Clipshows, total crap or not?

[on:]

Yes, most clip-shows blow more than TheLastGreatIntern but can they be art? I say yes, as I'm an avid "Dead Like Me" Fan but I again want to ask the peanut galley their opinion. 

[Reply #1 on:]

I'm not too fussed one way or another. While clip shows often seem really lazy and last-resort options for episodes, they DO give you a look at some of the show's finer moments.

However, I don't think that clip shows should be put in regular episode rotations of TV shows. I think that they should be made as extra's on DVD releases or something, and not be put out to the general public on TV. They CAN OCASSIONALLY be pretty cool to watch, but they shouldn't be made as actual episodes.

[Reply #2 on:]

Good neutrality statement.

[Reply #3 on:]

I can't remember a good clip show that I've seen. The newer Simpsons ones have been pretty weak, and none of the other shows I watch have them.

Well, I take that back. The "Seinfeld 100th episode" clipshow was pretty good. But that was a "special" and didn't have some stupid connecting plot.

[Reply #4 on:]

 

Originally posted by TheLastGreatDon:
Good neutrality statement.

Uhhhh... I'm not neutral on the subject. I think that clip shows should be put on DVD only, and kept out of TV rotations. That way - true fans can enjoy the clip shows without ocassional TV viewers having to put up with them.

[Reply #5 on:]

I would think that the "true fans" would be the ones that would get the least from clip shows, having seen the clips shown many times before in the actual episodes (in context, which usually helps, but not always), while the casual viewers would be able to get some of the best moments that they have missed. That being said, I can't stand clip shows, they have nothing new to offer. Now, what they should have more often are blooper shows! That really wouldn't work too well for animation, unless they are willing to do some extra work on them (as Pixar does for some of its movies).

[Reply #6 on:]

You are right about "true fans" getting the least from clip shows, but hell - there are some people (including myself) who just like to watch the show's highlights, but only on rare ocassions. Like, with The Simpsons - I don't necessarily hate the clip shows, but when I turn on the TV - expecting to see an actual episode of the show and discovering that it's a clip show, it can be frustrated. That's why I think they should be limited to DVD's - the only time you'll see them is when you want to, and if you don't like clip shows, then you don't have to watch them. Clip shows just seem like DVD material to me - as they've always come across to me as being "bonus material-ish", rather than being "episode material-ish." They really piss me off when they're put into rotation as actual episodes though - it's just laziness on behalf of the staff at that show, considering most clip shows are only 10% new material (sometimes not even that).

[Reply #7 on:]

Clip shows can never, by their very nature, be as good as the other episodes of their shows.  However, that doesn't mean they have to be bad either.  You just need to go into them in the frame of mind that you are simply watching a nostalgic look back at older episodes of the series, and viewing some of the greatest moments again.  The only reason any of them are actually bad (assuming the show itself is good)would be when the clip selection was poor or dragged on too long or whatever.

[Reply #8 on:]

The only good clip show around is the simpsons one in which troy mclure was host.

[Reply #9 on:]

Do you mean the 138th episode extravaganza? If so, then yeah - you're right, it was very good. Although most of the clips were never-before-seen deleted scenes, so it beats the crap out of most other Simpsons clip shows. Also, the in-between material of the episode was as funny as hell too.

[Reply #10 on:]

I hate clip shows, programmes seem to be repeated so often these days that there is no point to them.

[Reply #11 on:]

Just in short... Clip shows, on the very odd occasion, are OK if they are done well, they can be immencely enjoyable, but they have to be done well...

[Reply #12 on:]

Clip shows are usually weak, but it depends what theyre for.

If theyve been created to add an extra episode to an already lagging series, then yeah, they suck.

But if theyre to tell you whats been happening on previous epsiodes, just in case you missed one, then a quick clip show at the beginning of a programme is pretty good.

[Reply #13 on:]

I dont know if "behind the laughter" counts but [richierich] dont have a cow mother [/richierich]

[Reply #14 on:]

 

Originally posted by But if theyre to tell you whats been happening on previous epsiodes, just in case you missed one, then a quick clip show at the beginning of a programme is pretty good.

I don't really consider a few minutes of clips at the start saying what has happened before to be a clip show, a clip show is one made almost entirely of clips from old episodes linked by a fairly lame plot.

[Reply #15 on:]

You could say that its better to have a clip show no with new material than nothing at all, although maybe it could said that the new material could have made a proper episode.

the simpsons 138th episode was good because it had obscure material like the shorts and deleted and unseen clips and troy mclure

[Reply #16 on:]

Some are good, like the first Simpsons one, they took the piss out of clip shows themselves and had a few great new moments in between the clips!

There was an Alias clip show that was actually necessary because the plot is damn hard to follow sometimes!

Sometimes they need to do clip shows for budget reasons, imagine if The Simpsons had ended just after their first clip show, we'd have missed out on all the greater years!

[Reply #17 on:]

I get sick of clipshows. I agree with what someone said above about them being on the DVD.

They are almost always a last resort it seems.

[Reply #18 on:]

apparently of the simpsons fox demands them, they got to a point where whoever wrote the clip shows
used an alias of penny wise and director alias of pound foolish

[Reply #19 on:]

Don't forget that sometimes Clip shows alter what happens in the clip or adds something, like the South Park clip episode where they're stranded on the bus or that one untitled episode of Clerks the Animated Series.
But yeah, clip shows generally suck.

[Reply #20 on:]

I liked what Southpark did in their clip show they had during saeson 2. They changed the clips so that they all ended with everyone getting an ice cream cone.

"Now that's what I call a sticky situation!"

*Edit* wow I didn't even see OC_James's post

[Reply #21 on:]

For a good clip show, how about DS9's "Trials and Tribble-ations", which inserted the DS9 crew into an original Trek episode?

[Reply #22 on:]

 

Originally posted by newhook_1:
I liked what Southpark did in their clip show they had during saeson 2. They changed the clips so that they all ended with everyone getting an ice cream cone.

Hehe, I love the South Park clip show (City On The Edge Of Forever). It wasn't just making fun of clip shows though - just incredibly badly-written shows. Things like stupid plots (the kids being stranded ALONE on a bus on the edge of a cliffe), "sticky" situations that often happen in TV shows (shown in the clips), lame endings (the bus falls into the icecream, turns out to be a dream, then that turns out to be a dream too), and the fact that shows begin to focus on sub-characters when the writers run out of idea's (Ms. Crabtree SOMEHOW becoming a stand-up comedian) all had a helluva lot of piss extracted from them in that episode. Not to mention the fact that everyone laughed at the "Now that's what I call a sticky situation!" line, even though they were all about to die - something which often happens in sitcoms. Heh... I have no life.

Still, the South Park one aside (considering it wasn't a REAL clip show) - I stand by my previous argument that they should be taken out of TV rotation and kept on DVD's ONLY.

[Reply #23 on:]

I don't like clipshows much at all.  I just see them as a lazy way for the production people to take time off, or much more likely, a way for the network to save costs.  TV seasons are getting shorter and shorter. We don't need clipshows taking up space.

[Reply #24 on:]

I am surprised no one mentioned Anime clip shows. They almost always apear around episode 13 and recap the plot. Most of them are just recaps or people getting briefed. There are a few exeptions. Excel had a gameshow where the two main characters had fun with the clips (my favorite one was the one the dubed into VERY bad English), and Nadesico's is also good in a funny post-modern kind of way.

[Reply #25 on:]

 

Originally posted by OC_James:
Don't forget that sometimes Clip shows alter what happens in the clip or adds something, like the South Park clip episode where they're stranded on the bus or that one untitled episode of Clerks the Animated Series.
But yeah, clip shows generally suck.

True dat brotha. One-Armed Willy's goin' down! 

[Reply #26 on:]

People who have seen every episode won't like clip shows because it's something they've already seen dozens of times. Clip shows aren't considered new episodes because they don't really give you something new to watch. So yeah, even though that April Fool's episode was funny to watch for the first 10 minutes, it's not really completely new. It's not even like a producer's cut thing.

[Reply #27 on:]

 

Originally posted by PCC Fred:
For a good clip show, how about DS9's "Trials and Tribble-ations", which inserted the DS9 crew into an original Trek episode?

That wasn't really a clip show as an whole set of new characters were inserted into the clips, very little of it was solely old material without any input from the DS9 crew.

[Reply #28 on:]

I know this sounds stupid but I thought Gump Roast was good. It was mostly the great song, though.