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Thursday, July 30th, 2026

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"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.

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7 hours ago

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