A fantastic episode guest starring Dan Castellaneta as average guy Joe Spencer from Indiana who starts having visions about the SG1 team. Really he's just watching the show because this is a clip episode, which is normally the absolute worst episode of any shows season, but I have never seen such a creative approach to the concept before, which made it a very enjoyable episode for me.
So, if you were born in the twenty first century, you may not have any idea what a clip episode even is. For a variety of reasons cable and streaming shows don't need to need to make clip shows very often so the idea is slowly disappearing. I don't want to get too into the weeds, but in general terms, when a show is picked up for a season the producers figure out how many episodes there will be and how much it will cost to make each one and that all gets put into a contract: X episodes for Y dollars. But network television contracts have kind of strict requirements. They need to have a large number of episodes per season, typically twenty to twenty five. And each episode has to have a run time within a minute or so of some standard length, so the network can sell ads around it, etc.
Life being unpredictable and all, it's common that shows spend more than they expected to over a long season and realize they need to save money to stay within budget. So they start looking for ways to shoot cheap episodes. Clip shows can often be made at a fraction of a regular episodes cost because they reuse as many assets as they can that have already been paid for. Things like sets, actors, and especially footage. Unfortunately, this usually makes for an unbelievably boring episode, but sometimes creative shows will look to put a little bit of polish on that turd to try and make it fun. I'm happy to say that Stargate found a very entertaining approach; in fact, it worked so well that I didn't even realize it was a clip show until the episode was nearly over!
The episode details how Joe's life gets derailed when he begins having visions (the aforementioned clips) of the thrilling adventures of SG1, his obsession with them eventually causing his life to fall apart. Convinced that there must be some meaning to it all, he tries to track down the team to get some answers. Along the way the show pokes a little fun at itself by having the people in Joe's life critique some of the less successful stories or point out plot holes. It's total fan service, an enjoyable homage to overly obsessive fans that had me laughing the whole time. Observant viewers will realize that there are in-jokes even in the casting of the episode, as SG1s leader Jack O'Neill is a superfan of 'The Simpsons' and Homer in particular who, of course, is voiced by Castellaneta.
The episode wisely avoids getting too dark, quickly defusing even tense scenes and letting the cast react to Joe not as a threat but rather as a slightly odd neighbor you might roll your eyes at, but with a certain amount of affection. Like all clips shows the plot is self-contained and doesn't really contain any story elements that will carry forward but it's funny and relaxed enough that you don't mind. For me the show gets top marks for coming up with such a smart and entertaining way to create a budget episode.
So, if you were born in the twenty first century, you may not have any idea what a clip episode even is. For a variety of reasons cable and streaming shows don't need to need to make clip shows very often so the idea is slowly disappearing. I don't want to get too into the weeds, but in general terms, when a show is picked up for a season the producers figure out how many episodes there will be and how much it will cost to make each one and that all gets put into a contract: X episodes for Y dollars. But network television contracts have kind of strict requirements. They need to have a large number of episodes per season, typically twenty to twenty five. And each episode has to have a run time within a minute or so of some standard length, so the network can sell ads around it, etc.
Life being unpredictable and all, it's common that shows spend more than they expected to over a long season and realize they need to save money to stay within budget. So they start looking for ways to shoot cheap episodes. Clip shows can often be made at a fraction of a regular episodes cost because they reuse as many assets as they can that have already been paid for. Things like sets, actors, and especially footage. Unfortunately, this usually makes for an unbelievably boring episode, but sometimes creative shows will look to put a little bit of polish on that turd to try and make it fun. I'm happy to say that Stargate found a very entertaining approach; in fact, it worked so well that I didn't even realize it was a clip show until the episode was nearly over!
The episode details how Joe's life gets derailed when he begins having visions (the aforementioned clips) of the thrilling adventures of SG1, his obsession with them eventually causing his life to fall apart. Convinced that there must be some meaning to it all, he tries to track down the team to get some answers. Along the way the show pokes a little fun at itself by having the people in Joe's life critique some of the less successful stories or point out plot holes. It's total fan service, an enjoyable homage to overly obsessive fans that had me laughing the whole time. Observant viewers will realize that there are in-jokes even in the casting of the episode, as SG1s leader Jack O'Neill is a superfan of 'The Simpsons' and Homer in particular who, of course, is voiced by Castellaneta.
The episode wisely avoids getting too dark, quickly defusing even tense scenes and letting the cast react to Joe not as a threat but rather as a slightly odd neighbor you might roll your eyes at, but with a certain amount of affection. Like all clips shows the plot is self-contained and doesn't really contain any story elements that will carry forward but it's funny and relaxed enough that you don't mind. For me the show gets top marks for coming up with such a smart and entertaining way to create a budget episode.