Two Lines, No Waiting in Western Animation.
- American Dad!:
- The series is constantly using this usually by introducing a side plot loosely connected to the main plot at the beginning but letting it go its own way instantly. Sometimes they intersect again at the end but not always. Klaus lampshaded it when he was The Narrator for his grandson and introduced the Steve subplot while the focus was on Stan and Francine ice skating.
- Finances with Wolves is an episode with Five Lines No Waiting, with Francine, Roger, Klaus, Hayley, and Steve each get plots with equal merit.
- Also played with in a Steve focused episode where Stan and Francine had a B-plot that takes place entirely off-screen (something about an idea for a cell phone app). About half-way through the episode, they arrive home and Stan begins expositing the bizarre plot they encountered on their way to a meeting about the idea, but gets fed up half-way through and storms "off-set" as he complains about how poorly written their story-line is especially since the exciting part wasn't even shown.
- In "Stan and Francine and Connie and Ted," Barry ends up accidentally going off his meds and turning evil. Then he gives an As You Know speech to Steve summarizing the plot of "With Friends like Steve's" that explains him being evil when he's off his meds. Then he confuses Steve by also summarizing the B plot of "With Friends like Steve's" for no reason.
- American Dragon: Jake Long has the episode "Feeding Frenzy" which has Jake trying to stop a shark from flooding the United States and taking over the world while his father and grandfather try to get to a family reunion (actually, the latter is trying to stop the former from reaching it so he doesn't find out his wife is a dragon).
- Arcane: Over the course of Season 1, we have basically two storylines, the story of Vi and Powder/Jinx two young girls from the slums dealing with their lot in life, and the story of Jayce and Viktor, two young scientists out to prove themselves and change the world. The two stories have barely any on-screen interaction, but in the end, are heavily tied to one another.
- Juggled with striking parallelism in Archer, when episodes switch from story A - typically the field agents on the current active mission (Archer, Lana, Ray) - to story B - whatever's going on back at the office with the support staff (Pam, Cyril, Krieger, Malory). As the switch between stories occurs, the first line in the new scene typically has relevance to the outgoing scene, even though it occurs s different story. For example (from season 4's "Un Chien Tangerine"):Malory: Now, what do you want? I'm extremely busy.
Pam: To be a field agent!
Malory: I'm sorry?
Lana (voice): You should be!
(Cut to Archer and Lana in Tangier.)
Archer: How was I supposed to know it was gonna make him do that?
(Large dog in their tiny car farts loudly.)
Lana: Stuffin' him full of street-kebabs?! - Avatar: The Last Airbender regularly utilizes Aang and the Gang for "A" story, and Zuko and Iroh as the "B" story, to emphasize the similarities and flaws between the main protagonist and the main antagonist. Though Zuko served as a source of conflict for the heroes initially, his own separate stories became much more frequent and gained much more depth after his character was developed, eventually earning him A Day in the Limelight in the second season to delve in his backstory by means of a Whole Episode Flashback.
- Big City Greens often takes on this format, which is unusual for a 10-minute cartoon. Sometimes, there will even be a C or even D plot, each of which, depending on how many plot-lines there are, focuses on different members of the Green family.
- Class of 3000 often has a main plot and a sub-plot in each episode. The two plots usually tie in together some way in the end.
- Some Danny Phantom episodes focus on main character Danny handling his own affairs while the B plot takes a look at the ongoing of his best friends Tucker and Sam. The two plots usually join up as one by the end. Many episodes also have two separate plots covering what goes on in high school, and what goes on with the ghosts. One good example would be "Parental Bonding"—high school dance coming up, and a ghost amulet that turns the wearer into a dragon.
- Almost every Drawn Together episode had two different stories ongoing, usually not intersecting with each other, with different subsets of the main cast. Like just about everything else in the show, this has been Lampshaded a couple of times, once by Toot who, following a battle with a live action cow, was thankful that she "was in the other story", and again by Captain Hero, whom the show had begun focusing on in the second season onwards:Captain Hero: Hey subplot, outta my way. Main story comin' through!
- Family Guy used to do this sometimes in its first three seasons; this became less frequent since post-cancellation era. Many episodes focus on just one plot, but a couple of them (such as "Stuck Together, Torn Apart") have a pair of unrelated main plots going at the same time.
- Gravity Falls: Some of the episodes have two plots, each of them focusing on one of the young Pine twins (Dipper and Mabel).
- It's Pony: In just about every episode, there is a main (and titular) plot which involves Annie and Pony, and a secondary one which involves Annie's parents. Take "The Giving Chair" as example: Annie and Pony are trying to find a copy of George's book, while Helen is trying to figure out what is wrong with her chicken.
- Kaeloo:
- The episode "Let's Play Hot-Cold" has a plot where Kaeloo tries to find someone to play with her and a side-plot where Stumpy tries to make himself look attractive.
- Another episode has a plot revolving around Kaeloo forcing Mr. Cat to see a psychotherapist and another plot where the rest of the cast gets into a fight.
- Kappa Mikey is fond of this, to the point where episodes where it doesn't happen are the exception. Generally, the point of this seems to be making sure everyone's in the episode, though the extent to which anything can be rationalized on that show is debatable.
- Done in Kim Possible, as most episodes contain a supervillain plot and something from Kim's normal life.
- Quite a few episodes of Littlest Pet Shop (2012) do this. Often, one plot focuses on the humans while the other plot focuses on the pets.
- Molly of Denali: The main plot of "Wise Raven and Old Crow" is about Molly and her family traveling to the village of Old Crow. The B-plot of the special is about Tooey, Trini, and Connie taking care of a baby moose they name Bonky.
- The ninth season of Ninjago, Hunted operates on this, spliting the focus between the stranded ninja and the growing Wu in the Realm of Oni and Dragons and Lloyd and Nya fighting Garmadon's forces in Ninjago until the season finale, "Green Destiny".
- Phineas and Ferb:
- Almost every episode features an "A" plot about the title characters (usually building something amazing) and their sister Candace (usually trying to bust them), and a "B" plot in which their pet platypus Perry works as a secret agent against the local Mad Scientist Dr. Doofenshmirtz. The standard format is for the "B" plot to often physically affect the "A" plot at the end of the episode (the most common is Doofenshmirtz's machine taking away/destroying the boys' invention before Candace can get their mom to see it), but the plots are (usually) thematically unrelated. Phineas and Ferb never become aware of the "B" plot, at least not enough to discover Perry's secret. Occasionally, however, an episode will focus on one plot almost exclusively, generally with occasional gags lampshading the lack of a second story (for example, an episode focusing entirely on Perry and Doof ends with the reveal that the boys were quilting the whole time, stating they'll never do it again because it was so boring).
- Across the 2nd Dimension plays with the show's usual setup in a fun way. The characters of Phineas and Ferb, technically speaking as well as in the minds of the creators, do not (generally) actually have a narrative. As there never tends to be conflict in the way of them inventing stuff; their invention is the episode's setting, and the A-plot is truly Candace's, who faces all the hurdles. In Across the 2nd Dimension, one of their inventions rockets them straight into Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated. While this story unfolds, Candace has a B-plot of her own: tracking the boys down, while she tries to prove to Stacy that all that aforementioned stuff about her, the boys, and conflict is literally a law of the universe.
- The "A" and "B" plots intersect again in "Night of the Living Pharmacists", where one of Doofenshmirtz's inventions accidentally causes people to start turning into mindless clones of him, and the characters try to find a way to undo it all before the entire town (sans Doof himself) is transformed.
- Episodes of The Raccoons are usually split into two plot-lines, the "A" plot focusing on the titular Raccoons and their friends and the "B" plot focusing on Cyril Sneer and/or the Pigs.
- The episodes of Ready Jet Go! often have two plot-lines in the same episode. Often, these two plots will collide.
- "Mindy's Moon Bounce House" had a sub-plot of Mitchell wondering why Mindy appears to be floating, this being his first appearance on the show.
- "A Kid's Guide to Mars" had the main cast go to Mars to update the information on it in Carrot and Celery's guidebook, while the side-plot was Face 9001 visiting and having a rivalry with his brother, Face 9000.
- In "Sunspot's Night Out", while the main characters search for Sunspot, Mitchell looks for Cody, who has also gone missing. Sunspot and Cody were actually missing for the same reason - they were both involved in an animal choir.
- In "The Grandest Canyon", Mindy and Lillian dig a hole in the sandbox while the rest of the characters go to Valles Marineris.
- "Mindy's Weather Report" has Mindy give pretend weather reports while chaos around the neighborhood ensues as misinformation spreads.
- "Solar System Bake Off" and its sister episode "Kid-Kart Derby" both have subplots involving Mitchell spying on the main characters and trying to get information about their contest entry.
- "Mindy Pet-sits" has two plot-lines: Jet, Sydney, and Sean going to space with Carrot (!!!) to try and find the Northern Lights, and Mindy pet-sitting Sunspot, unaware that he is planning a surprise for her.
- In "Mindy's Mystery", the main characters try to find out what kept Mindy up at night. At the same time, Mitchell is trying to find the source of an annoying light that bothered him. They both have the same source - the moon. (The smell that kept Mindy up at night was moonflowers).
- In "Jet's First Halloween", the main characters go trick-or-treating. At the same time, Mitchell investigates to solve 3 mysteries involving weird-looking pumpkins, a flying saucer, and a green alien head.
- In "The Mindysphere", Jet, Sean, and Sydney go to space to fly past the heliosphere, while Mindy, who has recently been given permission to go out farther into the neighborhood, proceeds to explore her new boundaries.
- In "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace", the A-plot is Jet, Sean, Sydney, and Mindy putting on a Christmas pageant, and the B-plot gets set in motion when Jet hires Mitchell to find the Spirit of Christmas. Mitchell's plot involves the revelation that he acts like a jerk to hide his loneliness, and him wanting to be friends with the main characters. These two plots collide when Mitchell takes over Sean's role in the play after the latter gets Performance Anxiety.
- "I Feel the Earth Move" has a very strange B-plot - Sunspot riding Mindy's bounce house all over town, causing the ground to shake.
- In "Endless Summer", the main characters go to Australia to experience summer, while Mindy stays behind to take care of Carrot, who has a cold.
- "That's One Gigantic Pumpkin, Jet Propulsion!" has the A-plot of Jet, Sean, and Sydney trying to figure out what to do with Jet's giant pumpkin, and the B-plot of Mindy, Mitchell, and Lillian going trick-or-treating.
- In "Total Eclipse Block Party", Sunspot had his own sub-plot involving him trying to teach the Earth animals about eclipses so they won't sleep during the eclipse.
- In "Astronaut Ellen Ochoa", the main one is Jet, Sean, Sydney, and Mindy meeting Ellen and hanging out with her. The subplot is Dr. Rafferty, Dr. Skelley, and Dr. Bergs panicking over Ellen's impending visit. When Ellen helps revise Jet's rocket chair, this inspires her to use the same solution with the DSA project.
- The main plot of One Small Step is Sean and Mindy looking for Jet and Sunspot after the latter two went missing, and the other one is Sydney and Jet 2 fixing the super saucer. There's also a tiny subplot involving Mitchell doing his spying as usual.
- Rick and Morty usually does this; one plot focuses on Rick and Morty's wild sci-fi adventure, while the other plot tends to focus on the rest of the family and center around something more grounded. The writers notably averted this with Season 7, which uses a single-plot structure.
- Done a lot on The Simpsons, usually with one storyline being about the adults and the other one about the children, although later episodes seem to have become exclusively one-story affairs.
- It's still associated enough with the show for a Lampshade Hanging to occasionally happen. In "Jazzy and the Pussycats", Lisa is envious of Bart's newfound success as a jazz musician, and also adopts a pet tiger that maims him.Lisa: I feel so terrible. I just wanted to save those animals while Bart became a drummer, but I never thought the two stories would intersect.
- Lampshaded in the episode with Bart's vision of the future: "Why is there a story about Homer and Lincoln's gold in my vision?" "I guess the spirits thought the main vision was a little thin."
- Newer episodes are more fond of a version of Halfway Plot Switch — a plot hook is set up in the first five minutes, and then promptly dropped when something even wackier comes along. Sometimes invoked in the same episode as Two Lines No Waiting, giving an A plot, a B plot, and an "aborted" plot.
- In the HD era (Season 20-present), the "aborted" plots usually take up less time because of the four-act structure the episodes have now.
- It's still associated enough with the show for a Lampshade Hanging to occasionally happen. In "Jazzy and the Pussycats", Lisa is envious of Bart's newfound success as a jazz musician, and also adopts a pet tiger that maims him.
- South Park used to do this every episode (or close to it). It still happens on occasion. Usually one plot influences or causes the other in some way, but they aren't necessarily tied back together:
- In "Krazy Kripples", Timmy and Jimmy joining the crips is directly caused by Christopher Reeve's appearance in South Park, but they never end up meeting him.
- In the commentary, the creators said that they originally felt they had to do two or three stories every episode and found this very tiring. They eventually started doing only single-story episodes, and found these to be much funnier and generally better episodes. They try to keep it simple these days, though they do handle multiple story lines on occasion.
- The episode "Trapper Keeper" plays with the idea of converging plotlines when, after the Trapper Keeper absorbs Cartman and heads off to Cheyenne Mountain, we return to the "class president election" subplot to see Mr. Garrison look out the window and starts acting like a monster is approaching the school. It turned out not to be the Trapper Keeper, but instead Rosie O Donnell, who Mr. Garrison still treats like a monster until he is told about who she is.
- Toot & Puddle: I'll Be Home for Christmas has an A Plot with Toot visiting his grandmother in Scotland for her 100th birthday and a B Plot (though just barely B) of Puddle remaining home in Woodcock Pocket and preparing for Christmas with their young cousin, Opal. The two plots eventually draw together as Toot struggles to get home in a snowstorm. The special is notable for its fairly rapid frequency of scene changes, such that generally no more than two minutes is spent within the A plot before jumping back to the B plot and vice versa.
- Transformers: Animated did this in one episode. Story A had Optimus Prime and Sentinel Prime's head facing off against the Headmaster armed with the rest of Sentinel. Story B was Sari angsting over her non-(legal) existence with Bumblebee and Bulkhead trying to comfort her.
- The Venture Bros. does this often with two stories going on at once that come together near the end. This is due to Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick often writing separate stories and slamming them together near the end. "Escape to the House of Mummies Part II" plays the disjointedness of the two lines for laughs. The episode starts off all the main characters having a mummy-themed adventure together. Dr. Venture escapes back to his house and promises to return and save everyone, but he almost gets sidetracked by an unrelated side-plot instead. This becomes the A plot, and the show occasional jumps back to the other characters to show them dealing with the much more exciting B plot.
- Work It Out Wombats!: "Game Changer" has two plots. The main plot of the episode is Zadie trying to play with the crabs, and the subplot is Malik and Zeke collecting umbrellas.
- Young Justice (2010) has been doing this more and more, as the cast expanded. If the A-plot is talky and character-driven, it's a good bet that the B-plot will be more action-focused.
