Most shows just offer random titles for their episodes. Some, amazingly enough, offer titles that refer to something that happened in the episode.  Yawwwwn.  BOOORINNNG.

I like the shows that follow a pattern when naming their episodes. Why? Because I want to see if they can keep it up! Some shows, like Friends and Seinfeld, painted themselves in a corner very early on with episode names, not thinking the show would last for 200 episodes or so. By the end of such a show's long run, you can tell the writers were really stretching to keep the pattern going.

Here are five of my and my fellow Squadders' favorite examples of episode naming patterns that took on a life of their own: