Question about Poirot and Columbo seasons

I believe Colombo's season separation comes from the DVD release, which is wrong of course. So yes, it should be changed to years, and DVD order could be added as an alternate list.
But Poirot, I think, was actually commissioned in series.

British TV and itv especially have alot of these series which air periodically and are just comprised of mini movies. Midsomer Murders for example:

https://www.tvmaze.com/shows/328/midsomer-murders/episodes

It's just how our networks run things, in the same way we don't particularly have TV seasons. Alot of these films are broadcast in series but air on special occasions or bank holidays. 

@TomSouthwell wrote:
British TV and itv especially have alot of these series which air periodically and are just comprised of mini movies. Midsomer Murders for example:

https://www.tvmaze.com/shows/328/midsomer-murders/episodes

It's just how our networks run things, in the same way we don't particularly have TV seasons. Alot of these films are broadcast in series but air on special occasions or bank holidays. 

Ah yes, I remember watching very first 4 Midsommer Murders back around the time they came out which were 2hr in size but worked as (mini)series.

But for some reason I always thought Poirot with David Suchet were made as TV movies. Unlike current ones which are theatrical releases, and old ones with Peter Ustinov which were also theatrical releases.

Anyway, I just realised I cannot edit existing season numbers so I won't be able to "fix" Columbo season numbers.

Just another question. Is there a rule of how we handle TV series' seasons and Movie seasons when they are together?

I realise that for movies we tend to use "Season YEAR" instead of "Season NUMBER", and when movies come in between TV series or after, we treat them as specials.

But what when movies come first and TV series much later on, does everything change to accommodate TV series' season numbering?

One such example is Good Witch...

https://www.tvmaze.com/shows/1177/good-witch/episodes

...this initially started as TV movies from 2008 until 2014, one per year.

Then in 2015 it became TV series which literally continued to everything that happened in the movies, only circa 15 years later.
But the thing is, movies came first, and if the series didn't appear we'd probably have Season 2008, Season 2009, etc..
But now, those movies are treated as specials for season 1 of the TV series.
Is that because TV series' numbering takes preference to TV movies' numbering system?

It would be cool to use both in such cases when one is clearly not special to another but are separate series in time.

So having like Season 2008, Season 2009 for movies, then starts with Season 1, Season 2 for series. But that would probably screw the order since ordering is probably related to season's number, not separately.

It would work pretty good for Perry Mason where TV series are from 1957-1966, but 30 movies that came later with same cast as continuation are from 1985-1995.
In this case it would work like a charm to have Season 1-9 for series, and then Season 1985-1995 for movies. But that wouldn't work for Good Witch because movie series came first.

@MAT13 wrote:
Just another question. Is there a rule of how we handle TV series' seasons and Movie seasons when they are together?

We don't mix season- and year-based numbering. In such cases, the best (and probably the only) way is to list movies as specials. Like here, for example: https://www.tvmaze.com/shows/3661/jack-irish/episodes 

Unless the network groups them by season, we have no other way to treat movies, except to list them as specials.

The other way would be to convert the entire show to year-based numeration and use the verbatim alternate list to keep the original seasons, which is IMO less obvious and confusing.

@tnt wrote:
I believe Colombo's season separation comes from the DVD release, which is wrong of course. So yes, it should be changed to years, and DVD order could be added as an alternate list.

If I were to add year-based seasons for Columbo and move episodes accordingly, would old unused and empty seasons be automatically removed? If so, then perhaps I can use that workaround to achieve the same goal. But if the old empty seasons remain and need to be manually deleted, then it's probably better for one of the trusted users to do it.

@MAT13 wrote:
 

If I were to add year-based seasons for Columbo and move episodes accordingly, would old unused and empty seasons be automatically removed? If so, then perhaps I can use that workaround to achieve the same goal. But if the old empty seasons remain and need to be manually deleted, then it's probably better for one of the trusted users to do it.

The empty season gets deleted if it doesn't have any properties added (name, episode order etc.)
You can just reuse the existing seasons. Group the episodes by year in each season and then rename the season (or ask if you don't have permission).

@tnt wrote:
The empty season gets deleted if it doesn't have any properties added (name, episode order etc.)
You can just reuse the existing seasons. Group the episodes by year in each season and then rename the season (or ask if you don't have permission).

Okay, will do that. Thanks.
Yes, I cannot edit number on existing season, only add new seasons.

@MAT13 wrote:
Okay, will do that. Thanks.
Yes, I cannot edit number on existing season, only add new seasons.

Let me know when you finished, I'll rename the seasons

@tnt wrote:
Let me know when you finished, I'll rename the seasons

Okay, you can rename all first 10 seasons to years to match episodes released that are listed under them.

Sorry it took me a while, I have all those movies in HD so just went through them to verify for title correctness and also add exact running time.

Also, we had last several episodes listed as specials for some reason which is how they're listed on wikipedia, but checked other places and see everyone treats them differently, some as regular episodes, some not. But since we list our "seasons" here by year, it won't matter. In term of how they're presented, all are identical and appear to be a part of the same movie series.

@MAT13 wrote:
Okay, you can rename all first 10 seasons to years to match episodes released that are listed under them.

Sorry it took me a while, I have all those movies in HD so just went through them to verify for title correctness and also add exact running time.

Also, we had last several episodes listed as specials for some reason which is how they're listed on wikipedia, but checked other places and see everyone treats them differently, some as regular episodes, some not. But since we list our "seasons" here by year, it won't matter. In term of how they're presented, all are identical and appear to be a part of the same movie series.

You have taken ad breaks into account here as well right? 

https://www.tvmaze.com/episodes/42866/columbo-2003-01-30-columbo-likes-the-nightlife 

Did this episode only air for 88 minutes when it originally premiered? 

@TomSouthwell wrote:
You have taken ad breaks into account here as well right? 

https://www.tvmaze.com/episodes/42866/columbo-2003-01-30-columbo-likes-the-nightlife 

Did this episode only air for 88 minutes when it originally premiered? 

No, this is the exact time of the full episode. No advertisements or anything in between.

I often see exact number of minutes for various tv series' episodes on file. Isn't that the only relevant info?

Anyway,  the only way to know how much episode + ads lasted would be to have it recorded which people probably don't have especially for many old shows.

But if that's the policy here, then perhaps not adjusting TV show's time on any episode would be preferred way. Or input should be limited by half-an-hour intervals which is how TV shows last on TV when you include the ads (i.e. 45min episodes last 60min).

Exception are streamed episodes from Netflix and such since they have no ads. But should those too then include extra time to pee breaks? ;))

@MAT13 wrote:
 

No, this is the exact time of the full episode. No advertisements or anything in between.

I often see exact number of minutes for various tv series' episodes on file. Isn't that the only relevant info?

Anyway,  the only way to know how much episode + ads lasted would be to have it recorded which people probably don't have especially for many old shows.

But if that's the policy here, then perhaps not adjusting TV show's time on any episode would be preferred way. Or input should be limited by half-an-hour intervals which is how TV shows last on TV when you include the ads (i.e. 45min episodes last 60min).

Exception are streamed episodes from Netflix and such since they have no ads. But should those too then include extra time to pee breaks? ;))

if the episode premiered on a network with commercial breaks, the entire timeslot length should be used without deducting time for the commercials. In most cases this will be either 30 or 60 minutes.
https://www.tvmaze.com/faq/15/episodes 

of course, for the ad-free web channels or networks, we include only the actual runtime of the episode itself.

If a TV movie is 88-90 minutes in length, it will fill a two-hour time slot with the adverts. 

From the FAQ: 

Runtime

The runtime of the episode's timeslot, in minutes. This means that if the episode premiered on a network with commercial breaks, the entire timeslot length should be used without deducting time for the commercials. In most cases this will be either 30 or 60 minutes.

@LadyShelley wrote:
If a TV movie is 88-90 minutes in length, it will fill a two-hour time slot with the adverts. 

From the FAQ: 

Runtime

The runtime of the episode's timeslot, in minutes. This means that if the episode premiered on a network with commercial breaks, the entire timeslot length should be used without deducting time for the commercials. In most cases this will be either 30 or 60 minutes.

Got it. Thanks. I have the DVD version without ads so I could only guess the time with ads. Will readjust the running times then.

Most Columbo movies are either 75min (which I'll adjust to 90min) or 95min (which I'll adjust to 120min). That should be more or less correct then.

@MAT13 wrote:
Okay, you can rename all first 10 seasons to years to match episodes released that are listed under them.

done :)