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** Season 2:
*** "The Psychology of Letting Go": While Jeff (and Troy) try to get Pierce to understand that his mother is dead for real, Britta and Annie raise funds for and oil spill, but clash over their manner of raising said funds.
*** "Messianic Myths and Ancient Peoples": Shirley enlists Abed to direct a film about Jesus, but clash over the direction it should take. Meanwhile, Pierce hangs out with a group of Greendale Students who are closer to his age.
*** "Aerodynamics of Gender": While Annie, Shirley, and Britta use Abed to creatively insult students they do not like, Troy and Jeff come across a hidden trampoline.
*** "Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design": While Jeff and Annie investigate a professor who stood up for Jeff despite never interacting with him before, Troy and Abed build a campus wide blanket fort.
*** "Custody Law and Eastern European Diplomacy": While Shirley and Jeff butt heads over Chang being a part of Shirley's baby's life, Britta tries to tell Troy and Abed that their new friend is a war criminal.
*** "Competitive Wine Tasting": Britta and Troy take an acting class together and Troy lies about being molested because he believes that he needs trauma to be a good actor. Meanwhile, Abed faces off against a teacher who wrote a book about ''Series/WhosTheBoss'' and proves that the "boss" is Angela, and Jeff tries to prove that Pierce's new girlfriend is trying to usurp his business.
*** "The Psychology of Letting Go": While Jeff (and Troy) try to get Pierce to understand that his mother is dead for real, Britta and Annie raise funds for and oil spill, but clash over their manner of raising said funds.
*** "Messianic Myths and Ancient Peoples": Shirley enlists Abed to direct a film about Jesus, but clash over the direction it should take. Meanwhile, Pierce hangs out with a group of Greendale Students who are closer to his age.
*** "Aerodynamics of Gender": While Annie, Shirley, and Britta use Abed to creatively insult students they do not like, Troy and Jeff come across a hidden trampoline.
*** "Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design": While Jeff and Annie investigate a professor who stood up for Jeff despite never interacting with him before, Troy and Abed build a campus wide blanket fort.
*** "Custody Law and Eastern European Diplomacy": While Shirley and Jeff butt heads over Chang being a part of Shirley's baby's life, Britta tries to tell Troy and Abed that their new friend is a war criminal.
*** "Competitive Wine Tasting": Britta and Troy take an acting class together and Troy lies about being molested because he believes that he needs trauma to be a good actor. Meanwhile, Abed faces off against a teacher who wrote a book about ''Series/WhosTheBoss'' and proves that the "boss" is Angela, and Jeff tries to prove that Pierce's new girlfriend is trying to usurp his business.
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** Season 1:
*** "Spanish 101": While Jeff and Pierce are working together on dialogues for Spanish class, Annie and Shirley organize an anti-violence protest after Britta tells them about a violent incident involving a journalist in Guatemala
*** "Introduction to Film": While Jeff is trying to impress a professor in order to receive an "easy A", Abed is making a documentary based on his life.
*** "Social Psychology": While Jeff and Shirley are gossiping about Britta's boyfriend, Troy and Abed volunteer to be tests subjects for a psychology experiment.
*** "Advanced Criminal Law": While the A-plot focuses on Britta cheating on a test and Jeff using his lawyer skills to represent her, the B-plot is about Annie and Pierce working on a song for Greendale.
*** "Football, Feminism and You": While Jeff and Annie butt heads over Troy joining Greendale's football team, Pierce helps the dean design a new mascot for Greendale.
*** "Debate 109": Jeff and Annie work together to represent Greendale in a debate, while Pierce helps Britta go cold turkey on smoking using hypnotherapy.
*** "Environmental Science": While Jeff befriends Chang, Pierce helps Shirley in her public speaking class.
*** "Physical Education": While Jeff clashes with his Billards teacher, the rest of the Study Group tries to help Abed with his social skills so that he can approach a student who drew a sketch of him in a textbook.
*** "Basic Genealogy": While Jeff starts a relationship with Pierce's step daughter, Britta tries to impress Troy's grandmother and Shirley and Abed's respective families hang out.
*** "Beginner Pottery": Annie, Abed, and Jeff take up a pottery class, while the rest of the Study Group do sailing in the parking lot.
*** "The Art of Discourse": Shirley clashes with Pierce after the latter humiliates the former, while Jeff and Britta butt heads with some obnoxious high schoolers.
*** "Spanish 101": While Jeff and Pierce are working together on dialogues for Spanish class, Annie and Shirley organize an anti-violence protest after Britta tells them about a violent incident involving a journalist in Guatemala
*** "Introduction to Film": While Jeff is trying to impress a professor in order to receive an "easy A", Abed is making a documentary based on his life.
*** "Social Psychology": While Jeff and Shirley are gossiping about Britta's boyfriend, Troy and Abed volunteer to be tests subjects for a psychology experiment.
*** "Advanced Criminal Law": While the A-plot focuses on Britta cheating on a test and Jeff using his lawyer skills to represent her, the B-plot is about Annie and Pierce working on a song for Greendale.
*** "Football, Feminism and You": While Jeff and Annie butt heads over Troy joining Greendale's football team, Pierce helps the dean design a new mascot for Greendale.
*** "Debate 109": Jeff and Annie work together to represent Greendale in a debate, while Pierce helps Britta go cold turkey on smoking using hypnotherapy.
*** "Environmental Science": While Jeff befriends Chang, Pierce helps Shirley in her public speaking class.
*** "Physical Education": While Jeff clashes with his Billards teacher, the rest of the Study Group tries to help Abed with his social skills so that he can approach a student who drew a sketch of him in a textbook.
*** "Basic Genealogy": While Jeff starts a relationship with Pierce's step daughter, Britta tries to impress Troy's grandmother and Shirley and Abed's respective families hang out.
*** "Beginner Pottery": Annie, Abed, and Jeff take up a pottery class, while the rest of the Study Group do sailing in the parking lot.
*** "The Art of Discourse": Shirley clashes with Pierce after the latter humiliates the former, while Jeff and Britta butt heads with some obnoxious high schoolers.
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* ''Series/MidsomerMurders'': In "[[Recap/MidsomerMurdersS6E3 Painted in Blood]]", Troy is working on a murder and Barnaby a series of petty thefts, but the most recent theft leads to a bank robbery which helps Barnaby figure out the motive for the murder.
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Removed per cleanup.
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* In ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' and ''Franchise/PowerRangers'', most episodes revolve around two plots: A MonsterOfTheWeek and some real-life challenge for one or more of the main characters. In many cases, the two get interwoven, with the everyday plot ending up teaching one of the Rangers a [[{{Anvilicious}} valuable]] [[AnAesop lesson]] which then becomes instrumental in defeating the MonsterOfTheWeek.
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* In ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' and ''Franchise/PowerRangers'', most episodes revolve around two plots: A MonsterOfTheWeek and some real-life challenge for one or more of the main characters. In many cases, the two get interwoven, with the everyday plot ending up teaching one of the Rangers a [[{{Anvilicious}} valuable]] [[AnAesop lesson]] lesson which then becomes instrumental in defeating the MonsterOfTheWeek.
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* ''Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'' generally focused on two plots per episode. Often an episode would focus on two separate pairs of the detectives going off on totally different investigations, or had a comedic subplot for the sake of providing levity.
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* ''Series/BanjunDrama'': While most Banjun Drama episodes follow a single plot thread because of their short length, "Dangerous Love" features two threads. The A-Plot focuses on Jun-su and Chang-min as they find themselves injured and saved by a woman inside her abandoned ClosedCircle house, while the B-Plot centers around Jae-joong [[MistakenForGay mistaking Yun-ho as gay]] after being shown a romantic fanfic with Yun-ho and him.
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* ''Series/{{Castle}}'' has this as well. The A Story centers around the crime drama, and the B Story centers around Richard Castle's family drama.
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* ''Series/{{Castle}}'' ''Series/{{Castle|2009}}'' has this as well. The A Story centers around the crime drama, and the B Story centers around Richard Castle's family drama.
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* ''Series/{{Awake}}'' does this as part of the show's premise: the main detective character lives in two realities that constantly react to each other. Thus whenever he starts a case in one reality, another case (somehow linked to the first one) starts in the other, resulting in at least two plotlines per episode.
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* ''Series/{{Awake}}'' ''Series/Awake2012'' does this as part of the show's premise: the main detective character lives in two realities that constantly react to each other. Thus whenever he starts a case in one reality, another case (somehow linked to the first one) starts in the other, resulting in at least two plotlines per episode.
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* ''Series/SilentWitness'' starts using this approach from s6 onwards, with the introduction of the three-main-characters format. Typically (although there are quite a few different variations on this structure), the Lyell Centre team takes on two cases per two-parter, each primarily assigned to one pathologist, with the third backing one or both of the others up. Occasionally the cases will turn out to be connected as part of a larger plot, but usually they're entirely independent from each other.
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* ''Series/{{Warehouse 13}}'' has seemingly switched to this in Season 3. With the addition of Jinks, the pattern (so far) is that Pete and Myka search for artifact A, Claudia and Jinks search for artifact B.
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* ''Series/{{Warehouse 13}}'' has seemingly switched switches to this in Season 3. With the addition of Steve Jinks, the pattern (so far) standard episode structure is that Pete and Myka search for artifact A, A while Claudia and Jinks Steve search for artifact B.
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* While ''Series/AvataroSentaiDonbrothers'' already follows the usual ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' formula of "dealing with the MonsterOfTheWeek while life-challenges ensue," The general narrative of this season is also split in two: The show flips between (and occasionally merges) the Donbrothers' battles with the Noto over the fate of the Hitotsu-Ki monsters and distant member Inu Brother's independent search for his lost girlfriend - which plunges him headfirst into TheConspiracy surrounding [[spoiler: the body-copying Juto that took her away one year before the show began, causing his FrameUp]].
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** ''Series/AvataroSentaiDonbrothers'' exaggerates this. While ''Donbrothers'' follows the usual formula of "dealing with the MonsterOfTheWeek while life-challenges ensue," The general narrative of this season is also split in two: The show flips between (and occasionally merges) the Donbrothers' battles with the Noto over the fate of the Hitotsu-Ki monsters and distant member Inu Brother's independent search for his lost girlfriend - which plunges him headfirst into TheConspiracy surrounding [[spoiler: the body-copying Juto that took her away one year before the show began, causing his FrameUp]].
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** ''Series/AvataroSentaiDonbrothers'' exaggerates this. While ''Donbrothers'' follows the usual formula of "dealing with the MonsterOfTheWeek while life-challenges ensue," The general narrative of this season is also split in two: The show flips between (and occasionally merges) the Donbrothers' battles with the Noto over the fate of the Hitotsu-Ki monsters and distant member Inu Brother's independent search for his lost girlfriend - which plunges him headfirst into TheConspiracy surrounding [[spoiler: the body-copying Juto that took her away one year before the show began, causing his FrameUp]].
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* ''Series/PieInTheSky'' is about a semi-retired police detective who runs a restaurant when he's not being obliged by his old boss to go and solve some mystery or other. Most episodes have a plotline focussed on his policework and another focussed on goings-on at the restaurant.
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* ''Series/PieInTheSky'' is about a semi-retired police detective who runs a restaurant when he's not being obliged by his old boss to go and solve some mystery or other. Most episodes have a plotline focussed focused on his policework police work and another focussed focusing on the goings-on at the restaurant.restaurant.
* Within ''Franchise/PowerRangers'', this happens more in the Zordon Era than in subsequent seasons. Normally, the A plot was the Rangers fighting against the Villain and/or their MonsterOfTheWeek. The B plot didn't always involve the Power Rangers in their civilian lives, but it sometimes did, starting in season 1, with Zack's birthday being the main focus of one episode. Out of all the recurring civilian characters, Bulk and Skull had the most side plots; their primary season 2 side plot in a lot of the episodes was their attempts to figure out the identities of the Power Rangers. ''Series/PowerRangersZeo'' gave them a mystery to solve in each episode, while in ''Series/PowerRangersTurbo'', it involved their job of the week.
* Within ''Franchise/PowerRangers'', this happens more in the Zordon Era than in subsequent seasons. Normally, the A plot was the Rangers fighting against the Villain and/or their MonsterOfTheWeek. The B plot didn't always involve the Power Rangers in their civilian lives, but it sometimes did, starting in season 1, with Zack's birthday being the main focus of one episode. Out of all the recurring civilian characters, Bulk and Skull had the most side plots; their primary season 2 side plot in a lot of the episodes was their attempts to figure out the identities of the Power Rangers. ''Series/PowerRangersZeo'' gave them a mystery to solve in each episode, while in ''Series/PowerRangersTurbo'', it involved their job of the week.
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** A similar problem occurred with the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "Life Support", where the A plot is a TraumaCongaLine about the slow death of popular recurring character Vedek Bareil and the B plot is a comedy storyline about Jake and Nog going on a disastrous double date. No-one realised just how bad the MoodWhiplash was until they saw it all edited together.
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** This structure is seen in ''every'' episode of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', with the notable exception of [[GrowingTheBeard the late-first-season episode]] "Duet".
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** This structure is seen in ''every'' episode of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', with the notable exception exceptions of [[GrowingTheBeard the late-first-season episode]] "Duet"."Duet" and the second-season episode "Whispers".
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* ''Series/ModernFamily'' often use this, having the family divided into smaller groups as part of their own individual plots before usually all coming together near the end. This plot structure was used of particular note in the first episode to facilitate a FirstEpisodeTwist, the show initially seems to follow 3 separate examples of a Modern Family; Phil and Claie;a Husband and Wife with 3 kids; Haley, Alex and Luke, Jay;an older man having married a younger, attractive woman; Gloria with a young son, Manny, from a previous marriage, and Mitchel and Cameron; a gay couple with a newly adopted daughter; Lily, it is not until the last act that it is revealed that Mitchel and Claire are Jay's children from a previous marriage, revealing the show as focused on one extended family.
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* ''Series/ModernFamily'' often use this, having the family divided into smaller groups as part of their own individual plots before usually all coming together near the end. This plot structure was used of particular note in the first episode to facilitate a FirstEpisodeTwist, the FirstEpisodeTwist. The show initially seems seemed to follow 3 separate examples of three different families-- a Modern Family; Phil "standard" nuclear family (Claire, Phil, and Claie;a Husband and Wife with 3 kids; their children Haley, Alex Alex, and Luke, Jay;an Luke), a blended family with [[MayDecemberRomance an older man having married a younger, attractive woman; Gloria with a young son, Manny, from a previous marriage, husband, younger wife, and Mitchel stepson]] (Jay, Gloria, and Cameron; Manny) and a gay same-sex couple with a newly an adopted daughter; Lily, it is not until daughter (Mitchell, Cameron, and Lily.) At the last act that end of the pilot, it is revealed that Mitchel and Claire and Mitchell are Jay's adult children from a previous marriage, revealing his first marriage and that the show as focused on one will follow the whole extended family.
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** Also used in the movie ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact''. Oddly, the movie's title came from the "B" plot.
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** Also used in the movie ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact''. Oddly, the movie's title came from the "B" plot.
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* ''Series/StrangerThings'': The show juggles multiple plotlines in each season, with slightly different character groupings in each before getting everyone together by the end.
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** The ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' episode "Silent Enemy." The A plot is a strong, tense plot where the Enterprise is face with an enemy that outclasses their ship in every way. The ship is boarded, lives are lost, and in order to even survive, the Enterprise has to risk blowing half the ship apart. The B plot is centered around Hoshi finding out Reed's favorite food (pineapple). HilarityEnsues, despite, you know, the ''ship endangering crisis'' going on. Needless to say, the A plot is horribly undermined by the thematic discontinuity, and gross stupidity, of the B plot.
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** The ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' episode "Silent Enemy." The A plot is a strong, tense plot where the Enterprise is face with an enemy that outclasses their ship in every way. The ship is boarded, lives are nearly lost, and in order to even survive, the Enterprise has to risk blowing half the ship apart.apart with newly-built experimental weapons. The B plot is centered around Hoshi finding out Reed's favorite food (pineapple). HilarityEnsues, despite, you know, the ''ship endangering crisis'' going on. Needless to say, the A plot is horribly undermined by the thematic discontinuity, and gross stupidity, of the B plot.
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** For much of the second season, Geralt and Ciri's plotlines are combined since they're traveling together, while Yennefer has her own separate story, which intersects with those of Cahir, Fringilla, and Tissaia. Fringilla in particular gets more focus in Season 2.
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** In its first season, the series does a very interesting bit with this in the long-[[StoryArc arc]] scenario. It has multiple long arcs -- Nikki/[[FanNickname Ikkin]], Petrelli Bros., The Bennets, Hiro's Quest, and Sylar (roughly) -- with an encapsulating long-arc. Each sub-arc gets some screen time every episode, with the emphasis (length) shifting from arc to arc. Less obvious is the title names for each episode. They're metaphoric and (usually) can apply to any and all events that occur in a single episode.
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** In its first season, the series does a very interesting bit with this in the long-[[StoryArc arc]] scenario. It has multiple long arcs -- Nikki/[[FanNickname Ikkin]], Nikki, Petrelli Bros., The Bennets, Hiro's Quest, and Sylar (roughly) -- with an encapsulating long-arc. Each sub-arc gets some screen time every episode, with the emphasis (length) shifting from arc to arc. Less obvious is the title names for each episode. They're metaphoric and (usually) can apply to any and all events that occur in a single episode.
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* ''Series/ModernFamily'' often use this, having the family divided into smaller groups as part of their own individual plots before usually all coming together near the end. This plot structure was used of particular note in the first episode to facilitate a FirstEpisodeTwist, the show initially seems to follow 3 separate examples of a Modern Family; Phil and Claie;a Husband and Wife with 3 kids; Haley, Alex and Luke, Jay;an older man having married a younger, attractive woman; Gloria with a young son, Manny, from a previous marriage, and Mitchel and Cameron; a gay couple with a newly adopted daughter; Lily, it is not until the last act that it is revealed that Mitchel and Claire are Jay's children from a previous marriage, revealing the show as focused on one extended family.
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* ''Series/SquidGame'': The A-plot follows Gi-hun and the other players playing the games. The B-plot features CowboyCop Jun-ho going undercover among the guards and finding out more information about the games (for the audience's benefit).
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** ''Series/TheOtherKingdom'': A majority of the episodes have an A-plot with fairy princess Astral experiencing how humans live as Devon's exchange student and recording her life lesson reports in her crystal, along with a B-plot story centered in Athenia, particularly centered around British exchange student Winston Percival Althazar, who was supposed to be Devon's original exchange student but ended up in Athenia. And he has to adjust to his new life in Athenia and learn to stand up for himself and care about nature and the kingdom's inhabitants.
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* Each episode of ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun'' usually goes with an A-story centering on Dick, and a B-story featuring another character.
* Perfected by ''Series/TwentyFour''. After all, it ''is'' the {{Trope Namer|s}} for TrappedByMountainLions.
* ''Series/{{Angel}}'':
** Season 2 indulged in this a fair amount midway through its run, as Angel would fire Cordelia, Wesley, and Gunn from Angel Investigations so he could fight off Wolfram & Hart, Darla, and Drusilla by himself without being tethered down by their objections to his underhandedness. As a result, several episodes feature plots of Angel dealing with whatever the law firm had planned while Cordelia, Wesley, and Gunn continued to [[WeHelpTheHelpless help the helpless]] without him, with the two groups rarely intersecting outside of a single scene at a time. This is rectified in "[[{{Recap/AngelS02E16Epiphany}} Epiphany]]" when Angel realizes that he had been going at things in the wrong way and sets out to make amends with his friends.
** The latter portion of Season 3 would dip into this after Wesley gets kicked out of the group for stealing Connor, with much of his screentime spent on the developing relationship between him and Lilah Morgan. He begins to interact with the group again at points in Season 4 (as seen when he rescues Angel from the bottom of the ocean or helps Fred in her vendetta against her old professor) before he rejoins the team officially midway through the season.
* ''Series/{{Awake}}'' does this as part of the show's premise: the main detective character lives in two realities that constantly react to each other. Thus whenever he starts a case in one reality, another case (somehow linked to the first one) starts in the other, resulting in at least two plotlines per episode.
* ''Series/BabylonFive'': This trope was so prevalent on the show that episodes with only one plot line really stand out, whereas at times the viewer could get up to an ''F'' plot to keep track of. One big example of a single plot episode is the fourth season episode "Intersections in Real Time," which focused exclusively on Sheridan [[spoiler: being tortured by [=EarthForce=]]].
* ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'' always has at least three storylines, and sometimes as many as five.
* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'': After Amy and Bernadette joined the cast, there were several episodes that featured one storyline for the men and one for the women with little if any overlap.
%%* ''Series/TheBill'' often does this.
* This became the standard for ''Series/BlakesSeven''. With several main characters the writers needed to find something for all of them to do, and so the plot would often split up into two lines: the first for the ones who make planetfall Down There, and the other for the ones who run into trouble Up There on the ''Liberator'' (and later on ''Scorpio'').
* Happened quite a lot in ''Series/BostonLegal'', as different characters are taking different cases, usually with one case being the serious one with a CharacterFilibuster or AuthorFilibuster in it, and the other case being the slightly light-hearted one (usually involved Denny Crane).
* In ''Series/BoyMeetsWorld'', most episodes had an A plotline with Cory, Shawn and Topanga and a B plotline with Eric (and Jack starting in season 5 and Rachel starting in season 6), though this varied a good bit. In many of the later season episodes [[MoodWhiplash one plotline was serious while one was comedic]].
** In ''Series/GirlMeetsWorld'', the A plot is about Riley, Maya, Farkle, and Lucas and the B plot about Topanga and Auggie; Cory could be in either one or both.
* ''Series/BurnNotice'' does this in practically every single episode. One storyline will involve tracking down the people who burned Michael or, in season 5 [[spoiler: whoever framed him for murder]]. This will invariably bring Michael one step closer, but won't result in a major development unless the episode is a season finale. The other will be generally involve saving an innocent victim from the MonsterOfTheWeek. Seriously, this formula is used so consistently, one has to wonder how none of the characters ever [[GenreBlindness seem to notice that its happening]].
* ''Series/{{Castle}}'' has this as well. The A Story centers around the crime drama, and the B Story centers around Richard Castle's family drama.
* Very common in ''Series/{{Chuck}}'' - the A story revolved around Chuck, Sarah and Casey, while the B story revolved around Chuck's friends at Buy More.
* Most episodes of ''Series/TheCloser'' have the investigation as the A plot and something involving Johnson's personal life as the B plot. Usually they're tied together thematically and/or the B plot provides the weekly EurekaMoment. In addition, the B plots often stretch for more than one episode.
* ''Series/{{Community}}'' sometimes has subplots spanning every member of the study group. If there are two friends in an A plot (say Jeff and Britta), some of the other members (Abed and Troy for example) will have a B plot together.
* ''Series/CornerGas'':
** The series has two or three storylines per episode, which is merely one of the reasons it's often compared to ''Seinfeld''. Its larger main cast (more than four) divides up pretty evenly among the storylines. This is most interesting when the divvying of the storylines ''doesn't'' happen according to the common pattern (the two police officers, the old married couple, the gas station workers--Hank functions as a wildcard, who may have his own storyline like a Good Hair Day).
** "The Littlest Yarbo" where Hank discusses his plot, and Brent randomly starts talking about his own:
--->'''Hank''': Maybe Series/TheLittlestHobo was the first ever reality show, did you ever think of that?\\
'''Brent''': Hold on here! If I can see my logo, then her logo is on the outside all the while giving her free advertising!\\
'''Wanda''': Come on, guys! I can only handle one weird obsession at a time!
* Lampshaded on ''Series/CougarTown'' which usually sticks to A and B-plots but occasionally works in a C as well. When they are trying to think of a name for Bobby's (landlocked) boat, one suggestion is ''The Sea Story'' because "everything that happens on this boat is kind of a [[{{Pun}} sea story]]".
* ''Series/CriminalMinds'' has done this on a few occasions, most notably in "Damaged" when the main story saw Morgan, Prentiss and JJ help Rossi solve his cold case, with the "B" story featuring Hotch and Reid interview a serial killer looking for a way to stave off execution.
* This device is used in the various ''Series/{{CSI}}'' shows (although much more often in the original than the spinoffs), and others in the current crop. Occasionally the characters will find out halfway through the episode that the [[WorkingTheSameCase crimes they are investigating are tied together.]] Some episodes pull this off better than others.
* Season 2 of ''Series/{{Daredevil|2015}}'' is pretty evenly split between the Punisher and Elektra storylines.
* The Canadian drama series ''Series/DaVincisInquest'' was cancelled in part because of this trope. At the end of the series, the main character, a coroner living in Vancouver, successfully announces his bid to become the Mayor of the city. In the spin-off/sequel, ''Da Vinci's City Hall'', the story balances the problems he has while in office, his quest to get a "red light district" up and running, his bid to create safe-injection sites for drug users, the trials and tribulations of his former partner working at the city morgue, events happening at a police station...if you missed one episode, you were lost. The show suffered in the ratings, and was cancelled as a result (although there may have been other motives).
* ''Series/DawsonsCreek'' always had more than one storyline but for much of the post HighSchool 5th and 6th seasons (especially the latter), interaction between the storylines was minimal, or non-existent.
* ''Series/DesperateHousewives'' usually has 5 plots running simultaneously; one for each of the four main housewives and one involving the season's BigBad or creepy/mysterious neighbor. These plotlines will mesh in the big catastrophe episodes, but generally stay apart.
* Very recurring on any sitcom on Creator/DisneyChannel does this:
** ''Series/LizzieMcGuire'' consistently used Lizzie and her friends as the "A" Story, and her little brother Matt doing something for the "B" Story.
** ''Series/ShakeItUp''. Usually there is one plot with Cece and Rocky, and Rocky's brother Ty, Deuce and Flynn have a plot. They may or may not intersect, and minor characters Gunther and Tinka may appear in both.
** ''Series/ThatsSoRaven'': Raven, Chelsea and Eddie in the A-Plot and Cory and Victor in the B-Plot.
** ''Series/HannahMontana'': Lilly/Hannah in the A-Plot, Jackson and/or Rico in the B-Plot. Oliver and Robbie Ray can be in one or both.
** ''Series/GoodLuckCharlie'': Teddy and Ivy in the A-Plot. PJ, Gabe or Bob in the B-Plot.
** ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace'' has Alex and Harper and Justin in the A-plot, and Max and the parents in the B-plot.
** ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody'' have Zack and Cody in the A-plot, and London and Maddie in the B-plot. The twins are joined by Marcus and Woody in the A-Plot, whereas London and Bailey are in the B-plot on ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOnDeck''. Moseby and Carey can be in either one.
** ''Series/SonnyWithAChance'': Sonny and Chad and/or Tawni in the A-Plot, [[ThoseTwoGuys Grady and Nico]] in the B-Plot. Zora may intercede in either, or just spend the time being weird.
** ''Series/ZekeAndLuther'': The title characters plus Kojo and Ozzie in the A-plot, Ginger in the B-plot (before she left the show), when she's not the antagonist in the A-plot.
** ''Series/ImInTheBand'': The only consistent was that Tripp is in the A-plot.
** ''Series/{{Jessie}}'': Jessie and two of the kids in the A-plot; Bertram and the other two kids in the B-plot.
** ''Series/ANTFarm'': Chyna, Olive, and Fletcher in the A-plot; Cameron or Angus in the B-plot. Lexi can be in either one, and Paisley is almost always in Lexi's plot.
** ''Series/AustinAndAlly'': Almost always Austin and Ally in the A plot, with Trish and Dez in the B plot.
** ''Series/LabRats'': Tends to vary. Usually, it's one plot for two of the Rats and another for the third Rat and Leo. With the adults it's usually Donald or Douglas in one plot and Perry in the other.
** ''Series/KickinIt'': Jack and Kim are the A-plot; Jerry, Eddie, and Milton are the B-plot, and Rudy the C-plot. After Eddie left, the standard formula was Jack/Jerry/Kim and Milton/Rudy.
** ''Series/CrashAndBernstein'': The title characters are the A-plot; Cleo and Amanda are the B-plot. Pesto can be either helping out the boys in the A-plot or crushing on Amanda in the B-plot.
** ''Series/MightyMed'': For season 1, the plots were mostly Kaz/Oliver A-plots and Skylar/Alan/Horace B-plots. Gus tended to be either one or the other. Season 2 had Kaz and Oliver occasionally separating and having separate plots.
** ''Series/KirbyBuckets'': Kirby, Fish, and Eli in the A-plot and Dawn and Belinda in the B-plot.
** ''Series/KCUndercover'': The plot is usually KC and Marisa in the A-plot and the rest of the cast in the B-plot; with another character (usually Ernie) making the jump to the A-plot when necessary.
** ''Series/BestFriendsWhenever'': Cyd and Shelby in the A-plot, Barry and Naldo in the B-plot, the twins are usually just causing hijinks and are more likely to be with the boys.
** ''Series/GamersGuideToPrettyMuchEverything'': Conor is in the A-plot. The other three kids bounce back and forth between the two plots.
** ''Series/{{Bizaardvark}}'': Paige and Frankie are the stars of the A-plot, while Dirk and Amelia are in the B-plot. Bernie is usually bouncing back and forth between the plots. After Dirk left, Bernie became more often than not in the B-plot with Zane and Rodney in the wild-card slot.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E9TheEmptyChild "The Empty Child"]]: The Doctor and Rose split up early on, and the plot follows the two of them simultaneously during their encounters with Nancy and Captain Jack Harkness respectively.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E6Extremis "Extremis"]] switches between Missy's execution in the past, and the situation with ''[[TomeOfEldritchLore The Veritas]]'' in the present. [[spoiler:Or, rather, the Doctor watching the recording of the last several hours of the Prophets of Truth's most recent simulation while guarding the Vault in the present day.]]
** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E5FugitiveOfTheJudoon Fugitive of the Judoon]]" splits up the Doctor and the companions early to incorporate two plots. The Doctor has the A plot, where she gets info about the titular fugitive. Graham, Ryan and Yaz have a B plot, where [[spoiler: Jack Harkness returns and kidnaps them]] to give the Doctor cryptic information.
* ''Series/{{Elementary}}'' works and develops its story arc and characters this way. Even exposed in the [[WordOfGod writer's twitter]] as we can see [[https://twitter.com/ELEMENTARYStaff/status/351808007094550529 here]].
* Exception: ''Series/EverybodyLovesRaymond'' is unique in the sense that every episode followed one storyline, there were no subplots. Yet it was still very successful and ran for nine seasons. They did have minor inter-episode stories as running gags, such as periodically reverting to the arguments between Marie and Frank (over things like what constitutes something as "fork-split", who will die first and what the remaining one will do, etc.) throughout the episode.
* ''Series/FamilyMatters'' generally had an A-story centering on the children and a B-story centering on the parents. However, being a KidCom, the children's storylines were predictably far more interesting than the parents' storylines.
* ''Series/FantasyIsland'' juggles three or more plotlines per episode. In fact, the plotlines even have separate titles in the credits, and usually different writers. In fact, when it was offered up in syndication, the series had two formats, the original one hour episodes as well as an EditedForSyndication half hour format featuring only one story and Roarke's opening greeting "My dear guests, I am Mr. Roarke, your host" dubbed to "My dear guest, I am Mr. Roarke, your host".
* In documentary TV, each ''The First 48'' episode tracks two murder investigations, each in a different city and having nothing to do with each other.
* ''Series/{{Frasier}}'':
** The majority of the episodes have this structure. Typically, there's the main A plot and the secondary B plot, one of them focusing on Frasier and the other on one of the four other major characters. The main plot isn't necessarily about Frasier, though: Niles especially gets plenty of A plots as his character becomes more rounded.
** One episode ("Death and the Dog", Season 4) hanging a lampshade on it. The events of the episode are being told as a WholeEpisodeFlashback to a caller, and Roz wonders why Frasier is telling the caller about her date in the episode.
* ''Series/{{Friends}}'' does this quite often, usually preferring the three-storyline model. The relationships between the characters allowed some fluidity in the pairings.
** "The One Where They're Going to Party" - Ross, Chandler, and Joey in Plot A, Monica and Rachel in Plot B, and Phoebe in Plot C.
** "The One Where Ross and Rachel... You Know" - Ross and Rachel in Plot A, Monica and Phoebe in Plot B, and Chandler and Joey in Plot C.
** Particularly in later seasons, episodes frequently split along with the {{Ship|ping}}s: Ross and Rachel, Chandler and Monica, Phoebe and an outside cast member or love interest (Duncan, Eric, Mike, and so forth.)
** "The One with the Routine" had Monica, Ross, Joey, and guest character Janine in Plot A, with Chandler, Phoebe, and Rachel in Plot B; "The One with the Blackout" had Chandler by himself in Story B, while everybody else was in Story A.
** "The One Where They're Up All Night" featured a whopping number of four storylines: Ross and Joey, Chandler and Monica, Rachel and Tag, and Phoebe vs. the fire alarm.
* Invoked and enforced in the China-produced ''God of War Zhao Zilong'', which attempts to spin a new take on ''Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms'' with the focus on Zhao Yun, basically turning it into a typical idol drama running parallel with ''Romance'' since Zhao Yun shouldn't be in the corresponding chapters of ''Three Kingdoms'' yet. The best example would be the three masters who trained Zhao Yun before heading to the war front, joining the armies of Yuan Shao, and sadly [[TheWorfEffect falling in combat against Hua Xiong.]] After word of their death reaches Zhao Yun, Hua Xiong ends up facing [[UnderestimatingBadassery a certain newcomer to the war front by the name of Guan Yu...]] [[CurbStompBattle and word of the result of that reaches home a little faster.]] Zhao Yun learns from all this just how much further he has to go, and how much tougher he needs to be.
* ''Series/GoOn'' does this in most episodes, generally with one plot centering around Ryan King, and another plot focusing on someone else from the support group.
* ''Series/GreysAnatomy'' does this in a way similar to ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' but usually a lot less contrived and there is almost always a real struggle with morality that Meredith references when she does the voice over in the beginning and end of an episode. If the plots are too separated, the writers link it together with a more broad aesop... like "trust your closest friends" or something. Clever!
* On ''Series/{{Haven}}'', especially in seasons 1 and 2, there typically was an A-plot with Audrey and Nathan investigating a Trouble(superpower) related crime and a B-plot with Duke, sometimes intersecting with the A-plot (often Duke would find himself involved in the Trouble somehow), and sometimes a C-plot involving finding Audrey's past. As the other characters were fleshed out more, there started being a C-plot involving the Teagues, Dwight and/or the Guard. In season 5, there usually is an A-plot with one character and [[spoiler: Mara]] and a B-plot involving the other characters dealing with a Trouble.
* After the first few series, ''Series/{{Heartbeat}}'' always divided its episodes between an A plot of the police investigating something serious and a comedy B plot of whoever the LovableRogue was at the time (Greengrass, Vernon or Peggy, or occasionally their supporting cast if they weren't in the episode) getting involved in some sort of light-hearted shenanigans.
* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'':
** In its first season, the series does a very interesting bit with this in the long-[[StoryArc arc]] scenario. It has multiple long arcs -- Nikki/[[FanNickname Ikkin]], Petrelli Bros., The Bennets, Hiro's Quest, and Sylar (roughly) -- with an encapsulating long-arc. Each sub-arc gets some screen time every episode, with the emphasis (length) shifting from arc to arc. Less obvious is the title names for each episode. They're metaphoric and (usually) can apply to any and all events that occur in a single episode.
** Later seasons tried similar juggling, but [[KudzuPlot balls got dropped]], and things [[RandomEventsPlot sprang out of nowhere]] and ''didn't'' always connect to the other threads. The last season got back on track (though not ''quite'' as adept - there wasn't room for ''everything'' to prove terribly important, and characters went absent longer than they would in S1, but it was a marked improvement), but not in time to save the show.
* ''Series/{{House}}'':
** The series often has this (particularly in the last few seasons), where plot A is the current medical drama and there's usually one or two sub-plots concerning House messing with his team and/or Wilson and/or Cuddy (or vice versa). Less frequently, an episode would have two medical plots: one case involving the entire team, and another that House would solve on his own. The second type becomes more common in the first few seasons where House has a minor recurring clinic case that often provides him with the inspiration to solve to main case.
** "One Day, One Room" has no medical mystery. Instead, it follows House treating a pregnant rape victim who refuses an abortion, while Cameron tries to help a dying homeless man who refuses treatment.
* ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'':
** The A Story usually runs through Ted, while the B Story tends to involve the stable couple of Marshall and Lily. Barney and Robin sometimes end up in their own plotlines, but are more often part of the A Story or B Story.
** Season 5 places the main focus away from Ted more often than not; Barney and Robin's romantic subplot takes up most of the first half of the season, Robin and Don take up the second half, with Marshall and Lily's attempts at having a baby the standard B-plot. Ted himself rarely stars, but is always the FramingDevice.
* ''Intervention'' follows two families coping with addictions, cutting back and forth.
* ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'' usually begins with the gang getting to an argument and then splitting off into two or three groups with different objectives as the result of the argument, which form the plots of the episode. The entire concept is [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in "The Gang Exploit the Mortgage Crisis" which begins with Dee and Frank explaining their individual schemes and the rest of the gang actually voting on which plot they want to be a part of.
* ''Series/JeevesAndWooster'' would quite often have two separate plotlines that Bertie Wooster got involved in. This was due the screenwriter, Clive Exton, often combining two different short stories into one episode.
* ''Series/KamenRiderOOO'', a season of Franchise/KamenRider with RuleOfThree as its central premise, would often advertise its unique concept of ''Three'' Lines No Waiting across every two episodes, complete with a PreviouslyOn segment recounting "these three things" - as the series went on, they would often separate a plotline's cause and effect to make up the number.
* One particularly memorable ''Series/LawAndOrder'' episode actually screwed with the long established premise of one case, one episode, by showing a day in the life of the police officers and their relations with the [=DA=]s. Rather than the one case followed from crime to verdict, one principal case is brought up, and several other minor cases crop up to plague the detective's concentration.
* Most episodes of ''Series/LieToMe'' involve two different investigations going on at the same time. In a standard episode Cal and Ria will be investigating a death or a murder while Gillian and Eli are investigating a scandal.
* ''Series/{{Lost}}'':
** The series does a variant on this in every episode: one {{Backstory}}-revealing plot told in a series of {{FlashBack}}s, usually thematically related to the primary "present day" plot. By the first half of the fifth season, the flashbacks are gone and instead the episodes are split between the group of people on the island and the Oceanic Six. The second half retrieves the flashback format, but abandons the "two present day stories" for, at-episode 10, 12, and 13 are centered on only a single plotline, 11 only features a brief scene from another, and 14's b plot is only a few scenes at the start and end.
** In a number of episodes, there's not only the FlashBack and the "present day" plot but also a ''secondary'' "present day" plot that's more lighthearted and features the leftover characters. There have been cases of people playing golf and table tennis, and Hurley & Sawyer tracking then squashing a noisy frog (seriously).
** Most of season six has three plot-lines per episode: two of the Island groups are featured, along with a story set in an alternate universe where 815 never crashed.
%%* ''Series/TheLoveBoat''
* ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'' did this every episode, typically with three storylines running at once or more. The most common one was the A Story being about Malcolm and one other family member, and the other stories revolving around the other family members and Francis always had his own story, until he [[DemotedToExtra became a part-time cast member]].
* This became increasingly common in later seasons of ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'', with some members of the cast getting involved in their own side adventures away from the main plot.
* The delicate balancing of sitcom hijinks and medical/war drama seen throughout ''Series/{{MASH}}'' appeared to be a little too much for the writers to handle in the last few seasons, so instead every episode was given two storylines, one funny and one serious. It was rather obvious that they were putting all their effort into the serious storylines and the "funny" storylines tended to fall flat as a result.
* Used in nearly every episode of ''Series/TheMentalist''. Plot A follows Jane with the murder mystery and whoever happens to be his sidekick this week, usually Lisbon or Cho. Plot B follows the more exciting cop business with Rigsby and his sidekick of the week. Sometimes the plots are related, and sometimes they're not.
* ''Series/MySoCalledLife'' usually had a B story involving Angela's parents, thanks to child labor laws (Clare Danes and Devon Gummersall couldn't be in every scene of the show).
* Over in non-fiction land, ''Series/MythBusters'' does this too. Partially justified in that a single myth is generally too short to provide a sixty minute (including commercials) show. However, it is the presentation of each myth in parts that qualifies ''Series/MythBusters'' as an example.
* Every episode of season one of ''Series/NaturallySadie'' would have one 'Sadie' plot and one 'Rain' plot, except one where the plots merged. This was less common for the second and third season.
* This happens pretty often in ''Series/NewTricks''. Sandra normally goes off with one other member of the team about a quarter through the episode, with the other two members going off on their own plotline as well. Sometimes there are even three plotlines in one episode.
* Recurring on Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} shows:
** ''Series/ICarly'': Carly/Sam/Freddie A plot, Spencer (and later Gibby) B-Plot. Formula for dozens of episodes. Occasionally one of the trio jumps into Spencer's plot whilst the other two deal with the A-plot.
** ''Series/{{Victorious}}'': Tori in the A-Plot, and a B-Plot which uses cast not required for the A-Plot. Trina is often what the b-plot revolves around.
** Carly and Victorious have later a crossover special, leading to an epic 10 Lines, No Waiting: Carly's time with Steven, Tori's time with Steven(which later intertwine), Andre and later Kenan trying to catch the panda, Robbie/Rex in an epic rap battle, Cat having to use a headband to talk, Trina babysitting for Lane, Sikowitz trying to scare Beck, Spencer, Beck, Jade and Sikowitz in the hot tub, Sinjin video game surfing, and Gibby trying to find his mole. Eventually all the plots build into one another leading to everyone singing karaoke.
** ''Series/DrakeAndJosh'': The titular brothers in the A-Plot, Megan in a B-Plot when not directly involved in screwing up the A-Plot for the boys.
** ''Series/{{Zoey 101}}'': Same thing as Victorious except Zoey in place of Tori.
** ''Series/NedsDeclassifiedSchoolSurvivalGuide'': A-plot with the main character that may involve one of his friends, and a B-plot that involves the other friend (or two B-plots when Ned is alone in the A-plot).
** ''Series/TheThundermans'': Phoebe and Max in the A-Plot; Nora and Billy in the B-Plot. The parents can be in either one, but tend to more often be in the B-plot. Occasionally Phoebe and Max are in separate plots, with Phoebe almost always getting the main plot in that case and Max interacting with his younger siblings. For the supporting cast, Cherry is always in Phoebe's plot, Dr. Colosso in the Max or Nora/Billy plot, and Chloe in the Nora/Billy plot.
** ''Series/HenryDanger'': Henry/Ray/Charlotte A-Plot; Jasper/Piper B-Plot. Schwoz is usually involved providing support in the A-Plot and Henry and Piper's parents in the B-Plot.
** ''Series/NickyRickyDickyAndDawn'': The plot usually split the quadruplets four ways, with Dawn usually being in the A-Plot and the rest varying.
** ''Series/GameShakers'': Usually has Babe and Kenzie in the A-plot, Trip and Dub in the B-plot, and Hudson going back and forth between the two.
* ''Series/NorthernExposure'' typically has three or four plotlines per episode.
* This was the basic storytelling method in the first season of ''Series/OnceUponATime''. Every episode featured a story in the cursed community of Storybrooke and a story in the past of the Enchanted Forest, with the flashback story usually shedding narrative light on the characters in Storybrooke. The second season added a [[ThirdLineSomeWaiting third plot thread]].
* HBO's ''Series/{{Oz}}'' featured several continuing plotlines in more of a serial format (starting and ending with the season), as well as single-episode plots.
* ''Series/PieInTheSky'' is about a semi-retired police detective who runs a restaurant when he's not being obliged by his old boss to go and solve some mystery or other. Most episodes have a plotline focussed on his policework and another focussed on goings-on at the restaurant.
* ''Series/PushingDaisies'' usually only has one actual murder mystery per episode, but there are other personal plots for the characters to deal with at the same time. In some of the later episodes, two of the main characters would investigate the case while the others had something else to do.
* Often seen in the British mystery series ''Series/RumpoleOfTheBailey''. A typical ''Rumpole'' episode involves two plots: the case of the week Rumpole is defending, and a plot involving either some intrigue back in chambers or some intrigue in Rumpole's household.
* ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' does this often, and tries to tie them together in a central theme at the end. "It's hard living life... whether it's giving birth on a sinking submarine... eating a fellow doctor's testicles... or just plain sitting around at home in your jammies, smearing baked beans on the TV."
** In "My Waste of Time", J.D. {{lampshade|Hanging}}d this practice by saying his moral out loud in front of others after having an epiphany:
--->'''Dr. Cox:''' What in the hell are you talking about?\\
'''J.D.:''' Oh, I'm just doing this thing where I use a slice of wisdom from someone else's life to solve a problem in my own life.\\
'''Jordan:''' Seems coincidental.\\
'''J.D.:''' And yet I do it almost every week.
** In some commentaries and interviews on ''Scrubs'' DVD sets, it is mentioned that Creator/BillLawrence's parents found it hard to keep up with the multiple storylines.
** "My Lunch" has a high drama factor. The A plot deals with organ transplants to several patients, almost all of whom won't survive without immediate surgery. The B plot consists of [[MoodWhiplash Carla and Elliot trying to convince Todd that he should admit to being gay, leading to him harassing both male and female characters from that point on.]]
* ''Series/{{Seacht}}'' seems to be doing this with Decko, whose interaction with the rest of the cast has so far been minimal.
* ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' perfected this tactic, with a twist. The two story lines would turn out to be physically (not just thematically) interrelated through some absurd coincidence or twist. Creator/LarryDavid has mentioned in several DVD commentaries that he had the idea to interweave the separate plotlines early on in the show's run, but didn't perfect the practice until Season 4.
* ''Series/TheShield'' usually runs three police plots (the Strike Team, Dutch and Wimms, Danni and Julien), plus Macky's private and Aceveda's political lives, with plotlines crossing and merging.
* Very common in ''Franchise/StarTrek'' spin-offs.
** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'''s early seasons suffered badly from a sense that the writers felt ''obligated'' to have multiple plotlines, and events that should have been the centerpiece of an entire episode were relegated to the B-story (''e.g.'', the re-introduction of the Romulans). Through the remainder of the series there was usually one plot line where the Enterprise was in danger even if it only came up in a few scenes.
** A later-season Next Generation example is the episode "Disaster", which leaves various characters stranded in different parts of the ship and unable to communicate and each dealing with their own problems, leading to five distinct storylines:
*** Troi, Ro, and O'Brien on the bridge, trying to solve the crisis without the ability to communicate with the rest of the ship.
*** Data and Riker trying to reach Engineering. (This would eventually intersect with the bridge plot, the only two storylines in this episode to do so)
*** Picard trapped in a turbolift with three schoolchildren
*** Beverly and Geordi in the cargo bay
*** Worf treating patients, including a laboring Keiko O'Brien, in Ten-Forward
** The ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' episode "Silent Enemy." The A plot is a strong, tense plot where the Enterprise is face with an enemy that outclasses their ship in every way. The ship is boarded, lives are lost, and in order to even survive, the Enterprise has to risk blowing half the ship apart. The B plot is centered around Hoshi finding out Reed's favorite food (pineapple). HilarityEnsues, despite, you know, the ''ship endangering crisis'' going on. Needless to say, the A plot is horribly undermined by the thematic discontinuity, and gross stupidity, of the B plot.
** This structure is seen in ''every'' episode of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', with the notable exception of [[GrowingTheBeard the late-first-season episode]] "Duet".
** Also used in the movie ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact''. Oddly, the movie's title came from the "B" plot.
* In ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' and ''Franchise/PowerRangers'', most episodes revolve around two plots: A MonsterOfTheWeek and some real-life challenge for one or more of the main characters. In many cases, the two get interwoven, with the everyday plot ending up teaching one of the Rangers a [[{{Anvilicious}} valuable]] [[AnAesop lesson]] which then becomes instrumental in defeating the MonsterOfTheWeek.
* ''Series/TrueBlood'' is setup like this. The main story is usually focused on Sookie and Bill. Sam and Tara have their own subplots which cross with each other and Sookie's from time to time. Lafayette and Andy show up regularly with their own problems, but not as much time is dedicated to them. Meanwhile Jason is off doing his own thing.
* ''Series/{{Warehouse 13}}'' has seemingly switched to this in Season 3. With the addition of Jinks, the pattern (so far) is that Pete and Myka search for artifact A, Claudia and Jinks search for artifact B.
* ''Series/TheWestWing'' does this a lot, and also frequently juggles three or more storylines per episode.
* ''Series/TheWitcher2019'' utilized this during its first season, showing Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri's stories concurrently, even when they were happening ''decades'' apart.
----
* Perfected by ''Series/TwentyFour''. After all, it ''is'' the {{Trope Namer|s}} for TrappedByMountainLions.
* ''Series/{{Angel}}'':
** Season 2 indulged in this a fair amount midway through its run, as Angel would fire Cordelia, Wesley, and Gunn from Angel Investigations so he could fight off Wolfram & Hart, Darla, and Drusilla by himself without being tethered down by their objections to his underhandedness. As a result, several episodes feature plots of Angel dealing with whatever the law firm had planned while Cordelia, Wesley, and Gunn continued to [[WeHelpTheHelpless help the helpless]] without him, with the two groups rarely intersecting outside of a single scene at a time. This is rectified in "[[{{Recap/AngelS02E16Epiphany}} Epiphany]]" when Angel realizes that he had been going at things in the wrong way and sets out to make amends with his friends.
** The latter portion of Season 3 would dip into this after Wesley gets kicked out of the group for stealing Connor, with much of his screentime spent on the developing relationship between him and Lilah Morgan. He begins to interact with the group again at points in Season 4 (as seen when he rescues Angel from the bottom of the ocean or helps Fred in her vendetta against her old professor) before he rejoins the team officially midway through the season.
* ''Series/{{Awake}}'' does this as part of the show's premise: the main detective character lives in two realities that constantly react to each other. Thus whenever he starts a case in one reality, another case (somehow linked to the first one) starts in the other, resulting in at least two plotlines per episode.
* ''Series/BabylonFive'': This trope was so prevalent on the show that episodes with only one plot line really stand out, whereas at times the viewer could get up to an ''F'' plot to keep track of. One big example of a single plot episode is the fourth season episode "Intersections in Real Time," which focused exclusively on Sheridan [[spoiler: being tortured by [=EarthForce=]]].
* ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'' always has at least three storylines, and sometimes as many as five.
* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'': After Amy and Bernadette joined the cast, there were several episodes that featured one storyline for the men and one for the women with little if any overlap.
%%* ''Series/TheBill'' often does this.
* This became the standard for ''Series/BlakesSeven''. With several main characters the writers needed to find something for all of them to do, and so the plot would often split up into two lines: the first for the ones who make planetfall Down There, and the other for the ones who run into trouble Up There on the ''Liberator'' (and later on ''Scorpio'').
* Happened quite a lot in ''Series/BostonLegal'', as different characters are taking different cases, usually with one case being the serious one with a CharacterFilibuster or AuthorFilibuster in it, and the other case being the slightly light-hearted one (usually involved Denny Crane).
* In ''Series/BoyMeetsWorld'', most episodes had an A plotline with Cory, Shawn and Topanga and a B plotline with Eric (and Jack starting in season 5 and Rachel starting in season 6), though this varied a good bit. In many of the later season episodes [[MoodWhiplash one plotline was serious while one was comedic]].
** In ''Series/GirlMeetsWorld'', the A plot is about Riley, Maya, Farkle, and Lucas and the B plot about Topanga and Auggie; Cory could be in either one or both.
* ''Series/BurnNotice'' does this in practically every single episode. One storyline will involve tracking down the people who burned Michael or, in season 5 [[spoiler: whoever framed him for murder]]. This will invariably bring Michael one step closer, but won't result in a major development unless the episode is a season finale. The other will be generally involve saving an innocent victim from the MonsterOfTheWeek. Seriously, this formula is used so consistently, one has to wonder how none of the characters ever [[GenreBlindness seem to notice that its happening]].
* ''Series/{{Castle}}'' has this as well. The A Story centers around the crime drama, and the B Story centers around Richard Castle's family drama.
* Very common in ''Series/{{Chuck}}'' - the A story revolved around Chuck, Sarah and Casey, while the B story revolved around Chuck's friends at Buy More.
* Most episodes of ''Series/TheCloser'' have the investigation as the A plot and something involving Johnson's personal life as the B plot. Usually they're tied together thematically and/or the B plot provides the weekly EurekaMoment. In addition, the B plots often stretch for more than one episode.
* ''Series/{{Community}}'' sometimes has subplots spanning every member of the study group. If there are two friends in an A plot (say Jeff and Britta), some of the other members (Abed and Troy for example) will have a B plot together.
* ''Series/CornerGas'':
** The series has two or three storylines per episode, which is merely one of the reasons it's often compared to ''Seinfeld''. Its larger main cast (more than four) divides up pretty evenly among the storylines. This is most interesting when the divvying of the storylines ''doesn't'' happen according to the common pattern (the two police officers, the old married couple, the gas station workers--Hank functions as a wildcard, who may have his own storyline like a Good Hair Day).
** "The Littlest Yarbo" where Hank discusses his plot, and Brent randomly starts talking about his own:
--->'''Hank''': Maybe Series/TheLittlestHobo was the first ever reality show, did you ever think of that?\\
'''Brent''': Hold on here! If I can see my logo, then her logo is on the outside all the while giving her free advertising!\\
'''Wanda''': Come on, guys! I can only handle one weird obsession at a time!
* Lampshaded on ''Series/CougarTown'' which usually sticks to A and B-plots but occasionally works in a C as well. When they are trying to think of a name for Bobby's (landlocked) boat, one suggestion is ''The Sea Story'' because "everything that happens on this boat is kind of a [[{{Pun}} sea story]]".
* ''Series/CriminalMinds'' has done this on a few occasions, most notably in "Damaged" when the main story saw Morgan, Prentiss and JJ help Rossi solve his cold case, with the "B" story featuring Hotch and Reid interview a serial killer looking for a way to stave off execution.
* This device is used in the various ''Series/{{CSI}}'' shows (although much more often in the original than the spinoffs), and others in the current crop. Occasionally the characters will find out halfway through the episode that the [[WorkingTheSameCase crimes they are investigating are tied together.]] Some episodes pull this off better than others.
* Season 2 of ''Series/{{Daredevil|2015}}'' is pretty evenly split between the Punisher and Elektra storylines.
* The Canadian drama series ''Series/DaVincisInquest'' was cancelled in part because of this trope. At the end of the series, the main character, a coroner living in Vancouver, successfully announces his bid to become the Mayor of the city. In the spin-off/sequel, ''Da Vinci's City Hall'', the story balances the problems he has while in office, his quest to get a "red light district" up and running, his bid to create safe-injection sites for drug users, the trials and tribulations of his former partner working at the city morgue, events happening at a police station...if you missed one episode, you were lost. The show suffered in the ratings, and was cancelled as a result (although there may have been other motives).
* ''Series/DawsonsCreek'' always had more than one storyline but for much of the post HighSchool 5th and 6th seasons (especially the latter), interaction between the storylines was minimal, or non-existent.
* ''Series/DesperateHousewives'' usually has 5 plots running simultaneously; one for each of the four main housewives and one involving the season's BigBad or creepy/mysterious neighbor. These plotlines will mesh in the big catastrophe episodes, but generally stay apart.
* Very recurring on any sitcom on Creator/DisneyChannel does this:
** ''Series/LizzieMcGuire'' consistently used Lizzie and her friends as the "A" Story, and her little brother Matt doing something for the "B" Story.
** ''Series/ShakeItUp''. Usually there is one plot with Cece and Rocky, and Rocky's brother Ty, Deuce and Flynn have a plot. They may or may not intersect, and minor characters Gunther and Tinka may appear in both.
** ''Series/ThatsSoRaven'': Raven, Chelsea and Eddie in the A-Plot and Cory and Victor in the B-Plot.
** ''Series/HannahMontana'': Lilly/Hannah in the A-Plot, Jackson and/or Rico in the B-Plot. Oliver and Robbie Ray can be in one or both.
** ''Series/GoodLuckCharlie'': Teddy and Ivy in the A-Plot. PJ, Gabe or Bob in the B-Plot.
** ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace'' has Alex and Harper and Justin in the A-plot, and Max and the parents in the B-plot.
** ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody'' have Zack and Cody in the A-plot, and London and Maddie in the B-plot. The twins are joined by Marcus and Woody in the A-Plot, whereas London and Bailey are in the B-plot on ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOnDeck''. Moseby and Carey can be in either one.
** ''Series/SonnyWithAChance'': Sonny and Chad and/or Tawni in the A-Plot, [[ThoseTwoGuys Grady and Nico]] in the B-Plot. Zora may intercede in either, or just spend the time being weird.
** ''Series/ZekeAndLuther'': The title characters plus Kojo and Ozzie in the A-plot, Ginger in the B-plot (before she left the show), when she's not the antagonist in the A-plot.
** ''Series/ImInTheBand'': The only consistent was that Tripp is in the A-plot.
** ''Series/{{Jessie}}'': Jessie and two of the kids in the A-plot; Bertram and the other two kids in the B-plot.
** ''Series/ANTFarm'': Chyna, Olive, and Fletcher in the A-plot; Cameron or Angus in the B-plot. Lexi can be in either one, and Paisley is almost always in Lexi's plot.
** ''Series/AustinAndAlly'': Almost always Austin and Ally in the A plot, with Trish and Dez in the B plot.
** ''Series/LabRats'': Tends to vary. Usually, it's one plot for two of the Rats and another for the third Rat and Leo. With the adults it's usually Donald or Douglas in one plot and Perry in the other.
** ''Series/KickinIt'': Jack and Kim are the A-plot; Jerry, Eddie, and Milton are the B-plot, and Rudy the C-plot. After Eddie left, the standard formula was Jack/Jerry/Kim and Milton/Rudy.
** ''Series/CrashAndBernstein'': The title characters are the A-plot; Cleo and Amanda are the B-plot. Pesto can be either helping out the boys in the A-plot or crushing on Amanda in the B-plot.
** ''Series/MightyMed'': For season 1, the plots were mostly Kaz/Oliver A-plots and Skylar/Alan/Horace B-plots. Gus tended to be either one or the other. Season 2 had Kaz and Oliver occasionally separating and having separate plots.
** ''Series/KirbyBuckets'': Kirby, Fish, and Eli in the A-plot and Dawn and Belinda in the B-plot.
** ''Series/KCUndercover'': The plot is usually KC and Marisa in the A-plot and the rest of the cast in the B-plot; with another character (usually Ernie) making the jump to the A-plot when necessary.
** ''Series/BestFriendsWhenever'': Cyd and Shelby in the A-plot, Barry and Naldo in the B-plot, the twins are usually just causing hijinks and are more likely to be with the boys.
** ''Series/GamersGuideToPrettyMuchEverything'': Conor is in the A-plot. The other three kids bounce back and forth between the two plots.
** ''Series/{{Bizaardvark}}'': Paige and Frankie are the stars of the A-plot, while Dirk and Amelia are in the B-plot. Bernie is usually bouncing back and forth between the plots. After Dirk left, Bernie became more often than not in the B-plot with Zane and Rodney in the wild-card slot.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E9TheEmptyChild "The Empty Child"]]: The Doctor and Rose split up early on, and the plot follows the two of them simultaneously during their encounters with Nancy and Captain Jack Harkness respectively.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E6Extremis "Extremis"]] switches between Missy's execution in the past, and the situation with ''[[TomeOfEldritchLore The Veritas]]'' in the present. [[spoiler:Or, rather, the Doctor watching the recording of the last several hours of the Prophets of Truth's most recent simulation while guarding the Vault in the present day.]]
** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E5FugitiveOfTheJudoon Fugitive of the Judoon]]" splits up the Doctor and the companions early to incorporate two plots. The Doctor has the A plot, where she gets info about the titular fugitive. Graham, Ryan and Yaz have a B plot, where [[spoiler: Jack Harkness returns and kidnaps them]] to give the Doctor cryptic information.
* ''Series/{{Elementary}}'' works and develops its story arc and characters this way. Even exposed in the [[WordOfGod writer's twitter]] as we can see [[https://twitter.com/ELEMENTARYStaff/status/351808007094550529 here]].
* Exception: ''Series/EverybodyLovesRaymond'' is unique in the sense that every episode followed one storyline, there were no subplots. Yet it was still very successful and ran for nine seasons. They did have minor inter-episode stories as running gags, such as periodically reverting to the arguments between Marie and Frank (over things like what constitutes something as "fork-split", who will die first and what the remaining one will do, etc.) throughout the episode.
* ''Series/FamilyMatters'' generally had an A-story centering on the children and a B-story centering on the parents. However, being a KidCom, the children's storylines were predictably far more interesting than the parents' storylines.
* ''Series/FantasyIsland'' juggles three or more plotlines per episode. In fact, the plotlines even have separate titles in the credits, and usually different writers. In fact, when it was offered up in syndication, the series had two formats, the original one hour episodes as well as an EditedForSyndication half hour format featuring only one story and Roarke's opening greeting "My dear guests, I am Mr. Roarke, your host" dubbed to "My dear guest, I am Mr. Roarke, your host".
* In documentary TV, each ''The First 48'' episode tracks two murder investigations, each in a different city and having nothing to do with each other.
* ''Series/{{Frasier}}'':
** The majority of the episodes have this structure. Typically, there's the main A plot and the secondary B plot, one of them focusing on Frasier and the other on one of the four other major characters. The main plot isn't necessarily about Frasier, though: Niles especially gets plenty of A plots as his character becomes more rounded.
** One episode ("Death and the Dog", Season 4) hanging a lampshade on it. The events of the episode are being told as a WholeEpisodeFlashback to a caller, and Roz wonders why Frasier is telling the caller about her date in the episode.
* ''Series/{{Friends}}'' does this quite often, usually preferring the three-storyline model. The relationships between the characters allowed some fluidity in the pairings.
** "The One Where They're Going to Party" - Ross, Chandler, and Joey in Plot A, Monica and Rachel in Plot B, and Phoebe in Plot C.
** "The One Where Ross and Rachel... You Know" - Ross and Rachel in Plot A, Monica and Phoebe in Plot B, and Chandler and Joey in Plot C.
** Particularly in later seasons, episodes frequently split along with the {{Ship|ping}}s: Ross and Rachel, Chandler and Monica, Phoebe and an outside cast member or love interest (Duncan, Eric, Mike, and so forth.)
** "The One with the Routine" had Monica, Ross, Joey, and guest character Janine in Plot A, with Chandler, Phoebe, and Rachel in Plot B; "The One with the Blackout" had Chandler by himself in Story B, while everybody else was in Story A.
** "The One Where They're Up All Night" featured a whopping number of four storylines: Ross and Joey, Chandler and Monica, Rachel and Tag, and Phoebe vs. the fire alarm.
* Invoked and enforced in the China-produced ''God of War Zhao Zilong'', which attempts to spin a new take on ''Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms'' with the focus on Zhao Yun, basically turning it into a typical idol drama running parallel with ''Romance'' since Zhao Yun shouldn't be in the corresponding chapters of ''Three Kingdoms'' yet. The best example would be the three masters who trained Zhao Yun before heading to the war front, joining the armies of Yuan Shao, and sadly [[TheWorfEffect falling in combat against Hua Xiong.]] After word of their death reaches Zhao Yun, Hua Xiong ends up facing [[UnderestimatingBadassery a certain newcomer to the war front by the name of Guan Yu...]] [[CurbStompBattle and word of the result of that reaches home a little faster.]] Zhao Yun learns from all this just how much further he has to go, and how much tougher he needs to be.
* ''Series/GoOn'' does this in most episodes, generally with one plot centering around Ryan King, and another plot focusing on someone else from the support group.
* ''Series/GreysAnatomy'' does this in a way similar to ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' but usually a lot less contrived and there is almost always a real struggle with morality that Meredith references when she does the voice over in the beginning and end of an episode. If the plots are too separated, the writers link it together with a more broad aesop... like "trust your closest friends" or something. Clever!
* On ''Series/{{Haven}}'', especially in seasons 1 and 2, there typically was an A-plot with Audrey and Nathan investigating a Trouble(superpower) related crime and a B-plot with Duke, sometimes intersecting with the A-plot (often Duke would find himself involved in the Trouble somehow), and sometimes a C-plot involving finding Audrey's past. As the other characters were fleshed out more, there started being a C-plot involving the Teagues, Dwight and/or the Guard. In season 5, there usually is an A-plot with one character and [[spoiler: Mara]] and a B-plot involving the other characters dealing with a Trouble.
* After the first few series, ''Series/{{Heartbeat}}'' always divided its episodes between an A plot of the police investigating something serious and a comedy B plot of whoever the LovableRogue was at the time (Greengrass, Vernon or Peggy, or occasionally their supporting cast if they weren't in the episode) getting involved in some sort of light-hearted shenanigans.
* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'':
** In its first season, the series does a very interesting bit with this in the long-[[StoryArc arc]] scenario. It has multiple long arcs -- Nikki/[[FanNickname Ikkin]], Petrelli Bros., The Bennets, Hiro's Quest, and Sylar (roughly) -- with an encapsulating long-arc. Each sub-arc gets some screen time every episode, with the emphasis (length) shifting from arc to arc. Less obvious is the title names for each episode. They're metaphoric and (usually) can apply to any and all events that occur in a single episode.
** Later seasons tried similar juggling, but [[KudzuPlot balls got dropped]], and things [[RandomEventsPlot sprang out of nowhere]] and ''didn't'' always connect to the other threads. The last season got back on track (though not ''quite'' as adept - there wasn't room for ''everything'' to prove terribly important, and characters went absent longer than they would in S1, but it was a marked improvement), but not in time to save the show.
* ''Series/{{House}}'':
** The series often has this (particularly in the last few seasons), where plot A is the current medical drama and there's usually one or two sub-plots concerning House messing with his team and/or Wilson and/or Cuddy (or vice versa). Less frequently, an episode would have two medical plots: one case involving the entire team, and another that House would solve on his own. The second type becomes more common in the first few seasons where House has a minor recurring clinic case that often provides him with the inspiration to solve to main case.
** "One Day, One Room" has no medical mystery. Instead, it follows House treating a pregnant rape victim who refuses an abortion, while Cameron tries to help a dying homeless man who refuses treatment.
* ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'':
** The A Story usually runs through Ted, while the B Story tends to involve the stable couple of Marshall and Lily. Barney and Robin sometimes end up in their own plotlines, but are more often part of the A Story or B Story.
** Season 5 places the main focus away from Ted more often than not; Barney and Robin's romantic subplot takes up most of the first half of the season, Robin and Don take up the second half, with Marshall and Lily's attempts at having a baby the standard B-plot. Ted himself rarely stars, but is always the FramingDevice.
* ''Intervention'' follows two families coping with addictions, cutting back and forth.
* ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'' usually begins with the gang getting to an argument and then splitting off into two or three groups with different objectives as the result of the argument, which form the plots of the episode. The entire concept is [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in "The Gang Exploit the Mortgage Crisis" which begins with Dee and Frank explaining their individual schemes and the rest of the gang actually voting on which plot they want to be a part of.
* ''Series/JeevesAndWooster'' would quite often have two separate plotlines that Bertie Wooster got involved in. This was due the screenwriter, Clive Exton, often combining two different short stories into one episode.
* ''Series/KamenRiderOOO'', a season of Franchise/KamenRider with RuleOfThree as its central premise, would often advertise its unique concept of ''Three'' Lines No Waiting across every two episodes, complete with a PreviouslyOn segment recounting "these three things" - as the series went on, they would often separate a plotline's cause and effect to make up the number.
* One particularly memorable ''Series/LawAndOrder'' episode actually screwed with the long established premise of one case, one episode, by showing a day in the life of the police officers and their relations with the [=DA=]s. Rather than the one case followed from crime to verdict, one principal case is brought up, and several other minor cases crop up to plague the detective's concentration.
* Most episodes of ''Series/LieToMe'' involve two different investigations going on at the same time. In a standard episode Cal and Ria will be investigating a death or a murder while Gillian and Eli are investigating a scandal.
* ''Series/{{Lost}}'':
** The series does a variant on this in every episode: one {{Backstory}}-revealing plot told in a series of {{FlashBack}}s, usually thematically related to the primary "present day" plot. By the first half of the fifth season, the flashbacks are gone and instead the episodes are split between the group of people on the island and the Oceanic Six. The second half retrieves the flashback format, but abandons the "two present day stories" for, at-episode 10, 12, and 13 are centered on only a single plotline, 11 only features a brief scene from another, and 14's b plot is only a few scenes at the start and end.
** In a number of episodes, there's not only the FlashBack and the "present day" plot but also a ''secondary'' "present day" plot that's more lighthearted and features the leftover characters. There have been cases of people playing golf and table tennis, and Hurley & Sawyer tracking then squashing a noisy frog (seriously).
** Most of season six has three plot-lines per episode: two of the Island groups are featured, along with a story set in an alternate universe where 815 never crashed.
%%* ''Series/TheLoveBoat''
* ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'' did this every episode, typically with three storylines running at once or more. The most common one was the A Story being about Malcolm and one other family member, and the other stories revolving around the other family members and Francis always had his own story, until he [[DemotedToExtra became a part-time cast member]].
* This became increasingly common in later seasons of ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'', with some members of the cast getting involved in their own side adventures away from the main plot.
* The delicate balancing of sitcom hijinks and medical/war drama seen throughout ''Series/{{MASH}}'' appeared to be a little too much for the writers to handle in the last few seasons, so instead every episode was given two storylines, one funny and one serious. It was rather obvious that they were putting all their effort into the serious storylines and the "funny" storylines tended to fall flat as a result.
* Used in nearly every episode of ''Series/TheMentalist''. Plot A follows Jane with the murder mystery and whoever happens to be his sidekick this week, usually Lisbon or Cho. Plot B follows the more exciting cop business with Rigsby and his sidekick of the week. Sometimes the plots are related, and sometimes they're not.
* ''Series/MySoCalledLife'' usually had a B story involving Angela's parents, thanks to child labor laws (Clare Danes and Devon Gummersall couldn't be in every scene of the show).
* Over in non-fiction land, ''Series/MythBusters'' does this too. Partially justified in that a single myth is generally too short to provide a sixty minute (including commercials) show. However, it is the presentation of each myth in parts that qualifies ''Series/MythBusters'' as an example.
* Every episode of season one of ''Series/NaturallySadie'' would have one 'Sadie' plot and one 'Rain' plot, except one where the plots merged. This was less common for the second and third season.
* This happens pretty often in ''Series/NewTricks''. Sandra normally goes off with one other member of the team about a quarter through the episode, with the other two members going off on their own plotline as well. Sometimes there are even three plotlines in one episode.
* Recurring on Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} shows:
** ''Series/ICarly'': Carly/Sam/Freddie A plot, Spencer (and later Gibby) B-Plot. Formula for dozens of episodes. Occasionally one of the trio jumps into Spencer's plot whilst the other two deal with the A-plot.
** ''Series/{{Victorious}}'': Tori in the A-Plot, and a B-Plot which uses cast not required for the A-Plot. Trina is often what the b-plot revolves around.
** Carly and Victorious have later a crossover special, leading to an epic 10 Lines, No Waiting: Carly's time with Steven, Tori's time with Steven(which later intertwine), Andre and later Kenan trying to catch the panda, Robbie/Rex in an epic rap battle, Cat having to use a headband to talk, Trina babysitting for Lane, Sikowitz trying to scare Beck, Spencer, Beck, Jade and Sikowitz in the hot tub, Sinjin video game surfing, and Gibby trying to find his mole. Eventually all the plots build into one another leading to everyone singing karaoke.
** ''Series/DrakeAndJosh'': The titular brothers in the A-Plot, Megan in a B-Plot when not directly involved in screwing up the A-Plot for the boys.
** ''Series/{{Zoey 101}}'': Same thing as Victorious except Zoey in place of Tori.
** ''Series/NedsDeclassifiedSchoolSurvivalGuide'': A-plot with the main character that may involve one of his friends, and a B-plot that involves the other friend (or two B-plots when Ned is alone in the A-plot).
** ''Series/TheThundermans'': Phoebe and Max in the A-Plot; Nora and Billy in the B-Plot. The parents can be in either one, but tend to more often be in the B-plot. Occasionally Phoebe and Max are in separate plots, with Phoebe almost always getting the main plot in that case and Max interacting with his younger siblings. For the supporting cast, Cherry is always in Phoebe's plot, Dr. Colosso in the Max or Nora/Billy plot, and Chloe in the Nora/Billy plot.
** ''Series/HenryDanger'': Henry/Ray/Charlotte A-Plot; Jasper/Piper B-Plot. Schwoz is usually involved providing support in the A-Plot and Henry and Piper's parents in the B-Plot.
** ''Series/NickyRickyDickyAndDawn'': The plot usually split the quadruplets four ways, with Dawn usually being in the A-Plot and the rest varying.
** ''Series/GameShakers'': Usually has Babe and Kenzie in the A-plot, Trip and Dub in the B-plot, and Hudson going back and forth between the two.
* ''Series/NorthernExposure'' typically has three or four plotlines per episode.
* This was the basic storytelling method in the first season of ''Series/OnceUponATime''. Every episode featured a story in the cursed community of Storybrooke and a story in the past of the Enchanted Forest, with the flashback story usually shedding narrative light on the characters in Storybrooke. The second season added a [[ThirdLineSomeWaiting third plot thread]].
* HBO's ''Series/{{Oz}}'' featured several continuing plotlines in more of a serial format (starting and ending with the season), as well as single-episode plots.
* ''Series/PieInTheSky'' is about a semi-retired police detective who runs a restaurant when he's not being obliged by his old boss to go and solve some mystery or other. Most episodes have a plotline focussed on his policework and another focussed on goings-on at the restaurant.
* ''Series/PushingDaisies'' usually only has one actual murder mystery per episode, but there are other personal plots for the characters to deal with at the same time. In some of the later episodes, two of the main characters would investigate the case while the others had something else to do.
* Often seen in the British mystery series ''Series/RumpoleOfTheBailey''. A typical ''Rumpole'' episode involves two plots: the case of the week Rumpole is defending, and a plot involving either some intrigue back in chambers or some intrigue in Rumpole's household.
* ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' does this often, and tries to tie them together in a central theme at the end. "It's hard living life... whether it's giving birth on a sinking submarine... eating a fellow doctor's testicles... or just plain sitting around at home in your jammies, smearing baked beans on the TV."
** In "My Waste of Time", J.D. {{lampshade|Hanging}}d this practice by saying his moral out loud in front of others after having an epiphany:
--->'''Dr. Cox:''' What in the hell are you talking about?\\
'''J.D.:''' Oh, I'm just doing this thing where I use a slice of wisdom from someone else's life to solve a problem in my own life.\\
'''Jordan:''' Seems coincidental.\\
'''J.D.:''' And yet I do it almost every week.
** In some commentaries and interviews on ''Scrubs'' DVD sets, it is mentioned that Creator/BillLawrence's parents found it hard to keep up with the multiple storylines.
** "My Lunch" has a high drama factor. The A plot deals with organ transplants to several patients, almost all of whom won't survive without immediate surgery. The B plot consists of [[MoodWhiplash Carla and Elliot trying to convince Todd that he should admit to being gay, leading to him harassing both male and female characters from that point on.]]
* ''Series/{{Seacht}}'' seems to be doing this with Decko, whose interaction with the rest of the cast has so far been minimal.
* ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' perfected this tactic, with a twist. The two story lines would turn out to be physically (not just thematically) interrelated through some absurd coincidence or twist. Creator/LarryDavid has mentioned in several DVD commentaries that he had the idea to interweave the separate plotlines early on in the show's run, but didn't perfect the practice until Season 4.
* ''Series/TheShield'' usually runs three police plots (the Strike Team, Dutch and Wimms, Danni and Julien), plus Macky's private and Aceveda's political lives, with plotlines crossing and merging.
* Very common in ''Franchise/StarTrek'' spin-offs.
** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'''s early seasons suffered badly from a sense that the writers felt ''obligated'' to have multiple plotlines, and events that should have been the centerpiece of an entire episode were relegated to the B-story (''e.g.'', the re-introduction of the Romulans). Through the remainder of the series there was usually one plot line where the Enterprise was in danger even if it only came up in a few scenes.
** A later-season Next Generation example is the episode "Disaster", which leaves various characters stranded in different parts of the ship and unable to communicate and each dealing with their own problems, leading to five distinct storylines:
*** Troi, Ro, and O'Brien on the bridge, trying to solve the crisis without the ability to communicate with the rest of the ship.
*** Data and Riker trying to reach Engineering. (This would eventually intersect with the bridge plot, the only two storylines in this episode to do so)
*** Picard trapped in a turbolift with three schoolchildren
*** Beverly and Geordi in the cargo bay
*** Worf treating patients, including a laboring Keiko O'Brien, in Ten-Forward
** The ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' episode "Silent Enemy." The A plot is a strong, tense plot where the Enterprise is face with an enemy that outclasses their ship in every way. The ship is boarded, lives are lost, and in order to even survive, the Enterprise has to risk blowing half the ship apart. The B plot is centered around Hoshi finding out Reed's favorite food (pineapple). HilarityEnsues, despite, you know, the ''ship endangering crisis'' going on. Needless to say, the A plot is horribly undermined by the thematic discontinuity, and gross stupidity, of the B plot.
** This structure is seen in ''every'' episode of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', with the notable exception of [[GrowingTheBeard the late-first-season episode]] "Duet".
** Also used in the movie ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact''. Oddly, the movie's title came from the "B" plot.
* In ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' and ''Franchise/PowerRangers'', most episodes revolve around two plots: A MonsterOfTheWeek and some real-life challenge for one or more of the main characters. In many cases, the two get interwoven, with the everyday plot ending up teaching one of the Rangers a [[{{Anvilicious}} valuable]] [[AnAesop lesson]] which then becomes instrumental in defeating the MonsterOfTheWeek.
* ''Series/TrueBlood'' is setup like this. The main story is usually focused on Sookie and Bill. Sam and Tara have their own subplots which cross with each other and Sookie's from time to time. Lafayette and Andy show up regularly with their own problems, but not as much time is dedicated to them. Meanwhile Jason is off doing his own thing.
* ''Series/{{Warehouse 13}}'' has seemingly switched to this in Season 3. With the addition of Jinks, the pattern (so far) is that Pete and Myka search for artifact A, Claudia and Jinks search for artifact B.
* ''Series/TheWestWing'' does this a lot, and also frequently juggles three or more storylines per episode.
* ''Series/TheWitcher2019'' utilized this during its first season, showing Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri's stories concurrently, even when they were happening ''decades'' apart.
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