The edits are from long ago, but I think you are correct I think the full TV entry should be deleted if the pilot is unavailable to watch (not on a DVD as an extra for example) in its original form though, but let's wait for some other mod first, as I cannot for the life of me find it in the contribution bible.. though I am SURE Lineker and I at least talked about it.

And if it's been edited into a "TV movie" it should be good In the movie section instead.

// EDIT: Although I'm unsure if we ever defined "turned/edited into a TV movie", and what that is based on, time limit? Because this entry seems to be your average episode size, 45 minutes.

I'm not sure if this is relevant to the question, but the episode in the Specials season 0 is called Pilot - Final Sales Version. You can find this version on YouTube, for example here (title card at the beginning):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EShP8FbVW_k

Wikipedia states that the "unaired pilot was leaked onto the Internet in June 2005 and continues to be downloaded and shared, primarily via BitTorrent and other P2P networks.[1] Although it was popular and critically acclaimed, according to Ellis himself the leaking of the pilot annoyed Warner Brothers to the extent that they killed the project.[2]"

So, this never aired on tv or is available on DVD -> it only "aired" as a leaked video. I think it's relevant as itself being one of the first leaked pilots ever -> but I'm not sure it should be in the database.

@janar72 said:

I'm not sure if this is relevant to the question, but the episode in the Specials season 0 is called Pilot - Final Sales Version. You can find this version on YouTube, for example here (title card at the beginning):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EShP8FbVW_k

Wikipedia states that the "unaired pilot was leaked onto the Internet in June 2005 and continues to be downloaded and shared, primarily via BitTorrent and other P2P networks.[1] Although it was popular and critically acclaimed, according to Ellis himself the leaking of the pilot annoyed Warner Brothers to the extent that they killed the project.[2]"

So, this never aired on tv or is available on DVD -> it only "aired" as a leaked video. I think it's relevant as itself being one of the first leaked pilots ever -> but I'm not sure it should be in the database.

In that case I think it should be kept (we keep unaired "leaked" pilots of Minority Report etc too!), I didn't look in to it too much to be honest! :P But it quickly reminded me of this and that it was not in the contribution bible. I think the unaired, but leaked episode should in this case just be added to season 1 though, as it's not gonna get picked up, and it was the intended pilot! Just maybe add it without an airdate? episode trivia would be so cool, then we can store such info there!

@alltimemarr wrote:

In that case I think it should be kept (we keep unaired "leaked" pilots of Minority Report etc too!), I didn't look in to it too much to be honest! :P But it quickly reminded me of this and that it was not in the contribution bible.

Yes, I also couldn't find it in there ...

I think the unaired, but leaked episode should in this case just be added to season 1 though, as it's not gonna get picked up, and it was the intended pilot! Just maybe add it without an airdate?

I think it's best Banana takes a look at it and does the fixing.

episode trivia would be so cool, then we can store such info there!

Oh yeah ...

Maybe Travis needs to call on this. I'd certainly think that unreleased pilots are worthy of inclusion, especially ones with such prestigious casts that are so well known (cf. https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/132772-the-robinsons-lost-in-space).

To the best of my knowledge the only release of Global Frequency was unsanctioned (I believe it was such a success that WB almost hanged their minds until they realised that future viewers might obtain future episodes in the same fashion!) so there's only the one version - just people call it different things. That's why I'd argue it should be listed as "pilot" with no series or specials and definitely not a "theatrical release".

@alltimemarr said:

episode trivia would be so cool, then we can store such info there!

Hell yes! Would also help with explaining why some episodes don't make sense in their airdate order (because the network decided to swap things around).

I agree it is best to only keep a TV entry set to pilot. It was edited and locked long before the "Pilot" status was created. I only did quick, superficial edits on that entry (and many other similar ones).

So,I removed the duplicate movie listing and we keep the TV listing! (I also saw it was a very new addition, added December 2017 to the database)

How should we list such things (maybe also with this as an example) in the contribution bible? Definitely mention that such "unsanctioned" releases don't warrant the "edited into TV movie" exception :P

How should we list such things (maybe also with this as an example) in the contribution bible?

What do you mean?

Well, I don't think it's mentioned in the contribution bible, the stuff about pilots!

Maybe add something like;

If a series were never ordered, but a pilot was edited into a TV movie (example???), please report the TV entry, as we prefer to keep it in the movie database only. If a pilot episode has been properly released, for example as a special feature on a DVD (Example: this one but right now it's still added as a movie, I think it should be in TV instead? It's been broadcasted in Japan on TV before the first television broadcast of Spirited Away in some TV special along with clips from many different titles one of the Ghibli founders worked on, apparantly it was also screened at the "Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography" in 2001, but that would merely get a honourable mention in a future trivia section, haha!), but the series as a whole never got picked up, please add a TV show with the TV show type set to "Pilot" and add that pilot episode to the first season. If the pilot episode only got leaked, please blank out the episode airdate afterwards. (Example: this one!)

Oh, I get it now. It's already written in the contributions bible that TV pilots, including unaired ones, are allowed in the TV section. But it's a good idea to at least add examples of cases where a) pilots should be added to the special season of a series instead of a stand-alone entry, b) pilots were originally released as TV movies e.g. this one c) pilots were unofficially released

If a series were never ordered, but a pilot was edited into a TV movie (example???)

I'm still a bit unsure about that one. I vote against adding it if we can't find a good example. A few pilots air on TV abroad as "TV movies", but I don't think that makes them proper TV movies. Maybe failed US pilots should at least have a proper individual DVD release as a TV movie ?