Clips Shows

[Benji]

After a passing comment in the Anime thread, I was reminded of an atrocity to television known as the 'clip show'. Now I've got nothing against clip shows when they're done right (for example, LOST has one before each season every year to bring you up to speed, but it is not part of the main series), why do people do them other than to waste an episode? They're rarely funny or entertaining and they obviously aren't fresh, so why keep doing them? They're great as a catch up before a season, but why are they always placed mid-season? When Scrubs did one I knew they'd finally jumped the shark officially, it's not always the case, but when you see one it feels like they've finally run out of ideas.

This can't just be me who see's them as a mid-season abortion? Can anybody consider real logic with good reasoning behind it? :/

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

Lazy writers for the most part. Also back before syndication, it actually made sense as a way to show newcomers to the show what they'd missed out on.

[Ananas]

They're cheap and if they're used pre-season when people are desperate for something new you can add "deleted scenes", a "preview of the new season" or other such shit and pop a decent rating for really cheap without having to pay anyone again. Scrubs did it in a way that was supposed to be a goof on clip shows but really it's a way of making an episode on the cheap to make some extra dough, especially if they've gone overbudget on something else (Scrubs with "My Musical", for instance).

[stokeriño]

Traditionally 26 episode anime series which start airing in September will have a clip show on the first week after New Year's (when they're off TV anyway due to holiday programming, not to mention the pre/post-midnight shenanigans on New Year's Eve itself clogging the traditional anime timeslot).

I suppose the argument is that some viewers might have come into the series late, and they'll need to catch up ready for when the series kick-starts or 'gets serious' during its latter half (more often or not the first dozen episodes or so will be mainly character development episodes in one form or another, with the big plot only coming to the fore from then on). This doesn't hold up so well with your traditional American TV series though, as they either a) have multiple seasons (while often anime is limited to one) so clip shows at the beginning or inbetween them is more sensible, or b) haven't such a closely tied plot development that it's so vital to remind people of all the little facts (Scrubs being a good example).

Not that anime series don't get lazy too - Excel Saga was unashamedly "suffering from a New Year's hangover" for its clip show. Chobits has 26 episodes of which THREE are clip shows; otherwise known as blatent padding to fit a 23 episode story into a 26 episode slot.

So yeah: padding/laziness, with a sprinkling of good intentions for the confused viewer.

Edited January 30, 2008 by stokeriño