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

[Argus Skyhawk]

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"

 

[Greg Cox]

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"

DS9 did it, and CHARMED.

Maybe SMALLVILLE, too?

 

[Dick Whitman]

Batman TAS "Dreams of Darkness"

 

[JonathonWally]

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"

DS9 did it, and CHARMED.

Maybe SMALLVILLE, too?

As far as we know, DS9's version of it was a big reverse on the premise though.

 

[Klagg]

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

 

[Frodo Lives]

I'm tempted to mention Farscape's Won't Get Fooled Again, which does start out like the classic 'it was all a dream/hallucination/psychotic episode' tale, then it just gets weird - and brilliant.

 

[TemporalFlux]

Sliders almost had an idea like this in season five, but like most of that season, the idea ended up being half-baked. The episode "Map of the Mind" featured the Sliders landing inside the confines of an insane asylum, so no one would believe their story that they didn't belong there and just appeared out of thin air. To make matters worse, that alternate reality featured a populace whose brain hemispheres were the reverse of ours, so the treatments they started to use on the Sliders actually was making them go crazy.

As I said, it was a very interesting idea that had very poor execution; a shame.

 

[Ethros]

I don't watch it, but I was flicking through the channels once and caught a bit of an episode of Stargate Atlantis with the premise. Fans should know what ep it was...

 

[Hermiod]

I don't watch it, but I was flicking through the channels once and caught a bit of an episode of Stargate Atlantis with the premise. Fans should know what ep it was...

"The Real World".

Smallville did it in "Labyrinth" from season six.

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

Which has had somewhat significant repercussions...

 

[CaptJimboJones]

It's been done enough that frankly it's become a bit of a cliche. I do think the Farscape version was the most unique spin on the idea.

 

[Worf412]

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.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

UFO "Mindbender"

Not a mental hospital, as such, just that Ed Straker is hallucinating that he and everyone else on the SHADO base are actually actors and that the place is a movie studio.

Easy to film that one, since SHADO's cover *is* a movie studio.

 

[JoeD80]

"Newhart" was a dream, although it wasn't a mental hospital. It was just Japanese food before bed! (Although it *was* a psychiatrist having the dream!)

 

[Thespeckledkiwi]

X-Files had to have one...

Batman Beyond

 

[Ben Sisko3]

Supernatural sorta had a spin on this. In "What Is and What Should Never Be", Dean gets a glimpse of his life without the supernatural aspects after an encounter with a Djinn, but both that and "Mystery Spot" were more It's a Wonderful Life than "Far Beyond the Stars" or "Normal Again".

 

[LitmusDragon]

X-Files had to have one...

There was a chain of episodes in the later years where Mulder was led to believe that all of his work on the X-Files had been a sham somehow orchestrated for his benefit. I forget the details exactly.

Surprisingly I don't think they ever did the exact premise we're talking about here though.

 

[Harvey]

^^
You're thinking of Gethsemane/Redux I/Redux II and further episodes that followed in the fifth season (but especially those).

 

[BraidsMamma]

I must say that I normally think these kinds of episodes is a waste of perfectly good series but I must admit that I enjoyed the Buffy version (mostly for 2 reasons).

* The episode does not mainly take place in the mental hospital but in "the real world" where Buffy walks around telling everyone that they are not real.

* The way the episode ends is just fraking awsome and creepy in it's own way.

I guess one also could say that both Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes have similar concepts to their entire series?

 

[Klagg]

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.

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

 

[Rÿcher]

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.