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Pi Day: Which TV show had the best 14th episode of season three?
Several series had memorable "Pi" episodes, giving us everything from Yvonne Craig in green paint to the debut of Georgette.
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Today is Pi Day, March 14, the celebration of the mathematical constant and all things 3.14. You can also just eat a lot of pie.
So, this being a forum of classic television, we wanted to answer this question: Which TV series had the best 14th episode of its third season? Season three is typically when a show hits its stride, though in some cases in the 1960s, it's when things got a little weirder.
Some modern sitcoms gave us memorable outings in that season three, episode 14 slot, such as Seinfeld's "The Pez Dispenser" and 30 Rock's "The Funcooker." Let's rewind the clock a few decades and find some Pi Episode gems.
1. The Mary Tyler Moore Show "Rhoda Morgenstern: Minneapolis to New York"
This would be a rather landmark episodes on a stellar sitcom, for a couple reasons. First, there is the main plot, which drives a wedge between best friends. Rhoda returns from a vacation in New York and announces she has accepted a job and will be leaving Minneapolis. Gutting news, but at least we got a great spin-off out of it. This episode also marks the first appearance of Georgia Engel as Georgette.
2. The Twilight Zone "Five Characters in Search of an Exit"
"Clown, hobo, ballet dancer, bagpiper, and an Army major - a collection of question marks," Rod Serling announces. These are characters trapped in a mysterious and bare cylindrical room. Fifty-five-year-old spoiler alert: They are toys.
3. Cheers "The Heart is a Lonely Snipe Hunter"
Kelsey Grammer was relatively new to the series at this point, "Snipe Hunter" being just his ninth appearance on Cheers, and this episode went a long way towards cementing his character. Frasier tries hard to fit in with the boys of the bar on a hunting excursion. It's one of the finest Cheers moments, and led to so much more development of Frasier Crane.
4. The Andy Griffith Show "One-Punch Opie"
Opie stands his ground against bully Steve Quincy. Meanwhile, Barney locks himself in a jail cell. Coming of age lessons mix with broad comedy, which is what makes this show such a legend.
5. Star Trek "Whom Gods Destroy"
Batgirl Yvonne Craig slaps on the green paint and appears as Marta, undoubtedly the highlight in this outing from the uneven third season. After she dances, Spock likens her moves to those of Vulcan schoolchildren, adding, "Of course, the children are not so … well coordinated."
6. Batman "Catwoman's Dressed to Kill"
Eartha Kitt makes her purring first appearance as the Caped Crusader's feline foe. Also, Alfred becomes "the world's oldest hippie."
7. I Love Lucy "Ricky Minds the Baby"
While the Tropicana is closed for repainting, Ricky offers to give Lucy a week's break and take total responsibility for the care of Little Ricky. To amuse the toddler, Ricky tells the story of Little Red Riding Hood in Spanish. Pay close attention to the crib. Cartoon versions of Lucy and Ricky are embroidered on the pillow.
8. Full House “Misadventures in Babysitting”
Oldest Tanner daughter D.J. desperately wants every Nineties teenager’s dream – her own phone line. To pay for it, she tries babysitting, but the seemingly easy gig goes south fast. Bratty kid Brian won’t listen to a thing D.J. says, to the point where he gets his head stuck in between the bars of the stairway banister. A few years after this episode first aired the young actor playing Brian, Malachi Pearson, voiced the titular ghost in the 1995 live-action movie version of Casper.
9. Bonanza “Gabrielle”
The classic Western Bonanza expanded well beyond the usual cowboy tropes of most frontier shows. It had moments of intense family drama, daring action and laugh-out-loud jokes that could rival any sitcom. It also had heartwarming storylines like the one in “Gabrielle.” Child star Diane Mountford, who popped up in everything from Wagon Train to Perry Mason to Gomer Pyle: U.S.M.C., plays an orphaned blind girl taken in by the Cartwrights on Christmas Eve. John Abbott plays her grouchy grandfather who eventually comes around to seeing things in a different light.
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Of course, then there's Halle Berry.
Around that time, Amazon had the full run of the show on DVD for about $20. But it was gone when I got to it. The last time I checked, it was still reasonable for four seasons, but while I like it, maybe more than I want to spend.
" The first digits of pi are 3.14159265359, though a Google employee calculated it to 31 trillion digits a few years ago. However, the mark was more than doubled last year by the University of Applied Sciences in Switzerland and verified by Guinness World Records. It took their supercomputer 108 days to reach 62.8 trillion digits, per the Guardian."
I'm sure glad that's not anyone's area code!
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Thank you.
