Dimension 404

Gadfly wrote:
Just as a note, this is an anthology series, but it looks like contributors added the guest stars as Show Stars. Which... isn't right, is it?
I've fixed the first three episodes, since they aired on Hulu yesterday. I left the others in so we wouldn't lose the character pages. Do the character pages disappear if we delete the characters from the cast? I've never been quite sure, and I'd rather add them as guest stars and then delete the show star listings.
http://www.tvmaze.com/shows/18185/dimension-404/cast
Mark Hamill as the Narrator is the only "show star." Just as Rod Serling is the only "show star" of Twilight Zone, and so on. That gibes with the onscreen credits.
I'm not familiar with the contributor(s) who added the cast, so it didn't seems to be worth contacting them to let them know.
The episode order was also goofed up, but it looks like there were some last-minute changes by Hulu so that's not surprising. The current episode order reflects what Hulu actually aired yesterday. I'll continue to update as episodes come out over April 11, 18, and 25. And May 2? It's unclear if there'll be a seventh episode.
Thanks!

Yes, they should definitely be added as Guest Stars, you are correct. If you delete main cast, the characters should stay, just test it with one :)

I thought the characters stayed for awhile but the system eventually deleted them if they weren't attached to an actor. So a test wouldn't really show much, depending on when/if the system does the cleaning. I can't add them as guest stars until the episodes that they're in air, and I probably won't remember it by then. ;)

That, and April-May in the U.S. ("Sweeps") is a lousy time to run long-term tests. There's about a dozen shows going and coming in the next few weeks. :(

Gadfly wrote:
I thought the characters stayed for awhile but the system eventually deleted them if they weren't attached to an actor. So a test wouldn't really show much, depending on when/if the system does the cleaning. I can't add them as guest stars until the episodes that they're in air, and I probably won't remember it by then. ;)
That, and April-May in the U.S. ("Sweeps") is a lousy time to run long-term tests. There's about a dozen shows going and coming in the next few weeks. :(

Then just let them stay as long as you need them :)

Characters are automatically deleted by the system if they become orphaned, which means there's not a single cast or guestcast entry pointing to them.

When does the system automatically delete them?

I know from experience that it isn't instantaneous...

Gadfly wrote:
I thought the characters stayed for awhile but the system eventually deleted them if they weren't attached to an actor. So a test wouldn't really show much, depending on when/if the system does the cleaning. I can't add them as guest stars until the episodes that they're in air, and I probably won't remember it by then. ;)
That, and April-May in the U.S. ("Sweeps") is a lousy time to run long-term tests. There's about a dozen shows going and coming in the next few weeks. :(

What so valuable about those characters?? They don't have character photo, no actual information. They can easily be re-added from the actual credits of the actual episode. Also there's no certainty, that those characters will exist at all. It's not rare, when in early press-releases characters have different names that in actual film. APB is good example, almost every main character was renamed in the process.

Gadfly wrote:
When does the system automatically delete them?
I know from experience that it isn't instantaneous...

Indeed, it happens once a week.

tnt wrote:
What so valuable about those characters?? They don't have character photo, no actual information. They can easily be re-added from the actual credits of the actual episode. Also there's no certainty, that those characters will exist at all. It's not rare, when in early press-releases characters have different names that in actual film. APB is good example, almost every main character was renamed in the process.

I have it come up if the wrong actor is listed for a character or the wrong type of listing (guest instead of show star). I delete the actor. Then when I add the correct actor, the previously used character name auto-fills and the actor and the episode links to the same character page. It would seem to be more "effective" to reuse an existing character page, rather than delete one page and add a new one.

The only ones I do add and re-add are characters that do exist after the episode airs: I pretty much never add characters "blind" from press releases, IMDB, etc. And often times I do add photos and (less often) actual information

For instance, with Dimension 404, it was easier (and saved typing time :) ) to reuse the existing character pages for Roger Buckley, Patton Oswalt, and other cast members then to have to retype in the character names from scratch. It's not a lot of time saving, but it works for me.

I can't speak for others.

david wrote:
Indeed, it happens once a week.

Good to know. Thanks!

Gadfly wrote:
For instance, with Dimension 404, it was easier (and saved typing time :) ) to reuse the existing character pages for Roger Buckley, Patton Oswalt, and other cast members then to have to retype in the character names from scratch. It's not a lot of time saving, but it works for me.

Yeah, but if the character have a wrong name for example, you'd have to go to it's page and edit the name, instead of just simply creating the right one. Or somebody else could just leave it with the wrong name. So it's 50/50 :)

BTW, how's the series, worth watching?

tnt wrote:
Yeah, but if the character have a wrong name for example, you'd have to go to it's page and edit the name, instead of just simply creating the right one. Or somebody else could just leave it with the wrong name. So it's 50/50 :)
BTW, how's the series, worth watching?

That's if the character has a wrong name, which is a different set of circumstances.

I just got through with the first episode. It's fairly heavy on the comedy, but pretty good. Joel McHale's character, I'm not sure if he's supposed to be sympathetic or sinister or Kevin Bacon/Animal House over-the-top. And at least going by the first episode, they're right: "the twist is just the beginning."

You made me curious enough now, will try the show tomorrow :)

It's a 40-minute s.f./horror anthology with comedic overtones. Like Black Mirror, it deals with advances in technology. tt's a bit more light-hearted than BM.

Oh, I got through all three episodes. I'd say the first one was the best of the first three. The second one is more of an Invasion of the Body Snatchers riff (right down to the mouth-open screaming aliens) in purple with a parody of The Hunger Game/ YA novel-based movies tossed in. The third one, "Chronos", is just... weird. At the very least, it doesn't make a lot of sense by the end. And they toss in some blatant slapstick for no reason.

The first one is the best so far, despite awful McHale performance at the end. I actually liked the Cinethrax, but mostly because of Oswalt. Yeah, the third one was weird, but it had couple of moments. I hope the fourth one, Polybius, would be fun, the title suggests something TRON-like.

The Cinethrax one was okay, but it really didn't seem to be saying anything or had much of a twist. Chronos had its moments, as you say, like the general geekiness of Time Ryder who was basically a live-action Captain Planet. The timey-wimey stuff in the first half was amusing, but after that it just kind of fell apart at the end.

None of the three were bad, but I wouldn't say the last two were must-see TV, either.