Wednesday, October 05, 2005

What Was the Question?

If you look at tomorrow night's CBS lineup, you might notice a Shakespearean touch to ''Survivor.'' Tomorrow's ep is called To Betray or Not To Betray. And that's not the first ''Survivor'' homage to The Bard's most famous quote. To Quit or Not to Quit aired two years ago.

As you can imagine, TV writers worship Bill and they especially adore Hamlet. Nearly 100 ep titles riff off the first line of his soliloquy. ''Bewitched'' has four eps that pay homage to Hamlet's words:
  • To Go or Not to Go, That Is the Question
  • To Trick or Treat or Not to Trick or Treat
  • To Twitch or Not to Twitch
  • TV or Not TV
TV or Not TV seemed clever when I first saw it and TV scribes must agree. More than 20 series have an ep with this exact title!

What are some of the more clever ep titles that honor Hamlet? Here's a small sampling.
  • 4B or Not 4B (''NYPD Blue,'' 9/28/1993)
  • Doobie or Not Doobie (''What's Happening!!,'' 1/28/1978, 2/4/1978)
  • P.C. or Not P.C. (''Bob,'' 10/30/1992)
  • T.A. or Not T.A. (''Smart Guy,'' 11/1/1998)
  • To Bee or Not to Bee (''The Mask: The Animated Series,'' 9/27/1996)
  • To Bleat or Not to Bleat (''Sheep in the Big City,'' 11/24/2000)
  • To Bowl or Not to Bowl (''The Odd Couple,'' 9/19/1974)
  • To Bris or Not to Bris (''Rude Awakening,'' 7/17/1999)
  • To DNA or Not to DNA (''For the People,'' 8/11/2002)
  • To Hock or Not to Hock (''How to Marry a Millionaire,'' 10/28/1957)
  • To Plea or Not to Plea (''Rachel Gunn, R.N.,'' 7/12/1992)
  • To Re-enlist or Not to Re-enlist (''Gomer Pyle, USMC,'' 2/15/1967)
  • To Ski or Not to Ski (''Oh Madeline,'' 11/22/1983)
  • Toby or Not Toby (''Dream On,'' 10/6/1991)
  • Toupee or Not Toupee (''Shaky Ground,'' 5/9/1993)
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