oddities in offical episode numbering

MST3K Central
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TPTB (do we still call them Brains?) have, since the revival, been referring to episode numbers according to the order in which they were released, rather than the Season-and-number-of-that-season convention that’s been used for many years. The latter has been used by both fans and officially, as evidenced by the interstitials used on the show itself starting around season 6, and the slates on the broadcast masters that Comedy Central used to air for some reason.

Thus, for example, officially they have been referring to Santo in the Treasure of Dracula as episode 218, where most of us think of it as 1301. They even use both in the Gizmoplex menu as seen in the attached pic. I seem to recall the new system even being used verbally within the episodes themselves in the revival era.

It’s confusing to change gears like this after so many years.
Screen Shot 2022-03-17 at 11.59.37 PM

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There’s room for both systems, I suppose. But, there is a reason why we don’t count time by seconds starting in January 1970.

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My code would like a word with you… :rofl::rofl::rofl:

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If you look a little closer, they are calling it experiment 218, not episode 218. It’s the 218th experiment that mad scientists have forced some poor schlub in a satellite into watching. But it’s also episode 1301 of the TV show.

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I really like this take! There’s definitely room for both and each has their place… so long as The Powers That Be actually fully populate both versions everywhere so it displays/searches/etc. properly.

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