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Milestone Celebration / Live-Action TV

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20 years and they still have a power and force that you have never seen before.

Examples of Milestone Celebration in live-action TV.

Series that have their own subpages:

Series that don't:

  • Brooklyn Nine-Nine notably celebrated its 99th episode rather than its 100th due to the show's title. The episode, titled "99" (which was also the 9th episode of the season) revolved around the squad trying to race back to Brooklyn from Los Angeles in order to get Captain Holt to an interview for NYPD police commissioner. It also featured the cast at Nakatomi Plaza (the setting of Jake Peralta's favorite film, Die Hard) and revealed Rosa Diaz as bisexual and in a secret relationship with a woman.
  • Game Shows are no stranger to this trope.
    • What's My Line?: To celebrate its 25th anniversary as a series in 1975, a special two-hour retrospective of the panel game, wherein four panelists sought to identify someone's occupation or other secret, aired on ABC Late Night. It was interesting in a number of respects when it aired in late May: 1. Virtually all of the footage (except for a clip introducing then-sitting President Gerald Ford) came from the original 1950-1967 CBS run; 2. The special was hosted by original host John Daly (who was not present at all during the syndicated run), although Arlene Francis and co-creator Mark Goodson were there; and 3. The syndicated version, which had been airing since 1968, was about to wrap up its successful seven-year run. Still, it was a nice way to celebrate television's then-longest running game show, which was a constant presence for most of the past quarter century.
    • Wheel of Fortune: The 3,000th and 4,000th episodes were special retrospective episodes, featuring some of the key highlights of the (syndicated) series. The 3,000th program aired in 1998, and the 4,000th sometime in 2003. A rare photograph, printed in Jefferson Graham's "The Game Show Book," showed Vanna and Pat at the puzzle board to promote the daytime series' 3,000th episode, aired sometime in the fall of 1986.
    • The Price Is Right:
      • With the ceremonial 5,000th episode (in the spring of 1998), Studio 33 (where the show taped) was renamed the Bob Barker Studio. The 6,000th and 7,000th episodes have all featured increased prize budgets and other pomp and circumstance.
      • The show celebrated its 25th, 30th, and 35th Anniversaries with a primetime special. The first (#0001S) used the half-hour format, with the other half filled with clips; the second (#0001LV) was taped in Las Vegas, using the regular format; the third (#023SP) also celebrated Bob Barker's 50 years in television, with a similar format as the 25th-Anniversary Special and a cameo by Adam Sandler.
      • During the first week of the 40th season, there was a 40th Anniversary Special, in which the audience consisted entirely ļ»æļ»æof past contestants who were invited back to play again. One player, Paul Levine, who was the first player to play "Bonus Game" on the pilot episode, played that same game again, winning a restored 1972 Chevrolet Camaro, the same car he'd originally won in the pilot.
    • Jeopardy!:
      • The original version aired its 2,000th episode in early 1972. In place of Final Jeopardy! was a performance by Mel Brooks' 2000-Year-Old Man character. Various other special episodes and tournaments have cropped up during the course of the Trebek version.
      • For the Trebek version's 3,000th episode, the opening round featured the same categories used in Trebek's premiere (with new clues), Double Jeopardy! featured special categories worked around the milestone, and the Final Jeopardy! category was "Holidays", the same as the first episode.
      • For the Trebek version's 10th season, there was a Tenth Anniversary Tournament featuring players from each of the show's first 9 seasons, giving the season 9 slot to Tom Nosek, the then-newest Tournament of Champions winner). The tournament was won by season 6's Frank Spangenberg (after a major turnaround in the final games).
    • Let's Make a Deal celebrated being on air for 50 years in early 2013 by having Monty Hall himself and his assistant taking over for one of the deals.
  • Bob Hope: Various shows marked one of his landmark anniversaries or birthdays, starting with "A Quarter Century of Bob Hope on Television" in October 1975. Birthday celebrations for his 75th, 80th and 90th birthdays aired in 1978, 1983 and 1993, respectively. Many of these shows featured clips from previous specials, along with pre-taped well wishes from his friends, often the sitting president at the time and the casts of various TV shows.
  • All in the Family: The 100th and 200th episodes of the series were Clip Shows, but not in the traditional sense of wrapping a "recalling old times" storyline around past clips. Rather, these were special guest stars ā€“ Henry Fonda for the 100th show, in December 1974, and Norman Lear for the 200th show (from March 1979) ā€“ providing commentary, narrating clips and introducing interview excerpts from the main cast members. A 20th anniversary special also aired in 1991, featuring retrospectives from cast members and ordinary people who agreed to be interviewed for the special.
  • Happy Days: The series' first "milestone" show came just two years into its run, titled ā€“ inventively enough ā€“ "Second Anniversary Show," and was simply Fonzie and the family laughing about past adventures. Two more "anniversary milestone" shows ā€“ titled "Third Anniversary Show" (Howard and Marion celebrating their anniversary) and "Fourth Anniversary Show" (Lori Beth writing a paper about the Cunninghams, an "average middle-class American family") ā€“ aired in 1977 and 1978, respectively.
  • Little House on the Prairie: To celebrate its fifth anniversary as a series, NBC decided to celebrate one of its rare (at the time) series hits with a special three-hour movie, "The Little House Years." This was simply extended highlights from seven of the most popular episodes of the series framed around the Ingalls celebrating Thanksgiving dinner. Although shown independently of the series, and not usually shown in syndication order with the rest of the episodes, it is canon within the TV Little House universe. note 
  • The Tonight Show: To celebrate Johnny Carson's 10th anniversary of hosting the show, a prime-time special aired, including highlights from his first decade of the show and special guests. Clips were rather limited due to much of the archives being wiped (due to reuse of videotape), although kineoscopes and video of highlights from the 1960s through early 1970s (e.g., Ed Ames' tomahawk throw, a parody of Dragnet, Tiny Tim's wedding) were shown. After then, the specials began airing annually (e.g., "Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson 17th Anniversary Special" in 1979) until the last one aired in 1991. As the years progressed, more clips were aired since all shows produced after sometime in 1972 exist.
  • Star Trek:
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
    • The 100th episode coincided with the fifth-season finale, in which Buffy dies (for the second time). "The Gift" additionally was the last Buffy episode to air on The WB network before the series moved to UPN in September 2001. Further, the episode began with a Previously onā€¦ segment that contained clips from every single previous episode, all going by at very high speed.
    • The canon Season 8 comics that continued the story were coincidentally released on the 10th anniversary of the first season.
  • In Angel's 100th episode, "You're Welcome", Cordelia awoke from her mystical coma and reinvigorated Angel's fighter spirit. And it was revealed that she had died.
  • Power Rangers:
    • 10-year anniversary: "Forever Red" in Power Rangers Wild Force. 10 years of Red Rangers returned for a fight against The Remnant of the Machine Empire.
    • 500th episode - "Legacy of Power" in Power Rangers: Dino Thunder, a big Clip Show showcasing most of the series. It also moved the story forward a bit, as the Dino Rangers finally found out that their teacher and mentor, Tommy Oliver, was a veteran Power Ranger (the very first Sixth Ranger, and Red Ranger to the following couple teams). The very next episode saw Tommy climb back in the saddle as the Black Dino Ranger.
    • 15-year anniversary: "Once A Ranger" in Power Rangers Operation Overdrive, a two-parter which had some of the more popular (non-Red) Rangers return for another fight. Meanwhile, the video game Power Rangers: Super Legends pitted a number of historical Rangers against old enemies.
    • In a bit of fortuitous timing, the final Disney season before Saban claimed the franchise back, Power Rangers RPM, ends with the 700th total episode.
    • Power Rangers Megaforce celebrates the show's 20th anniversary. It's running two years; the first year is a bit of a homage to the original Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers and the second is a franchise-wide Crisis Crossover. (The two-year thing is due to scheduling quirks on the part of both Disneynote  and Nickelodeonnote ; the adaptation of Sentai's milestone crossover season was going to miss the anniversary year, so it and the prior year was made one big storyline.)
    • 25-season anniversary: "Dimensions in Danger" in Power Rangers Ninja Steel, another big Reunion Show involving The Multiverse and Rangers from across the entire franchise. In the Boom! Studios series of comics running at the same time, the anniversary was commemorated with the massive crossover event Shattered Grid.
    • Several events for the 30th anniversary in 2023:
      • Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always is a Reunion Special where most of the cast from the original three seasons of MMPR return to face off against a resurrected Rita Repulsa.
      • Power Rangers Cosmic Fury features Lord Zedd as the Returning Big Bad and pits him against the heroes from Power Rangers Dino Fury. The original Blue Ranger returns in a mentor role, and a handful of supporting characters from the three most recent seasons — Dino Charge, Ninja Steel, and Beast Morphers — make guest appearances. Cosmic is also intended to be an End of an Age for the Power Rangers TV show; after 30 years of the same Shared Universe, Hasbro intends to clear the deck with a reboot when it returns. To further drive this point home, the last episode of the season is simply titled "The End".
      • As part of the 30th anniversary celebrations, Boom! Studios, the current holders of the Power Rangers comics license, ran a Kickstarter campaign for deluxe hardcovers collecting all the comics from the previous holders of the license, along with one collecting Boom!'s standalone graphic novels. Among the successful stretch goals was a new Power Rangers comic series written by Amy Jo Johnson (the original Pink Ranger) and her partner, director Matt Hotson.
  • Sesame Street:
    • The first special, "A Walking Tour of Sesame Street," aired in the spring of 1979 to observe the show's 10th year. This was the first Clip Show, as Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch and Barkley the dog; human cast members Will Lee, Bob McGrath, Linda Bove and Alania Reed; and Special Guest James Earl Jones all talked about the show, its impact and top storylines up to that point in the series' history.
    • "Sesame Street: 20 and Still Counting" came in 1989 and aired on NBC. Hosted by Bill Cosby, the show's main human cast and Muppet characters all appeared, as did Kermit the Frog (whose appearances by now were increasingly rare). The two top storylines from the 1980s ā€“ the passing of Mr. Hooper and Snuffleupagus' revelation to the adults that he was indeed real ā€“ were also recounted, and the top original song from the show, "Sing" (composed by Joe Raposo, and made a worldwide hit by The Carpenters) was also included.
    • "Sesame Steet Unpaved" was a documentary airing in 1999 and celebrating the show's 30th anniversary. Extended clips of notable storylines ā€“ the Welcome Episode where Gordon shows a young girl around the Street, Mr. Hooper's death, and the "Snuffy is real" episodes among them ā€“ are shown.
    • "Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration," focusing on the show's cultural impact. Many of the longtime cast members joined their current stars, and Muppets that hadn't appeared for years were featured as the show celebrated its worldwide impact. The special marked the last appearance of Caroll Spinney, the longtime voice and Muppet performer behind Big Bird and Oscar, as he died less than a month after the special aired on HBO and PBS.
      • Not so much connected with the 50th anniversary milestone, but in December 2019 the Sesame Street became the first TV series to earn a Kennedy Center Honor (for its cultural and educational impact on America).
    • Many other direct-to-video produtions, books and much more also helped observe these milestones.
  • Super Sentai: Today, the franchise is recognised as having started with Himitsu Sentai Gorenger (1975-77), followed by J.A.K.Q. Dengekitai (1977-80), the latter of which was Cut Short. It was the third series, Battle Fever J (1979-80), which started the run which lasts to this day, introduced the Humongous Mecha which put the "Super" into Sentai and, unlike the first two series, proceeded without involvement from creator Shotaro Ishinomori. As a result, it took some time for the first two series to be acknowledged. Generally, Sentai anniversaries go by series (a year following the true anniversary) rather than years.
    • The first milestone to be acknowledged officially was the 10th anniversary during then-tenth show Choujuu Sentai Liveman (1988-89). The anniversary logo featured the Power Trio of Liveman accompanied by the past 9 Red Rangers.
    • Kousoku Sentai Turboranger (1989-90) was launched as the then-eleventh show (tenth anniversary) of Super Sentai. Its first episode was a special Clip Show that summarized the previous ten shows and featured 53 Sentai heroes in costume (which seems a modest number nowadays, when the first episode of Gokaiger had almost four times that amount). Interestingly, Toei decided to add two previous shows into the canon later on, making the Turboranger officially the thirteenth. The only reason they weren't included before was they lacked the Humongous Mecha.
    • The 15th anniversary was acknowledged with a commemorative logo during the run of then-fifteen show Gosei Sentai Dairanger (1993-1994).
    • The 20th anniversary was celebrated only two years later, due to Goranger and J.A.K.Q. being incorporated into the franchise. Chouriki Sentai Ohranger (1995-96) had a team with the same colors as Goranger, were part of a military organization, and brought back Hiroshi Miyauchi, star of both Goranger and J.A.K.Q. as a new character whom functioned as The Mentor. The anniversary was highlighted in the trailer for Ohranger The Movie, coming with a commemorative logo.
    • 25th series: a team-up movie featuring the Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger (2001-02) teaming with five Super Sentai members from past series. The movie ends with every previous Red Ranger showing up, albeit in costume only.
    • 30th series: GoGo Sentai Boukenger (2006-07) with the after-show segment "The 30 Sentai Encyclopedia", short skits hosted by the Boukengers briefly reviewing every show and every first over the past 30 years, as well as shared themes between shows. There was also the Crossover Reunion Show, featuring the physical manifestation of the 30 Years of Sentai in AkaRed, who had the power of all the past Red Rangers combined, along with a Ranger from the previous four Sentai series, AND a villain from the one before those. More subtly, every Monster of the Week design in the series is an homage in aesthetical terms to a past Sentai Humongous Mecha.
    • On a smaller note, the 15th reunion movie, Engine Sentai Go-onger vs. Gekiranger (2009), saw a theatrical release instead of being Direct to Video for being number 15. This is acknowledged in the movie's ending when the heroes celebrate a birthday party, and calling it "a Super Sentai birthday". Afterwards, theatrical releases for reunion movies became the norm.
    • 35th series: Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger (2011-12), the Sentai equivalent of Kamen Rider Decade, with the heroes channeling powers and mecha of previous Ranger teams. Previous Rangers themselves also make guest appearances. In a nod to the previous anniversary, AkaRed was the one who gave them their powers. They also had a crossover movie with one of Toei's other heroes, Space Sheriff Gavan, who himself was celebrating his 30th anniversary. And shortly after Gokaiger ended, Toei launched the Superhero Taisen series that crossed Sentai over with Kamen Rider, with Gokaigers vs. Decade as the plot of the first film (Toei denies that it's an intentional Milestone Celebration, but with the timing and characters involved it fits too well to not be one).
    • In 2015, Shuriken Sentai Ninninger (2015-16) celebrated 40 years since the debut of Super Sentai with Himitsu Sentai Gorenger in 1975 by having the two Red Rangers of the past ninja series, Ninja Sentai Kakuranger and Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger, guest star in Episode 7; plus an additional cameo by Akaranger from Goranger. The episode was supposed to air on April 5, exactly 40 years to the day of the premiere of Goranger, but due to the show's entire schedule being delayed by one week because of preemption regarding the death of a Japanese journalist at the hands of ISIS, it became a belated birthday celebration on April 12; nevertheless, Episode 6, which aired on the anniversary date because of it, still acknowledged the milestone by beginning the On the Next preview with a photocollage of all 39 teams up to that point.
    • While Ninninger celebrated the 40th year of the franchise, Doubutsu Sentai Zyuohger (2016-17) was the 40th installment; and the franchise also hit 2,000 total episodes that season. The show celebrated both by bringing back the Gokaigers for episodes 1,999 and 2,000, where Zyuohger's Red Ranger gained his Super Mode. The DVD releases also included special Bonus Episodes featuring AkaRed returning once again to teach the Zyuohgers about Sentai history.
    • 45th series: Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger (2021-22) has the heroes channeling powers of previous Ranger teams albeit less directly than Gokaiger, and is set on Breaking Old Trends - in this series, four of the Rangers are robots and their "Ranger" forms are mecha-like (and directly modeled on previous mecha) instead of the regular spandex suits, and they grow in size to become their own Humongous Mecha. Also like Gokaiger, Zenkaiger had its own crossover film with Kamen Rider Saber celebrating both franchises' shared anniversary.
    • A handful of specific series have received Direct to Video epilogue movies to celebrate their anniversaries, including Hurricaneger: 10 Years After and Hurricaneger Degozaru! Shushutto 20th Anniversary, Abaranger 20th: The Unforgivable Rampage, Dekaranger: 10 Years After and Dekaranger 20th: Fireball Booster, Go-Onger: 10 Years Grand Prix, and Ten Gokaiger. Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger also celebrated its personal 10th anniversary by crossing over with the then-current show, Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger.
  • As noted under Super Sentai, the 30th anniversary of the Metal Heroes franchise was celebrated with its first hero, Space Sheriff Gavan, returning in a Gokaiger movie. This was followed by a standalone film, Space Sheriff Gavan: The Movie, that was intended to start a revival for the franchise by introducing a new Gavan, but it bombed.
  • Kamen Rider, in chronological order:
    • Kamen Rider ZX (1984), the tenth hero to bear the Rider moniker, is a low-key version. He was first advertised in a year-long promotion campaign across several mediums before finally debuting in a TV Special.
    • The deconstruction film Shin Kamen Rider: Prologue was made for the 20th anniversary of the franchise. it was released on 1992, one year off the actual anniversary of 1991. This was followed by a film with an unrelated story Kamen Rider ZO, released in 1993, which too was intended as a 20th anniversary production, with the title ZO chosen to resemble the number 20.
    • Averted by Kamen Rider Agito (2001): the only thing marking the show as the 30th anniversary of the franchise is a disclaimer opening the first episode. Then again, the franchise was just fresh off a revival at the time; survival was a more pressing matter back then. However, Agito did introduce traditions that would stick for all the following years, including multiple Riders as the norm and the utter lack of ending credits.
    • Kamen Rider Kabuto (2006) had a few smaller things to celebrate the Kamen Rider franchise's 35th anniversary, including the return of blatantly insect-themed suits and after-show review segments for episode 23 to 27.
    • Kamen Rider Decade (2009), a year-long celebration of 10 years of the franchise's Heisei era in the form of a Crisis Crossover (a crisis which, oddly enough, eventually expands to celebrate the franchise's 38-year history by the end).
    • Kamen Rider OOO (2010-2011) and Kamen Rider Fourze (2011-2012) collectively celebrate the franchise's 40th anniversary.
      • The Let's Go Kamen Riders movie features OOO along with the original two Kamen Riders and Cash Cow Sub-Franchise Kamen Rider Den-O. The rest of the Riders make cameos as Big Damn Heroes during the final fight, too. The film also doubles as a celebration of the Toei Company's 60th year, which it marks with a special cameo scene where four of Shotaro Ishinomori's non-Kamen Rider toku heroes intercepting and quickly killing off a retreating General Shadow. Furthermore, episodes 27 and 28 of OOO happen to be the 999th and 1,000th episodes of the franchise as a whole, and feature the OOO characters breaking the Fourth Wall to film their own movie adaptation of the original Kamen Rider while a villainous Mook from that series attempts to restore his old organization Shocker to its former glory. Plus both episodes featured cameos from prior actors that had the kanji "千" ("chi", meaning "thousand") in their names.
      • Fourze is named for "40", in-universe for the 40 Astro Switches he can use but obviously also for 40 years (in addition to continuing the previous years' Numerological Motif [Decade was 1, Double was 2, OOO was 3]). It also mentions Urban Legends about previous Riders, and uses Theme Naming that references classic Riders. Plus the traditional crossover-with-the-previous-Rider movie was expanded from just OOO and Fourze to include the first seven Riders and OOO's predecessor Kamen Rider Double. The Superhero Taisen crossovers with Super Sentai also launched their debut movie during Fourze's run. And on top of all that, a series of joint anniversary crossover shorts with the 20th anniversary of the Crayon Shin-chan anime.
    • As the 15th Heisei-era series, Kamen Rider Gaim (2013-2014) included several events uniting the fifteen Heisei Riders. First, Gaim made his debut appearance in the post-script two-parter of the previous season, Kamen Rider Wizard, that featured the fifteen Riders together. Then the Wizard/Gaim movie had them sucked into an Alternate Universe where counterparts of the Heisei Riders fought for dominance. And after that, the annual Superhero Taisen crossover became Kamen Rider Taisen, pitting the fifteen Heisei Riders against the fifteen original Showa-era Riders (and Demoting Sentai to Extras). As for the show itself, the execs took the opportunity to shake up the formula that had been in place since the Decade anniversary ended; going as far as hiring Gen Urobuchi as lead writer and letting him go full " Urobutcher" on his scripts for the express purpose of breaking down the image of the franchise as people knew it.
    • 2016 celebrated the 45th Anniversary with Kamen Rider 1 the Movie (in place of the Superhero Taisen series), starring the original Kamen Rider and having him team up with the then-current show, Kamen Rider Ghost. Afterwards Hiroshi Fujioka stated he would be retiring from the role, also making it the final appearance of Takeshi Hongo (though he did later make a cameo for the 50th).
    • The 2018-19 season, Kamen Rider Zi-O, is not only the 20th Heisei season, but the last Heisei season due to Emperor Akihito abdicating the throne and ending Japan's Heisei era. As a result, Zi-O is a Crisis Crossover similar to Decade involving all 20 Heisei shows as the era's Grand Finale. The series also followed in Gokaiger's footsteps by getting actors from all the other Heisei seasons for Continuity Cameos, managing to get 11 of the 19 main Riders to appear in person,note  some of them for the first time in years.
    • The 50th Anniversary is celebrated in 2021, and like with the 40th the celebration spans two series:
    • As with Super Sentai, there are also a couple of instances of specific series celebrating their own anniversaries with movies, Kamen Rider OOO 10th: Core Medal of Resurrection and Kamen Rider 555 20th: Paradise Regained.
  • The Japanese Iron Chef had a 2000th plate special commemorating the number of dishes that had been served on the show. Chef Joel Robuchon was a special guest judge, and the Chairman Kaga chose his five favorite and three least favorite dishes to have been served on the show. It's also notably the only time Kaga himself voted, in order to break a tie.
  • Stargate SG-1 had "Wormhole X-Treme" as its 100 episode, and another metahumor episode for the 200th episode. Part of the plot of "200" is that Mitchell is about to take his 200th trip through a stargate. This allows them to get away with saying things like "This is gonna be huge. The big 2-0-0!" within the episode itself.
  • Friends episode "The One Hundredth": Phoebe gives birth to the triplets.
  • Smallville featured the death of a main character in the 100th episode. In the 200th episode, Season 10's "Homecoming", Clark lets go of his guilt over his father's death, which was the aforementioned main character death that happened a hundred episodes earlier. And, at the very end of the episode, he and Lois share a dance, and, without either of them noticing, he begins to hover.
  • The X-Files had a fake 100th episode; they claimed "Redux II" to be the 100th episode in the promos but if you do the math, the episode is the 99th episode to air. Scully's cancer was cured in this episode and it also concluded a few other subplots as well. The actual 100th episode to be aired was a flashback episode that showed how the Lone Gunmen formed in 1989 and met Mulder and Scully was not in that episode. Their 200th episode, "Sunshine Days", was a Monster of the Week episode about a Brady Bunch-obsessed Reality Warper.
  • Stephen Colbert did the 100th episode of The Colbert Report in a tuxedo, and had the same guest as on the first episode (the first ever repeat guest). The Daily Show ran segments celebrating their '10 F#@king Years' anniversary every now and then for six months.
    • The '10 F#@king Years' segments were made more hilarious by the collective cast acting as though they hadn't achieved something, but rather that they had just been through something terrible, and it wasn't over yet.
    • The Fifth Anniversary Show was supposed to be a big deal with lots of correspondents weighing in, but everyone had something else to do at the last moment and sent apology videos (Stephen Colbert's was a Video Will). Even the guest was on the other end of a satellite connection.
  • Law & Order: Special Victims Unit:
  • The 100th Scrubs episode was an elaborate parody of The Wizard of Oz, directed by Zach Braff.
  • Referenced in Monk with the CSI parody episode. The actual hundredth episode of Monk features Monk's 100th case as a documentary. And then Monk ends up solving his 101st case inadvertently.
  • ER:
    • The 300th episode had the doctors betting on the number of patients they would have that night. The winner had a round 300.
    • Its 100th episode had them host a woman who was born 100 years ago that day.
  • CSI: Miami brushed with the Trope for their 100th, "Death Pool 100". The case just happens to involve counterfeit money, specifically $100 bills, but it's easy to miss. At the end of the episode, after most of the Montage Out, the core cast gathers on a beach casually talking about the case. The conversation ends by Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
    Calliegh: Everyone thinks it's easy to make a hundred.
    Horatio: We know better.
  • Lost's 100th episode, "The Variable", which was actually #96, hinted at Tonight, Someone Dies in previews (someone did, fan favorite eccentric scientist Dan Faraday), tied in advertising for Star Trek (2009) as well as the show Flash Forward, and aired immediately following Barack Obama's 100th day address. As for the episode itself, it established the plan to alter the course of the series and prevent the crash of Oceanic 815. The occasion was also marked by a special Ace of Cakes with an awesome 100th episode cake.
  • The 100th episode of Frasier has the entire city of Seattle commemorating "Frasier Crane Day", to celebrate Frasier's 1,000th radio broadcast, and also has Niles and Frasier actually on-location and walking around Seattle.
  • Seinfeld had a clip show called The Highlights of 100.
  • In the 100th episode of Charmed, the constantly switching between good and evil character Cole Turner aka Belthazor was finally Killed Off for Real. In the 150th episode, the resident Mr. Exposition Leo became human. The Avatars have something to do with both events.
  • That '70s Show:
    • The 100th episode, "That '70s Musical", was a Musical Episode, with Fez imagining the cast covering some of the '70s hit songs.
    • The 200th episode was the Grand Finale, which saw the protagonists celebrating the end of the decade.
  • Ultra Series
    • In 1973, Tsuburaya Productions celebrated its 10th birthday with three new shows: Jumborg Ace, Fireman, and Ultraman Taro, an Affectionate Parody of their beloved franchise.
    • On their 30th birthday (1993), Tsuburaya created the film Ultraman Zearth, another Affectionate Parody of the franchise.
    • For Ultraman's 30th anniversary in 1996, Tsuburaya made Ultraman Tiga, marking the first full-fledged series after 15 years of short-lived foreign productions, movies, and the like. More specifically, the 49th episode "The Ultra Star" was the series' celebratory episode, featuring the protagonist travelling go to 1965 and meeting franchise creator Eiji Tsuburaya, as well as Tiga teaming up with the original Ultraman! The series ended up serving as a Revival for the franchise, bringing it back to TV for the next decade.
    • The franchise's 35th anniversary was the 2001 Ultraman Cosmos movie Ultraman Cosmos: The First Contact where Ultraman Cosmos battles against the original Ultraman's most famous enemy, Alien Baltan. It also serves as the prequel to the Ultraman Cosmos series.
    • In 2006, Ultraman Mebius and its tie-in movie Ultraman Mebius and the Ultra Brothers were made "Comemmorating 40 Years of Ultraman", revisiting the original Showa era universe (Ultraman to Ultraman 80) after 25 years of Alternate Universes and featuring returning actors, characters and monsters from there.
    • Ultraseven X, an adult-oriented Cyberpunk Spy Fiction, was released in late 2007 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Ultraseven.
    • Ultraman Ginga was created in 2013 to celebrate Tsuburaya's 50th anniversary. Like Tiga, it was the first brand-new full installment in several years; as the six years since Mebius only had spinoffs, movies, and repackaged reruns. Despite being made with No Budget, Ginga (also like Tiga before it) was successful enough to launch a full Revival and start a multi-year run of new Ultraman series.
    • 2015 was the 10th anniversary of both the unfortunately abrupt finale of the notoriously Darker and Edgier reboot attempt Ultraman Nexus, and the beginning of its successor Ultraman Max. The then-incumbent series, Ultraman X, had crossover episodes with both series. Nexus also saw a reunion of the cast and crew and a miniseries on the show's making.
    • 2016 marked the 50th anniversary of Ultraman as well as the 20th anniversary of Ultraman Tiga. So, Tsuburaya celebrated with an Ultraman X movie featuring guest appearances from Ultraman and Tiga (as well as their respective iconic foes Antlar and Fire Golza) and the series Ultraman Orb, where the title hero is able to call upon the powers of previous Ultramen, most prominently Ultraman and Tiga. Ultraman Orb would go on to celebrate Ultraseven and Ultraman Dyna's respective 50th and 20th anniversaries in 2017 by having the respective heroes prominently (and respectively) guest star in a movie and a spinoff series.
    • 2020's Ultraman Z marks the 10th anniversary of the Ultraman Zero movies by making Z an eager Hero-Worshipper of Zero's.
    • 2021 marks the 55th anniversary of the franchise and 25th anniversary of Ultraman Tiga. While Tsuburaya celebrated both, they noticably put more emphasis on the latter with Ultraman Trigger: New Generation Tiga, a Soft Reboot and modernized remake of Tiga.
    • The following season continued the trend that Trigger started with Ultraman Decker, a similar 25th anniversary remake of Tiga's own successor Ultraman Dyna. It also marked the 55th anniversary of Ultraseven by allowing Decker to summon the same kaiju allies that Seven once did.
  • How I Met Your Mother:
    • 99 episodes of almost zero amount of information about the mother, then comes along episode 100 with a huge information overflow. And Neil Patrick Harris shows off his singing with a musical tribute to suits. It played with Tonight, Someone Dies by "killing off" one of Barney's suit jackets. His tailor even likening using its buttons on another suit to "organ donation".
    • "The Slutty Pumpkin Returns", the Sequel Episode to "The Slutty Pumpkin", is an in-story example — even though the series began in 2005, Ted first met the girl known as Slutty Pumpkin in 2001. The episode itself takes place in 2011, during which Ted finally meets the girl who wore the Slutty Pumpkin costume again, after years of waiting for her in the same "hanging chad" costume at the same Halloween party (not unlike Linus waiting for the Great Pumpkin).
    • The 200th episode is A Day in the Limelight for the Mother herself as she tells her side of the story at various points in the series.
  • True Life so far has had a "Where Are They Now" episode for its 100th episode (2007) and its 200th episode (2011). In them, they revisited some of the most memorable people (the 100th episode included a girl with Tourette's Syndrome and a little person who was a Britney Spears impersonator, 200th episode included an alcoholic who ran over her boyfriend and a girl who had alopecia).
  • The tenth season premiere of Mystery Science Theater 3000 had TV's Frank returning to reap souls ("Second Banana Heaven was way too political") and Joel Hodgson returning to fix up the Satellite of Love.
    • The show had its 200th episode land in the first Netflix season's third episode The Time Travelers. It was mentioned at the tail end of the episode by Kinga Forrester, who lampshades that celebrating "false anniversaries" is important.
  • The 100th episode of 30 Rock was a one-hour episode about the Show Within a Show's 100th episode, and was even titled "100th".
    • The episode also featured special guest appearances from Michael Keaton and Tom Hanks, the important plot point of Tracy deciding to leave movies to return to TV, the return of Dennis Duffy (a recurring character who was Liz's boyfriend in the first season) and a gas leak that caused the cast to reminisce about the past while in an altered state.
  • The entire 25th and final season of The Oprah Winfrey Show is a milestone celebration, with her bringing back her favorite or most shocking guests.
  • The 100th episode of Bones flashes back to how Booth and Brennan met and first worked together and has Booth confess his love for Brennan.
  • In Supernatural's 100th, Sam and Dean finally meet their half brother Adam and also rebuild their relationship.
  • Gilmore Girls 100th episode has Emily and Richard renewing their wedding vows.
  • The 100th episode of One Tree Hill has Karen return for Lucas's wedding where he is left at the altar, and Dan rescues Nathan and Haley's son Jamie after he is kidnapped.
  • The 100th episode of Desperate Housewives plays with the Tonight, Someone Dies card by killing off a previously unseen character who has been a part of the main character's lives for over a decade, the flashbacks in the episode show his involvement in their lives. Season one characters Martha Huber and Yao Lin also make a reappearance.
  • NCIS celebrated their 200th episode "Life Before His Eyes" with a lot of continuity nods to the previous eight seasons. Word of God says this episode was a "gift to the fans".
  • The 100th episode of Criminal Minds was actually called "100". The episode was told in Anachronic Order with the team being interviewed by Strauss because Hotch killed an infamous serial killer who murdered his ex-wife.
  • The Vampire Diaries reached their hundred episode in "500 Years of Solitude", an episode focused on fan-favorite Katherine that also features the guest appearance of characters who left the series long ago (Jenna, John, Alaric, Vicki, the Mikaelson siblingsā€¦)
  • Meanwhile in soap operas, Neighbours had celebrated both episode number milestones and anniversaries, usually by having some big event happen in the episode in question. Especially big milestones were the 1000th episode (Des and Jane's engagement party, which was crashed by Guy Pearce), the 2000th episode (Helen's birthday party) the 10th anniversary (unaddressed onscreen, but a special book and video were released), the 4000th episode (Flick rescuing Lou and Rosie from a fire), the 20th anniversary (an in-universe documentary featuring numerous former Ramsey Street residents, some of whom returned to the street), the 5000th episode (Paul being buried alive by his murderous son Robert), and the 25th anniversary (in late 2010). The 6000th episode (and the week leading up to it) created a mystery over an apparent murder attempt on Paul Robinson's life, which kept going for several months after. The 30th anniversary is to be marked in-universe by the Erinsborough Festival, again featuring returns from numerous residents (some of which haven't been in the street since 1990).
  • Home and Away has likewise celebrated milestones such as Episode 2000 (Angel's departure from Summer Bay), 3000 (Mitch's departure, as well as Alex and Dani's car crash), 4000 (Alf's birthday party, with numerous past characters returning, which also ended in a car crash) and the 20th anniversary (which saw Sally, a regular character since the first season, leave the bay).
  • The Big Bang Theory's 100th episode focused on the possibility of Leonard and Penny getting back together. They also had special behind the scenes video with the cast looked back at the series so far.
    • The 200th episode focused on Sheldon's birthday, and featured surprise appearances by Adam West, Stephen Hawking, Wil Wheaton and Sarah Gilbert as Leslie Winkle (for the first time since Season Three)
  • JAG celebrated its 100th episode "Boomerang (Part I)" by filming it on location in Australia, and the 200th episode was a What If?.
  • Saturday Night Live parodied this with their 100th Digital Short which was a music video called "We're Gonna Suck Our Own Dicks", a big musical Call-Back to all the other Digital Shorts. The show itself has had some big celebrations of its own, though:
    • The 15th anniversary was marked with a prime time retrospective that featured clips and interviews.
    • The 25th anniversary season warranted a live prime time special prior to the season premiere, featuring a variety of cast members, guest hosts, and musical guests on stage and in the audience, along with tributes to castmembers who'd since passed away. After that, they didn't do another special of this magnitude until...
    • The 40th anniversary special in February 2015, a prime time live show that ran three and a half hours...plus a one hour Roll Out the Red Carpet arrival special beforehand! Highlights included such skits as a gigantic "Celebrity Jeopardy" round that had far more than three contestants, a medley of the most popular musical characters (Operaman, The Blues Brothers, etc.), Eddie Murphy returning to the franchise after decades of avoiding it, etc. As a bonus, in the weeks leading up to the event VH-1 Classic turned over its entire schedule to rerunning favorite episodes from every season, moving backwards to the 1975 series premiere, which aired right before the aforementioned red carpet special began on NBC.
    • Parodied again in a season 41 episode hosted by Melissa McCarthy. She boasted in her monologue that the episode marked her fifth time hosting SNL, and led cast members in a celebratory musical number. Then Kenan Thompson (dressed as the number 5) interrupted by informing McCarthy that her appearance in the 40th Anniversary Special doesn't count as a complete hosting gig, bringing her tally down to 4 1/16. When she hosted again in season 42, Steve Martin interrupted her closing comments, to congratulate her for officially hosting five times, as the cast presented her with a special jacket.
  • Retro Game Master
    • As lampshaded in the Parappa The Rapper episode, a PS1 game is played for special occasions.
    • November 4, 2013 marked the tenth anniversary of the show, at which point it was officially classified a Long Runner. The show celebrated this milestone throughout the whole year.
  • The Late Show with David Letterman
    • There is often has a celebratory episode on their anniversary date (August 31) or the episode broadcast nearest the date if it falls on a weekend. The celebrants often include Bill Murray, who was Dave's guest on the first episodes of both the Late Show and Late Night.
    • Barely a year into The Late Show Dave announced they had broadcast 1,000 episodes with a huge 1000 chroma key. Then he said he misread and they'd actually done 100 episodes, with a much smaller and more subdued 100.
  • The November 11, 2013 broadcast of Panorama marked exactly 60 years of the show, and so it ended with a special credits montage.
  • On New Tricks, the 100th episode saw off the last original cast member, Dennis Waterman. (Particularly impressive because of British Brevity, and because the premise of the series was to assemble ex-cops who were already beyond pension age to begin with.)
  • The 8th season premiere of RuPaul's Drag Race was the 100th episode of the show and also featured the 100th contestant overall. The show celebrated these milestones by having a main challenge that called back several design challenges from the entire run of the show.
  • The 100th episode of Person of Interest ended with the deaths of Root and Elias (for real this time), and Finch vowing to destroy Samaritan once and for all, consequences be damned.
  • The Arrowverse:
    • Arrow:
      • The 100th episode "Invasion!", is part of a four-part crossover with The Flash (2014), Legends of Tomorrow, and Supergirl (2015). It also features call backs to nearly the entire series, the return of several characters, and a battle royale with Oliver and his friends vs illusory versions of several past villains.
      • The 150th episode "Emerald Archer" features an In-Universe documentary about the vigilantes (and narrated by Kelsey Grammer no less), which includes cameos from several characters long since departed from the show.
    • The Flash (2014):
      • The 100th episode "What's Past is Prologue" features many Call Backs to previous episodes, through the narrative of Barry and Nora having to run back to several points in the past in order to retrieve various components needed to make a weapon they believe will help defeat current Big Bad Cicada.
      • The 150th episode "Heart of the Matter, Part 1" is the first part of the Season 7 finale, and features the return of Jay Garrick and Nora, and introduces us to Nora's brother Bart.
    • Supergirl (2015): The 100th episode "It's a Super Life" features Mr. Mxyzptlk helping Kara deal with her guilt over not telling Lena her secret identity by showing her various Alternate Timelines where she did so at various points in the show's run, allowing various prominent past characters to return temporarily.
    • Legends of Tomorrow: The 100th episode "Wvrdr Error 100 Not Found" sees Astra and Spooner entering the mind of the newly human Gideon after she loses consciousness. In trying to help her by traveling through and restoring her memories, we're treated to scenes featuring most of the original Legends, all of whom except for Sara have by this point either died or been Put on a Bus.
  • The first half of Fuller House's third season premiered on September 22, 2017 - exactly 30 years to the day its parent series Full House premiered in 1987.
  • The Mickey Mouse Club: A special episode of the 1990's revival featured a reunion of Mouseketeers from the original 1950's show, commemorating both the revival's 100th episode and the original show's 35th anniversary.
  • The 100th episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver had a title card remarking on this◊, and a main segment on net neutrality that served as a sequel to one in the inaugural season 3 years prior.
  • The 100th episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is the Season 5 episode "The Real Deal", wherein the Special Edition Title contains every special logo used over the run of the series, a Reality Bleed conjures illusions of various past antagonists, and most importantly, FitzSimmons finally get married.
  • Hell's Kitchen marked its 100th dinner service with a special black tie event, and the four previous winners were invited to sit at the chef's tables.
    • Season 20 downplays the normal celebration — while there are still nods to seasons past, the theme of Young Guns was looking towards the future. All the contestants that season were in their early 20s and grew up with the series.
  • Jimmy Kimmel Live!:
  • American Horror Story celebrated its 100th episode (simply titled "Episode 100", in contrast to the usual punny and/or otherwise indicative episode titles) at the midway point of its ninth season, subtitled 1984. Recent seasons of the show had developed something of a reputation for delivering a major format switch-up at the halfway point, and the details of the second half of the season (beginning with the hundredth episode) were kept strictly under wraps beforehand. However, despite the build-up, the episode ended up functioning primarily as a bridge between the slasher movie send-up that was episodes 1-5 and the set-up for the reunion in episodes 7-10. The only real "surprise" was that the episode covers the years 1985-1989 - rendering the title of the season somewhat misleading.
  • For its 10-year/Season 20 and 20-year/Season 40 anniversaries (due to airing biannually), Survivor brought back players from previous seasons to play again (though they sometimes also do so when it's not a milestone).
  • Grey's Anatomy has done this for it's 100th, 300th, and 350th episodes.
    • "What a Difference a Day Makes" in season 5 was the 100th and featured the long-awaited wedding between Izzie and Alex.
    • "Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story" is the 300th episode in season 14. Meredith, and the others help treat dopplegangers of George, Cristina, Izzie, and Derk, with injuries similar to those they've experienced before, and at the end of the episode Meredith wins her Harper Avery award.
    • "My Shot" from season 16 is the 350th episode, where Meredith defends her medical license. Letters vouching for her are delivered from various departed castmates including Cristina, Arizona, Callie, and Addison; flashbacks of her more notorious surgeries are seen, and even her former patients (including her very first) appear on the stand.
  • Glee has "100", which sees the season five club disband due to losing at Nationals but also celebrate the last of the originals graduate in this episode and the next. Almost every song sung in the episode is a reprise of a previously sung number, which were voted on by fans.
  • CSI: NY brushed the trope with their 100th episode as well. Counting backwards, the numbers 100-92 are shown in various places such as floor numbers in a building, taxi cab numbers, etc. The title, "My Name Is Mac Taylor," is spoken by several characters with that moniker, since the episode involves a killer looking for someone who goes by the name. Curiously enough, Det. Taylor does NOT utter the line, although he introduces himself that way quite often over the series' 9-year run.
  • Late Night: For the show's 40th anniversary on February 1, 2022, David Letterman, who hosted the first iteration of the show, was the main guest, chatting with current host Seth Meyers.
  • Obi-Wan Kenobi was originally due to premiere on May 25th, 2022, the 45th anniversary of A New Hope and the first appearance of Obi-Wan Kenobi, but was ultimately pushed back to the 27th.
  • Disney dropped Bear in the Big Blue House on the Disney+ streaming service on October 19th, 2022 — a day before the show's 25th anniversary.
  • Inai Inai Baa! has done several anniversary celebrations:
    • For the 20th anniversary, a special aired in the winter of 2016, which featured every oneesan and puppet character (save for Penta) appearing. Parts of this special would be released to DVD.
    • The 25th anniversary saw releases of special merchandise, a special week of shows which played older segments featuring the past onee-sans, special web videos featuring Wan Wan, U-Tan and Haru-chan, and two specials, Wan Wan 25 and Wan Wan The World.

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