Advanced title search: Is it possible to search for "second country" release dates?

Thanks for the ideas. I may be wrong, but I don't expect adding terms via URL will work, partly because of a small complication: Foreign (secondary) air dates can be on series level, but also per episode. Many episodes of the second series were shown in Spain (info present) and Portugal (not added) in 1974 - suprisingly, those episodes are now lost! Still, one of the two levels is a start. At any rate, the biggest problem is that this information has only rarely been added. But I'm still glad to get an incomplete picture. It may give me ideas where to look. (I suppose I must have some contributor credit by now...!)

Hi, uberhamster: "I don't expect adding terms via URL will work, partly because [...] foreign (secondary) air dates can be on series level, but also per episode." Each episode is linked to their parent series by a parameter that could theoretically be used in the search string within the URL to fetch results across a whole series. The file title.episode.tsv shows that one parameter (parentTconst) vinculates all the elements belonging to a same series (parent level & episodes) under a same key, thus allowing multi-episode queries. For instance, all 29 episodes of "Sherlock Holmes" (29 tconsts) are linked to their parent series (1 parentTconst): https://imgur.com/a/GURiPoM I understand that as of today that option does not exist in ATS, but it can be used offline. If you combine the information from both files (title.releases.tsv & title.episode.tsv) it's easy to perform the searches you are asking for.

Yes, so my best shot is still via the dataset, right? (Just didn't have time for it yet.) Amazingly, someone managed to track down some lost programs in other countries, using 'extra' air dates (on title level in this case). (Surprising, because 99% of all those cases were always returned to the country of origin.)

Sorry one additional question, I do not see any set name containing "releases". I see title.akas, .basics, .principals, and some others. I doubt that I make 1000 contributions per year, so could it be that I don't see it because I have no access? I probably managed to do that in 2020 but not since.

Hi, uberhamster: "could it be that I don't see it because I have no access?" Correct. The IMDb Contributor Datasets page (https://contribute.imdb.com/dataset) only shows the extended datasets (including title.releases.tsv) if you meet the 1000+ requirement.

This may sound predictable, but is there any chance that you could...? I'd certainly appreciate it! (I have done SOME work here... I have 2020 contributions, only, that's just the total number.)

I have not worked with text files for a long time (in the past those files provided much more "in-depth information" {hard to explain briefly}), but if you tell me what exactly is the query you want to do I could take a look for you.

If possible, please, then I'd be interested to find TV programs originating from the UK, with a Hungarian airdate, 1955-1980 (date could apply to either their original date or the airdate). Complication, as said before, is that foreign airdates can be added on title and episode level. But even partial results are good enough for me! Actually, would it be possible to also run that for the Netherlands? (I suppose that at that point, it's not much work to replace the country.) Much apprecaited! I hope this is not too much work. The other option is that you briefly make the file available for me via one of those free services. It's after all nothing sensitive, so it should be alright.

"I'd be interested to find TV programs originating from the UK" Remember when I told you that the old text files included more information? Among the former datasets there was a file (countries.list) that contained the country (or countries) of origin of each of the titles. You could know if the film was a co-production or a single-country title. Now that basic information (country of origin) does not appear in any of the TSV files shared by IMDb, so this first filtering parameter (UK productions) cannot be applied. And no, in case anyone has thought about it, we cannot use title.akas.tsv because none of the titles labeled as “original title” have an associated country of origin, and although there is an "orderid" within the aka, the number “2” (“1” is the original) does not necessarily correspond to the title country. For instance, the country of origin of Pauvre Pierrot (1892) (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0000003) is France, but the French aka has the orderid "5", after the akas from UK, USA and Germany. Since it is not possible to exclude everything other than UK titles, it means that the search must consider all the titles in the database with some release date, for a total, as of 19 May 2025, of 246,946 series and 55,943 mini-series, which in turn include 7,727,782 episodes!! Trying to narrow it down a bit, let's exclude all those series that do not have any release date (neither at the parent level nor in any episode) for the countries you have requested. That would leave us with: * With some Hungarian release date: 4,970 series. * With some Dutch release date: 10,402 series. Still a huge number... Let's continue... After excluding all series released after 1980: * With some Hungarian release date: 580 series. * With some Dutch release date: 912 series. Finally, after excluding series whose earliest release date is already Hungarian or Dutch (searchable): * With some Hungarian "non-first country" release date: 440 series. * With some Dutch "non-first country" release date: 638 series. Please see COMPLETE LISTING at https://dpaste.com/5L9S3VG8L (I tried to copypaste here all the text in several posts, but Sprinklr made them private...).

First, let me say that I am very glad to have the help of someone who can think in the right way, "who speaks database/metadata". Very glad and extremely grateful. This list has already given me some interesting ideas. One very small question. I see that I wrote it unclearly myself, but I meant shows originating from the Netherlands shown in Hungary. (Or possibly shows in Dutch.)

Thank you very much, uberhamster. You're welcome. (Sorry, I misunderstood your request about shows from the Netherlands. Actually, in the end this was of no consequence because, since it was not possible to filter by country of origin, the list with Hungarian release dates includes all titles, regardless of the country of origin)

Oh yes, looking back, it was obvious that they were - in between the Italian, West-German, etc. shows. Just not many of them there, but that could just as well depend on what dates were added. It's lucky as it is, that someone entered these (they seem to be reliable in at least one case). There's a small chance you've helped find a lost episode... Not the most famous but not totally unknown either.