DISCONNECTED THOUGHTS
Treatment for a forum post by Mr Writer
Each episode of a sitcom should have the potential to be the first one the viewer watches. You don't want someone turning on at ep 4 and going "I don't understand who these people are". You have to have the explanations on hand in every episode. So why bother writing a whole episode that laboriously wheels everything into position?
Some great sitcoms have set-up episodes: Yes Minister, Arrested Development, One Foot In The Grave. But the vast majority don't bother. Seinfeld? Imagine an episode where Jerry meets Elaine and George and Kramer. Yuck. Fawlty Towers? Imagine an episode where Basil opens his hotel and hires the staff. Yuck.
Part of the problem with the set-up episode is that the audience knows that it's the first of six. It's hard to create any drama around the establishing of a set-up when an audience versed in the grammar of television knows that the set-up has to be established, or you're going to be staring at a blank screen for five further weeks.
Some sitcoms these days do the whole set-up thing in the pre-sig to each episode. So you get who these people are and why we care before the episode proper starts. Friends would be the most obvious example.
Set up episodes are bum.