# Why/when did episode titles become Easter Eggs for persnickety viewers? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 21, 2014, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-when-did-episode-titles-become-easter-eggs-for-persnickety-viewers/702052 "2014-10-21T17:43:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-when-did-episode-titles-become-easter-eggs-for-persnickety-viewers/702052/21 "2014-10-21T23:36:18Z")
Yep. It was always fun trying to figure out where the act title would fit in the dialogue. ---
**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:** [October 21, 2014, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-when-did-episode-titles-become-easter-eggs-for-persnickety-viewers/702052/22 "2014-10-21T23:59:12Z")
Quinn Martin pioneered episode title listings in US TV. He also divided the show into four acts and and epilogue. **[The Untouchables](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ng5s_AO8mfE#t=0m30s)** was doing it in 1959 (Martin was a producer, before he created his own production company; the Acts didn’t seem to be used in this) He also did it in **[The New Breed](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vteuCENiqBs#t=0m50s)** in 1961 (Get a look at that cast!), before UNCLE went on the air. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2014, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-when-did-episode-titles-become-easter-eggs-for-persnickety-viewers/702052/23 "2014-10-22T00:18:29Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > My Comcast/Xfinity UI shows the episode title (and even season/episode info) right in the info box. OnDemand too. The old TV Guide and related TV section in the newspapers often did as well although not always consistently. **8:00 The Jophiel Show** “The Cafe Society” (R) Things get crazy when Jophiel has to answer a ranty question on a web forum ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2014, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-when-did-episode-titles-become-easter-eggs-for-persnickety-viewers/702052/24 "2014-10-22T01:05:49Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Moved to CS. Oh great, I wrote my earlier response when this was in the Pit. Now that it’s in CS, it’s quite inappropriate for the forum ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2014, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-when-did-episode-titles-become-easter-eggs-for-persnickety-viewers/702052/25 "2014-10-22T01:25:30Z")
One of my favorite '90s shows, _NYPD Blue_, never displayed episode titles. The first i knew that each episode even had a title was when i began buying the DVDs. I checked IMDB, and sure enough, a title for each episode. And after seeing the titles, i was glad that they never displayed them when the show was on the air, because some of them are embarrassingly stupid or corny. ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2014, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-when-did-episode-titles-become-easter-eggs-for-persnickety-viewers/702052/26 "2014-10-22T01:53:32Z")
I’m lucky if I keep the names of the shows I’m currently watching straight, much less individual episode names. Sure, if I’m discussing a specific episode online, the episode name should be used. That’s what IMDB and Wiki are for. There are trivial peeves, and then there are peeves so trivial as to be really nonsense. They don’t put the episode name in the video for each episode because nobody cares. They won’t remember it anyway and will still just refer to Wiki and IMDB as needed. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2014, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-when-did-episode-titles-become-easter-eggs-for-persnickety-viewers/702052/27 "2014-10-22T03:15:33Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > Would my 10 year old self understand what “Last Exit to Springfield” referred to? No! But my 30 year old self still doesn’t but would at least think its kind of cool. Plus I’d get a lot of other references, just not that one. \*Last Exit to Brooklyn \*was a controversial 1964 novel and the controversial "title"of a 1965 Gene Pitney song, which you’d know if you were a member of the terminally-cool Boomer audience that most Simpsons references are aimed at. It’s entirely your fault for getting yourself born 30 years too late. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2014, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-when-did-episode-titles-become-easter-eggs-for-persnickety-viewers/702052/28 "2014-10-22T11:29:24Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#): > > I know you want them to actually display the title on screen, but to say that if they don’t do that, you’ll “never be able to refer to the episode” by name is completely asinine. Haven’t you ever heard of Google? No kidding. Places that list episode titles: [ul] [li]the TV Guide online[/li][li]IMDB[/li][li]Wikipedia[/li][li]Amazon, Netflix, and Hulu[/li][li][TV.com](http://TV.com) and other tv-oriented websites[/li][li]episode descriptions from your cable company[/li][li]fan pages for the series[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2014, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-when-did-episode-titles-become-easter-eggs-for-persnickety-viewers/702052/29 "2014-10-22T12:01:53Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > **8:00 The Jophiel Show** > “The Cafe Society” (R) Things get crazy when Jophiel has to answer a ranty question on a web forum My God, that one again? It’s like it’s the same show every week! ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2014, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-when-did-episode-titles-become-easter-eggs-for-persnickety-viewers/702052/30 "2014-10-22T16:46:23Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > The old TV Guide and related TV section in the newspapers often did as well although not always consistently. > > **8:00 The Jophiel Show** > “The Cafe Society” (R) Things get crazy when Jophiel has to answer a ranty question on a web forum Back when TV Guide listings were localized, episode titles in listings were few and far-between. The only 60s/70s sitcom I can think of that had every episode’s title on screen was _F Troop_. There were exceptions - _One Day at a Time_ would announce episode titles for multi-part storylines after the first episode - but titles didn’t really become “public information” until they appeared on VHS sets.) ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2014, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-when-did-episode-titles-become-easter-eggs-for-persnickety-viewers/702052/31 "2014-10-22T17:18:07Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#): > > I know you want them to actually display the title on screen, but to say that if they don’t do that, you’ll “never be able to refer to the episode” by name is completely asinine. Haven’t you ever heard of Google? It is not insane, in fact its a perfectly sane thing to say. While watching a random episode of a show, if I don’t know what the basic plot is or what season, especially if I’m unfamiliar with the show, its difficult to figure out the exact episode. For instance, i don’t watch Friends that often, but I’ve seen an episode here and there that I found interesting. Or take something like Law and Order with like 20 years and 4 series, describing the episode becomes a chore. How many times can Joey hook up with a girl or they find a murderer who turns out to be former best friends with the victim? Again, the title is just a simple, 1 second flash of text, infinitely easy for any unpaid intern to stick on in between gophering coffee for people, and its maddening that they don’t do that seemingly as a rule. Its a senseless, stupid rule that nobody of any sanity should pay attention to! > [@Flywheel](#): > > _The Simpsons_ showed episode titles at the start of [The Telltale Head](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Telltale_Head) and [Bart Gets Hit by a Car](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bart_Gets_Hit_by_a_Car). So they have no reason not to do it by proving they do it, but for some reason we’re not allowed to know “Deep Space Homer” is the name of the episode?? Its more of a bastard thing to do when they DO put names in some but not all of them! > [@Smeghead](#): > > This is one of those times when the level of rage is all kinds of out of proportion to the topic at hand. You’re wrong, my level of rage is EXACTLY proportionate to the crime. In fact, the working title of this thread was “Proper proportionate perturbation pertaining pecadillos” but I didn’t want this rant to sound like a joke because it is most definitely not a joke. > [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > As a somewhat older fan of television, I used to think only certain shows titled their episodes. Wild Wild West, Man from Uncle, Star Trek. I figured it was rare, as only a few shows displayed the episode title. Never occurred to me that they all had titles. It makes sense, but what good is giving a clever title to episodes if no one ever sees them? Prior to the day when VHS releases of shows started, there was no way to even know what the titles were. TV Guide never listed them. > > Then when X-Files was on, at the dawn of the internet, I would read on-line discussions where people were talking about episodes by name. I got all mad - where are they getting this info? When did episodes all start having names? And how are we supposed to know what they are, if they are shown during the episode? Is it some secret that only the Select know? Yes! See? You get it! That’s so odd that this seems to be a secret they expect you to not know! What’s the name of that famous episode with the inbred redneck haunted mansion people? I HAVE NO FUCKING IDEA?! If someone held a gun to my head and asked me the name of that Ed Asner ghost episode talking about masturbation, I would pull the trigger for him because there’s no way in hell I’d ever recall that! > [@elfkin477](#): > > No kidding. Places that list episode titles: > [ul] > [li]the TV Guide online[/li][li]IMDB[/li][li]Wikipedia[/li][li]Amazon, Netflix, and Hulu[/li][li][TV.com](http://TV.com) and other tv-oriented websites[/li][li]episode descriptions from your cable company[/li][li]fan pages for the series[/li][/ul] These problems arose before most of those things existed so this rant is a long simmering one. \*\* The point isn’t that I can find it now, the point is that it never should have needed to be searched for in the first place\*\*. Its like if you’re meeting someone for the first time and they don’t tell you their name and instead give you a card with their website on it. Now you cannot claim that looking up a website is hard or especially strenuous, yet if all you wanted to know was the person’s name, there’s an easy fix that could alleviate you from this admittedly trivial task: they can simply tell you their name. Yet if you ranted about this, I would be sympathetic because the point isn’t that you can find their name by doing some mundane task, but that you never should have needed to do it in the first place especially if there’s an even easier fix to the problem! For TV, the easier fix is to DISPLAY THE FUCKING NAME of the episode! How hard is that? Its asininely simple! Why don’t they do that then?? Because somebody somewhere is a shit sucking -------…look, I was going to call them that weird worm with the teeth that latches on to people and sucks their blood and looks really creepy, and I CAN’T because I don’t know its god damn name! Its starts with “L” or maybe “M” or something, and I’ve seen pictures but I don’t know what its called! I even googled “worm with teeth” and “leech with teeth” but apparently those are its own separate categories! This is what comes from a world where names are hidden, where a guy can’t properly rant about shit. Do you want to live in that world?? Because you already do and its not a nice world! ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2014, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-when-did-episode-titles-become-easter-eggs-for-persnickety-viewers/702052/32 "2014-10-22T17:49:56Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > Its like if you’re meeting someone for the first time and they don’t tell you their name and instead give you a card with their website on it. Pleased to meet you. I’m the tall guy with the beard. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2014, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-when-did-episode-titles-become-easter-eggs-for-persnickety-viewers/702052/33 "2014-10-22T17:56:28Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > Pleased to meet you. I’m the tall guy with the beard. :mad: You’re on the list! ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2014, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-when-did-episode-titles-become-easter-eggs-for-persnickety-viewers/702052/34 "2014-10-22T18:27:10Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > [Police Squad!](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_Squad!) displayed its episode titles onscreen. It also had a voice-over announcing the episode titles. Although, the titles that were announced didn’t match the ones that were displayed… They also gave names to the acts, although they were usually quite surreal, such as **Act II: Geshundheit** or **Act II: Lieber**. ---
**Author:** ![Flywheel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Flywheel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flywheel)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2014, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-when-did-episode-titles-become-easter-eggs-for-persnickety-viewers/702052/35 "2014-10-22T19:13:30Z")
> [@Flywheel](#): > > _The Simpsons_ showed episode titles at the start of [The Telltale Head](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Telltale_Head) and [Bart Gets Hit by a Car](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bart_Gets_Hit_by_a_Car). > [@YogSosoth](#): > > So they have no reason not to do it by proving they do it, but for some reason we’re not allowed to know “Deep Space Homer” is the name of the episode?? Its more of a bastard thing to do when they DO put names in some but not all of them! The Halloween episodes are another unusual case. The first one was titled “Treehouse of Horror” because it was structured around the Simpson children telling scary stories in Bart’s treehouse. Since then, they’ve dropped that framing device but still titled all the Halloween episodes “Treehouse of Horror [roman numeral].” Then, in 2002, “Treehouse of Horror XIII” was the first one to show the title onscreen. I suspect this was because the producers figured out that viewers had discovered [The Simpsons Archive](http://snpp.com/) and learned what the episodes were actually called. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2014, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-when-did-episode-titles-become-easter-eggs-for-persnickety-viewers/702052/36 "2014-10-22T19:22:24Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > It is not insane, in fact its a perfectly sane thing to say. Do you not know the difference between “asinine” and “insane?” I’d suggest you look it up, but you might have an aneurysm. ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2014, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-when-did-episode-titles-become-easter-eggs-for-persnickety-viewers/702052/37 "2014-10-22T19:34:38Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > It is not insane, in fact its a perfectly sane thing to say. While watching a random episode of a show, if I don’t know what the basic plot is or what season, especially if I’m unfamiliar with the show, its difficult to figure out the exact episode. For instance, i don’t watch Friends that often, but I’ve seen an episode here and there that I found interesting. Or take something like Law and Order with like 20 years and 4 series, describing the episode becomes a chore. How many times can Joey hook up with a girl or they find a murderer who turns out to be former best friends with the victim? Again, the title is just a simple, 1 second flash of text, infinitely easy for any unpaid intern to stick on in between gophering coffee for people, and its maddening that they don’t do that seemingly as a rule. Its a senseless, stupid rule that nobody of any sanity should pay attention to! Dude, you hit the “Info” (or equivalent) button on your remote and it will give you the episode title. You can do that at any point during the show. It’s actually _easier_ to get the episode title than it would be if they just put it at the beginning of the episode. WTF? ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2014, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-when-did-episode-titles-become-easter-eggs-for-persnickety-viewers/702052/38 "2014-10-22T20:20:33Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#): > > Do you not know the difference between “asinine” and “insane?” > > I’d suggest you look it up, but you might have an aneurysm. It is neither asinine nor insane! Don’t make me put you on the list! :mad: > [@woodstockbirdybird](#): > > Dude, you hit the “Info” (or equivalent) button on your remote and it will give you the episode title. You can do that at any point during the show. It’s actually _easier_ to get the episode title than it would be if they just put it at the beginning of the episode. WTF? I don’t have a remote that does that, nor can I do it if I happen to see the episode at a restaurant or in a doctor’s office or somewhere else. Granted, that doesn’t happen a lot, but it does happen and my objection is to the groin grabbingly easy way for them to flash that one second of text on the screen ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2014, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-when-did-episode-titles-become-easter-eggs-for-persnickety-viewers/702052/39 "2014-10-22T20:32:47Z")
Then I’d suggest you invest in a new-ish (from, like, any time in the past 20 years) universal remote that will work with your TV and save yourself some unnecessary anguish. Or just try typing plots into Google. It’s really not the issue you’re making of it. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2014, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-when-did-episode-titles-become-easter-eggs-for-persnickety-viewers/702052/40 "2014-10-22T23:32:18Z")
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