some help

[drydem]

So, I am working on a project for a television class and I am wondering if people can point out to me specific aspects of meta-narrative in the "prime-time action drama". What I mean by this is places in which the characters make reference to the narrative frame. The best example I can think of for this is "Dawn's in trouble. It must be Thursday." from Buffy.
Can anyone point out other examples of this? I know we're a TV literate bunch. Gimme some help here.

Comments

[bigsnob.livejournal.com]

The Simpsons is a goldmine for this kind of stuff.

My favorite example: in late period Simpsons episodes, the writers seem to take pride in crafting a "first act" (basically everything before the first commercial break) that has absolutely nothing to do with the main plot. They'll start off on one track, then switch gears entirely-- seizing on a small detail or sudden twist to propel them into the actual story. They called this out in the tennis episode ("Tennis the Menace") where the major thrust of the first act was finding casket and burial plot for grandpa. I quote:

Director: Sir, if I may, think of it as an investment in extravagance. The Mauso-Palooza can be seen from space. It will consume as much space as a regulation-size tennis court.

Homer: Tennis court, eh?

[Smash cut to the Simpsons' back yard, where workers are installing a regulation-size tennis court.]

Abe: Aw, I can't believe we went through all that just to wind up with a tennis court.

Homer: I'll bet you didn't see that coming.

[fallen-scholar.livejournal.com]

Yep, Simpson's is the undisputed master.

Springing to mind are:

Episode of Abu losing his job at the quckie mart:
"Wow, things usually don't rap up so tightly for at least another 15 minuites."

Episode of Skinner's identity being revealed or Bart & Lisa end up in third grade both have quotes to the effect of "well, let's just restore the status quo so that we can go on with our lives."

Family Councling/Vegas Mom episode, placed at the end of a season:
"Could this be the end of our series...of events?"

Manjula's pregancy: they skip time by telling about the sort of "theoretical" episodes, ones you could tell were ideas that had been bounced and then tossed (i.e. Sideshow Marge).

not having anything to *add*, really

[songquake.livejournal.com]

but the direct buffy quote was regarding the tuesday-ness, not thursday-ness of dawn's trouble.

and then there was the semi-metanarrative of the seinfeld season in which george and jerry develop a tv show called "jerry".... i don't remember very many details of that, though.

[akashiver.livejournal.com]

The classic for me is that Return of Moriarty episode from ST:TNG, when Picard concludes with the line "Maybe that's all we oursleves are, a story in a little box in somebody's living room" -- or words to that effect. :)

There was also a later Millennium episode which played with the notion that the characters were violating the rules the creator (Chris Carter) had set for them. It wasn't particularly good, though, so I don't remember it well.

And the Simpsons does it all the time, of course, but it can't really be classified as an action-drama.