During the final season of Space Ghost: Coast to Coast , a string of episodes were named for Allman Brothers albums.
I remember them a lot on the pre-80s dramas that I watched in syndication as a kid. Shows like Columbo, Quincy, and The Rockford Files. Now someone is going to come in and tell me that at least one of those shows didn’t have title cards, but you (hopefully) know the kind of show I mean.
I can’t remember if older sitcoms had them though.
I think The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular also showed the title.
Come to think of it, so did “22 Short Films About Springfield.”
Yet another reason I’d like to see a That 70s Show/CSI crossover.
The CSI gang can figure out how Red killed everybody else on the show.
“Aw, crap! I’ve been nailed by a bunch of dumbass science nerds!”
For television series before 1970, episode titles would be listed in the book Catalog of Copyright Entries: Motion Pictures, 1950-1969, published by the U.S. Copyright Office in 1973. Each episode has a separate copyright registration. The book is fairly common in the reference section of libraries.
Episode guides could also be found in these reference books by Larry James Gianakos:
• Television Drama Series Programming: A Comprehensive Chronicle, 1947-1959 (1980).
• Television Drama Series Programming: A Comprehensive Chronicle, 1959-1975 (1978).
• Television Drama Series Programming: A Comprehensive Chronicle, 1975-1980 (1981).
• Television Drama Series Programming: A Comprehensive Chronicle, 1980-1982 (1983).
• Television Drama Series Programming: A Comprehensive Chronicle, 1982-1984 (1987).
And:
Joel Eisner, Television Comedy Series: An Episode Guide to 153 TV Sitcoms in Syndication (1984).
All were common in library reference sections.
For television shows from Quinn Martin Productions in the sixties and seventies, a stenorian male voice would read the episode title out loud for you; e.g., “The F.B.I.! In color! Tonight’s episode: Special Delivery.” Police Squad! parodied this.
Well, it seemed to me that some random episode number would suffice to be the title. As far as I know, TV shows are the only medium where often the audience doesn’t know the title. So that struck me as odd. And for shows like The Simpsons, someone obvoiusly put a lot of thought into some of the titles, and it’s a shame that they don’t have title cards.
I think a lot of times, sitcom writers are writing for themselves and their friends. If the general public laughs along, more power to 'em.
So, even if it takes a lot of thought and works well as a joke, the title was probably just intended to make the other writers laugh.
What really would freak me out was peeking in on some Simpsons discussions on usenet or listserv and seeing people refer to the episodes by their production codes: “But what about Krusty’s appearance in 3G023?!!” and so on. Now that’s some hardcore geekery.
I recall Quinn Martin Productions also had each episode broken up into “Acts” like a play, which was something else that Police Squad! spoofed.
“Act II - Gesundheit”
Except for 3 episodes that do not center around JD, the title of every episode of Scrubs starts with the word “My”.
Examples from Season 1:
My Mentor
My Best Friend’s Mistake
My Old Lady
And I’m sure that the millions of dollars at stake have nothing to do with this in the slightest. :rolleyes:
I have nothing to add, except that that is outstanding, especially episode number 41.
What strikes me as strange is that when Star Trek fans are parodied, they are always referring to episodes by their number, (example: Futurama, “Where No Fan Has Gone Before”) instead of their names, like every self-respecting fan does.
In episode 8F06, Itchy is playing Scratchy’s ribs like a xylophone. He hits the same rib twice in succession, but produces two clearly different notes. Are we supposed to believe that this is some sort of “magic xylophone” or something? I hope someone got fired for that one.
P.S. In the Itchy and Scratchy CD-ROM, is there any way to get into the dungeon without using the wizard’s key?
I used to make up my own episode names for shows I liked, and I was always really happy when I learned a real title, either from a listing in the paper or because the episode was nominated for an award. When I recently received several seasons of MASH episodes on DVD, I was pleased to find my two favorite episodes listed by the titles I remembered, but shocked to see that the episode I was positive was called “Radar Is Wounded”, is in fact titled “Fallen Idol”. I must have been remembering a title I thought up (and a fairly obvious one, at that) rather than the real episode title.
NYPD Blue, which never showed its titles on screen, had some hysterical ones, many of which were bad puns and/or slightly off color (“Honeymoon at Viagra Falls”, “Better Laid Than Never”, “Tain’t Misbehavin’”, “Healthy McDowell Movement”, etc.)
Or my personal favourite, “Nude Awakening”.
And those 3 are
His Story
Her Story
His Story 2