Bottle episode

In episodic television, a bottle episode or bottle show is an episode produced cheaply and restricted in scope to use as few regular cast members, effects and sets as possible. Bottle episodes are usually shot on sets built for other episodes, frequently the main interior sets for a series, and consist largely of dialogue and scenes for which no special preparations are needed. They are commonly used when one script has fallen through and another has to be written at short notice, or because of budgetary constraints. Bottle episodes have also been used for dramatic effect, with the limited setting and cast allowing for a slower pace and deeper exploration of character traits and motives.

Use

The term “bottle show” was coined by Leslie Stevens, creator and executive producer of 1960s TV series The Outer Limits, for an episode made in very little time at very little cost, "as in pulling an episode right out of a bottle like a genie".

Bottle episodes are sometimes produced to allow as much of the budget as possible to go to the more expensive episodes of the season. Scott Brazil, executive producer of The Shield, described bottle episodes as "the sad little stepchild whose allowance is docked in order to buy big brother a new pair of sneaks".

Examples

Star Trek: The Next Generation used bottle episodes so that it could spend on more special effects in other episodes.

The Mad About You episode "The Conversation" (season 6, episode 9) was a single-shot bottle episode, originally shown on broadcast TV in 1997 with no interruptions.

The premiere of the third season of The West Wing was delayed by the September 11 attacks in the United States. When the series did return, "Isaac and Ishmael" offered a bottle episode where the main cast paid tribute to those affected by the attacks and informed viewers about what to expect from the delayed premiere. Set almost entirely in the White House Mess Hall, the main characters explore the motivations and nuances of terrorism.

The popularity of the Friends bottle episode "The One Where No One's Ready" led the producers to create at least one bottle episode in each season.

In a seventh season episode of the American comedy television series Parks and Recreation titled "Leslie and Ron", Leslie Knope and Ron Swanson are locked in a room together overnight to force them to deal with their rivalry.

The third story of Doctor Who, The Edge of Destruction, was a bottle episode created in different circumstances from most. The series had been picked up for thirteen episodes by the BBC, and the previous two stories had contained eleven episodes between them; hence, a two-part story was needed. It only featured the main cast of four. Doctor Who has also had occasional bottle episodes since then, most notably "Midnight", which, apart from bookend scenes at a holiday resort, is set entirely on a shuttle bus, with a monster depicted only via sound effects and the acting of the guest cast.

The third-season episode "Fly" of Breaking Bad features only two members of the main cast (plus a few extras) and takes place almost exclusively in the secret laboratory used to cook crystal methamphetamine. Although widely acclaimed by critics, this episode was the lowest rated episode of the series on IMDb. Series creator Vince Gilligan has referred to this as a bottle episode, noting that the limited setting and cast allowed for a slower pace and deeper exploration of character traits and motives.

Archer's fifth episode of the sixth season, "Vision Quest", features seven of the eight major cast members stuck in an elevator in real time.

The comedy-drama series Girls features four bottle episodes. In "One Man's Trash" (season 2, episode 5), series lead Hannah Horvath (Lena Dunham) experiences a two-day romance with Joshua (Patrick Wilson), a handsome doctor whom she meets at her workplace, at his brownstone home. "Beach House" (season 3, episode 7) sees Hannah and friends Marnie Michaels (Allison Williams), Jessa Johansson (Jemima Kirke) and Shoshanna Shapiro (Zosia Mamet) spending the weekend at Marnie's mother's friend's beach home on Long Island. "The Panic in Central Park" (season 5, episode 6) sees Marnie encounter her ex-boyfriend, Charlie (Christopher Abbott, who was a series regular for the first two seasons), by chance. The two then go on a series of misadventures throughout New York City; the episode only features the two characters for much of the runtime. "American Bitch" (season 6, episode 3) takes place entirely in the home of famous writer Chuck Palmer (Matthew Rhys), the subject of an article written by Hannah which accuses him of sexual misconduct involving his female fans. Hannah and Chuck engage in a mental battle of wits over the article with the latter accusing the former of helping to damage his reputation. As with the previous example, they are the only two characters featured in nearly the entire episode.

A meta-example is Community's eighth episode of its second season, "Cooperative Calligraphy". After the opening, characters Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) and Abed Nadir (Danny Pudi) both refer to the situation as a bottle episode. The entire episode is set inside a study room of the college with only the main cast. Its plot centers around the pen of the character Annie Edison (Alison Brie) going missing as she refuses to let anyone else leave the study room until they come forward with it.

The sitcom Frasier made use of bottle episodes, notably "My Coffee With Niles" (season 1, episode 24), an homage to the film My Dinner with Andre that consists almost entirely of a conversation between Frasier and Niles at Cafe Nervosa, and "Dinner Party" (season 6, episode 17) which takes place wholly within Frasier's apartment.

The BoJack Horseman episode "Free Churro" features the title character giving a monologue in front of a static background for 20 minutes of the episode's 26-minute runtime. The entire episode was voiced by a single voice-actor.

Long running ABC drama Grey's Anatomy had a bottle episode in its thirteenth season. The episode "The Room Where it Happens" (season 13, episode 8) focused on Doctors Meredith Grey, Stephanie Edwards, Richard Webber and Owen Hunt as they perform surgery. The episode remains in the operating room as each doctor remembers different moments in their lives.

The Chicago Fire episode "My Lucky Day" was a bottle episode designed to cut higher costs because of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on television in the United States.

See also

• Clip show, an episode composed of excerpts from previous episodes; often a bottle-episode frame story in which characters reminisce about the earlier events.
• Filler (media), material of lower cost or quality that is used to fill a certain television time slot
• Two-hander, a drama with only two characters; includes a list of television episodes

Footnotes

References

• Edwards, Ted (1996). X-Files Confidential. Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 978-0-3162-1808-5.
• Goldman, Jane (1995). The X-Files Book of the Unexplained Volume I. HarperPrism. ISBN 978-0-0616-8617-7.
• Lowry, Brian (1995). The Truth is Out There: The Official Guide to the X-Files. Harper Prism. ISBN 978-0-0610-5330-6.

External links

• The dictionary definition of bottle episode at Wiktionary