The Teaser: Difference between revisions

In a [[Monster of the Week]] show such as ''[[The X-Files|The X Files]],'' the teaser usually contains the first [[Red Shirt]] of the episode. In a [[Crime and Punishment Series]], it usually contains the first murder or the body of a victim being discovered. It has become something of a fashion, particularly on crime shows, to end the cold open with a [[Quip to Black]].

 

 

As recently as the early 1990s, the teaser was a relatively unusual phenomenon (although there had been some examples, such as soaps from the early 80s, and Star Trek in the 60s). Today, nearly every American show has a teaser (to get viewers hooked before they can consider changing channels). Many British shows still don't use the technique (what's more, until the 1980s [[The BBC]] would actually re-edit most American shows to put the teaser ''after'' the opening titles), but it is increasing in prominence.

 

 

Although the term is usually reserved for television, the practice is now prevalent in comic books, having crept into the medium in the mid-80s and grown popular through the 90s. While older comics tend to have the title and credits on the first page, most modern comics now wait until three-to-five pages in, for a suitably dramatic moment. Some comics vary this by introducing the title at the ''end'' of this issue (eg. "Shoot", a lost issue of ''[[Hellblazer]]'') or sometimes square in the middle.

* [[Batman Cold Open]]

* [[Danger Room Cold Open]]

 

Contrast [[The Stinger]], which is usually set ''after'' the show, not ''before'' it.

 

{{examples}}

== Anime ==

* Special case: ''[[Ojamajo Doremi]]'' opened its eps with an avant-title that relates to the plot, then the opening titles, then a short scene before the title card. When 4Kids dubbed it for America, they cut out the avant-title, and used the short scene before the title card as the [[Cold Opening]] instead. Sometimes, they cut out the short scene entirely, meaning that in those episodes, the show starts with the opening titles.

* ''[[Kaiba]]'' had brief recap/prologues in front of episodes for the first few episodes before switching to more standard cold openings, often setting up new locations.

* All of the episodes of ''[[Princess Tutu]]'' open with barely-animated charcoal drawings on the screen while a female narrator grimly tells a fairytale that's somehow related to the episode. After a dramatic music swell, the gentle opening theme starts up.

* ''[[Harukanaru Toki no Naka de|Harukanaru Toki no Naka de - Hachiyou Shou]]'' has Fuji-hime's [[Opening Narration]] in the first few episodes, after which it switches to regular cold openings, with the first scene placed before the theme song.

* Both ''[[Ghost in the Shell]]'' films have a brief scene culminating in [[Action Prologue|an intense action sequence]] before breaking into an opening credits sequence with [[Ominous Latin Chanting|Ominous Japanese Chanting]]. They leave a pretty strong impression.

* ''[[Bleach]]'' is using cold opens more and more lately. More often than not, said clips are from the actual episode.

* The second season of ''[[Gunslinger Girl]]'' uses cold openings.

* Every episode of ''[[Berserk]]'' begins with its ominous [[Opening Narration]], usually followed by a recap of the previous episode.

* Two of the four Director's Cut episodes of ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' feature cold openings (while one of them cuts out the opening credits entirely). What makes this odd is that these are never used in any other part of the show.

 

* A classic issue of [[Spider-Man]], promoted as the issue in which [[Tonight Someone Dies|someone would die]], didn't have its title section until the very end: "The Night Gwen Stacy Died''.

** Except that if you look closely at the cover of said comic, there appears to be a spotlight on Gwen's face, practically revealing that she's gonna die.

* ''[[Global Frequency]]'' would usually end each issue with the title in a "closing credits" fashion.

* While not framed as a teaser, each episode of ''[[Watchmen]]'' starts [[In Medias Res]], and the chapter title only appears as an [[Epigraph|intertitle]] several pages in.

* The opening of ''[[Mystery Team]]'' shows the eponymous trio harassing a comatose man, suspecting him of murder.

* ''[[The Lion King]]'''s title card follows a majestic scene of Simba's parents presenting him to their subjects. In the DVD commentary, the directors recall they feared audiences would not read the simplistic title card after enjoying such an epic song.

* In ''[[Pulp Fiction]]'', the scene where "Pumpkin" and "Honeybunny" have a conversation at a diner goes on for over four minutes before the opening credits come up.

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

* Every episode of ''[[Alias (TV series)|Alias]]'' has a 15 minute teaser, so that they can not only recap the story ([["Previously On..."]]), but also have a prologue.

* [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]] has one every episode, generally setting up the plot and whatnot (some can be a bit deceiving, though). The only episode that lacks one is the season four finale, "Restless", mostly due to the episode being ''that'' [[Mind Screw]]-y.

* ''[[Farscape]]'' had one in every episode, either to set up the plot or theme of the episode, or, sometimes, just to have a joke at the characters' expense. Each one would always end with the crew being attacked, captured, or put in some other form of distress, causing the music to turn into the opening of the [[Theme Song]].

* Similar to ''[[Law and Order]], [[CSI]]'' does this, often showing a bystanders view of the murder or the (attempted) [[Disposing of a Body|disposal of the body]] or someone finding said body. Like Lenny Briscoe, [[Quip to Black|Gil Grissom]] almost always gets to say the [[One-Liner]] before the opening credits.

* ''[[NCIS]]'' does the same. It works well with crime shows as the introduction of the episode's case usually fits right into the opening segment. (Beware, however, when the cold opening actually shows the main characters or the [[All Your Base Are Belong to Us|home base]] - it means that the case will directly involve them, as seen in ''[[B ête]] noire''.)

* ''[[The Tomorrow People]]'' did something similar.

* The US version of ''[[The Office]]'' always has a short, one scene gag before the opening scene.

* Nearly every episode of ''[[House MD]]'' starts with a particularly cold opening, which may seem to be other show or movie... until the new patient gets sick, and cut to the opening credits.

** The writers often try to make the patient unexpected by having someone show signs of illness before the ''real'' patient collapses. For example, at the beginning of one episode, Cuddy takes a drink of water and starts to cough; but in the background, another character suddenly ''falls off a roof''.

* ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'' has the title sequence start after a man walked up to the screen and said "It's...". This was usually only a few seconds but was sometimes stretched out long enough to be considered a [[Cold Opening]]. It also must have set the record for the longest one ever in "Scott of the Antarctic" where the man and the title sequence didn't show up until ''halfway through the episode''. Or perhaps not: In other episodes they waited until the ''very end'' to show the opening credits, and occasionally left them out altogether. Which could technically mean that the title credits in the ''next'' episode mark the end of the cold open...

* ''[[The Wire]]'' usually has cold openings that are not related to the main story as such, but instead work as metaphors or thematic commentaries on the episode or the characters themselves.

* Each episode of ''[[Six Feet Under]]'' begins with the death of someone that the family will be working on in that episode, with a card displaying their name and dates of birth and death.

* ''[[Star Trek]]''. Teasers could run as long as over six minutes ("Ship in a Bottle") to as short as under 20 seconds ("Impulse", "Scorpion").

** ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' frequently opened with scenes that had nothing to do with the main plot, just some interaction between some characters before they get called to the bridge and the teaser ends with the ''real'' plotline of that episode. ''[[Deep Space Nine]]'' and ''[[Star Trek: Voyager|Voyager]]'' did this to a lesser extent, but ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise|Enterprise]]'' gave up on that practice entirely and featured teasers that were unusually short.

* ''[[Power Rangers]]'' had one from Turbo to Time Force. It was dropped starting with Wild Force, but has returned in Samurai.

* The first episode of ''[[Pushing Daisies]]'' has a cold opening of ''13'' minutes.

* Every episode of ''[[Bones]]'' has a cold open where the characters discover the body. This is usually done in a dark comedic fashion. (Ex. A teenage couple getting naked in a mud spring where a corpse lies beneath.)

* The teasers on ''[[Scrubs]]'' kept getting larger and larger as time went on, to the point where they consistently ended up as long as any of the other acts of the show.

* ''[[In Plain Sight]]'' shows the Witsec client of the week and how they ended up having to join Witsec in the first place in the teasers.

* ''[[Doctor Who]]'' has used it in the show since the second episode of the revival "The End of the World", often with someone getting killed by a monster before the "scream" of the theme music. It appeared only four times before 2005- "Castrovalva", "The Five Doctors", "Time and the Rani" and "Remembrance of the Daleks"; instead, the original run of ''Doctor Who'' used the first episodes of a serial to fulfill the same function as a cold open.

** It isn't the coldest opening because BBC guidelines require their logo to be placed at the beginning of every episode.

** So did ''[[Remote Control]]'', ''Singled Out'' and possibly ''[[Trashed]]''.

* ''[[Lexx]]'' only used these in the fourth season.

* The 1966 ''[[Batman (TV series)|Batman]]'' series alternates between this and [["Previously On..."]].

* ''[[UFO]]'' uses a variation in which the opening theme tune montage plays ''without titles''. This is then followed by the opening scene, which ends with the title logo appearing as an animated overlay. The cast and production credits appear as captions in act one. One reason for this may have been the show's rotating cast, meaning that they couldn't use credits with a fixed cast list.

 

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* The episodic series of ''[[Sam and Max]]'' featured two episodes with cutscenes as cold openings in its first season. In Season 2, every episode but one had a playable cold opening.

** Also, ''[[Tales of Monkey Island]]'', developed by LucasArts and [[Telltale Games]], is the first game in the ''[[Monkey Island]]'' series to have playable cold openings in five chapters... sort of. Chapter 1, for example, has a playable intro that can be accomplished with help from instructions before the main title starts. Chapter 3 has a VERY long playable cold opening consisting of a few tasks and an "Answer the question" minigame before the chapter's title starts. Chapter 4, on the other hand, only has the shortest playable cold opening, where you only have to select a topic before the chapter's title starts.

* Most of the games in the ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' series open with an action sequence or other story based sequence before the opening credits and logo come up.

** Going through all of the games' teasers would take a very, very, long time. And ''that's not even getting into the Heart Station Tutorials.''

* [[BioWare]] has been moving in this direction lately. ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' showed the opening explosive sequence before the title logo showed up, and both ''[[Dragon Age 2]]'' and ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'' ran the tutorial sequence before the opening titles.

** ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 2'' was more circumspect about it. The opening titles roll before the main menu comes up, and you play a mission on a Tanker (where, again, the title pops up as soon as we see Snake's face for the first time). It led many people into thinking it was the proper game - but it was a prologue, and the main meat of the game was later on, with a different main character - and again, the title popped up as soon as we saw Raiden's face for the first time, as he stripped off his diving equipment. There was a [[Mind Screw|reason]] for the blatant repetition.

** ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 3'' was the most blatant. There was a very short, fifteen or twenty minute gameplay segment before the game started for real, heralded by a lengthy [[Cutscene]], an offer to save, and the unlocking of the fantastic opening title movie, which played then and there and would now play every time the game was booted. The style of the opening sequence combined with the [[Cold War]] setting and the timing clearly marked it out as a homage to Bond's delayed starts.

* ''[[Gears of War]] 2'' has a playable section teaching players the ropes and "working out the ginks" before the [[Title Sequence]].

* ''Lock & Key'', an award-winning [[Interactive Fiction]] game by Adam Cadre, uses one of these to establish its premise. What exactly happens is best experienced by playing it yourself.

* ''[[Vagrant Story]]'' begins with a suspenseful infiltration and several battles; only after this does the title appear, with the sunrise in the background.

* Similarly, ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'' begins by asking you to pick your character's name and birthdate, followed by a beautiful [[Scenery Porn]] introduction, with the title appearing midway through the FMV sequence.

* In ''[[X-Men]] 2'' on the [[Sega Genesis]], the gameplay starts ''as soon as you power on the system.'' Only after clearing the first stage do the Sega logo and the title screen show up.

* The video game adaption of [[The Chronicles of Riddick]], ''Escape from Butcher Bay'' has a lengthy prologue/dream sequence with introduces you to the gameplay style before Riddick actually enters the prison with the title sequence.

* [[Heavy Rain]] gives you about an hour before the title sequence rolls in.

* [[Seiken Densetsu 3]] has a normal title screen, but when you actually start the game, you play through your main character's prologue. At the climax of the prologue, your character hops on a boat to set off for adventure, and the credits roll over a tour of the entire world map.

* All 3 [[Sly Cooper]] games feature some sort of "heist" prior to the first cutscene.

 

 

== Webcomics ==

* [http://www.cowshell.com/cleopatra/ Cleopatra in Spaaace!]: Chapter one and part of chapter two.

 

== Web Original ==

* "A Call To Arms", Chapter 1 of ''[[LG15: the resistance|LG 15 The Resistance]]'' used the original prologue trailer video as a cold opening, before fading to the [[Opening Narration]].

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* ''[[Ben 10]]'' generally has its first fight before the opening theme, as a way to kick off an episode.

* ''[[Generator Rex]]''.

{{quote|'''Linda:''' Tonight, at 11:00.

'''Morbo:''' [[Doomy Dooms of Doom]]! }}

* ''[[Codename: Kids Next Door]]'' sometimes has one of these before the [[Title Sequence]], with frequency in usage increasing as the series went on.

* ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003]]'' frequently started with a [[Flash Forward]].

* ''[[Danny Phantom]]''. Mostly fight scenes that usually ends in jokes, but there are a few times where it foreshadows the upcoming plot.

* ''[[Space Ghost Coast to Coast]]'' does this almost every episode. In one particular case, the episode "Joshua" is a super long cold opening promoting "Space Ghost 2000". The actual episode consists of the winners of the "Haikuin' for Space Ghost" contest reading their haikus, and that's about it. "Gallagher"'s cold opening consisted solely of Space Ghost shouting "They've invented the telephone?!", with no lead-up or follow-through, and with no relation to anything in the episode.

* Done quite well in early episodes of ''[[King of the Hill]]'', in which the [[Cold Open]] would transition seamlessly into the [[Title Sequence]].

* ''[[The Secret Saturdays]]'' have this in every episode, to let the viewer know the current situation of the characters.

* The 2nd season of ''[[WITCH (animation)|W.I.T.C.H.]]'' added a cold open.

* The series ''[[Olivia]]'' does a comedic one.

* A large majority of ''[[The Boondocks|Boondocks]]'' episodes open this way.

* A few 1970 and 1971 cartoons used cold opens: ''[[The Archie Show|Archie's Funhouse]]'', ''[[Sabrina and The Groovie Goolies]]'', ''[[Josie and the Pussy Cats]] ''and ''Will The Real Jerry Lewis Please Sit Down?'' were the 1970s entries; the debut episode of 1971's ''[[Help Its The Hair Bear Bunch]]'' ("Keep Your Keeper") was the only ep to use a cold open during its CBS run. All sixteen episodes were re-edited for cable/satellite to have cold opens.

* Several prime-time cartoons from 1960s have cold openings. These include ''[[The Flintstones]]'', ''[[Top Cat]]'', ''[[Calvin and the Colonel]]'', and ''[[Jonny Quest]]''.

* ''[[The Venture Brothers]]'' uses cold opens in every episode. In some episodes, they don't even show the opening sequence, though, so it doesn't exactly count. In season one, at least, the [[Cold Open]] would always be drawn in wide screen while the rest of the episode was in full screen.

* Here's a rare theatrical example: a lot of late 1950s widescreen CinemaScope shorts from Terrytoons have a teaser before the credits. This was dropped after a while, although the final Heckle & Jeckle cartoon ''Messed Up Movie Makers'' (released in 1966) has a teaser, too.

* ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' uses cold open in every episode.

* ''[[Arthur (animation)|Arthur]]'' always begins with a teaser that's about a minute long, usually with Arthur talking directly to the viewers, followed by a title card.

* ''[[Archer]]'' uses a cold open in every episode, although it usually does involve the episode's plot.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Script Speak]]

[[Category:Beginning Tropes]]