Talk:Smallville

Cast Section Bloat
I'm helping with a copyedit request on this article, and I have never watched the show (sorry!). But I do want to note that I think this cast section is too big. I would say it should be divided into main characters (those who were featured in the titles for, say, more than a few seasons) and recurring characters, who may have only been a fixture on a single season. Again, I haven't watched the show, so I don't know anything about the relative importance of the characters apart from the well-known names, but for the show's main article, I think the cast section could be pared down to only the four or five essentials, plus a few long-recurring characters, and maybe let the pages for individual seasons take care of the rest.AstroCog (talk) 22:30, 1 September 2011 (UTC)


 * None of those in the cast list are recurring characters. Every one of them were at one point regulars (i.e., they appeared in the opening credits). The show's been on for 10 years, so it's going to have a lot of regulars. We cannot simply cut some regulars just because the list is long. THe length is also why I kept most of their information out of this article and have allowed the Characters of Smallville page to contain the real information.   BIGNOLE     (Contact me)  22:52, 1 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Whew, 17 characters! I'll defer to the show's experts on this. Thanks for bearing with me!AstroCog (talk) 23:46, 1 September 2011 (UTC)

Why aren't we listing the cast? Do we have a set limit for how many cast members should appear in the infobox? 17 isn't that many when compared to other infobox's such as One Tree Hill and Glee (TV series) and Arrow (TV series) as just a few examples. Or should they be changed as well?


 * List the cast where? If you mean just the infobox, then 17 is a bit much. That's why we aren't listing them in the infobox. If other pages are putting that many cast in, they likely should be adjusted to something similar here, especially if they are on-going series.   BIGNOLE     (Contact me)  20:05, 26 September 2019 (UTC)

Do we have a set number of cast that should be listed then? Are we saying 10 is the maximum? Or 15? Because here are just a few pages that lists more than 17: — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.4.115.223 (talk • contribs)
 * Arrow (TV series)
 * Legends of Tomorrow
 * Grey's Anatomy
 * One Tree Hill (TV series)
 * Glee (TV series)
 * Shameless (British TV series)
 * The Walking Dead (TV series)
 * The Wire
 * Westworld (TV series)
 * Band of Brothers (miniseries)
 * The Office (American TV series)
 * Narcos
 * Marco Polo (TV series)
 * Orange Is the New Black
 * It's local consensus. The other pages you list can do what they want as long as there's a consensus. There's been a consensus on this article that 17 makes the infobox look messy and linking to a subsection of the article is adequate. DonQuixote (talk) 14:46, 27 September 2019 (UTC)


 * Technically, the MOS does address it: "Additionally, if any individual field becomes excessively long, again using the starring parameter as an example, it may be beneficial to link readers to a corresponding section of the article (in this case, the "Cast", "Characters", or "Cast and characters" section) instead." --- It doesn't give a specific number because 10 might feel too long on one page, or 17 on another. I would say that looking at some of those, like Grey's or TWD, they seem rather excessively long to me. I'm not about to go pick a fight over it, but to me they fall in that category of "link to the cast section". When I start losing track of which name I read in the infobox then it's a bit much.   BIGNOLE     (Contact me)  16:42, 27 September 2019 (UTC)

Would just be much easier if all pages had a set limit. Say if it reaches 15 then after that we link to the cast section. No? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.98.183.174 (talk) 15:22, 30 September 2019 (UTC)
 * You can start a discussion at WT:TELEVISION. DonQuixote (talk) 15:33, 30 September 2019 (UTC)

Infobox cast, again
This is the only series I`ve seen (so far) with the omitted cast in infobox. It is one of the most important information of a television series. There is such shows as Greys Anatomy, Desperate Housewives and The Office (American TV series) that have the entire -long- list cast in infobox and it`s not quite harmful. The way it is now doesn't seem to be harmonic and differs from the vast majority of other series. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cvhcsee (talk • contribs) 06:03, 13 August 2020 (UTC)
 * Explanation of the starring parameter on doesn't give see below as an option. The list is not that long and some other series have twice the number of cast members and don't hide on infobox. Performing alteration per WP:SILENCE. Cvhcsee (talk) 04:21, 1 September 2020 (UTC)
 * It's from WP:MOSTV: "Additionally, if any individual field becomes excessively long, again using the starring parameter as an example, it may be beneficial to link readers to a corresponding section of the article (in this case, the "Cast", "Characters", or "Cast and characters" section) instead." -- Just because others are choosing not to do it, doesn't mean that there is a mandate to keep them all in the infobox. I would generally say any cast list over 10 people should probably consider that. That said, at the time when we weren't linking them all in the infobox, we didn't have the series overview table where it is currently located. So, originally the infobox would bleed through multiple sections, and it was easier to avoid that by removing the lengthy cast list and just linking them (it also helped people trying to rearrange the cast list constantly to what they "thought" was the right order.   BIGNOLE     (Contact me)  13:17, 1 September 2020 (UTC)
 * Right, thank you. It would be nicer if the MOS already say what would be considered ...long... so less interpretations could come. Afterall, thats what conventions and MOS are for. Cvhcsee (talk) 15:54, 3 September 2020 (UTC)
 * Well, it's a guideline. It doesn't have an exact number because that can change per page (hence why we did it before, as opposed to needing to do that now). It can vary from page to page. Unlike say page size, which has a page that walks you through splitting a page. Size of the page is more important than number of seasons (doesn't stop people from creating pages when they shouldn't and barely have information to support a stub.   BIGNOLE     (Contact me)  18:59, 3 September 2020 (UTC)

why asian?
sorry, i didn't follow the show, but i've always been curious as to why they cast a hapa for lana lane. is it addressed in-universe (i.e., mother being asian), or did the producers honestly think they could slip kreuk by as caucasian?

article goes out of its way to point out how some caucasian character was recast as black in the show, but says nothing about one being recast as (hapa) asian. 2601:19C:527F:A680:29B4:B41C:75A8:70BA (talk) 06:42, 21 June 2022 (UTC)

A technical question
How does invoke the series overview table in the List of Smallville episodes page? There's no template called ":List of Smallville episodes". Redjedi23 (talk) 22:11, 17 March 2023 (UTC)