Top 10 Television Episodes that Were All a Dream
Some of the best television episodes are ones in which it turns out the whole thing was just a dream. You can do storylines that wouldn't be possible otherwise and, in some cases, undo questionable choices.
Here are some of the best television episodes that were all just a dream.
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Return to Camelot Part 1 - Dallas
Probably the most famous dream episode, the final episode of the eighth season of Dallas sees series favorite Bobby Ewing killed off because the actor, Patrick Duffy, wanted to pursue other interests. This caused the ratings in Season 9 to take a nose-dive, so the network had to think of some way to bring back his character. So, they have his wife, Pamela, wake up to reveal that his death and the events of the 9th season were all a dream. This thankfully saved the show so it could run until 1991.
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Da Boom - Family Guy
The premise of this episode is very bonkers when you consider how it aired at the end of 1999, when people thought the world was going to come to an end. But in Family Guy, it did. At least in a dream. On December 31st, 1999, the Griffins take shelter in the basement while wearing hazmat suits as the Y2K bug hits, causing the entire world to erupt into total chaos. When they emerge after Peter eats all the dehydrated food, they head to the Twinkie Factory in Natick, Massachusetts. There, Peter is able to build a thriving community until he gets kicked out after using the irrigation pipes to make firearms.
After leaving, it's revealed that it was all just a dream by Pam Ewing from Dallas, which spoofs the aforementioned episode. Hey, it's Family Guy. What else can you expect?
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Perchance to Dream - Batman: The Animated Series
After the death of Thomas and Martha Wayne, their son Bruce dedicates his life to fighting crime in Gotham City. But even he craves a normal life, and this episode explains what could have been. After Batman chases some gangsters into a warehouse, he's knocked unconscious and wakes up in Wayne Manor with no memory of how he got there. But it gets even stranger: his parents are alive, he's engaged to Selina Kyle, who's now a prim and proper lady, and someone else is Batman.
After realizing this is a dream when he tries to read the paper and books, Bruce follows the fake Batman to a clock tower in the graveyard and unmasks the imposter, revealing him to be the Mad Hatter. Bruce is able to escape the dream by jumping off the tower and seemingly dying, thus waking up in the real world and revealing that it was a scheme by the Mad Hatter to give Batman a nice dream with his dream apparatus to keep him out of the Mad Hatter's way.
After the Mad Hatter's arrest, Commissioner Gordon asks Batman what the apparatus is, and Batman simply replies, "The stuff dreams are made of." This is an excellent episode that shows that no matter how nice a dream is, Bruce will always strive for what's real. In fact, it was a personal favorite of the late Kevin Conroy, who got to play multiple personas in one episode.
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It Came From Angel Grove - Power Rangers Zeo
Although the first season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers featured a dream episode, 'For Whom the Bell Trolls', it wasn't done very well. This one, however, was done superbly. After Adam falls asleep while watching a classic horror movie, 'The Bride of Hackensack', he wakes up in the dark halls of Angel Grove High and is confronted by Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd, who tell him that the Machine Empire has taken over while he slept. The only way to repel them is to seek Zordonicus after retrieving four items: a vampire's cape, a werewolf's hair, a mummy's wrappings, and a cat's eye.
When he collects all four items and brings them to Zordonicus, he must choose one of his allies to fight the Drillmaster and chooses Tommy by accident. Even though Tommy successfully defeats the Drillmaster and a Quadra Fighter, it's all in vain, as Zordonicus is revealed to be King Mondo in disguise. Just as Cogs and other monsters surround him, he's jolted awake by Tanya and the others, revealing it to be a nightmare.
What's interesting about this episode is that a young fan, Carol Michelle Mickelson, was visiting the set during the filming of this episode while suffering from a terminal illness and passed away just before the episode aired. Early airings were dedicated to her, but the dedication was removed later.
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And Then There Was Shawn - Boy Meets World
Often cited as the best episode of 'Boy Meets World', the episode begins when Shawn causes a rift between Cory and Topanga. The three, along with Angela and Kenny, are given detention when the classroom map is pulled down with the ominous words written in blood: "No one gets out alive!" In slasher film fashion, the kids are killed off one by one in various ways. The killer is finally unmasked and is revealed to be Shawn's doppelganger, which reveals that Shawn was having a dream in detention.
The post-credits scene, where Mr. Feeny dreams of having a model class of students, only to wake up to an unruly classroom, is the cherry on top.
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Shredderville - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987)
After Shredder makes another clean getaway, Donatello says that the world would be better off without him and his brothers, but Splinter warns him, "Be careful what you wish for. You might just get it." They then wake up in unfamiliar sewers, and when they go topside, New York City is in ruins, the sky is polluted, and mutants are being hunted down like wild animals. They then learn that Shredder and Krang have succeeded in taking over New York City, renamed Shredder Ville, and possibly the entire world.
When they arrive at the Channel 6 building, they find that April and Irma are belly dancers for Bebop and Rocksteady, who are humans, and no one recognizes them. Easily the darkest moment comes right before the first commercial break, when Donatello realizes that, in his own words, "This is the world...without the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!!" They then learn that the Technodrome is about to explode and possibly take the whole city with it.
Just when it seems hopeless, Donatello and the other turtles wake up, realizing that they were sharing the same dream as a warning: "Be careful what you wish for. You might just get it." Even though the turtles do cause damage by stopping Shredder, this dream reveals that the damage done by not doing anything could always be way worse.
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Heavenly Puss - Tom And Jerry
The Tom and Jerry shorts from the Fred Quimby era could get dark, and this is considered the 2nd darkest Tom and Jerry short, second only to 'Blue Cat Blues'. After Tom catches Jerry red-handed trying to steal a midnight snack, a chase ensues, which ends with a piano crushing Tom against a wall, killing him and sending him to the afterlife, where the conductor disallows him from boarding the Heavenly Express due to his past of tormenting Jerry. But he strikes a deal with Tom, allowing him to board if he can get Jerry to sign a certificate of forgiveness within the next hour. Otherwise, Tom will be tormented in Hell forever.
Back on Earth, Tom tries to get Jerry to sign with acts of goodwill, but Jerry refuses, thinking that Tom is trying to catch him off guard. Whenever Tom is about to snap, he's reminded that he's a dead cat on borrowed time. Unfortunately, Jerry signs the certificate too late, and Tom is dropped into Hell to be tormented forever.
Or so it seems. As it turns out, Tom fell asleep in front of the fireplace, and the embers' heat jolted him awake. He then hugs and kisses Jerry affectionately, leaving Jerry totally confused as the cartoon ends. This is often considered one of the best episodes of Tom and Jerry. Doug Walker from Channel Awesome listed it as #5 on his video "Top 11 Tom and Jerry Episodes", as well as featured it on one of his "Dark Toons" videos.
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Pleasant Screams - Tales From the Cryptkeeper
Although the cartoon based on 'Tales From the Crypt' on HBO has none of the violence, gore, or foul language, it still delivers plenty of scares that will frighten even some adults. The 3rd episode of the 1st season sees Latin teacher Felix Purdy and one of his students, Jenny Lawson, as they navigate a mysterious dream full of nightmarish surprises. Even though they realize they're in a dream, the question is: whose dream are they in?
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Population Bomb - Captain Planet and the Planeteers
After Captain Planet repairs an overpopulated building, the Planeteers think that part of the world's pollution is due to overpopulation, and this causes Wheeler to lose it. In a nod to Gulliver's Travels, he goes surfing to blow off some steam and winds up on an island heavily populated by anthropomorphic mice, where there are more mice than the island can safely support. Wheeler meets a scientist named Piebald, who tells Wheeler that the island was once a beautiful paradise but is now a polluted dystopia ruled by General Claw, who plans to conquer Hope Island to ease the overpopulation. In a desperate attempt to maintain control, General Claw fires a superweapon at a crowd of protesters, which causes a tsunami to wipe out the island.
However, it turns out Wheeler was having a dream about the island of mice, and he explains it to the other Planeteers. The episode ends with Piebald's warning one last time: "Don't let there be more people than your world can hold."
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The Sting - Futurama
In this episode, Planet Express is charged with collecting honey from space bees. Things go well until Leela decides to kidnap the Queen Bee's child to start their own colony on Earth, and Bender insults the Queen Bee, forcing the group to beat a retreat. But while on the ship, the baby Queen Bee tries to sting Leela, and Fry protects her from the sting. While Leela only gets the tip of the stinger, Fry is fatally impaled.
After Fry's funeral, Leela continues to have dreams where Fry is still alive. At the end of the episode, Leela wakes up in a hospital for real this time and discovers that Fry survived the sting, with only his spleen needing to be replaced, and that Leela was in a coma for two weeks, with Fry never leaving her bedside. Despite this being a dream episode, it's still an emotional one that shows how deep a person's love can go.