We had a Forum discussion over a year ago about allowing Animals on the site.....

JAGUARDOG wrote:
Animals are not allowed on the site except in certain instances which I have forgotten what those exceptions are but anyways I must assume Non Human forms are also not allowed as well? Please remove "Chopper" from the site as it is a robot, fictional or not, whatever that has to do with anything? - http://www.tvmaze.com/people/96193/chopper-fictional
Thank you very much, Ron.
NOTE: Before someone scolds me for not putting this request in the Edit Forum I wish to say on my behalf I wanted to make a separate posting for it in case there is any further discussion on this matter that would not be appropriate in the Edit Forum?
Who in the Heck added this Robot to begin with and how did they get away with it?

I am not familiar with the show, so someone who is watching the show should have a say about it, but with anime/animation we have tons of robots/monsters/demons and so on listed and that is fine :)

JuanArango wrote:
I am not familiar with the show, so someone who is watching the show should have a say about it, but with anime/animation we have tons of robots/monsters/demons and so on listed and that is fine :)

If they are fine why are animals not allowed? Mr. Ed the Talking Horse, Lassie, Rin Tin, Tin, Arnold the Pig just to name a few.

Maybe because the animals don't speak?

pentar wrote:
Maybe because the animals don't speak?

Mr. Ed the Talking Horse speaks or I should say Talks!

I maybe mistaken here, but I don't think the horse really talks. I think that is a human actor speaking for him.

pentar wrote:
I maybe mistaken here, but I don't think the horse really talks. I think that is a human actor speaking for him.

No kidding that would be the same thing for Robots as well so what's the difference?

The issue is more that Chopper isn't an actor, but he is listed as such. Presumably TVMaze doesn't list fictional characters as real-life actors. Except... he is listed as an actor.

If the site is going to list fictional characters as actors, then... every character in every scripted show should be listed as an actor.

Listing Chopper as a real-life makes as much sense as listing Superman, Scooby Doo, Sherlock Holmes, and many more as actors. Presumably TVMaze doesn't want to do that?

Gadfly wrote:
The issue is more that Chopper isn't an actor, but he is listed as such. Presumably TVMaze doesn't list fictional characters as real-life actors. Except... he is listed as an actor.
If the site is going to list fictional characters as actors, then... every character in every scripted show should be listed as an actor.

Well that does make a lot of sense Gad and I agree with you on that point. I however feel that this Robot slipped through the STAFF crack and should NOT be here? Besides if they decide it is okay to have "IT" here not a Female or Male then I will have to do some research to find more talking animals besides Mr. Ed and Francis the Talking Mule!

JuanArango wrote:
I am not familiar with the show, so someone who is watching the show should have a say about it, but with anime/animation we have tons of robots/monsters/demons and so on listed and that is fine :)

I'm not familiar with any show in the database that has speaking or non-speaking robots/monsters/demons credited as themselves as actors. If there are any, I'd be curious to know what they are.

And if they're listed, presumably every other fictional character (at least, the non-speaking ones) should be listed as real-life actors as well.

I suppose the other question would be... is the "actor" Chopper listed as playing himself in the end credits of Star Wars Rebels? That seems unlikely, but very rarely it happens. If the show actually credits Chopper as Himself, then at least there's a fig leaf of justification for listing him that way at TVMaze.

And besides that their category needs to be expanded at least by 1 because Female and Male are not all inclusive. Groups don't fall under either category especially if it is a mixed group of males and females! Maybe it could be Group which I believe would cover all the other possibilities

Music groups

Dancers

Gymnasts

Male & Female Duo of some type

just to name a few off the top of my head!

Maybe they are thinking of adding Inanimate Object or Fictional Character or Robot?

JAGUARDOG wrote:

Well that does make a lot of sense Gad and I agree with you on that point. I however feel that this Robot slipped through the STAFF crack and should NOT be here? Besides if they decide it is okay to have "IT" here not a Female or Male then I will have to do some research to find more talking animals besides Mr. Ed and Francis the Talking Mule!

There isn't a staff crack. TVmaze is an open database that anyone can make changes to. If someone added them... someone added them.

But yes, I'd agree that Chopper shouldn't be here as a real-life actor. By definition, a Character (Fictional) can't be a real-life actor. Because... well, they're fictional. ;)

Gadfly wrote:
There isn't a staff crack. TVmaze is an open database that anyone can make changes to. If someone added them... someone added them.
But yes, I'd agree that Chopper shouldn't be here as a real-life actor. By definition, a Character (Fictional) can't be a real-life actor. Because... well, they're fictional. ;)

Yeah Duh!

JAGUARDOG wrote:

Yeah Duh!

I let david or jan decide if we remove the Chopper guy :)

Gadfly wrote:
I'm not familiar with any show in the database that has speaking or non-speaking robots/monsters/demons credited as themselves as actors. If there are any, I'd be curious to know what they are.
And if they're listed, presumably every other fictional character (at least, the non-speaking ones) should be listed as real-life actors as well.
I suppose the other question would be... is the "actor" Chopper listed as playing himself in the end credits of Star Wars Rebels? That seems unlikely, but very rarely it happens. If the show actually credits Chopper as Himself, then at least there's a fig leaf of justification for listing him that way at TVMaze.

The only show where I can think of this happening is Briscoe County Jr. Comet the Horse was credited in the opening of each episode as himself.

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective lists the dog by both its onscreen name and its "actor" name. At least they're different.

Gadfly wrote:
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective lists the dog by both its onscreen name and its "actor" name. At least they're different.

That show is hilarious btw :)

Hi Ron,

Our people section is for real people, so we shouldn't allow animals and robots to be added. We can't simply make an exception for one of them, while not allowing the other, so hereby I have deleted it. Thanks for making us aware of it!

Cheers,

Yes, only real people can be added as person entry. If the Chopper robot is voiced by a human actor, it can be added as such; otherwise it shouldn't be added as cast.

david wrote:
Yes, only real people can be added as person entry. If the Chopper robot is voiced by a human actor, it can be added as such; otherwise it shouldn't be added as cast.

So are you saying any animals with human speaking parts like Mr. Ed can be added?