Currently the "Known for" widget for actors seem to be sorted by the date of the show/episode they can be last seen in. Although, IMHO it would make much more sense to sort this by the amount of episodes they starred in.
For example, Jennifer Carpenter is known by most for her role in Dexter. She starred in 92 Dexter episodes. Yet Dexter is the last result in the "Known for" widget. That just doesn't feel right to me. :-)
oldskool wrote:
Currently the "Known for" widget for actors seem to be sorted by the date of the show/episode they can be last seen in. Although, IMHO it would make much more sense to sort this by the amount of episodes they starred in.
For example, Jennifer Carpenter is known by most for her role in Dexter. She starred in 92 Dexter episodes. Yet Dexter is the last result in the "Known for" widget. That just doesn't feel right to me. :-)
I agree. The 'Known for' itself means the show they were most seen in. They should be sorted by no. of episode appearances (:
+1
The sorting isnt entirely random, it's currently sorted by show popularity. But I agree, the amount of starring roles would probably a better indicator here. Will look into this in the future.
Thanks!
Appearances as an actor (or host) should count much more than appearances as a guest (maybe three times as much credit). Actors are almost never known, by fans, for their appearances on talk shows, cameos, or crossovers. If an actor starred in a special (or made for TV movie) that is much more important to fans than three appearances on "The Tonight Show". The guest appearances and talk show appearances should still be included, but not in the "Known for" section, unless the actor has nothing else in the "Known for" section.
Sorting by number of appearances and taking the top 4 would be a great improvement. If there is a tie for the fourth show, then the most popular show (among the shows that tied) should be chosen.
If an actor is a "star" (not a guest star), there is no way to enter the number of episodes the actor appeared in (there is no field for it on the Cast/Manage page). The field is probably in your database, because it is necessary for guest cast. If the field is in the database, then the field should be added to that form.
For now, show's total episodes should be used for "stars."
Although the information on IMDB.com is not official (a lot of the data is provided by volunteers), there are enough eyes on it that the episode counts in the cast list of a show can almost always be trusted. Most actors and crew make sure their credits on that site are correct.
Once the total episodes are available for the stars, the episode count can be used to order the actors in the cast list and the search results. Currently, the order of the actors appears to be randomized (the order might be based on the order they are retrieved from the database, which changes as the database is used). Actors with episode counts should be ordered before actors with no specific episode count.
drbits wrote:
Sorting by number of appearances and taking the top 4 would be a great improvement. If there is a tie for the fourth show, then the most popular show (among the shows that tied) should be chosen.If an actor is a "star" (not a guest star), there is no way to enter the number of episodes the actor appeared in (there is no field for it on the Cast/Manage page). The field is probably in your database, because it is necessary for guest cast. If the field is in the database, then the field should be added to that form.
For now, show's total episodes should be used for "stars."
Although the information on IMDB.com is not official (a lot of the data is provided by volunteers), there are enough eyes on it that the episode counts in the cast list of a show can almost always be trusted. Most actors and crew make sure their credits on that site are correct.
Once the total episodes are available for the stars, the episode count can be used to order the actors in the cast list and the search results. Currently, the order of the actors appears to be randomized (the order might be based on the order they are retrieved from the database, which changes as the database is used). Actors with episode counts should be ordered before actors with no specific episode count.
By "star", do you mean regular "cast" member? If so, there is a way to count which episodes they were actually in, it is done manually from each episode. Click the episode you're looking at, go to cast appearances, click manage, and it will let you select which cast members actually appeared in the episode. This is done manually, episode by episode. I assume it's to avoid people just clicking that they were in all the episodes, when we know that often a main character is not necessarily in every episode.
sammy_hunt wrote:
By "star", do you mean regular "cast" member? If so, there is a way to count which episodes they were actually in, it is done manually from each episode. Click the episode you're looking at, go to cast appearances, click manage, and it will let you select which cast members actually appeared in the episode. This is done manually, episode by episode. I assume it's to avoid people just clicking that they were in all the episodes, when we know that often a main character is not necessarily in every episode.
Thank you,
I realized that was available after the message. But it is a clumsy enough approach that Cast, Crew, and fans do not usually bother on TVmaze.
A Cast member is usually considered on all episodes for the seasons they are regular cast (that is how credits work, not whether they appeared). Without actually watching (or rewatching) each episode and knowing all of the cast, a fan cannot know which cast members are on which episodes. There is a "Core cast" that are on every episode of a season, and they are easier to identify.
drbits wrote:
Thank you,I realized that was available after the message. But it is a clumsy enough approach that Cast, Crew, and fans do not usually bother on TVmaze.
A Cast member is usually considered on all episodes for the seasons they are regular cast (that is how credits work, not whether they appeared). Without actually watching (or rewatching) each episode and knowing all of the cast, a fan cannot know which cast members are on which episodes. There is a "Core cast" that are on every episode of a season, and they are easier to identify.
Well, see, that's the whole reason for having to click it on every individual episode instead of being able to bulk click. These days especially, there is no such thing as a "core cast" on a lot of shows. Take Grey's Anatomy or The Walking Dead or Game of Thrones. These are all ensemble shows and while they may have a main one or two characters that the show mostly revolves around (Meredith, or Rick, or Jon Snow), even these mainest of main characters are not in EVERY episode of the show.
Actually, there are quite a few mainest of main characters that are in every episode of a show. At least, American ones.
MacGyver and Jack Dalton on MacGyver
Regina on Once Upon a Time
Jim Gordon on Gotham
The Flash on The Flash (and pretty much everyone else considered main cast, too)
Arrow on Arrow
Sam and Dean on Supernatural
Lucifer and Chloe on Lucifer
Supergirl on Supergirl
While it's true that not every "main star" is in every episode, most shows have a "core" cast of those main stars that are in every episode.
Those are network shows, which also tend to do things a little differently than cable. Even then, you could count on Jesse being in every episode of Preacher. Even if there was no "core" to The Strain.
Gadfly wrote:
Actually, there are quite a few mainest of main characters that are in every episode of a show. At least, American ones.MacGyver and Jack Dalton on MacGyver
Regina on Once Upon a Time
Jim Gordon on Gotham
The Flash on The Flash (and pretty much everyone else considered main cast, too)
Arrow on Arrow
Sam and Dean on Supernatural
Lucifer and Chloe on Lucifer
Supergirl on Supergirl
While it's true that not every "main star" is in every episode, most shows have a "core" cast of those main stars that are in every episode.
Those are network shows, which also tend to do things a little differently than cable. Even then, you could count on Jesse being in every episode of Preacher. Even if there was no "core" to The Strain.
That's why I said "there is no such thing as a "core cast" on A LOT OF shows"--not every show. The point I was trying to make is that if you create a bulk add button in order to say that a certain character was in every episode of a show, or even a season, you know that there will be people trying to bulk add everyone that's listed as a main character. And there are too many shows where that's not the case anymore, so having a bulk add for regular cast member appearances is basically just asking for errors.
I went through and manually did all the main cast members of Medium, and yeah, it took me a long time and I was annoyed at first that it takes so long to do the workaround, but my first instinct was also to put Alison, Joe, Devalos, and Scanlon in every episode. By being forced to take it episode by episode, I realized that only Alison and Joe are in every episode and not Devalos and Scanlon, so now the information is extremely accurate as opposed to somebody just coming along and bulk clicking that everybody was in every episode. (Like I would have probably done, if I wasn't forced to do it the slow way.)
