Entries in the Category "clip shows"
The Era of the Clip Show is Over (and The Office Didn't Get the Memo)
I was about five minutes into tonight's episode of The Office when I said to myself, "...Are they doing a clip show?" I hadn't seen one of those in so long it took me utterly by surprise.
Remember when clip shows were on all the time? Friends used to air one every season. I think the first one was the episode where Ross wavered on whether to send Rachel an invitation to his wedding, and, once he did, she wavered on whether or not to go. That flimsy 'plot' was interspersed with flashback clips of Ross and Rachel's relationship. (P.S. To all Martians or Amish people or people raised by wolves who haven't seen that season of Friends, DO IT! You won't believe how that whole wedding thing goes.)
The Office did much the same thing; there was some weak premise about some guy from corporate who had to do something or other and just asked questions meant to lead up to clip montages: "Have there been incidences of sexual harassment in the workplace?" Oh my gosh, there have! I won't even talk about the cheesetastic Jim-Pam montage.
Although I never pass up the opportunity to watch the Jim-masquerades-as-Dwight moment again ("Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica.") the other 29 minutes of the episode seemed pointless. Thinking back on that episode of Friends ("The One With All the Invitations"), clip shows actually had a function then. Friends wasn't in syndication yet, and no shows were on DVD. If you wanted to see that moment from the prom video episode or whatever, that was kind of your only opportunity. That episode might have felt a little cheaty at the time, but what it did do was remind viewers of all of Ross and Rachel's greatest hits and set them up for the big season-ending wedding extravaganza.
But The Office? Do you know how many times I've watched that show on DVD? Do you know how many Tuesday nights I've spent parked in front of TBS watching their weekly marathon? Let's just call it most Tuesdays. I'm just so used to that show being above average, and not falling back on hacky sitcom tricks. I might be a bit disillusioned now.
Best clip show ever? How about "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular"? That was a parody of the clip show, and according to that link, it aired in 1995. Let that tell you something, producers of The Office.