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alt title(s): Cold Opening; Pre Titles Sequence; Cold Open Also known as a Cold Opening or "Cold Open." A one to five minute mini-act at the beginning of the show, before the opening credits, used to set up the episode.
In a Monster Of The Week show such as The X Files, the teaser usually contains the first Red Shirt of the episode. In a Crime And Punishment show, it usually contains the first murder.
Though it technically does not really set up the plot, as there is usually no lengthy continuous plot, the first sketch right before the opening credits in sketch comedy shows like Saturday Night Live and MADtv is also called a cold opening. (The show Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip actually had an episode titled "Cold Open" in which the writing of such a sketch is a plot element.)- non sketch entertainment programming often also uses a comedy sketch as a Cold Open.
As recently as the early 1990s, the teaser was a relatively unusual phenomenon (although there had been some examples, such as soaps from the early 80s). Today, nearly every American show has a teaser (to get viewers hooked before they can consider changing channels). Many British shows still don't use the technique, but it is increasing in prominence: the revival of Doctor Who, its spinoff Torchwood, and Life On Mars are three recent examples.
Similarly, almost no animated shows had cold opens before Cro in the mid 90s (its cold opens were used to lead in to the main Flash Back). These days, many animated shows do cold opens ( Kim Possible, for example).
Although the term is usually reserved for television, the practice is now prevalent in comic books, having crept into the medium in the mid-80s and grown popular through the 90s. While older comics tend to have the title and credits on the first page, most modern comics now wait until three-to-five pages in, for a suitably dramatic moment. Some comics vary this by introducing the title at the end of this issue (eg. "Shoot", a lost issue of Hellblazer) or sometimes square in the middle.
A subtrope is Batman Cold Open.
Examples:
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Anime
- Special case: Ojamajo Doremi opened its eps with an avant-title that relates to the plot, then the opening titles, then a short scene before the title card. When 4Kids dubbed it for America, they cut out the avant-title, and used the short scene before the title card as the Cold Opening instead. Sometimes, they cut out the short scene entirely, meaning that in those episodes, the show starts with the opening titles.
- The Pokemon anime dub did this starting in the second Johto season. In Diamond and Pearl(when the Japanese version started doing this), sometimes clips from later in the episode would play before the opening.
- Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni used cold openings, the most effective being at the start of each arc; a clip would be shown of the usually rather gory climax of that particular arc. Coupled with the cheerful tone of the early parts of each arc, it was also a good use of Mood Dissonance.
- Since Shippuuden Naruto started using those. They kinda overused it with the very first episode which begann witha foreshadowing of episode 30 or so, crucial moment to the plot.
- Kaiba had brief recap/prologues in front of episodes for the first few episodes before switching to more standard cold openings, often setting up new locations.
- All of the episodes of Princess Tutu open with barely-animated charcoal drawings on the screen while a female narrator grimly tells a fairytale that's somehow related to the episode. After a dramatic music swell, the gentle opening theme starts up.
- Pretear starts off every episode with a cold opening that sets up the plot, or occasionally provides a recap of the end of the last episode—except for the last two episodes, which don't have an opening at all.
- Harukanaru Toki no Naka de - Hachiyoushou has Fuji-hime's Opening Narration in the first few episodes, after which it switches to regular cold openings, with the first scene placed before the theme song.
Comic Books
- Preacher would sometimes spend half an issue on a cold opening, or even wait until the last page to introduce the title and credits. Mostly, however, it stuck to a three-to-four page intro, then title.
- A classic issue of Spider-Man, promoted as the issue in which someone would die, didn't have its title section until the very end: "The Night Gwen Stacy Died."
- In chapter five of Fables: Legends in Exile there's a monologue by Bigby before the credits, title and the "In Which A Trope Is Described".
Film
- The James Bond movies almost always start with an introductory sequence before the episode itself.
- Hoffa didn't have any credits, not even the name of the film, until the end, making it a 2 1/2 hour cold open.
- The words Iron Man don't appear in the movie for twenty minutes. The title appears only when the groundwork for Tony Stark's transformation into the titular character has been laid by a story-within-a-story recap of his life, an introduction to his playboy ways, and his capture by Afghan rebels using weapons he developed himself - making this teaser a full-blown prologue.
- Really? The version I saw had the title five minutes in, with the recap occurring afterwards.
- The Departed also had no opening credits. When the title finally appeared 18 and a half minutes later this troper wondered why they even bothered?
- The opening credits of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind are roughly 15 minutes into the movie.
- The film Raising Arizona goes through a 10:43 cold open, setting up the story and introducing us to (nearly) all the characters.
Live Action TV
- Every episode of Alias has a 15 minute teaser, so that they can not only recap the story (Previously On), but also have a prologue.
- Alias, with its tongue very firmly in its cheek, decided to take advantage of having the Superbowl as Lead In in "Phase One".
- The teasers on The L Word are usually set anywhere from a year to several decades in the past, featuring characters we've never met before, but they always end up tying in with what goes on in the episode.
- All the Law And Order shows use a cold open, with a stock opening title card and narration. The action is either the crime itself or the discovery of a body, and thirty seconds of the detectives opening the investigation. While Jerry Orbach was still with us, almost always ended on a Lenny Briscoe One Liner.
- Similar to Law and Order, CSI does this, often showing a bystanders view of the murder, or the (attempted) disposal of the body. Like Lenny Briscoe, Gil Grissom almost always gets to say the One Liner before the opening credits.
- Sapphire And Steel actually delivered its teaser in the middle of the Title Sequence: a short sequence showing the title and stars was shown, followed by The Teaser, after which the rest of the sequence (with the Theme Tune and Opening Narration) was shown. Such a style of opening (title both before and after the cold open) is more common these days.
- The Tomorrow People did something similar.
- ER's cold openers generally focus on interpersonal ties (more than the hustle and bustle of the meat of the show could, anyway). A 12th season episode, "The Gallant Hero & the Tragic Victor", actually kills off a main character in the teaser.
- Malcolm In The Middle was well-known for its cold opens that were completely unrelated to the episode's plot. Unfortunately, they are usually cut out in reruns.
- Drake And Josh has one every episode.
- My Name Is Earl is a rare live-action primetime non-reality show that does not use a Cold Opening.
- Both The Apprentice and Survivor did not use a cold open to begin with, but they adopted this practice later (Apprentice started this practice around season 4, with Survivor doing this with the Fiji season).
- Nearly every episode of House MD starts with a cold opening showing the new patient getting sick, before cutting to the opening credits.
- The writers often try to make the patient unexpected by having someone show signs of illness before the real patient collapses. It's actually quite fun to try and figure out who will be the patient for the episode. This troper's favorite was the time Cuddy started to cough after drinking some water... and in the background, someone else (her hired handyman) suddenly fell off a roof.
- House even started playing with double Red Herrings, such as the opening that followed a young girl diving off a high dive, acting motionless underwater for some time, and then resurfacing to see that someone else had collapsed. Then later it's revealed that she wasn't the Red Herring, the other guy was.
- Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip devoted its second episode to showcase the main characters working against the clock to create an effective cold open, eventually settling on a fourth-wall breaking rendition of "A Modern Major General" from The Pirates of Penzance.
- Monty Pythons Flying Circus has the title sequence start after a man walked up to the screen and said "It's...". This was usually only a few seconds but was sometimes stretched out long enough to be considered a Cold Opening. It also must have set the record for the longest one ever in "Scott of the Antarctic" where the man and the title sequence didn't show up until halfway through the episode.
- Or perhaps not: In other episodes they waited until the very end to show the opening credits, and occasionally left them out altogether. Which I suppose technically means that the title credits in the next episode mark the end of the cold open...
- Homicide Life On The Street would sometimes start with a standard cold opening in which the detectives start their investigation or some other plot point is introduced, but some would just be like sitcom openings - little sketches unrelated to the actual story.
- The Wire usually has cold openings that are not related to the main story as such, but instead work as metaphors or thematic commentaries on the episode or the characters themselves.
- Each episode of Six Feet Under begins with the death of someone that the family will be working on in that episode, with a card displaying their name and dates of birth and death.
- Even though it's after the credits, so it doesn't really count.
- Xena Warrior Princess got a bit carried away with 'em sometimes: a teaser could be up to five minutes long.
- Star Trek. Teasers could run as long as over six minutes ("Ship in a Bottle") to as short as under 20 seconds ("Impulse", "Scorpion"). TNG frequently opened with scenes that had nothing to do with the main plot, just some interaction between some characters before they get called to the bridge and the teaser ends with the real plotline of that episode. DS 9 and VOY did this to a lesser extent, but ENT gave up on that practice entirely and featured teasers that were unusually short.
- Power Rangers had one from Turbo to Time Force.
- The first episode of Pushing Daisies has a cold opening of 13 minutes.
- Every episode of Bones has a cold open where the characters discover the body. This is usually done in a dark comedic fashion. (Ex. A teenage couple getting naked in a mud spring where a corpse lies beneath.)
- Monk usually begins with the murder being committed.
- Eureka often starts with something going wrong. And then goes on for a good period of time after. Probably about ten minutes.
- The teasers on Scrubs kept getting larger and larger as time went on, to the point where they consistently ended up as long as any of the other acts of the show.
- In Plain Sight shows the Witsec client of the week and how they ended up having to join Witsec in the first place in the teasers.
- Stargate SG-1and Atlantis feature these.
- The Drew Carey Show often used its teasers for bizarre stand-alone skits apart from the show's continuity, such as having a guest appearance by Daffy Duck or Drew battling invading aliens. The best known of these are the various dance sequences, two of which ended up being used for the opening theme.
- Early episodes of MacGyver started with an unrelated short adventure. This practice was dropped pretty quickly.
- Lost always begins with a teaser that establishes the episode's central character, often going into the first flashback/forward before the title card. Some teasers have been over ten minutes, such as "Exodus, Part 2".
- Cheers always had a teaser unrelated to the main plot of the episode.
- Every episode of Castle opens with an extreme close up of a dead body before it is discovered or investigated.
- All forms of UK Big Brother Spin Offs had some cold open element- notably in the case of Big Mouth where that episode's guests would usually be introduced in some nonsensical-but-consistent fashion.
- The Guest Host series of Never Mind The Buzzcocks featured a cold open for most episodes, introducing this week's guest.
- In Primeval it goes like this: Red Shirt appears, Anomaly appears, Monster Of The Week apears, Standard Red Shirt Fate, Theme Music.
- Red Dwarf did it for Stoke Me a Clipper.
- The short-lived UPN show, Special Unit 2 always began with a short scene of the Monster Of The Week's handiwork.
- Psych normally begins with a clip of a young Shawn getting yelled at by his dad.
- Band of Brothers mostly avoids the cold opening, except for one or two episodes that start with the interviews of the Real Life veterans. In most other episodes these interviews came immediately after the Title Sequence.
Video Games
- The episodic series of Sam And Max featured two episodes with cutscenes as cold openings in its first season. In Season 2, every episode but one had a playable cold opening.
- The TV series and original Lucas Arts game also featured cold openings, before the "Pleasantly Understated Credit Sequence".
- Lucasarts like this one, they've done similar things in several of their point and click adventure games, such as Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis.
- Most of the games in the Final Fantasy series open with an action sequence or other story based sequence before the opening credits and logo come up.
- The Metal Gear Solid games start off with Snake performing an infiltration and then cut to a credit sequence between 5-20 minutes into the game, as a pastiche of the James Bond movies which spawned the whole idea of them. In more detail:
- In the first Metal Gear Solid you have to wait around in a dock area while the credits play, superimposed on the screen. When they're done you're free to enter the elevator to the next area, where Snake removes his mask and the logo comes up on screen as we see his face for the first time. It's probably the closest you can get to playing a movie.
- Metal Gear Solid 2 was more circumspect about it. The opening titles roll before the main menu comes up, and you play a mission on a Tanker (where, again, the title pops up as soon as we see Snake's face for the first time). It led many people into thinking it was the proper game - but it was a prologue, and the main meat of the game was later on, with a different main character - and again, the title popped up as soon as we saw Raiden's face for the first time, as he stripped off his diving equipment. There was a reason for the blatant repetition.
- And Metal Gear Solid 3 was the most blatant. There was a very short, fifteen or twenty minute gameplay segment before the game started for real, heralded by a lengthy Cutscene, an offer to save, and the unlocking of the fantastic opening title movie, which played then and there and would now play every time the game was booted. The style of the opening sequence combined with the Cold War setting and the timing clearly marked it out as a homage to Bond's delayed starts.
- Incredibly, the small-time web RPG Sonny 2
 pulls this off quite dramatically. After beginning the game in the middle of a battle, it then proceeds with an opening cinematic and title card 5 minutes in.
- The original Wild ARMs game has the main characters go through their introductory stories and mutant powers roll call, travel abroad, get forced into working together, the death of one character's father, the end of the world, and then, mid processional, we get a short animatic of the father's funeral procession while credits roll.
- Gears Of War 2 has a playable section teaching players the ropes and "working out the ginks" before the Title Sequence.
- Lock & Key, an award-winning interactive fiction game by Adam Cadre, uses one of these to establish its premise. What exactly happens is best experienced by playing it yourself.
- Vagrant Story begins with a suspenseful infiltration and several battles; only after this does the title appear, with the sunrise in the background.
- Similarly, Final Fantasy Tactics begins by asking you to pick your character's name and birthdate, followed by a beautiful Scenery Porn introduction, with the title appearing midway through the FMV sequence.
Web Comics
Web Original
Western Animation
- Ben10 generally has its first fight before the opening theme, as a way to kick off an episode.
- The Simpsons does not use a cold opening, except sometimes for Halloween specials, they do, however, often use a Lead In.
- The first few episodes of Futurama have a cold opening.
- Many of the early episodes of The Life And Times Of Juniper Lee had teasers that didn't relate much to the plot, except for maybe one mention of where the main part of the story starts. One episode, "It Takes a Pillage", had a teaser which appeared to be setting up the Monster Of The Week by showing him and having him monologue, but right at the point the monster's supposed to name-check himself, June conks him with a stone.
- Codename Kids Next Door periodically has one of these before the Title Sequence. These can last from just a couple of seconds to several minutes.
- The 2003 Ninja Turtles series frequently started with a Flash Forward.
- Batman The Brave And The Bold has started every episode with one of these so far. One has been an actual Lead In ("Terror on Dinosaur Island!" has Plastic Man in both segments), but as often as not they seem to be used to have fun or introduce a hero we may see in a later episode.
- Danny Phantom. Mostly fight scenes that usually ends in jokes, but there are a few times where it foreshadows the upcoming plot.
- Space Ghost Coast To Coast does this almost every episode. In one particular case, the episode "Joshua" is a super long cold opening promoting "Space Ghost 2000". The actual episode basically consists of the winners of the "Haikuin' for Space Ghost" contest reading their haikus, and that's about it.
- Done quite well in early episodes of King Of The Hill, in which the Cold Open would transition seamlessly into the Title Sequence.
- The Secret Saturdays have this in every episode, to let the viewer know the current situation of the characters.
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