100 Greatest TV Episodes Of All Time: 1. "Chuckles Bites the Dust," ("The Mary Tyler Moore Show")

There's a horribly funny scene where Mulder interviews Eddie's true love (the one on which he used the Skywalker morph). Mulder's face (it's really Eddie in morph) as she complains about Eddie's '100 annoying habits' is bliss.

 

I think my favorite bit was Eddie-as-Mulder posing in the mirror working on the coolest way to say "FBI." I just read a couple weeks ago that the actor who played Eddie was one of the series' writers and that he had previously appeared as Flukeman, the white-skinned sewer monster with the creepy gaping maw.

 

Yup, Darin Morgan. Wrote some of the greatest X-Files episodes of all time, including my personal favorite, Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose.

Small Potatoes is definitely entertaining. A little bit of humor, a little bit of deconstruction.

 

Here are more details: Darin Morgan

 

One of the finest eps of the series; it takes a firm hand to do comedy and drama in one series and The X-Files pulled it off with true panache. Duchovny's mugging after he breaks the tail off the corpse deserves special mention.

And for true greatness:

"You spelled Federal Bureau of Investigation wrong."

"Typo."

"Twice."

Any number of X-Files eps could make this list (where's Jose Chung, One Breath and Sanguinarium, I wonder), but this is a fine representative (though others do make the list later).

 

Pfft, Rogue, the three-parter of Gethsemane-Redux-Redux II blow every other X-Files episode clean out of the water. Those're a better movie than the movie

 

See, I would take Anasazi/Blessing Way/Paper Clip set over those three. Gethsemane never really sold me on its cliffhanger, and I seem to remember one of the Redux (the first, I think) relying a bit too much on some so-so narration.

 

There is another X-Files episode coming up.

Next: "71
THE PATTY DUKE SHOW
May 24, 1964


"This episode re-creates the first meeting between those "identical cousins" Patty and Cathy Lane, in which cultured Cathy gets her Uncle Martin (William Schallert) fired from his job as managing editor of the New York Daily Chronicle and breaks up Patty's romance with Richard (Eddie Applegate) -- all before the second commercial. This frothy family comedy boasted good writing and clever camera work, but its real distinction was Patty Duke's extraordinary dual performance -- never more noticeable than in "The Cousins," in which she plays Cathy imitating Patty and vice versa. You can lose your mind when cousins are two of a kind.

REWIND
"I always had the impression that I was working with two different people," recalls Schallert. "Patty created two such totally different girls. What was amazing was that she could do that with such subtle changes. It really was marvelous acting on her part."


You were; Duke suffered from undiagnosed bipolar disorder for years. She had a mean English accent as Cathy, though.

 

70
STAR TREK:
THE NEXT GENERATION
Week of June 18, 1990


"Star Trek: The Next Generation, the whippersnapper spin-off that few took seriously at first, triumphantly came of age with "The Best of Both Worlds, Part I." This third-season finale saw the villainous Borg enter Federation space, kidnap Picard, and transform him into one of its own. The surprise-a-minute teleplay by Trek producer Michael Piller -- who broke Gene Roddenberry's number-one rule by allowing intense conflict among the Feds -- climaxes with Commander Riker (Jonathan Frakes) weighing the lives of his crew against that of his beloved captain. He issues the command to destroy the Borg ship carrying Picard. Three of the most frightening words in Trek history -- Mr. Worf, fire! -- are followed by three of the most exultant -- to be continued -- for, with this episode, TNG boldly went into a fourth season, a feat the original series never managed."

 

This is undoubtedly the Best Star Trek episode and cliffhanger ever.

 

I remember when it first aired, was one of the first trek episodes I had ever seen. I had seen some of the movies, but had not really seen either TOS or TNG up to that point.
Still remember the MR Worf fire line. Was one of the first cliffhangers I remember seeing and got me into watching TNG.

 

It wasn't even that it was a hell of a cliffhanger; it was that this was the cliffhanger that crossed genres in the same way that "Who Shot J.R.?" did. People don't *really* recall, since TNG is now such a part of the lexicon these days, but TNG in the first couple of seasons was still nothing more than a niche show. Hadn't REALLY crossed beyond the sci-fi fandom stages.

BOBW changed that. Everyone, and I mean *everyone*, knew what the words "Mr. Worf, fire" meant. And the fact that it was the first of the Trek cliffhangers (IIRC) made it popular enough that all of the rest of the TNG seasons ended as such...

 

I think I remember the second part better, if I'm remembering this right at all. The battle of Wolf 359? Broken ships strewn all over? Riker does the Picard maneuver?

 

Third after The Menagerie (TOS) and Encounters at Far Point (if you count it as two separate episodes) however it was the first Trek season ending cliffhanger which became a norm after that.

 

Don't forget that this was the episode that made "Resistance is futile" a household line. And following this episode of TNG, nearly every sci-fi series (including TNG) has adopted the season-ending cliffhanger episode. So not only was this episode exceptionally well-done, it also left an indelible mark on pop culture.

 

I've seen not a single episode of TNG (and only one of the original Star Trek, if you must know), but even I have used the Picard-esque "Resistance is futile" thing a couple of times.

 

I'd have this two-parter and The Inner Light in the top ten if I made this list.

I can't recall ever anticipating a television episode as much as Part Two of Best Of Both Worlds. Heck, maybe not even any non-SW film.

 

I really liked the one where Picard goes back & tries to fix his biggest mistake.

 

The third season also had Yesterday's Enterprise, which may be the only TNG episode to match up well on multiple levels with BSG (no wonder: Ron Moore helped write it). It remains a powerful episode, and I think it's one of the top five out of the entire Trek run. Because it had a militaristic parallel universe, it better fit the similar universe in BSG, along with the story of one ship (or just a small number, most likely) against a much larger fleet.

Anyway, I don't know that TBOBW holds up as well as I'd like it to, but the story is still tremendous. Partly because of BSG, the relatively dated effects really show their age, and overall it has a hard time standing up to staggeringly well done work like BSG's back to back Lay Down Your Burdens and Occupation. The story strong, but the supporting stuff is weak (remember, it's been eighteen years since Part I first aired). But, having said that, episodes like this helped pave the way for BSG to succeed the way it has. It's just a shame that BSG doesn't have the massive audience TNG had, an audience that grew in part because of The Best of Both Worlds.

As for the episode itself, it's worth noting that most of the episode (taken together, meaning Parts I and II) had an original score. It was essentially a low-budget film. The natural film extension of it was the superbly done First Contact, which showed what probably could have been accomplished technically with more money.

Everything that helped make TNG great came together in The Best of Both Worlds. Something I wish had been expanded on is the relationship between Riker and Shelby. It really sparkled and sparked, and I wish they could have brought Elizabeth Dennehy onto the cast somehow, or at least into some future episodes.

I've seen not a single episode of TNG (and only one of the original Star Trek, if you must know), but even I have used the Picard-esque "Resistance is futile" thing a couple of times.


I find that a bit shocking, mainly because there's some outstanding work in TNG. The Inner Light is sublime, and the aforementioned episodes are likewise outstanding (Zaz referred to the 6th season episode Tapestry, by the way).

 

I love TNG I used to make a point of watching it with my Grandmother who also loved the series every night. I actually have all the episodes on VCR tape recorded while watching (Ads edited out). My favorite though is where he is "kidnaped" by the dying planet and lives a alternate life in their world... explaining why he loves to play the flute all the time.

 

FYI, you just named my two favorite episodes (in reverse order). As I said in the main ST thread; my choices are somewhat unorthodox as they are Picard-only episodes for the most part but they are just that good.

 

Actually, considering that TBOBW is nearly twenty years old, the effects hold up remarkably well. They clearly make use of model work, but it's very well done and blends seamlessly into the whole episode. BSG certainly has done some outstanding effects work, but I'd take the stories of TNG, especially those already mentioned (Inner Light, Tapestry, Yesterday's Enterprise) over BSG any day -- regardless of effects.

 

Agreed. One of the things I like about this two parter is that Jonathan Frakes as Will Riker gets to step into the spotlight. He's fighting the Borg & his former captain, he's fighting an ambitious go-getter who's next in the chain of command, and he's also fighting his own self-doubt. One of the things that makes this episode work so well is the ESB-like quality of having the heroes constantly thrown off-balance, and how they work through it. The first scene of part II, when the reflector dish ploy fizzles, was a textbook TV cliffhanger copout, but the rest of the story holds up well.

I too wished that the character of Commander Shelby had made some guest appearances later. Her character showed a fire and drive that would have made for some interesting stories down the road, especially if she had remained Riker's nemesis. Oh well.

 

I always saw Shelby as the weak link in TBOBW. That's not to say she was horrible, but her character was the least compelling element to those two episodes -- for me at least.