History Main / TwoLinesNoWaiting

* In Wrestling/{{ECW}} in 1995, Wrestling/{{Taz|z}} had suffered a broken neck due to Wrestling/DeanMalenko and [[Wrestling/TooColdScorpio 2 Cold Scorpio]] botching a spike piledriver in a match against [=Taz=] and Wrestling/EddieGuerrero, which put him on the shelf for a time. [[Wrestling/JimFullington The Sandman]] defeated [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/us/ecw/ecw-h.html ECW World Heavyweight Champion]] Shane Douglas for the title at ''ECW Hostile City Showdown'' on April 15. Douglas felt that there was a problem with the officiating[[note]]Douglas was on his back with Sandman face-up on top of him in a submission hold but the ref counted Shane's shoulders down.[[/note]] and was determined to do something about it. At ''ECW Enter Sandman,'' May 13th, he introduced [=Pennsylvania=] State Athletic Commission referee Bill Alfonso, who would enforce the rules. Fonzie quickly became the most hated guy in ECW history. What do these two storylines have to do with each other? The answer came at ''ECW November to Remember 95'' on November 18th. Right before the match between Wrestling/{{Konnan}} and [[Characters/{{ECW}} Jason "The Sexiest Man On Earth"]], Taz walked down to the ring in a referee shirt. Taz explained to Wrestling/JoeyStyles, who was doing the in-ring introductions, that ECW would not let him wrestle that night because they considered him an insurance risk. Jason gets in Taz's face as Taz asks if both guys are ready. Taz then decked Jason and Konnan powerbombed and pinned him in about 14 seconds. Later that night, there was a match, such as it was, between Alfonso and ECW Commissioner Tod Gordon, with Beulah [=McGillicutty=], then a {{Heel}} as Wrestling/{{Raven}}'s [[{{Kayfabe}} girlfriend]], as the special referee. Fonzie [[WouldHitAGirl attacked her]] and threw her out of the match. They sort-of brawl for a while, complete with Fonzie blading, with no referee. Taz comes down while Tod is attempting a pin, starts to count, then stops, beats up Tod, puts Alfonso on top and counts the pin, this turning himself heel. The crowd is shocked, and Taz explains that he did it because none of the fans called or wrote or made any attempt to contact him after his injury and that Alfonso was the only person who seemed to care about him. He also rips on the fans for being happy to see Sabu, who had returned earlier that night after seven months in self-imposed exile in WCW, Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling and the indies,[[note]]Sabu had left ECW right before ''The Three-Way Dance'' on April 8th and the fans had chanted "FUCK SABU! FUCK SABU!"[[/note]], Paul E. and whatever and whoever else comes to mind, finally saying to the fans, "I DON'T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT YOU!"

*** ''ShakeItUp''. Usually there is one plot with Cece and Rocky, and Rocky's brother Ty, Deuce and Flynn have a plot. They may or may not intersect, and minor character Gunther and Tinka may appear in both.

* Almost every episode of ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' features an "A" plot about the title characters (usually building something amazing), and a "B" plot in which [[EverythingsBetterWithPlatypi their pet platypus Perry]] [[AnimalSuperhero works as a secret agent]] against the local MadScientist [[CardCarryingVillain Dr. Doofenshmirtz]]. The "B" plot usually ends up physically affecting the "A" plot (for example, Doofenshmirtz's machine somehow destroys the boys' invention [[ResetButton before their mom discovers it]]), but the plots are (usually) thematically unrelated. Phineas and Ferb never become aware of the "B" plot, at least not enough to discover Perry's secret.

* In Wrestling/{{ECW}} in 1995, Wrestling/{{Taz|z}} had suffered a broken neck due to Wrestling/DeanMalenko and [[Wrestling/TooColdScorpio 2 Cold Scorpio]] botching a spike piledriver in their match against [=Taz=] and Wrestling/EddieGuerrero, which put him on the shelf for a time. [[Wrestling/JimFullington The Sandman]] defeated [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/us/ecw/ecw-h.html ECW World Heavyweight Champion]] Shane Douglas for the title at ''ECW Hostile City Showdown'' on April 15. Douglas felt that there was a problem with the officiating[[note]]Douglas was on his back with Sandman face-up on top of him in a submission hold but the ref counted Shane's shoulders down.[[/note]] and was determined to do something about it. At ''ECW Enter Sandman,'' May 13th, he introduced [=Pennsylvania=] State Athletic Commission referee Bill Alfonso, who would enforce the rules. Fonzie quickly became the most hated guy in ECW history. What do these two storylines have to do with each other? The answer came at ''ECW November to Remember 95'' on November 18th. Right before the match between Wrestling/{{Konnan}} and [[Characters/{{ECW}} Jason "The Sexiest Man On Earth]], Taz walked down to the ring in a referee shirt. Taz explained to Wrestling/JoeyStyles, who was doing the in-ring introductions, that ECW would not let him wrestle that night because they considered him an insurance risk. Jason gets in Taz's face as Taz asks if both guys are ready. Taz then decked Jason and Konnan powerbombed and pinned him in about 14 seconds. Later that night, there was a match, such as it was, between Alfonso and ECW Commissioner Tod Gordon, with Beulah [=McGillicutty=], then a {{Heel}} as Wrestling/{{Raven}}'s [[{{Kayfabe}} girlfriend]], as the special referee. Fonzie [[WouldHitAGirl attacked her]] and threw her out of the match. They sort-of brawl for a while, complete with Fonzie blading, with no referee. Taz comes down while Tod is attempting a pin, starts to count, then stops, beats up Tod, puts Alfonso on top and counts the pin, this turning himself heel. The crowd is shocked, and Taz explains that he did it because none of the fans called or wrote or made any attempt to contact him after his injury and that Alfonso was the only person who seemed to care about him. He also rips on the fans for being happy to see Sabu, who had returned earlier that night after seven months in self-imposed exile in WCW, Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling and the indies,[[note]]Sabu had left ECW right before ''The Three-Way Dance'' on April 8th and the fans had chanted "FUCK SABU! FUCK SABU!"[[/note]], Paul E. and whatever and whoever else comes to mind, finally saying to the fans, "I DON'T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT YOU!"

** Newer episodes are more fond of a version of HalfwayPlotSwitch -- a plot hook is set up in the first five minutes, and then promptly dropped when something even wackier comes along. Sometimes invoked ''in the same episode'' as TwoLinesNoWaiting, giving an A plot, a B plot, and an "aborted" plot.

* This was the basic storytelling method in the first season of OnceUponATime. Every episode featured a story in the cursed community of Storybrooke and a story in the past of the Enchanted Forest, with the flashback story usually shedding narrative light on the characters in Storybrooke. The second season added a [[ThirdLineSomeWaiting third plot thread]].

* Exception: ''EverybodyLovesRaymond'' is unique in the sense that every episode followed one storyline, there were no subplots. Yet it was still very successful and ran for nine seasons.
** Not necessarily subplots, but they did have minor inter-episode stories as running gags, such as periodically reverting to the arguments between Marie and Frank (over things like what constitutes something as 'fork-split,' who will die first and what the remaining one will do, etc) throughout the episode.

* Over in non-fiction land, ''MythBusters'' does this too.
** Partially justified in that a single myth is generally too short to provide a thirty minute show. However, it is the presentation of each myth in parts that qualifies ''MythBusters'' as an example.

* A Finnish comic novel named "OM" did this in a decidedly {{MindScrew}}y way. The A Story (or at least the one it opened on), being the adventures of the eponymous samurai rabbit, was interrupted abruptly by the BStory of the surreal JustForPun adventures of "li'l Piggybear". The BStory, in turn, was ostensibly the dreams of one of the characters in the C Story, a real-world relationship drama. The connection (if any) between the stories was never in any adequate way explained, giving the comic an overarching "what the... ?" -kind of feel. Ostensibly, the C Story, which was introduced last, could be seen as the "main" story, but that is all open to interpretation... It could just as well have been AllJustADream of the samurai protagonist who was, if memory serves correctly, mortally wounded at the time.

* Creator/KenMacLeod has used this, most notably in ''The Sky Road'' and ''The Stone Canal''. He was also credited by his friend Creator/IainBanks for suggesting it as a way of bringing together the various ideas and storylines that became ''Literature/UseOfWeapons''.

* MÄR's anime tried breaking up the War Game (read: TournamentArc) with various filler. The problem is, most of this was right after Snow's kidnapping so it just ended up annoyingly prolonging both the tournament and her rescue.

* The book ''Sahara'' by Clive Cussler (and its movie adaption that he has disowned) has two plots running side by side, interlinking with each other. It eventually then focuses exclusively on one, with the other only coming back just when the audience has forgotten about it.

* MercedesLackey - in her ''Mage Storms'' trilogy, the main plot gets interwoven with machiavellian scheming in a distant and uber-powerful empire. The B plot gives the readers insight into one of the major characters as well as answering several questions that any smart reader would be asking and couldn't be properly answered any other way.
** Same with ''The Obsidian Trilogy'', which has the main plot with the main characters and another equally important plot happening back in the city.

** Wilkie Collins, ''The Woman in White''
** W. M. Thackeray, ''Vanity Fair''

** Creator/CharlesDickens, ''Bleak House''
** Creator/AnthonyTrollope, ''The Way We Live Now'' and most of his other novels

* The story in Nick Hornby's ''About a Boy'' is told alternately by the two Protagonists, at the beginning of the book both plots are separated, as the story proceeds they get somewhat mixed up a little, owing to the time they spend together.

* The rift war cycles first book Magician. by Raymond E Feist. Has no less than separate plots following 3 major plot lines and 2 secondary plotlines. Primarily, Pug, Tomas, Arutha's main lines. Carline, Roland and Martin. making up subplots but relating to the over all story. Further books in the series extend this further.

* This happens pretty often in ''New Tricks''. Sandra normally goes off with one other member of the team about a quarter through the episode, with the other two members going off on their own plotline as well. Sometimes there are even three plotlines in one episode.

** The first two ''Video/SaintsRow'' games did this as well, with the separate gang storylines being entirely independent. Which lead to characters involved in them only appearing in one of the three, as [[spoiler:they frequently get injured or even killed]] and the game has no way to determine in which order you've completed missions up until the final stretch. ''The Third'' changed this around a bit, where missions overall follow one plotline, and most times where you have a choice of two or more missions they're just one of your lieutenants asking you to play an activity.

* The newer ''Call of Duty'' games have this, with the game switching between the viewpoint of two main characters(and occasionally a third character for a single mission). In the Modern Warfare games, The American character is usually engaging in some big urban battle while the British character is doing some kind of special ops raid, more or less at the same time. Though [[spoiler:the American plotline usually finishes up partway through the game and the British one goes all the way up to the end.]] In World at War, however, there is no connection between the two characters, one in Russia and one in the Pacific; the plot just switches between them every few missions presumably for a change of pace. ''[[VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOps Black Ops]]'' does this with Hudson and Mason's roles in the story and even once going through the same level from different starting points (Mason sneaking into the Soviet base to kill Steiner, Hudson and a group of American soldiers going into the facility another way to rescue Steiner. The two plots join up in the end, the final cutscene of both being the same scene from different points of view, which is also the final clue that Reznov [[spoiler:isn't there; in Mason's portion, Reznov appears to punch out Steiner a few times before drawing a pistol, declaring "[[MyNameIsInigoMontoya My name is Viktor Reznov!]]", and shooting him dead - then, in Hudson's portion, Reznov isn't there and ''Mason'' is declaring himself to be Viktor Reznov before killing Steiner.]])

* Fanfic/GuiltySparks is a {{Halo}}/{{MassEffect}} crossover split between the Normandy crew getting involved in the events of VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved, while a major B plot involves Liara investigating Covenant infiltration of the MassEffect universe.

* The latter half of ''DarkLordOfDerkholm'' ping-pongs between the adventures of Derk and those of his children, Blade, Shona, and Kit, as they lead a party through the "game."

* Literature/SpocksWorld alternates between

* The delicate balancing of sitcom hijinks and medical/war drama seen throughout ''[[{{MASH}} M* A* S* H]]'' appeared to be a little too much for the writers to handle in the last few seasons, so instead every episode was given two storylines, one funny and one serious. It was rather obvious that they were putting all their effort into the serious storylines and the "funny" storylines tended to fall flat as a result.

* ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' is guilty of this in the {{DLC}}. The main game itself is about a struggle between three major powers and an upstart WildCard for control of the Mojave. The DLC more or less sidelines this plot to focus on a Campbellian MythArc that's only tangentially related to events in the Mojave and only reconnects with the main plot at the very end. Even then, [[spoiler: ''nuking the home territories of the NCR or the Legion'' doesn't actually impact the resolution of the Mojave conflict at all]].

** In fact, when it was offered up in sydication, ''FantasyIsland'' had two formats, the original one hour episodes as well as an EditedForSydication half hour format featuring only one story and Roarke's opening greeting "My dear guests, I am Mr Roarke, your host" dubbed to "My dear guest, I am Mr Roarke, your host".