The Teaser: Difference between revisions

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.

* ''[[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.

* 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''.

* ''[[Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip]]'' devoted its second episode to showcase the main characters working against the clock to create an effective cold open, eventually settling on a fourth-wall breaking rendition of "A Modern Major General" from ''[[The Pirates of Penzance]]''.

* ''[[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 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.

 

 

** 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.

** In the first ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' you have to wait around in a dock area while the credits play, superimposed on the screen. When they're done you're free to enter the elevator to the next area, where Snake removes his mask and the logo comes up on screen as we see his face for the first time.

** ''[[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.

 

== 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]].

* Many [[Youtube Poop|YouTube Poops]] provide an opening sketch, often unrelated to the rest of the video, as an appetizer before the main Poop begins.

* [[SF Debris]] uses cold openings in about 50% of his episodes. About 50% of those are also lead-ins to his [[Catch Phrase]].

* ''[[Batman: The Brave And The Bold|Batman the Brave And The Bold]]'' has started every episode with one of these so far. One has been an actual [[Lead In]] ("Terror on Dinosaur Island" has Plastic Man in both segments), but as often as not they seem to be used to have fun or introduce a hero we may see in a later episode. The other exception is "[http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/animation/watch/v192822022sc45ehc Mayhem of the Music Meister!]", which devoted all of the show's time to the main story.

* ''[[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]].