OTT BLOG
25 January 2008 FARM TITLES Does anybody know the reason why the production team have introduced episode titles for Emmerdale? Is there any point in doing this for a soap, given that they are by their very nature, ephemeral? It is difficult to imagine even the most dedicated soap fan referring to individual episodes by a title. You just don't remember individual episodes of soaps, you remember the big storylines, or the famous characters. I believe that Neighbours also does something similar these days. # posted by Chris Orton : 1:48 PM Comments: I've always assumed it for two reasons: (1) it's easier for cast/crew working on the episode to use a title, rather than a production code.... and (2), it makes the writer/director feel like they're working on something with its own identity, rather than part of a faceless production conveyor belt. But yes, it's silly. For the audience, you don't need it -- although it might become fun seeing the pompous/overblown titles writers concoct for the usually-rather-humdrum episodes! # posted by  Dan : 2:00 PM   Two thoughts: Firstly that it seems to follow the recent American trend for naming individual episodes of even the most conveyorbelt-produced shows (though I guess it's two-way traffic on that front, seeing as some of the most successful UK>US exports in the past have been episodically named). Second, well, perhaps it's to do with the BitTorrent generation? Lending more meaning (and more searchability in lieu of completely universal naming conventions) and all that... # posted by  bristle : 2:53 PM   Neighbours does indeed do the same thing, and has been doing for a few years. For course, the problem with this is that it becomes increasingly difficult to come up with new titles, so they've become ever more cryptic and nonsensical. Some recent examples include "Cheat, Fink And Be Terry", "Vomitatious", "Comb On Deranged" and "We Are Davo!" Eh? # posted by  Jon Haw : 1:27 PM   I've spoken to my Emmerdale production contact and he says "The reason we're giving titles to episodes (as ordered from above) is that it just adds more information for digital tv listings and the like." So there you go. # posted by  MediumRob : 1:31 PM   Post a Comment << Home	Archives December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 December 2007 January 2008 Site Feed Email OTT Blog