# Television Show Titles **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 5, 2019, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-show-titles/830579 "2019-03-05T16:58:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![WildBlueYonder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ce7236/32.png) [@WildBlueYonder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildBlueYonder)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2019, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-show-titles/830579/1 "2019-03-05T16:58:28Z")
Have you talked about this? The show Mom? They got rid of the kids…um Yes they are still mom’s but, re name it “Former Alcoholic Mom’s” Any other mis named shows out there? :smack::smack: ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2019, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-show-titles/830579/2 "2019-03-05T18:08:08Z")
Look at it this way: “mom” used to be Anna Faris, now it’s Allison Janney. _Laverne & Shirley_ ended up without Shirley. _48 Hours_ originally focused on only the first 48 hours of an investigation. The newsmagazine _Weekend_ originally aired once a month in place of _Saturday Night Live_. Eventually SNL completely took over the time slot, and\* Weekend\* was moved to weekdays. This led the hosts to use such introductions as," This show is called Weekend. Yes, we know it’s Wednesday. . ." _Sabrina the Teenage Witch_ outgrew her title _The Hogan Family_ wasn’t misnamed so much as it was always one step behind original star Valerie Harper’s contract negotiation. It started life as _Valerie_, then _Valerie’s Family_, then\* The Hogans\*, and finally _The Hogan Family_. Not TV but a movie based on a TV show, Ernest Borgnine (McHale) didn’t even show up in a cameo for _McHale’s Navy Joins the Air Force_. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2019, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-show-titles/830579/3 "2019-03-05T18:17:03Z")
Cougartown, which starred Courtney Cox, stopped being about a woman who dated younger men. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2019, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-show-titles/830579/4 "2019-03-05T19:27:55Z")
_Jane the Virgin_ lost her virginity in the third season. Apparently, after that they crossed out the word “Virgin” in the opening credits and replaced it with a descriptor appropriate to each episode. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2019, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-show-titles/830579/5 "2019-03-05T19:39:31Z")
> [@WildBlueYonder](#): > > “Former Alcoholic Mom’s” No apostrophe. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2019, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-show-titles/830579/6 "2019-03-05T19:40:31Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Look at it this way: “mom” used to be Anna Faris, now it’s Allison Janney. Or, it could be the other way around. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2019, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-show-titles/830579/7 "2019-03-05T19:46:28Z")
_ **Who Wants to be a Millionaire but Has No Chance in Hell of Winning Tonight?** _ _ **Connections That Become Increasingly Tenuous as the Series Progresses** _ _ **Star Trek: The Next Generation, Which Is Stupid Enough to Bring Children on Board a Starship** _ _**Mission: Impossible (and Would Never Succeed in Real Life)**_ ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2019, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-show-titles/830579/8 "2019-03-05T19:54:39Z")
Since the previous post opened the door: _ **What on Earth? A Whole Bunch of Woo!** _ ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2019, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-show-titles/830579/9 "2019-03-05T20:01:55Z")
I always thought “My Two Dads” should have been named “My Mom The Slut”. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2019, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-show-titles/830579/10 "2019-03-05T20:01:58Z")
> [@WildBlueYonder](#): > > Have you talked about this? > > The show Mom? > > They got rid of the kids…um Yes they are still mom’s but, re name it “Former Alcoholic Mom’s” > > Any other mis named shows out there? > > :smack::smack: The two main characters are a mother and her daughter. The title is quite appropriate. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2019, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-show-titles/830579/11 "2019-03-05T20:10:15Z")
\*\*\*Ancient Aliens \*\*\*should be retitled as _ **Moronic Oblique Question after Moronic Oblique Question** _. Shows like _ **American Ripper** _ should be called _ **Tons of Circumstantial Evidence with Absolutely No Corroboration** _. A better name for \*\*\*In Search Of \*\*\* would be _ **Pointless Endless Speculation** _. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2019, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-show-titles/830579/12 "2019-03-05T20:28:12Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > _ **Star Trek: The Next Generation, Which Is Stupid Enough to Bring Children on Board a Starship** _ More apt: _Star Trek: The Next Generation Which Is Still Beholden To The Increasingly Unworkable Demands Of The Creator Of The Previous Generation, Gene Roddenberry_ I have a lot of respect for Gene as a broad-strokes _creator_, but when it came to writing specific episodes and laying rules for a series, he had some very bad ideas. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2019, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-show-titles/830579/13 "2019-03-05T20:46:38Z")
Any documentary or news show\* with an axe to grind should be at least subtitled _ **Tendentious beyond Belief** _. \*Fake news included. ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2019, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-show-titles/830579/14 "2019-03-05T20:51:21Z")
A British cop show, _Taggart_, outlived it’s eponymous central character, and the actor who played him, by sixteen years. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2019, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-show-titles/830579/15 "2019-03-05T21:40:40Z")
T.V. Tropes calls this an [Artifact Title](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ArtifactTitle). I was always confused by the British series _Dangerfield_, with Nigel Havers as Dr. Jonathan Paige, until I learned that he had replaced the previous main character, Dr. Paul Dangerfield. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2019, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-show-titles/830579/16 "2019-03-05T22:16:24Z")
The Avengers began as a show about Dr. David Keel who wanted to avenge the murder of his fiancee’; he was assisted by a John Steed, a trenchcoat-wearing fellow. Keel left, Steed became a dandy, and Peel arrived, to create the more commonly seen version of “The Avengers.” “(family) Ties worn by under a sweatervest by Michael J. Fox” was a better title after the first season of “Family Ties” ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2019, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-show-titles/830579/17 "2019-03-05T22:37:20Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Cougartown, which starred Courtney Cox, stopped being about a woman who dated younger men. M_A_S_H_ was about a mobile unit, but I can only remember them moving twice. 😛 I’ll show myself out. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2019, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-show-titles/830579/18 "2019-03-05T22:58:17Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > M_A_S_H_ was about a mobile unit, but I can only remember them moving twice. 😛 > > I’ll show myself out. I know you’re joking, but it seems to me they did the “bugout” thing about every season or so. Got a little old after 11 years. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2019, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-show-titles/830579/19 "2019-03-06T01:38:27Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > I know you’re joking, but it seems to me they did the “bugout” thing about every season or so. Got a little old after 11 years. Did they? I remember a few bugouts, but very, very few. Anyone have a list? ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2019, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-show-titles/830579/20 "2019-03-06T01:41:33Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > M_A_S_H_ was about a mobile unit, but I can only remember them moving twice. 😛 I remember three times. Once was a drill, once they were under enemy fire, and the third time was when a fire threatened the entire area. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-show-titles/830579.md?page=2)