I’ve got a question about naming TV shows. Take The Mighty Boosh, for example. On TVDB, the year is listed as (2004), which makes sense since it’s when the first episode aired. However, on IMDb, it’s listed as (2003) because of the unaired pilot a year before. Blackadder is another show with a similar situation – an unaired pilot in 1982 a year before the official air date in 1983.
Now, I’ve checked the Plex TV show naming guide here, but it doesn’t really clarify which year to choose. This guide aims for seamless show matching, so I guess it depends on which year the Plex TV agent uses.
I’m curious to know which source you all prioritize when it comes to naming TV shows. Any insights would be greatly appreciated!
I really appreciate the links. It’s quite intriguing – I noticed on the Plex database that The Mighty Boosh has the unaired date as 2003, while Blackadder has the aired date as 1983, rather than the unaired 1982 pilot. It’s left me a bit puzzled since there doesn’t appear to be a consistent consensus.
From what I’ve seen, Plex will use the first non-annotated year in IMDb’s Release Info. So for The Mighty Boosh, 2003 is used because the UK release date of May 20, 2003 doesn’t have anything in parentheses next to it. For Blackadder though, the 1982 release date is annotated with “unknown”, so June 15, 1983 is used instead.
This generally works well for movies, since the first un-annotated release is typically the initial theatrical release, and that’s what most people would consider to be the original release date (ignoring film festival/limited screenings not available to the general public). Things can go poorly for things that only have annotated releases like Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage though, which Plex says was released in 2023 because every release date in IMDb was limited in some capacity, and Plex chose the most recent release.
I appreciate the clarity on this. I always suspected there was a method to it, but I couldn’t quite figure it out myself. So, I’ll go with Mighty Boosh as 2003 and Blackadder as 1983.
On the topic of film releases, your point about film festival vs. broad theatrical releases got me thinking. What do you think about the film Kedi in the link here? Should we consider it as a 2016 or 2017 release?
Side note, you shouldn’t do this, but the year (and even the title) don’t really matter if you add the {tmdb-XXXXXX} or {tvdb-XXXXXX} ID to your folder name. Plex will use the ID directly and ignore the title/year.
So, theoretically you could even have Beesh Almighty, The (2199) {tmdb-7166} and Plex would match it correctly using the ID.
Hey @SwiftPanda16, @DTR, I found the show Bosch, and IMDb lists it as Feb 2014, while TVDB says Feb 2015. IMDb notes “Internet” in brackets next to Feb 2014.
I think maybe it’s because it was one of Amazon Prime’s first shows on their platform, as streaming wasn’t common back then. Any other ideas about the one-year difference?
Use the year of S01E01.
If this doesn’t give you an instant match, add one of the ID numbers of TheTVDB or TheMovieDB to the show folder name (the syntax of which is also mentioned in the official naming guide.)
Not sure why Plex is also listing it as 2014, given IMDb non-annotated date of 2015. TVDB says 2015 though because that’s the earliest date of the first non-special episode (it lists the original Pilot air date as S00E01, and season 1 starts in 2015). Maybe the data changed since Plex last cached it, or there’s a slightly different source/process for determining the year of a TV show, since admittedly I’ve only dug into the year for movies, not shows.
Hey Otto, thanks a lot for your effort to assist! Just to clarify, Plex managed to match the series without an issue. What’s got me a bit baffled is the pretty big gap in release years between IMDb and TVDB for a few shows I’ve come across lately.
Yeah I was a bit puzzled by what TVDB labeled as the “pilot” in the specials folder.
IMDb clearly lists the first episode as Feb 7, 2014, while TVDB claims it’s February 13, 2015. Not sure what’s up with that discrepancy.
I get your point about annotated versus unannotated. To me, “Internet” next to the date simply means available for streaming, not a limited or restricted release. I’m planning to log a ticket on TVDB.
In 2014 Amazon released a single episode of Bosch, and used user feedback to determine whether to release the whole season/make it a full show. People liked it, so a year later they released the entire first season, including the Pilot. It looks like TVDB decided to differentiate that original pilot release and its release as part of the season, but IMDb kept the original pilot air date.
Got your point, thanks. It seems like Plex and IMDb go for the first availability date, even if it’s annotated, while TVDB sticks to broadcast availability only. Appreciate your input.
