Shows with best and worst episode titles

[Alan Brady's Hair]

I think that King of Queens has really good episode titles. They're mostly short puns (Patrons Ain't, Surprise Artie, Ticker Treat) that are a little bit witty. You hear the title, you remember the episode and that it was funny - that's what you want the title to do.


A couple of Chuck Lorrie's shows have terrible titles. Two and a Half Men generally takes a strange quote from the episode ("The Price of Healthy Gums is Eternal Vigilance"), and it often is just banter disconnected from the storyline. The Big Bang Theory has a formula that ends with a scientific-sounding term ("The Loobenfeld Decay), but what modifies that often only makes sense if you've memorized the episode down to the names of minor guest characters. In both instances, if someone tells you an episode name, the most likely response is, "Which one is that, again?" Titles are supposed tell you that.

The Friends "The One with the..." titles were a good idea, but got tedious after a while. I doubt they would have used that construction if they had known the show would run ten years. A good problem to have....

[treky]

some FRIENDS episodes were titled "THE ONE WHERE..."

[icecream]

Scorpion has some good titles like Grow a Deer, a Female Deer and Nuke Kids on the Block.

[broadmoor]

I usually liked when a sitcom title would be a funny or punny take on an old or contemporary movie, song, novel, or some such thing. "Get Smart" was particularly adept at these, but a lot of series dabbled a bit in them. Some that tend to stand out for me:

BEWITCHED: "Toys in Babeland"
DICK VAN DYKE: "All About Eavesdropping"
DICK VAN DYKE: "Body and Sol"
GET SMART: "The Dead Spy Scrawls"
DOBIE GILLIS: "Sweet Success of Smell"
ODD COUPLE: "They Use Horse Radish, Don't They?"
MARY TYLER MOORE: "Thoroughly Unmilitant Mary"
PARTRIDGE FAMILY: "Morning Becomes Electric"
FLYING NUN: "Days of Nuns and Roses"
FLYING NUN: "Hello Columbus"
BOB NEWHART: "Dr. Ryan's Express"
OUR MISS BROOKS: "Van Gogh, Man, Gogh"
THAT GIRL: "I Am Curious Lemon"
HOGAN'S HEROES: "Oil For the Lamps of Hogan"
MOTHERS-IN-LAW: "Who's Afraid of Elizabeth Taylor?"
MOTHERS-IN-LAW: "I Haven't Got a Secret"
HE AND SHE: "Dick's Van Dyke"
MY FAVORITE MARTIAN: "Butterball"
FAMILY AFFAIR: "Room With a Viewpoint"
DONNA REED: "Rally Round the Girls, Boys"

[broadmoor]

Originally Posted by Alan Brady's Hair

"Body and Sol" is one of my favorite episode titles ever.

Yep. "Body and Soul" was an old expression, and a movie with John Garfield, and most famously, a classic song. I've always assumed the DVD title was a play on the latter, as it was such a well-known standard that everyone knew back then. My longtime favorite recording of it was the version that Ruth Etting recorded in 1930.