History FormulaBreakingEpisode / LiveActionTV

** "Lee Harvey Oswald" is the crowning example: in two parts, it (uniquely) features a [[BasedOnATrueStory statement about the historical accuracy of the episode]] and opens and closes on a lengthy still montage of archive photos. Sam makes repeated leaps into the same person at [[TimeSkip different periods]]; he's [[NotHimself almost taken over]] by the leapee's personality and [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness barely acts like himself]]. It's also the first to feature the revamped, more ominous-sounding [[AwesomeMusic theme music]].

** "Lee Harvey Oswald" is the crowning example: in two parts, it (uniquely) features a [[BasedOnATrueStory statement about the historical accuracy of the episode]] and opens and closes on a lengthy still montage of archive photos. Sam makes repeated leaps into the same person at [[TimeSkip different periods]]; he's [[NotHimself almost taken over]] by the leapee's personality and [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness barely acts like himself]]. It's also the first to feature the revamped, more ominous-sounding [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome theme music]].

* ''Series/AlienWorlds2020'': The last episode, "Terra", doesn't feature an alien ecosystem like the other three, instead examining a highly advanced hive-mind race attempting to escape a dying world.

* The ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "Far Beyond the Stars" is a story about 20th-century racism in which the main cast plays humans in 1950s New York, allowing the audience to see the actors who usually play Klingons, Cardassians, etc. out of their alien makeup.

* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': In "11:59", Janeway recounts the life story of [[IdenticalGrandson Shannon O'Donnell, her ancestor shortly before the new millennium]]. Predominantly set via flashbacks in 1999, it's probably the only story in the entire ''Star Trek'' franchise without any hard science fiction to it.

** "Lee Harvey Oswald" is the crowning example: in two parts, it (uniquely) features a statement about the historical accuracy of the episode and opens and closes on a lengthy still montage of archive photos. Sam makes repeated leaps into the same person at [[TimeSkip different periods]]; he's [[NotHimself almost taken over]] by the leapee's personality and [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness barely acts like himself]]. It's also the first to feature the revamped, more ominous-sounding [[AwesomeMusic theme music]].

* ''Series/{{MADtv}}'' had seven clip shows (four in season 13, three in season 14) that were different from their usual episodes:

* ''Series/ThirtyRock'': "Queen of Jordan" is done entirely in the format of a Bravo reality show.

** For this reason, it could be argued that the show itself is SomethingCompletelyDifferent, because unlike pretty much every other show out there, it doesn't have any discernible formula except for its lack of any discernible formula.

* The ''Series/{{Millennium}}'' episode "Somehow, Satan Got Behind Me" featured four demons sitting in a coffee shop discussing humanity's flaws; the main character of the series only appeared for brief periods. Many fans of the series consider the episode a favorite.

*** Over on the actual episodes, season 12, episode 9 was a ChristmasEpisode where the wraparound centered on the cast holding a Secret Santa party and end up humiliating each other with thoughtless gifts (such as Arden Myrin giving Nicole Randall Johnson a cookie jar shaped like a Southern black housemaid).

** Yet another episode featured Dowling doubting his deductive powers when the police arrest the wrong man on his reasoning. This doubt causes him to conjure up a consulting detective ... none other than SherlockHolmes.

* ''Series/{{MASH}}'' had several of these during its run: TheDocumentary, the "letters to home" episodes, the newsreel episodes, the RealTime episode, the NearDeathClairvoyance episode, the "Hawkeye monologue" episode, the episode done totally from the [[POVCam point of view of a wounded soldier]], and the "dreams" episode, among others. (Some of these may well have been the initial examples of their kind, copied by later series.)

* The original version of ''Series/ThePriceIsRight'' was basically a modified auction with an element of blackjack. In 1957, the daytime show tried a new format. Host Bill Cullen would read an item's price at the onset, but it was the wrong price. The contestants had to predict whether the right price was higher or lower than the one Bill read.

* The ''Series/ThirtyRock'' episode "Queen of Jordan" was done entirely in the format of a Bravo reality show.

* "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS6E7OnceMoreWithFeeling Once More With Feeling]]", the musical episode of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''.
** Other examples from ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' include "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS4E10Hush Hush]]" where nobody speaks for most of the episode, "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS4E22Restless Restless]]", which takes place mostly in the characters' dreams, and "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS4E17Superstar Superstar]]" where an extremely minor character usurps main character status, even [[SpecialEditionTitle taking over the opening credits]].

** An episode called "Top of the Heap", which [[PoorlyDisguisedPilot focused on the Verduccis]] (Al's friend, Charlie, and Charlie's dim-witted son), and aside from a brief appearance by Al (both in the beginning and [[spoiler:in the end when he takes back the TV he lost in a bet]], featured none of the regular characters.

** The first episodes of seasons seven and ten are the only ones that have no host. James Caan was originally supposed to host the season seven premiere, but had to back out after his sister was sent to the hospital for bone marrow cancer. For season ten, Ebersol chose not to have a host.

* The show ''I Survived'' usually featured three separate stories of people living through horrific ordeals. However, a handful of them focused on one event--9/11, the Norway massacre, Hurricane Sandy. The 9/11 episode even aired without commercials.

** The episode dated 31/01/2008 featured only one character, Dot Branning, recording a message for her husband. This was due to [[RealLifeWritesThePlot the actor playing the husband suffering a stroke]]. The episode made this editor [[TearJerker cry into a cushion]].

** The 200th episode is presented as a film that 1940s actors David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel star in, where all the characters have the same names as their usual ones but differ wildly in characterization.
* "Once More With Feeling", the musical episode of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''.
** Other examples from ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' include "Hush" where nobody speaks for most of the episode, "Restless", which takes place mostly in the characters' dreams, and "Superstar" where an extremely minor character usurps main character status, even [[SpecialEditionTitle taking over the opening credits]].
** There was also "Conversations With Dead People", which features five stories taking place in different places at the same time, each of which includes, well, a [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin conversation with a dead person]]. The stories weren't even thematically linked until the next episode, when they all converged.
** And the group amnesia episode - ''Angel'' had one too.
*** An ''Angel'' example: "Smile Time", wherein the basic formula is the same, except the [[MonsterOfTheWeek main antagonists]] are puppets, and [[spoiler: Angel himself becomes a puppet for the duration of the episode.]]
** "The Body" was probably the best example. It begins immediately where the last episode ended, with Buffy finding [[spoiler: her mother]]'s pale, lifeless body on the couch, and except for the last five minutes features nothing supernatural, just the poignant shock of an entirely normal, unexpected death. The effect is heightened by the complete lack of background music, close-ups of seemingly random details, etc.
** Also, the episode "The Zeppo", which took place entirely from Xander's perspective; he had a wacky adventure while [[spoiler: the rest of the main cast prevented the apocalypse, entirely in the background]].

* ''Series/TheXFiles'': "X-Cops" (which was shot as an episode of the show ''Series/{{COPS}}''), "Post-Modern Prometheus" (black and white), "Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space'" (told through [[TheRashomon conflicting flashbacks]]), "Bad Blood" (also told in conflicting flashbacks), "Triangle" (split-screen), "Humbug" (first comedy episode), and "Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster" (a {{deconstruction}} of the OurWerebeastsAreDifferent genre).

* The ''Franchise/StarTrek'' franchise's official DarkerAndEdgier series, ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', took a break from the wars, rebellions, and deaths to do a RomanticComedy episode: "His Way," devoted to getting [[spoiler:Odo and Kira]] together. It aired the week after "In the Pale Moonlight" - widely regarded as the darkest ''Trek'' episode ever produced - and so also served as a BreatherEpisode.

* ''77 Sunset Strip'' had "The Silent Caper" (with no spoken dialogue) and "Reserved for Mr. Bailey" (in which Efrem Zimbalist Jr. is the only actor to appear onscreen).

* ''Series/{{MASH}}'' had several of these during its run: TheDocumentary, the "letters to home" episodes, the newsreel episodes, the RealTime episode, the NearDeathClairvoyance episode, the "Hawkeye monologue" episode, the episode done totally from the [[POVCam point of view of a wounded soldier]], and the "[[BadDreams dreams]]" episode, among others. (Some of these may well have been the initial examples of their kind, copied by later series.)

* ''Series/{{Mash}}'' had several of these during its run: TheDocumentary, the "letters to home" episodes, the newsreel episodes, the RealTime episode, the NearDeathClairvoyance episode, the "Hawkeye monologue" episode, the episode done totally from the [[POVCam point of view of a wounded soldier]], and the "[[BadDreams dreams]]" episode, among others. (Some of these may well have been the initial examples of their kind, copied by later series.)

* ''Series/MurderSheWrote'', especially in the later years, had multiple "Jessica-light" episodes focusing on recurring characters (e.g. reformed GentlemanThief Dennis Stanton; MI6 agent Michael Hagarty) or supposedly based on one of Jessica's books.

*** Series 4 gives us the Donna-lite episode [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E10Midnight "Midnight"]] and Donna-centric Doctor-lite episode [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E11TurnLeft "Turn Left"]], which were filmed at the same time with different crews and casts, and both have unusually dark stories. Donna only has about one minute of screentime in "Midnight", and the same is true for the Doctor in "Turn Left".

** Also of note, was "Mayhem", another episode which famously followed Briscoe and Logan spending a twenty-four hour period dealing with a variety of cases, with the prosecution team appearing only briefly. The episode was popular enough that the writers did a similar episode several years later, this time with Green as Briscoe's partner, and it was also one of those "translated" into Series/LawAndOrderUK (an honor Dick Wolf reserved for his favorites and/or what he felt were his best episodes of the original). A two-part crossover between the original series and ''[[Series/LawAndOrderSVU SVU]]'' also followed up on the unsolved case from the original "Mayhem".