Crediting- what should/should not be included?

It's all actually described in the policy https://www.tvmaze.com/faq/16/episode-extras

Co-starring is kind of self-explanatory. If actor is credited as "co-starring", it should be added as co-starring.

Any other kind of guest starring actors (featuring etc., except "special"), should be added simply as "guest stars", TVmaze system does not have any other guest star types.

@tnt wrote:
It's all actually described in the policy https://www.tvmaze.com/faq/16/episode-extras

Co-starring is kind of self-explanatory. If actor is credited as "co-starring", it should be added as co-starring.

Any other kind of guest starring actors (featuring etc., except "special"), should be added simply as "guest stars", TVmaze system does not have any other guest star types.

 

What if featuring comes after co-star? There's been some shows where it'll say guest stars, then co-stars, then featuring. When that happens, I just put "featuring" into whatever the last category given was.

@kevin87 wrote:
What if featuring comes after co-star? There's been some shows where it'll say guest stars, then co-stars, then featuring. When that happens, I just put "featuring" into whatever the last category given was.

featuring I would always put as "guest star".

@JuanArango wrote:
featuring I would always put as "guest star".

I just wouldn't think somebody who runs across the scene yelling "hey!" should be credited higher than somebody who actually takes part in the storyline that's just credited as a "co-star" though. When they have guest stars and co-stars and then also have featuring, they're usually even less important to the episode.

@kevin87 wrote:
I just wouldn't think somebody who runs across the scene yelling "hey!" should be credited higher than somebody who actually takes part in the storyline that's just credited as a "co-star" though. When they have guest stars and co-stars and then also have featuring, they're usually even less important to the episode.

If that is the case I am with you, but if i recall it correctly "featuring" was always more important than co-star, but I am not 100% sure :)

@JuanArango wrote:
If that is the case I am with you, but if i recall it correctly "featuring" was always more important than co-star, but I am not 100% sure :)

If it is just "featuring" for everybody then I put it all as guest. It doesn't happen often, but some of the early episodes of Sabrina the Teenage Witch will have a section for "guest stars" and then one for "co-stars" and then another for "featuring", so I just figure if they're putting it last then they shouldn't be higher than the previous category on screen.

Yeah, Danger Force lists the credits in this order: guest stars, then co-stars, then featuring.

Maybe the 'importance' of each category differs across shows, but in the case of DF, I'd say co-stars are higher up than featuring. In this particular example, some of the co-stars listed include 'Justin' and 'Courtney' who are two characters that are definitely seen, though not sure if they have any lines. Then in the featuring section, some listed include stunt doubles and puppeteers- which I would think would fall more under behind-the-scenes rather than cast/guest cast.

For this show, I'll see about adding the co-stars... maybe, maybe not. But for now, I'm thinking of not adding the featuring for this show.

And for just incase, here's the credits for the episode I took the screenshots of the credits (starts at about 1:40)

@kevin87 wrote:
What if featuring comes after co-star? There's been some shows where it'll say guest stars, then co-stars, then featuring. When that happens, I just put "featuring" into whatever the last category given was.

I prefer to follow the policy. If the credits belong to a category, not presented on TVmaze, I add them simply as guest stars.

I just wouldn't think somebody who runs across the scene yelling "hey!" should be credited higher than somebody who actually takes part in the storyline that's just credited as a "co-star" though. When they have guest stars and co-stars and then also have featuring, they're usually even less important to the episode.

If you start counting their on-screen time or significance, you can easily end up in a situation, where the same "featured" actor in one episode appeared for 5 seconds, and in the next episode appears for 15 minutes)) That's why I prefer to consider only how the actor is credited, despite the value of the character...

I've seen Featuring listed all over the place, so I'd also take a look at where it's listed in relation to the other info before deciding what to list them as.

Northern Exposure for example list Guest Stars at the beginning of the show and the Featuring ones after the Co-Stars in the end-credits.

@tnt wrote:
I prefer to follow the policy. If the credits belong to a category, not presented on TVmaze, I add them simply as guest stars.

If you start counting their on-screen time or significance, you can easily end up in a situation, where the same "featured" actor in one episode appeared for 5 seconds, and in the next episode appears for 15 minutes)) That's why I prefer to consider only how the actor is credited, despite the value of the character...

The show already kind of says how significant they are by their placement in the credits. Except for special circumstances, it typically goes special guest star (if there are any), guest star, co-star, featuring. If they are after guest stars or a show only lists them as featured with no other category, I add them as guest, but if they come after co-star, I put them in co-star.

The policy seems vague to me in this case, it says to add them as guest star is there's no guest/co-star info, which to my understanding would fit the "only lists them as featured" option because there is other cast type info.