Mount Rushmore: Single episodes of a TV series

[cartman]

Hopefully this will make for a great discussion. Name your top 4 episodes of a TV show. They don't all have to be from the same show. Normal Mt. Rushmore rules apply, namely only four spots available on the mountain.

To kick things off, here are my four, in no particular order:

South Park - Scott Tenorman Must Die (Season 5, Episode 4)
Cartman makes his nemesis eat the chili which was made from the boy's parents.

WKRP In Cincinnati - Turkeys Away (Season 1, Episode 7)
An all-time great quote to end the episode: "As God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!"

Seinfeld - The Contest (Season 4, Episode 11)
Are you the master of your domain? On a personal level, before this epidose aired, I told my grandparents about Seinfeld, and they thought it sounded funny and would check it out. This happened to be the first (and probably last) episode they watched.

The Sopranos - College (Season 1, Episode 5)
This is the episode that made The Sopranos must see TV and James Gandolfini a star. You get to see both extremes of Tony Soprano.

[QuikSand]

Dallas, "Who Shot JR?"
The Simpsons, "Krusty Gets Busted"
The Fugitive, finale
The Honeymooners, "$99,000 Answer"

[sterlingice]

I don't know how to narrow it down to a single Simpsons episode.

Some science fiction ones jump to mind immediately

Lost - Through the Looking Glass
The X-Files - Anasazi
Star Trek: TNG - The Best of Both Worlds (Pt 1)

SI

[Logan]

Pretty impossible for me to answer without a great level of thought. Stay tuned.

[Radii]

Breaking Bad - Face Off (Season 4 finale)

A wonderful ending to what may well be the best single season of television of all time. Won't spoil it since the series is still ongoing and I imagine at least one or two people may decide to binge watch the show before the final 8 episodes in about a month.

Mad Men - The Suitcase (Season 4 - Episode 7)

A powerful showcase for Jon Hamm and Elisabeth Moss both, everything about this hour of TV was perfect.


The Shield - Family Meeting (Series Finale)

No show that I've ever seen escalated things so perfectly over the course of the series, and no show that I've ever seen delivered shocking, satisfying closure in its series finale better than The Shield.


The Sopranos - College (Season 1 - Episode 5)

Cartman already mentioned this one


Maybe lots of stuff that could be considered here that I haven't seen, but if I haven't seen it I can't judge. I do recognize that there is a lot of iconic/classic TV I've chosen to ignore, but I believe that Oz and the Sopranos ushered in an era of greatness that blows away most everything before it.

Nothing from The Wire b/c The Wire stands out to me either as small moments/scenes or as full season arcs that are beautiful and brilliant. I don't find single episodes shining over the others to warrant consideration here.

[DaddyTorgo]

Well played on The Shield Radii. Probably one of the single most shocking episodes of TV ever in that it was the payoff of really the whole series' worth of buildup. I find myself watching the final bit every so often on youtube, and it still hits me well today, even though I know what's coming (and I was unspoiled when it aired).

[Izulde]

I'm not sure about the other three; I'd have to think about it. But yes, the series finale for The Shield was probably the best final episode I've ever seen.

You can't watch it as a one-off, though. You need to have seen the rest of the episodes to realize how exceptional and pitch-perfect a conclusion it is.

[sabotai]

Doctor Who - Blink
ST: The Next Generation - All Good Things...
The Outer Limits - The Light Brigade
Running Man (Korean variety show) - episode #74

[cuervo72]

Dammit, this having to come up with four deal...

I would probably put "Lucy Does a TV Commercial" in my group. The other three might take me a bit longer, but I figured I'd offer that one up.

[Matthean]

I know the series doesn't get much love overall, but I thought "Company Man" during the first season of Heroes was stellar.

[murrayyyyy]

Yeah, four is too hard. But one of my favorite ones that seems to be on in syndication a lot.

The Slap Bet one from How I Met Your Mother. It gave you Robin Sparkles.

[Coffee Warlord]

It's sci-fi heavy, but, well, that's what I watch and enjoy the most.

Babylon 5 - Severed Dreams

Doctor Who - The Family of Blood

Top Gear - Design a Caravan Challenge

Deep Space Nine - In the Pale Moonlight

[TroyF]

Twilight Zone - "To Serve Man"

MASH - Col. Blake dies

Different Strokes - Bicycle Man

Futurama - Fry's brother

[Alan T]

Tough to come up with a list here.. After thought, my list:

ER: Love Labour's Lost - I didn't watch ER in college, and didn't even watch the series until after I was married and had my first kid. Perhaps that is why when I finally watched this episode it was perhaps the most gut wrenching episode of any tv show that I had seen. Most tv episodes I can distance myself from, understand it is just a story. This just felt too close to home and was too real to me.

Lost: Pilot Episode - Many people fell in love with Lost and then just hung on until the eventual end. The first few seasons were outstanding though and most have their favorite episodes out of the bunch. Mine was actually the pilot. Just like ER, I didn't watch Lost until about the 4th season, and watching the Pilot simply got me hooked. One of the best episodes of any tv show for drawing you in that I have ever seen. After watching this, I crammed down 3 seasons worth of Lost in a week to catch up with what was being aired each week during season 4.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Once more with Feeling - I am not sure that I would have Buffy in my top 200 favorite tv shows ever. I re-watch tv series all of the time, some of which I have seen at least 10 times through from start to series finish (Hello The Wire). With Buffy, I have never really had a desire to go back and watch any of it again.. except this episode. Everyone gets cursed with some kind of musical demon, and they end up doing the entire episode in song as a musical. To this day, I still sometimes find myself singing some of the tunes from that Episode.

WKRP: Turkey's Away - Someone already mentioned this one above, but this was probably one of the most hysterical moments of any tv show ever, when they were dropping turkeys to the crowd for Thanksgiving. I can still picture Les' face as he is giving them the horrible news live on the radio.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

It's sci-fi heavy, but, well, that's what I watch and enjoy the most.

Babylon 5 - Severed Dreams

Doctor Who - The Family of Blood

Top Gear - Design a Caravan Challenge

Deep Space Nine - In the Pale Moonlight

I'm just about up to ITPM in my DS9 rewatching. I so can't wait.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

I'm just about up to ITPM in my DS9 rewatching. I so can't wait.

"It's a fake!"

SI

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by TroyF

Twilight Zone - "To Serve Man"

MASH - Col. Blake dies

Different Strokes - Bicycle Man

Futurama - Fry's brother

I'm thinking that's "Luck of the Fryrish" you're referring to. Easily my favorite Futurama episode, which is surprising since they hit some really high notes on that show.

SI

[Radii]

Originally Posted by murrayyyyy

The Slap Bet one from How I Met Your Mother. It gave you Robin Sparkles.

I only listed dramas, I find it impossible to try to mix comedy and drama and compare greatness between them. I could see Slap Bet making my comedy list, or at least coming close.

Originally Posted by TroyF

Futurama - Fry's brother

That's "luck of the fryrish", right? Jurassic Bark always hits me harder, but that one is real close. I could see that being a better overall episode too, as its really just the final scene with Jurassic Bark that is so damn heartbreaking.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

"It's a fake!"

SI

"It's a faaakkke!"

[Kodos]

The Simpsons: Homer's Phobia
The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror VII (Kodos and Kang run for President)
Star Trek TNG: All Good Things (I love Q!)

Don't have a fourth entrant, although Cartman's Seinfeld episode is a major contender.

[panerd]

The Wire (Middle Ground, Season 3, Epiosode 11) : Great small scenes like Colvin's story about the "White's Only" funeral parlor, Cutty being nervous about getting money from Avon for his boxing gym, the Mayor's office debate about actually legalizing drugs, and then of course the ending.

The Office (UK) (Season 1, Epiosode 4): The song "Freelove Freeway" may be the funniest thing I have ever seen on television

The Office (US): ("The Dundies", Season 2, Epiosde 1) My favorite show of all time. Hard to choose but this definitely set the tone for the character Michael Scott and Dwight running the music was fantastic.

Newsradio ("French Diplomacy" Season 4, Epiosde 5) : The first three will probably be more recongnized than this one but I felt like this epiosode was when the whole cast and Phil Hartman were just hitting on all cylinders. Too bad it Phil only lived another half a year.

[TroyF]

Yep, you guys both got it, Luck of the Fryish. Relooking at mine, all of them are fairly sad. Guess those are the most memorable to me.

[Suicane75]

Originally Posted by panerd

Newsradio ("French Diplomacy" Season 4, Epiosde 5) : The first three will probably be more recongnized than this one but I felt like this epiosode was when the whole cast and Phil Hartman were just hitting on all cylinders. Too bad it Phil only lived another half a year.

There are probably dozens of NewsRadio episodes I could pick, but I'd go with Season 02, Episode 09. Dave stealing Bills cane really sets the tone for the rest of their relationship. The joyful grin he gets when he tells Bill he took his cane is so glorious.