Cannot change release date for TV series

Yeah, it is a bit of a mess.

TV series tend to populate the main page from the episodes, so the cast will tend to come from there and the release date will come from the first episode.

However, there is a back-up way of adding data if there aren't any episodes, so you can add credits and a release date to the main page, if no episodes have been added. However, when they have been added you can't edit that information on the main page, even though it can interfere with the correct information displaying.

That is why trying to change the release date won't work - as there are now episodes. However, the release date is wrong but you can no longer change it because the correctly dated episodes are blocking it. Catch 22.

The only real solution is to delete the release date and allow the episode dates to provide the year of release (which is the way the system is designed), so I've submitted that along with an explanation:

131009-020205-057000

That should do the trick, if staff don't intervene and remove it themselves directly.

Thanks for the info. Does the IMDb staff read these messages and take appropriate action if required?

If someone could override this problem for me...

The TV airing dates for P'tit Quinquin (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3053694/reference) are making it impossible to add the actual premiere date, which was the Cannes Film Festival back in May '14 where it was screened in full. It has since screened at other festivals as well. Would be great if we could rate it!

I ran into the same problem trying to change Mister Ed's start date from 1958 to 1961 (there was a pilot produced in 1958 that was never aired; series first episode aired in January 1961).

It's the first air date (or release date with non-tv titles) that matters. Production year can be something else.


Not fully sure how IMDb handles the "unaired" pilot, though.