Original Name Edit

First title used locally in the original version. This would mean to use the original name in the original language, ie. Japanese for a show that aired originally in Japan.

General Guidelines

The film title guidelines also apply to TV series titles.

For example, TV show names have to be in the original script. There should be no extra info such as the year of release "MacGyver (2016)" or a country code "Shameless (US)" added to the titles.

New Title

If the title of a TV show changes during its initial broadcast, we update the original title and add the previous title as an alternative title:

Scrotal Recall → Lovesick
Valerie → Valerie's Family → The Hogan Family
The Daily Show → The Daily Show with Jon Stewart → The Daily Show with Trevor Noah

Any new title for a rebroadcast or a subsequent release (e.g. a DVD release) are added as alternative titles.

Overview Edit

Wiki overviews should be replaced with plot overviews.

TV Show Type Edit

The TV show types are currently limited to: Documentary, News, Miniseries, Reality, Scripted, Talk Show and Video.

Scripted is used by default for TV shows that do not fall into any of the seven TV show types, for example variety shows or regular game shows.

Miniseries

A miniseries is defined as a single-season television series telling a complete story in a pre-determined number of episodes. Event series and limited series should be set to miniseries if they have no more than 12 episodes.

The "miniseries" type take precedence over the other types of TV show. Scripted and documentary miniseries should be set to "miniseries".

TV movies originally released in multiple parts should also be marked as miniseries.

An entry containing two or more miniseries should be set to "scripted" or "documentary" instead of "miniseries".

Video

The video type is used for OVA series and other television series released straight on DVD or VHS.

TV Show Status Edit

ID Status
0 Returning Series
1 Planned
2 In Production
3 Ended
4 Canceled
5 Pilot

Pilot: pilot episode not yet picked up to series. Rarely used. Meant for pilots made available to the public, such as Amazon's & BBC's pilot programs. (The guidelines for new TV pilot entries are located here).

Filmed TV pilots unreleased within four years will be deleted.

In Production: a new series is greenlighted and/or the production has started, but it is not yet released.

Returning Series: status we use from the premiere to the very last episode of a series.

• It basically means that the series will return... tomorrow, next week, in two months, in a year. Every series is assumed to be returning until an official cancellation/end or after an abnormally long hiatus.

Cancelled: cancelled by the network.

• It is used as soon as a cancelled series ends or it can be used when a cancelled series is pulled from the regular schedule.
• TV series are usually cancelled because of low ratings or other business related reasons.
• A cancellation is (usually) a sudden end to the story and production. e.g. Angel from Hell, Minority Report and Castle were cancelled.

Ended: the series is over and the end was planned in advance. e.g. Pretty Little Liar, Lost.

Miniseries should always marked as "Ended" after the last episode has aired. The TV Show Status and Type will be fixed simultaneously when/if the network order more episodes.

Please be aware that setting the TV show status to "Ended" and "Cancelled" disable the ability to create new seasons. We recommend changing the status of finished series only after all the seasons are created.

Created By Edit

The creator field should be used for individuals credited as "created by" or "creator" in the opening credits. This credit is only for people. No production companies, TV networks or any other group/entities.

The creators of a scripted series often are the main writers of the pilot episode. However, the writers of the pilot should not be added to the "Created By" field unless they are credited with an on-screen "created by" or "creator" credit.

"Showrunners" should also not be added as creators unless they are properly credited as such.

Data coming from other databases should always be double-checked.

Adaptations & Remakes

When a television series is adapted from an existing work (eg. book, comic book, short story, video game, movie, TV series) and does not have an on-screen creator credit, the individuals credited as "developed by" or "developed for television by" can be added as the creators.

The creators of the preexisting work should not be listed as creators—unless they developed their own work into a television series and have an on-screen developer credit.

For example, these are the on-screen credits of the American remake of the British television series The Office:

Developed for American television by
Greg Daniels

Based on the BBC series "The Office" created by 
Ricky Gervais & Stephen Merchant

Greg Daniels, who developed the American remake, can be added to the "Created By" field. Ricky Gervais & Stephen Merchant, who are the creators of the original British series can be credited as "Original Series Creator" in the Crew section.

Homepage Edit

The homepage field should be used for a link (URL) to the web page for the show by the official distributor (typically network), and should be a complete URL including the protocol (http or https).

Please don't link to just the network; use https://www.hbo.com/game-of-thrones instead of https://www.hbo.com.

Localised TV homepages are not (yet) supported.

Ideally, the field should used for the original network.

TV homepage links should be updated when the series moves to another network during its initial run or when URL is changed.

Runtime Edit

The runtime should be the general duration of one episode.

The runtime should be entered in minutes and always be rounded up (e.g. one hour and one second (1:00:01) is added as "61").

When possible, please enter the runtime without commercial breaks (e.g. 43 or 22) instead of the runtime with commercial breaks (e.g. 60 or 30).

Runtime can be entered at both the series and episode level. For shows with variable runtime per episode, you should enter the value for each episode separately and leave the runtime on the series level blank. For shows with a consistent runtime, it's better to enter a single value on the series. Runtimes can then be backfilled to the episode periodically.

Spoken Languages Edit

Only the main language(s) spoken in the original version of the series.

Most TV shows only have one spoken language.