First, the easy way: PERRLA
Choose Television, then Single episode. Add the episode's director in the Director role and its writer in the Writer role. If one person did both, use Writer & Director instead of adding them twice. Use Add contributor for each person after the first. PERRLA writes Directed by and written by in front of the names, after the episode title.
Fill in Series Title, Episode Title, Episode Date (the date it first aired), Season Number, and Episode Number, and type each company under Production Company, using Add publisher for each one after the first. Watched it on a streaming service? Type the service in Streaming Service, and PERRLA adds it in italics at the end. The Where did the show originally air? box doesn't print in the MLA entry, so the production company is what names the source. Want the series' executive producers in the entry too? Add them in the Executive Producer role, and PERRLA lists them after the series title. MLA treats them as optional.
Writing about the director's choices? Add the director with the Custom (No Director) role and type director in the Role box. PERRLA starts the entry with their name, and your in-text citations use it too. Don't also add them as Director, or the name prints twice.
PERRLA can also look an episode up from its IMDb link: paste the episode's IMDb page into the reference search, and it fills in the episode title, the season and episode numbers, the air date, the writers, the director, and the series title. Check them against the episode's credits before you save, because the writer list can include names the episode doesn't credit, and add the production companies yourself.
Not using PERRLA yet? Here is how to build the same works cited entry by hand.
The parts of the works cited entry
1. Episode title
Start with the episode's title in quotation marks and title case, with the period inside the closing quotation mark. An episode is part of a larger work, the series, so it gets quotation marks, not italics.
"Being Mortal."
Title case in MLA lowercases articles, prepositions, and coordinating conjunctions in the middle of a title, whatever the credits do: "In Sickness and in Wealth." Keep the title's own numbers and punctuation, like the colon in a time: "7:00 A.M."
2. Directed by and written by
Next come the people who made the episode, each name in normal order after a label: Directed by, then written by, separated by a comma. The first label is capitalized because it follows a period. End with a period.
Directed by Thomas Jennings, written by Thomas Jennings and Atul Gawande.
Two people with the same role are joined by and. MLA lets you choose which contributors to include, so name the ones that matter to your paper. A documentary episode often credits only a director, and that's fine: give Directed by alone. You can add performers too, with performance by or performances by, if your paper is about the acting.
3. Series title
The series is the container, so its title goes in italics and title case, followed by a comma.
Frontline,
If the series title ends with a question mark or an exclamation point, keep it and still add the comma, because the next element follows: Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?,
4. Executive producers (optional)
MLA doesn't require the series' executive producers, but you can name them after the series title, followed by the label executive producer or executive producers. With three or more, give the first name and et al.
David Fanning, executive producer,
MLA's own examples name the series' creator here instead, with created by. Use whichever matters to your discussion, or neither.
5. Season and episode
Write season and episode in lowercase, each followed by its number and a comma.
season 1, episode 1,
If the show doesn't number its seasons, as with a one-season documentary series, give the episode number alone. If you can't find numbers in the credits or on the network's page for the episode, leave them out.
6. Production company
The company that produced the show is the publisher. Separate two or more with a slash, with a space on each side.
John Wells Productions / Warner Bros. Television,
A network or streaming service counts as the publisher only when it's the organization mainly responsible for producing the show. The Pitt streams on HBO Max, but John Wells Productions and Warner Bros. Television produce it.
7. Air date
Give the date the episode first aired or was released, written day, month, year, with the month abbreviated (except May, June, and July). End with a period.
9 Jan. 2025.
Use the original air date, not the day you watched it or the day a streaming service added it. For a streaming original, the release date is the air date.
8. Streaming service
If you watched the episode on a streaming service, add the service's name in italics as a second container, then a period.
HBO Max.
Use the service's name at the time you watched. Max went back to the name HBO Max in July 2025. Watched it on broadcast TV or on a disc? Leave this part off.
Examples
A TV episode you streamed, quoted at a time stamp
The first episode of The Pitt, the medical drama that follows one shift in a Pittsburgh emergency department. John Wells directed it and R. Scott Gemmill wrote it. The student watched it on HBO Max, so the service follows in italics, and the citation points to the scene that starts 12 minutes, 40 seconds in.
Works Cited
"7:00 A.M." Directed by John Wells, written by R. Scott Gemmill. The Pitt, season 1, episode 1, John Wells Productions / Warner Bros. Television, 9 Jan. 2025. HBO Max.
- In-text citation("7:00 A.M." 00:12:40)
- Narrative citationIn "7:00 A.M.," … (00:12:40).
A documentary episode with a writer-director and no episode number
FRONTLINE's Being Mortal, in which surgeon Atul Gawande looks at how doctors and patients talk about the end of life, a natural source for papers on palliative care. The credits say it was produced and directed by Thomas Jennings and written by Jennings and Gawande. FRONTLINE's page gives no season or episode number, so the entry has none. David Fanning is the executive producer, and it's a FRONTLINE production with 2over10 Media (FRONTLINE is produced by WGBH in Boston).
Works Cited
"Being Mortal." Directed by Thomas Jennings, written by Thomas Jennings and Atul Gawande. Frontline, David Fanning, executive producer, WGBH / 2over10 Media, 10 Feb. 2015.
- In-text citation("Being Mortal")
- Narrative citationIn "Being Mortal," Gawande asks …
An episode listed under its director
"In Sickness and in Wealth," the first episode of the PBS documentary series Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?, which aired on March 27, 2008. The credits name Llewellyn M. Smith as director and no writer. A paper about how the film makes its argument can start the entry with the director, so Smith's name leads and the in-text citation is (Smith). The series has one season, so the episode number stands alone.
Works Cited
Smith, Llewellyn M., director. "In Sickness and in Wealth." Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?, Larry Adelman, executive producer, episode 1, California Newsreel / Vital Pictures, 27 Mar. 2008.
- In-text citation(Smith)
- Narrative citationSmith shows that …
In-text citations
An MLA 9 in-text citation for a TV episode uses the first thing in its Works Cited entry. For most episodes, that's the episode title in quotation marks.
- Title first: the episode title in quotation marks and title case, shortened to its first noun phrase if it's long: ("Being Mortal")
- A quote or a specific scene: add the time stamp where it starts, in hours, minutes, and seconds, with no comma before it: ("7:00 A.M." 00:12:40). A range works too: ("7:00 A.M." 00:12:40–55).
- Director first: the director's last name: (Smith)
- Two episodes with the same title, like several shows' "Pilot": add the series in square brackets: ("Pilot" [Breaking Bad])
- Title in your sentence: put the time stamp alone at the end: In "7:00 A.M.," the shift begins with … (00:12:40). If there's no time stamp, you need no parentheses at all.
Name characters and actors in your sentence when they matter, and cite the episode. If you discuss the show as a whole rather than one episode, cite the TV series instead.
Common mistakes
- Gemmill, R. S. (Writer), & Wells, J. (Director). (2025, January 9). 7:00 A.M. (Season 1, Episode 1) [TV series episode]."7:00 A.M." Directed by John Wells, written by R. Scott Gemmill. The Pitt, season 1, episode 1, John Wells Productions / Warner Bros. Television, 9 Jan. 2025.That's APA. MLA starts with the episode title in quotation marks, puts the director and writer after it with full names and labels, and gives the full air date near the end.
- 7:00 A.M. "The Pitt.""7:00 A.M." … The Pitt,The episode title goes in quotation marks and the series title in italics. An episode is part of a larger work, like a chapter in a book.
- The Pitt, Season 1, Episode 1,The Pitt, season 1, episode 1,MLA writes season and episode in lowercase, because they're labels in the middle of the entry.
- Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick? episode 1,Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?, episode 1,A question mark at the end of a series title doesn't replace the comma after the container. Keep both.
- ("7:00 A.M.," 12:40)("7:00 A.M." 00:12:40)MLA puts no comma between the title and the time stamp, and gives the time in hours, minutes, and seconds.
- … 9 Jan. 2025. Max.… 9 Jan. 2025. HBO Max.A streaming service is a container, so its name goes in italics. Use its name when you watched: Max went back to HBO Max in July 2025.
Quick checklist
- Episode title in quotation marks and title case
- Directed by and written by, with full names in normal order
- Series title in italics, then a comma, even after a question mark
- season # and episode # in lowercase
- Production companies separated by a spaced slash
- Air date as day, abbreviated month, year
- Streaming service in italics at the end, if you streamed it
Questions students ask
Who is the author of a TV episode in MLA?
Usually no one goes in the author's spot. MLA starts the entry with the episode title and names the director and writer after it, with Directed by and written by. If your paper focuses on one person's work, like the director's, you can start with that person's name and role instead: Smith, Llewellyn M., director.
How do I cite a Netflix, Hulu, or HBO Max episode in MLA?
Cite the episode as usual, then add the streaming service in italics as a second container at the end: Netflix. If the service produced the show, like a Netflix original, it can also be the production company.
Do I include season and episode numbers in MLA?
Yes, when the show uses them. Write season 1, episode 1 in lowercase after the series title and any contributors. A one-season series can take the episode number alone, and a show with no numbers takes none.
How do I cite a quote from a TV episode in MLA?
Put the quote in quotation marks and cite the episode with the time stamp where the line starts, with no comma: ("7:00 A.M." 00:12:40). If you name the episode in your sentence, give the time stamp alone in parentheses.
Should I cite the episode or the whole series?
Cite the episode when you write about something that happens in it, and give each episode you use its own entry. Cite the whole series when you discuss the show in general, like how it portrays nurses across seasons.
What if I watched the episode on YouTube?
Cite what you watched. A full episode posted on YouTube is cited the way it appears there: the title as YouTube shows it, in italics because the episode stands on its own, then YouTube, uploaded by and the account name, the upload date, and the URL. A short clip is a YouTube video, with its title in quotation marks.
Related guides
Rules checked against the MLA Handbook (9th ed.), chapter 5 (the core elements, the Contributor element with labels like directed by, containers, and publishers) and chapter 6 (in-text citations and time stamps), and the MLA Style Center's posts on television episodes, pilots with the same title, styling titles of online works, punctuation after titles that end in a question mark, broadcasters as publishers, TV episodes on YouTube, audio commentary, and quoting dialogue from a film or TV show. Example sources are the ones verified for the APA 7 page: The Pitt in Deadline's premiere report and Warner Bros. Discovery's press materials, Being Mortal in FRONTLINE's credits on pbs.org, and "In Sickness and in Wealth" in the series credits on unnaturalcauses.org (re-checked October 29, 2026); the Max to HBO Max rename confirmed in July 2025 news reports.