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Two characters are in a room having a conversation. One of them makes to leave. But as this character reaches the door, he or she turns back to deliver a final line. Often this is some bit of exposition that sets up something later in the episode ("the starboard discombobulator's on the fritz") but that the writer couldn't figure out how to work into the scene's main conversation. In some shows there might be several lines of dialog between the two characters as the departing actor tries desperately not to look as though he's loitering in the doorway.
Just to mix things up a little bit, sometimes they'll do it the other way around: the character who remains in the room will call to the character who's leaving just as the latter reaches the door.
This trope is distinctly different from a good old-fashioned exit line, because the line itself isn't dramatic ("You can't fire me! I quit!") and is often in fact something of a non sequitur, which must be eased into with a phrase like "and another thing", "oh yeah", or "by the way."
Sometimes a character actually gets out the door, then comes back in to deliver a line, but this is usually for comedic effect. See Door Focus.
Not to be confused with And Another Thing, the sixth book in The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy.
Example
Films
- Spoofed in A Shot in the Dark with the help of Door Focus: Clouseau leaves Dreyfus' office after an argument, the door closes behind him, and we hear "And another thing!" Since Clouseau doesn't know it closed, he turns around as he says this, points at Dreyfus — and thus smashes the frosted glass window in the door. Embarrassed, he leaves without saying whatever that other thing was.
Live Action TV
- Perfected by Lieutenant Columbo as a means of turning the screw on a suspect who is already exasperated by Columbo's shenanigans, since an Exasperated Perp is liable to make a Crucial Mistake. Though this became Columbo's most distinctive character trait, it started as a mistake. During the filming of the Columbo pilot, "Prescription Murder", Peter Falk simply forgot to deliver his last line before leaving the set, so he turned around, came back, and said "One more thing..." The take was left in, and became a defining moment.
- Likewise, Detective Goren from Law & Order: Criminal Intent, also uses And Another Thing in the same way as Columbo did.
- The medical version (the "doorknob question") appeared in House: according to the writers (and presumably their medical consultants), many patients come in for a trivial ailment, and then bring up the "other thing" (probably the serious illness they actually want treatment for, but which embarrasses them) as they reach for the door knob.
- Detective Flack did this once on CSI NY. When he made to leave, the door gave him a Eureka Moment — he realised that the victim's door had been locked from the outside, so whoever killed him must have had a key.
- Star Trek The Next Generation often raised this to an art form, with whoever Picard was talking with in the ready room would say that one more thing at the door.
- And the reverse happens just as often, with Picard adding "one more thing" when whoever is in his ready room at the time is almost out the door, especially in the later seasons. In fact, near the end of the series, it's surprising to see anyone coming out of the ready room without Picard adding a comment.
- Happened on The West Wing too many times to count. Often the plot of an episode relied on one or more of these moments.
- Kellerman got a Crowning Moment Of Awesome in his first case on Homicide Life On The Street. Interviewing a suspected murderer/arsonist, he tells the suspect that they don't have much of a case beyond what he's already explained away, and that it looks like he's free to go. As the man is grabbing his coat, Kellerman asks, "Why'd you kill the dog?" The man's answer, "I didn't know the dog was there."
- Frequently on NCIS, when Gibbs would visit Abby in her forensics lab and she would provide some information. Just as Gibbs is about to leave, Abby then chimes in with, "Wait, there's more," and provide another even more vital clue.
Western Animation
- This trope was parodied mercilessly on South Park with a scene that ended in four successive And Another Things.
- Clone High did the same in in the premiere, as JFK kept coming back into the bathroom to reiterate the fact that Lincoln and Gandhi weren't invited to his party, and then because "I forgot to wash my hands!"
- Uncle from Jackie Chan Adventures easily established "One more thing!" as one of his catchphrases by the end of his first scene in the series.
- This troper would like to mention than in the French version, this is changed to "Je n'ai pas fini!" ("I'm not done yet!"), with similar results.
- Especially funny when the "one more thing" was to smack Jackie in the head.
- In Daria, Daria Morgendorffer's mother and her principal don't get along very well. When they up in a tent alone together in one of the Class Trip episodes, it looks like they'll be at each other's throats immediately, but the show subverts expectations by showing them to have...a pleasant conversation. An awkward conversation, to be sure, but a pleasant one. Helen ends up (unintentionally) admitting her age and her insecurity about it, and that doesn't escape Ms. Li's notice when, moments later, the scene devolves into a shouting match. As Helen is turning to leave, Ms. Li says stops her to say, "And by the way, you look fifty." Helen's mouth turns into an "O" of shock.
- There was a Bugs Bunny cartoon where Bugs got a job as an organ grinder monkey, managing to anger a gorilla in the process. When Bugs is done telling the gorilla off, he adds "And another thing...stop breathing on my cup!"
- In the Gargoyles episode "Turf", Angela has to tell the Trio off. While they were showing off and generally acting like idiots, the bad guys got away. She tells them that they have to focus on catching the bad guys, she is not a prize to be won, "And one more thing...STOP CALLING ME ANGIE!"
Real Life
- Steve Jobs' keynote presentations for Apple Inc. often end in "one more thing" that didn't quite fit into the presentation itself.
Video Games
- The Legend Of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass includes a pirate whom you fight on your ship at least twice. Every time you defeat her, she gives one of these lines - most of them quite lame and irrelevant.
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