Why Every TV Show Has A Noticeably Boring Episode - Cheddar Explains

remember in Breaking Bad when this happened and this and even this and then out of nowhere the two main characters were just chillin for a whole episode trying to kill a fly yeah I do too well I can agree some terrific acting took place here and at the end of the day it's still Breaking Bad it was kind of boring and the episode was actually the worst rated episode from the entire series by viewers on IMDB there might be a reason you notice this across so many series and that's because of a common tool used frequently by television shows called a bottle episode whether you know it or not if you're an avid TV watcher then you've watched a bottle episode or two not all bottle episodes are synonymous for boring or bad I mean some argue that Seinfeld's the Chinese restaurant is one of the best episodes from the entire series for Seinfeld for 5-10 minutes the entire episode is spent with George Elaine and Jerry waiting for a table at a Chinese restaurant and it was filmed in half the time it takes to film a regular Seinfeld episode but believe it or not the bottle episode wasn't met with a warm welcome by NBC executives they were actually against the idea of keeping an entire episode in one location but Larry David the show's creator threatened to quit if the executives tried to change the script and so we got the first Seinfeld bottle episode so what is a bottle episode exactly like it was done in Seinfeld it's an episode of television that's confined to one setting without a ton of additional cast members crazy graphics or well anything else that's gonna cost the studio money with bottle episodes it's the script that's the hero the dialogue between the actors is what keeps the episode interesting so no Game of Thrones Battle of Winterfell is not a bottle episode bottle episodes that fit this criteria are all over the place friends had the one where no one was ready one location check nothing fancy check no Gunther check it was just the original cast on the main set what are you doing you said I had to give you the chair you didn't see anything about the cushions Mad Men had the suitcase where Don and Penny stay late at work and go out for dinner and just talk and even animated series have bottle episodes Archer stuck everyone in an elevator in Family Guy let's Stewie rant for five and a half minutes while we spent the entire episode in his therapy session I've often been told that I have a British accent Oh some say community actually perfected the bottle episode they went all meta on us and called out inside the episode that it was doing a bottle episode well tell your disappointment to suck it I'm doing a bottle episode and of course the real reason the bottle episode got started was to save money Scott Brazil the executive producer of the shield describes bottle episodes as the sad little step' child whose allowance is docked in order to buy Big Brother a new pair of sneaks basically bottle episodes are put into place either because the show just blew a huge percentage of their budget on lofty sets big stars and large special effects or they're about to this leaves writers left scrambling to think of episode ideas that can be done with very little money or with pre-existing sets after the success of the Friends episode the one where no one's ready the creator demanded that there be one deliberate bottle episode per season the term bottle episode was actually coined back in 1960 it was a nickname that the crew of Star Trek would give to the episodes that spent their entire duration on the enterprise although some people credit the term to Leslie Stevens the creator and executive producer of the 60s TV show the Outer Limits because it's like pulling an episode out of a bottle which I guess makes sense either way William Shatner is getting paid but this was the case for Breaking Bad's Episode fly as the show's creator Vince Gilligan told vulture in an interview we were hopelessly over-budget and we needed to come up with what is called a bottle episode set in one location their budgetary restrictions didn't allow them the 25,000 to 35,000 dollars needed to move the production trucks to a new location with an average episode of Breaking Bad costing 9.5 million dollars to create it's understandable that at some point they needed to cut back not only do they save money but show runners and creators stand by them as creative choices Vince Gilligan told the a/v Club in an interview even if financial realities didn't enter into it I feel as a showrunner that there should be a certain shape and pace to each season and the really high highs that you try to get at the end of a season the big dramatic moments of action and violence the big operatic moments you're striving for I don't think would land is hard if you didn't have the moments of quiet that came before them and even though Breaking Bad had a huge budget to kill all those people in the penultimate episode of the third season which garnered Aaron Paul his Emmy win it can be argued that it was the bottle episode that really allowed the episode to do that [Music] bottle episodes have found their place in television writing to explore relationships and characters and provide a break in action for the audience no matter your stance on bottle episodes whether you think they're boring or not you can actually thank them because there won't make a series that much more dynamic thank you for watching please be sure to LIKE comment and subscribe to our channel and ring the bell below that way you're notified whenever we post a new video

Channel: Cheddar

Views: 1,173,572

Rating: 4.7975717 out of 5

Keywords: Cheddar, cheddar explains, explainer, explainer video, bottle episode, tv show, tv series, tv season, boring episode, boring tv, television, tv, television show, television series, episode, bottle

Id: U5wcuVGYESM

Length: 6min 21sec (381 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 20 2019