I see Titanic and Space have been mentioned from Newsradio, but I'd also put Daydream in that category as well. Daydream is the episode set in the sweltering heat of summer when Joe was having trouble fixing the AC. it featured tons of little daydreams and ended with a tongue in cheek shout out to a famous drama.

It's a bit hard to draw a line here. Does Edith's near-rape on All in the Family count, or is that more along the lines of the now-common "very special" episode? Would an episode like Firefly's Objects in Space be considered a good example of this if that show had gone 3 or 4 seasons? Does the Nikki and Paulo episode of LOST count? Does something obviously but subtly different in tone like the Mamet-originated episode of The Shield count?

ETA: I think the "future" episode of Nip/Tuck counts. In some series (Star Trek), that might be old hat. I think it was very unusual for Nip/Tuck, though.

Reading all these made me think of another one...

Medium did an episode in 3-d. That one was pretty cool, made me jump a few times.

Would the couple dream episodes from The Sorpranos count?

There was also that atrocious 'Moonlighting' episode late in the run where Bruce Willis played Maddie's fetus in utero, and depicted the miscarriage by walking up steps to heaven while singing 'Sunny Side of the Street'. Ugh.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, the last episode of 'Newhart' is an amazing example of unconventional episodes.

I vaguely recall a Cheers episode where they made like a video tape for somebody's family...like I said, vague memory. Anybody know the episode I am referring to? I seem to recall it broke convention for that show.

My favorite Deep Space Nine one was The Visitor, where Jake lost his dad in a freak accident, only the dad wasn't dead but in some kind of time loop paradox that took Jake his entire life to fix. A powerful episode.

Deep Space Nine had a few...I also loved the one where Miles spent a life time in a prison but it was actually only a few hours but it was like a life time in his mind. Powerful episode. "The Children of Time" where the crew gets stuck on a planet populated by their great grandchildren was also a very interesting episode.

I was going to suggest DS9 "Far Beyond the Stars" -where Sisko is suddenly a 1950's science-fiction writer and all the cast (including the aliens) play different roles in the era.

I don't think these really count as unconventional since they involve time travel and other sci-fi tropes, and DS9 was a sci-fi show. Other iterations of Star Trek have had similar episodes.

This is a good example, since it's never firmly established which reality was real, and whether Sisko was having visions of being a sci-fi writer, or whether he was really a sci-fi writer having delusions of being Sisko.

Buffy had a similar episode where Buffy has visions of being in a psychiatric institute after a mental breakdown, and that all her memories of being a Vampire Slayer were a delusion. The episode amusingly has a psychiatrist listing some of the plot contrivances of the show to Buffy as reasons why it clearly must be a delusion.

If we're including the final Newhart, then we have to include the final St. Elsewhere.

Cool idea for a thread!

A couple that I don't think have been mentioned yet:

Friends: "The One That Could Have Been" - love the alternate credits!

Felicity: "Help for the Lovelorn" - black-and-white Twilight Zone-inspired episode.

Also, the last few episodes of Felicity's final season, where Felicity travels back in time, were certainly unconventional.

Though the double dipping harmed the unconventional-ness of the premise, the Cops episode of My Name Is Earl surely qualifies.

Isn't there a Dick van Dyke episode shot entirely in a bathroom?

The West Wing had a few others besides the debate that were out of the ordinary and pretty well done. The Isaac and Ishmael 9/11 episode wasn't directly in continuity and provided an interesting perspective from the characters on the political climate of that time. The documentary episode focusing on a camera crew's look at one day in CJ Cregg's life in the White House was also not done in the show's usual formula.

South Park, as an April's Fool joke, aired an episode that, instead of resolving the cliffhanger in the previous episode, was an episode of an entirely different show that the characters of South Park were fans of. The characters that were in this episode eventually were integrated into the main show, but at the time it was highly unconventional (and controversial, since a lot of South Park fans apparently can't take a joke).

which, IIRC, was aired while the cubs were playing my beloved astros in houston. i was at the game and had taped (how odd does that sound now) this episode to watch later in the evening. i found it humorous that they updated the cubs progress (or lack thereof - they were crushed) throughout the show.

I don't think it really counts, but I always felt like each episode of From The Earth To The Moon was completely different from one another.

That's the first one I thought of as well. The one where Alex's friend is killed in a car crash.

Also the child molestation episode of different strokes. And wasn't there a musical episode of Buffy?

The last episode of Mad About You.

There's also many epidodes of sitcoms where the main character(s) only appear briefly if at all in an episode. The episodes focus on spinning off a previously unknown character(s) into there own show.

Apart from all the Buffy episodes mentioned, I'd say that episode of MASH that is shot from the point of view of a wounded soldier.

In the first season of Roseanne they did a dream/musical episode that was just off the charts horrible. I remember Roseanne even apologized for the episode when she was on Oprah. Unfortunately, the entire last season matched the hideousness of that early misstep.

Never liked the documentary episodes of M*A*S*H or the soldier POV episode.

There were several "road" episodes of ER.

It's obscure but I have to add the final episode of "I Married Dora" where the cast tells each other the show is canceled and the camera pulled back to reveal the crew and audience.

Also, there was an episode of Growing Pains where Ben is dreaming about being on a sitcom.

Does the 'Save Our Bluths' episode of Arrested Development count?

There was that one whole unconventional season of Dukes of Hazzard:

The Shield had an episode called "Co-Pilot" which showed how the pilot might have looked if the show were started more conventionally (set up the characters, showed how they got to the barn, etc) rather than jumping right in to the story.

Magnum PI
-Flashback
-Home from the Sea
-Solo Flight

MASH was a huge groundbreaker. They did so many different unconventional episodes. I mean, how about one from the patient's POV, who couldn't even talk?

I think it started off with him needing a trachyotomy? The "realtime" of the heart patient was good, too.

I would probably include the Sidney/Hawkeye moments of the odor memory of almost being drowned as a child and the Korean mother smothering her baby.

I remember that Growing Pains episode. I loved that one.

Actually I loved Growing Pains in general up until the new kid came along.

Mike had some smokin hot girlfriends.