In television, a clip show is an episode of a series that relies mostly on showing excerpts from previous episodes.
While this saves money for the producers (which is probably why it is done), and can often serve to introduce new viewers to an already established series, fans and critics increasingly tend to view such episodes as an act of creative laziness, possibly even a sign that the show has jumped the shark, and the increasing ability of such scorn to reverberate around the viewing community in the Internet Age has tended to deter producers from doing any. The tendency of many such episodes to be plotless other than several of the characters reminiscing has not helped offset this perception in the slightest.
Clip shows broadcast or cablecast today tend to offset such criticism by trying to make the plot of the episode surrounding the clips compelling, or more typically by making light of clip shows to begin with.
Examples
Star Trek: The Next Generation, "Shades of Gray," aired week of July 17, 1989. Riker falls into a coma after being attacked by an organism that targets his central nervous system. Dr. Pulaski is able to stabilize him but only after the organism has completely integrated itself into his nervous system, including the brain. Counselor Troi realizes that Riker's romantic dreams and happy memories (i.e., the clips) promote the organism's growth. She begins to stimulate the unhappy ones, and after some serious convulsions, the organism dies and Riker is restored to normal (This season was affected by that year's writers' strike and had only 22 episodes. For the finale, one more episode was needed and this show was written quickly and shot in three days).
South Park, "City on the Edge of Forever (Flashbacks)," aired June 17, 1998. With the boys trapped on a bus in an episode that ultimately proves to be a dream, they pass the time by reminiscing about tough moments in previous episodes. However, every remembered scene ends the same way ... with all the cast members getting ice cream and the person on the bus repeating the same lame punch line, "Now that's what I call a sticky situation." Eventually one early scene from the episode itself is recalled, with the same result.
The Simpsons also have had many clip shows and poke fun at themselves for the large number they've had in one of them.
