Which Sitcom Has The Best Bottle Episodes?

[neveragain]

Well, I know what I think but let's hear from YOU. In terms of character, gags, performances, touching moments, creativity, whatever... go!

[ajsmith2]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bottle_Boys

(sorry. had to get than over and done with).

[samadriel]

'The Chinese Restaurant' defines bottle episodes. As claustrophobic as it is hilarious.

[Kane Jones]

The 2 that immediately spring to mind are Bottom - Contest and Red Dwarf - Marooned. Both utterly brilliant.

[Petey Pate]

Not a sitcom but the Fly episode of Breaking Bad is a mini-masterpiece.

One Foot in the Grave had a few examples of these, like where Victor is alone in his house on call for jury duty and the episode is essentially one long comedic monologue of him talking to himself.

[Kane Jones]

The 2 that immediately spring to mind are Bottom - Contest and Red Dwarf - Marooned. Both utterly brilliant.

Oh, and I'm Alan Partridge - Basic Alan.

[Utter Shit]

Agree that Marooned is brilliant, and probably the last point at which the show still has any connection to the bleakness and desolation of the first two series. Basic Alan is perfect too - Bored and with nothing to do is Alan at his best.

Not that the show often ventured too far from the sofa in any case, but the Men Behaving Badly episode 'Watching Television' is (I think) entirely set in the front room, and is fantastic.

Other ones that deserve a mention - the Friends episode "The One Where No One's Ready" is incredible, and while it's not *entirely* set in one room, everything bar the first five minutes or so of the Only Fools and Horses episode "The Longest Night" ("The One In The Supermarket") is in one room, and it's one of my favourite episodes. Although that's got more to do with the performance of Vas Blackwood than the setting.

[buttgammon]

'The Chinese Restaurant' defines bottle episodes. As claustrophobic as it is hilarious.

This is absolutely true. I seem to remember it being the episode where Seinfeld really clicked for me, which may well be because Kramer isn't in it; it's not that I don't love him, but I think his style of falling about had misrepresented what the programme was about to me.

Overall, I'd say One Foot in the Grave is the best at this. The jury duty episode is amazing - it is just half an hour of Victor talking to himself but there's nothing wrong with that. I also love the episode where Victor and Margaret are in bed and are both kept awake by Victor's insomnia (and that hedgehog). I love the way those episodes always slip from boredom into existential despair.

Oh, and I'm Alan Partridge - Basic Alan.

Apologies if I'm getting too pedantic here but is that strictly a bottle episode? He does walk to the petrol station to buy some windscreen washer fluid. It's a great episode anyway and like a lot of One Foot in the Grave, there is such a sense of boredom and loneliness.

[DrGreggles]

Porridge - A Night In

[BeardFaceMan]

If we're talking Bottom then I'd say the one on the ferris wheel, also my favourite episode of the entire show.

[Kane Jones]

If we're talking Bottom then I'd say the one on the ferris wheel, also my favourite episode of the entire show.

It's great, but I hate the 'hand of God' ending. Contest is just so pathetic and bleak. I'd have preferred the whole series to have this feel in retrospect.

[notjosh]

Hancock's Half Hour - Sunday Afternoon at Home

It's Always Sunny - The Gang Dines Out

Seinfeld - The Parking Garage

[the]

Oh, and I'm Alan Partridge - Basic Alan.

Apologies if I'm getting too pedantic here but is that strictly a bottle episode? He does walk to the petrol station to buy some windscreen washer fluid. It's a great episode anyway and like a lot of One Foot in the Grave, there is such a sense of boredom and loneliness.

Yeah, I'd say it falls into the related bracket of "the plot is that nothing is happening", like Boring in The Young Ones.


Despite hanging around comedy forums for ages, I confess I only encountered the phrase 'bottle episode' about a year ago (during a discussion of OFITG). Who coined it?

Fake edit: Ah, a look at the wiki page suggests that it was Shatner's Log.

[DrGreggles]

If we're talking Bottom then I'd say the one on the ferris wheel, also my favourite episode of the entire show.

Likewise

[Hobo With A Shit Pun]

Despite hanging around comedy forums for ages, I confess I only encountered the phrase 'bottle episode' about a year ago (

I've been referring to them as "A Night In Sickbay", after the Enterprise episode with a sick dug. Marooned is undoubtedly an excellent example: Mid-period Dwarf sensibility staying true to the "what's the point" of early Dwarf.

The bulk of Horace and Pete are bottle-ish (though, more accurately, keg), but if memory serves me right (not seen it since it came out, may be forgetting some introductory scene or other) there was one episode that was just Laurie Metcalfe sitting at a table that had us agog round my way. Brilliant.

[Blue Jam]

This Country- Oven Space

Uncle Nugget is such a ledge.

[bgmnts]

Yeah can't see past Marooned and Basic Alan. Both perfect.

[Phil_A]

Another OFITG - The Beast In The Cage.



Renwick really is a master at this form of episode.

[Brundle-Fly]

Would Dad's Army episode Asleep In The Deep (1972) count?

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5s17as

[Brundle-Fly]

Hancock's Half Hour - Sunday Afternoon at Home

Not forgetting The Lift.

Galton And Simpson Playhouse did a few of these but although it's a bottled comedy situation they weren't running sitcoms so I don't suppose would count any more than some Inside No 9 eps?

https://www.comedy.co.uk/guide/group/galton_simpson_playhouse/

[Lemming]

Bottom - Contest, Culture, Hole, 'S Out

Red Dwarf - Marooned as mentioned, but also most of the first two series (Thanks For The Memory, Waiting For God etc)

One Foot In The Grave - all of the once-per-series bottle episodes, they were the best episodes of the show

Community - Cooperative Calligraphy

Broad City also had that one that I think was mostly a bottle episode where the dude's sister comes over and Ilana tries to hide Abbi's shit from the unflushable toilet, which was the high point of the generally fantastic first series

EDIT: Peep Show has the brilliant episode from series 7 where they get stuck in the "airlock" of Jeremy's girlfriend's flat. Granted it wavers a bit at the end (haha a man is shitting nearby!!!) but everything before they manage to enter the flat is gold - the piss-soaked pizza, "The brush! The brush! We're getting fucked by the brush!", Jeremy's enthusiasm towards "the bit", Jeremy's claim that he could escape by leaping from the window and performing a "safety roll", all that

Speaking of Robert Webb, The Smoking Room consists entirely of bottle episodes and they're all fantastic.

[buttgammon]

Another OFITG - The Beast In The Cage.



Renwick really is a master at this form of episode.

The deathly silence after the tape, and then Mrs Warboys making her usual tactless remark is a brilliant moment.

[up_the_hampipe]

Community - Cooperative Calligraphy

That episode also taught me what a 'bottle episode' was.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Other ones that deserve a mention - the Friends episode "The One Where No One's Ready" is incredible, and while it's not *entirely* set in one room...

I like a lot of the early seasons of Friends but I hate that episode, it annoys me immensely. It's possibly tied in with my own irritation over folks who are late (I'm one of those types that even if I try to be late I still end up being early) but it wound me up no end.

[Lewman]

Psychoville - David and Maureen

[Utter Shit]

I like a lot of the early seasons of Friends but I hate that episode, it annoys me immensely. It's possibly tied in with my own irritation over folks who are late (I'm one of those types that even if I try to be late I still end up being early) but it wound me up no end.

I don't find it annoying but I can definitely see how it would, it's very manic and...stressful, for want of a better word.

Speaking of which, on a completely unrelated topic, I watched the Germans episode of Fawlty Towers yesterday and fuck my arse it is the most stressful thing in the entire world. A mixture of frustration at how easily it can be solved, and anxiety at the way it keeps getting ramped up further and further.

[BeardFaceMan]

It's great, but I hate the 'hand of God' ending. Contest is just so pathetic and bleak. I'd have preferred the whole series to have this feel in retrospect.

Yeah the God hand is really shit but everything that came before was such a joy I'll let them off with it. If it wasnt for the hand it would be a perfect piece of comedy.

[up_the_hampipe]

I like a lot of the early seasons of Friends but I hate that episode, it annoys me immensely. It's possibly tied in with my own irritation over folks who are late (I'm one of those types that even if I try to be late I still end up being early) but it wound me up no end.

Also Rachel being an absolute child after Ross rightfully told her off. I felt for him in that episode, which was quite impressive considering he's usually a tosser. 

[Lemming]

The hand of God always appealed to me because I interpreted it as "we've written ourselves into a corner and we don't have a clue how to end this so here's the worst possible ending we could think of", complete with Eddie's "we, and indeed the whole BBC" speech. Richie's expression while regarding the face of God is pretty great too:


I can definitely see how it goes a little too far into ridiculousness territory for a lot of people though.

[Obel]

Sunny - The Gang Goes To Hell Part 2