Moving houses: anyone who has gone through it once knows how impactful an event this is, from saying goodbye to your old friends and neighbors, to trying to get used to a completely new environment. This offers a lot of potential material for stories, from characters actively opposing the decision, dealing with Moving Angst, or the whole thing being a huge misunderstanding, so it's no surprise many writers of fiction like to have their main characters go through the event. However, at the same time, having your characters move away for good would drastically impact the status quo, which in many series and shows is still sacred.
Fortunately for writers and producers, there is an easy solution to have the best of both worlds; simply have the move be a temporary thing, rather than the permanent (or at least long-term) change it is in real life. Make your characters move away from their old home for just one episode or at most a small Story Arc so you can milk the story potential for all its worth, and then have them move right back to their old town, after which everything continues as normal. Bonus points if, somehow, the characters even manage to move back into their old house; something that arguably makes even less sense compared to real life, as putting your old house up for sale or quitting the rent is generally also a part of moving houses.
Compare With a Foot on the Bus.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Crayon Shin-chan has a short story arc, the Matazuresou Apartments storyline where the Nohara needs to move into a cramped studio apartment after Shin-Chan blew up their house by accident. It lasts for a few issues and while their antics with the new neighbors were part of the plot, it doesn't affect Hiroshi's work or Shin's schooling since the apartment's just a street away, and at the end of said arc the Noharas simply move back into their rebuilt house.
Comic Strips
- Peanuts: A storyline from May 1966 is about Lucy and Linus's family moving away because their father got transferred. It runs 11 daily strips, and ends with Lucy and Linus returning after the transfer fell through. In 1983, the storyline was adapted into the half-hour animated special Is This Goodbye, Charlie Brown?.
Film — Animated
- Jetsons: The Movie: At the start of the film, the titular family moves to an asteroid when George takes a job at the nearby mining colony. The film ends with George losing that job and the family moving back to Earth.
- The Loud House Movie: When Lincoln Loud is made the Duke of the Scottish town Loch Loud, he and his family move into a castle in said town. However, Lincoln eventually loses his title of Duke (with a guy named Angus replacing him), so they move back to America.
Literature
- Superfudge: The Hatcher family moves from New York City to Princeton, New Jersey for a year to accommodate Warren's new job as a book writer. They will be staying in a house owned by George and Millie while they stay in Europe. Initially, Peter isn't happy to hear this, as he had a bad experience the last time he visited George and Millie's house. Anne telling him that he and his younger brother Fudge will be attending the same school when they move to Princeton doesn't exactly help, so he considers running away. Peter eventually adjusts to life in New Jersey, making friends with a boy named Alex Santo, and the two start a worm-hunting business together. At the end of the book, George and Millie want to live in their house again, so the Hatchers are given the option to find another house in Princeton or move back to New York City. Warren finds out that he's much better at his old job at the advertising agency than trying to write a book, and the rest of the family are more in favor of going back to New York City. Tootsie, Peter and Fudge's baby sister, makes the decision unanimous by saying "Nu Yuck", and the Hatcher family moves back to their old apartment in New York City.
Live-Action TV
- 3rd Rock from the Sun: In the episode "Just Your Average Dick," the Solomons decide to be as "average" as possible, and among other changes to their lifestyle, move into a more "average" apartment. At the end, they revert to being their usual selves and move back into their original apartment.
- Full House: When Jesse marries Rebecca, he moves out of the Tanner household to live with his new wife, even though this upsets Michelle and Jesse himself has some misgivings. However, Rebecca decides they should move back into the Tanner home since she knows her husband would miss his family.
- In Friends, a high-stakes bet results in Chandler and Joey switching apartments with Monica & Rachel. This happens in season 4, episode 12, The One With The Embryos and then is reversed in season 4 episode 19, The One With All The Haste, which seems to be a couple of months worth of in-universe time at most.
- Monk: "Mr. Monk Buys a House" sees Monk move into the house of an elderly man who was pushed down the stairs to his death by his nurse, as a girl down the street from his apartment is playing classical music that reminds him of his late therapist Dr. Kroger and is making it hard for him to sleep. Not long after he moves in, however, he notices a problem with an off-center light fixture in the dining room, prompting him to hire a contractor named Honest Jake that he met at a hardware store to fix the problem. Honest Jake, however, turns out to be the lover of the previous inhabitant's nurse, who proceeds to trash the house looking for money from an old bank robbery that the inhabitant stashed there, kills his lover when Monk finds out what she did, kills his accomplice so he doesn't have to share the money, and tries to kill Monk and Natalie. At the end of the episode, Monk moves back into his old apartment.
- Murdoch Mysteries: The third season ends with Doctor Ogden, one of the main characters and the title character's Love Interest, moving from Toronto to Buffalo, New York; she returns to Toronto in the fourth episode of the next season, and makes the move permanent in the fifth. Unlike many examples, this move did radically change the status quo: Julia got engaged while in Buffalo, and brought her fiancé back to Toronto with her, setting up a Love Triangle plot involving him and Detective Murdoch that would last for several years.
- Sesame Street: In one episode, Oscar moves to a street called Candy Cane Lane, but then decides to move back.
- Star Trek:
- Star Trek: The Next Generation: In "A Matter of Honor" Riker temporarily moves to a Klingon ship as part of an officer exchange program.
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: After the death of Jadzia Dax, Benjamin and Jake Sisko temporarily move back into Joseph Sisko's place in New Orleans while Benjamin works through his grief. Once he releases a Prophet to expel a Pah-Wraith from the Bajoran Wormhole, Sisko returns to DS9.
Video Games
- Mega Man Battle Network 6: Cybeast Gregar and Cybeast Falzar: Because of Yuichiro Hikari's work, his family has to move from ACDC Town to Cyber City, and Lan also has to transfer schools as a result. At the end of the game, however, the Hikari family returns to ACDC Town just in time for Lan's graduation.
- Persona 4: The story begins with the protagonist moving to the small rural town of Inaba for a year to stay with his uncle while his parents are abroad.
- Persona 5: The protagonist of this installment moves to Tokyo for a year while on probation for a false assault conviction, due to the stigma such a conviction carries in Japanese society. And also the machinations of the game's true Big Bad.
- Yo-kai Watch 3: At the beginning, Nate's family moves to BBQ (USA in the Japanese version) because his father Aaron got relocated to an office there. They move back to Springdale in the end due to Aaron having trouble communicating through the Language Barrier.
Western Animation
- Billy the Cat: In the episode "A Clockwork Bone", Mr. Hubert has had enough of Billy getting them into danger with the Dead-End Dogs, so he finds him a new home to live in. In the episode, Billy temporarily moves into two homes. The first one didn't work, as the owner's two housecats didn't enjoy his company. The second time around, his owner makes him uncomfortable. Billy has to stay in the second house since there's another dog gang, the Upper-Class Dogs, after him. Throughout the episode, Mr. Hubert thinks he's relieved to get rid of Billy, though he's in denial. Near the end of the episode, Billy manages to outsmart both dog gangs. Afterward, Mr. Hubert realizes he missed Billy, so he allows him to stay with him in the Cadillac again.
- Family Guy: in "The D In Apartment 23", after the Griffins kick Brian out over a racist tweet to save face, he moves into his own lousy apartment, but two episodes later, he moves back in with them.
- King of the Hill: In "Ch-Ch-Ch Changes", Kahn finally signs the divorce agreement and moves out of Bill's home and moves into an apartment. However, he comes right back, supposedly because there are many things wrong with the apartment. Though it is obviously a lie and he came back because he genuinely liked living with Bill.
- The Powerpuff Girls (1998): In the (rather infamous) episode "Town and Out", the Utoniums move to Citiesville. The girls quickly come to dislike the new city, where everyone treats them poorly, their new home is a crummy and crappy apartment, and the heroics that got them praised in Townsville are frowned upon. When they finally have enough and confess their dislike of Citiesville to the professor, it turns out he too is miserable here. By the next episode, the Utoniums are back in Townsville, in their old house.
- Rugrats:
- In the episode "Grandpa Moves Out", Grandpa Lou gets into a minor spat with Stu and Didi and ends up moving to a retirement home. When the Pickles attempt to get Lou to swallow his pride and come home, it's Tommy and Angelica's adventure there that convinces him to do so; partly because he misses his grandkids, partly because he found the place a bore and partly because he was being thrown out.
- In the episode "Chuckie is Rich", Chaz ends up winning a Publishing Clearinghouse-style event and he and Chuckie move from their falling apart home to a mansion. When Drew ends up blowing all of Chaz's money on a flawed invention, they return to their old home with enough to fix up their home.
- The Simpsons: In "You Only Move Twice", the Simpsons move from Springfield to Cypress Creek after Homer receives a job offer there. However, the others suffer during their time there, to the point of wanting to go back to Springfield — Marge finds herself bored since their house is automated and gives her nothing to do as a housewife, Bart is sent to a remedial class that doesn't help him, and Lisa discovers that she is allergic to the plants there. Because of this, by the end of the episode, Homer reluctantly returns his family to Springfield.
- South Park:
- In the climax of "You're Getting Old", Randy and Sharon get a divorce, with Randy moving away from South Park while Sharon and her kids move into a different home. In the next episode, all of this is undone with Randy and Sharon getting back together and the whole family moving back into their old house.
- A longer example than usual, that actually lasted several seasons; in the season 22 episode "Tegridy Farms", Randy moves his family to the eponymous weed farm. They stay there until the season 27 episode "Sickofancy", where Randy sells the farm and the family moves back to their old home. One reason this particular example could afford to last so long was because the farm was still in South Park, so the impact on the status quo was minimal as Stan and his family could continue to interact with the rest of the cast.
- In season 25's "City People", Cartman ruins his mom's real estate job and they end up needing to live in a hot dog house. In the next season's "DikinBaus Hot Dogs", they move back into their old house.
- SpongeBob SquarePants:
- Squidward Tentacles
- In "Squidville", Squidward gets fed up with SpongeBob and Patrick's shenanigans, leaving Bikini Bottom to move into Tentacle Acres. While satisfied with his new life at first, he gradually becomes disillusioned with how dull it is. He eventually goes on a rampage before returning to Bikini Bottom.
- Played for Laughs in "Stanley S. SquarePants". After SpongeBob introduces Squidward to his cousin Stanley, Squidward freaks out over seeing "two SpongeBobs", packing his things and leaving in a truck. Once again, he's back by the next episode.
- Squidward Tentacles