Placeholder Titles

Your show has finally made it on the air! The episode's got everything it needs...except a Title Sequence. What to do? This is where Placeholder Titles come in. Similar to the Title Montage in execution, but with the reason being that the actual title sequence isn't complete. Eventually, the titles may be replaced with the proper version, but in the most extreme cases, they may not appear until the DVDs.

Abbreviated versions of openings don't quite fit under here.

Examples of Placeholder Titles include:

Anime

• Studio Shaft is notorious for this trope in general, as they have a tough time meeting their schedule, e.g.
  • Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei
  • Dance in the Vampire Bund didn't have its proper ED ready until episode 8.
  • Bakemonogatari's ED was much the same for the first few episodes.
  • The first two episodes of Hidamari Sketch x Hoshimittsu had an OP sequence largely with static images for the first three episodes, and a similarly static ED fr the first three.
• Rosario + Vampire had this for the opening and ending, officially replacing them at episode four.
• They Are My Noble Masters
• Bamboo Blade, with the proper titles not appearing until the DVDs were released.
• Hyakko, which had in its first couple of episodes nothing but clips from the first episode standing in for the opening. It's not until episode nine that the opening could finally be said to have animation of its own.
• Gargoyle of the Yoshinagas did this with its ending for the first two episodes.
• Penguin Musume Heart had placeholder Evolving Credits. It was never the same OP twice, but starting with episode eight, the OP did finally stabilize.
• Tentai Senshi Sunred, whose placeholder opening was noticeable because of the still frames. More scenes and more motion were added come episode seven.
• KimiKiss pure rouge. The first version of the opening, mostly consisting of static images, was replaced with a more animated one halfway through.
• Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex featured a Title Montage for the first two episodes when it first aired in Japan before the CGI opening was finished.
• Likewise, the first two episodes of The Big O featured a short clip of Big O's face hardening out of a pool of molten metal with a booming voiceover reciting the quasi Catch Phrase "Cast in the name of God, ye not guilty."
• Basquash, but only for episodes 2 and 3. The actual opening came into place rather quickly. Though the process repeated again for the second OP.
• Daily Lives of High School Boys has a strange cause its first episode's ending being this—one member of the band Jinkaku Radio committed a Role-Ending Misdemeanor of making disparaging remarks on Yui Horie and eventually causing the band to dissociate themselves from the anime. Sunrise needed time to find a replacement.

Live Action TV

• Episodes of Round the Twist would all begin with the opening credits followed by a very short sequence with no dialogue (sometimes plot-relevant, but sometimes just surreal) over which the episode's title is superimposed—with the exception of the very first episode, "Skeleton on the Dunny", which has no opening credits at all and starts off with a handheld camera shot of approaching the outside toilet to reveal the titular skeleton.
• The opening two episodes for Power Rangers Zeo, for its first airing, had an opening which showed the Zeo Crystal shapes being etched by a laser, and didn't show any cast credits for the Rangers, so as to not spoil anything and to keep the suspense from the previous season's Cliff Hanger.
• The second episode of Stargate Atlantis, had a the title and credits appear on a plain watery blue background as the main series opening' contained many shots which would have been spoilers for the coming episode. (Prominently the city dramatically surfacing to save them all from drowning)

Western Animation

• Megas XLR did this for its pilot.