Talk:Bottle episode

Porridge

The first example is an episode of Porridge, but I'm not sure this fits the definition. Porridge (and sitcoms in general) tend to have tiny budgets that vary little from episode to episode, and in this specific case I always assumed that the idea was a homage to "The Bedsitter", an old installment of Hancock which had Tony Hancock on his own for the entire show. The same is true of the episodes of One Foot in the Grave, and EastEnders tried it too - the idea is to show off an actor's range and also it's a challenge for the screenwriters, rather than a means of saving money. -Ashley Pomeroy (talk) 20:13, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

Community and the fourth wall

I don't think calling Fourth Wall Break on Community (see examples section) is correct; the method used for masking self awareness in that show is extremely simple, yet pretty much airtight. I'm not nitpicking, I just think that comment mislead readers about the writing style of the show. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.9.165.198 (talk) 14:04, 2 October 2011 (UTC)

Culling

I've culled the bulk of this article. I cut out the long list of examples, since only one episode had a substantiating third-party citation identifying it as a bottle episode; other entries are WP:OR. I integrated that example with the definition/explanation of the format. I also dug up an citation regarding the Friends episode, although I confess I just copy-and-pasted that citation from another site, and didn't verify the actual content myself. Also excised other unsubstantiated, ORish claims. --EEMIV (talk) 19:52, 16 December 2011 (UTC)

Had been meaning to source some of the entries, so this was a good incentive for me to go back and do exactly that. GRAPPLE X 00:47, 17 December 2011 (UTC)

I understand why you cut out the long list of examples, but why did you cut the Use and Influence sections? Those both seem like important encyclopedic content. Rather than cutting unsourced content, could you work to find sources? Simply being unsourced does not automatically make them original research; the WP:OR guideline says all material "must be attributable to a reliable published source, even if not actually attributed" (emphasis mine). However, it is listcruft and fancruft. I think it would be illustrative to include some of the best examples of bottle episodes. Andrew Keenan Richardson (talk) 23:39, 5 January 2012 (UTC)

Family Guy

Anyone have any links to commentary regarding the Family Guy episode where Brian and Stewie are locked in a bank vault? It appears to be a perfect satire piece of the bottle episode.--Chimino (talk) 01:01, 5 March 2014 (UTC)

Game of Thrones

Perhaps one could also talk about Game of Thrones S6E07 - The Broken Man as one of the most successful part of episodic television. --2A02:8109:A1C0:7E0:A061:69D8:1D9C:C8EC (talk) 22:41, 17 January 2017 (UTC)

The Broken Man is not a bottle episode, it would not be appropriate to discuss it here.

Due to the nature of Game of Thrones as prestige tv, and how it always features multiple locations, and intertwining stories, it is questionable that they ever really did what could really be described as a bottle episode.[1]

Please do not add without sources that not only WP:VERIFY but also show an episode is a WP:NOTABLE bottle episode. -- 109.76.128.149 (talk) 11:42, 18 March 2021 (UTC)

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Example pruning

This is the kind of article that attracts people who want to add their favourite example to a list (even if it is written in paragraph form, the section functions as a list of examples). The problem is that what to one person is their favourite example is to other people not an example at all. So for the purposes of this section, I recommend that the only examples that should be allowed are ones where there is a citation provided to a reliable source that itself specifically uses the term "bottle episode" to describe the example. Without a reliable source calling it a "bottle episode" it's just an editor's subjective opinion. Unless I see any objection to this I'll probably come back later, run through the examples, and delete any that do not have the appropriate sourcing. 134.41.94.151 (talk) 17:59, 1 February 2018 (UTC)

I did the pruning I recommended a week ago. I left s few examples that did have no source provided since the text describing those episodes shows how the episode itself references it being a bottle episode. 134.41.95.122 (talk) 02:30, 9 February 2018 (UTC)

Interesting, I've looked at the episodes removed and although most of the deletes were entirely reasonable I was surprised to see the Seinfeld episode Chinese Restaurant was among the episodes deleted. Someone added that back to the article and I've since added multiple references to support that as a prime example of bottle episode (and also emblematic of Seinfeld as being a show about nothing).

Also removed were several mentions of The Twilight Zone, and although this was not sourced it sounds very plausible and it would be great to add it back if anyone could find proper references for it.[2] The Twilight Zone is cited by Merriam Webster as the origin of the term "bottle episode" so I would have kept this reference and added a citation needed tag rather than delete it entirely. It would be great if we could get this back into the article. -- 109.76.128.149 (talk) 11:42, 18 March 2021 (UTC)

I agree with all of this. We do not need to include every example of a bottle episode either. The list suffers from extreme recentism for the reasons mentioned above. I think we need to fill out the list with examples from the 20th century. And ideally, examples should have a source which mentions the reason for the bottle episode and if it was historically significant in some way. Ashmoo (talk) 13:59, 11 June 2021 (UTC)

The list could definitely use a trim. The single-sentence paragraphs should probably also be merged into larger paragraphs just so it has less of a list-looking form. The Chicago Fire example that I added a few months ago is a great structure of the minimum that should be included, most examples shouldn't require a plot description unless it's essential to the reasoning. TheDoctorWho (talk) 20:59, 12 June 2021 (UTC)

As this is supposed to be an encyclopedia article (not a list article or category) on the concept of bottle episodes it would be best to stick to the most notable examples with the best available sources. It would be better to see the list trimmed rather than expanded, but (as I said before) I think The Twilight Zone should be an exception if sources can be found since it is connected to the origin of the phrase.

I'm also somewhat skeptical about the term being over-applied to cases where shows were just being cheap (or coincidentally doing a two hander as drama often does) which is why it is important to have quality sources saying it is not just a bottle episode but a particularly notable example. -- 109.79.84.219 (talk) 01:45, 3 July 2021 (UTC)

Life on Egg

A rare radio example. In the episode Hold, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0002r1h Harry Hill is on hold trying to renew the insurance on the prison. To pass the time he tries to solve a crossword clue to "Bottle Episode" which the insurance operator solves for him and explains the meaning - joking that the only reason a radio show would need such an episode is the excessive pay demands of the star. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.140.106.50 (talk) 12:19, 28 February 2019 (UTC)

Examples in The Independent newspaper

A 2015 article in The Independent newspaper mentions several examples of bottle episodes while talking about an episode of Casualty that it claims was poorly received.

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/casualtys-sin-city-episode-branded-worst-ever-10391613.html

Quote: And there's no denying that these so-called "bottle episodes", which occur outside the main cannon of the show, can really pay off. Think of "Blink", the Doctor Who episode which daringly all but benched the Doctor, placing Carey Mulligan centre stage, Mad Men's much-praised "The Suitcase" a near two-hander between Don Draper and his protégé Peggy Olsen, or black-and-white X-Files episode "The Post-Modern Prometheus" which paid homage to both Mary Shelley and David Lynch. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.19.21.161 (talk) 12:49, 2 May 2020 (UTC)

That article is muddling "experimental episode" and episodes outside the main continuity with bottle episodes.

If you want to add Mad Men as an example better sources are available.[3][4] -- 109.76.141.49 (talk) 06:03, 18 April 2021 (UTC)