|
|
Most shows have titles for each episode, but there's also internal episode code numbers. These are codes given to each episode to help identify them, and usually match the broadcast order unless the episodes are for whatever reason (usually Executive Meddling) shuffled around.
There are three main ways to code episode:
- Sequential Numbering: The first episode is given the code "#1" and the numbers increment from there. This is the standard way to number long-running programs that don't have episode titles, such as Game Shows.
- Seasonal Numbering: The code is a number that is a bit like room numbers. The last two digits are the episode number and the first one or two digits are the season number. So "#421" would be the 21st episode of Season 4. This can also be written as "4x21", "4.21", "4-21", or "S04E21".
- Weird Numbering: The episode codes here are a jumble of alphanumerics. Internally, this probably is useful for something, but only the die-hard fans will bother to learn the code. Casual fans will probably apply one of the above codes to the episodes.
Pilot episodes usually aren't given a code, although some are retroactively labeled "Episode 0".
Examples:
- Both The Simpsons and Futurama have funky episode codes, like 7F19 note ("Lisa's Substitute", The Simpsons) or 2ACV06 note ("The Lesser of Two Evils", Futurama).
- Family Guy and many other FOX shows also have strange episode codes, like 2ACX08 note (the relevant episode is titled "Fifteen Minutes of Shame"). This seems to be a standard format for FOX shows, especially in the earlier years of 20th-Century Fox Television.
- In the days of single letters, the letter referred to the production — F was The Simpsons from Seasons 2 through 9, X was The X-Files, and Space: Above and Beyond had S. King of the Hill was assigned E for its first two seasons.
- In the modern numbering system, the three-letter code refers to the show, and the starting number (or letter in The Simpsons' case) indicates the production season.
- Shows like The Daily Show or The Colbert Report have sequential episode numbers, because episodes don't have titles, and seasons aren't as important to this kind of show. Due to the news-esque nature of the shows, it's more convenient to just refer to episodes by their airdates.
- Doctor Who used an increasing number of letters from Seasons 1-26 (A-Z, then AA/BB/etc. and later 4C, 7D, etc.), then Seasonal Numbering with the revival. A list is here.
 Note the three codes for The Trial of a Time Lord — that 14-part story is effectively made up of four separate chunks (The Mysterious Planet, Mindwarp, Terror of the Vervoids, and The Ultimate Foe), with the last two produced together as a single block and sharing a code (7C). Also notice that the codes for some Season 30 (Series 4) episodes don't match the broadcast order — this isn't a case of Executive Meddling, but of the show's creators altering the plot as the season was being filmed; they kept the original codes to avoid confusion.
- According to the BBC, the current run of Doctor Who is not the same as the old run, thus the Tenth Doctor ended his tenure in "Doctor Who (2005) Series 4".
- Big Finish gives the production code "8A" to the 1996 film, and their Who audio dramas with Paul McGann continue the numbering as you'd expect (8B, 8C...).
- Lexx had episode numbers that are one season off. The pilot films are numbered 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, and 4.0. The first "full season" (Mantrid) was numbered onscreen as 2.xx, the second one (Fire and Water) is numbered 3.xx, and the third one (Little Blue Planet) has 4.xx numbers.
- Lost numbered its episodes hour by hour, such that a two-hour season finale is considered internally to be two episodes. As a result, "The Variable" was promoted as the 100th episode when in fact it was actually the 96th episode and the 100th hour.
- On the DVD commentaries, the pilot is not counted toward the total; "Tabula Rasa" is referred to as the first episode, so by this logic "The Variable" should've been #95.
- Not a unique phenomenon, as many programs have a two-hour opener or finale. In the case of Heroes, the opening credits even named the two episodes separately and billed the credits as such. "Directed by: Richard Richard ("Cock"), Edward Hitler ("Bull")".
- Telltale Games' Sam And Max Freelance Police series uses the "Seasonal Numbering" method.
- Mythbusters, due to the number of special episodes that may or may not be part of a series, has seen fans using several different and contradictory schemes. Of course, Mythbusters is unusually well-suited for The One With...... designations, so many fans simply name the episode by its primary myth.
- While not the official codes, Pokémon episodes are among the fandom generally assigned a two-letter prefix (EP, AG, DP, BW, or SS) followed by a three-digit episode number. EP038, for example, is the 38th episode of the original series ("Electric Soldier Porygon"). AG049 refers to the 49th episode of the Advanced Generation series, and so on. "DP" refers to the Diamond & Pearl series, "BW" to the Black & White series, and "SS" to the "side-story" episodes occasionally shown on Weekly Pokémon Broadcasting Station or Pokémon Sunday, dubbed under the Pokémon Chronicles banner or as individual specials. The movies are designated with an M followed by a two-digit number (M1 is...well, The First Movie), and a small handful of episodes do not have codes as a result of being aired Out of Order.
- The Season 4 premiere episode of Teen Titans is actually titled "Episode 257-494", its production number. As a gag, Control Freak's prisoner number is shown in a mugshot as 257-325, the production number of his first appearance.
- Game Shows have this sometimes.
- For the current run of The Price Is Right: The current run, the daytime show originally used a "D" designation corresponding to the week number and day of that week: for example, #1412D was the Tuesday show of the 141st week (aired May 13, 1975). Once the show reached Week #1000 in May 1996, they switched the "D" to "K" and went from #9995D to #0011K, skipping a week.
- This was done mainly to distinguish the daytime show from the nighttime version, which started at the same time and used codes ending in "N" - #195N, for example, was the Season 5 finale and Dennis James' last show.
- The first five daytime episodes used a second production number that prefaced the normal "D" — "#0101-X", with "X" referring to the taping order from 1-5 (the first week's tapings went #0011D, #0013D, #0014D, #0012D, #0015D). There's no way to tell how this system would've continued, as the next taping (#0022D) didn't have an alternate code, but a logical conclusion may be that "#0101-X" could've also been written as "S01W01E0X".
- There were also several times an entire episode had to be scrapped and replaced (including #0101-2, above). One of these resulted in the episode number (1513K, which would've aired September 27, 2000) being changed to 1513X.
- Nighttime specials also used different codes. The first six specials (1986) used "P", the 25th-Anniversary Special used "S", the 30th-Anniversary Special used "LV", and all specials afterward use "SP". The "P" and "SP" shows used a three-digit counter, while the anniversary specials used a four-digit one.
- Barry-Enright game shows, or at least the syndicated ones from 1978 onward, identified each episode in a season by a letter-number code. For example, "A-001" is the premiere (first episode of Season 1) and "F-025" is the 25th show of Season 6 (and in the case of Tic-Tac-Dough, its 1,000th episode, during which host Wink Martindale was given the slate).
- The 1979-82 daily series of Match Game used a system of "YY-WW-D", referring to the first year of the current season, the week that was being taped, and the day of the week - for example, "79-01-1" was the Monday show of the first week of the 1979-80 season (the premiere) and "81-35-5" was the Friday show of the 35th week of the 1981-82 season (the Grand Finale).
- Wheel of Fortune has had a few. While the original NBC daytime run used a sequential counter, GSN's Merv Griffin tribute marathon schedule listed a code of "NTD1-3686" for Pat Sajak's last show.
- The syndicated version uses a four-digit counter prefaced by "S-". At least one recollection claims that it was a two-digit counter very early on, which would indicate it expanded to three digits just after midseason and four digits early in Season 6. They won't need a five-digit one until late 2034.
- When the daytime show moved to CBS in 1989, it got a new episode counter that had three digits prefaced by "C". The 1991 return to NBC reset the counter and replaced "C" with "DT". Both were sequential, though.
- The 2007-08 American Temptation used sequential numbering, with three digits prefaced by "1GT".
|
|
