Bottle episode
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The term bottle episode or bottleneck episode is used in episodic television to refer to episodes which are produced using the least amount of money. The majority of a television series' budget generally goes into producing episodes meant to pique audience interest, such as season openers and closers; bottle episodes are produced using whatever money is left over. Most bottle episodes are shot on sets already built for other episodes, frequently the main interior sets for a series, and they consist largely of dialogue or scenes for which no special preparations are needed. An often parodied feature of bottle episodes among series that are rarely studio based is the means in which the cast are forced to stay in the same location, for example large external forces such as natural disasters or something as simple as an accidentally locked door.
In the making of Quality of Mercy feature in the The Outer Limits season 1 DVD set, Executive Producer Pen Densham describes that most cop shows would have a Dog Day Afternoon episode which would house the entire show in a single room or set, referring to the movie which, for the most part, takes place in and around a bank.
Scott Brazil, executive producer/director of the FX series The Shield, described bottle episodes as "the sad little step child whose allowance is docked in order to buy big brother a new pair of sneaks" [1].
Bottle episodes should not be confused with filler episodes; while many bottle episodes are fillers, this is not always the case. In fact, while the higher-priority episodes may be more visually appealing, bottle episodes are sometimes the ones in which actors give their best performances. In this respect, bottle episodes are a "make-or-break" process because they tend to be among the best or worst episodes in a series. For example, the Friends episode "The One Where No One's Ready" only features two sets and no guest stars, except for Peter Dennis for a few seconds at the end, yet it was voted the third best Friends episode.
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