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No, "Betty Boop" was not a TV series in 1930
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15180956/ is a supposed TV series titled "Betty Boop" which supposedly debuted in 1930.
As I'm sure everyone reading this already knows, television broadcasting existed on only a very limited basis in 1930. The Betty Boop series of theatrical short films began in 1930 -- these films were not broadcast on television until years later.
What's worse, apparently every Betty Boop theatrical cartoon has been converted into an episode of the supposed TV series -- they are no longer entered as theatrical films. I was just looking for The Old Man of the Mountain (1933) and didn't see it at first, because it had been listed as a TV episode (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024404/) instead of a film.
This isn't even the first time someone has created a pseudo-TV series for "Betty Boop" starting in 1930. As discussed in the thread here, there was another entry for "Betty Boop" (1930) in 2019, which was deleted. Why was this series allowed to be re-created when it was already determined to be an invalid entry before?
IMDb claims to be "the world's most popular and authoritative source for information on movies, TV shows and celebrities." Yet how can IMDb be considered authoritative if it doesn't demonstrate basic knowledge of television history, like when television came into common use?
As I've said before, any television program submitted to the database with a start date in the 1930s or earlier ought to be scrutinized by an IMDb staffer to see whether it actually existed or has been submitted erroneously. In this case, the submission was erroneous.
gromit82
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2 years ago
I just submitted the following correction. Let's see what happens with this:
Country: Russia
Date: 19 January 1887
Attribute: (Moscow, Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theater)
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ACT_1
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2 years ago
TV Series ? ?
Popeye the Sailor (1960-1962)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0145628/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0145628/reference
Jack Mercer ... Popeye (220 episodes, 1960-1962)
Actor: Short (515 credits) - Popeye (voice) Find 136
Actor: TV ( 18 credits)
Mae Questel ... Olive Oyl (192 episodes, 1960-1962)
( also ... Betty Boop voice )
.
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gromit82
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2 years ago
Time to bump this thread. After four months, every one of the misdescribed "television series" I mentioned in this thread is still incorrectly listed in the database.
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Marco
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2 years ago
I'd like IMDb to share a list of their priorities. From a contributor perspective, they don't seem to have them straight, but given the fact we don't get all the information, that remains an assumption. So IMDb, can you either share more information with us or fix important issues faster please?
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gromit82
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2 years ago
This thread has been around for six months, and not one of the incorrectly classified "TV series" that I identified has been removed yet. How much research does it take to realize that "Betty Boop" was not a TV series in 1930, nor were the other theatrical cartoon series currently listed as being TV series in the 1930s?
And, keep in mind, this isn't even the first time that a "Betty Boop" TV series from 1930 was included in the database -- see the thread at https://community-imdb.sprinklr.com/conversations/data-issues-policy-discussions/television-series-from-before-television-broadcasting-began/5f4a7a328815453dba9da909 for a prior discussion from 2019. Since that TV series was determined to be an error before, it should not have been accepted upon re-submission.
As I said before, we need the software to flag any submission of a TV series from before 1940 or so and require it to be reviewed by a knowledgeable editor before it is included in the database, because the chance that such a submission is an error would be quite high.
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gromit82
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2 years ago
We are now more than seven months into this discussion thread, and all of the incorrectly listed "TV series" that I mentioned in this thread are still listed as TV series. Is there anything that we can do to escalate this problem to get it fixed?
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gromit82
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2 years ago
It's now been eight months since I raised this problem and no progress appears to have been made toward fixing it.
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ACT_1
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2 years ago
? ?
The Little Rascals (1955-1955)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0278213/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0278213/reference/
Television syndication package of the classic 1929-1938 shorts
from the "Our Gang Comedies" movie series.
Wally Albright ... Orphan (1955) (archiveFootage) (unknown episodes)
Sherwood Bailey ... Sherwood 'Spud' (1955) (archiveFootage) (unknown episodes)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0278213/trivia
This television package includes every sound Hal Roach-produced Our Gang comedy,...
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0278213/episodes?season=1
S1, Ep1 School's Out 1955
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7039354/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7039354/reference/
It looks like we don't have any Cast and Crew for this title yet.
S1, Ep2 Fly My Kite
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7039362/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7039362/reference/
It looks like we don't have any Cast and Crew for this title yet.
- - -
School's Out (1930)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021339/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021339/reference/
20min Comedy, Family 22 Nov 1930 (USA) Short
Matthew 'Stymie' Beard ... Hercules (as Hal Roach's Rascals)
Norman 'Chubby' Chaney ... Chubby Chaney (as Hal Roach's Rascals)
Jackie Cooper ... Jackie Cooper (as Hal Roach's Rascals)
Fly My Kite (1931)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021878/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021878/reference/
20min Family, Comedy 30 May 1931 (USA) Short
Matthew 'Stymie' Beard ... Stymie (as Hal Roach's Rascals)
Norman 'Chubby' Chaney ... Chubby (as Hal Roach's Rascals)
Dorothy DeBorba ... Dorothy (as Hal Roach's Rascals)
= = =
- - -
Little Rascals: Best of Our Gang (1930)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3124676/reference/
Not Rated 1h 24min Comedy, Family 01 Jul 2008 (USA) Movie
Cast
Eugene 'Porky' Lee
George 'Spanky' McFarland
Carl 'Alfalfa' Switzer
Billie 'Buckwheat' Thomas
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3124676/trivia
The "1930" production date for this title is actually impossible,
since at least one of the cast members,
Billie 'Buckwheat' Thomas, was not born until 1931.
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(edited)
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gromit82
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1 year ago
We are now past nine months since this thread started and none of the bogus TV series I mentioned have yet been removed from the database.
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paul_penna_3vyh933ru92u2
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202 Points
1 year ago
If cartoons originally made for theatrical exhibition can be called "TV Episodes" simply because they eventually were shown on television, then all the theatrical films shown on NBC's "Saturday Night at the Movies" between 1961 and 1978 should be changed to "TV Movies."
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jay_spirit
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1 year ago
https://community-imdb.sprinklr.com/conversations/data-issues-policy-discussions/no-betty-boop-was-not-a-tv-series-in-1930/61417e5e7999fd
This issue has not been resolved after a year. I'm eager to see Betty Boop restored to her rightful place as a movie star, not a TV star. Seeing IMDb allow this data corruption to linger for over a year is depressing.
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MykolaYeriomin
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1 year ago
Bump, because this still needs attention.
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gromit82
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1 year ago
One year ago this week, I posted a thread (https://community-imdb.sprinklr.com/conversations/data-issues-policy-discussions/no-betty-boop-was-not-a-tv-series-in-1930/61417e5e7999fd0798c634a5) about how the Betty Boop cartoons of the 1930s had been converted into a TV series, even though they were made for theatrical release and television broadcasting existed only on a very limited basis at the time. In case anyone is wondering why I haven't just submitted corrections myself for this "series", I couldn't figure out how to submit a correction that the overall series was fake but the "episodes", which are real titles but not actual episodes, needed to be dispersed and converted into theatrical films.
I also noted in that thread nineteen other supposed "TV series" listed in the database that supposedly debuted between 1906 and 1940 -- some of which would have purportedly debuted before the first television station in the world went on the air.
About half of these supposed TV series were series of theatrically released animated short films, while others included newsreels, sports coverage, theatrical features, and even a made-for-YouTube ripoff of "I Love Lucy", purported to have debuted 11 years before "I Love Lucy" went on the air and 65 years before YouTube debuted.
Eleven months ago, staffer Michelle responded to my prior thread, "I have collected all the titles reported and requested an extensive clean-up with our editorial team. I have also opened discussion for improvements regarding flags and approvals surrounding TV Series title submissions with a start date of 1930 or earlier." Yet, somehow, all of these supposed TV series are still listed in the database. (And the problem isn't just reviewing titles with a start date of 1930 or earlier -- the majority of the erroneous titles I cited were purportedly from between 1931 and 1940.)
Keep in mind, this isn't even the first time someone had entered a 1930 "Betty Boop" TV series into the database; it had happened in in 2019 as well, but at least that time the fake series got deleted timely.
I recall that Jon Reeves, IMDb's former head of data acquisition, was quite knowledgeable about animated shorts from the "Golden Age" of Hollywood animation, and has written many of the plot summaries. Perhaps the staff should get in touch with him, and he could explain that characters such as Betty Boop, Andy Panda, Barney Bear, and Hunky and Spunky were made for theatrical cartoons in the 1930s and not television, since television was not yet in common use.
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jay_spirit
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1 year ago
Casper the Friendly Ghost (1945-)
This is a fake TV series with fake episodes. Some of the episodes are duplicates of theatrical cartoons. But a handful of the episodes are theatrical cartoons that have been converted into false TV episodes.
The theatrical cartoons need to be restored to their rightful place as individual titles.
The TV series itself then needs to be deleted. The series is fake. All the episodes are fake.
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MykolaYeriomin
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1 year ago
Migh be unrelated (and overall seems much more eligible), but I've just discovered similar umbrella titles for Wimbledon (1937) and Formula 1 (1950).
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