I often think about the episodes of my favorite tv shows that just don't seem to fit the show's format or style, For instance, that nearly dramatic episode on Gilligan's Island where The Hunter stalks Gilligan for bloodsport: Out of place. In Bonanza, I remember the supernatual episode where Little Joe ends up in a haunted town that must relive its massacre until a brave person stands up for the cowardly townsfolk (aptly named Twilight Town). On The Andy Griffith Show, there's the sardonic episode where a city resident passing through Mayberry is forced to stay there after his car breaks down. Through his eyes, the town is surreal. On the Addams Family, there's the poignant episode where the rebel motorcycle-driving punk is conformed to normality by the strange family.

These episodes are oddly out of place in the universe of these tv shows.

I'm trying to collect a bunch of these type of episodes. Any you can think of?

Thanks ahead of time.

AC

I remember the show Oz had an odd episode where it was like a musical for the whole eppisode. But more recently there was the episodes of CSI and Two and a Half Men when they switched writing staffs and both shows had sort of an odd episode.
Sometimes you'll get the sitcoms that have an out of place drama heavy episode. Not out of place for for instance there was the episode of 8 simple rules that took place after John Ritter died.

I can't think of any more right now but i'll be thinking. Nice topic.

The Dick Van Dyke Show had an episode about a handsome bachelor neighbor who moved in that everyone was trying to fix up but was uninterested. At the end, he told them he had beaten his former wife and didn't want to get involved with anyone. Kind of unusual for the tone of the show.

And there was the Mary Tyler Moore episode where she got -lightly - hooked on prescription drugs.

The most unusual I remember was the old 1960s anthology show, "The Name of the Game", which focused on 3 rotating leads - one was an industrialist played by Gene Barry. The plots were about high stakes business deals, intrigue, etc. - until one really unusual 2-hour episode, "Los Angeles A.D. 2017", where Barry's character, on the way back from an industrialists' conference on avoiding environmental restrictions, falls asleep at a rest stop, goes into suspended animation, and awakens in the year 2017, where a fascist state runs an underground Los Angeles in a polluted world, using sex as a way to divert the populace. Very odd SF episode in the middle of "Dallas" type plots. It was scripted by Philip Wylie (who wrote When Worlds Collide, The Disappearance, and other SF novels, as well as "Generation of Vipers", a very controversial book in the 1950s that is almost unknown now) and directed by a young Steven Spielberg.

Sometimes you'll get the sitcoms that have an out of place drama heavy episode.

Ah, like the Different Strokes episode in which Arnold's friend Dudley gets molested by the General Manager from WKRP in Cinncinnatti.

The only thing I can think of right off the top of my head is a couple of episodes of M*A*S*H. One was done as a documentary and very poignant. Another had Hawkeye in a hospital because of the stress of it all.

This is a little off topic but sometimes you will see some series' get an episode with a different director where it makes the show look completely different. A couple weeks ago an episode of Heroes had some new director for that particular episode and it had a lot of black and white scenes and it somebody on the phone the entire episode and then it would show a scene that would go along with what he was saying at the time. Very odd for the show and it made the episode stand out as being different the the usual style.