Topic: Best single episode in TV history

[Versatile]

Pretty self-explanatory, but let's break it into categories:

Serialized drama: (You need to know the context of the episode to understand and appreciate it fully)
Unserialized drama: (An episode that works even if you've never seen the show before, even if it's from a serialized drama)
Comedy: (So few comedies are heavily serialized I don't think they need to be differentiated)

Or name one. Or name 10 in one category.

I've got some thinking to do.

[Mizzougrad96]

Season 4 Finale: Breaking Bad

[Dick Whitman]

Serialized drama: "Where the kid, String? Where Wallace?"
Unserialized drama: I don't watch these because I'm too smart to watch them. [/crossthread]
Comedy: "The Survivor" from "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

[Versatile]

Unserialized drama: I don't watch these because I'm too smart to watch them. [/crossthread]

My early favorite to win this category is actually Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I think most serialized dramas have (mostly) self-contained episodes.

[Mizzougrad96]

South Park: Kenny Dies. It's a spoof about the importance of stem cell research where Cartman tries to sell aborted fetuses and then winds up testifying in front of Congress where he starts singing "Heat of the Moment"...

One of the strangest, well-written, powerful and downright fucking hilarious show of any kind I've ever seen...

[ColdCat]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer- "The Body"
South Park- "Rainforest Shmainforest"

Don't watch any unserialized dramas but I do have a nominee for best episode of a miniseries; Band of Brothers - "Why We Fight"

[Azrael]

Philco Television Playhouse, 'Marty,' 1953.

'I Love Lucy,' season 2, Lucy and Ethel go to work in a candy factory.

'Mary Tyler Moore,' season 6, 'Chuckles Bites the Dust.'

[dreunc1542]

Unserialized drama: I don't watch these because I'm too smart to watch them. [/crossthread]

My early favorite to win this category is actually Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I think most serialized dramas have (mostly) self-contained episodes.

Assuming you mean The Body, I'd put Friday Night Lights' The Son right up there with it as far as episodes that deal with similar issues. At the same time, I don't know if I would pick either as the single best episode, but I definitely couldn't argue against their inclusion in this discussion.

[dreunc1542]

For a serialized drama, I'd probably go with "Middle Ground", the penultimate episode of season 3 of The Wire.

[Double Down]

As I'm mentally going over my list, both The Body and The Son are serious contenders for that No. 2 slot, but it's tough because I'd also argue to TRULY feel their impact, you need to view them as part of a serialized drama. You can probably say that for most shows, but here would be my counter for a more deserving one that fits within the rules Vers established:

Love's Labor Lost from Season 1 of ER.

Marc misdiagnoses a pregnant woman's condition and he tries and fails to save her. The last scene where Marc has to go tell the husband, Bradley Whitford, that his wife dies (while he's holding their baby in his arms) is simply unbelievable. The way the camera kept moving around and around in circles of this episode has always stayed with me. One of my most intense TV experiences ever.

I will spend entirely too much time thinking about this/writing about this this later this evening, I'm certain. I do appreciate the way Versatile broke it up into sub categories so we don't have to spent half the thread arguing the merits of comedy over drama, or vice versa.

[Versatile]

As I'm mentally going over my list, both The Body and The Son are serious contenders for that No. 2 slot, but it's tough because I'd also argue to TRULY feel their impact, you need to view them as part of a serialized drama.

I was actually thinking either "Hush" or "The Zeppo."

[Buck]

I'd say 'The Contest.'

Here's a good list:
http://www.askmen.com/top_10/entertainment/24b_top_10_list.html

[Versatile]

I'd say 'The Contest.'

Here's a good list:
http://www.askmen.com/top_10/entertainment/24b_top_10_list.html

That's a terrible, terrible top pick (on the list).

[Greenhorn]

The Cheers episode with John Cleese.

The sweet sixteen episode of Party Down.

The Chuck episode where Yvonne Strahovski fights Noureen DeWulf.

The X-Files episode where Mulder switches places with Michael McKean's character.

The Beeper King episode of 30 Rock.

[dreunc1542]

As far as great non-serialized episodes from a serialized drama goes, I don't think any current show does self-contained episodes better than Doctor Who - Blink, The Girl in the Fireplace, and Vincent and the Doctor (among others) all legitimately deserve consideration.

Also, when it comes to serialized episodes, Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead from Doctor Who is interesting because it's an episode where it's significantly more important to know the future episodes than the past episodes. So going back and re-watching that double episode is actually better and better the longer the series goes on.

[imjustagirl]

The finale of the Trinity season of Dexter. I guess it could stand on its own, but as part of the whole arc of the season, it was perfection.

[DanOregon]

It's funny, I was about to post a West Wing ep and a Cheers ep and I think what made them so great is that they didn't have to have something monumental happen (character dies etc.) to make a compelling episode.

The West Wing's "State Dinner" is my pick. Just the seventh episode. It introduces the First Lady, there is Ruby Ridge-like standoff, a pending trucker strike and a diplomatic deal that needs to happen. But the touchstone is the hurricane that changes course and imperils a carrier group "Hold on. Hold on."

[spikechiquet]

The Punky Brewster episode that was "A Very Special Episode..." show about not playing in fridges.

OK, not really. But I will throw out "Eli's Coming" on SportsNight.

[RickStain]

The Body was awesome, but I hate the idea that you have to be depressing to be great.

Buffy's Once More With Feeling was every bit as great. It was an audacious choice that they executed so perfectly. The replay value is immense. No. 1 or not, it's always my favorite.


I'll second Dr. Who's Blink for a nomination.  Contractually, they could save money by only having the Doctor and main companions star in 12 episodes per season, so once a season they have to find a way to sneak in an episode without them.  Fascinating that the episode of Doctor Who that most people reference when talking about the greatest has almost no Doctor in it.

If we're going with depressing/serious, what about the Scrubs episode where you are introduced to 3 patients and given the statistic that 1 in 3 patients die, then in the end all three die.  The closing scenes get me every time.

I feel like Mash and Seinfeld should have some say in this discussion for their categories, but I can't decide on which episode I'd nominate for either.

[Batman]

For unserialized drama, one of my all-time favorites is "The Prophet" from the late-1960s "Dragnet" series.
Gannon and Friday go to check up on a suspected LSD dealer who is the leader of a psychedelic quote. The two cops and the cult leader then spend the entire epsiode debating the pros and cons of legalizing drugs. Both sides make some good points, and at the end Gannon and Friday leave without arresting the guy.
It's just a riveting 30 minutes of television. The amazing thing is, it's 45 years later and we're still debating the same issues with the same arguments. Definitely one of the high points of an outstanding series.

Here's a link to the full episode. Highly recommended:

http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi2558656537/

[TheHacker]

As I'm mentally going over my list, both The Body and The Son are serious contenders for that No. 2 slot, but it's tough because I'd also argue to TRULY feel their impact, you need to view them as part of a serialized drama. You can probably say that for most shows, but here would be my counter for a more deserving one that fits within the rules Vers established:

Love's Labor Lost from Season 1 of ER.

Marc misdiagnoses a pregnant woman's condition and he tries and fails to save her. The last scene where Marc has to go tell the husband, Bradley Whitford, that his wife dies (while he's holding their baby in his arms) is simply unbelievable. The way the camera kept moving around and around in circles of this episode has always stayed with me. One of my most intense TV experiences ever.

I will spend entirely too much time thinking about this/writing about this this later this evening, I'm certain. I do appreciate the way Versatile broke it up into sub categories so we don't have to spent half the thread arguing the merits of comedy over drama, or vice versa.

I was going to mention Love's Labor Lost. To go back to the original post, and the idea of understanding the context, Greene makes this chain of errors, loses the mother, saves the baby, has to tell the baby's father that the mother is dead ... and this is all on top of the fact that Greene is in the middle of a divorce. His life is falling apart and right in the middle of that, he makes the worst mistake of his professional life. The moment I remember is at the end, after he's worked all night, Greene declines Lewis' invitation to breakfast, and he gets on the train and sits down and starts crying as the screen fades to black. That was devastating. I didn't watch ER on a regular basis until about midway through its run -- by which time everyone said it had declined. But somehow or another, I happened to see Love's Labor Lost when it first aired, and I knew it was a show I was going to need to find time to watch at some point.

Another one that stands out at me is the In the Shadow of Two Gunmen ... the opening episode of Season 2 of the West Wing. Phenomenally well-constructed. You were already engaged with those characters by that point, but that episode, with the flashbacks that showed how the staff came together, made them feel like family. 

[dreunc1542]

I'll second Dr. Who's Blink for a nomination.  Contractually, they could save money by only having the Doctor and main companions star in 12 episodes per season, so once a season they have to find a way to sneak in an episode without them.  Fascinating that the episode of Doctor Who that most people reference when talking about the greatest has almost no Doctor in it.

I actually think more highly of others, including a couple I mentioned, but since it's usually at the top of the list for modern day Doctor Who eps, I couldn't not include it.

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

Sherlock: A Scandal in Belgravia.
Easily the single-best episode of television I have ever in recent memory.

[Norrin Radd]

Wow, this list kinda sucks.

http://lamoltihalstein.wordpress.com/2009/06/28/tv-guides-100-best-episodes-of-all-time/

And this one is flawed as well, though not as much:

http://web.archive.org/web/20071028140448/http://members.aol.com/speaker606/jim/tv.html

[schiezainc]

Unserialized: "Days Gone By', the pilot episode of the Walking Dead is definitely up there for me. A perfect introduction to the world the show created and an incredibly tense final few moments where Rick heads into Atlanta.

Serialized: The one that got me though was already mentioned here: 'The Constant' episode of Lost. The moment where he and Penny finally talk made the room a bit dusty I must say.

Comedy: The problem with this category is that some of the best episodes of the best comedies are the ones where there isn't a heavy-emphasis on jokes but moreso on plot developments. In this regard, it doesn't get much better for me than 'Niagra", the episode of the office where Pam and Jim get married. Perhaps I'd put the episode where Chandler proposes to Monica on Friends in that regard as well. But if you're talking the best as in funniest episode of a show? Probably "I dream of Jesus', the Family Guy episode with the 'Bird is the Word" simply because of how ridiculous it is. I also love the episode of South Park where Stan loses the ability to enjoy movies, music and whatnot because they all 'Sound like shit'. Both keep me rolling on repeat viewings.