Undateable Episode Mis-numbering

Thanks for reporting! Although I have the feeling that the way we currently list it is indeed correct.

Check out the "Episode number" section of our policy at http://www.tvmaze.com/faq/15/episodes. It specifically describes what we do in case the official sources are conflicted about the episode numbering: we value the on-screen data higher than any other source, including the official site.

This means that if the episode does not contain any of the indicators listed in the policy (split titles, split credits, a formal break between the two parts, etc) we consider it a single episode, even if the official site said otherwise.

Also, I think the splitting of the title into "A Will They Walks Into A Bar" and "A Won't They Walks Into A Bar" is completely made up. I don't see any official source referring to such titles.

So in this case are we going to skip episode 3 entirely as per the NBC link above? Otherwise all episodes from 3 on are incorrect here.

No, episode numbers are always sequential.

It will simply stay listed like it currently is: "A Will They/Won't They Walks Into a Bar" is episode 1, the episode after that 2, and so on.

Unless of course someone can dig up proof that the episode did actually air as two separate parts.

Bummer, every episode for the rest of the season, starting at 3, will be off then. Thanks for indulging me

srob650 wrote:
Bummer, every episode for the rest of the season, starting at 3, will be off then. Thanks for indulging me

I do not understand you, it is obvious that the episode aired as ONE single ep without breaks, without new credits and all this, so it can only be seen as ONE ep, no matter what anyone in the world says. Where do you see the problem in this ?

cheers
Juan

"Off" depends on with what, of course :) I see at least tvdb currently lists the episodes the same way we do.

The problem is that it conflicts with NBC's official episode list. See here how episode 4 matches what we have as episode 3, and this offset continues and will continue for the remainder of the season. I understand the policy, but I'm not sure I agree with it in that "airblock" should trump official network info, but that's not my call, just an opinion :) Either way, I feel like this is an edge case that should be considered.

david wrote:
"Off" depends on with what, of course :) I see at least tvdb currently lists the episodes the same way we do.

If TVDB didn't have the same issues historically (family guy, mythbusters, etc.) I never would have found this site. Part of the reason I came here is you guys got those shows right!

The NBC episode list completely skips the number 3, so for our purposes it should be considered broken and should not be used.

But yeah, cases like this which are open to different interpretations will always be messy. The only thing we can do is apply our policy consistently, so people know what to expect.

We've been running a tv data site for 10 years. If your policy results in an episode numbering system that doesn't match what viewers will see and reference via commonly used sources (like the show's own website), then your policy probably needs to be adjusted. It's confusing and frustrating for a fan of the show to be looking for the episode under one number on the show's website and a completely different number on your site.

tunefind wrote:
We've been running a tv data site for 10 years. If your policy results in an episode numbering system that doesn't match what viewers will see and reference via commonly used sources (like the show's own website), then your policy probably needs to be adjusted. It's confusing and frustrating for a fan of the show to be looking for the episode under one number on the show's website and a completely different number on your site.

If you look around on all the websites tracking tv shows on the vast space of the internet, you will see, that there is no consistent numbering for Undateable. Even the official site skips episode numbers and I think everyone who knows how to count from one to ten can see, that it is impossible that after episode 2, the next one is episode 4.

cheers
Juan

Yep. In some cases, like when a network's official site has an episode list that makes no sense, there will never be consensus across the entire internet on how to number the episodes.

If another source wants to be sure their scheme is compatible with TVmaze's, just use the same rules as in our policy and the lists should always match up. Otherwise, accept that there are differences in the world. :)

So if you are going to follow NBC's list then why does episode 3 have a title on your site, it should be empty since NBC skipped it. So technically almost all the season 3 episodes are titled wrong.

deadcell04 wrote:
So if you are going to follow NBC's list then why does episode 3 have a title on your site, it should be empty since NBC skipped it. So technically almost all the season 3 episodes are titled wrong.

Even if the most intelligent math prof iin the world counts 1,2,4,5,6, he is plainly wrong, after 2 comes 3, there are no exceptions to this, this is simply mathmatics :)

cheers
Juan

Yeah, they never said they were going to use NBC's list. I understand they are sticking to their set of rules but I still feel that the wrong decision is being made here, but I've given up trying to prove my case. I am working on allowing custom overriding of episode numbering in my affected program for future situations like this. :)

http://thexem.de has a cool visual solution to this by aggregating multiple sites and showing the differences. Here is what they show for Undateable. It's probably beyond the scope of tvmaze (plus there are way too many things the devs have in the pipeline) but it would be sweet to have some sort of user-numbering system to make everyone happy in these situations.

EDIT: It's not just visual, looks like they have a basic api you can get their data from. Will definitely look into it

srob650 wrote:
Yeah, they never said they were going to use NBC's list. I understand they are sticking to their set of rules but I still feel that the wrong decision is being made here, but I've given up trying to prove my case. I am working on allowing custom overriding of episode numbering in my affected program for future situations like this. :)
http://thexem.de has a cool visual solution to this by aggregating multiple sites and showing the differences. Here is what they show for Undateable. It's probably beyond the scope of tvmaze (plus there are way too many things the devs have in the pipeline) but it would be sweet to have some sort of user-numbering system to make everyone happy in these situations.
EDIT: It's not just visual, looks like they have a basic api you can get their data from. Will definitely look into it

It's maybe a good idea to contact him, so he can use our data also in his app?

I already posted to the github page about it, we'll see what they say.

I'm resurrecting this old thread because I just went to fix this and realized some of the episodes I needed to edit were locked, then I found this discussion. Regardless of the original airing have been one continuous "episode", and despite a few conflicting data sources, it's crystal clear that the episode listed here as S03E01 is actually two separate episodes. Every legitimate source lists the series as having had 36 episodes, not 35. There are two separate production codes, one for "Will They" and one for "Won't They". A lack of credits and title card between the two episodes during the original airing is very common when two are shown sequentially, and can not be used as an indicator that the two are one episode.

Why do we have a double episode from season 2 (A Live Show Walks Into a Bar) as 2 separate episodes? Single writer, single director.

And season 2 finale was also a double episode, but at least it have different writers for both parts, so the splitting is justified.