The TV IV:Proposals/Season or Series

When it comes to listing Episodes into their seasons/series, should these be called 'Season_X' or 'Series_X', where X is the number or other identifier.

The reson this is brought up, is because of Red Dwarf which is currently named all as Series, because this is what BBC Documentation labels it as (and also on the DVD names). However, having it like this, leads to slight variations in content that should be uniform.

The only obvious exceptions would be Shows where the name of the Season/Series is given, For example 24 could be listed as Day One, instead of Season One.

So the question again is, should for a uniform look and data layout on the site, should Season be named just that (like on most of the current pages), or Series (or either or at the time of the person writing it)?

Comments

1. Most, if not all, American broadcast networks refer to it as season. It seems that most British shows use series. I think whichever term is most appropriate for the particular show should be used. Accuracy should be sought over uniformity. DCEdwards1966 17:43, 16 Sep 2005 (EDT)
2. I believe there should be one naming term used, if to avoid confusion. I would opt for series myself, if just because using the word "season" to describe a set of television episodes makes no sense to me. Series is a very wide ranging term and works perfectly and makes more sense than season anyway. - Ferret 18:26, 16 Sep 2005 (EDT)
3. The term "Season" comes from the fact that a group of episodes are generally shown over the course of a specific season.--Soylent Green 19:54, 16 Sep 2005 (EDT)
4. I think everything should just be called Season so as to avoid confusion. It's not accurate, but in the long run I think it'll be more beneficial over confusing, yet accurate terminology. I understand that the UK uses the term "series" to designate a yearly run of the show, but I do believe the rest of the world uses season, or some variation thereof. If a person from outside the UK were to come to the site looking for information about the new season of Doctor Who, he/she may become easily confused with the terminology of calling each year of episodes a series. --Wizardryo 01:12, 17 Sep 2005 (EDT) retracted comment; see below --Wizardryo | ✎ 08:05, 26 Dec 2005 (EST)
5. A series is any television show as a whole. A season is a particular years worth of episodes. Thus the first twenty-two or so episodes of a given show before the summer hiatus is a season. It's analogous to game, set, match:: episode, season, series. --Fezz(Ryvius) 01:25, 17 Sep 2005 (EDT)
6. Since the word Season and the word Series each have meanings in the US it can cause confusion here to use the word Series where most of us would use the word Season. In the UK is the word Season ever used in the context of a group of TV shows? What do they call the entire run of a show over however many years? In my opinion it seems that the term Season would lead to less confusion.--Watson 07:52, 17 Sep 2005 (EDT)
   1. In the UK a series is what Americans call a season. A series does not mean every episode, it means what Americans call a season, i.e. one particular production cycle. Series is probably the most correct word due to the definition of the word series. -- Boneill 05:38, 19 Sep 2005 (EDT)
      1. Not really, when you look at dictionary definitions. A series is a continuous set of whatever it happens to be of ("a number of things or events of the same class coming one after another in spatial or temporal succession") A season is by definition a limited segment of the year ("A recurrent period characterized by certain occurrences" or "A period of time"). Therefore, use of the word "season" makes far more sense in the context of one year of a television series and the word "series" makes far more sense when it's used in the context of the overall television show. We should use "Season" if we have to standardize, although I would advocate continuing to just use "season" where appropriate (US shows, etc) and "series" where it's appropriate (UK shows, etc). --Hawkman 07:18, 19 Sep 2005 (EDT)
         1. use of the word "season" makes far more sense in the context of one year of a television series -- but a year of a television series can be 2 series. It is quite possible to have 2 series of a show on in Winter so two "seasons" in one "season". I'd avocate sticking to local terminology for TV shows. -- Boneill 09:29, 19 Sep 2005 (EDT)
      2. Yes, but the problem is that series ALSO has a meaning in North American dialects where it means all episodes of a show across (potentialy) multiple production cycles. A meaning which is just as compatible with the root meaning of "series". If we are going to standardize, I favour eliminating the ambiguous "series" in either meaning (Like using the terms "Soccer" and "Gridiron" and eliminate the term "football" from those situations where it could be ambiguous. So we don't use "series" in EITHER meaning and all is fair. Personaly, I don't see anything wrong with not standardizing. "Season", "Series", "Day" as appropriate. For the reasons above it makes sense to use "seasons" for the name of the category but as long as the articles are in that category, what does it matter what they are called? --Hai-Etlik 06:15, 19 Sep 2005 (EDT)
      3. I would prefer to use "Season" as a standard. This way there is no ambiguity and one cannot get confused what the meaning is. If a season has a name or is called something else than "season" in the country of origin, there should be a note on the season page explaining it. This would apply for example to Babylon 5 where each season is named after an important episode of the season. Also shows like 24 where the seasons are called "Day One" etc. And then also non-US shows where easons are called "series" or in Germany where they are called "Staffeln". If we don't standardise then we could end up having german, portuguese, or even japanese season names. --GKiller 08:07, 27 Sep 2005 (EDT)
7. I don't see any particular problem here. If British shows use Series, then use Series for those shows. And use Season for (most) american shows. it doesn't have to be uniform. --MateoP 18:30, 23 Oct 2005 (EDT)
8. This matter doesn't seem to have resolved itself at all, but, under further consideration, I don't think there would be a lot of confusing caused over using series versus season in British articles. I've also noticed that, for example, America's Next Top Model labels their seasons as "cycles," and I've seen some official 24 merchandise that labels their seasons as "days." Show/country-specific, I think, would be the best way to go. --Wizardryo | ✎ 08:05, 26 Dec 2005 (EST)