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getmybehindsatan t1_iy8n9qg wrote

Reply to comment by blatantninja in TIL During the 20th century TV series that reached 100 episodes were generally preferred for syndication, since that meant stations could run 20 weeks of programming without repeating a story. In recent years that number has fallen to 88 episodes. by UndyingCorn

I'm glad we don't get so many cheap but crappy filler episodes any more. Or when all of the characters would get trapped somewhere and you realized it was a bottle episode where it would seem like a lot of character development until they escape and it all gets undone.

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Individual-Work6658 t1_iy8tnod wrote

The clip episode is the worst. Nothing new, no plot development. The definition of a filler episode.

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BigL90 t1_iy99t75 wrote

Clip shows can also be a lot of fun (see Stargate SG-1). It really only takes a minimal bit of effort to make clip shows enjoyable (as long as they aren't overused), and still make them at a fraction of the cost of normal episodes.

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wabj17 t1_iyb1ulx wrote

Every clip show needs a campy end song, reassuring the viewers there's nothing to fear, they've got stories for years.

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jabby88 t1_iybiwj1 wrote

I think those are usually done to save money for a more expensive episode in the season (like a season finale)

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minneapple79 t1_iy94c90 wrote

There have been some great bottle episodes though. The Chinese restaurant episode of Seinfeld, The One Where No One’s Ready on Friends. Brooklyn Nine-Nine had the episode where Jake and Holt did the all-night interrogation.

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ZanyDelaney t1_iy9ik6a wrote

I loved the Mary Tyler Moore show (1970-1977). It is high quality with many great episodes. But it too has several episodes that while pretty good, definitely do repeat ideas from earlier episodes and feel like filler. It can be a slog to produce top quality week and week (each of the seven seasons had 24 episodes).

I never liked the boyfriend of the week episodes that suddenly introduce a new guy who is usually never seen or mentioned in any later episode. The rare case a boyfriend returns the explanations for where he has been never match up with what we actually saw on screen.

There were actually a couple of trapped episodes but they were really good ones. (All are snowed in for "The Snow Must Go On" and "Not a Christmas Story".) Every episode of the show had few sets so I think the trapped bit wasn't done as a time saver it was key to the episode.

The final few episodes were the worst featuring a fantasy episode and a clip show.

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