Which Do You Prefer And Why...?

You said it perfectly and I totally agree with you.

I always liked the extra scene at the beginning, 'cause the more the merrier. But you do make a good point. Still, I stand by my preference. It also helps break up the episode as well as establishes what it'll be about.

It depends. for comedies, they could just do a quick throwaway scene separate from everything else in the episode (or even series!), like the DJ's frozen bee stunt.

same with the coda at the end. That bad milk gag ran throughout the ep but John killed it when he got the coda scene, flopping around "poisoned" on the floor, just to put the milk back and collapse. Or the "I'm not sick, I'm pregnant!" that cuts through a year+ of Dan sitting there mumbling "pregnant?" over and over then ends with "how did that happen?"


I don't know of any other shows that pulled these "cold opens" and codas off so well. maybe Malcolm on occasion?


but again, when this show was airing, TV was trying to "reformat" itself, by dropping the usual opening credit scenes completely. Just a few bars of the theme song as the story got underway. Roseanne even did that, with a few seconds of harmonica, but she kept the opening credits throughout the run, while others didn't. Using Malcolm as an example, I remember many an ep opening with some random cold open, then they flash the cast photo/title with "Life is unfair...." from the theme song before cutting to the first commercial break. Pretty sure Friends even skipped their intro many a time, too?

=-=
#HowardWasRight

You mean the cold open? I generally don't like those either because, on sitcoms, lower level writers usually write that bit, and it's rarely as funny or good. But Roseanne's were often humorous. I never mind rewatching the opening credits either because I'll often catch something I never noticed or forgot.