Submission declined (not sure why)

Here's an example of a TV movie in the database: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11404430/.

Runtime excluding commercials is displayed at the top of each title's page - 

3 hrs 20 minutes for the original Salem's Lot:


3 hrs 1 minute for the remake:


These would have aired in 2-hour blocks on two nights, but that 240-minute runtime would have included commercials.

Converting either of these to a TV movie would be extremely painful. You'd need to save off the information for the individual episodes, delete the episodes, remove the tv-mini-series keyword from the remake, request title changes to each changing them from TV series to TV movie, then update the TV movie pages to include any credits that disappeared when the episodes were removed. I honestly would not recommend attempting this.

I'd say wait for a staffer who might be able to dig into your tv-mini-series keyword rejection. And might clarify why the IMDb views the two titles differently.



(I feel like these titles were the subject of considerable discussion a decade ago for this very reason but the specifics are lost to me.)

Unfortunately our current guides are not updated with very clear definitions on the differences between 'TV series' vs 'TV mini-series', vs 'TV special', etc, etc.

I fail to see what's unclear about it regarding these specific titles. As pointed out by Sienel, the guide states this a TV Movie. One can agree with this or not, but the guide is very clear about it, so I see no reason to consider this a mini-series. I therefore really hope you will change it back, because the way it currently is, it goes against the guide.

I agree with those who have stated that, pursuant to the guidelines, Salem's Lot (1979) qualifies as a TV movie, not a TV miniseries. And it looks like it's the same deal with Salem's Lot (2004) -- that title is also erroneously listed as a miniseries, even though it was only two episodes totaling 181 minutes. 

The guidelines are below. They indicate that titles with 2 episodes and less than 240 minutes qualify as TV movies.

That rule is obsolete at this point, it's not respected by staff or contributors anymore.

I tried to change a title some months ago according to that rule, and response from support said:

title should be listed as a 2 part mini series. This is based on how it initially aired and our own title formatting rules https://help.imdb.com/article/imdb/discover-watch/how-do-you-decide-if-a-title-is-a-film-a-tv-movie-or-a-miniseries/GKUQEMEFSM54T2KT

The responder was unaware that the very link she pointed out was supporting what I said, as it should be listed as TV Movie

I replied:

If you check the table it says if it's "less than 240 min" and has maximum 2 parts (shown in how many parts/episodes =  1 or 2) then it says list them as TV Movie.

and I suggested they should remove that rule at this point:

that guideline page needs some adjustments then. Maybe time to remove that "less than 240 min" and "maximum 2 parts" = TV Movie definition since it creates confusion and duplication problems like this?

Wow! I'm not surprised to hear that, but thank you for the info. 

Even that table in the guidelines is a bit cryptic. For example, if a TV title has exactly 4 episodes, is it a miniseries or a series? The table would seemingly allow either option, since it says "4+" instead of ">4" for TV series, and then it says "2 to 4" for TV miniseries. 

Yes I agree. I don't understand why hours comes into play when a show was originally made as a multi day event. I seem to remember the original Salem's Lot (1979) was promoted as a mini series in the commericals (but I was young and my memory of the airing is fuzzy). To my way of thinking:

- If the show is specifically made for TV and runs one night then it's a TV movie.

- If the show runs for multiple days then it's a mini series. Let's say 2-4 days which can be in a row or over the course of multiple weeks.

- If it's more than 4 episodes but has a definitive end then I think a new category should be made called "Limited Series" or maybe Mini Series is scrapped in favour of this for any program spanning multiple days but has a definitive end. Some of the British shows I watched were printed as a Limited Series Event and they ran 8 episodes and I think of e of them ran 10 episodes.

Obviously situations are fluid and in some cases of a Mini Series or Limited Series is picked up as a Series and the aired episodes act as the first season then the categorization could be changed to Series. I think the show MotherFatherSon was originally scripted as a Limited Series Event and then there were talks of picking it up as Series but to the best of my knowledge it hasn't so this would be one of those situations where the category could change.

IMO: Going by hours makes no sense. Just my 2 cents. :-)