Beach Episode

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Sun, sand, bikinis, and grenades... wait, what?

Art: Why does every anime series under the sun have to have a fan-service episode? An episode in which the cast all wander around in swimwear or less for no real reason? It's so low-brow. Pip: Shall we confirm that by watching it again? Art: Absolutely. —Sequential Art

Simply put, an episode where the cast decided to take a break and go to the beach or a swimming pool for some wet and splashy fun.

Often combined with or immediately following a Recap Episode, the Beach Episode exists solely for the purpose of getting the female (and sometimes males too) cast into bathing suits. Sadly for the fanboys, beach episodes are usually extreme examples of Filler and treated accordingly.

Naturally, it also acts as a Breather Episode in arc-heavy stories.

Common in, but hardly limited to, anime series. Often shows up in Side-Story Bonus Art.

Cousin to the Hot Springs Episode, which usually takes place in highlands. Often, the actual beach also gets replaced by a swimming pool.

In anime and live-action television, a Beach Episode might overlap with the Vacation Episode, usually as a trip to a tropical locale.

Expect one of the characters, usually a female, to exclaim "It's the ocean!" when the gang first arrives on the scene

Note: It sometimes occurs that the Beach Episode is interrupted by the actual plot of the story. For example, the heroes are taking their well deserved beach trip when the villains decide to show up and cause trouble.

Sometimes you'll meet the Surfer Dude here. Also a good spot for a random Beauty Contest. Smashing Watermelons is a popular party game, as is volleyball. And since people usually go barefoot at the beach, don't be surprised if some Foot Focus shows up. Also expect some Beachcombing.

Examples of Beach Episode include:

Advertising

• In the series of campaign advertisements of Orangina, they made one which set in the beach... with animal people. Compare it to the older commercials where it was all about people in bottle costumes. This ad then became the basis for the newer commercials of the campaign.

Anime & Manga

see Beach Episode/Anime and Manga

Comic Books

• The post-Zero Hour Legion of Super-Heroes comic has a Beach Issue with Legionnaires #77, when most of the Legion takes a vacation on the resort planet Summer World. This was the outgoing creative team's swan song, giving the kids one last nice day of Silver Age-ity fun times before the incoming creative team would turn everything Darker and Edgier with a story called "Legion of the Damned." Sigh.
  • In the general spirit of the trope, we also have Legionnaires #7, in which the kids take a vacation in Atlantis, allowing for much swimsuit fun.
• The second issue of the first ongoing Gen 13 comics series is a veritable beach/swimsuit extravaganza, made even more notable by the revelation of a major cast member as a homosexual.
• Gold Digger, already a fanservice-laden comic, has a "Summer Annual" of pinup beach pictures and short comics drawn by a variety of artists.
• Hellblazer. Subverted in that it quickly turns into Nightmare Fuel. Luckily it was All Just a Dream.
• Marvel had several Swimsuit Specials in the 90's featuring such exotic locales as Dinosaur Island, Madripoor, and the Dark Side of the Moon.
• A lighter issue of Strangers in Paradise takes place on the beach following a serious story arc.
• The main characters of Scott Pilgrim go to the beach in Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together. The sequence is the only coloured part of the otherwise black-and-white series.

Fan Works

• There is one of these in the Fanfiction More Than Human that actually advances the plot.
• Used in Seduction to advance the plot.
• In Kyon: Big Damn Hero, the SOS Brigade has one of these arranged for the weekend after Kyon went back in time to create a massive stable time loop and getting 96 on a Math test.
• Ultimate Spider Woman: In between fighting supervillains and trying to juggle everything going on in her personal life, Mary Jane Watson needed a break. She got one at first... but then one of her enemies showed up and she was forced to don her Spider-Woman costume anyway. Go figure.
• The fancomic Roommates has one too. Being heavy on Fan Service this surprises nobody.

Films -- Live-Action

• Consider the plethora of Beachy movies that came out in the 60's, nearly all, seemingly, starring Annette Funicello and/or Frankie Avalon. The list includes (but is not limited to) How to Stuff a Wild Bikini, Beach Blanket Bingo, Bikini Beach, Muscle Beach Party, and the eponymous, Beach Party. Not much fanservice by today's standards, perhaps, but at the time, they were consider passably risqué.
• See also Gidget, its movie sequels, and the subsequent TV series.
• Into the Blue has Jessica Alba wearing a bikini, but, as Robot Chicken notes, not much of a plot.
• Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise

Literature

• Can a non-visual book have a Beach Episode? Apparently so! In Larry Bond's First Team series, the main character, basically a Cowboy Cop of spies, once refuses to meet his overseer anywhere but on a beach. In a Middle Eastern country where women's swimsuits come in only two sizes: tiny, and microscopic. And she does it! In another scene, one of his female agents is wearing a tiny Wicked Weasel bikini.

Live-Action TV

• It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia has its Jersey Shore episode where the gang goes to the beach for a relaxing vacation. Though it obviously does not go that well. Except maybe for Charlie.
• The Brady Bunch Season 4 opener in Hawaii is both textbook and an extended beach episode. Particularly with the scenes involving Greg surfing (and having his surfing accident), Greg later going girl watching and later the episode-clinching luau. Not much plot, as Barry Williams later pointed out in his autobiography "Growing Up Brady," although it was a great way to get guest star Vincent Price involved ... and also a great way to see Maureen McCormick and Eve Plumb in (very 70s) bikinis.
  • An episode from later in Season 4, "Greg's Triangle," features Greg's babelicious (but conniving) girlfriend Jennifer Nichols (Tannis G. Montgomery) in a 1972-era bikini, in a scene set at the beach.
• The third season-opener for Growing Pains, titled "Aloha," was set in Hawaii. Tracey Gold is frequently seen in a bikini.
• Noah's Arc: The last episode of the second season, during the Pride beach party. Though the first half of the episode plays the trope straight (purely fanservice and relatively relaxed), the last half cranks the drama Up to Eleven.
• Step by Step: The Foster-Lambert family travels to Hawaii for the two-parter "Aloha." For the teen and college-age boys, avoid if you're expecting to see a scantily clad Christine Lakin: She was 13 when this episode was filmed (she was just entering puberty), and her character had yet to switch from tomboy to the hottest teen in Port Washington, Wis.; however, as a consolation, both Staci Keenan and Angela Watson were liberally seen in bikinis.
• Astonishingly, a textbook example can be seen in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Let He Who Is Without Sin...". Taking place on Pleasure Planet Risa, it's played straight as an arrow. The episode takes place square in the middle of a story arc involving the emergence of the Jem'Hadar from the Gamma Quadrant and the threat of imminent war. A full recap detailing point by point its awfulness can be found here. Even the writer admitted the idea was one of the worst ideas he ever had, and said that what was on his mind when writing it was "Please don't let this suck. Please don't let this suck."
• Oddly enough, Star Trek: Voyager premiered "Future's End" at about the same time, which being set in 1996 Los Angeles also featured lots more swimwear than the average episode (well, it did until the plot kicked in).
• Commonly seen in the first few seasons of Power Rangers, though it got both the males and females into fanservice outfits. Which explains one of the reasons why older fans of either sex may have loved the show so much. While these episodes were almost always Filler as usual with the trope, it must be noted that 85% of any given early season of PR is filler anyways.
  • You see a lot of the beach in Ninja Storm, what with it being New Zealand and everything.
  • Meanwhile, all the New Zealand-filmed seasons afterwards have had practically no beach episodes. Assumedly the producers wanted to use as much of the new location novelty as they could at the start, before it wore off. That, and they probably didn't want to wear out the excuse that Ninja Storm used - that one of the Rangers is a surfer in her off hours.
  • Alpha 5 once lampshaded their tendency to go to scuba diving all the time during monster attacks.
• Due to location, as many as half of all CSI: Miami episodes qualify.
  • One episode not only had a beach volleyball match (women's, naturally), but they managed to get a camera angle where the brand of bathing suit was clearly visible. That Jerry Bruckheimer! Always thinking!
• The episode "The One at the Beach" in Friends, and its counterpart "The One with the Jellyfish", respectively the last episode of season 3 and the first of season 4. Many cast members appeared in beach clothes. Joey was given sand boobs. And Chandler pissed on Monica's leg after she was stung by a jellyfish. BEST EPISODE EVER.
• Six episodes of Saved by the Bell's third season featured the main cast working in a beach resort over the summer.
• Actor Jensen Ackles likes to joke that he's been trying to pitch the "Demon Surfer" episode of Supernatural so they can film in Hawaii and have a Beach Episode. Strangely, this tends to happen in a lot of Supernatural fanfics.
• The short-lived Falcon Beach was pretty much nothing but this. How did this show not survive? Oh, right, Screwed by the Network, which gave it a horrible time slot. And no, this wasn't FOX's fault. Actually, FOX would be a logical place for this show...
• Scrubs has The Janitor's and Lady's Wedding set in the Bahamas.
• The Hercules: The Legendary Journeys episode "The Apple" featured our heroes at a beach. It's heavier in plot than most beach episodes, but the fangirls get to see Hercules and Iolaus almost naked. And Iolaus invents surfing! The series itself is already known for quite a bit of regular fanservice every episode as well.
• The Office has an episode where they went to the beach. Or rather, the side of a lake. Subverted in that hopes of beachy fun and Pam in a two-piece were dashed as Michael used it as an excuse for a Survivor style event to pick his successor, and the episode features some of the best character development to date.
• It can be argued that Baywatch was nothing but an endless series of beach episodes. That is largely the source of its high ratings.
• Even The Thick of It had a beach episode: the party conference episode in series three, for which the action moved to a hotel in Eastbourne. Being The Thick of It, this was just as unglamorous as all the other episodes. No swimsuits were seen: the closest we got was Terri in her cagoule on a windswept beach.
• Burn Notice is set in Miami FL specifically for the purpose of setting up meets either on Miami Beach or a swimming pool or hot tub, with tons of extremely attractive women in teeny-weeny bikinis parading past the camera before we focus on whoever Michael is meeting at the moment. This qualifies because Michael could as easily meet at the park or a deserted alley, but no, it has to be somewhere where swimwear is required. Partially justified because (as Michael says in a voice-over) "The beach and pools are great places to meet if you don't want to have to search people for weapons or microphones". He has never figured a good way to hide a gun in a swimsuit and even hiding a listening device (somehow) tends to get skewed when meetings are held in hot tubs.
• Happy Days had a multi-part beach episode. It involved Fonzie and a shark. The Rest Is History...
• This may explain why a Neighbours Iconic Episodes DVD included an episode called "Charlene on Beach in Bikini." This was part of a "Scott and Charlene" disc, though.
• Married... with Children
  • The episode "Life's a Beach".
  • There was also another episode that initially seemed to be this but ended up being about being stuck in a traffic jam. Peg, Kelly and Bud even occasionally walked their way back and forth between their car and their house.
• Degrassi the Next Generation
  • The show tried hard to avert the filler aspect: Sean leaves in a Beach Episode.
  • There's also another one where we're introduced to Paige's brother Dylan. And Spinner has to choose between Sean's friendship and Darcy's love in yet another.
  • All together it's not quite Once a Season but rather a lot happens at the beach considering the school year and beach season only overlap by a month or so at either end in the Great Lakes region...
• Portions of the Farscape season 4 opener "Crichton Kicks" occur on a beach... in Crichton's head... with Aeryn in a bikini... pregnant.
• In the commentary for the Stargate Atlantis episode "Sanctuary", Torri Higginson and Rachel Luttrell express a desire for a beach episode... before realizing that Rachel would almost certainly be put in Barely-There Swimwear while Torri would be way overdressed.
• South of Nowhere's "Girl's Guide to Dating" had Spencer and Ashley ditching school for the beach, and end up missing a lock-down. Doubles as a Coming Out Story.
• The Monkees. As they live in a shabby house on the beach, scenes from many episodes take place on the beach. Most notable is episode "Monkees at the Movies".
• Victorious has the cast go to a beach, but end up getting trapped in an RV.
• Skippy the Bush Kangaroo has at least one beach episode, featuring a surfing contest.
• The Batman episode "Surf's Up! Joker's Under!" features Batgirl wearing a sexy one-piece bathing suit... and Batman and the Joker wearing swim trunks over their regular suits for a surfing contest.

Video Games

• Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball and its sequel are the video game equivalent of this. Your Reward Is Clothes becomes Your Reward Is Swimsuits.
• In Persona 3, the beach segment of the game, which doubles as a vacation, in addition to fanservice, features a Robot Girl, the revelation of what the shadows really are, some of the characters coming to terms with said reveal, and, most importantly, Operation Babe Hunt!
• There is a set of "vacation" missions set in Costa Del Sol in Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core, with Fan Service for both the girls (Zack in swimming trunks) and the boys (Cissnei in a bikini). Zack even beats the crap out of giant caterpillars with an umbrella... which does just as much damage as his regular weapon!!
• Bikini Karate Babes is an entire video game made of this trope! More specifically, a large group of motion captured women get stranded on an island and have to wait for a rescue boat to come. So how do they pass the time? By fighting in front of each other. The winner gets to rip off either the top or bottom half of her opponent's bikini. Yes, this is a real game, and no, it's not very good.
• Late in Tales of Symphonia, there is a sidequest that allows you to get some beach-based alternate costumes for some of your characters. It takes a minimum of three plays to get all eight characters' costumes. In the same game, there is not one, but two Hot Springs scenes.
• Valkyria Chronicles has a feature that lets you purchase extra chapters—some are just story, some have missions that can gain you extra cash and XP. The most expensive of all of these? "Squad 7's R&R", where they all head to the beach...
• "Goodbye, Shingala", Chapter 4 of Dark Cloud 2, is set at the beachside village of Veniccio. The action segments take place in the Ocean's Roar Cave dug into the nearby cliff.
• Averted with Wii Sports Resort. While the game's events take place at an island resort, most of the events take place on land or indoors. The only ocean events are powerboating and wakeboarding, and the only event occurring on a beach is tossing a frisbee to a dog.
• Romancing SaGa 3 has Great Arc, a large tourist spot on the beach, where the heroes can get directions to Pirate Black's Treasure. The Old Man at the port holds the correct map; said old man is Pirate Black
• Super Mario Sunshine is set on the tropical Isle Delfino. Two of the stages are calm, relaxing beaches (one of which even has a hotel).
• The first level of Pokémon Snap is the Beach, where you can take pictures of unique Pokémon such as a "Surfing" Pikachu and a dancing Meowth.
• Kirby 64 The Crystal Shards: On the 3rd planet, Aqua Star, the 3rd stage is an actual beach, which, oddly enough, is after a stage featuring a freshwater river, but appropriately enough, the stage after 3-3 takes place underwater.
  • The cutscene that plays after you get a Crystal Shard from Acro, the boss of Aqua Star, shows Kirby and his friends skipping stones on the ocean.
• If you get a high enough total score in Elite Beat Agents, you can unlock a picture of the agents at the beach with some rather fanservicey material for both genders (J surfing with a dolphin, Spin playing volleyball with Missy, and Chieftain apparently checking out Foxx's body). The tenth stage is also on the beach, essentially, with lots of Gainaxing.
• Xenosaga, being a game of cutscenes, has a beach "episode" around the half-way point of Der Wille zur Macht. Also sprach Zarathustra quickly gets a scene of Shion in a bikini on the beach.
• Mega Man Star Force: The school trip to Alohaha is an example of a Beach Episode gone horribly wrong. How wrong? Criminal Wizards steal various character belongings, the Evil Duo corrupt the Wizard in charge of the environmental system, said corrupted Wizard starts an earthquake that threatens to sink the island and everyone on it, and it all ends with one villain killing three separate characters, one of which is human! She ends up okay though.
• Duke Caribbean: Life's a Beach, an expansion for Duke Nukem 3D has Duke kill aliens and inflatable sea monsters with water guns and pineapple grenades for ruining his vacacion.
• Ape Escape has a level about a third of the way through that's a beach episode for the monkeys. It's by far the easiest level in the game, as the monkeys are just lounging around, making sand-castles, playing in the water, etc rather than running around with rocket launchers and SMGs.
• The manual for Tekken 2 has Jun, Nina and Michelle chilling on the beach, complete with Nice Hat.
• Rance Quest has this as a Summer event.

Web Animation

• Bionicle has absolutely No Hugging, No Kissing, all Matoran are Asexual, the creators have never hinted at any romantic interactions between Macku and Hewkii, and they absolutely, most definitely did not dedicate an entire Beach Episode to them! And even if they did, the two certainly would not have had an Almost Kiss! I don't know where the fangirls get all these silly ideas from....

Web Comics

• The current arc in Treading Ground takes place on a beach, complete with skimpy swimsuits, jell-o wrestling, and Accidental Pervert action.
• ickle and Lardee from My Milk Toof take a trip to the swimming pool.
• Sluggy Freelance has done a couple arcs at the beach. However, those contain plot, and the closest to a gratuitous beach episode happens not for the main cast but for the mostly nameless employees of an antagonistic evil organisation. For some reason.
• Monsterful features a page of the Sexy Topaz with a sexier mermaid friend at the beach here. Plus a beach episode has been announced for later.
• Spanish webcomic ¡Eh, tío! has also a story arc in the beach. Here the author explains that this is not to attract readers, but only for pure vice.
• For about a week, Schlock Mercenary had comics with two female characters (one of whom had Gag Boobs) talking in bikinis. This was Lampshaded.
• TRU-Life Adventures gave a store refit as an excuse to send the staff to a nearby water park for a story arc.
• Present in Bittersweet Candy Bowl, although it has the excuse of being part of the Summer Arc..
• Questionable Content parodied this in the random-filler-art strip the night before the artist's wedding.
• Wapsi Square featured a brief arc on a sandbar somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle starting here.
• Issue 8 of Sonichu has a beach episode. While part of the story does drive part of the main plot, it was mostly done for the (wholly inappropriate) Fan Service.

Web Original

• Lonelygirl15, "At the Beach". Subverted in an earlier episode, "The Perfect Beach", which has an innocuous sounding description and starts cheerfully enough, only to pull a shock twist ending so severe that some fans accused the show of Jumping the Shark.
• Charlyandjosh had "Message in a bottle."

Western Animation

see Beach Episode/Western Animation

Real Life

• The U.S. 2008 Presidential Election had one of these. In between serious debates on Energy Policy, Climate Change, Terrorism, and Healthcare Reform, someone leaked a picture of President Barack Obama in a swimsuit and a media storm ensued. All serious discussions were put on hold for the day while every major news network focused on then-Senator Obama's washboard abs. Only in America.
  • And then, a couple weeks later when Sarah Palin was announced as the Republican Vice Presidential nominee, the media spent another day focused on a clearly faked picture of her in a bikini holding a gun.