Shows that Have, or Should Have, Alternate Viewing Orders

BTW, this is just covering individual series and not "What order should I watch Arrow, Flash, Legends & Supergirl?" or the multitude of Marvel series over a number of networks.

Of the top of the my head, the main one I can think of which you haven't mentioned is Transporter: The Series (there's at least 5 different broadcast orders varying by country).

Also, are you including shows where the episode that was going to air got replaced with another one due to events?

For example:

Powerless episode Emergency Punch-Up was aired in some regions instead of Van v Emily: Dawn of Justice, as the episode was meant to be shown at a later time due to a gas attack occurring in Syria a few days before it was scheduled to air.

A lot of Disney/Nickelodeon shows as well, Life with Derek, Thundermans, Sam & Cat, Victorious, iCarly ....just to name a few. Aired out of sequence which makes for some confusing plot points.

Also Lucifer, aired two extra episodes after being "cancelled", which while being standalone episodes that could have fit almost anywhere in the season, made no sense after the season finale given the cliff hanger that we were left with.

Eureka season 1 was messed up also, they admitted they aired episodes out of order to try and get people interested... which caused Zoe's first day of school to take place after she'd actually been going to school for many episodes. After that, they removed the reference to that event in reruns and stuff, but they should have just released it on DVD the correct way.

Happy Endings also could be helped with using production order. Season 1 order was changed around so much that the recent DVD/BD complete series release had to correct the episode ordering because the story continuity just didn't even make sense. After that, the episodes aren't out of order much and each episode is mostly stand-alone except for a few references... but then the episode "KickBall 2: The Kickening" that was filmed in season 2 aired in the UK a month after the finale, which would have been fine if the US had also aired it then, but then didn't and waited until season 3 and aired it as episode 10. The problem with that is that the first episode of season 3 actually featured a small flashback to the events of Kickball 2, but in broadcast order those events hadn't happened yet. Plus, Dave makes a big deal about his new haircut which he had the full duration of season 3, except for the one random episode where he looks like he did in season 2.

New Girl, along with most comedies that aren't heavily seralized, also had a few references to stuff that happened previously in production order, but hadn't happened in broadcast order yet. You only really notice if you happen to watch them in production order somehow or watch them all close enough together to be able to tell where it should go. Grounded For Life works better like that, there are episodes where Lily and Brad are dating and then episodes where they aren't. Not to mention that when the show moved from Fox to WB 2 episodes into season 3, so after the episodes produced for Fox finished, Bret Harrison was upped to series regular for the ones produced for WB, so on one episode he'd be a guest star and some he'd be main cast, and two episodes were never aired until ABC Family started airing reruns.

Almost Human

https://geektyrant.com/news/fox-is-airing-episodes-of-almost-human-out-of-order

gazza911 wrote:

Also, are you including shows where the episode that was going to air got replaced with another one due to events?

If the flow of the show is disrupted by changing the intended order. ie you see someone new interacting with the other cast and in a future episode their character is introduced for the first time or you see someone is a Captain, then next week they're back as Detective, then next week the episode where they're promoted to Captain

Perhaps it's heretical, but... is that what TVMaze is about?

Production order is nice. But when I come to a TV database site, I want to know when the episode aired. And the basics of what it was about. And who was in it and what crew (primarily writer and director) were involved.

More importantly, that seems to be what TVMaze is intended to deliver. The production order, and how the show "should" be watched, don't seem to fit into that. Neither do quotes, and goofs, and ties to other shows, and so on. The kind of stuff that, say, IMDB provides.

If TVMaze offers that, or folks want them to add that stuff as alternatives as long as it doesn't interfere with the basics, great. But if I want information like production order, it's going to be for a specific show. And I'll go to a site specifically for that show to get the information. TVMaze is never going to be a Firefly-specific site, or a Star Trek-specific site, or a Eureka-specific site, or whatever show you want to name.

It'e be nice if TVMaze was a "one-stop site" for all information on a given show. But "all" is a pretty big word. :) And unless it gets a major overhaul, TVMaze is never going to be that. Which might be why there's a relative lack of interest for more show-specific data or whatever you want to call it.

Again, I have no objection to providing the info as long as it doesn't get in the way of the basics. And if enough people want it, it should be implemented if possible and if that's what the site owners want for the site or they want what the users want for the site. But it's not only going to take a lot of coding, but a general reassessment of TVMaze's current "philosophy", for lack of a better word. Once TPTB say, "Yeah, we should provide more show-specific info like prod order (and intended viewing order)", that'a s step toward providing everything else that TVMaze doesn't currently provide.

Other people's mileage may vary. :)

Gadfly wrote:
Perhaps it's heretical, but... is that what TVMaze is about?

[big snip]

Other people's mileage may vary. :)

Maybe I'm greedy but why can't we have it all? What you want is what you want, and there's nothing wrong with that but others may want something a bit different, or a lot different, and the more TVmaze has to offer the more users it will likely attract. I guess it comes down to what it will take to get "it all" vs the payoff down the road. And by payoff I don't necessarily mean financial though that, of course, has to be taken into account ... I mean payoff in how many new users new features may bring in as well as how many current users will make use of the new features.

The way I saw it, you would always have aired order as the default.

If you have all the information about the episodes available then you don't need to record all that information again.

Something as simple as a drag and drop to move episodes and re-number them for a different order would be sufficient for alternate viewing orders.

gazza911 wrote:
The way I saw it, you would always have aired order as the default.

If you have all the information about the episodes available then you don't need to record all that information again.

Something as simple as a drag and drop to move episodes and re-number them for a different order would be sufficient for alternate viewing orders.

Plus I don't think we were saying we should change the way it is now, just a conversation about shows that have been aired in the wrong order. I wouldn't want the episode order changed, but if there was a way to let people have further information about what order it should be in would be helpful since not all out-of-order shows are well known like with the case of Firefly where people know from the start they need to find an alternate order to watch in. If nothing else, on the episodes page, just have an "Recommended Viewing" button beside episode guide or something.

For STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS I borrowed all the Blu-rays of the Seasons, ripped the episodes in best quality, renamed, and watched them all in chronological story order. NOT broadcast order. Holy shit it was awesome. But I'm barely a Star Wars fan anymore. Had to look up Chronological Order online.

Another is I own all three Seasons of STAR TREK: TOS on Blu-ray disc too and also ripped the episodes. Decided to watch in production order and not the order which are on the discs. Production Order I looked up on Memory Alpha Star Trek Wiki.

At least for Firefly and certain other shows on disc, they're in proper production order.