Hello all,
yesterday I noticed that Helmut Krauss and Sanam Afrashteh were reported to appear over 400 times in this show on the front page, i.e. in every single episode. This was an effect of that they were set to be main characters and also to be automatically set as such for every new season.
This is wrong. In this show, there is no such character, because even Peter Lustig and Guido Hammesfahr do not appear in every season.
The problem lies in the different definition of "main chacters" for normal conversation usage and for TMDB on the other hand. A main character with automatic return for the next season can only be an actor, who is part of every episode without any exception over the complete show. That's why we do not have even one such character here in Löwenzahn.
The next "level" would be a main character on a per-season-base, i.e. without automatically being set for the next season by the system. This level is actually the correct one here for Peter Lustig and Guido Hammesfahr, each for their seasons, where they appear in every single episode. I.e. 1...25 for Peter Lustig and 26 up to now for Guido Hammesfahr. (Peter Lustig additionally appears in one later episode as a guest.)
Please do not set any other actor to one of these levels. All other apearances are guest stars. Yes, even Mr. Paschulke is guest star, although we all have him in mind as the neighbour who was always there. But in fact he was appearing in 154 Löwenzahn episodes. Please feel free to compare as an example on this website: http://datenbank.loewenzahnfanclub.de/window.php?f=52&id=4
So, after all: I'll have a look, when I can do this redefinition again (because I already did this a few months ago, but this is a lot of clicking around as far as I can tell. If anbybody knows how to set dozens or even over 150 episodes to "Actor x was guest as role y here" more eficiently, please let me know - or just do it... :-))
But having that said again my request: please be aware of this and think twice before defining any actor to "main character" - it will destroy hours of correction.
Thanks for reading and your attention, cheers
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Reply by Zappergeck
on November 24, 2021 at 2:39 PM
Hello once more,
now as I believe everything is alright again, especially Helmut Krauss and Sanam Afrashteh are properly defined as guest stars again - they do not appear in the list on the frontpage anymore. It's like their appearances are not counted anymore.
Can anybody help here please? Did I make a severe mistake anywhere?
But the things I mentioned in my post above are completely everything I knew and used as the background of the rearrangement I did some months ago, and then it worked perfectly. Helmut Krauss was not actor in 400 episodes anymore but 156 (I think) which is correct. And now he is completely lost at the end of the list with two appearances, although he is added to the episodes if I look at them...
Hope someone sees what I don't regards
Reply by janar
on November 24, 2021 at 5:06 PM
Hi @Zappergeck,
unfortunately, there is a number of several (small and big) technical bugs here on TMDb when it comes to adding cast and crew members to tv show entries like this one here. That's why, for example, Helmut Krauss is only listed with 1 episode here in the cast for the show - while the number on the individual person page at the bottom is more complete (and probably correct). This is a display problem on the TMDb website for all tv show entries. Travis, the TMDb administrator, has to fix all those bugs - for us moderators and for you as a "normal" contributor, there's currently no perfect solution to fix this.
What you could do and try out -> for every individual person, remove all current credits on episode level first. Then, second step -> check if there are any credits for this individual person on the season/show level and remove those, too - until you don't see any credits left for the show. Then, third step -> add all credits again, starting by the seasonal level first before you add them on episode level. Sometimes, this worked perfectly for me, but not always. And it's a lot of work when you do this for a larger number of people.
Also, one more advice: The definition of "main cast" and "guest cast" here on TMDb is indeed a bit different and unusual - you can read more about it in the Contribution Bible. Because of the technical editing process and the separation of main/guest cast, it's not always possible to achieve the absolut correct numbers for every single person here on TMDb. Which means, for example, that even people who are only in 9 of 10 episodes per season can count as a season regular here on TMDb - it depends on the onscreen credits and in which category they fall. It's a bit complicated to explain this fully; let's just say that you should be aware of the fact that it's complicated here on TMDb to achieve those correct numbers for everyone.