98th or 100th Episode?

[yardgames]

There's been some controversey in the past over Fox's advertising of Lois' Sister as the 100th episode when in fact it was only the 98th. A thought struck me tonight on this topic, however. Are Company Picnic and Baby counted as one episode or two? I always watch them as a single episode; in fact, I don't even know where the split technically is. They were filmed together, essentially share the same name, and are basically just a double episode. So I would probably generally count them as one ep a piece. But if Fox were to take it technically, they're each two separate episodes. If both were split in half, then that would increase the episode count by season five by two, and thus make Lois' Sister in fact by the 100th episode after all. Is there angy logic in this argument? Could it be that whoever figured out it was only the 98th episode was only counting Company Picnic and Baby as a single episode? Or am I going crazy?

[NeCoHo]

Or am I going crazy?

YES!!!

I think FOX, being the idiot company it is, probably counted them as 1 ep.

But does this imply 2 MITM "lost" episodes?

[yardgames]

So you count them as two episodes? I said I counted them as one, so you're calling me an idiot for that!? I don't think there's two lost episodes, unless Baby and Company Picnic were both counted as two eps, and Fox still called Lois' Sister the 100th when it was actually the 98th. It's all very confusing.

[Wildcat]

I'm pretty sure they are counting them as separte episodes because over on in the episode guide Comany Picnic is listed as eps 3x11 and 3x12 and Baby is listed as eps 4x20 and 4x21. It would make more sense to only count them as one though. But that would also mean that they should count Reese Joins the Army/Reese Comes Home as one ep too.

[Wemboy]

Well i'd say you have to count said episodes separately. They do form part of the same storyline, and you couldn't watch one without the other, but they were aired at different times as far as i know. Bear with me on this one, but if you take each episode to be a separate twenty minute "unit" of a greater MITM whole, then you have 100 "units" up to that point, see? So that's 100 episodes. Also, you have the issue of the Season 1 finale continuing into Season 2, and later the Reese Joins the Army eps. So better to count each episode separately. There's one problem here though, this all makes Fox right...damn!

[samboo1]

I count company picnic/baby/reese joins the army as separate episodes since they are aired separately.

[NeCoHo]

so you're calling me an idiot for that!?

No, generally, I'm calling you an idiot.

you just said "Am I crazy?" I said "Yes!!"

[Amigo22]

Water Park & Traffic Jam and Houseboat & Emancipation are also 2-part episodes. Reese Joins The Army/Reese Comes Home is a 3-part episode. I recall seeing that Lois's Sister was only ep #98, and I too am confused over this. I think that all 2-part episodes should be counted as two episodes, because they are. Houseboat & Emancipation for example, they are two totally different episodes. The first they are on holiday in the Houseboat, the second they are at home and the boys going back to school.

[yardgames]

I agree, and I think that Reese Joins the Army is three separate eps. But I think Company Picnic at least demands special attention. It was aired all at once after the Super Bowl party, and the plot is entirely the same between the two. You can watch Emancipation and completely understand it without seeing Houseboat; you couldn't watch Company Picnic 2 without watching Company Picnic 1.

What we need is someone who has way too much time on their hands to count all the eps and get this figured out.

[Wildcat]

What we need is someone who has way too much time on their hands to count all the eps and get this figured out.

Not necessary. I just remembered that on tv.com they have an episode list where the episodes are consecutively numbered from one season to the next. Company Picnic and Baby are counted as four separate episodes. Even counting them each as separate eps, Lois's Sister still comes out as episode 98. Reese's Apartment is episode 100. Problem solved.

I would post the link directly to the episode list, but I read somewhere that we aren't supposed to link to other MITM sites.