# Why do TV show episodes have individual titles? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 6, 2005, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-tv-show-episodes-have-individual-titles/320382 "2005-09-06T18:32:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![qubed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f07891/32.png) [@qubed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qubed)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-tv-show-episodes-have-individual-titles/320382/1 "2005-09-06T18:32:49Z")
This has always baffled me. Especially in pre-internet and pre-DVD days, I had no idea that individual episodes had their own titles, because most shows never announced it. But apparently all these shows have titles. Shows like The Simpsons often have witty titles and it’s a shame that they’re never given with the episode. So why even bother with them? Is it mainly for the production staff so they can reference episodes easily? I can imagine numbers like 2x23 don’t convey very much information except for the very obsessive. ---
**Author:** ![middleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@middleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/middleman)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-tv-show-episodes-have-individual-titles/320382/2 "2005-09-06T18:35:45Z")
Because each episode is an individual play. Everybody wants to give their play a title. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-tv-show-episodes-have-individual-titles/320382/3 "2005-09-06T18:36:47Z")
Much easier to remember from a production standpoint, as well as when the time comes to give awards. ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-tv-show-episodes-have-individual-titles/320382/4 "2005-09-06T18:41:52Z")
No answers, but a follow-up question. Before internet fandom had truly spread, were there ways for devoted, hard-core, cultlike fans to find out these titles? 🙂 I remember getting a guide to star trek the next generation (only up to the end of season 5.) But that was one of the few shows that did include ‘title cards’ of a sort along with the on-screen credits after the main title. (with italic blue letters showing up over the scene, IIRC.) What about for other shows that didn’t do that. Were there books that listed episode titles that weren’t displayed on screen pre-net? Did rabid fans get lists from the producers and distribute then and fancons? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![aktep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f0a364/32.png) [@aktep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aktep)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-tv-show-episodes-have-individual-titles/320382/5 "2005-09-06T18:46:04Z")
> [@](#): > > What about for other shows that didn’t do that. Were there books that listed episode titles that weren’t displayed on screen pre-net? Did rabid fans get lists from the producers and distribute then and fancons? Mine was called “The newspaper’s TV listings section”, which generally included episode titles for prime-time shows in the little capsules where it would tell you what each episode was about, and if it was a rerun, available in closed caption, etc etc. I think TV Guide did (does?) the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![sciguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@sciguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciguy)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-tv-show-episodes-have-individual-titles/320382/6 "2005-09-06T18:49:51Z")
This may be a long shot, but did references like TV Guide include the episode title? Titles do show up in their online listings (and in the episode info I get from my digital cable), but I don’t know how long that practice has been done. ---
**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:** [September 6, 2005, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-tv-show-episodes-have-individual-titles/320382/7 "2005-09-06T19:14:18Z")
It’s time to pay tribute yet again to **Police Squad!** where the episode title shown on screen had no relation to what the announcer said. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-tv-show-episodes-have-individual-titles/320382/8 "2005-09-06T19:55:08Z")
I always thought it was funny that **Friends** went ahead and titled their episodes by what people were probably going to call them anyway. Thus, all their titles started with “The One”, usually “The One With”. As in, “The One With The Breast Milk,” “The One With Ross’s Tan,” and, “The One With The Free Porn.” ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-tv-show-episodes-have-individual-titles/320382/9 "2005-09-06T20:19:12Z")
Lots of times the writers will try to come up with some consistent gimmick for naming all the episodes. For example, they tried to make all the episodes of _Family Guy_ have something to do with death in the title: Death Has a Shadow I Never Met the Dead Man Chitty Chitty Death Bang Mind Over Murder Death Is a Bitch The King Is Dead But they gave up on that pretty quickly. Another funny one is titles for episodes of the Drew Carey Show: Pilot The Joining of Two Unlike Elements is a Mixture Nature Abhors a Vacuum No Two Things in Nature are Exactly Alike Drew Meets Lawyers Science Names Suck The Electron Doesn’t Fall Far from the Tree Isomers Have Distinct Characteristics Drew and the Unstable Element There is No Scientific Name for a Show About God …And so on. They gave up on that pretty quickly too. ---
**Author:** ![middleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@middleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/middleman)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-tv-show-episodes-have-individual-titles/320382/10 "2005-09-06T20:24:27Z")
> [@Max Torque](#): > > I always thought it was funny that **Friends** went ahead and titled their episodes by what people were probably going to call them anyway. Thus, all their titles started with “The One”, usually “The One With”. As in, “The One With The Breast Milk,” “The One With Ross’s Tan,” and, “The One With The Free Porn.” Except the last one which was titled “The Last One.” My favorite was The One Hundredth. I don’t know why I found that so funny. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-tv-show-episodes-have-individual-titles/320382/11 "2005-09-06T20:30:14Z")
How about because even tv shows are written by writers, and writers actually care about the stuff they’ve written even though they get no recognition and people seem to think that the actors make the stuff up? :smack: Anyway, this has been true for a very long time. Star Trek: TOS fans knew the episode names for the shows early on and always referred to them that way. The creation of a real fandom around television was the tipping point for other shows to inspire one. There’s also the very prosaic economic and financial necessities to pay writers for their work, to register copyrights, to enter the shows into award competitions, to pay royalties, and all the hundreds of other pieces of everyday minutiae that the real world demands for a real and individual product. ---
**Author:** ![thwartme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@thwartme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thwartme)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-tv-show-episodes-have-individual-titles/320382/12 "2005-09-06T20:34:56Z")
Newsradio had a whole string of [episodes](http://www.tv.com/newsradio/show/179/episode_listings.html&season=0) named for Led Zeppelin albums, for no apparent reason. I seem to remember a lot of older shows having actual title cards. Of course my work-addled brain can’t come up with any specific examples right now, but I’m sure I saw them. And I know there were fan magazines long before the interweb. I’m sure the rabid fanboy has always found a way. thwartme ---
**Author:** ![middleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@middleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/middleman)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-tv-show-episodes-have-individual-titles/320382/13 "2005-09-06T20:43:21Z")
The entire last season of “That 70’s Show” had episodes that shared titles of songs from the Who. Of course, an alternate production title for the series was “The Kids Are Alright.” ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-tv-show-episodes-have-individual-titles/320382/14 "2005-09-06T21:28:05Z")
A previous 70s season had Led Zeppelin songs as titles. ---
**Author:** ![Wolfian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ea924/32.png) [@Wolfian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolfian)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-tv-show-episodes-have-individual-titles/320382/15 "2005-09-06T21:46:07Z")
The TV version of Clerks had very long names for all of its episodes, excluding the eponymous last episode. I can’t find them online, but I remember one was something like “Dante Learns a Lesson Plus Homages to The Last Starfighter, Madame Butterfly, The Bad News Bears, and The Temple of Doom.” ---
**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:** [September 6, 2005, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-tv-show-episodes-have-individual-titles/320382/16 "2005-09-06T21:51:59Z")
Exepct for the final episode, M_A_S\*H’s episode titles were never shown. ---
**Author:** ![KJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b2d939/32.png) [@KJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KJ)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-tv-show-episodes-have-individual-titles/320382/17 "2005-09-06T22:07:00Z")
Completely random trivia factoid: There are two episodes of The Simpsons that show the title on screen; “[Bart Gets Hit by a Car](http://www.tv.com/simpsons/bart-gets-hit-by-a-car/episode/1308/summary.html)” and “[The Telltale Head](http://www.tv.com/the-simpsons/the-telltale-head/episode/1293/summary.html).” ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-tv-show-episodes-have-individual-titles/320382/18 "2005-09-06T22:18:36Z")
> [@KJ](#): > > Completely random trivia factoid: There are two episodes of The Simpsons that show the title on screen; “[Bart Gets Hit by a Car](http://www.tv.com/simpsons/bart-gets-hit-by-a-car/episode/1308/summary.html)” and “[The Telltale Head](http://www.tv.com/the-simpsons/the-telltale-head/episode/1293/summary.html).” And the Halloween episodes have on-screen titles for the segments. ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-tv-show-episodes-have-individual-titles/320382/19 "2005-09-06T22:28:05Z")
> [@Wolfian](#): > > The TV version of Clerks had very long names for all of its episodes, excluding the eponymous last episode. I can’t find them online, but I remember one was something like “Dante Learns a Lesson Plus Homages to The Last Starfighter, Madame Butterfly, The Bad News Bears, and The Temple of Doom.” Here are the official titles: 1: _Pilot or Leonardo Leonardo Returns and Dante has an Important Decision to Make, The_ 2: _Clipshow Wherein Dante and Randal are Locked in the Freezer and Remember Some of the Great Moments of Their Lives, The_ 3: \*Leonardo is Caught in the Grip of an Outbreak of Randal’s Imagination and Patrick Swayze Either Does or Doesn’t Work in the New Pet Store \* 4: _Dissertation on the American Justice System by People Who Have Never Been Inside a Courtroom, Let Alone Know Anything About the Law, But Have Seen Way Too Many Legal Thrillers, A_ 5: _Dante and Randal and Jay and Silent Bob and a Bunch of New Characters and Lando Take Part in a Whole Bunch of Movie Parodies Including, but not Exclusive to, The Bad News Bears, The Last Starfighter, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Plus a High School Reunion_ 6: _Last Episode Ever, The_ Incidentally, episode 6 was given that name long before the first episode ever aired. ---
**Author:** ![davenportavenger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f8ce5/32.png) [@davenportavenger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davenportavenger)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-tv-show-episodes-have-individual-titles/320382/20 "2005-09-06T22:36:31Z")
More idiosyncratic titles: 1. Almost all the episodes of Seinfeld (I think there were two that didn’t) are called “The (focus of episode),” i.e. “The Contest,” “The Dog,” “The Puerto Rican Day.” 2. All the episode titles of Monk have the same format: “Mr. Monk and…” or “Mr. Monk Goes to…” &etc. This show also shows the names of the titles in the opening credits. As for the question in the OP, it never occurred to me that you wouldn’t title TV show episodes. Everything has a title. That’s how you know what you’re talking about. It is a lot easier to remember something by a title than by “season four, episode three” or something. I’d like it if they started showing titles on The Simpsons since some of them are funny. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-tv-show-episodes-have-individual-titles/320382.md?page=2)