Beach Episode/Live-Action TV

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Examples of Beach Episodes in Live-Action TV include:

• It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia has its Jersey Shore episode where the gang goes to the beach for a relaxing vacation. Though it obviously does not go that well. Except maybe for Charlie.
• The Brady Bunch Season 4 opener in Hawaii is both textbook and an extended beach episode. Particularly with the scenes involving Greg surfing (and having his surfing accident), Greg later going girl watching and later the episode-clinching luau. Not much plot, as Barry Williams later pointed out in his autobiography "Growing Up Brady," although it was a great way to get guest star Vincent Price involved ... and also a great way to see Maureen McCormick and Eve Plumb in (very 70s) bikinis.
  • An episode from later in Season 4, "Greg's Triangle," features Greg's babelicious (but conniving) girlfriend Jennifer Nichols (Tannis G. Montgomery) in a 1972-era bikini, in a scene set at the beach.
• The third season-opener for Growing Pains, titled "Aloha," was set in Hawaii. Tracey Gold is frequently seen in a bikini.
• Noah's Arc: The last episode of the second season, during the Pride beach party. Though the first half of the episode plays the trope straight (purely fanservice and relatively relaxed), the last half cranks the drama Up to Eleven.
• Step by Step: The Foster-Lambert family travels to Hawaii for the two-parter "Aloha." For the teen and college-age boys, avoid if you're expecting to see a scantily clad Christine Lakin: She was 13 when this episode was filmed (she was just entering puberty), and her character had yet to switch from tomboy to the hottest teen in Port Washington, Wis.; however, as a consolation, both Staci Keenan and Angela Watson were liberally seen in bikinis.
• Astonishingly, a textbook example can be seen in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Let He Who Is Without Sin...". Taking place on Pleasure Planet Risa, it's played straight as an arrow. The episode takes place square in the middle of a story arc involving the emergence of the Jem'Hadar from the Gamma Quadrant and the threat of imminent war. A full recap detailing point by point its awfulness can be found here. Even the writer admitted the idea was one of the worst ideas he ever had, and said that what was on his mind when writing it was "Please don't let this suck. Please don't let this suck."
• Oddly enough, Star Trek: Voyager premiered "Future's End" at about the same time, which being set in 1996 Los Angeles also featured lots more swimwear than the average episode (well, it did until the plot kicked in).
• Commonly seen in the first few seasons of Power Rangers, though it got both the males and females into fanservice outfits. Which explains one of the reasons why older fans of either sex may have loved the show so much. While these episodes were almost always Filler as usual with the trope, it must be noted that 85% of any given early season of PR is filler anyways.
  • You see a lot of the beach in Ninja Storm, what with it being New Zealand and everything.
  • Meanwhile, all the New Zealand-filmed seasons afterwards have had practically no beach episodes. Assumedly the producers wanted to use as much of the new location novelty as they could at the start, before it wore off. That, and they probably didn't want to wear out the excuse that Ninja Storm used - that one of the Rangers is a surfer in her off hours.
  • Alpha 5 once lampshaded their tendency to go to scuba diving all the time during monster attacks.
• Due to location, as many as half of all CSI: Miami episodes qualify.
  • One episode not only had a beach volleyball match (women's, naturally), but they managed to get a camera angle where the brand of bathing suit was clearly visible. That Jerry Bruckheimer! Always thinking!
• The episode "The One at the Beach" in Friends, and its counterpart "The One with the Jellyfish", respectively the last episode of season 3 and the first of season 4. Many cast members appeared in beach clothes. Joey was given sand boobs. And Chandler pissed on Monica's leg after she was stung by a jellyfish. BEST EPISODE EVER.
• Six episodes of Saved by the Bell's third season featured the main cast working in a beach resort over the summer.
• Actor Jensen Ackles likes to joke that he's been trying to pitch the "Demon Surfer" episode of Supernatural so they can film in Hawaii and have a Beach Episode. Strangely, this tends to happen in a lot of Supernatural fanfics.
• The short-lived Falcon Beach was pretty much nothing but this. How did this show not survive? Oh, right, Screwed by the Network, which gave it a horrible time slot. And no, this wasn't FOX's fault. Actually, FOX would be a logical place for this show...
• Scrubs has The Janitor's and Lady's Wedding set in the Bahamas.
• The Hercules: The Legendary Journeys episode "The Apple" featured our heroes at a beach. It's heavier in plot than most beach episodes, but the fangirls get to see Hercules and Iolaus almost naked. And Iolaus invents surfing! The series itself is already known for quite a bit of regular fanservice every episode as well.
• The Office has an episode where they went to the beach. Or rather, the side of a lake. Subverted in that hopes of beachy fun and Pam in a two-piece were dashed as Michael used it as an excuse for a Survivor style event to pick his successor, and the episode features some of the best character development to date.
• It can be argued that Baywatch was nothing but an endless series of beach episodes. That is largely the source of its high ratings.
• Even The Thick of It had a beach episode: the party conference episode in series three, for which the action moved to a hotel in Eastbourne. Being The Thick of It, this was just as unglamorous as all the other episodes. No swimsuits were seen: the closest we got was Terri in her cagoule on a windswept beach.
• Burn Notice is set in Miami FL specifically for the purpose of setting up meets either on Miami Beach or a swimming pool or hot tub, with tons of extremely attractive women in teeny-weeny bikinis parading past the camera before we focus on whoever Michael is meeting at the moment. This qualifies because Michael could as easily meet at the park or a deserted alley, but no, it has to be somewhere where swimwear is required. Partially justified because (as Michael says in a voice-over) "The beach and pools are great places to meet if you don't want to have to search people for weapons or microphones". He has never figured a good way to hide a gun in a swimsuit and even hiding a listening device (somehow) tends to get skewed when meetings are held in hot tubs.
• Happy Days had a multi-part beach episode. It involved Fonzie and a shark. The Rest Is History...
• This may explain why a Neighbours Iconic Episodes DVD included an episode called "Charlene on Beach in Bikini." This was part of a "Scott and Charlene" disc, though.
• Married... with Children
  • The episode "Life's a Beach".
  • There was also another episode that initially seemed to be this but ended up being about being stuck in a traffic jam. Peg, Kelly and Bud even occasionally walked their way back and forth between their car and their house.
• Degrassi the Next Generation
  • The show tried hard to avert the filler aspect: Sean leaves in a Beach Episode.
  • There's also another one where we're introduced to Paige's brother Dylan. And Spinner has to choose between Sean's friendship and Darcy's love in yet another.
  • All together it's not quite Once a Season but rather a lot happens at the beach considering the school year and beach season only overlap by a month or so at either end in the Great Lakes region...
• Portions of the Farscape season 4 opener "Crichton Kicks" occur on a beach... in Crichton's head... with Aeryn in a bikini... pregnant.
• In the commentary for the Stargate Atlantis episode "Sanctuary", Torri Higginson and Rachel Luttrell express a desire for a beach episode... before realizing that Rachel would almost certainly be put in Barely-There Swimwear while Torri would be way overdressed.
• South of Nowhere's "Girl's Guide to Dating" had Spencer and Ashley ditching school for the beach, and end up missing a lock-down. Doubles as a Coming Out Story.
• The Monkees. As they live in a shabby house on the beach, scenes from many episodes take place on the beach. Most notable is episode "Monkees at the Movies".
• Victorious has the cast go to a beach, but end up getting trapped in an RV.
• Skippy the Bush Kangaroo has at least one beach episode, featuring a surfing contest.
• The Batman episode "Surf's Up! Joker's Under!" features Batgirl wearing a sexy one-piece bathing suit... and Batman and the Joker wearing swim trunks over their regular suits for a surfing contest.

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