The Best Single Episode

[pickleniggo]

(New) Doctor Who: Vincent and the Doctor. Honestly, this is the definitive go-to recommendation episode that I use for people who haven't seen Doctor Who. It has the elements of time-travel and sci-fi and utilizes a recognizable historical figure in an extremely compelling way. If you aren't crying by the end then you might have a broken soul. And I normally can't stand Amy Pond so that's saying quite a bit for this episode because she's actually lovely in this episode.

Bob's Burgers: The Belchies. I love all the characters on Bob's Burgers, but I really enjoy the Belcher kids' interactions with each other. Most shows have siblings just being outright cruel to each other to the point of hatred, but the Belcher children actually do get along despite minor insults and Louise's apology at the end is really sweet. This is also just a super fun episode with some great lines. And who doesn't love Taff?

 

[TastyWoodenBadge]

That old episode of Simpsons where Lisa babysat Bart and Maggie was hilarious.

Chief Wiggum: *inspecting the wheelbarrow that Bart is laying in* "WOW A YARD KING, That is a quality wheelbarrow"

 

[Da Pickle Monsta]

Futurama--"The Sting". Basically, Leela has a nervous breakdown after Fry is apparently killed by a space bee. The episode really explored the relationship between Fry and Leela, as well as delving into the psychological nature of guilt and even touching briefly on suicide.

South Park--"La Casa Bonita". I've got a soft spot for Butters, and his abuse at the hands of Cartman in this episode is hysterical--Cartman convinces Butters of a nuclear holocaust and sends him to an underground bunker so that Cartman can take Butter's place at Kyle's birthday party. Runner-up goes to "Margarine", where the boys fake Butter's death and disguise him as a girl so they can infiltrate a girl's slumber party and learn the secrets of a paper fortune teller. "Awesome-O" gets runner-runner up.

Transformers--"Webworld". Galvatron is committed to a strange alien hospital where the doctors seem more intent on keeping him insane than making him well. The episode contains some allusions to "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," so even though most of Season Three sucked, this is still the coolest episode.

Transformers: Beast Wars--"Code of Hero". Regarded by many to be the single best episode of the show. Dinobot learns of Megatron's intent to carry out a genocide of prehistoric man, and pays for their safety with his life.

Star Trek--"The City on the Edge of Forever" is the shoe-in. But I also fucking love me some "Arena".

 

[cypocryphy]

My favorite Simpsons episodes: Duff Gardens, Kamp Krusty, and Boy Scoutz 'N The Hood.

If I was forced to pick one, I'd go with Boy Scoutz.

 

[sparklemilhouse]

I heard in a Simpsons DVD commentary that Matt G thought about making Camp Krusty the Simpsons Movie way back then. You know, padding it out and all.

 

[Watcher]

I've only gotten through two seasons but I REALLY like the Star Trek Deep Space 9 episode "Whispers". REALLY good Star Trek writing and it kept me guessing the whole way through.

To put it bluntly the writing reminded me of a Twilight Zone episode, it was really great.

 

[Picklepower]

The 3 part "Most Dangerous Race" episode of the classic Speed Racer is fucking Awesome. Its an early on, 3 part episode where Speed and Racer X are in this huge race that goes through various terrains, and there is a dangerous racing team they have to watch out for.
It is hard to pick a single episode of that though because most of the episodes are 2 part-ers.

The Inuyasha 2 part episode, A fateful night in Togenkyo, is a great one, Kagome is kidnapped by this fat demon guy, and the rest of the characters are shrunken by his magic, and put in this miniature village, Inuyasha cant do anything because it is one of the nights he loses his power. It is also revealed that the demon guy (if I remember right its been a long time) became fat and evil from these enchanted fruits he ate, and he turned his old master into a living plant.

The episode of Teen Titans "Trog" was fucking awesome, basically the team meets and helps this guy who you assume is a good superhero type guy, and the whole team likes him, except Starfire, and you find out that he is basically a racist, who hates her people, so he calls her a slur against her people "trog". They have this adventure on some planet, where Starfire ends up saving his life, and in the end the team finds out about everything, and tells him to leave because he tells Starfire, "well ok your one of the good ones". Its a cool episode because the one who catches on that something is wrong is Cyborg, and the writers cleverly don't point out that he is black, but that he is a cyborg, and that is why he has felt "different" before.

 

[Hummingbird]

Touched by an Angel's "Fear Not!": I've always been fascinated by angels and let's just say when Monica preforms a Christmas miracle, she goes out swinging. Randy Travis fans will also enjoy it.

 

[Pokemonquistador2]

Fawlty Towers: It's tough to choose, it really is, because each episode has a knock you over funny moment. I'm partial to the "Gourmet Night" episode because the scene where Basil's beating up his car nearly kills me every time I watch it.

Twilight Zone: The Masks. I'm a sucker for EC Comics and this episode comes close to being one. I also love "Walking Distance" since it's absolutely beautiful on every level and has an amazing soundtrack.

Invader ZIM: "GIR Goes Crazy and Stuff. " and the "Halloween Spectacular of Spooky Doom"

X Files: "Humbug" and "Jose Chung's From Outer Space" - The comedy episodes that showed the series could be fun as well as gory and dramatic. "Home" is also a good watch if you want to see how wonderfully twisted the show can get.

 

[Hummingbird]

Twilight Zone: The Masks. I'm a sucker for EC Comics and this episode comes close to being one. I also love "Walking Distance" since it's absolutely beautiful on every level and has an amazing soundtrack.

Don't forget the good for their time make up effects in The Masks.

 

[Dom Cruise]

Masters of Horror - Imprint. Okay, okay this is perfect, not just the episode itself (which it is) but even the story of the episode. Imprint was episode 13 of Master of Horror (and was directed by Takashi Miike no less) but was deemed too extreme for television (even the Master of Horror show, which was already pushing boundaries) so the network refused to air it. You could only get it on the DVD set of the complete season. That's how I learned about it, after reading an ad for it I got at a big multi-nerd-thing convention (where one of the nerd-things was horror). The actual episode is one of the most hauntingly beautiful things I've ever seen. It is at once bittersweet and horrific, and it creates so many images that are disturbing in ways that stick with you. It's about as extreme as you can get outside of the exploitation genres, but I can't recommend it enough to any serious horror fan. Especially if you already like Takashi Miike, I certainly do, I'd actually consider this some of his best work and more accessible to a wider horror audience than some of his more torture-porny stuff.

I agree Imprint is the best episode, but it also kind of doesn't really count since it never actually aired, it's more of it's own weird thing.

As for best Masters of Horror episodes that did actually air on TV, John Carpenter's Cigarette Burns was clearly the best of them, that one was good enough that it very easily could have been an actual full length movie instead of just an hour long episode.

X Files: "Humbug" and "Jose Chung's From Outer Space" - The comedy episodes that showed the series could be fun as well as gory and dramatic. "Home" is also a good watch if you want to see how wonderfully twisted the show can get.

"Jose Chung's From Outer Space" was the first thing that came to my mind as far as episodes of TV series that really stand out goes.

"Roswell! Roswell!"

 

[tehpope]

MST3k - Space Mutiny
Simpsons - Rosebud or Marge vs. the Monorail
ATHF - The Cloning

Edit:
South Park - Casa Bonita or The List.
The Amazing World of Gumball - The Job / The Money / The Finale

 

[BrunoMattei]

I like this thread.

Cowboy Bebop: Ballad of Fallen Angels. I like the Brain Scratch episode a lot too which the weebs tend to hate the most.

I'm With Busey: FEAR. Legendary. Fucking legendary. One of the funniest things ever.

Hannibal: Sakizuki episode 2 of season 2. Love this one.

Tales From the Crypt: the Man Who Was Death. The first or maybe second episode, maybe not the first one aired? Walter Hill delivers a powerhouse episode featuring the great character actor William Sadler (who was later in Demon Knight).

 

[Michael Wade]

Deep Space nine - in the pale moonlight. Probably the most meaningful example of having to do something horrible in order to save lives.

Babylon 5 - Severed dreams. Hits a lot harder now.

The Mandalorian- The Tragedy. Because im a sucker for Boba Fett.

 

[Syaoran Li]

The Drew Carey Show - "What's Wrong With This Episode?"

Malcolm In The Middle - "Reese's Party"

The Simpsons - "Homer Badman"

King Of The Hill - "The Bluegrass Is Always Greener"

Titus - "What's Up, Hollywood?"

The Sopranos - "Funhouse"

The Shield - "Family Meeting"

Seinfeld - "The Comeback"

Black Lagoon - "Bloodsport Fairytale"

InuYasha - "Enter Sango, The Demon Hunter"

Hellsing Ultimate - "Hellsing Part IX"

Samurai Champloo - "The Disorder Diaries"

Breaking Bad - "Felina"

Sons of Anarchy - "The Revelator"

The Andy Griffith Show - "The Darlings Are Coming"

Oz - "Ancient Tribes"

Fullmetal Alchemist - "Be Thou For The People"

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - "Idolater"

 

[Preferred Penne]

Venture Bros. - All This and Gargantua-2

Red Dwarf - The Inquisitor

South Park - The Death of Eric Cartman

Fawlty Towers - The Hotel Inspectors

Blackadder - Tossup between "Money" and "Ink and Incapability"

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia - The Gang Broke Dee

Frasier - Ham Radio

Futurama - Where No Fan Has Gone Before

 

[66andtwothirds]

Fawlty Towers - kipper and the corpse

American Dad! - Roger 'n' me OR Persona Assistant

Sopranos: Walk like a Man OR All Due Respect

Fairly OddParents: Emotion Commotion

Frasier - the doctor is out

 

[Syaoran Li]

Some more picks of mine...

Futurama - Roswell That Ends Well

South Park - The Ungroundable

Criminal Minds - The Performer

Family Guy - Road to Europe

American Dad - In Country Club

Robot Chicken - The Sack

 

[Maamtis]

Red Dwarf- "Thanks for the Memory"

I like the first 2 seasons of Red Dwarf the best because they really give you the sense of the remoteness of their situation. It's just Lister, Rimmer and the Cat (and Holly) alone on this gargantuan spaceship 3 million years from Earth. The music score is kept at a minimum and for the most part, it's just dialogue punctuated by silence. I get that they couldn't keep the story going like that forever, but those are my favorites, and "Thanks for the Memory" is my favorite out of those.

Rimmer: "So, a surfboard-foot-sized monster came aboard, did a jigsaw, drained our memories and broke a couple of legs, so what? Forgive and forget, that's what I say!"

I love you Rimmer. I love you so much.
*slimy Rimmer voice* And I love you.

New Doctor Who - Probably 'Blink'. The Weeping Angels are my personal scariest DW beings, because I have this innate fear of things happening out of my range of vision. Either 'Blink' or the one with the creepy child in the gas mask.

Sherlock - The Reichenbach Fall

I feel like they could have padded this one out to 9 minutes and made it into a stand alone movie it's that strong. That said we would have been robbed of the Weeping Angels as part of Doctor Who lore especially Angel Bob.

(New) Doctor Who: Vincent and the Doctor. Honestly, this is the definitive go-to recommendation episode that I use for people who haven't seen Doctor Who. It has the elements of time-travel and sci-fi and utilizes a recognizable historical figure in an extremely compelling way. If you aren't crying by the end then you might have a broken soul. And I normally can't stand Amy Pond so that's saying quite a bit for this episode because she's actually lovely in this episode.

Bob's Burgers: The Belchies. I love all the characters on Bob's Burgers, but I really enjoy the Belcher kids' interactions with each other. Most shows have siblings just being outright cruel to each other to the point of hatred, but the Belcher children actually do get along despite minor insults and Louise's apology at the end is really sweet. This is also just a super fun episode with some great lines. And who doesn't love Taff?

That one gets me in the feels every time. Kind of ruined by watching Defiance and seeing the guy who played Vincent playing one of the antagonists. I hate that guy so much I want to boo him whenever I see him in another else.

 

[Mongo0o]

-Breaking Bad: Granite Slate,
(runner up: Salud)

One of the most powerful turning point scenes of all time. It must have been a hell those seven days waiting for the Felina.