they jokingly taking a stand towards an issue, or was it all tongue in cheek?

A little bit of both really. It was pretty preachy,but the war in itself was actually pretty funny, and mostly consisted of fighting with pointy sticks and rocks. That out of the way, the whole "big corperations are evil" message ran out of steam in the last season. I look back now and think "wow, there was a lot of ruined potential there" I Still love that show however.

[Guest Ransome]

There was also a semi-serious episode of Dinosaurs where Robbie turns vegetarian, featuring a Bob Dylan dinosaur singing 'Give Peas a chance'.....

 

A great show, anyway, but I imagine it was hard to produce funny work in the confines of the animatronic dinosaurs when compared with the more-simple straight animation in the Simpsons or Family Guy.

[Guest The Decadent Slacker]

Some more i thought of:

 

Edith almost getting raped on "All in the Family" (i think Gloria almost got raped at some point as well)

 

The death of Phil HArtman on "NewsRadio"

 

The episode of "Andy Griffith" where Richie kills the bird.

 

Fonzie going blind on "Happy Days"

 

& Mr. Belvedere being in a coma or whatever it was.

 

Wish i could figure out why i know this shit.

[Guest MikeSC]

Do we need to mention the whole "Marge's sister is a lesbian" episode of "The Simpsons"?

-=Mike

[Downhome]

Edith almost getting raped on "All in the Family" (i think Gloria almost got raped at some point as well)

That's a very good one. Also:

 

-The very last episode of All In the Family, where Edith first gets sick.

-The first and second episodes of the second season of Archie Bunker's Place, where Edith DIES, and you see Archie trying to deal with it.

[Gary Floyd]

Do we need to mention the whole "Marge's sister is a lesbian" episode of "The Simpsons"?

-=Mike

Actually, I was hoping to forget that shitty episode

[Art Sandusky]

You're forgetting the Dinosaurs episode where the son starts taking steroids (in the form of some little critters he'd eat) and becomes an abusive fuckwad. Quite a serious (and frightening at the time when I was only six) episode.

[Guest Askewniverse]

California Dreams

- Mark tries to impress a girl he likes (played by Tara Reid) by drinking at a party. He drives home with the girl, but gets into an accident. The girl ends up in the hospital and Mark ends up in jail.

 

- Tiffani abusing steroids in order to make the National Volleyball Team.

 

 

City Guys

- Jamal gets robbed at gun point while closing his dad's restaurant. After the incident, Jamal gets a gun for protection. Later on, he hears someone in the restaurant while he's closing. Jamal thinks it's the robber again, so he shoots the person, only to find out that he accidentally shot his dad.

[Gary Floyd]

You're forgetting the Dinosaurs episode where the son starts taking steroids (in the form of some little critters he'd eat) and becomes an abusive fuckwad. Quite a serious (and frightening at the time when I was only six) episode.

Well, the fart jokes thrown in kind of ruin the seriousness, but what the hell

 

Remember the one were Earl runs against his boss to be president or something, and a local newsguy called Edward R. Hero ends up winning? That episode was gold

[AndrewTS]

All in the Family is kind of cheating. How many eps didn't deal with real world issues? Racism in nearly every episode, interracial dating (Archie's neice and Lionel went out dancing a bit while she was visiting), unwed mothers (the mother dumping the kid on Meathead), dealing with menopause, the existence of God, affirmative action (a black man gets the promotion that Michael thought he should have gotten), etc.

 

Although the episode where the Jewish Liberation Front (sic?) man comes to the Bunker house by mistake, and at the end of the show gets into his car--BOOM!

 

Yow.

[Guest LooneyTune]

I intentionally ignored All in the Family because 90% of the episodes had serious plots to them, with a good amount of super-serious episodes too.

 

You had Racism (the KKK for gods sake, and the Swastika episode), Tranvestites, rape (twice), menopause, arguments over the existance of God, homosexuality, murder (Beverly murdered on Christmas, and Edith givesd up Church), draft dodging (christmas episode), death etc. etc.