Recently the new show Medical Investigations has been the target of criticism. Not for it's acting, writing, or directing (well, not only for those) but for its amazingly generic title. It's a show about medical investigations, you see, so it's called... The possible consequences if this becomes a trend in show titles are alarming. Your evening line-up could consist of the sitcoms Pretty Twentysomethings and Wisecracking Teenagers, followed by the police procedural Police Procedural and the reality shows Banal Decorating Tips and Obnoxious Narcissists. While this would have certain truth-in-advertising advantages, think what we'd lose. A show's title is a little advertisement for it, an indication of the creative processes or lack thereof behind it. Buffy the Vampire Slayer may be embarassing to order out loud in a DVD store, but it does sum up the show's mission statement nicely. There's clever wordplay, as in Drawn Together, evocative phrases like Star Trek, Law and Order, or Days of Our Lives, or even just an exciting-sounding acronym like CSI or ER or JAG. Alternatively, bad titles tell you something important about the show too. If the show's creators' idea of an interesting title is using only lower-case letters as in "dr. vegas" and "girls' club", creating half-hearted and ultimately meaningless puns on the character's names as in "Tru Calling" and "Crossing Jordan", or gratuitous use of colons as in Space: Above and Beyond, Kindred: The Embraced, andEarth: Final Conflict, their approach to the show itself might be questioned. And if no-one producing the show can see anything wrong with Shasta McNasty, The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer, or even The Brotherhood of Poland, N.H.... well, you can draw your own conclusions. So, before my underscore key wears out, what are people's favourite and least favourite show titles, and what makes them good and bad?

What's the deal with the thousand underscores?

I have a theory that it doesn't matter how good a show is, if it has a name you'd be embarrassed saying out loud, it isn't going to go anywhere.

That post underscores the value of using italics.

I thought that "Las Vegas" and "Hawaii" were generic titles. It made me question the creativity of TPTB.

Good point, Poodle Hat.

I don't have any problem with generic tv show names. I grew up on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Andy Griffith Show, The Carol Burnett Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Flip Wilson Show etc... Very "what you see is what you get" show titles.

After many years of associating it with the actual show, "Law & Order" sounds snazzy now, but it's actually pretty damn generic. In fact, many successful shows have had incredibly generic names: Friends, Medical Center, Policewoman. And it's even more common to name shows after either the lead actor (Seinfeld, Cosby, Newhart) or the lead character(s).

How is Medical Investigation a more generic title than the similarly themed House (named after the lead character, not just by randomly pointing in the dictionary -- though that might, in fact, be how they named the lead character.)?

The lamest titles are the ones that give so little thought beyond the pilot that the name of the show has to be changed after a year or so (James at 15, anyone). Seriously, producers: do not put ages or dates in your show title. You are asking for trouble.

Speaking of, have the teens on That 70s Show reached the 80s yet?

Dick Van Dyke himself disapproved of the title of his show, since it made the show appear to be a star vehicle while he considered it an ensemble piece, and worried about the writers not giving the other actors enough to do. Still, it's pretty fun that at that fairly repressed time a tv show title included a phrase equivalent to "penis of the lesbian." Ditto for Leave it to Beaver.

I was thinking about this last night. They said Donna was in the sixth grade in '73. The show started with them in high school and now they are in college. So Five years have gone by. Except the show is in it's sixth or seventh season. So it really makes no sense. But this is the last season anyway so I'll just awesome it'ss be '79 by the end.

You can always tell what year it's supposed to be on That 70s Show at the end of the opening credits, through a rather obvious but clever technique. After the first season, which took place in 1976, each "year" has been covered by two seasons. So it was '77 in seasons two and three, etc.

I think Arrested Development is an unusually good title, with its multiple puns on the situations in the story. But sometimes I think it may be too indirect, as I'lll try to get people to watch it and they'll say "but I don't like that guy who created Seinfeld" or "but I don't get HBO" and it's evident they're thinking of Curb Your Enthusiasm. So maybe they should just called it That Show with Jason Bateman, the Hank Kingsley Guy, and the Blonde Who Was On Ally McBeal.

I actually like titles that are so bluntly generic that they're funny in their own way: I thought Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place was a funny, inviting title, for instance (less so after they dropped the pizza place) -- sort of in the spirit of such c. 1980 (non-TV) titles as "A Couple of White Chicks Sitting Around Talking" or "Four Jews in a Room Bitching."

I suppose the creators of Medical Investigation were going for that kind of so-obvious-it's-cool kind of name; if so, they missed.

I think the absolute extreme of blunt titles was an early '70s hospital show called Medical Center. Not only did the title simply say where the show took place, the medical center was never actually named in the show itself!

There actually was a That 80s Show that came and went.

Even though I never saw it, Shasta McNasty is one of the dumbest and funniest titles I have ever heard. Another show with a wordy title that's been shortened is 8 Simple Rules For Dating My Teenage Daughter.

Feckless posted:


I don't think the colons were gratuitous, just a bit pompous for the last two examples you use. Colons, of the grammatical kind, tend to make me skeptical, but I can look past a crap title if the show itself is good. My example of that? Partners, a comedy with Jon Cryer, Maria Pitillo, and Tate Donovan from FOX. Yeah, I know; I still liked it.

Worst Titles:

Too Something(Fox,1995): To quote Buffy, "can you vague that up for me?" It was a cute show, but a crap title. I even floated an alternative title for their New Title Contest, but the show was yanked not long after the new title was started. Not mine, so...you decide. ;)

Pink Lady and Jeff (NBC,197-/8-?):The what? In the what what?? Then I watched the show. Then I turned it off. It was a succinct, but wasn't helpful. If you knew Pink Lady, you dug them. Ditto for Jeff. If you knew neither, you probably didn't care.

Sleepwalkers(NBC,1997): I'd be curious, but just on the title? I'd pass.

C-16(ABC, 1997):Loved the show (and Eric Roberts with a beard!), but the title was crap.

There are more, like the classic My Mother The Car, but for now, I'll leave my list at this.

Best Titles:

Lost: Lets the viewers know they have as much, or possibly more of a clue, than the characters right up front.

Brimstone(Fox,1998): The title let you know up front that this was a dark place to visit. It was a show about redemption, but a cop-turned-killer-turned Devil's bounty hunter was never gonna be a "happily ever after" show. The title reflected that.

Spy Games (ABC,19??): It was a mostly light take on spy biz, on sporadically during the summer. Cute, sexy, and a title that fit to boot.

Laugh-In (NBC,196?):They told jokes, we laughed. The Sixties had lots of [blank]-ins. Another title that was just right.

Family Affair(CBS (?), 196?): It was about family. Affair doesn't have to mean what it seems to mean nowadays. Then, it dealt with the meaning "matter or concern", which Uncle Bill and/or Mr. French sure handled. Another good fit between show and title.

My source for most of these examples- TV Guide Fall Previews.

Interesting thread idea. I'll toss in some change:

What really bothers me is when they change the titles of shows. Like Parker Lewis Can't Lose got changed to Parker Lewis. PL himself even commented on the name change in one of the episodes.

Also, when Ellen first came out, it was called These Friends of Mine. Much better title, I thought.

Conversely, changing The Seinfeld Chronicles to simply Seinfeld was a good idea, especially since they did it early on.

Speaking of ridiculous titles, wasn't there a show on ABC not too long ago, called Wednesdays, 9:30/8:30 Central? WTF were they thinking?

It seemed they picked the Wednesdays title purely to run some commercials about the cast griping about the show being doomed for having such a crappy title. A little reminiscent of making an SUV called a Toureg just to run ads about how hard it is to pronounce. Of course, then they went and hired Ted McGinley, whose numerous failed tv shows have made him the patron saint of jumptheshark.com.

How 'bout Space: 1999? Did it ever make it out of 1999? And now, almost six years after that date, how close are we to actually colonizing the moon?

One of my personal least favorite TV titles is It's Like, You Know. Obnoxious title, obnoxious show. Thank God it fizzled as quickly as it did.

Oh. I thought you said TV Titties. Never mind.

I generally despise TV show titles that shun capital letters. Examples: dr. vegas and life as we know it. What, are you too cool for capital letters? Or did the person who thought up the title miss that part of kindergarten?

I think It's Like, You Know... could be a terrific title for some show. Just not the one they actually used it for (which I liked for the first 4 or 5 shows till they ran out of ideas), which it didn't fit at alll.

Yeah, it tends to doom a show to a short lifespan.
Class of '96 and Millennium on Fox for example. Though the second one had a certain purpose to adhere to.

Saved by the Bell is a bad title because it's specific to high school as there are no bells in college. Then they had to do SBTB: The College Years, and SBTB: The New Class.

For some reason I don't like when the title of the show is the full name of the main character. "Ally McBeal", "Kevin Hill", "Punky Brewster", etc.

"Hawaii" and "Las Vegas" are just too general as titles. LV is annoying in particular because Vegas got hugely trendy in the past few years like South Beach was before it, so now it's just trendy to set your show there. "Dallas" and "BH:90210" I don't mind though.

Oooh, what fun!

It annoys me that Nip/Tuck isn't Nip and Tuck, as the phrase is generally used.

If I recall correctly, the hospital on Medical Center was actually named Medical Center, lame as that is. I remember them referring to it as if that were its name, and thinking how peculiar that was, even as a child. Not that that makes the title of the show any more compelling, or the hospital one you might want to check into. Even with Joe Gannon as your doctor.

Diff'rent Strokes, with that stupid apostrophe: the title was slightly dirty-sounding anyway, which was so wrong, and if the missing letter was supposed to be hip, well, it wasn't. And neither was the show.

The westerns always had solid, solemn-sounding, dramatic names: Gunsmoke, Big Valley, The Rifleman, Have Gun, Will Travel.

Mission: Impossible was an excellent use of the colon.

Sappiest name for a show: Finder of Lost Loves. Starred James Franciosa, or was it James Franciscus? I always get those two mixed up.

Then there were the zillions of last-name-only shows, either to connote grittiness or because the producers couldn't think of anything else to call it: Kojak, Baretta, Quincy, Mannix, Maverick, Longstreet, Toma, Columbo, Ironside, Cannon, Delvecchio.... And the women get first names: Rhoda, Phyllis, Maude, Julia, Roseanne, Angie, Mary, Sara, Reba, Bette, Blossom, Gidget, Alice, Flo, Hazel, Jessie, Valerie.... I think there was more than one Mary.

413 Hope Street seemed like a title that didn't fit because the situations seemed so hopeless. Did they ever instill any hope on that show? Didn't matter... given the type of show it was and that it had a gay, non-black, main character with AIDS (among other things), being on Fox, it didn't stand a chance anyway.

Good Times almost fits here, but they had more good times on their show than the Hope Streeters had hope.

One western title I've always loved is Wanted: Dead or Alive, with Steve McQueen. Despite the somewhat nonsensical colon use, it's such a great way to tell people what they're getting into when they watch it.

Cool... I just realized that Space:1999 and Mission:Impossible both starred Martin:Landau and Barbara:Bain.

How about titles with no apparent connection to the show? I'm thinking about one called "Hearts Afire" from the early 90's (?) starring John Ritter, Markie Post, and Billy Bob Thornton, about the life of a senator (or maybe it was a congressman) in D.C. The title would imply a romantic comedy show, but it was an office comedy. Makes me think they used the random t.v. show title-generator to come up with their's.

If I recall correctly, the original premise of Hearts Afire was a romantic comedy. But that didn't really work so they changed the focus of the show.

I cried when they dumped The Pizza Place. It was the best part of the show.

Worst syntax ever belongs to CBS soaps The Young and The Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful. Not only are they over-wordy, but they led to my cat being called The Fat and the Useless.

I'll throw this in:

There was a show on NBC a few years back called DAG. (Not to be confused with JAG.) The show starred David Alan Grier, as a secret service agent with the last name Daggett. Characters often referred to him as "Dag," of course. But the title was also a clever way for the star to have his initials be the name of the show.

Too bad the show itself wasn't as clever.

Well, for the ultimate title that makes no sense: Monty Python's Flying Circus! The deliberately oblique and confusing moniker was another part of what made it so great.

I like B&B as a title, but after characters have been on Y&R for a good 20 years the title becomes false advertising. I guess they always bring in new young actors though.
I dislike the overly dramatic soap titles- Days of our Lives, One Life to Live, As the World Turns, Another World, Edge of Night, All My Children. Maybe they needed that drama when they started back on the radio or early TV, but now it just begs for snark.
You could go weeks without seeing the inside of General Hospital.
Passions is a great title. The show, not so much. Same thing with the short-lived Generations.

Still waiting for a soap titled Too Close to Incest

Kindred: The Embraced has the unfortunate distinction of being required to use the pretentious colon because of its source material. The show came from the World of Darkness, a shared world for the role playing games of Vampire: The Masquerade, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Mage: The Ascension, Wraith: The Oblivion, Changeling: The Dreaming, and Hunter: The Reckoning. Well, at least, those were the major titles. Yes, there were more. You might want to tie a pillow to your forehead until you're done bashing it into the wall.

I always wondered about Big Brother, myself. Yes, it's a reference to 1984, but the show originated in Germany, where it was still called Big Brother, untranslated from the English. And now, does anyone actually watch what these people are up to anymore? Please don't answer that. I value my sanity and faith in humankind.

Land of the Giants was something of a misnomer because the people on the planet were normal-sized, by their standards --it was the stranded earthlings who were tiny. Rather sizecentric of them, I say.

Gilligan's Island--when did it become his? There were six other people there, too.

Eight is Enough. A lame name, tells you nothing. Except, yes, you should have used birth control.

Was Emergency! the only show to have an exclamation point? Or did Daktari have one? Rat Patrol was a cool name, as was Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. No question what the plot of that one was.

Boy Meets Grill, the Bobby Flay cooking show on Food Network (even though I don't much like Bobby), is a very clever name.

Monty Python's Flying Circus was the less weird title they were considering. They almost named the show Owl Stretching Time, which could have been the greatest tv show title of all time.

No, no. It was Tony Franciosa. Which reminds me of the coolness that is Mystery Science Theatre 3000. If I recall correctly, 3000 was chosen over 2000 as it sounded more futuristic - the year 2000 was only a decade or so away. And most of the experiments were murky Sci-fi movies.

Two shows that really captured the spirit of the plot in the title are Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared, which had producers, writers and even actors in common. Freaks and Geeks set up the conflict of the show's main character, Lindsey, who wanted to change her clique to hang with the cooler (to her) freaks, but still fit in with her old geeky Mathlete friend. And the uncertainty of freshman year can be perfectly encapsulated in the title Undeclared.

In the bad department, we have Seventh Heaven. It wasn't so bad when it referred to the even-then overpopulated CamMansion consisting of a family of seven; when they decided to let them breed again they had to add twins to the family to keep the title relevant. Poor, attention-deprived, special needs twins who can't act all that well. Thanks a heap.

Oh, right! Thank you! It was James Farentino I was mixing up, anyway--there is no James Franciosa. Stupid title nevertheless.

Cop Rock--now, that was an embarrassing name. So was Mod Squad. Please! How did those actors hold their heads up?

Another Food Network show with a clever name: Kitchen Accomplished, where they renovate a crummy-looking kitchen.

A show from the 60's, It's About Time, had a clever title. It was a stupid concept, wherein a couple of astronauts go back in time to the cavemen era, but it was about time and the clash thereof.

I Dream of Jeannie was reasonably cute and clever, too. Nobody does wordplay anymore.

For the nausea factor, there's always Highway to Heaven and Touched by an Angel.

Making the change to 3000 more embarrasing is that Joel Hodgson actually didn't intend for the number to refer to a year, but a production number. He cited the Ford 500 and the HAL 9000 as examples of what he was trying to do, then said the people who came up with those had the wisdom to pick numbers that likely wouldn't be confused with years.

­­Now, Vega$ might have been an unimaginative title, but you've got to love the flair from the dollar sign "S". Plus, I had a big crush on Dan Tanna.

I liked Vega$, especially the "$". Which is why titling a show Las Vegas shows a real lack of imagination. Like a cop show callled Hawaii, when there was already a cop show called Hawaii Five-O. Why not name the show after whatever casino it's based out of? I mean, it's a show about the goings-on in the casino, not about the entire city of Las Vegas.

If every show was named after the city or state it was based in, there'd be several million TV shows named New York.

Vega$ is a stupid name, as is The $treet. Are we too cool for "s"s now?

I really like Farscape as a title. I like that it's the name of Crichtons ship and I also like that it is a totally awesome word. Sort of like landscape, only it's in refernece to the vastness of space instead of something as mundane as the surface of a planet.

I can live with Vega$. I am slightly annoyed by The $treet. But Numb3rs makes Baby Jesus cry.

Yes, what is up with that? We know the show is about numbers, it's the title. Why throw a random number in there and mess up your perfectly simple title? Do you want to make it more "edgy" and "hip?" It just comes across looking stupid, like Se7en. What is the point of the "3" if it's just pronounced "numbers?" Should we now pronounce it "numbthreers?"

See, I don't know anything about The $treet so I can't give an opinion either way on whether or not the "$" is relevant. But Vega$ was set in the gambling town of Las Vegas and Vegas in the late 70s wasn't the family-friendly place it is today--people came there to gamble. I thought it was extremely clever and catchy back in 1978. Unique back in the day. Maybe it wouldn't fly in today's day and age.

Ah, The $treet was about Wall Street. That makes sense, too. Not terribly original, but oh well. And Glark, I'm sure the people at HBO or Showtime would love to get Pu$$y. Heh.

I'm going to create a show about high-price hookers called Pu$$y.

When I first saw The L Word in the TV listings, I thought, hmmm..., Love? Laughter? Litigation?

I really like Scrubs as a title for a TV show about doctors. I don't know what I like about, I jsut do. I think I like how it connects and sort of has to do with the show, without over doing it like Medical Investigations.

I like Scrubs, too, since there's a bit of wordplay. Scrubs is also a sports term for the new guys, the third-stringers.

That's hilarious. I wish my DVD box set was of Owl Stretching Time (even though Flying Circus is pretty silly). It's even better since we have "cat stretching time" at my house. My cat likes to stretch out when he's picked up. Don't know why, you'd have to ask him.


Fresh Prince of Bel Air was always a weird title. Yes it lets us know where it takes place but the "fresh prince" part is a bit confusing. Of course now everyone knows the entire theme song which explains the title so I guess it was good marketing to have the song still stuck in our heads 10 years later.

I have an Italian friend who always thought it was "The Bald and the Beautiful". I think that would be a much better title.