How did US viewers learn The Simpsons episodes' names?
In Argentina (and Latin America in general), The Simpsons get broadcast on TV dubbed in Spanish. When the credits on the TV show (after the Couch Gag), there's an added line by Homer's voice stating the episode's name (translated into Spanish, of course).
Intro in Latin Spanish (video)
Hoy veremos: Bart es un genio
(Today we'll see: Bart is a genius).
Now that I've started seeing the show in it's original English, I'm surprised to find that there's no speech during the TV credits scene in the original series.
So my question is - how did viewers learn the name of the episodes?
I guess today you may have digital TV with on-screen metadata showing the episode title - assuming you're watching via TV instead of on-demand streaming - but back in the 90's that was not an option.
I've noticed this watching The Simpsons, but maybe the question/answer is not Simpsons-specific?
PS: The Latin American version also has Bart's voice read the chalkboard gag in Spanish, so it's more a dubbing than adding info that wasn't there.
Best Answer
A lot of this has to do with culture. The name of an episode could spoil the plot. TV guides etc often gave episode titles, but in general, viewers were in these kinds of shows expected to not have a particular expectation.
For example: The title "Bart is a genius" gives away a huge amount of that episode, which some could say, would detract from the experience of it. So it was just not mentioned in the episode.
If someone though wanted to learn the name, there were always ways like newspapers, magazines etc. Or also DVDs and so on.
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