Dreams

Dreams are the funny pictures you see inside your head while you are sleeping. Most of the times they involve sex. Dreams that have an adverse or frightening effect on the dreamer are referred to as nightmares. Oddly, these too are usually about sex. Dreams plays an important role in television fiction, as they provide a convenient vehicle for plot and character exposition, recapping events from previous stories and foreshadowing future events. They may also be used as filler material if a particular script does not meet the required running time for a particular episode. This technique is especially useful in the case of soap operas, which has a very regimented block of time with which to chronicle a tale depending upon weekly broadcast schedule and cast availability.

One of the most infamous and humorous use of a dream event was in the 1982-1990 comedy series Newhart. In the series finale, appropriately titled "The Last Newhart", Bob Newhart's character Dick Louden awakens at the end of the episode as Doctor Robert Hartley, his original character from The Bob Newhart Show from the 1970s. His on-screen wife from the series, Suzanne Pleshette, made a guest appearance on the episode, reprising her role from the original show as Emily Hartley. Robert Hartley tells his wife that he had a long and vivid dream that he was in charge of an in inn in Vermont, which was the premise behind Newhart.