A Look at Sitcom Bottle Episodes

According to Wikipedia, a bottle episode is “produced inexpensively and restricted in scope to use as few non-regular cast members, effects, and sets as possible. Most bottle episodes are shot on sets already built for other episodes, frequently the main interior sets for a series, and consist largely of dialogue or scenes for which no special preparations are needed”.  And very often, these are either the best episodes of the series or at the very least, my favorite episodes of a series. Why is that? Because the focus is tightly placed on just our main characters rather than on some unknown guest star of the week, and is usually a very character driven episode with everyone getting in on the action.

In my discussion of Star Trek this month several bottle episodes came up. “Clues” is probably my favorite, I love the way every character gets something decent to do in the episode and the mystery is pretty good. DS9’s “Duet” hardly leaves the brig but the intense scenes with Kira make it one of the best episode of the series (certainly season 1). And of course “Balance of Terror” which barely leaves the Bridge for the whole episode.

But sitcoms naturally do this a lot, and that’s what I wanted to overview today. There is one big exception, no clip shows. Very often clip shows are also bottle shows, They are just our character sitting around reminiscing, but that is another subject so I will leave those out. Also no “Locked in” episodes, I already discussed that trope in another article.


Here are some other examples of bottle episodes.



MASH, “Hawkeye”
Hey, an episode I’ve actually seen! In this one Hawkeye is confined to a Korean families hut after crashing his jeep. Not only does the episode never leave the hut, but not one other regular appears! If you’ve ever wondered if Alda was a good actor watch this one as he carries the whole damn episode by himself! Course that fact could make people not like this episode, just Alda by himself can get boring and MASH was an ensemble comedy, but I thought it was good. And yes there were other bottle shows on MASH including one that never left the surgery room.




The Cosby Show “Theo’s Holiday”
I’ve talked about this one before, it’s my favorite episode of anything..ever. And while a bottle show it’s a really clever one. The family works to show Theo what life in the real world is like and with all the different people our characters play and watching Theo try to deal with it…Ok it’s corny by today’s standards but at the time it was funny.



Night Court, “A Day in the Life”
The only problem with Night Court is you have to have guest actors, it’s impossible to do a court related show without defendants. But still, these episodes (there were at least five) were awesome because all we got for the half hour was case after case, with some kind of framing device explaining why the staff has to do so much work in one night. Most of these don’t leave the courtroom for a second, and the laughs come quick and fast.



Cheers, “An Old Fashioned Wedding”
Cheer is one of those shows with a premise perfect for a bottle episode. Wouldn’t be to hard to have whole episode set in the bar, and in fact the first season is primarily set in the bar. But this episode came much later in the run. The episode is about Woody and Kelly’s wedding and the whole episode, except the first act which is in Cheers, takes place in the kitchen of the Gaines mansion. And it works, it’s a really great episode that uses every character to their fullest.



Seinfeld, “The Chinese Restaurant”
It’s may be hard to believe now, but when the idea for this episode as announced people were shaking their heads. What?? A whole episode in a Chinese restaurant???? How do you do that? But they did it and it was great, the episode is a perfect little example of what made Seinfeld so awesome. Yes they did others like “The Parking Garage” but this was the first. And true to form, the entire episode is literally waiting for a table.



Murphy Brown, “To Market to Market”
This show would tear a page out of Seinfeld’s book and do these kind of episodes. One involved the five friends car pooling to work, we were in the car for most of the episode. Another episode was entirely centered in a grocery store. What turned into a five minute stop took up the whole episode.




Friends, “The One Where No One is Ready”
Quite easily one of the best episode of the series, the premise is so simple. The gang is getting ready to go to a benefit or something for Ross. And that’s it, and the episode never leaves the apartment.This is a perfect example for how these kind of episodes work. We have Joey and Chandler fighting over a chair, Monica obsessing about an old phone message, Rachel trying to decide what to wear, and Phoebe..is there. All the while Ross is getting aggravated worrying they would all be late. The characters work beautifully and everything blends together real nice making for a great episode.



Roseanne, “The Test”
Yeah it seems a little weird to see this here as well, but they had these episodes too. Especially early on in their run with episodes about what he family was doing on a random Saturday, either wandering the mall or waiting for Dan to fix the truck.  One involved Dan and Roseanne doing their taxes. But the one I always liked best was the season 3 premiere, where Roseanne fears she is pregnant. The episode deals with the reactions as they wait ten minutes for the results. There is a ticking clock in the episode which basically takes place in real time.



Mad About You. “The Conversation”
This was taking the idea o a bottle show to the extreme. Lots of episodes didn’t leave Paul or Jamie’s apartment much. In this episode we don’t leave one spot for the show episode! This was done in one take, in real time, with no cuts for breaks. The plot? Paul and Jamie are trying a technique where they let the baby cry herself to sleep rather than go in and comfort her. You could argue that they had to reach a bit to keep the conversation going, but the episode is still good and since it was all in one take when it first aired NBC ran it without any commercial interruption.  The remarkable thing is that the episode comes when the series had gotten real bad. I guess this is proof that even a crappy season can have gem or two in it.



Frasier, “My Coffee with Niles” & “The Dinner Party”
A lot of examples I could cite, but two specifically since not only were they bottle shows but they were done in real time. One was Season One’s “My Coffee with Niles” which is literally Frasier and Niles having coffee at the cafe. The other is Season 6 “The Dinner Party” which is about Frasier and Niles planning a dinner party. Yep, that’s the episode.



Everybody Loves Raymond, “Wallpaper”
This is tougher because the nature of the series is all about bottle episodes. So many episodes are the family arguing in the middle of the kitchen or living room. Another episode we spend at a wedding barely moving from the table during the half hour.But this is probably the most extreme example, as literally the entire half hour takes place in the living room. It begins when Frank and Marie drive their car into Ray and Debra’s house.



Will & Grace, “Bathroom Humour”
Will & Grace did this and combined it with another rare staple of sitcoms, the live episode. Live episodes are a subject I never seemed to get to, but once in awhile sitcoms go live. This was the second time Will & Grace did that, and the plot was pretty simple. Will, Grace, and Jack in the bathroom trying to get ready for a a big party at Karen’s. I couldn’t find a copy to watch again but I remember that it wasn’t bad, and of course being live meant that anything could happen. I remember one gag failed and Megan Mulally saved the day with her improv skills. And Matt Lauer even appeared, cool!




Of course there are plenty others, like the Married…With Children episode “Johnny Be Gone” or pretty much every episode of Barney Miller. And yes drama’s do this also, but as you know I am not versed in drama’s. What about movies? Some say Star Trek II is like a bottle episode. The Breakfast Club is a lot like that too. How about Gravity, which is Sandra Bullock bouncing around by herself for most of the movie.


I’m sure that I missed others so if I missed your favorite comment and let me know.