Examples of
Birthday Episode in live-action television.
- The Addams Family has an episode called "Happy Birthday, Grandma Frump", in which Morticia's mother Granny Frump has her birthday and misinterprets a remark by Gomez as him wanting to send her to an old folks' home.
- In the Adventures in Wonderland episode "Happy Boo-Boo Day," the Queen of Hearts orders her subjects not to give her a birthday party this year, because every year they goof it up. They try to give her a Surprise Party anyway... and accidentally order Halloween decorations instead of birthday decorations.
- All in the Family: "Edith's 50th Birthday." This isn't a Clip Show or some other way to celebrate a milestone in Edith's life ... but went much, much darker.
- A "Good Burger" sketch on All That has Peggy, the daughter of Connie Muldoon celebrating her birthday at the titular fast-food restaurant. Ed thinks that the party is for him and crashes it by opening Peggy's presents and knocking out Cramps the Clown.
- Once a season, Ally McBeal would have a party she hated, organized by her colleagues and held in "their" bar. Other characters would celebrate birthdays too, but it was less focused.
- Barney & Friends:
- The plot of the first Barney and the Backyard Gang video "The Backyard Show" has the kids putting on a show for Michael and Amy's dad at his birthday party.
- The episode "Happy Birthday Barney" from season 1.
- "Look at Me! I'm Three!" from season 2 takes place on Baby Bop's 3rd birthday (and also marks the first appearance of BJ, her older brother).
- Barney's Big Surprise takes place on BJ's 7th birthday.
- The season 6 episode "Birthday Ole" focuses on the other kids throwing a surprise party for Robert's birthday.
- "It's Your Birthday, Barney" from Season 8 and the Season 10 episode "Caring" also take place on Barney's birthday.
- Barney Live in Concert: Birthday Bash revolves around the cast celebrating Barney's birthday.
- Yet another example is the video "Dino-Mite Birthday", once again taking place on Barney's birthday.
- The Big Bang Theory has the episode "The Peanut Reaction." After learning that Leonard has never had a birthday party, Penny decides to throw him one and drags the others into helping her. It doesn't go well, naturally. The title, for instance, refers to Howard triggering his peanut allergy as a desperate attempt to keep Leonard away until the party.
- The Big Comfy Couch:
- Molly celebrates a straight-up birthday in "Pinch to Grow an Inch". Afterwards, all birthdays are referred to as "mirthdays", somewhat disregarding the events of said episode (thus falling under the Early-Installment Weirdness category).
- Molly later has a "mirthday" in "Where Do Clowns Come From?" in which Loonette recalls the first time they met. Later, she gives Molly a doll companion of her own (a doll version of Loonette, renamed "Bloomette").
- Major Bedhead celebrates his mirthday in "Don't Tell", with the gang throwing him a Surprise Party.
- Granny Garbanzo celebrates her mirthday in "Happy Mirthday, Granny", but is feeling homesick from being away from the "old country". To cheer her up, the gang takes her to Clowntown for a grand celebration.
- The Bizaardvark episode "Paige's Birthday Is Gonna Be Great" is this for Paige, combined with Surprise Party. Hilarity Ensues when Frankie tries to give her the best party ever, but in the end the party goes out well for Paige.
- Bottom: Accident, in which Richie repeatedly sings "Happy Birthday to Me".
- In the Broad City episode "The Last Supper," Abbi and Ilana celebrate Abbi's twenty-sixth birthday by going to a fancy restaurant.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer has one of these in most seasons for the title character's birthday.
- In later seasons, they even lampshade the fact that some supernatural awfulness always strikes on Buffy's birthday.
- The episode "Family" is both a Birthday Episode and a Day in the Limelight for Tara.
- Angel had "Birthday", which was built around Cordelia's birthday. Like Buffy, she had problems with the supernatural during it.
- The Castle episode "The Lives of Others" takes place on Richard Castle's birthday, which happens to be April the 1st. The episode centers on Castle being convinced that a tenant in the building across from his condo killed his girlfriend. Beckett staged the scenario as an elaborate birthday surprise.
- Chance in a Million: The episode "The Birthday Party" is centered around Tom Chance's attempts to give Allison a birthday party, with disastrous consequences.
- El Chavo del ocho:
- Community's "Mixology Certification" is centered around Troy's 21st birthday. An unusually sombre and depressing example, as everyone just ends up getting drunk, miserable and/or disillusioned with their lives, thus well and truly ruining the celebration.
- The syndicated Concentration turned a standard show from 1976 episode into birthday episode. In the Double Play game, host Jack Narz's answer card had a bogus solution. When the puzzle was revealed, it read "Happy Birthday, Jack" (Hap+bee b+Earth+d+hay Jack playing card) and it caught him flat-footed. They wheeled out a cake with all the fixings.
- Drake & Josh: The episode "Josh Runs Into Oprah" takes place on Josh's birthday. Drake gives Josh tickets to see his idol Oprah Winfrey in order to make it up to him for forgetting his birthday. Unfortunately for Josh, his birthday turns out to be bad after he accidentally runs over Oprah.
- Thornton has his birthday celebrated in "The Battle of Panthatar". He invites both Drake and Josh to his birthday party until their invitations get revoked after Thornton catches Drake kissing his girlfriend unknowingly.
- El corazón nunca se equivoca: The episode "Pide un deseo" occurs during Temo's birthday.
- CSI: NY:
- Downplayed in season 3's "Murder Sings the Blues," Mac has his birthday off and goes to the opera with Peyton, who wants to celebrate afterward. He gets called in to work and the case keeps getting more complicated, keeping him there. They end up sharing a cupcake from a vending machine on another floor of the Crime Lab building. In the next episode, it is revealed that Stella had stopped by his place to drop off his gift, but no other mention of his birthday is ever made.
- The case in season 8's "Unwrapped" is that of a man murdered on the way to his niece's birthday party and a missing gift holds a vital clue. Meanwhile the team are all making plans to attend 3-year-old Lucy's birthday party at the end of the episode. Mac uses the opportunity to invite Christine so she can meet everyone. Adam, seeing all the gifts she brought (she couldn't decide), mentions that his birthday is the next month and that she and Mac "are definitely invited."
- The Dick Van Dyke Show: Laura knows that Rob knows that Laura is planning a surprise party for his birthday, but she manages to surprise him anyway by making it look like all the guests are canceling their attendance - then suddenly, SURPRISE! It's his party - and all of the guests are in their pajamas (because the party is at 6 a.m.).
- The Filipino noontime variety show Eat Bulaga! will often celebrate people's birthdays, such as celebrating Alden's birthday on January 2, 2019.
- Emily Owens, M.D.: Young doctor Emily and her Alpha Bitch nemesis since high school Cassandra celebrate birthday on the very same day. Cassandra craves and loves the attention while Emily keeps repeating she's not a birthday type.
- In Family Matters, Laura's birthday episode is "Old and Alone."
- Family Ties:
- Alex turns eighteen in “Birthday Boy." He drives with some friends to West Virginia, where the drinking age is eighteen, to celebrate.
- Jennifer’s birthday is celebrated in “It’s My Party”.
- Friends:
- In "The One with Two Parties" Rachel has three birthdays celebrated, and in one both of her parents (who are going through a divorce) show up. To keep them from having to interact, they split the party in two.
- In "The One Where They All Turn Thirty", Rachel turns thirty, the last of the group to do so. The episode is a mixture of everyone dealing with Rachel's current birthday and reminisce about everyone else's thirtieth birthday parties.
- In "The One Where Rachel Smokes" When Rachel gets a new job, Phoebe and Monica organize a surprise birthday party for her a month before her actual birthday, have a falling out over the organization and it turns into a very weird cup-theme party... that also reveals everyone forgot about Chandler's birthday which is coming up much sooner than Rachel's.
- The gang go to a concert for Ross's birthday, and throw a party for Joey in Season 2.
- They celebrate Joey's birthday in "The One Where Chandler Can't Remember Which Sister" and Phoebe's in "The One With Phoebe's Birthday Dinner".
- In "The One With The Cake", Emma's first birthday is celebrated.
- The only Friend who misses out is Chandler.
- Full House:
- Danny: "The Big Three-O". And at the same time, he has a hard time mentioning his age number.
- D.J.: "Tanner vs Gibbler", "Candles", and "Grand Gift Auto".
- Michelle: "The Greatest Birthday on Earth" and "Happy Birthday Babies, Parts 1 and 2".
- Stephanie: "Crushed". She also gets a kiss from Tommy Page.
- Kimmy: "Birthday Blues".
- The Ghost and Mrs. Muir: In "Surprise Party", The kids want to hold a surprise birthday party for the captain, but how can they make it a surprise when he might be invisible and listening in? Scruffy provides the answer.
- The Ghost Busters, live-action precursor to Filmation's Ghostbusters, used this in the episode "A Worthless Gauze", where it was Kong's birthday and Spenser and Tracy planned a surprise party for him.
- Hannah's twenty-fifth birthday party happens early in season three of Girls. She quite enjoys the attention. Her friends organize a party at a bar and her parents also attend (it's implied they also pay it, or at least contribute substantially).
- The Golden Girls had a Clip Show episode featuring memorable birthdays past for each of the women. The episode ends with a surprise early birthday party for Blanche.
- Good Luck Charlie has done one once a season for the title character. There was also one for "Gabe's 12½ birthday", which involved a belated birthday celebration for Gabe.
- H₂O: Just Add Water had one for Cleo. The one her dad organized for her was embarrassingly childish while the one her friends organized was much more to her liking.
- Later, there was one for Lewis.
- Hip Hop Harry: Pinky drops by the Hip Hop Center to say hello, but has to quickly leave for dance class. Kelly, one of the girls at the center, is disappointed, but Pinky tells her you have to keep a commitment, even on your birthday. Kelly decides to lead everybody else at the center in planning a surprise birthday party for Pinky while she's away.
- Episode 5 of Janda Kembang revolves around Laila's birthday.
- In Joe 90, one of these doubled as the Grand Finale as the characters celebrate Joe's birthday.
- Owen and Blair had one in "The Birthday War" in Just Roll With It.
- Ziggy celebrates his birthday on the LazyTown episode "Happy Brush Day". All he wants is taffy, but Sportacus gets him something that's really important when taffy is all you want—a new toothbrush!
- The Lets Go Show had a birthday party episode in its first season.
- M*A*S*H had a few:
- In "For Want of a Boot", as part of the Chain of Deals Hawkeye is doing to get a new pair of boots, Margaret wants them to throw a birthday party for Frank Burns, including presents, cake, and at least 20 people.
- Frank's birthday comes up again in "The Most Unforgettable Characters", when Hawkeye and B.J. decide to give him a "present" by pretending to have a feud with each other. Oddly enough, this episode is set in the summertime while "For Want of a Boot" took place in the dead of winter.
- Zig-zagged in "Lend a Hand". B.J. tells everyone Hawkeye's birthday is coming up (it isn't), as a way of boosting the camp's morale. When one of the surgeons has to go to an aid station, Hawkeye volunteers in order to avoid his non-birthday, claiming he should go because it was B.J.'s anniversary (it wasn't). Near the end of the episode, B.J. picks a wounded soldier (he asks the soldier his birthday, then says, "you just got promoted") and tells everyone it's his birthday.
- In "The Birthday Girls", Margaret is going on R&R, and Klinger is driving her to the airport. Their jeep breaks down, much to her dismay, and she admits it's her birthday, which she didn't tell anyone about because she hates birthdays. Klinger gave her a bran muffin with a candle in it as a birthday cake, and she eventually loosens up about it.
- Modern Family:
- The episode "Game Changer" focuses mostly on Phil's birthday.
- And the episode "Fizbo" is centered around Luke's birthday.
- The Monster Squad episode "The Skull" had the heroes celebrate Frank N. Stein's birthday.
- In the Mork & Mindy episode "Mork Runs Down", Mork has a rather unusual first birthday, upon which he has to "recharge" (he's an alien, so It Makes Sense in Context sort of).
- My Name Is Earl: Earl has a birthday party and all anyone can talk about is how much bad stuff he used to do, rather than all the good stuff he's doing now. It turns out it's all a big Practical Joke, and as birthday presents everyone crosses something off of Earl's list that he had done to them, so he doesn't have to make it up to them.
- Odd Squad:
- The series premiere, "Zero Effect", focuses on Otto's 10th birthday and has him and Olive working together to stop a number hog from taking all the zeroes (which would turn Otto one year old, not ten).
- "Crime at Shapely Manor" has Olive and Otto called to the titular manor to solve a mystery of a birthday cake being stolen — specifically, that of Lord Rectangle's, who was celebrating his birthday.
- "O is Not For Old" focuses on Precinct 13579 hastily planning a surprise birthday party for Oprah due to Oscar's poor planning, and all the antics that come with her coming back early before the party is ready.
- The aptly-named "Orla's Birthday", which focuses on Omar and Oswald gathering supplies for Orla's 500th birthday party while Opal works to distract Orla with the help of some local villains.
- Downplayed in "Box Trot", which has the Form-Changer remark on how it's her birthday at the very tail-end of the episode and becoming the first customer of the new party-planning business started by Monsieur Papier-Mache, Star Wipe, and Lady Bread.
- "Party Crashers" has Oswald celebrating his birthday, with Omar, Osmerelda Kim, and Orla giving him a surprise party. However, when they surprise him, they find that he's been cloned thrice over by one of the titular creatures, leading them to try and get rid of the clones and pinpoint who is the real deal.
- There was one for Michael in The Office (US), called "Michael's Birthday".
- Our Miss Brooks: Miss Brooks celebrates her birthday in "The Birthday Bag".
- The Partridge Family: Shirley celebrates her birthday in "I Can Get It For You Retail." Danny wants to buy her a mink coat, so he starts stealing Keith's possessions and selling them to his Groupie Brigade, from his toothbrush to his bedboard. He even steals some of his hair.
- Mess with a Power Ranger on their birthday, and he or she is going to be pissed off.
- Red Dwarf:
- Inverted in "Thanks for the Memory" which has the group celebrate Rimmer's deathday on a barren planetoid. The main plot kicks off when Rimmer gets so drunk at his party that he admits that what he most desires is to to have been in love and to be loved.
- A straight example comes in "M-Corp", which opens with Lister's birthday. The plot kicks off when he suffers what he believes to be a heart attack (actually a severe case of indigestion) on said birthday.
- Schitt's Creek:
- Moira has a birthday in Season 1, and Johnny plans a surprise party for her.
- David has a birthday in the Season Finale of Season 3, which his family forgets. Patrick invites him for a date, which eventually leads to their First Kiss.
- David throws a surprise party for Patrick in Season 5 and invites his parents. This leads to Patrick's Coming-Out Story.
- Scrubs: Two tragic examples. Dr. Cox's son Jack has his first birthday during the day when his uncle Ben Sullivan's funeral is held. Dr. Cox's daughter Jennifer is born during the day when Lavernne dies. Dr. Cox even mentions that if his daughter celebrates her birthday, people will be reminded of Lavernne's death.
- Shining Time Station: In "Two Old Hands", it's Harry's birthday, and Matt, Tanya, and Stacy prepare a surprise party for him.
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine has an episode where Dr Bashir falls into a coma on his 30th birthday and sees himself on an alternate version of DS9 that's in danger and he's getting older and older and everyone and everything represents part of his personality. When he wakes up, he remarks that after that experience, turning 30 doesn't seem like as big a deal as he'd previously thought.
- Star Trek: The Next Generation had an episode where Worf goes through several alternate timelines on his birthday.
- On The Sunny Side Up Show, the hosts read viewers' birthday cards and wishes that have been sent in via the web, delivered to them by a cardboard character named Mr. Mailman, and sang a Birthday Song before that.
- Chica celebrated her birthday multiple times on September 26 broadcasts. "Chica's Big Birthday Surprise" from 2008 being an example.
- In the Supernatural episode "What Is And What Should Never Be" (S02, Ep20), the celebration of Mary's birthday shows how important she is to her family.
- On one episode of Tanked, Brett is tasked with throwing a birthday celebration for his daughter, who is turning 16. He hires a party planner and tells her he wants to make the day perfect for his "little girl;" thanks to his poor choice of words, she takes him literally and starts planning a party that would be appropriate for a six-year-old. Luckily, Heather and Agnes are able to intervene and fix the mess.
- That '70s Show has several: The first episode "Eric's Birthday" revolves around Eric's 17th birthday. Another episode later in the series revolves around his 18th. There's also one about Hyde's 18th and one where Eric and Red forget Kitty's birthday.
- Thumb Wrestling Federation: In one episode, Queen Nefercreepy reveals that it is her birthday in a match against Milty the Clown and there's a scene where Colonel Cossack had an reaction to where he was in his house where he screams while the thumbs sing "Happy Birthday".
- The Thundermans: "Have an Ice Birthday" was about Max and Phoebe throwing themselves a birthday party, opting not to deal with the embarassment of their parents ideas of a party.
- Hank's birthday is celebrated in "Mall Time Crooks", but his Surprise Party is postponed by Max and Phoebe trying to retrieve his watch from the mall.
- Barb's birthday is thrown into chaos when Max and Phoebe invite her estranged sister to Barb's party, not knowing they are feuding in "Aunt Misbehavin' "
- The Torkelsons: A double whammy: in the aptly-titled episode Dueling Birthdays, Dorothy Jane and Molly are shown to have the same birth date (both turn 16 in the episode), and it is about how them both having their birthday parties at the same time in the same house, causes friction in the Torkelson family.
- The Train Now Standing... has the episode, "It Never Rains", which takes place on Hedley's birthday, only he refuses for festivities to disrupt his timetables.
- Sometimes talk shows have episodes dedicated to celebrating the host(s) birthday(s), especially on panel talk shows like The View, where the hosts take turns, allowing for variety. In such episodes, the host(s) usually get free choice of guests and subject matter from among their favorites, a cavalcade of surprises, or a combination of both. Oprah Winfrey had a big on-air celebration for her fiftieth birthday.
- Wishbone: "Hercules Unleashed" has Sam trying to get the perfect gift for her father's 40th birthday, and Wishbone likens her struggle to the story of "Hercules and the Golden Apples". In the end, she gets him a long-lost picture from a fishing trip he took with Joe's father.
- The Worst Witch: In "Miss Cackle's Birthday", Miss Cackle the principal has a birthday and the students try to make a show but Maude is the director and she's turned into a baby.
- Worzel Gummidge: Each of Worzel's body parts has a birthday, but "Worzel's Birthday" focuses on his "bestest" one (his main head's birthday).
- Yo Gabba Gabba!: "Birthday". DJ Lance mentions that it's Brobee's birthday, and helps him to realize that he is four years old. The rest of the episode deals with preparations for Brobee's birthday party and the party itself.
- Young Sheldon: "A German Folk Song and an Actual Adult" takes place on Georgie's 18th birthday.
