The Trap Door

The Trap Door was a British Claymation show that first aired in 1984. The show was set in a Haunted Castle owned by an unseen creature known only as "The Thing Upstairs". The main character was this creature's servant, a blue blob named Berk, who lived in the castle's lower floors along with his friends, a skull named Boni and a strange spider-like creature named Drutt. In every episode, the titular trap door would open, and a monster would come out, usually to hinder Berk in his toils. Each episode lasted around five minutes.

Tropes used in The Trap Door include:

• Actor Existence Failure: Taken to insane levels. There's one actor who plays everyone and he's dead.
• All Just a Dream: 'Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite' and 'Moany Boni'
• Battle Discretion Shot: More often than not, violence occurs in another room, complete with Screen Shake.
• Bedsheet Ghost: Berk gets haunted by loads of these in 'Boo!'
• Bolivian Army Ending: The last episode of the series has the Big Red Thing, one of the nastiest creatures to come through the trap door, jump out and attack Berk and his friends only for the show to cut out
• By the Lights of Their Eyes
• Cat Scare: Done with Drutt in the middle of a chase scene.
• Catch Phrase: "Oh Globbits!"
• Chew Toy: Boni. "I think I feel a headache coming on". Berk gets it pretty bad at times as well.
• Cousin Oliver: Drutt had babies that became regular characters.
• Cross-Dressing Voices: Drutt... maybe.
• Deadpan Snarker: Boni. Berk, too, at times.
• Defanged Horrors: Some monsters, like Rogg, can be quite nice.
• Dem Bones: Boni
• Deranged Animation
• The Ditz: Rogg.

Berk: You got any bright ideas, then?
Rogg: Well, you could um... er... don't know.
Berk: [addressing the audience] The sad thing is, that you've just heard the brightest idea Rogg's ever had. Ever.

• The Ditz: Rogg
• Dramatic Thunder: Once Per Episode.
• Early-Bird Cameo: A few monsters, such as The Spund, cameo in the episode "Don't Open That Trap Door", before getting their own spotlight episode.
• Eldritch Abomination: 'Im Upstairs is implied to be this.
  • He is (perhaps) seen in one episode. He is, indeed, a Eldritch Abomination.
• Extra Eyes: Some of the trap door monsters. 'Im Upstairs, too, from what we hear. They even come out.
• Freudian Trio:
  • The Kirk: Berk
  • The Spock: Boni
  • The McCoy: Drutt
• Fridge Logic: Despite Berk's misgivings, nothing that comes out of the Trap Door could possibly be less horiffic than The Thing Upstairs, whom he quite happily serves.
• Getting Crap Past the Radar: Drutt. See Sdrawkcab Name below.
• Grotesque Cute: A cute little monster opens his mouth to reveal rows of jagged fangs.
• Grumpy Bear: Boni.
• Guarding The Trap Door: Even though Berk often leaves it ajar.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Rogg, in the final episode. He gets better.
• It's Always Spring: Or It's Always a Dark Stormy Night.
• Kindhearted Simpleton: Rogg is one of the friendlier creatures to come out of the trap door. It may come from the fact he is a complete ditz.
• Meaningful Name: Berk is British slang for a stupid, often easy to manipulate person.
• Monster of the Week: LOTS of this.
• Music Soothes the Savage Beast: Pretty much subverted hard in said episode, Bert turns on the radio, leading nearly every monster from the series to pop up and run rampant in the kitchen. They scurry back in when 'Im Upstairs bellows about the noise.
• Musical Episode: An entire episode was dedicated to an extended version of the theme tune.
  • It's called Don't You Open That Trap Door, also the first lyric of the theme song.
• Nightmare Sequence: 'Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite'
• No Fourth Wall: Berk often adresses the kids directly. Boni sometimes explains what's going on at an episode's beginning, Allo Allo style.
• Once Per Episode: The Trap Door unleashes a fearsome monster.
  • Lampshaded in "The Dose":

Boni: Guess what's going to happen next.
[The Trap Door opens and a green monster slithers out.]
Boni: [smugly] What did I say?

• Pardon My Klingon: 'Globbits!' 'Great Grumfuttoks Tusks!'
• Recurring Character: Rogg, Bubo, the Big Red Thing
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Berk, in the Season 1 Finale.
• Screwy Squirrel: A fair few of the monsters from the trap door are more trouble makers or pranksters than outright menaces. Bubo is perhaps the most notable.
• Sdrawkcab Name: Drutt. More commonly spelled Drut. Turd.
• The Smurfette Principle: Drutt.
• Spoof Aesop: "If you've got a problem, stuff a worm in it."
• The Stinger: In both season finales to undo any changes they have done.
• Talking to Himself: All the voices are done by Willie Rushton.
• That Makes Me Feel Angry: Rogg.
• This Is Going to Suck: Boni can tell instantly there will be trouble whenever the Trap Door is left open.
• Three Amigos: They finally fit this in Series 2, Episode... 8?
• The Voice: 'Im Upstairs
• Your Tomcat Is Pregnant / Mister Seahorse: Drutt has babies. They still refer to him/her with male pronouns.