So the version of Futurama I have, if I do it by aired order a bunch of episodes in seasons 3 & 4 have no name, if I do DVD order, the last several episodes of season 7 have no names.
If it helps any, the version that I have goes
S1 - 13 episodes
S2 - 19
S3 - 22
S4 - 18
S5 - 4 (movies)
S6 - 26
S7 - 27
From what I remember, organizing Futurama is quite a pain and seems to be some kind of moving target. IIRC, TheTVDb.com’s DVD order used to match the production order as per your listing. However currently it seems that “DVD order” is gone and neither their “DVD Volumes” nor “Production Order” match what you’ve got.
Right now I can only find that particular order on TMDb as an alternative order (Production Order).
TL;DR… your options are:
Rework your organization and go with one of the available/supported “default” orders from TheTVDb or TMDb
Wait for Plex to offer support for the custom/alternative orders from TheTVDb or TMDb. Plex have commented they’re looking into supporting those… but that’s no guarantee it’ll be implemented (and if it does, there’s no ETA). Support Alternate Order / Flexible Seasons (TVDB) and Episode Groups (TMDB)
I have given up and now use aired order for Futurama, even though it’s not my preference, because I kept running into problems. I strongly prefer DVD order, but I’ll spare you the rant.
I use TheTVDB DVD order, because Fox’s TV order was insane.
Your S1-S4 appear to match DVD order.
The movies aren’t TV Episodes - they were never released as episodes on DVD - so they aren’t DVD VOLUME 5. If you want to treat the movies as TV Specials, they’re S00E02, S00E03, S00E05, S00E06. (Or name them as movies, and put them in a Movie Library.)
I suspect that your S6 contains episodes from DVDs 5 and 6.
I suspect that your S7 contains episodes from DVDs 7 and 8.
The Wikipedia page actually helps understand the mapping. Look at the “Volume” numbers instead of the “Season” numbers.
I can share my filenames if you want, but: it’s TheTVDB’s DVD order.
I generally prefer “special” episodes/tv movies to be inline with the aired order… I really dislike have to switch from the regular season to the specials in order to keep continuity. And if you’re watching something for the first time, you might not have any idea that some items really need to be watched in a certain order…
What I usually end up doing with these types of “episodes” on the front end is to add them to the S00 folder AND to the season in which they really belong, and rename them with episode numbers after the “regular” episodes. This way, Plex catches the metadata in the S00 folder, and then I manually copy it to where it “belongs.”
Its definitely a labor or love… I’ve done the same with the Babylon 5 movies and the Dr Who specials.
I understand where you’re coming from, and I disagree just as strongly.
Movies aren’t “episodes” or part of a “season” of episodes. Movies and specials have different tones or production details. It feels unnatural to pretend they are episodes, to mix them into seasons, to invent filenames, and to copy metadata, as a hack to get them to play in the right order. And it is incompatible with file management & naming tools.
I don’t have to switch views for continuity -
Specials are automatically played Up Next by Plex based on date. Binge-watching works fine.
Collections work when there’s a fictional universe that’s larger than a single TV show. Or for alternative orderings. That’s where to put the labor of love, IMO.
What Plex offers for this isn’t perfect, but it works well enough for me. I hate misidentifying shows and movies so much more.