Photo: Warner Bros. Television Distribution
In researching the bevy of television series that have resorted to the dreaded clip show at one point or another, there are really two main things to take note of: A) it’s a dying (if not dead) format considering nearly all media is streamed at this point and, hence, the need for recaps on the off-chance you missed an episode are irrelevant, and B) there are ways to adapt it into something wholly original and fun if the true purpose is to entertain instead of just making a cheap episode of a long-running show. Therefore, in an effort to change pace and shake things up ourselves, we’ll be presenting both good and bad examples this time around. After all, for every ill-conceived, glorified “previously on…” episode, there is at least another that did it right (just probably not more than one, as the bad far outweighs the good in this instance).
Second-Rate Tropes (And First-Rate Alternatives!): The Dreaded Clip Show
Wow, that was refreshing. Perhaps we’ll take more of a “look on the bright side” approach in the tropes department once again sometime in the future. Sometime in the near future, perhaps…?
Until then, have a look back at the previous trope we didn’t exactly sing praises for: Second-Rate Tropes: The Musical Episode
Second-Rate Tropes: The Dreaded Clip Show
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BAD - "The Simpsons"
Photo: 20th Television
You can't have your cake and eat it too, Simpsons. You actively mocked clip shows done by All In The Family and Three's Company with the amazingly well-done "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular" in Season 7, yet put out pure clichéd garbage like "All Singing, All Dancing" and Season 13's "Gump Roast," the downfall of the series in this writer's humble opinion.
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GOOD - "Cheers"
Photo: CBS Television Distribution
What's wrong with a panel discussion format for a clip show anyways? It beats lazily trying to work clips into a plot. Plus, in Cheers' specific case, the show averaged 25 episodes a season. So tacking on a two-part "Anniversary Show" as 26 and 27 is above and beyond, if anything.
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BAD - "Friends"
Photo: Warner Bros. Television Distribution
Cheers did its first clip show after nearly ten years on the air. Friends, on the other hand, did six in ten seasons. We're not accusing the show of being lazy, we're just simply not going to finish that thought.
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GOOD - "Community" / "Rick & Morty"
Photo: Lewis Jacbos/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank (Getty).
The best "clip shows" are the ones where the flashbacks are new to the viewer. And that's just part of what made Community's Season 2 episode "Paradigms of Human Memory" and Rick and Morty Season 2's "Total Rickall" so entertaining and fresh. Dan Harmon, you've done it again...and again.
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BAD - "The Office"
Photo: NBCUniversal Television Distribution
Clip shows are traditionally frowned upon as it is, so when The Office came back from a month long hiatus in Season 6 with a clip show episode titled "The Banker," it was somewhat of a slap in the face despite being fairly standard clip show fare.
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GOOD - "Malcolm In The Middle"
Photo: 20th Television
Again, it didn't exactly break down walls when it comes to clip show tropes, but having the Malcolm character completely absent from Season 4's "Clip Show #2" (save for the archive footage shown) was at the very least a moderate attempt to shake things up. And sometimes that's all you can hope for.
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BAD - "Seinfeld"
Photo: Sony Pictures Television
The Seinfeld series finale isn't universally panned, but it's pretty darn close to it. The fact that it was essentially a clip show to end the run wasn't even the big issue. It was more the hour-long clip show (literally titled "The Clip Show") that preceded it.
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GOOD - "Clerks: The Animated Series"
Photo: Buena Vista Television
While the show ran out of order and didn't even last the six episodes produced, the original concept here was pretty genius. Namely, because the second episode was already a clip show. It consisted of mostly new footage (a la Community/R&M), but played one clip from the pilot over and over for added absurdity. And it worked in spades.
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BAD - "Trail Of The Pink Panther"
Photo: Movie Poster Image Art (Getty).
Just in case you were still on the fence regarding clip shows being in poor taste, consider the 1982 film Trail of the Pink Panther, which used archive footage of a very dead Peters Sellers from the previous Pink Panther movie and strung together a convoluted plot regarding his absence in the second half of the movie. The studio and director were also successfully sued for this blatantly horrible idea.
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GOOD - "The Eric Andre Show"
Photo: Warner Bros. Television
If you want to see old clips ridiculously edited together in a manner fitting the series it stems from, look no further than the Season 2 finale of The Eric Andre Show. At one point, all the episodes rapidly appear on the screen at the same time in fast motion for an experience you won't soon forget (or likely want to watch ever again).
