Casting order

My thinking is "Guest Star" are those actors listed after the opening credits before such things as writer and director. "Co-Star" are the actors listed in the end credits. "Special Guest" is usually stated as such in the opening credits.

And yes, only check the regular cast that appear in that episode.

Hi Rickies,

Not all countries/series do seperate the roles of actors playing. It is usually an American/Canadian kind of thing to differentiate roles.

Special Guest/Guest/Co-star are all part of series (but that doesn't mean all three should be in every episode, Special Guest is not that common to appear from my experience), but the series will tell you itself what kind of role he is playing, so you should follow their guidelines. I'll give you three examples of different roles.

Special; http://i.imgur.com/3awGwW7.jpg
Guest: http://i.imgur.com/bC1O7Ui.jpg
Co-star; http://i.imgur.com/OzGGW2p.jpg

However if nothing has been specified, you could list everything below ''Guest Cast''

For main cast, it will count if this person actually appeared in that episode yes :)

Thanks for the speedy responses. I'll carry on then. :)

Guest Star is essentially the default. If neither of the two below apply, I'd use that.

Presumably, Special Guest Star is for those who get credited with some kind of "Special" in their onscreen crediting. For instance, Neil McDonough has been credited as a SGS for most of this season of Arrow. Tonight, the actress playing Vixen was also credited as a SGS. Whenever they do Flash/Arrow crossovers, usually the main actor from one show is credited as a SGS when he appears on the other. And so on. And some shows never use it.

As noted, Co-Star is usually an American/Canadian type of credit. It's found at the end of most American shows, and indicates "lesser" actors. Again, I wouldn't use it unless it is specifically indicated. Co-Star could also be used for some "lesser" crediting as well. "Featured" was popular back in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, although I haven't seen it in years. When it was used, it was used to indicate lesser lesser people, after Co-Stars in the end credits. And sometimes people at the end were just Featured, with no Co-Star actors.

It gets even more confusing with some older shows. For instant, Jonathan Harris is by any reasonable standard a Show Star on Lost in Space. But for contractual reasons, he got himself listed as a Special Guest Star.

Even if TVMaze wanted to list him as a SGS, there's no way to list him as a SGS in the Show Star credits. The alternative would be to list Harris as a SGS for every episode of Lost in Space. And nobody does that.

Martin Landau on Mission Impossible is another example. He was supposed to be a SGS, but he got promoted to Main Star. But he was still contractually listed as a SGS for the first season.

The 60s was also big on listing main stars as Co-Starring. Leo G. Carroll is listed as "Co-Star" in the opening credits of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. But every site I'm aware of lists him as a main star. I think DeForest Kelley was listed as a co-star for Star Trek. And then not until the second season. He was just a guest star until then, as were James Doohan, George Takei, Majel Barrett, etc.

So the way TVMaze (and most sites) seem to do it is that Main Star for a regular trumps any subsidiary listing for the actor, And Guest Star gets used as a default unless someone is specifically credited as a SGS, or as a "lesser" co-star type.

And sometimes you just have to use your best judgement. American animated shows are sometimes like that. Justice League Unlimited is a good example. During the first two years, they had seven heroes, so seven Show Stars. But for the last three years out of five, they wandered in and out--particularly Michael Rosenberg and Carl Lumbly. Most sites list the "Big Seven" as the Main Stars, even though for the last three seasons they really weren't. The show never listed anyone as Show Stars.

Having someone credited as "With" can also cause issues. It's another one of those contract issues. So David McCallum and Rocky Carroll are both credited in the main titles for NCIS as "with"; Larry Manetti was the same way for Magnum PI. The confusion comes because back in the 1960's,1970's that "With" meant something completely different, it was one of those small roles at the end credits, not a main actor with a good agent. :-)

Thees days, "With" is supposed to be some kind of indicator of greater status. I'm not sure why listing someone later in the credits gives them more status than earlier, but go figure.

Since TVMaze doesn't list people in credit order, or allow with/and signifiers, it's a moot point.

Just a quick question if a press release specifically mentions someone being a guest star and repeats their name (alongside the rest of the people) under a 'guest cast' would all those not specifically mentioned as guest star be considered co-stars or is it okay leaving it as guest star?

For example, CBS doesn't differentiate between guest-stars and co-stars, check the futon critic Press releases for code black. They also have a tendendy to add "recurring" as if they were regular. Soi i wouldn't go by the press releases because they might be misleading. What is important is what is shown on screen. It takes a bit of a habit to enter info while watching credits but with time and practice, you can do credits in 5 minutes tops (well depending how long the credits on screen are...

What i do is i usually do them after watching an episode, so i know where the credits start, they don't always show at the beginning of the episode. some start before the title is displayed, chicago franchise does that a lot. And then i enter them in the order in which they appear on screen.

All the "With" "special appearances" "special guest stars" or "and" that may appear are based on the Screen actors guild- AFTRA (can't remember all the words) contract. They're specific. You could look at the current basic contract for the definitions. It also works for below the line, why such and such have that type of title etc. Works for writers guild and directors guild as well or PGA etc. UK, Canada, US have pretty strong guilds now. Us and Canada being the biggest players. Other countries, it really depends on the dude with his keyboard, France uses associate producer as "executive producer" and it doesn't entail the sames functions at all.

Co-stars today are usually people with little lines or no lines and it only apply to how networks do credits, because if you look at hbo or starz, for example, most guest and co-stars are listed at the end.

If you put everyone under guest-stars, it's not incorrect, they are all guest actors but some are paid more or less.

CBS differentiates guest stars from co-stars with their on-screen credits. At least on Supergirl and Person of Interest. Their press releases, no.

gazza911 wrote:
Just a quick question if a press release specifically mentions someone being a guest star and repeats their name (alongside the rest of the people) under a 'guest cast' would all those not specifically mentioned as guest star be considered co-stars or is it okay leaving it as guest star?

If you're opting to be specific, then it depends on the network. NBC rarely lists anybody but the main stars. CBS lists everyone, but doesn't differentiate (and is probably the most error-prone). ABC lists everyone with no differentiation. Fox usually only lists the guest stars, but not the co-stars. CW barely lists anyone: usually the main stars but sometimes it will omit them from the press releases as well. They will occasionally mention a guest star, and then it's always a Guest Star rather than a Co-Star.

I don't think any of them list Special Guest Stars as such. The CW didn't list the actors plays Darhk and Vixen as SGSs last night in their press release. But there it was on-screen.

That's for the American "Big Five" networks, at any rate. The only other one I'm familiar with is FX, which lists them similar to CW.

Like Tonks says, the best way to be sure is to actually watch the episode. Official press releases are sometimes wrong due to last-minute changes. Other data sites are sometimes wrong. Only the actual credits are 100% reliable.

Also, watching the show is the only way to determine Show Stars in many cases.Just because someone appears a lot doesn't make them Show Stars.

And even then, there's often discrepancies. ABC's press releases list Wynn Everett and Reggie Austin as show stars for Marvel's Agent Carter. But the on-screen credits clearly say that they're Guest Stars. Presumably the screen credits have precedence.

So is adding them all as 'guest star' using the press release before the episode has aired okay or not?

gazza911 wrote:
So is adding them all as 'guest star' using the press release before the episode has aired okay or not?

I wouldn't add them from press releases tho. They're often very wrong. I'd usually add them after it has aired to be sure.

In fairness, most press releases are accurate as far as they go. Even CBS rarely botches more than one entry per episode. And about 90% of the time, they're 100% right.This week's episode of Supergirl, one person was listed in the preceding press release that didn't get credited in the episode. But the other 10 or so cast listings were accurate. Is it worth omitting 10 people for 2-4 weeks because the release was wrong on one person?

Ditto on omissions. This week's Agent Carter omitted one person, but everyone else it said was in the episode, was in the episode.

I would double-check cast credits after the episode airs, to be sure. But if the only available source is the official press release, it's 90%+ accurate. And often, the errors are concerning the obscure co-stars, so the error is relatively insignificant. It depends on how much "preview" info TVMaze wants up, I guess.

Thomas wrote:
I wouldn't add them from press releases tho. They're often very wrong. I'd usually add them after it has aired to be sure.

The press release cast listings are about as accurate as their episode summaries. So if you're going to exclude press releases as a source, that means summaries for advance episodes should be excluded, too. :)

Gadfly wrote:

The press release cast listings are about as accurate as their episode summaries. So if you're going to exclude press releases as a source, that means summaries for advance episodes should be excluded, too. :)

Yes I know, that's one of the reasons I never add cast or summaries in advance, if not made available on their official page.

But the press releases do come from their official page. We're talking about the official press releases, right? Although I'm not sure what other kind there are, if they're... well, press releases.:)

According to our policies, it is perfectly fine to use press releases to add cast :)