Friends episode titles were primed to make people remember them
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — TV General
golfrumors — 7 years ago(April 09, 2018 06:15 AM)
They all have titles like "The One Where Estelle Dies" or "The One With Phoebe's Wedding". "The One Where|With|Whatever…" This is because otherwise nobody would remember any of the episodes. They were all forgettable garbage. This was the age of TV Guide, when people would see the episode title in the listings. This is the result of years of Project MKUltra, Project Bluebird, Project Monarch research and experimentation. People would read the listing and be primed to remember the main plot line. Frankly, it's pathetic. A real show like Seinfeld did not resort to such low tactics. We remember "the one with the marble rye" even though it is called "The Rye". Not a great example, maybe. But we remember "the one with the second spitter" even though it is called "The Boyfriend". "The one where Kramer and Newman try to make money off of recycled cans" even though nobody knows what it is called. Every episode had multiple ways of remembering them. Nobody actually remembers any episodes of Friends.