gromit82's profile
Champion

Champion

 • 

8K Messages

 • 

283K Points

Thursday, July 30th, 2026

Solved

"Cousteau: Mississippi" a/k/a "Mississippi" (1984)

This problem relates to the title at https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14641716 currently listed as "The Mississippi" (1984).

This was a two-part special featuring Jacques Cousteau who was also the director and executive producer. The show can be found on YouTube with the title appearing on screen at https://youtu.be/V5ICpGyFbFo?t=91 as seen below:

So it might seem that the title of this show on IMDb should be "Cousteau: Mississippi" -- except that the "Cousteau" part is a possessive credit for the filmmaker, which should be omitted per the rule at https://help.imdb.com/article/contribution/titles/title-formatting/G56U5ERK7YY47CQB# :

Author or filmmaker possessives such as Bram Stoker's Dracula, Disney's The Kid, or Andy Warhol's Flesh are used only in alternate titles with the attribute (complete title) unless it is a part of the joke i.e. Jane Austen's Mafia! or Monty Python's Flying Circus. 

So that should make the official IMDb title just "Mississippi" (1984). 

I submitted a correction at #260729-025740-616000 saying:

Title Text Edit


Before

"The Mississippi" (1984)

After

"Mississippi" (1984)

Your Comment

See https://youtu.be/V5ICpGyFbFo?t=91 where the onscreen title is shown as "Cousteau: Mississippi". Under IMDb's rules regarding possessory titles, the official title should just be "Mississippi", eliminating the individual name of Jacques-Yves Cousteau who is one of the producers of and principal persons appearing in the show.

***

But this was rejected with the following comment: "Unable to verify. Your contribution has been declined. We have been unable to verify your contribution. Unfortunately, we were unable to accept your submission as we were unable to verify the information provided."

What's not to verify? I gave you a YouTube link specifying the exact second in the video where the title of the show appears on screen.

Even if IMDb believes that the possessory title rule does not apply here, that would make the show's title "Cousteau: Mississippi" (1984) rather than just "Mississippi" (1984). Either way, the word "The" should not appear in the title.

Oldest First
Selected Oldest First

Champion

 • 

16.9K Messages

 • 

356.6K Points

25 days ago

I don't think it's really a possessive, which is a grammatical form, Cousteau's.

Champion

 • 

8K Messages

 • 

283K Points

@Peter_pbn​ In terms of grammar, I agree with you 100%. But in terms of how filmmaker names occasionally get integrated into the title of a film or television show, I'm not sure. The question is whether a filmmaker's name should be included in an IMDb primary title if it is not in the possessive case (no "apostrophe-s" at the end).

I would be okay with IMDb deciding that the show's official title should be "Cousteau: Mississippi" because Cousteau's name is not given as a possessive. My main concern is that the word "The" should not be in the show's title, because that word doesn't appear in the title on screen.

Employee

 • 

8.7K Messages

 • 

91.5K Points

@gromit82​ - Hi, 

Thank you for posting all of the information! After review, this has been corrected and the changes will be live shortly.

Cheers!