Of all the many things that limit commercially supported television programs, the need to cram the story into a defined schedule, complete with rigidly timed advertising breaks, may be the most restrictive.  It’s not easy to tell a story in a such a specific amount of time, much less with the need for a small cliffhanger every six to eight minutes.  Naturally The Simpsons always handled this with aplomb and one of the cleverest instances of it comes from Season 3’s “Dog of Death”. 

Just after the family’s lottery hopes are dashed, and they are put through the cruel wringer of witnessing a man already fabulously wealthier than them winning it right in front of their eyes, Grandpa announces “Hey, the dog’s dead.”  There’s a startled gasp from the family, a few notes of sad horn music, and a shot of a lifeless Santa’s Little Helper.  Cut to commercial.

The show returns to a shot of the dog clearly breathing.  Bart and Homer object to Grandpa’s pre-act break diagnosis.  Then Lisa finishes it off, rather angrily, with “It’s not fair to toy with people’s emotions like that.”  That line is perfect; it’s quick, subtle, and it makes fun of the format, the writers and their contempt for the audience.  It doesn’t slow the program down at all, as soon as it’s uttered Grandpa begins insisting (shades of reverse Monty Python) that contrary to all evidence the dog is indeed dead. 

That brief exchange, which lasts less than ten seconds, is a masterpiece of television comedy.