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AlonsodelArte
Since: Nov, 2020
10th Feb, 2021 01:46:14 PM
I guess this proves this is too rare a trope.
Nepworks
Since: Feb, 2020
10th Feb, 2021 02:01:21 PM
Edited by Nepworks
This might be too rare a trope, but on the other hand, it's from The Simpsons, so it might have imitators.
As you probably realize, or know firsthand, episode titles don't fit all that well on production calendars, e.g., Deep Space Nine "Looking for Par'mach in All the Wrong Places," so instead they use a production number, like 501. This gives the producers some flexibility to change the titles as needed, but, more importantly, it enables them to easily keep track of the production schedule even if it diverges from the intended broadcast order (e.g., if they need to shoot most of Part II of a two-parter before anything of Part I).
The easiest way to create a production number is to take the season number and the intended production order number. For example, if a particular episode is supposed to be the seventh episode for Season 4 of the show, its production number would be 407.
Obviously such production numbers would not be unique for all the different shows a given studio produces, and it's even more complicated when multiple studios collaborate on a single show. So they want production numbers to be unique among all the shows they work on.
For The Simpsons, they started with 7G01, since Homer Simpson works in Sector 7G. Then the show was renewed for a second season, which was not as certain an occurrence as it is now. The first produced epiosde of the second season could quite logically have been either 7H01 or 8G01. But instead they went sort of retrograde with 7F01. And now we're on Season 32 with ZABF 22 as the most recent episode I've seen.
Oops, I forgot about QABF 02, which is indeed a Season 32 episode, though I doubt it's an episode produced ten years ago and held in reserve all this time. And I have also seen the rather lackluster ZABF 20, and also QABF 04. It's not surprising that ZABF 20 would air after ZABF 22, but I have no idea what's with this back-and-forth between the Qs and the Zs.
Is this a trope we have listed? If not, should it be?