Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2011 September 1

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September 1

Questions about music singles

This one has two parts;

1. There are singles that are on two consecutive studio albums by the same artist, the albums were released with less than a year's difference. Should the singles be attributed to both albums, or just the first?

2. On a song, such as "I Fought the Law," the original version was NOT popular, and not released as a single (rather, a B-side). Should there still be an infobox for the original song at the top of the page?

Thanks, -Disco dude rock (talk) 02:31, 1 September 2011 (UTC)

Regarding #1: In the text of the articles, I don't see why you wouldn't want to be as complete as possible, and indicate the various albums it has appeared on. Regarding #2: You shouldn't need an infobox for every single recording of every single song, just the recordings that were widely popular or notable; the original Crickets recording of "I Fought the Law" is a footnote in history, and that version is still unknown to anyone except true rock music geeks. Pretty much everyone considers the Bobby Fuller Four version to be the definitive one. There are lots of other songs like that; "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" wouldn't likely have merited a Wikipedia article had it not been for the Joan Jett version. Likewise, Prince's original version of "Nothing Compares 2 U" wouldn't have its own article if not for the version done years later by Sinead O'Connor. --Jayron32 03:16, 1 September 2011 (UTC)

Johnny Cash's major hits have been on countless of his albums, through frequent repackaging. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 07:34, 1 September 2011 (UTC)

Re #2, it reminds me of discussions about this song. Not sure I agree with what happened there, so comments welcome. Ghmyrtle (talk) 12:11, 1 September 2011 (UTC)

Thanks, this explains things. -Disco dude rock (talk) 22:47, 5 September 2011 (UTC)

What's the name of the first movie

that presented a television? 82.81.95.19 (talk) 14:40, 1 September 2011 (UTC)

Are you asking which movie was first presented ON television? It was "Police Patrol" (and not Police Patrol which came out later) in 1931. But, isn't that before "television"? Not really. Televisions were experimental and there were stations being developed. W2XCD was one of the experimental stations. They needed something to broadcast, so they got hold of a Gotham Productions movie and broadcast that, one reel a day, for six days. -- kainaw™ 14:48, 1 September 2011 (UTC)

no. I ask about thefirst movie that in the movie you can see a television. 82.81.95.19 (talk) 14:53, 1 September 2011 (UTC)

I don't know the answer, but I do know that the film International House (1933 film) featured a type of television as a plot element. The development of commercial TV was getting well under way by the late 1930s, but the War put a temporary halt to it. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 15:08, 1 September 2011 (UTC)

I don't know the answer either, but The Mystery of the Leaping Fish (1916) shows "what appears to be a closed-circuit television referred to in the title cards as his "scientific periscope," (the protagonist Coke Ennyday uses it to monitor visitors). ---Sluzzelin talk 15:46, 1 September 2011 (UTC)

Not the first but mid-1930s full-length film dramas include Trapped by Television (1936) and Murder by Television (1935), which features local LA experimental TV equipment valued at $75,000. Pepso2 (talk) 16:09, 1 September 2011 (UTC)

Given that some of the earliest practical use of television occurred in Germany, particularly in connection with the 1936 Olympic Games, it's possible that a movie from there around that time included television. Of course, it has also been observed that people in movies and sitcoms watch TV a lot less than the general population. HiLo48 (talk) 07:13, 2 September 2011 (UTC)

Searching IMDb gives two films from 1930. There's the short "Believe It or Not #4".[1] The plot summary on IMDb says "At the request of a television experimenter who needed items to broadcast, Robert L. Ripley states unsubstantiated oddities including that a Spanish lady had her husband's portrait tattooed on her tongue as penance for nagging him to death. ... There are scenes intercut throughout showing a family watching the show on television." [2]

From the same year is the feature Elstree Calling (1930)[3] "A series of 19 musical and comedy 'vaudeville' sketches presented in the form of a live broadcast hosted by Tommy Handley (as himself). There are two 'running gags' which connect the sketches. In one, an actor wants to perform Shakespeare, but he is continually denied air-time. The other gag has an inventor trying to view the broadcast on television." --Colapeninsula (talk) 09:20, 2 September 2011 (UTC)

It's a long time since I last saw it (though no, it wasn't the premiere), but didn't Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927) include portrayals of (possibly closed-circuit) television? {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.197.66.179 (talk) 16:39, 2 September 2011 (UTC)