Subverted and/or lampshaded in an episode of 30 Rock where Liz and Jack are discussing some of Tracy Jordan's more outrageous antics. Instead of cutting away with clips to illustrate them, however, the scene stays on Liz and Jack who have this exchange:
Liz: And I am thinking of some of them right now. Jack: So am I.
Australian TV series 30 Seconds has a slight variation on this; the main character, who works in commercials, sometimes has delusions that he's watching a commercial in real life. These seem to be superimposed over what's actually in front of his eyes rather than actual full Scrubs style daydreams. Also, they tend to have swear words.
All in the Family: very early episode from the first season, "Archie Writes the President," sees Archie have his own Imagine Spot – he reads his letter to President Nixon in praise for his performance, with the entire family gathered around, nodding in approval as a patriotic hymn plays as background music. (The letter, by the way, was inspired after Archie learns that Mike had written Nixon, critical of his policies.)
Ally McBeal: Part of the show's Signature Style. Ally has them on a regular basis. It becomes a problem when she cannot distinguish them from reality. For example, one episode she kept seeing a famous singer, and she nearly attacked a real one who by chance appeared in their favourite bar. And she kicks a child attorney in the back because she thought she was hallucinating about her "dancing baby".
Andy Richter Controls the Universe used it as a central theme, often with voiceover commentary by Andy. Example: "I was thinking about what it would be like if I had wheels for feet. In case you were wondering, here's what it would look like!"
Austin out of Austin & Ally has a spot where he imagines his voice being changed to a chipmunk voice after a vocal surgery to remove nodules from his throat.
When offered a $45,000 hush money in 'compensation' for the accidental death of his girlfriend due to a superhero running into her at superspeed, Hughie Campbell loses his temper and demands to know why no-one will actually say to his face that they're sorry. Cut to him sitting quietly telling the Vought lawyer that he'll think about it. The scene becomes a Meaningful Echo when he uses the words for real when pretending he's accepting the money, after Butcher recruits him for The Boys.
In "We Gotta Go Now", faced with a crowd of hostile protesters, Homelander imagines using his eyebeams to massacre them before he snaps out of it, shocked at how close he came to throwing away the public image that he holds so dear.
"The Body" managed to do the most depressing use of this trope ever when Joyce is rushed to the hospital and saved— cut to the paramedics declaring her dead from an aneurysm.
Faith has one in "Who Are You", where after Willow says something derogatory about Faith, imagines stabbing her in the stomach. The scene immediately cuts back to Faith-in-Buffy telling an unharmed Willow she will always be safe with he around.
Later, in the season 7 episode "Storyteller", Andrew has a few of these, in the present as well as in his flashback.
Possibly the funniest thirty seconds in the show's five seasons involved Angel in "She", at a party, being asked if he wanted to dance. The ensuing Imagine Spot is brilliance.
Another hilarious imagine spot, in a Deleted Scene from "Waiting in the Wings", involved Wesley imagining himself and Fred starring in a ballet. Amy Acker was actually trained as a dancer, so Fred was pretty good. Wesley... not so much.
"Sanctuary" has much more serious one, continuing the trend from Buffy, that sees Faith, now back in her own body, and having suffered a serious mental breakdown and very much suicidal, being led to Angel's bed. Angel leaves a barely even functioning Faith, when she calls his name. Angel turns around only to be stabbed in the face by an enraged Faith. Only for the scene to cut back to Faith, still lying in the bed, where she says nothing, and Angel walks out.
Coupling: The episode "Naked" has two in quick succession. When Julia explains to the girls what was going through her head during an Almost Kiss with her coworker Jeff, we see the kiss play out followed by him insulting her breath, her teeth, etc. We then see Jeff's own Imagine Spot of this, which is rather more extreme:
Patrick: That's what you thought would happen if you kissed her? Steve: You think if you kiss a woman, your mother will emasculate you with a miniature guillotine?
Dead Like Me: George lets Mason take care of her dog. She then wonders if he's taking care of it properly or merely using it for some harebrained scheme. Like, say, attracting women, then sitting in a hot tub with the women and the dog. And then she forgets it never actually happened, so she scolds him for bringing her dog into a hot tub.
One day Manny of Degrassi imagines herself as Cinderella with Craig as her Prince. Her dream begins to take reality when they go on their first date in that episode.
All the times his dead foster father Harry shows up to remind him of The Code count, as Dexter converses with him. In the sixth season, when a short arc in which Dexter's dead serial killer brother replaces his father in these Imagine Spots (and temporarily convinces Dexter to go Axe-Crazy) is used to foreshadow the reveal that Edward James Olmos' Evil Mentor / Big Bad is really a figment of the real villain's Imagine Spots.
At the end of the Ice Truck Killer arc, where he's walking up to the office Hollywood style — red carpet walkway flanked with adoring fans.
"Hey Dex, way to take out the trash!"
The Doctor Who episode "Love And Monsters" similarly had the main character flash to clips, including one of Elton John.
The early-90s HBO series Dream On used a variation on the Imagine Spot as its primary gimmick. But instead of segments featuring the Dream On cast, clips from old movies and TV shows were used for the Imagine Spots of its main character, Martin Tupper.
Everybody Hates Chris has this as a main gimmick. You can expect a few of these per episode. Most of them are from Chris's point of view, but every character has one occasionally.
Everything Now: Alex gives an angry "The Reason You Suck" Speech to his family during therapy, then it's revealed he'd just imagined this and gives only a mild reply in reality.
An early television example featured on The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin. Every time his wife mentioned her mother, the screen showed a hippopotamus. It even got to the point where we knew the WIFE was thinking of a hippopotamus.
Farscape, episode "Scratch 'n Sniff", though some question exists as to whether they were Imagine Spots or flashbacks.
And any sequence with Harvey, the Scorpius neuro-clone. Harvey "lives" in Crichton's mind and the two regularly converse. Their conversations usually take place in Imagine Spots - some of them based on Crichton's memories and some of them not — usually humorous movie Shout Outs.
Common in Father Ted. To the point where Dougal needed a chart to tell the difference between dreams and reality.
Roz finds out that the woman Frasier made out with on air is their station manager Kate Costas. While Frasier is explaining why he did it Roz imagines a scene of Frasier unbuckling his pants, reaching out for Kate and clumsily tripping over as he walks towards her. When Frasier gets Roz's attention again she snaps out of the spot with a muttered "Boy, I'll never do that again".
Happens a few times on Glee, like a Season 1 episode where disabled Artie imagines himself getting out of his wheelchair and dancing around the mall in a flashmob, and in Season 2 where all the characters go to the dentist, get put to sleep, and imagine themselves hanging out with Britney Spears. Also, Tina has had two that were induced by hitting her head. The first time she imagines herself turning into Rachel and all of the other characters switching, and the second time she imagines her and her friends' lives like the show Friends. A lot of the songs and performances are also dream sequences.
Happy Days: In "They Call It Potsie Love," Joanie develops a crush on Potsie. At home Joanie falls asleep and fantasizes that she and Potsie get married—and that Potsie is cool and Fonzie is a nerd!
The Hogan Family: The Season 2 episode "Leave It To Willie," where Willie imagines himself explaining his predicament – causing a hit-and-run accident while stealing his father's car for a joy ride – and basically getting away with it. The moral in this Imagine Spot is supposedly, "Tell the truth and you'll be absolved." Of course, reality doesn't work out that way – he admits his deed to his mother and gets punished, learning instead that actions do have consequences that aren't always good.
Used frequently in How I Met Your Mother. Given the flashback format of the show, the imagine spots will be told as if they were what actually happened, and then be interrupted by Future Ted saying something along the lines of "That's what Uncle Marshall should have said," or "But unfortunately, that's not what happened."
The episode The Time Travelers is one. The realization is quite surprising and leads to the Darkest Hour for Ted before he meets The Mother.
Hustle "Conning the Artists". The team are being held prisoner by a katana-wielding Japanese man seeking revenge for one of their cons. Danny, realising that taking on the position of leader means that I Know Karate, gets to his feet and takes him on (including Bring It and Exploding Fish Tanks) ending with Stacie throwing herself into his arms, praising his bravery and kissing him. Cut to Danny with puckered lips as he's curtly told to sit down by Katana Man.
iCarly: In "iFind Lewbert's Lost Love" Carly and Freddie have a synchronous daydream on how life in the Bushwell will be much better if the irate doorman Lewbert is "a happy man". Carly, Freddie and Lewbert dance around as balloons fall. Sam breaks them out of their over-the-top fantasy.
On It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Mac gets a chance to hit a possible goal shot at a Flyers game. We see him hit the ice, get to center rink, hit a goal that rips the net, the announcers hailing it as the best shot they've ever seen and the crowd chanting his name. The chanting turns out to be Charlie calling Mac's name as Mac (who's never skated in his life) took one step on the ice, fell and knocked himself unconscious to massive laughter.
Feeling put down by rivals at a high school reunion, the gang put on a fantastic dance routine set to George Michael's "Freedom." The camera then cuts back to show the reality, that the dance is a complete mess of flaying limbs and stumbling (and the song, coming from a tiny boombox in a big auditorium, is inaudible). Leaving, the gang mutter about no one liking their dance.
The Season 9 episode "The Gang Saves The Day" is entirely made of this trope. The gang goes into a convenience store. Someone holds up the cashier at gunpoint. Each member fantasizes about what they would do to (for the most part) foil the robbery. The humor mainly comes from how self-centered and delusional the heroes are. (One of the fantasies is animated.)
When Seli claims that her skincare product will make RT leader looks like a Korean artist, he imagines himself and Sri acting out a K-Drama style scene.
In episode 8, Seli and Neneng take turns imagining how they would not forget each other if they become famous. Humorously, Neneng would always be Seli's assistant in both Imagine Spots that are shown.
After discovering a lot of money in his missing passenger's bag, Rais imagines having Seli and Neneng fawning over him and his money, before the scene switch back to reality where he is Acting Out a Daydream.
In the Las Vegas episode "And Here's Mike with the Weather", Danny and Mike have two pretty funny ones of these when they think Ed may have had an affair with the deranged Monica Mancuso, a previous owner of the casino. The first involves Monica being dominant and Ed submissive behind closed doors, and the second the other way around.
In the Leverage episode "The Scheherezade Job", Nate has a meeting with the woman who is blackmailing them. After telling him what he needs to know about their current mark, she explains that Nate messed up her date and offers to have dinner with him. Cue to Nate imagining a nice, romantic dinner with her, interrupted by one of her Mooks choking him with a garrote, while she is drinking wine. Nate makes up a lame excuse and, once she leaves, feels his neck uncomfortably.
Wendy of The Middle Man often drops into Imagine Spot sequences when people ask her questions she needs to answer, or when she has a "Eureka!" moment.
In episode 10, Prima imagines how he would attract many women if he has a Cool Car. After seeing Bambang's bland new car, Prima has a similiar Imagine Spot, except this time with Bambang's car and only one ugly woman wants him.
Pipin, Alan and Prima has one in episode 21, imagining the then-famous Bambang promoting Pipin's gado-gado with a song and a dance.
When substituting for Pipin as Mami Bibir's cleaning person in episode 33, Alan briefly imagines Pipin being there and making him a sandwich.
In episode 43, Akbar tells Prima how Prima could be an artist like he wishes if he puts all his effort. Prima then imagines how he would be in Alexi's place (being crowded by women) if he actually put the effort.
In episode 61, Bambang begins to consider giving Melani matching hats and imagines what would happen if he does it. One Imagine Spot later, he realizes Melani would find it tacky and chew him out for it.
Mohawk Girls: Characters frequently imagine others' reactions to what they're saying or doing (and even occasionally their own), then the actual reaction is shown that's often different from this entirely.
In The Monkees this is lampshaded and combined with Breaking the Fourth Wall in "Monstrous Monkee Mash" when the episode's villain intrudes on a fantasy scene that Micky and Davy are having. "Hey, what are you doing? This is our fantasy scene!"
Murdoch Mysteries: At a crucial point during each episode, Murdoch will have an Imagine Spot that shows him "witnessing" the crime as it's taking place. In "The Murdoch Identity", he dreams one of these while having a nap on Anna Fulford's sofa as well as having small ones rather like fragments of memory in part since he's suffering the after-effects of a brain injury. Jasper Linney, Brackenreid and Dr. Ogden have each shared the Imagine Spot with him once, Brackenreid and Murdoch each have their own (solving the same case by different routes) in "Murdoch at the Opera", and in the Season 7 finale Brackenreid takes Murdoch's place in the Imagine Spot while solving the B-plot case.
Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide: In daydreams, Ned has a few of these. "Stress" also has a few with both Ned and Moze. One of the more jarring for Ned was when he imagined he was seeing Suzie and another boy in a football uniform getting married. In fact, Suzie was in a white dress standing next to a practice football tackle with a helmet on top. After someone tried to get his attention, he looked back only for someone to come and take the helmet off. Cue Ned looking shocked and confused.
In the ITV adaptation of Northanger Abbey, Catherine Morland has two before the opening credits, involving being in I Have You Now, My Pretty situations with ruffians who strangely resemble people she will meet in Bath. The second one reoccurs when Catherine is at the Abbey, with Henry riding in on a white horse to rescue her from the villains.
This is probably the series' central comedic tool, and it's used to great effect. Usually J.D. does this, to the point where other characters lampshade it increasingly as the series goes on, mentioning how one was really long, messing with him while he is in his head, triggering one on purpose to get him to zone out, and so on. Usually after his fantasy he says something that would sound completely weird if we weren't shown the Imagine Spot, and sometimes it does in fact provoke Inner Thoughts, Outsider Puzzlement. And his propensity to do this is apparently infectious, as his friends occasionally indulge in it as well, though far less regularly.
Several episodes aren't centered on J.D.'s point of view, so in those episodes this trope happens without the cut, so all we see is J.D. staring off into space and saying something weird when he comes out of it.
"We're gonna need a lot of gnomes..."
In the Seinfeld episode, "The Baby Shower", when Kramer hooks Jerry up with illegal free cable, Jerry has a nightmare where the government arrests him and shoots him multiple times. This is one of the points of the series that the cast clearly does not remember fondly, because it was out-of-character for a show that was supposed to be about nothing.
In Servant of the People, the president Vasiliy, a former history teacher, frequently imagines receiving advice from historical figures when he is in a dilemma.
Sharp Objects: As part of its central style, the show frequently intercuts brief images to show what Camilla is remembering or imagining. The show opens with Camille imagining Marian and her younger self sneaking into her apartment and touching her hand as she sleeps.
Played straight in nearly every episode of Son of the Beach, but subverted in one in which Notch Johnson was informed that one of his lifeguards once won a preteen breast size contest. Intrigued by what such a contest would be like, the Imagine Spot begins to take form, when suddenly the scene cuts to pornographer Larry Flynt saying that, while he is all for free speech, some things are just obscene. Afterwards, Notch clarified that he meant what those girls would look like now.
Used a lot in Spaced, usually as pop-culture references or scenes from movies done with a fraction of the budget.
The titular protagonist of Sunes Jul, being a very imaginative and mildly odd kid, has a tendency toward this. He is shown imagining anything from his dad setting fire to a carpet, to someone plotting to steal his girlfriend Sophie from him hiding in her closet, to ending up in court over illegally cutting down a pine tree.
In Titus, we have Christopher's 'Negative Space', where he reflects upon events in his own mind, which can include flashbacks AND flashforwards. Subverted in 'The Trial' where Christopher insults the judge in the Negative Space, and is apparently heard by those in the courtroom.
On Vikings a captive priest is given the chance to gain his freedom by carrying a red hot sword across a village to the Viking queen. He sees himself protected by his Catholic faith, easily handling the sword and putting it at the Queen's feet to great awe. Then the sword is put into his hands, he screams in agony and only makes it halfway before collapsing in tears as the Vikings laugh.
Vinyl has several scenes devoted to characters listening to music on records and radio, and imagining the actual singers of the song in their presence as they hear it. For instance, Devon Finestra (Olivia Wilde) listens to Karen Carpenter on the radio and the camera shows via a dreamy filter and unusual lighting, "Karen Carpenter" sitting next to her in the car and singing the same song. This is meant to reflect the self-absorption and identification with music people experience in their daily lives.
A sadder example is Lester, a once promising singer until an altercation with the mob had his throat crushed, ruining his voice. Listening to old recordings, he imagines himself as a singing star with his wife and children, living in a great home with bright light. It then turns to today as he can barely croak out the words as he sits in a run-down apartment by himself.
We Are Lady Parts: Episodes occasionally swerve into Amina's imagination as she either launches into musical numbers in her head or delves into fantasies about what's going on around her.
