4 Messages
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100 Points
Adding credits to TV newscast with episodes multiple times per day over many years.
TV Newscasts deserve to have their credits listed.
But if I try to add a producer, writer, anchor person, director, you want EPISODES. Without episodes, the entry cannot be submitted. It is impossible to provide episodes, maybe what year these people worked on this news program. Anything more granular is just not possible. Newscast episodes are not numbered, they are simply dated (6 PM News MM/DD/YYYY) because the airchecks are digitized, indexed and keep in the library of past programs.
Example: Channel 5 Eyewitness News in San Francisco has been going since 1959 and is still going under that title. I directed newscasts there in 1978. From 1977 to 2000, David McElhatton was the anchor person, led the ratings, made $750,000 a year. Wikipedia has an article on him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_McElhatton
But I cannot add his credits to IMDb. Nor can I add the Weatherman Joel Bartlett. Or the Sports Anchor Wayne Walker. I know there were there in 1978 when I was there, but I left for a different station. How would I know what happened after I left to be able to tell you the end date when these people left the station, retred, or died?
Another Example: Christine Strand. When I was directing at TV Station KPIX in 1978, Christine was my Technical Director. She went on to do other things as a director, producer, writer, editor in the music and video biz. She has credits under Miscellaneous Crew. I cannot seem to add her TD Credit to her profile.
Accepted Solution
eboy
2.5K Messages
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69.2K Points
5 years ago
This is also good to note from the guide ( https://help.imdb.com/article/contribution/titles/episode-guidelines/GDF7HR6CCCBKU3CP?ref_=helpms_helpart_inline# )
But yes, news and current affair programs can be tricky when it comes to episode numbers. Most people probably add just episode air dates, since they’re at least a bit more easier to confirm.
(edited)
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Peter_pbn
Champion
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15.7K Messages
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343.9K Points
5 years ago
If the show is listed in IMDb, but episodes are not listed, then you can submit series-level credits with a year or year range. This is explained here:
https://help.imdb.com/article/contribution/filmography-credits/how-do-i-add-an-episodic-credit/GRRHUZAQPQV4T2F9#exception
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Peter_pbn
Champion
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15.7K Messages
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343.9K Points
5 years ago
I assume this is the listing we are talking about:
CBS 5 Eyewitness News
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1712146/
My suggestion is to add credits to that page by clicking "Edit page". For instance, a cast credit would look something like this with the year range after the character description:
You will need to check the checkboxes for the warnings displayed, but it is possible to submit this.
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fogcitynative
4 Messages
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100 Points
5 years ago
I do not consider this issue solved in any way.
IMDB management does seem to manage to maintain a database of every porn film every shot including 8mm loops but cannot seem to understand anything about the local television news business and how it works.
Nothing has changed since I submitted this 2 months ago except someone who knows nothing marked it as solved. It is not solved until the job positions are added, episodes are dropped, and things that make sense in a film or fiction TV series are not part of the data collected for a local TV newscast.
All of my thoughts on this matter are stated above from 2 months ago. I am not looking for help to make local newscast entries shoehorn into the existing structure of the database. I am looking for fundamental, structural changes to the database itself to accommodate local television news history.
The people behind IMDb need to decide if they want their database to cover live news and sports and adjust the database structure to capture those people who did the work and had long careers in what is still the "entertainment industry".
So far, they have done NOTHING. I don't need a suggestion on how to pound a square peg into a round hole.
This needs to go higher than just to other users, even expert ones. I feel like I'm trying to contact Jeff Bezos.
At one time, it was actually possible to mail Bezos and he actually listened and responded. But now as his wealth has increased so too has his ego. He has no time to concern himself with database issues or much of anything else except money and the accumulation thereof.
Sad. Didn't Jeff say that the day will come that Amazon goes out of business? It may be decades away, but according to Jeff, it is guaranteed to happen.
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eboy
2.5K Messages
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69.2K Points
5 years ago
It has been years since I tried the ”year range” approach, but with some news/current affairs programs it’s probably the only way (the other would be to add the episodes one-by-one with their air dates, which is probably impossible mission if you don’t have access to the actual network archives and such).
IMDb is certainly not designed for ”year range” type of credits. And I don’t know what will happen if someone tries to add a single episode (with episode and/or air date) after the approved year range credits?
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eboy
2.5K Messages
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69.2K Points
5 years ago
Yes, it could work. I have done it in the past with success. But no one has added any episodes to that particular news program after that, so I’m not sure what happens to those ”year range” credits if someone is adding episodes. It’s best not to think that those year range credits will stay that way forever.
Like I said, IMDb is designed for episode credits.
(edited)
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