UPC: 760137127345
Title: The Complete Comic Strip Presents… Channel 4 Films
(in core it doesn’t include the “Channel 4 Films” bit, but this is actually both printed on cover and spine AND critical for “accuracy” as it isn’t “complete” without that modifier! It doesn’t have the post-Channel 4 material)
As the claim is that it’s the “complete Channel 4”, it notes that it includes “24 Episodes & Specials”
These are…poorly arranged on IMDb. To put it mildly.
A lot of this stems from differences in British television versus American television, with IMDb being arranged around the latter.
Five of the…let’s just say “recordings” in the set are the aforementioned SPECIALS!
For more, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Comic_Strip_Presents…_episodes or the Fandom version at https://comicstrippresents.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Episodes
Now, when it gets imported from IMDb, we get all this nonsense that makes this a confusing mess:
Series 1 lines up nicely, and the episodes are all good: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083402/episodes/?season=1&ref_=ttep
Series 2 is where things go off the rails.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083402/episodes/?season=2&ref_=ttep
- All of these ARE in the set!
- “S2.E8” is not actually a normal series episode, but a special (note that the series wrapped in Feburary, and this was in November of 1984). It’s on disc 3 as a result (I know core doesn’t really track this, but to lay out how “true” it is that it’s considered a special)
Series 3 is…not Series 3
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083402/episodes/?season=3&ref_=ttep_ep_sn_nx
- This is actually a pair of other specials (included in the set on disc 3!)
Series 4 is…not Series 4
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083402/episodes/?season=4
- This is actually series 3.
Then there’s the others to bring that total line and “complete Channel 4*” title up to some kind of accurate:
Series 8! Which is not a series, and is only PARTLY included!
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083402/episodes/?season=8
- “episodes” 1 and 2 are in this set, because they are (again) specials (again on disc 3)
- “episode” 3 is not in this set
- This might be the most obvious one, given this (alleged) season has a single “episode” in each of 1998, 2000, and 2005. They should probably be individual titles on IMDb if you ask me (see above for the other specials as well…) but that’s not our problem here, that’s an IMDb problem.
Lastly, we have the original The Comic Strip, the short film that rounds things out as one of those “specials” that makes this complete:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0478854/
So:
18 episodes
5 specials
1 short film/special that started the ball rolling
(18 + 5 +1 == 24!)
I know the conversation about “listed on the cover”/“main title” and I’d say that for these purposes, imo, all of these are part of that “main title”