This isn't real. You're actually in an insane asylum.

[Ben Sisko3]

St Elsewhere as well. He was not in a mental hospital just a retarded guy with a snow globe.

Um, no. Tommy was not "a retarded guy", he was an autistic child.

BIG difference.

Thank you.

Agreed.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Wow. I read the thread title and thought you were talking about my job.

 

[Ethros]

I thought it meant I was in an Insane Asylum and the Trek BBS isn't real and is my fantasy...
If that's the case I need a better imagination

 

[Hartzilla2007]

I thought it meant I was in an Insane Asylum and the Trek BBS isn't real and is my fantasy...
If that's the case I need a better imagination

Maybe you could ask the doctors at the asylum for help.

 

[Worf412]

You're right. I did not bother to research that. Just going by memory from when it originally aired.

Right on.

 

[Aragorn]

I wonder if a show would have the guts to do an episode like this and actually follow through on it being the truth for the rest of the series. It'd probably have to be a show on its last legs.

 

[HappyDayRiot]

Not an insane asylum, but Red Dwarf's classic Back to Reality had the crew led to believe their adventures had just been a virtual reality video game, which led them to get suicidal when they found out what their 'real' lives were like.

That damn Despair Squid.

 

[cb31]

First Wave did it in the last (or one of the last) episodes.

 

[theenglish]

I wonder if a show would have the guts to do an episode like this and actually follow through on it being the truth for the rest of the series. It'd probably have to be a show on its last legs.

Or even having the premise extend over several episodes would be a good idea.

 

[DWF]

The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari was the original though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cabinet_of_Dr._Caligari

 

[Gojirob]

How many TV shows have had episodes in which a character is told that he or she is hallucinating the show's whole premise and that he or she is actually in a mental hospital? I can think of three, but I suspect there are others:

TNG "Frame of Mind"
Buffy "Normal Again"
Lost "Dave"

Comics have done it often, too. Flash-Barry Allen and Spidey both went through this. 'Growing Pains' on TV actually had Ben Seaver 'fall through' the fourth wall and becoming (to his confusion) the actor who played him.
Happened on The Bionic Woman, too.

Just for fun :

http://www.southroad.com/brightfame/stories/nermalagain.html

http://www.southroad.com/brightfame/stories/rooms.html

 

[empty]

Not an episode, but there is a brilliant play by Swiss author Friedrich Duerrenmatt which screws around with the premise:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Physiker (Spoilers!)

 

[Greg Cox]

The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari was the original though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cabinet_of_Dr._Caligari

Good point. That's the great-granddaddy of them all.

 

[Australis]

I have strong memories of 'The Cabinet of Caligari' (1962) starring Glynis Johns, better known as a light comedy actress but here being pretty serious. I have vivid memories of her trying to convince someone she isn't mad and talking all her clothes off, giving herself to him (you didn't see anything, just her bare shoulders up). It made a big impression on me when I saw it on TV (must have been about 10-11) and caused odd stirrings in my trouser area.

It was written by Robert Bloch.