I am citing several television episodes titled "Pilot." How do I differentiate among them in my parenthetical citations?

I am citing several television episodes titled “Pilot.” How do I differentiate among them in my parenthetical citations?

Note: This post relates to content in the eighth edition of the MLA Handbook. For up-to-date guidance, see the ninth edition of the MLA Handbook.

There is more than one way to distinguish among several television episodes titled “Pilot.” Here are two options.

Option 1

List each episode in your works-cited-list entry by title, as shown in the example below:

“Pilot.” Breaking Bad. Written and directed by Vince Gilligan, season 1, Sony Pictures, 2008.

“Pilot.” Hell on Wheels. Written by Tony Gayton and Joe Gayton, directed by David Von Ancken, season 1, Entertainment One, 2012.

“Pilot.” Lucifer. Written by Tom Kapinos, directed by Len Wiseman, season 1, Warner Archive Collection, 2015.

As explained in our post on citing works with identical titles and no authors, in your parenthetical citations, provide the title and then add in brackets additional information to clarify which source you are using—usually, the first unique piece of information, which in this case is the series title:

(“Pilot” [Breaking Bad])

(“Pilot” [Hell on Wheels])

(“Pilot” [Lucifer])

Option 2

Alternatively, you could list each episode in your works-cited list under the director’s name:

Gilligan, Vince, director. “Pilot.” Breaking Bad. Written by Gilligan, season 1, Sony Pictures, 2008.

Von Ancken, David, director. “Pilot.” Hell on Wheels. Written by Tony Gayton and Joe Gayton, season 1, Entertainment One, 2012.

Wiseman, Len, director. “Pilot.” Lucifer. Written by Tom Kapinos, season 1, Warner Archive Collection 2015.

This method is preferable because in your parenthetical citations, you can simply list the director’s name to key your references to the corresponding entries:

(Gilligan)

(Von Ancken)

(Wiseman)