It's specifically a list of sci-fi and fantasy shows, which the headline fails to mention, but I'm sure there's no reason that should stop people from listing all the very special episodes of ER, The Cosby Show, Three's Company, Good Times, Benson, and so forth that failed to make the list.

Oh, and Happy Days.

List fails without "Walking Dist -

WHAAAAAAAT?

Smiley.

Doctor Who: City of Death?

Wow, they just wanted to geek pander by saying "ZOMG THAT ONE DOCTOR WHO SERIAL BY DOUGLAS ADAMS IS TEH BEES KNEES!!!"

/As for something that "changed television"? The MASH finale. Before that, series finales were not major affairs. That really changed television, unlike, well, anything on this list.

List fails without the pilot episode of "Miami Vice".

robsul82: List fails without "Walking Dist -

WHAAAAAAAT?

Smiley.

Honestly, Serling's plays like Patterns and Requiem For A Heavyweight changed TV more than one Twilight Zone episode.

GWLush: A list of episodes that changed the lives of nerds in their moms basement.

QFT

FirstNationalBastard: robsul82: List fails without "Walking Dist -

WHAAAAAAAT?

Smiley.

Honestly, Serling's plays like Patterns and Requiem For A Heavyweight changed TV more than one Twilight Zone episode.

Well, it's a list of influential sci-fi TV episodes, so. I certainly get your point, although it's worth mentioning "Walking Distance" was the first episode of the show that showed how offbase Mike Wallace's infamous "you've given up on writing anything important for television, right?" comment to Serling was and definitely influenced sci-fi writers later on. "Patterns" and "Requiem for a Heavyweight" showed that TV could be important, and "Walking Distance" showed that sci-fi TV could be important.

No Edith Bunker gets raped episode?

robsul82: FirstNationalBastard: robsul82: List fails without "Walking Dist -

WHAAAAAAAT?

Smiley.

Honestly, Serling's plays like Patterns and Requiem For A Heavyweight changed TV more than one Twilight Zone episode.

Well, it's a list of influential sci-fi TV episodes, so. I certainly get your point, although it's worth mentioning "Walking Distance" was the first episode of the show that showed how offbase Mike Wallace's infamous "you've given up on writing anything important for television, right?" comment to Serling was and definitely influenced sci-fi writers later on. "Patterns" and "Requiem for a Heavyweight" showed that TV could be important, and "Walking Distance" showed that sci-fi TV could be important.

I'll give you that.

Also, just because I feel like talking about the works of Rod Serling, you can look at Patterns, Walking Distance, and They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar (from Night Gallery) as a sort of snapshot of where Serling was at the particular time he wrote those things... Patterns was the hungry up-and-comer, Walking Distance was the successful man looking back fondly on his past, Tim Riley's Bar was the over the hill guy regretting his mistakes.

/it's just too bad Serling had to give the NG installment a happy ending. However, if you choose to believe the ending was the main character imagining happy things as he dies, it works better.

I'm not usually one of these "list fails without" types of guys, but how do you compile a list of sci-fi/fantasy TV episodes that changed television and not include the Twin Peaks pilot?

That's probably the most influential episode of television of the last 25 years, in any dramatic genre. It changed everything that came after it.

Krymson Tyde: Next on a very special Blossom...

Six?



/would have been the best episode ever.

GWLush: A list of episodes that changed the lives of nerds in their moms basement.

How original.

FirstNationalBastard: I'll give you that.

Also, just because I feel like talking about the works of Rod Serling, you can look at Patterns, Walking Distance, and They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar (from Night Gallery) as a sort of snapshot of where Serling was at the particular time he wrote those things... Patterns was the hungry up-and-comer, Walking Distance was the successful man looking back fondly on his past, Tim Riley's Bar was the over the hill guy regretting his mistakes.

/it's just too bad Serling had to give the NG installment a happy ending. However, if you choose to believe the ending was the main character imagining happy things as he dies, it works better.

IIRC, the original ending to "They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar" was downbeat and the happy ending was a result of network interference. Still awesome and like you said, those three scripts definitely work as signposts to Serling's career.

1) Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "The Body"
The episode in which Buffy loses her mother and we cope with the aftermath of loss and grief is spare and unforgiving, without even any music. The supernatural aspects are pushed to the margins, as humans and superhumans alike cope with the mystery of pure, unleavened death.

Truth. I dont care if you're talking science fiction and fantasy shows or not that was really great tv.

NuttierThanEver: No Edith Bunker gets raped episode?

Now THERE'S some science fiction!

sigdiamond2000: I'm not usually one of these "list fails without" types of guys, but how do you compile a list of sci-fi/fantasy TV episodes that changed television and not include the Twin Peaks pilot?

That's probably the most influential episode of television of the last 25 years, in any dramatic genre. It changed everything that came after it.


Couldn't agree more. Lynch opened up entirely new possibilities in television that had influence well beyond the genre.

rotsky: NuttierThanEver: No Edith Bunker gets raped episode?

Now THERE'S some science fiction!

Well, she did always like the meat head.

FirstNationalBastard: rotsky: NuttierThanEver: No Edith Bunker gets raped episode?

Now THERE'S some science fiction!

Well, she did always like the meat head.

I was going to mention the rape episode in Little House on the Prairie, but y'know. don't want to bring everyone down.

/it was charles who was raped. charles.raped.

What about the episode of "Full House" where it was finally revealed that the entire series was a hallucination conjured up by Dave Coulier's character as he was being strapped into the electric chair for murdering the entire family with a rusty hedge trimmer?

Evenbiggerknickers: /it was charles who was raped. charles.raped.

Dudley and I went down to the bike shop for ice cream. While we were there, Mr. Horton had us take off our shirts and pretend we were robots so he could photograph us.

Who am I?

Mr. Coffee Nerves: What about the episode of "Full House" where it was finally revealed that the entire series was a hallucination conjured up by Dave Coulier's character as he was being strapped into the electric chair for murdering the entire family with a rusty hedge trimmer?

Are you sure it wasn't a daydream he was having while Alanis Morrisette was blowing him in a movie theater?

/You oughta know.

Evenbiggerknickers: FirstNationalBastard: rotsky: NuttierThanEver: No Edith Bunker gets raped episode?

Now THERE'S some science fiction!

Well, she did always like the meat head.

I was going to mention the rape episode in Little House on the Prairie, but y'know. don't want to bring everyone down.

/it was charles who was raped. charles.raped.

LINK! GODAAMIT, LINK!

TsarTom: Dudley and I went down to the bike shop for ice cream. While we were there, Mr. Horton had us take off our shirts and pretend we were robots so he could photograph us.

Who am I?


Venus Flytrap from "WKRP in Cincinnati"?

The_Sponge: TsarTom: Dudley and I went down to the bike shop for ice cream. While we were there, Mr. Horton had us take off our shirts and pretend we were robots so he could photograph us.

Who am I?


Venus Flytrap from "WKRP in Cincinnati"?

You ARE SOOOO close.

The_Sponge: TsarTom: Dudley and I went down to the bike shop for ice cream. While we were there, Mr. Horton had us take off our shirts and pretend we were robots so he could photograph us.

Who am I?


Venus Flytrap from "WKRP in Cincinnati"?

Fun fact: every one of those Maytag washers Mr. Carlson fixed had a dead minority orphan in it. Every. One.

TsarTom: The_Sponge: TsarTom: Dudley and I went down to the bike shop for ice cream. While we were there, Mr. Horton had us take off our shirts and pretend we were robots so he could photograph us.

Who am I?


Venus Flytrap from "WKRP in Cincinnati"?

You ARE SOOOO close.

Dude, that episode really disturbed me as a kid. In fact, I repressed memories of watching it and was only reminded of it not long ago right here after reading a post like yours. Traumatic.

Mugato: TsarTom: The_Sponge: TsarTom: Dudley and I went down to the bike shop for ice cream. While we were there, Mr. Horton had us take off our shirts and pretend we were robots so he could photograph us.

Who am I?


Venus Flytrap from "WKRP in Cincinnati"?

You ARE SOOOO close.

Dude, that episode really disturbed me as a kid. In fact, I repressed memories of watching it and was only reminded of it not long ago right here after reading a post like yours. Traumatic.

How did you feel about that Facts of Life episode where Tootie was creepy stalker obsessed with Jermaine Jackson?

FirstNationalBastard: How did you feel about that Facts of Life episode where Tootie was creepy stalker obsessed with Jermaine Jackson?

No, never watched that series. That sounds creepy but not as creepy as the bike shop guy (Mr. Carlson from WKRP).

What about "Mirror, Mirror" where we learned that facial hair = evil?

Look at the long-standing ramifications of that one? Evil Michael Knight? Evil Abed? Those ZZ Top videos where Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill raped and murdered those gas station attendants?

GWLush: A list of episodes that changed the lives of nerds in their moms basement.

I once heard Drew say that the only people who bring this up are the ones who want it to be true so they're not the only ones. What a seer, amirite?

In on-topic news, I am THRILLED to see "The Constant" on the list. One of my favorite episodes of TV ever, for great story-telling and emotional blubbering at the end. Like a little girl who just saw ET. Big fat tears. It's definitely my favorite episode of the series. And now "you're my constant" is just as romantic as "I know." SIGH

In somewhat off-topic news, I guess Community doesn't qualify as fantasy/sci-fi but "Modern Warfare" on its own may qualify as fantasy. I suppose it's too early to see if it changed television as a whole, but it was certainly unlike anything I'd seen before.

FirstNationalBastard: How did you feel about that Facts of Life episode where Tootie was creepy stalker obsessed with Jermaine Jackson?

I don't see what's creepy about that

List fails without the "Rose Bowl" episode of NewsRadio.

Did Max Headroom really change television? I loved its short run, and Amanda Pays' breasts*, but I didn't see TV being more Maxy in the 1990s than in the 1980s.

* I was a single male college student.

Di Atribe: FirstNationalBastard: How did you feel about that Facts of Life episode where Tootie was creepy stalker obsessed with Jermaine Jackson?

I don't see what's creepy about that

Okay, what about the episode where a pimp tried to lure Tootie into a life of prostitution? Or the episode where Tootie was the star of child porn? Or Tootie's black power phase?

...Tootie had a lot of shiat happen to her.

Time Traveling Bunnies: LOST?

*clicks link*

But not the episode I imagined, hmm. Good list.

Which episode were you expecting? From what I've seen, "The Constant" is pretty universally considered the best/defining episode of the series.