Litmus test episodes for 25 notable television shows

The pilot of “Breaking Bad” is, frankly, a little lackluster, which may have played a part in the show taking some time to find an audience. We assume, at this point, you know the general plot of “Breaking Bad” and don’t need the finer points from that pilot. Instead, jump into a later episode from the first season, as “Crazy Handful of Nothin’” is both quite good and also really starts to work Walt into the crime world of Albuquerque. Plus, it introduces Tuco, and the Salamanca family in turn.

Many consider “College” one of the best, perhaps the best, episode of “The Sopranos.” As such, if you don’t like “College,” there’s a good chance “The Sopranos” is not for you. It also helps that it is a first-season episode, which means there isn’t too much pre-existing plot you have to try and catch up on to understand the episode, and the show.

“Seinfeld” is an old-school sitcom, which is to say there is little to no continuity from episode to episode, with ongoing storylines occurring infrequently. The first season of this iconic ‘90s comedy is, frankly, for the diehards only. We could have jumped later into the show, but “The Statue” is a representative episode, quite funny, and from the second season. For litmus test episodes, erring on the side of being earlier in the show’s run makes sense.

Truly, with “The Simpsons” you can basically go anywhere. The cartoon snaps back to the status quo at the end of 99 percent of episodes. Now, bingeing all of “The Simpsons” would be daunting, but let’s say you want to give the show a shot. “Last Exit to Springfield” is considered one of the best episodes, but it also provides a nice showcase for several characters. If somebody is just jumping in, you don’t want an episode that, say, entirely focuses on Homer or Bart.

This is the one and only pilot on this list, and it is the pilot of “Cheers.” It may seem like cheating, but you absolutely want to use the first episode of “Cheers” for a litmus test. One, it’s a great episode, and one of the best pilots ever. Two, it does really serve as a proper introduction to the show, which is not always the case for a pilot.

Perhaps it’s bold to go with the finale of the first season for “Mad Men.” However, this is a show, critically acclaimed though it is, that takes some time to get going. You kind of want to let the backstories get out of the way first. “The Wheel” also features perhaps the quintessential Don Draper speech. If you don’t find that spine tingling, you may want to skip this show.

“Columbo” had a bit of a renaissance for a moment, but even if that moment has passed, it remains a fine procedural, with a classic turn from Peter Falk as the sneakily smart homicide detective. “Murder by the Book” is the first “proper” episode of “Columbo” after two pilot episodes that definitely did some tweaking to the character. This is the first time Columbo really feels like himself as a character, and it helps “Murder by the Book” was written by Steven Bochco and directed by Steven Spielberg. Yeah, you read that right. Spielberg directed a “Columbo.”

If you look online, you’ll see people suggesting you dip in on “Friends” episodes that are heavy on the romance. We’d argue that, if you aren’t attuned to the characters, there is less value to that. “The One with All the Poker” gets all the main characters together in a significant way, built around playing poker together. If you don’t like the vibe of all the friends of “Friends” hanging out, this probably isn’t the show for you.

It would certainly benefit you to start “Succession” from the beginning. This is about litmus tests, though, and the pilots of shows like this often have a lot of foundation to lay. “The Summer Palace” is the first episode of the second season. It’s doing some recapping as a result, while also indicating what is to come from the new season. As a season premiere, it’s eventful, which makes it an episode that is going to deliver more punch than many midseason episodes, perhaps making for a better litmus test.

“The Office” is another of those sitcoms where people often write off the entire first season. “The Dundies,” the second season’s first episode, is quite good, but also does not feel like your typical “Office” episode. For starters, they are barely at the office. However, “Office Olympics” is all about trying to stay engaged at your place of work, making it a more representative episode.

Let us indulge, if only for a moment, in some millennial navel gazing. We wanted to throw one ‘90s Nickelodeon show into the mix, and the best of those shows is “The Adventures of Pete & Pete.” If you want to just try out one episode, “A Hard Day’s Pete” is an obvious choice. You get a whole bunch of the Wellsville townsfolk in the mix, and some catchy music to boot.

If you are going to try an episode of “The X-Files,” it’s probably better to go with a “monster of the week” episode than a conspiracy, storyline-driven episode. Many consider “Humbug” one of the best episodes of the show. It’s also absolutely gross and weird. However, if you find “Humbug” unpalatable — a real possibility — then this is probably not the show for you.

“My Coffee with Niles” is a fascinating threading of the needle, and an unexpected choice for a litmus test episode. This episode of “Frasier” is basically a bottle episode, and it’s also the season finale of the first season. However, it’s basically built around Frasier and his brother Niles, two great sitcom characters, hashing out everything that has occurred in the first season. The characters have fallen into their rhythms, and “My Coffee with Niles” is both simple and ambitious. Even if you have never seen “Frasier,” you can step right into this one and get a great sense of the show.

“The Mary Tyler Moore Show” seems to be the modern choice for best sitcom of the 1970s, but where to start? We’ll go with “The Snow Must Go On,” an episode from fairly early in the first season. What’s key about the episode is that it is focused on the newsroom, a key element to the show, of course. It’s election night, and there has been a blizzard, which leads comedic chaos to ensue.

Even if you had watched every episode of “Barry” before “ronny/lily” aired, you were probably thrown through a loop. This episode is a standout in terms of quality, but it also feels practically like a fever dream. It’s somewhat divorced from the narrative of “Barry,” but that’s a good thing. You don’t need to really know what has been happening in the show, and also there will be less in the way of spoilers for a show that can easily be spoiled.

“ER,” like many medical dramas, had a cast that fluctuated throughout the years, but it wasn’t as soapy or serialized as, say, “Grey’s Anatomy,” so it is easier to jump into. “Hell and High Water” is considered one of the best episodes, and it’s also considered a real showcase for George Clooney. You may know “ER” as “The show that made George Clooney a star,” so you might as well see what that’s all about.

“30 Rock” had started to get the pieces into place midway through the first season, and “Tracy Does Conan” drops at just the right time. It’s a frantic episode, but “30 Rock” is a joke machine, so that sort of energy is perfect. Characters are acting even more ridiculous than usual, especially Tracy, so if the comedy of this episode works for you, you’ll likely be on board with “30 Rock.”

Selina Meyer is the Vice President of the United States. She doesn’t like the job. There, you’re largely caught up on “Veep” heading into the fifth episode “Nicknames.” The characters are still two-dimensional enough you can understand them right away, and “Nicknames” is a fine example of the vulgar hilarity at the heart of this HBO show that won Julia Louis-Dreyfus Emmy after Emmy.

An episode built heavily around a character that is not part of the regular run of the show is a hit-or-miss proposition for litmus test episodes. “The Sisters” is such an episode, but it also serves as a strong litmus test for “The Golden Girls.” Dorothy flies Sophia’s sister Angela into town for Sophia’s birthday, unaware that they have been feuding for years. It helps that Angela is played by Nancy Walker, who specialized in characters that felt like “Golden Girls” characters even when she wasn’t on the show.

“Arrested Development” is a sitcom that does more ongoing storytelling than others, and also loves callbacks, and even call forwards, which is to say Easter eggs dropped that will pay off later. That makes it trickier to find a litmus test, and it has a strong comedy pilot as well. “Pier Pressure” is a hilarious episode, though, and it doesn’t feel quite as indebted to a working knowledge of the show as others, making it a sensible choice here.

Not only does it have a title that rhymes with the show’s name, but “NYPD Lou” is often considered a sterling episode of “NYPD Blue.” It’s also considered indicative of the strengths of the show. Perhaps the only drawback of going with a first-season episode like this is that it features David Caruso, who would leave the show after the second season, so don’t get too attached.

Hey, remember that six months when everybody was into “Schitt’s Creek?” And it won like every Emmy for comedy possible? Want to see what that was all about? “Surprise Party” works as a good litmus test. It’s an “event episode” that gets basically the whole town involved, but importantly with plenty of Catherine O’Hara as Moira in the mix.

The fifth episode of “The West Wing” is centered on a fairly standalone story, which helps its case for a one-off episode to try out a show. It’s also written by Aaron Sorkin (as many episodes were), giving you the full “West Wing” experience, for better or worse. That’s the point, though! Maybe “The Crackpots and These Women” won’t be for you, but if that is the case, then “The West Wing” is probably not for you. Mission accomplished.

It feels like “Modern Family” has limited cultural cache. It also ran for 250 episodes and won Outstanding Comedy Series at the Emmys five years in a row. So, you know, there is something here, one assumes. Halloween, the holiday, was frequently a centerpiece to “Modern Family,” so why not go with one of those episodes to see if this show, which again won five Emmys as the best comedy on TV, is for you.

“Community” definitely has a polarizing feel to it, perhaps making it the show most in need of a litmus test episode. When the sitcom began, it wasn’t quite the show it would become, as it was more straightforward, less meta, and less indebted to other pop culture. A lot of people would probably go with the first-season episode “Modern Warfare,” the action-heavy paintball episode directed by Justin Lin. However, we’re going a couple episodes earlier to “Contemporary American Poultry.” It’s more representative of what “Community” normally is than “Modern Warfare.” The scale is smaller, but it’s still heavily riffing on pop culture, as the plot becomes a parody of “Goodfellas” and mob movies in general before you know it.