Many times an actor will be credited in the opening credits of a TV series because they are regular cast members, however there are a few episodes in which they don't appear in the episode at all.

So I thought it maybe a good idea to have a checkbox available in these instances where they are credited but actually don't appear in the episode at all.

Perhaps call it "Credit Only" or "Doesn't Appear" or something like that.


Don't know if this would be contributed or be kept local only.

This would only be good for TV series.

I can think of a few TV series as well...ST TNG, DS9, Voyager, Enterprise, 24, Lost

+1 on the suggestion

Steve

Quoting Giga Wizard:

Quote:
don't you see most of them in the title sequence (leading cast, even if those don't play in that episode)

There the ones, so as OP ask's a check box to indicate credit but no appearence would be nice.

Steve

Quoting Mark Harrison:

Quote:
While I'm not against such an idea if other see value in it, I would never enter such information myself.  I'm not really interested in that level of detail.

I agree, and it also follows a convention that you will find on certain 3rd party websites which shall remain unnamed.

Quoting SpaceFreakMicha:

Quote:

Nice thought, but I'm totally against it. (as long as it doesn't is "local only")
Why?
Documentation will be one hell of a mess. How can anyone really prove, that an actor does NOT appear? Making a screenshot can prove that he apperars, but the opposite is impossible.

I see that this information can be important to some of us, but I think nobody really wants to pay the high price of another reason for endless debates, contribution ping-pong and determination threads. 

Good point. That seems to me a valid reason to have it local only.

Quoting SpaceFreakMicha:

Quote:
So I thought it maybe a good idea to have a checkbox available in these instances where they are credited but actually don't appear in the episode at all.

Ok, I can claim in my contribution notes that he or she doesn't appear. But someone who would vote no or do a later contribution can actually prove that he/she does appear.

Quoting SpaceFreakMicha:

Quote:
How can anyone really prove, that an actor does NOT appear? Making a screenshot can prove that he apperars, but the opposite is impossible.

Impossible?

Not hardly.  One simply needs to provide a screenshot of each and every frame to prove they don't appear.  Figure a comedy runs for about 22 minutes.  At 30 frames per second, that's only about 2.3 million screen shots.  Seems completely possible.  Perhaps the word you were searching for is "impractical".

I’m a fan of TV shows and I’m very interested in “credit only” attribute. This is very useful.

There are shows like Buffy, which change the opening credits, if an actor isn’t a regular anymore. After that, they are credited as “special guest star” or “special appearance”.

But there are other shows like crusade, where the credits have the value of cowpie. Crusade is a spin-off from “Babylon 5” and some actors of Babylon play in some episodes of Crusade, to advertise the new show, like Tracy Scoggins. She is credited in 13 episodes, but the only play in 3 episodes. You must search though the episodes to find her. I’m very disappointed about this. Here is a credit only feature very useful.

It is useful for other queries:

Emergency Room: There are some episodes where Clooney and Edward make a journey (without the regular cast), or later episodes with Noah Wyle in Africa. If I want to find these episodes, I must spend much time to go through the summaries. With a credit only feature I do the follow: I search with a query the episodes without the other regulars. This is very fast.

Some series change the opening credits only one time a season. A main actor leaves they show in episode 12(But you don’t know the exact episode this happened), but is credited till episode 24. When you search the last episode of this actor, it is very simple with the credit only feature, but without that, you must go through the summaries of the episodes or watch fast-forward.

Lost: I think many people of you know this show. The main cast is credited every episode, but no one plays in every episode. Some times the group is separated. Jack and some guys walk over the island, while the other are at the beach etc. Many episodes are focused one a few of the groups, but not all of the groups. With credit only it is easier to find specified episodes, or follow the way of a special cast member.

The most TV-Show profiles have no summaries for the separate episodes. So it is impossible, to find some episodes with the profiler.

PS: Credits of TV shows are a huge problem. There are many spelling mistakes and often they forgot credit people, or don’t credit them, because it is not a contract clause (for example: Greg Grunberg plays in 13 of 22 episodes of the first Alias season, but he was never credited, in season 2-4 he is credited correct).