Favorite episodes of classic TV shows

The "Rock Bottom" episode of "Spongebob,"

Too Many Stars

The "Bluey" episode where Muffin hasn't had her nap and runs amok.

Roseanne - pot smoking episode

Lucy and Ethel in the candy factory

Leave It To Beaver - Beaver gets stuck in a giant cup after climbing a billboard

Hate “Everybody Loves Raymond” if you will but I liked it. And it had lots of funny episodes. But to me, the funniest is an episode where Debra gets on Ray’s case for always buying cheap, impractical shitty off-brand products like paper towels and garden hoses. Every bit of dialogue in that episode comes together brilliantly in a kitchen fire scene.

I like it more than Debra dropping the Thanksgiving turkey on the kitchen floor.

MTM: Rhoda dates Phyllis’ gay brother.

All in the Family: Archie and Mike tell wildly different versions of what happened when a plumber came to the house.

Strangers with Candy: Jerri and Tammy take care of a baby for social studies class.

Gilligan’s Island: Everyone eats radioactive vegetables.

Prodigal Son - S1 E20 "Like Father..."

Where Ainsley slits the throat of the evil, rich, power mad Trumpian character.

Satisfying years later.

Prodigal Son was an amazing little show.

I can watch the last 15 minutes of S1E20 over and over. I have....

Diff'rent Strokes - the pedo bike shop owner takes pictures of Arnold and his friend in their underpants.

Medical Center - Robert Reed undergoes a sex change operation.

All in the Family - Archie joins the KKK and they burn a cross on Mike and Gloria front lawn.

Al in the Family - Archie meets Beverly LaSalle

RHODA:

The Bridal Shower (Linda Lavin steals the show)

Rhoda's Wedding (Cloris Leachman steals the show)

The Golden Girls:

"Zborn Again" Season SIX, Episode 7

Dorothy and Stan become romantically/sexually involved.

Includes the immortal lines:

Rose: "See if I care...hypersexual bitch"

Blanche: "Dorothy...the man gave you MEAT!"

Rose: (telling the story about her husband dying while making love with her) "I'm Going, Rose! I'm Going"

The Jack Benny Christmas episode where Mel Blanc as the store is driven so crazy by Jack he shoots himself.

*store clerk

ALL IN THE FAMILY -

The Sammy Davis Jr episode Maude episode (when the family has the flu) Lionel's Engagement Party

X-Files - Home - starring those wacky Peacock brothers who keep their legless mother under a bed.

Good Times - Penny becomes acquainted with a hot iron.

The Dick Van Dyke Show when a very large package is delivered addressed to Rob and Laura is consumed with curiosity.

BEWITCHED -

Every episode with Alice Pearce. Can't choose just one.

Bewitched — Once In A Vial — brilliant farce.

The Gilligan's Island episode with Phil Silvers, where they perform Hamlet as a musical. I learned the songs off by heart.

My favourite MTM is the one where we meet Sue-Ann, who is having it off with Lars. The moment when Phyllis slams the oven door on her souffle is ever and always hilarious.

Ethel, look what happened to your washing machine.

Do you pop out at parties?

The "How Great Thou Art" episode of Designing Women, where they debated the minister about women becoming ordained, or some such shit. Bernice even made a cogent argument that brought him down a peg.

Homer's Phobia aka the one with John Waters

Linda Lavin and Martha Raye put on a show and sing "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy"

The Golden Girls when Jean the lesbian visits.

When Davey Jones is on the Brady Bunch.

Too many episodes of "Frasier" to count: Dr. Nora, Mary the black producer who takes over Frasier's show, the Cranes pretend to be Jewish to mollify Frasier's new girlfriend, Frasier and Niles drop into the gay bar "Bad Billy's" ...

The "Gilligan's Island" where Mary Ann hits her head and thinks she's Ginger is hilarious.

The episode of "Frasier" where they pretend to be Jewish is the peak of the series.

Valine finally gets her babies back on Knot's Landing.

The scene in Bad Billy's where Frasier recognizes the bartender (who is his "furniture polisher"):

FRASIER: I bet you'd never thought you'd see me here!

BARTENDER; Okaaaay ...

One of my favorite Cheers episodes, because it was just so f'kng funny, was the one where Diane brings the crew into the bathroom and plays this ridiculous psychological game with them. They think it so stupid, it's not even worth dignifying with revenge. She wins a contest where she gets to read a poem on a local tv show. She thinks it's a set-up, and in attempting to get even, she totally humiliates herself.

It actually ends up being kind of poignant, when, in the final punchline joke (for me, a brilliant set-up), she receives their revenge in one of the most juvenile antics possible, a bucket of cold water spills on her head. Rather than shrieking in horror, she's ecstatically pleased "Oh, you guys!"

It was Shelley's Sally Field "you like me" moment!

The episode of ODAAT when Ann, Barbara, Julie, and Ginny entertain the old people on New Year's Eve. Hillarity at its finest.

The Bob Newhart Show episode where Bob is a guest on a local tv talk show and gets raked over the coals by the host.

HAZEL - The Fashion Show

R32, is that when Diane starts clucking like a chicken?

The Twilight Zone: The After Hours. Anne Francis plays a mannequin on her day off.

The Simpsons: The kids are taken by child services and sent to live with the Flanders.

Rhoda’s wedding.

I Love Lucy: Lucy smuggles cheese onto the plane, disguised as a baby.

The Office: tie between Michael and Jan’s dinner party and Michael burning his foot on a George Foreman grill.

MTM: Edie's wedding, with Lou's date Martha Dudley

DVD: October Eve, Laura's nude painting

ILL: California, Here we Come, with the four singing in the car, crossing the George Washington Bridge.

Facts of Life: the prison Xmas episode

"Mama's Family" - My two favorites:

- Naomi has amnesia and starts to act like Iola

- The film noir/detective take-off

Honorable mention to the chili contest and "Rashomama."

Tom Hanks as a drunkard on Family Ties.

[quote]"Rashomama."

They go to spot heaven, Mama.

The Martha Dudley episode of MTM was actually not Edie’s wedding; it was a Teddy Awards episode where Lou encounters Edie. The Teddy Awards episodes were always great, including this one. Another great one was Mary’s hair bump episode. “I usually look so much better.”

Did you know that she was the flower girl at Thomas Alva Edison's wedding, r43?

I like the episode of Father Knows Best where Princess shows off her MGM training.

The episode of Phyllis "Phyllis and the Little People".

Phyllis: Bess wants to marry a boy whose parents are midgets.

Leo: Has she found one yet?

Gilligan’s Island when the undersea cable washes up on the island during a storm and they tap into it to try to call people.

WKRP In Cincinnati - The Turkey Drop

"Oh the humanity....it turkeys are hitting the ground like sacks of wet cement!"

"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly."

The Outer Limits: The Man Who Was Never Born with Martin Landau and Shirley Knight.

For anyone old enough to remember Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlors… the single scooper episode of the Bob Newhart Show.

Wasn't there a Bob Newhart Show episode where they referenced cream chicken in a basket?

R36 yes. I think the name of the poem was "Ode to a Chicken".

The Andy Griffith Show: The Pickle Story. When Barney describes Aunt Bea’s pickles as “kerosine cucumbers,” I laugh every time. Then the judges at the fair having to go wash their hands. 😂

The Nanny - The Bank Robbery, Jury Duty episode, and the Facts of Lice episode

I Love Lucy - Ricky Asks for a Raise and The Tango episode

Murder, She Wrote - Trouble in Eden and Snow White, Blood Red

Family Guy - Peter does a Kids TV show

Murder, She Wrote - Jessica Behind Bars

The Twilight Zone - The Hitch-Hiker

Alfred Hitchcock Presents - Lamb To the Slaughter

I love Lucy: the cheese in the airplane episode

[quote]This episode cost $40,000 to produce, more than any other in the series.

[quote]In interviews Jerry Mathers says this is his most memorable episodes because he really is afraid of heights.

The Facts of Life - Seven Little Indians (the murder mystery episode)

WKRP - the Tarleks are profiled on "Real Families"

Little House on the Prairie -Laura pushes Nellie down the hill in a wheelchair

"Mad About You." Paul and Jamie host their first Thanksgiving. Hilarity ensues.

Absolutely Fabulous, the Poor episode

thirtysomething - Fighting the Cold. Everyone gathers at the home of Michael and Hope after Gary's funeral.

I think R60 wins

I don't know. I'm partial to AbFab, the France episode.

Especially the wine-tasting scene. "It's THIS one, no THIS is the one..."

Val and the pills on Knots Landing. Dramatic TV did not get any better than that.

AbFab poor was better. Without notes sir. JUST TAX THE STUPID PEOPLE! Though AbFab is a lot like Frasier. You can pick out so many that could be the best episodes.

I like the one where Eddy tells the sales girl that she just works in a shop and should lose the attitude

That would be "Death", r66.

EVERY episode of the 2nd series is a favorite. "Hospital", "Death", "Poor", "Morocco", "New Best Friend" and "Birth" are all just great.

GG Blanche to Dorothys date, whos a priest "oh God, i mean, i never take the lords name in vain, Oh God im lyin to a priest". Love this episode.

Little House, where Nellie pretends to be an invalid. Harriot does her best Miss Gulch impression as Lauras horse is taken from her And then Laura pushes Nellie down the hill in her wheelchair. Just wonderful. Friends, the Prom video. Golden Girls, How do you solve a problem like Sophia. Fame, Starmaker episode. The comeback finalê episode.

FATHER KNOWS BEST episode where Bud's new shortwave radio picks up a distress call from a ship caught up in a tropical storm and the whole family becomes transfixed on the edge of their seats.

The entire episode takes place in the living room and is very well-written.

The Muensters episode when Herman takes Grandpa's potient to rid him of his head-cold, and he becomes trans......then he takes another potient and it makes him look just like actor Fred Gwynne. Loved when Lily is mortified by how ugly he suddenly is!!

R69 LOL. We all have different tastes...The "Sophia Goes To The Nunnery" episode is one of my LEAST favorite. So dumb.

#DifferentStrokesDifferentFolks

[quote] EVERY episode of the 2nd series is a favorite. "Hospital", "Death", "Poor", "Morocco", "New Best Friend" and "Birth" are all just great.

Oh yes!

MTM Show: "Today I Am a Ma'am." The first and the funniest of Mary's memorably horrible parties, with many of the very best Rhoda lines from the whole run of the show. "I don't know why I don't just directly apply these to my thighs." "Allow me to introduce myself: I'm another person in the room." "And this is my date, Mr. and Mrs. Armond Linton."

The DVD Show: "Coast to Coast Big Mouth." Laura appears on a game show and is tricked by the host into revealing to the country Alan Brady is really bald. There are two classic sequences in this: Laura tearfully tries to explain what happened to rob, and sobs while revealing all the many prizes she won; and Laura has to face Alan and apologize, and he brings out all his toupees which he talks to as if they're his friends.

Little House on the Prairie: The episode where Reverend Alden gets married and Mrs. Olesen tries to stop it. Guaranteed to make just about anyone cry.

Soap: The classic episode where Chuck and Bob do their blindfold act, which completely buffaloes Burt and Danny.

Newhart: Dick has to get a woman co-host for his "Vermont Today" TV show, and so his producer Michael hires the airheaded Buffy Denver ("We'll be back... real real real real real soon!"), played by Julie Brown.

Phyllis: The aforementioned "Phyllis and the Little People." The "Bess wants to marry a boy whose parents are midgets" scene was one of the funniest scenes in the history of television.

The Laverne and Shirley episode when Lenny and Squiggy break up. It reminds me of myself….. I’m Squiggy.

[quote] Herman takes Grandpa's potient

Oh, dear, x2.

The Muensters

DECOY

The Phoner

My favorite Newhart episode was the one with the World's Smallest Horse.

I’ve seen that one, R70. It was better than the usual neurotic kid meltdown-filled shows.

The two episodes of "Good Times" with Chip Fields as Penny's abusive mother. She brought real acting chops to a show full of broad comedy, and she was fucking SCARY. She should have had a bigger career.

This episode of the late 1960s Dragnet revival never fails to tickle me. The discovery of an abandoned newborn prompts Friday and Colonel Potter to find the mother and bring her to justice. They eventually discover the culprit was (SPOILER) a woman who was so fat, such a roly-poly tub of lard, so fantastically obese, that no one could tell that she was ever pregnant with her BIG, FAT, FATTY FATSO self. The episode's official title is, "Juvenile: DR-35" but at my house it will always be known as: "Fat Donna."

The "Will & Grace" episode with my all-time favorite bit character: Nurse Trainee Pittman.

"Oh, I don't drive. I keep taking the test over and over and I'm like, 'this is hard!'"

The rest of the episode is great, too, with Karen putting the other three through the wringer.

For Frazier it has to be the ski chalet episode.

"Laverne & Shirley" - The Diner.

Betty, pick up!

The Most UNSETTLING Episode In TV History: The Flypaper

DVD's Coast to coast Bigmouth is on tonight at 11:30pm on MeTV

R82 That episode of Dragnet 'tickles you'? A baby abandoned in a trash can?

The episode of "Thirtysomething" when Gary dies.

The episode of "Northern Exposure" when they use the trebuchet.

The episode of "Three and a Half Men" when Charlie dates a wiccan who doesn't know Charlie is Eleanor's son. Eleanor Harper, apparently, is the head of the coven to which the wiccan belongs. Eleanor is NOT amused.

The episode of "Frasier" when he's tasked with creating a ditty to introduce his radio show. It does not go well.

The episode of "Queer as Folk" when Michael discovers his chiropractor is gay and hot for him.

RACKET SQUAD

Beauty For Hire

I don't know if this qualifies as classic TV, seems too recent, but probably my all-time favorite TV episode is "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose," the fourth episode of the 3rd season of The X-Files. It won writer Darin Morgan a very well deserved Emmy for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series in 1995. It's unbelievably well crafted and clever, and Peter Boyle, who guest stars, is wonderful, comic and poignant. Terrific ending.

The episode of TWO and a Half Men when Charlie is dating a younger version of his mother.

One Life to Live. Before the retcon. When OG, scary Dorian taunts Victor into a stroke and dangles his medication in front of him, watching him die.

When Delia faked hysterical blindness on Ryan's Hope.

That's when I first tuned in and I was hooked.

Melrose Place - Kimberly takes off her wig

Friends - The One Where No One Is Ready

DVD: Rob and Jerry Helper buy a little boat, the "Betty Lou," together.

DVD: Laura gets her big toe stuck in the faucet of the hotel bathtub. The always reliable Kathleen Freeman almost steals the whole episode as a hotel maid.

ILL: Lucy gets trapped in the steamer trunk that Fred wants to use for the European trip. Worth it just to see the little Doctor who delivered baby Lucy, dancing to "Skip To My Lou, My Darling."

[quote] The first and the funniest of Mary's memorably horrible parties, with many of the very best Rhoda lines from the whole run of the show

R74 Not to mention when Rhoda hears that the Lintons are newlyweds, she dumps an entire bowl of bacon curls into her lap and starts eating them from there. My love for Rhoda Morgenstern and Valerie Harper started right then and there in 1970.

Life Goes On - Corky becomes a rebel and sings "Fight the Power" for the school talent show.

Barney Miller hash brownies episode.

Fraiser doesn't know his new boss is gay and invites him to see the view from the bedroom.

...while the view from the balcony is Niles and Martin cracking up in the kitchen because they just found out.

But my favorite Frasier episode, hands-down, is Where There's Smoke, You're Fired. The new station owner orders Frasier to make his fiancee quit smoking. Only the fiancee is Frasier's demon agent, Bebe.

My favorite Frasier episode is where they buy that old restaurant and try to run it. I cackle every time Roz has those cherries explode in her face.

R91 You beat me to it...my favorite X-Files episode.

The Sopranos -- Livia on the gurney, oxygen mask over her face, but you can see her smiling up at a furious Tony who has just learned she's been plotting his murder.

Carrie Fisher's 30 Rock episode, Rosemary's Baby. My favorite episode of the whole series.

Lionel's engagement party on All in the Family.

The penultimate episode of The Comeback had everything: Valerie's Emmy nomination, Mickey naked in bed with a full-frontal male hustler, the grim Virginia Woolf parking lot fight between Val and Mark, and the revelation that Jane's documentary is to be titled "The Assassination of Valerie Cherish."

It ends with a deeply ominous elevator ride where Paulie G is reduced to asking Valerie if he can be her plus one at Juna's party, and when she replies she's taking Mark, Paulie completely humiliates himself by asking Mickey as Phil Collins' "Something in the Air Tonight" plays.

My favorite 30 Rock is the one with Paul Reubens as the inbred Hapsburg prince who Jenna pursues. It also has Isabella Rossellini as Jack's estranged wife who gets to slap the shit out of Liz. (And, profess her love for Arby's Big Beef n Cheddar)

That show really peaked in the first two seasons.

The O Susannah episode of Designing Women where Suzanne tries to adopt Li Sing.

Frasier: "Martin Does It his Way." The brothers have to attend their awful great-aunt's funeral, where Frasier delivers the eulogy about her (even though he couldn't stand her), and at the end everyone sings Martin's Frank Sinatra song.

Friends: "The One with the Frozen Embryos." Joey and Chandler play a trivia game with Monica and Rachel about one another's lives to see who will win Monica and Rachel's apartment. This is one of the episodes where Courtney Cox shows she is more than up for the task when asked to be deeply funny (because of course Monica becomes ridiculously intense and overcompetitive).

Arrested Development: "Good Grief." G.O.B. tries to perform a special magic trick at his father's supposed wake. This is one of those shows where there's an elaborate set-up for a visual joke that is more than worth it.

Absolutely Fabulous: "Hospital." This is to me the funniest of all AbFab episodes because it has many of the best lines ever on the show ("'Queen Furious'... oh no, that's not you..."), plus Patsy's hilarious fantasy under anesthesia that she's getting her dream profile in HELLO! magazine.

Marcia obsessing over entering stepdad Mike into the Father of the Year contest. She was constantly getting into trouble while trying to keep the plan a secret, to the point of getting caught late at night entering her bedroom window as she found out that it was close to the deadline in getting her letter there on time.

The conclusion:

The Sopranos: "The Weight." Ralphie makes a stupid joke about Johnny Sac's obese wife that gets both men targeted for assassination. The scene where Johnny confronts his wife Ginny bolting down candy is surprisingly moving--probably the best acting on the entire show (even though it features none of the show's stars).

The Comeback: "Valerie Shines Under Stress." The episode where Valerie dresses up like a giant cupcake for a dream sequence on her sitcom "Room & Bored," and we learn she had a rod inserted into her spine in adolescence to cure her scoliosis and that it was incredibly traumatic for her. one of the few times a sitcom gets serious and it actually improves the show rather than makes it ridiculous--plus we get the deeply satisfying scene where Valerie finally punches Pauly G in the stomach (though she later suffers for that as a consequence).

The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: "Kimmy is a feminist!" The 'Flouncy Magoo' episode.

Tickets, money, passport

Groovy Lady, r112.

I remember that candy scene with Johnny Sacs and his wife. I loved his character after that.

I had compassion for Fat Donna.

That's what I love about it, R118. Donna weighs about 140 and everyone's treating her like she's Chrissy Metz, including Donna herself. Were there no actual fat actresses in Los Angeles at the time of filming?

The Diff'rent Strokes episode where Mrs. Garrett spanks Arnold for wearing her bra and panties under his pajamas.

"Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" - 'When Will Josh and His Friend Leave Me Alone' if only for this number. (Seriously - that show has SO MANY excellent episodes, it's hard to pick one.)

The Emily Valentine episodes of "Beverly Hills 90210"

The episode of Burns and Allen where George misplaces $5 is hilarious from start to finish, mostly due to the excellent supporting cast and a sharp, funny script that pays off so well.

MTM where Georgette tells Mary to go fuck herself after Mary accuses her of tracking dog shit throughout her apartment.

No more spicy food before bed, r124.

The episode of Everybody Loves Raymond where Marie gives Debra her meatball recipe but sabotages it is among the funniest episodes.

Robert: Marie Barone Meatball Kit, Marie Barone included!

tarragon ≠ basil

Everybody Loves Raymond when Marie sculpts a pussy and thinks she's a lesbian. Then the nuns come to collect the statue for the church bazaar.

The Glass Eye. Alfred Hitchcock Presents. I can't forget Max Collodi...

R129, I love that episode

Jessica

The episode where Maude invites her friend Jane over so she can fix her up with Arthur. Additionally, Maude tries to repair the relationship between Jane and her daughter, Linda.

The actresses were absolutely perfect for the role. It was just a perfectly balanced episode.