Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/The Prisoner in popular culture


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was   keep. Editorial actions (move, merge, redirect, etc.) may be discussed on the article's talk page. (non-admin closure) Tim Song (talk) 01:01, 6 October 2009 (UTC)

The Prisoner in popular culture

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Whole page goes against WP:TRIV. Most of the trivia is uncited and no effort has been made to address this issue. magnius (talk) 20:47, 29 September 2009 (UTC)
 * Keep Needs referencing, and some trivia could be removed, but The Prisoner is very popular and is referenced widely in popular culture. Deletion is not cleanup. Stephenb (Talk) 21:55, 29 September 2009 (UTC)
 * Delete "Some trivia could be removed", it's all trivia. L0b0t (talk) 22:59, 29 September 2009 (UTC)
 * Keep Completely won over by Rodhullandemu's considered opinion below. L0b0t (talk) 00:38, 30 September 2009 (UTC)


 * Keep In film and TV one man's trivia is another man's information. Too much deleting on wikipedia.REVUpminster (talk) 23:21, 29 September 2009 (UTC)
 * Keep and improve. As Jimbo once said, "I can NOT emphasize this enough. There seems to be a terrible bias among some editors that some sort of random speculative 'I heard it somewhere' pseudo information is to be tagged with a 'needs a cite' tag. Wrong. It should be removed, aggressively, unless it can be sourced". (Emphasis added). Merely proposing an article for deletion because it is unsourced is rarely constructive, and a purposive approach to writing an encyclopedia might suggest that attempts should be made to provide sources before doing so. OK, the article's been tagged as such for a while, but not many committed editors can just lay aside all else and concentrate on dealing with that; if it matters that much, why not do a little work yourself? As for the trivia point, this has to be moot. Although in general I reject trivia as being just that, and not encyclopedic, and I've set out my position on this here, it should be recognised that The Prisoner is one of the most influential television drama series ever made, even to the point of being the subject of a Canadian university sociology course, many academic papers (leave it with me), and much other commentary, it is no surprise to me that even now, it still arouses discussion and heated debate some 42 years later. I note from the article as it stands that several notable references are absent, specifically Roy Harper's "McGoohan's Blues"- and if you don't think that's significant, you should discover why. Properly sourced, this article could provide an insight (above and beyond the usual South Park, The Simpsons and Family Guy references) into the pervasive influence this series has had. Remove it, and there is little chance for rescue because it will then be hidden from public view and will depend on the goodwill and assiduousness of committed editors, who may well have other plans. In my own case, I am in the middle of a 7,500 edit project which could take me up to Christmas, but if I need to shelve that in order to save this article, so be it. It may be that "in popular culture" is the red rag to the bull here, and if so I propose renaming the article to "Influence of The Prisoner" to avoid that stigma. Rodhull  andemu  23:49, 29 September 2009 (UTC)
 * Keep while i truly hate most popular culture sections, this is an essential article, even if it were simply merged back into the tv show. the influence on culture needs to be documented, and we might as well start here. i wish i had a better name for it. I am starting to warm to "influence of the prisoner", though. maybe "influence of the TV show The prisoner"?Mercurywoodrose (talk) 01:18, 30 September 2009 (UTC)
 * Keep per Rodhullandemu's argument above. - DustFormsWords (talk) 02:42, 30 September 2009 (UTC)
 * Keep. The TV series has been genuinely widely referenced in various forms of media. I'm not sure about the "in popular culture" title given that the TV series itself is part of popular culture, and RH&E's renaming suggestion above looks a good idea.--Michig (talk) 06:15, 30 September 2009 (UTC)
 * Suggestion. How's "Works inspired by The Prisoner" as a possible name? Just a thought. It can put a focus on what the article should include and avoid the truly trival mentions in "popular culture". This discussion, however, may be more appropriate for its talk page. Thanks. --Wolfer68 (talk) 07:40, 30 September 2009 (UTC)


 * Keep per Rodhullandemu, although I think Wolfer68's renaming idea has merit. Rlendog (talk) 20:47, 1 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Merge back into The Prisoner. Deletion would be contrary to our editing policy but this material is currently too thin and needs a good pruning.  For example, the salutation, be seeing you predates the show by 20+ years and so the examples given require good sourcing to be retained. Colonel Warden (talk) 20:43, 3 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Delete or redirect What is here isn't an encyclopedic article at all as it lacks a coherant focus and is instead made up of nothing but trivia. I have no prejudice against recreation if it is rewritten entirely from an editor that willing to put in the work.  For now, deletion wouldn't hurt the encyclopedic, but a redirect to a section in the original article may also be appropriate if the section contained sourced material and was kept clean.  Them  From  Space  01:15, 4 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Keep. I've added 8 sources and some juicy quotes, which hopefully show that the influence of The Prisoner on subsequent TV, music and film is substantial and worth writing about. The suggested rename to "Influence of The Prisoner" or somesuch title might help avoid the "in popular culture" stigma. Fences  &amp;  Windows  03:56, 4 October 2009 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.