Q's & A's

JAGUARDOG wrote:
How many episodes does a guest star have to be in a series before they are no longer considered a guest star and become a regular cast member? Is there a set number of episodes and how does it happen? Does the site automatically move them from guest star to main cast or does someone have to do it manually?

This is simply based on how the actors are credited by the show's producers, which can differ from season to season or even from episode to episode. It's pretty arbitrary, it's pretty common for someone to start as a Guest Star and be promoted to Main Cast later on. Or the other way around, someone starting as Main Cast being demoted to a Guest Star in later seasons.

So it's perfectly valid that someone is main cast and guest cast within the same show. Of course you can't be both on the same episode, so having a Guest Cast ánd Cast Appearance for a character on the same episode can never be right.

Either way, it's always based on the official credits and not determined by ourselves.

bungle wrote:
here's a small problem I've run into. if a show exists with no running time given, and you then add a running time but all the episodes for that show have been already imported/added. do you then have to go into each episode and mark the running time also, or can you make it so that it automatically updates each episode as soon as a running time for a show has been updated.
thanks :)

That would make sense indeed, I'll add it to my list!

david wrote:
Of course you can't be both on the same episode, so having a Guest Cast ánd Cast Appearance for a character on the same episode can never be right.

Actually, I think that we discussed that in a few cases it could be right.

For instance, for the "Mirror Mirror" episode of Star Trek, would Leonard Nimoy be both a Show Cast (as Spock) and a guest star (as Mirror Spock)?

I'm not sure what the final decision was as far as "evil twin" type appearances. Patrick Troughton as Salamander in "The Enemy of the World," and William Hartnell in "The Massacre" serial of Doctor Who, also come to mind.

JuanArango wrote:
First of all, wtf is BEN ? There is no BEN here :)
What gadfly and Tonks were saying is perfectly correct.
On tvmaze we do it exactly like this:
If someone is credited as main cast, he will be added as main cast.
If someone is credited as guest cast, he will be added as guest cast.
It does not matter in how many episodes someone appears, only the credit on screen or in the press release is what matters.
If someone is a guest cast in season 2 he will be entered as such, if he then becomes main cast in season 3 he will be entered in season 3 as main cast, but his guest cast entries in season 2 will be untouched.
But of course there can be a mistake in the show you are talking about, but to check on that you need to name the show, so that I can check on it :)
cheers
Juan

Thank you both for your responses. I doubt the person in question is not correct because GIC keeps a very close eye on this show with outstanding recap write ups that I enjoy reading etc. It's just originally I didn't know any of that stuff that any/all 4 of you had mentioned before and it answers most of my questions.

It's just my personal opinion of what I think is fair or not which does not count for a hill of beans anyways. I just assumed this one actress was getting shafted listed as a guest star based on how often I have seen her appear in ever episode. However now I know the # does not matter even if it is 1000 episodes it's the screen scrolling credits based on the "Show Runners" etc., etc., etc.

So with all of that being said, I understand, it's not fair but I guess not much in our world is fair?

Gadfly wrote:
Actually, I think that we discussed that in a few cases it could be right.
For instance, for the "Mirror Mirror" episode of Star Trek, would Leonard Nimoy be both a Show Cast (as Spock) and a guest star (as Mirror Spock)?
I'm not sure what the final decision was as far as "evil twin" type appearances. Patrick Troughton as Salamander in "The Enemy of the World," and William Hartnell in "The Massacre" serial of Doctor Who, also come to mind.

Ha, that's a nice one, but then my statement regarding characters is still correct :) Only people could be credited as cast appearance and guest cast in the same episode on very rare cases then.

JAGUARDOG wrote:
So with all of that being said, I understand, it's not fair but I guess not much in our world is fair?

You're definitely right that it can very arbitrary. It's just the politics of contract negotiations, as others mentioned. There's plenty of articles online writing about this stuff in detail if you care about it ;)

david wrote:
You're definitely right that it can very arbitrary. It's just the politics of contract negotiations, as others mentioned. There's plenty of articles online writing about this stuff in detail if you care about it ;)

Thank you all for your nice comments and responses and especially for taking the time out of your schedule to even try to assist this old dog without any of us getting upset!

JAGUARDOG wrote:
Thank you both for your responses. I doubt the person in question is not correct because GIC keeps a very close eye on this show with outstanding recap write ups that I enjoy reading etc.

Who or what is GIC?

Gadfly wrote:
Who or what is GIC?

You already figured that one out before over a week ago when you made you off the wall guess that just happened to be correct?

JAGUARDOG wrote:
You already figured that one out before over a week ago when you made you off the wall guess that just happened to be correct?

I did? The only GIC I remember guessing was "Guy in Charge." But that's the what. Who is the who? And what recaps are they writing? I'm always interested to know who is writing recaps other than myself: professional curiosity, as it were. None of the staff seem to have the time, so that eliminates David, Juan, Jan, and Thomas. If they're not in charge, who is?

Gadfly wrote:

I did? The only GIC I remember guessing was "Guy in Charge." But that's the what. Who is the who? And what recaps are they writing? I'm always interested to know who is writing recaps other than myself: professional curiosity, as it were. None of the staff seem to have the time, so that eliminates David, Juan, Jan, and Thomas. If they're not in charge, who is?

WOW, and I thought my memory was short your guess was "Gadfly In Charge" remember now? You are the one who's recaps I enjoy reading on my favorite show "The Flash"!

Haha! While we're decoding your nicknames, who of us is Ben?

david wrote:
Haha! While we're decoding your nicknames, who of us is Ben?

You r!

Lol. Is that a compliment, or?

JAGUARDOG wrote:
WOW, and I thought my memory was short your guess was "Gadfly In Charge" remember now? You are the one who's recaps I enjoy reading on my favorite show "The Flash"!

I'm not sure why you think I'm in charge, but okay. In charge of what? Wouldn't I be like, a staff member or Admin or something? Or is that me trying to be sneaky? If I was being sneaky, I probably wouldn't ask you in public who you think is in charge...

Otherwise... David? Juan? all other staff? Apparently you're supposed to obey me now. Hop to it! :)

JAGUARDOG wrote:
You r!

since when is BEN a coder ?

He was the admin of tvrage but did not know jackshit bout coding :)

cheers
Juan

Gadfly wrote:
I'm not sure why you think I'm in charge, but okay. In charge of what? Wouldn't I be like, a staff member or Admin or something? Or is that me trying to be sneaky? If I was being sneaky, I probably wouldn't ask you in public who you think is in charge...
Otherwise... David? Juan? all other staff? Apparently you're supposed to obey me now. Hop to it! :)

In charge of locking items up!!

david wrote:
Lol. Is that a compliment, or?

You r is the Nickname for George!

JAGUARDOG wrote:
You r is the Nickname for George!

I think I lost you, but that's ok. I'll try to respond to both David, Ben and George ;-)

JAGUARDOG wrote:
In charge of locking items up!!

I haven't locked anything up at TVMaze. Other than my own recaps, I suppose. Even then, David is the one that locked them.

Nor do I have any power to lock items that I know of.