10 TV Episodes That Should Have Jumped The Shark (But Didn't)

From musical madness to bizarre mystery gang team-ups, this bunch of TV episodes right here

should have all likely done a Fonz. But guess what? They did not. The following episodes sucker

punch the formula, re-energize the fanbase, and surprise, just about everyone involved

That's right, I am Gareth, this is WhatCulture, and we're about to look at a bunch of TV episodes

that should have jumped the shark, but didn't. Kicking us off, we have ER Ambush

the show that popularized George Clooney. ER made general hospital emergency room life exciting and sexy

rendering a vivid cast of characters in dimensions across 15 seasons. That's a lot of seasons

Bringing doctors' personal lives into play with romance, heartbreak, conflict, and tragedy

fighting to save patients and sometimes losing them, all the more compelling

But at season four, it almost pushed the envelope too far. Season four premiere, Ambush was positioned to give an already well-received show that extra boost

by filming and broadcasting it live. Shot on handheld cameras in a documentary style, from the perspective of a PBS film crew

it provides an unrefined, guerrilla look at what was usually an aesthetically polished show

forcing the cast to work in real time and think on their feet

And rather than just coast by with a rote episode, the writers had head of the ER, David Morgenstern

suffer a heart attack, introduced new surgeon Elizabeth Corday, and going hard on Dr. Green's assault from the previous season

And somehow, it all came together. The live format was plenty excuse for an all-out disaster, but the use of roving handheld cameras

added to the uncertainty, making it feel like a whole different show

Now, critics weren't convinced, but audiences absolutely loved it, and the episode became

the most watched season premiere for a drama series. Sounds like a win to me

You know, when the nights get here faster and the temperature starts dropping and I'm

need something cozy to pick me up, there's nothing I want to do more than spend some time with your

friend and mine, Pumpkinhead. As in the 1988 supernatural horror movie Pumpkinhead, directed

by Stan Winston, obviously. And wouldn't you know it, you can go and do that on Prime Video

right now, and if you sign up using our special link in the description or scan the QR code on

screen, you'll get 75% off your first two months, which is as low as 99 cents per month

That includes both single subscriptions and bundles, so you can get out on stuff like Apple

TV and HBO Max and watch all the movies and shows you want to your heart's content. Like, guys

they have all of Columbo on there, I'm about to go into a winter hibernation and come out talking

like Peter Fork, I can't wait. Next up we've got Smallville Noir. Long before James Gunn's

Superman, the Snyderverse, or Bryan Singer's lacklustre run at the Man of Tomorrow

Smallville had cornered the Superman market, or the supermarket, up to you

With Tom Welling as a young Clark Kent, the show ran for ten seasons

and perfectly encapsulated naughty's culture, while giving us more reasons than usual

to care about a flawed hero that we thought we knew. Season 6's 20th episode

Noir, offered just this. with a Jimmy Olsen-centric adventure set in a black and white 1940s gumshoe world

Here, Jimmy is the Daily Planet star reporter, and he goes on the case of a woman who wants him to help solve her own murder

Alternative versions of all the regular cast turn up, and Jimmy even shoots Lex Luthor dead

Like Wizard of Oz however it is all a dream A DC what if you will never mind the outlandish setup and story The fact of none of it being of consequence was enough to send viewers packing

Except, well, it didn't. And Smallville managed to quickly course-correct, hesitant to take this kind of risk again

but maintaining a steady quality nonetheless. And now let's talk about The X-Files, the post-modern Prometheus

From the beginning, The X-Files had absurdity on its side. Dealing with extraterrestrials, monsters, and mysteries

meant the showrunners and writers could take it in interesting and discordant directions

anchored by the Monster of the Week format. But nobody expected it to go where Episode 5, the post-modern Prometheus, went

Not a single soul. The episode begins in the style of a comic book, shot in all black and white

and proceeds with a wackadoo storyline about a mysterious creature named the Great Mutato

that has impregnated a middle-aged woman. Amongst its many oddities, it features a special episode of Jerry Springer

and at the episode's end, Mulder breaks the fourth wall, demanding to see the writer

Thereafter, Mulder and Scully take Mutato and the townspeople to a Cher concert

Not only does the episode depart from the series' style and tone

but it seemingly totally divorced from the established mythology and chronology of the show

And while this ought to have spelled disaster, it instead gave the somewhat formulaic series a new lease of life

starting a trend of these kinds of humorous, low-stakes episodes that kept it on air for another four seasons in its original run

Moving on to Angel, Smile Time. Vampire detective show Angel benefited greatly from its parent series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

as Joss Whedon was able to transfer many of their existing characters across

including the big man himself, ex-plastic Cordelia Chase, and failed watcher Wesley Wyndham Price

and integrate seamlessly into the same universe and lore, but with a darker tone and bigger city

This familiarity meant the show could take a bolder approach from early on

including switching out main supporting cast, sharing storylines and cameos with Buffy

and throwing the action over to the hellish upside-down world of Pylea in Season 2

By the fifth season, Angel was a known element, outliving Buffy, and continuing on with a revamped format that balanced the monster of the week with an impending apocalypse

But just because the stakes were bigger did not mean it couldn't have some fun, people

Episode 14, Smile Time, arrived over halfway through the season at a sensitive time for the show if it was gonna stick its landing

And yet, rather than take it easy and pitch a few softballs, Whedon and co. had Angel turned into a puppet

by a singing, murdering band of felt-formed demons. There are musical numbers, puppet fights, and a lighter approach throughout

And rather than tanking what was left of the show, Smile Time became a fan favourite

and proved that it was still innovative this far in. Yep, turns out everyone liked looking at the wee little puppet man

And here we have Supernatural. Scoobinatural. When Supernatural first hit screens, it was cut from the same cloth as Buffy and The X-Files

that we've already mentioned on this list, and shared many of both show's minor cast

with enough references to satisfy fans of either property, and a new fantasy-led story that prioritised angels

and biblical battles over gothic monsters or aliens, the story of Sam and Dean Winchester

hunters of everything dark and evil, especially demons, felt familiar yet inventive enough

to keep us watching over the following years, rooted in the strength of the brothers' relationship

And in season 13's 16th episode, Scooby Natural, Sam and Dean are pulled into a Scooby-Doo mystery

fully animated The whole Scooby gang is there and the already cartoonish approach of late Supernatural is kicked into high gear stretching reality amplifying character traits Dean hitting on Daphne anyone

and merging the best parts of both shows to give us an adventure

that would have seemed not only implausible, but highly inadvisable in the first half of Supernatural's run

While it may seem like just one in a long track record of fun

playful episodes that managed to keep the show going long after the original arc

Scooby Natural came along at a point when viewers thought that they had experienced all the weird and unusual things that Supernatural had to offer

and were about ready to wind things up. and it surprised everyone, keeping even reluctant viewers tuning in for more

Okay, next up, Community Remedial Chaos Theory. Long before Rick and Morty, Dan Harmon channeled his offbeat humour through Community

the Community College campus set sitcom, where a study group of oddballs come together to try and survive a substandard academic journey

It was an instant hit and managed to strike a fine balance of weird and watchable

But the already out there show went several steps further in a single episode

by establishing a chaotic multiverse. That's right. Season 3's fourth episode, Remedial Chaos Theory

takes place at a housewarming for two of the youngest study group members, Troy and Abed

And things get dicey when Jeff rolls a die to decide who will answer the door to the pizza delivery guy

Seven timelines unfold in which the scene is replayed. Each member of the group answers the door, and something different happens every single time

Going far beyond the bounds of the show's usually imagination-based strangeness, this episode establishes the diverging timelines as canon

Rather than destroying the show's tenuous grip on reality and plunging it into obscurity, though

the episode was wildly successful, boosting the flagging season, and Harmon and co. brought the characters of the darkest timeline back in future episodes

Hooray! Now it's time to talk about Atlanta, the goof who sat by the door

Community may have been Donald Glover's big break, but Atlanta was where he proved that he had the chops to write, run, and act in something much bigger

blending comedy and drama in narratives and roles that are weighty and considerably more three-dimensional

The show follows Earn and Paperboy, a music manager and rapper, who face trials and tribulations traversing the Atlanta hip-hop scene

The show's brilliance has always been its use of somewhat episodic, standalone stories that are less monster of the week

and more short, dramatic works in their own right. And while Season 4, Episode 8, The Goof Who Sat By The Door, is very much that

it was also a major risk to take with a big show at such a critical time

Goof sidesteps Atlanta's main narrative concerns, totally disregarding the series' plotline for a documentary-style episode starring none of the show's usual characters about the fictional Tom Washington, a black man appointed CEO of Disney, who wants to make the blackest movie of all time

Arriving just two episodes from the end of the show, this was a very late move into uncharted territory

and could have bombed the whole thing, leaving the series on a sour note

But the element of surprise was its greatest weapon here, capitalising on an already committed audience to serve up something challenging and unusual

and it won nigh endless praise for doing so. Right, and next we have It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Dee Reynolds Shaping America's Youth By season 6, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia had well and truly found its groove

The exploits of Dee, Dennis, Charlie, Mac and Frank, heavy drinkers and narcissists all

were well publicised and had amassed a sizable and reliable mainstream audience But the gang ability to go where no other sitcom would go was well and truly put to the test in that season ninth episode Dee Reynolds Shaping America Youth

sees Dee take a job as a substitute teacher, wherein she introduces her class to the gang's attempt

to make Lethal Weapon 5. The, um, film starts out, simple enough

with Mac playing Mel Gibson's Riggs character, and Dennis as Danny Glover's Murtaugh

using just a moustache and a deep voice. But a few scenes in, they switch roles

and Mac goes in blackface for his new part. Yep. Now, while blackface usually takes a kick in

from the general viewing public and by all accounts, it ought to have brought Always Sunny

beyond the point of no return, fans of the show love the episode

because it was so beyond the pale and yet fits its degenerate characters to a tee

The season and the show maintained its strong viewing figures and Glenn Howerton, Charlie Day and Rob McElhenney who write the show

return to the lethal weapon premise several times in subsequent seasons. It is time to talk about a little series you may have heard of called Breaking Bad now

and we're gonna talk about Fly. Breaking Bad's third season far surpassed the show's original premise of a science teacher

Breaking Bad and teaming up with his former student Jesse Pinkman to cook drugs and make some quick cash

While the core of the show, Walter and Jesse, were still going strong, mafiosos crooked lawyers and assassins entered the picture and things got a bit complicated

keeping us on the edge of our seats throughout but as danger closed in on all sides the season's

10th episode fly took a major detour from the driven serial format just three episodes before

the season finale and how did it manage this well by having walter and jesse spend the entire episode

in the meth lab trying to catch Fly. The show had built up such a head of steam

and the overarching narrative had grown almost unbearably tense, that to suddenly make a sharp left turn into a comedic bottle episode

seemed unthinkable. And yet, Fly manages to crack open the heart and soul of its characters

while nothing much of note happens, using the time spent to move from tension to comedy

to an on-off conversation that reveals parts of Walt's interior that the rest of the season couldn't reach

And while viewing figures were not great at the time, the episode has made its mark as a fan and critic favourite in the years since its release

And lastly, we have Buffy the Vampire Slayer, once more with feeling

Buffy the Vampire Slayer's famous musical episode arrived late in the game

during the show's penultimate season. And while Buffy had always had time for humour, levity and experimentation

this took the supernatural show to unexpected places. Season 6's seventh episode, once more with feeling, arrives during the darkest season

and finds Buffy isolated from the Scooby gang. Unable to tell them that by bringing her back from the dead, they pulled her out of heaven

So of course she breaks into spontaneous song and everyone else follows

Amongst the whopping 17 musical numbers, we get a ballad from her watcher, Giles

a rock number from vampire bad boy, Spike, and a show tune from Anya and Xander

And somehow, it all works. The writing is second to none, with each song better than the previous, outshining most Broadway musicals

And of course, the performances are great too, showcasing most of the cast's pitch-perfect pipes

which is something we'd only previously seen of Anthony Head, who of course plays Watcher Giles

The episode successfully blends comedy and drama, dancing and fighting, working as a standalone spectacle

but also gently advancing the overarching narrative concerns of all the main cast

Once More With Feeling is legendary, it's iconic, and yet it ought to have jumped clean over that shark

But it did not, and that's why it's on this list, of course. Now continue your YouTube journey

by tapping on another fantastic What Culture list right here. You're going to have such a good time. You're welcome