Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2018 November 14

= November 14 =

How do crazy credits work?
I understand that when a person's name appears in the credits of a TV series, that is the official record that the person worked on the TV episode. But what about Treehouse of Horror? These episodes of The Simpsons usually have weird names for most of the people who worked on the episode. Somewhere, there has to be a key indicating who had what name.— Vchimpanzee  •  talk  •  contributions  •  15:50, 14 November 2018 (UTC)
 * There doesn't necessarily have to be a key for the general public. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 16:00, 14 November 2018 (UTC)
 * But for those who need it, how do they do that?— Vchimpanzee  •  talk  •  contributions  •  18:57, 14 November 2018 (UTC)
 * Need what? ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 21:22, 14 November 2018 (UTC)
 * I would have directed you to Wikipedia's article on Closing credits, but it's dreadful, almost worse than useless. The use of credits is something negotiated by the various entertainment unions such as the Screen Actors Guild and the Directors Guild of America and the like.  For just one example, Here is the rules and requirements of the Producer's Guild of America for closing credits of TV series, while Here are the rules for the DGA.  Famously, George Lucas quite the DGA over a credits issue with the Empire Strikes Back (their rules are a bit complicated, but because Lucas didn't put Irvin Kershner's name in the opening credits alongside his own "Lucasfilm" credit before the opening crawl, they tried to fine him, and he quit instead.  The row led to him hiring the non-guild Richard Marquand to direct Return of the Jedi.  Lucas's penchant for working in England for filming also likely comes from his rather contentious relationships with the unions in LA. There are probably several options here.  1) The rules may be different for TV than Film 2) The people working on the Simpsons may be non-union, which would exempt them from the normal rules.  3) Specific exemptions may have been worked out with the unions for these episodes.  4) The producers just pay a nominal fine for not doing the credits a certain way, and move on.  5) Maybe we're all mistaken, and the credits aren't actually required.  -- Jayron 32 00:23, 15 November 2018 (UTC)
 * the professionals in the business who would want to see the proof.— Vchimpanzee  •  talk  •  contributions  •  15:46, 15 November 2018 (UTC)
 * The proof would be in the contracts. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 16:15, 15 November 2018 (UTC)

Just look up the THoH episode on IMDb, such as this one, that has the full credits. Hehe, Rat Groening.  Lugnuts  Fire Walk with Me 14:50, 18 November 2018 (UTC)
 * IMDb is not reliable for our purposes, but that seems to work.— Vchimpanzee  •  talk  •  contributions  •  15:05, 19 November 2018 (UTC)
 * IMDB is pretty reliable for cast lists, and in fact might be the only source of complete cast lists. Where it fails reliability is on matters of "trivia", which aren't usable here unless they can be backed up with normal reliable sourcing. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 15:34, 19 November 2018 (UTC)
 * Right. The crazy credits are probably submitted by someone official.— Vchimpanzee  •  talk  •  contributions  •  15:37, 19 November 2018 (UTC)
 * One would think (or hope) that the best source for credits would be the ones listed in the film, but that is not necessarily so. One that comes to mind is the credit for Walter Matthau in a disaster movie called Earthquake, where he gave some long, fictitious word as his supposed real surname. Then there's the movie The Natural, in which one of the important supporting players, Darren McGavin, doesn't show up anywhere in the credits, due to some sort of negotiation that didn't work out in time. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 17:32, 19 November 2018 (UTC)