Category talk:Lists of actors by series

Regulars only
Per the discussion above, please note that these categories should be for regular cast members' only - people who have only made one or two guest appearances should not be included. This is to prevent some actors ending up with dozens of unimportant categories. Actors should only be categorised by major recurring television roles. — sjorford++ 13:26, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
 * What about actors who played recurring characters? Q0 10:18, 10 June 2006 (UTC)
 * What about actors for video game series? Pikawil 05:42, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

Some recurring characters are ok, but it's hard to come up with a definitive rule, you just have to use your judgment. The reason for limiting categories in this way is that we don't want every actor's page to have dozens of categories at the bottom for guest roles they played on TV, that don't have any particular significance in their careers. Video games I'm less sure about - if there is a major franchise where several actors reprised their roles over several games, then that's ok for a category. Category:Grand Theft Auto actors however should probably be deleted, as it's a fairly insignificant role for most of the actors concerned, and only a few reprised their character in a later game. — sjorford++ 12:35, 18 June 2006 (UTC)


 * And what about actors by company, such as Category:CLAMP voice actors? Or actors by franchises that span many forms of media, like Category:Star Wars actors? Pikawil 01:55, 20 June 2006 (UTC)

Listify
Perhaps categories that contain a lot of guest actors who were in only one episode should be listified so that interested readers can still get the information without having an actor's page filled with categories with little relavence to the actor? Q0 10:18, 10 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Sounds fine - all this information should be in the form of episode guides. — sjorford++ 12:35, 18 June 2006 (UTC)
 * How 'bout putting the guest actors in a series sub-category (Such as "Category: [Insert Series Here] guests"? Pikawil 01:46, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
 * A list would be vastly preferable. Guest star categories have been consistently deleted as category clutter. - EurekaLott 05:00, 20 June 2006 (UTC)

Template
I started work on a template that could be applied to the actors by series categories. It's Template:Actors by series, and it's not in use yet. Please feel free to make any improvements you see fit. Think it's a good idea? - EurekaLott 01:06, 19 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Good idea. — sjorford++ 08:39, 19 June 2006 (UTC)
 * EurekaLott...The thought is good, however, I don't think that it will work. There will still be people who feel that an actor is notable enough to be in the category after only one appearance. Some of these categories are filled with them. You have a long uphill battle to wage here, and your template won't stop the truly dedicated. &#151;Lady Aleena talk / contribs 18:41, 13 July 2006 (UTC)
 * Every time the issue has arisen, without exception, the consensus has been that guest stars should not be included in these categories. The definition of guest stars has not been clearly defined, but nearly everybody has agreed that a single appearance on a show does not justify inclusion, and can only lead to category clutter. The template is simply intended to help educate contributors who may not be aware of the consensus. Perhaps it would be worth trying it on some categories and seeing what happens. - EurekaLott 02:39, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

Changed parent category to Category:Actors
I changed the parent category of this category to Category:Actors from a combination of Category:Television actors, Category:Film actors and Category:Voice actors. The reason is that this category is not actually a subset of any of those three catgories. In other words, an actor being in this category or a subcategory does not imply he is a "television actor", only that he is an "actor".

Therefore the logical parent of this category is, in fact, Category:Actors, since it is the one thing that all the people included here definitely have in common.

On a related note, I am going to go through and see if I can clean up this category a bit by moving television-only series to the subcategory Category:Actors by television series. That will help sort out categories for films and films+television from television-only. Dugwiki 20:22, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Added new subcategory: Category:Actors by film series
I went ahead and added a new subcategory, Category:Actors by film series, to complement the already existing Category:Actors by television series and Category:Voice actors by series. Basically this allows film-only series to go in the film cat, television-only series to go in the TV cat, and animated/video game series to go in the Voice cat. The only things left in Category:Actors by series are series which contain a mix of film, television and/or voice acting (eg. Batman has all three types of acting, so it appears here). Dugwiki 20:38, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

September 29, 2006 CFD
Now the CFD of these categories from September 29, 2006 has been closed. However, does that mean that there is resolution of the following issues: Q0 21:29, 6 October 2006 (UTC)
 * 1) Should the categories include only actors who played main and/or recurring characters or should it also include guest actors?
 * 2) Should the categories be listified? Just because the categories are not going to be deleted does not mean that lists cannot also exist simultaneously.


 * Cast lists should probably be listified either way. The reason is that a list can include more information than a category, such as including the character name and, for guests, episodes the actor appeared. As to whether the categories should be all actors or only regular cast members, I'd lean toward regular cast only and leave guest actors for lists. The reason is that it is probably notable in an actors career if they regularly star in a television show, but it is usually much less notable if they only appeared once as a guest star.  For example, it's more interesting to know that Ted Danson starred in Cheers, but not important to know if he guest starred on the Simpsons once.Dugwiki 15:16, 9 October 2006 (UTC)