So just so I'm clear...

a) There can be other reasons why it was split (i.e credits between episodes) - I never watched it so I can't definitively say it

b) If you get it by the date it will show both episodes; http://api.tvmaze.com/shows/180/episodesbydate?date=2002-12-20

However, it having the same airtime isn't right (that's how it currently is on TVMaze)

Right, the only thing that matters is how it originally aired. (http://www.tvmaze.com/faq/15/episodes, under "Episode Number" has all the details)

"Serenity" originally aired as a two-hour event. And that's how it is on the DVD.

The question arose in this case because they were treated differently for apparently acting the same way. Yes, I know that because someone screwed up months ago (or TVDB or whatever had it wrong) can account for that. But they're relatively high-profile shows, so I was wondering why it didn't come up before now. There's been some back-and-forth on the whole Firefly episode order thing, so I would have thought someone would have noticed before now.

Oddly, the DVD case lists "Serenity" as Part 1 & 2. But it's one episode on the DVD.and on the on-screen menu.

Also, "Serenity" isn't the only instance, it's just the most high-profile one I could find.

Thanks!

So Firefly is fixed. There's a few others that will need to be fixed later.

Serenity was split into two parts by Sci-Fi Channel, when they've picked Firefly in 2005. It was aired as "Serenity - Pt 1" and "Serenity - Pt 2" on July 22 and 29 2005 respectively.

Yep, I know it was broken down for syndication. SyFy split Warehouse 13's pilot on repeats, too.

But that doesn't make them two-parters at TVMaze. Or so I understood above.

Gadfly wrote:
Yep, I know it was broken down for syndication. SyFy split Warehouse 13's pilot on repeats, too.

But that doesn't make them two-parters at TVMaze. Or so I understood above.

Of course not. It would if we're have it assigned to SyFy. But since it's linked to FOX – single episode.

BTW why we don't list Serenity movie listed as special? Because it was premiered in theaters?

I don't know what that means. Since we had it "linked" to the premiering network, we went with the premiering format. If it was linked to SyFy, it would have premiered there in the two-part format, and the whole issue would be moot.

As to the latter, that was my understanding for why it isn't listed: because it's not a TV special, it's a theatrical movie and TVMaze isn't listing theatrical movies. The same reason that the Star Trek movies aren't listed as specials. I believe I've asked about that once or twice, and deleted the Trek movies at least once.

The inclusion policy for Shows applies to specials as well. This means only content that has premiered on a Network or Web Channel may be added; theatrical movies related to a show may not be added.

Gadfly wrote:
So Firefly is fixed. There's a few others that will need to be fixed later.

What others series?

Monk, the premiere episode, comes to mind. "... and the Candidate" aired as a 2-hour movie originally (and appears that way on the official DVD), but was listed at TVMaze as a two-parter because that's how it was broken down for repeats and syndication.

I've fixed that: renumbering all of the other episodes will take a bit longer.

Gadfly wrote:
Monk, the premiere episode, comes to mind. "... and the Candidate" aired as a 2-hour movie originally (and appears that way on the official DVD), but was listed at TVMaze as a two-parter because that's how it was broken down for repeats and syndication.

I've fixed that: renumbering all of the other episodes will take a bit longer.

good work, thx :)

Back to my other original question: does that affect the API?

At TVRage, we'd inevitably have someone complaining, "Well, that doesn't match what everyone else does: they list it as two separate episodes. It's messing up our API."

I don't know why it would, but I know very little about API. :(

Gadfly wrote:
Back to my other original question: does that affect the API?

At TVRage, we'd inevitably have someone complaining, "Well, that doesn't match what everyone else does: they list it as two separate episodes. It's messing up our API."

I don't know why it would, but I know very little about API. :(

Like I said in the first reply:

If there's 2 episodes for the same show on a single day, the endpoint will return both episodes (which is to be expected).

But what if there's one episode, when they think there should be two?

I don't know why they would think there should be two. But sometimes it seems to happen.

Gadfly wrote:
But what if there's one episode, when they think there should be two?

I don't know why they would think there should be two. But sometimes it seems to happen.

The only way they'd "expect" there to be 2 is if they had lookup it up before.

At which point, they'd likely use other endpoints to get the info. If they query the episode that used to be 2 and is now one it will not be found (returning a error code that they can check) - that's up to the developer to deal with that scenario.

TL;DR the API deals with it, but the developers need to as well.