Hi! Does anyone have a good list of all the guest stars? One with links to a database (like imdb or something) or a movie reference would be nice. I found one in french and spanish but since i don't speak any of those languages and the translation didn't really help I'd really like to see one in English.
Thanks
David
In article , [email] (David Block) wrote:
I have, but how big a star do you want a guest to be?
If they're really big, that's just a few names, if you mean anyone who's been on the show, that's now over 600 names.
As for links to the IMDb, you can easily create a link from the person's name, in the format http://imdb.com/Name?<surname>,+<forename>. Here are the links for the top 20 guest stars generated in just this way...
117 Michael Mitchell http://imdb.com/Name?Clooney,+George 212 Erika Ford http://imdb.com/Name?Shields,+Brooke 213 Susie Moss http://imdb.com/Name?Roberts,+Julia 213 Himself http://imdb.com/Name?Van Damme,+Jean-Claude 223 Ryan http://imdb.com/Name?Sheen,+Charlie 305 Herself http://imdb.com/Name?Rossellini,+Isabella 319 Kate Miller http://imdb.com/Name?Meyer,+Dina 324 Tim http://imdb.com/Name?Crystal,+Billy 324 Thomas http://imdb.com/Name?Williams,+Robin 414 Himself http://imdb.com/Name?Heston,+Charlton 613 Jill Green http://imdb.com/Name?Witherspoon,+Reese 621 Paul Stevens http://imdb.com/Name?Willis,+Bruce 715 Cecilia Monroe http://imdb.com/Name?Sarandon,+Susan 719 Cassie Geller http://imdb.com/Name?Richards,+Denise 720 Melissa Warburton http://imdb.com/Name?Ryder,+Winona 722 Charles Bing http://imdb.com/Name?Turner,+Kathleen 723 Richard Crosby http://imdb.com/Name?Oldman,+Gary 806 Eric http://imdb.com/Name?Penn,+Sean 809 Will Colbert http://imdb.com/Name?Pitt,+Brad 817 Parker http://imdb.com/Name?Baldwin,+Alec
Tennant Stuart
On Fri, 29 Mar 2002, Tennant Stuart stated this considered view. Waking from my doze, I hastily scrawled -
I've thought of creating such links on my website, but just haven't gotten round to it yet.
In fact, it really needs some serious renovation (lots of ancient CCA pics that have been there for years, for example), but it is just such an odious task that I keep putting it off! :)
In article , Paul Hyett wrote:
If I was bothered, I'd just write a routine to generate them.
You can't have too many CC pics!
Tennant
On Sat, 30 Mar 2002, Tennant Stuart stated this considered view. Waking from my doze, I hastily scrawled -
You can if your site is constantly 90%+ full! :)
That's why I can only keep vidcaps for any episode up there for about 3 weeks.
I assume you've seen that I've now posted vidcaps from S1:13-15 to my website?
In article , Paul Hyett wrote:
Eek!
Indeed.
I have now. Thanks very much. FR113P.JPG was *particularly* interesting!
Tennant
On Mon, 1 Apr 2002, Tennant Stuart stated this considered view. Waking from my doze, I hastily scrawled -
Aren't DVD vidcaps *so* much better than VCR ones! :)
BTW, I've done up to S1-19 now, and am looking forward to doing TOW the Ick Factor - remember Monica's bedroom scene with Ethan!
************************************************************************
Curious fact - my DVD vidcaps average 47K compared to 60K for VCR ones, despite them being the same size & resolution!
I can only ascribe this to the increased graininess of VCR pictures causing compression to be less efficient. I'm surprised it makes so much difference though.
In article , Paul Hyett wrote:
Yes, especially for showing up the background... ;)
Lol
That's the cause, though.
Tennant
On Mon, 1 Apr 2002, Tennant Stuart stated this considered view. Waking from my doze, I hastily scrawled -
I'll probably vidcap that soon, but it might be several months before it gets posted to my website.
How does JPEG compression work, anyhow?
In article , Paul Hyett wrote:
Okay.
Well, first of all the photograph is treated as three black & white images, one each for the red, green and blue colours. Then each image is split up into blocks, usually 16x16 pixels across. It's these little blocks that are actually compressed, so your 24-bit 1600x1200 colour vidcaps are actually converted to 22,500 images, each of them being 8-bit 16x16 monochrome.
Each little image is treated as a block of integers, which is passed through a fancy-schmancy equation called a Discrete Cosine Transform. I can give you the maths if you like, but in a nutshell, the light level for each pixel is split into a set of frequencies, arranged in a matrix.
You do this for each pixel, combining the intensities for each frequency in the rows & columns for the matrix, a bit like doing a Fourier analysis. If you know anything about calculating the sum of a series, you'll know that as you go along you can safely ignore the later numbers, because they're getting rather small, and won't make much difference to the result.
Now, the really clever thing is that for photographic images, most of the good bits that the human eye/brain responds to is in the lower frequencies that end up in the top left corner of the matrix, while the twiddly bits (which can be safely ignored) end up in the bottom right corner.
The numbers are then quantized, by dividing each number by its quantum, which just means how big a step you take. You start off with little steps and end up with big steps, and the bigger steps tend to turn the numbers into zeros. This is where information is lost, hence lossy compression.
The resulting numbers are run-length encoded, which is like saying that your name is spelt H-Y-E and two T's. That doesn't seem very good, but if it was HYEEEEETTTTTTTTT then 1H1Y5E9T would be a lot shorter.
Anyway, with the quantized numbers, they're run-length encoded starting up in the top left corner of the matrix, and then wiggling back & forth along the diagonals until you end up at the bottom right. This tends to put the numbers in a nice order, with lots of final zeros that compress very well. The numbers are then treated as pairs for binary encoding, written out to the file, and followed by an end-of-block marker.
Then it just does the other 22,499 blocks. Easy! :)
Tennant (who has *greatly* simplified, so no carping from experts.)
On Wed, 3 Apr 2002, Tennant Stuart stated this considered view. Waking from my doze, I hastily scrawled -
I've done that scene now - email me if you want advance pictures!
Nn thanks - the maths part of my brain has been killed by years of sitcom watching. :)
<Snip>
Thanks for this.
Tennant Stuart wrote:
IMDB actually shows this as episode 116.
Noah Wyle also appeared in this episode.
116 Dr. Jeffrey Rosen http://us.imdb.com/Name?Wyle,+Noah
e.
In article , "Eileen G. Downey" wrote:
Yeah, the IMDb is in error. Episodes 101-124 are wrongly numbered 100-123, (though typed as 1.0-1.23), and also 214-224 are wrongly numbered 213-223.
That's right Eileen (except that it was 117) but I was listing just the top twenty guest stars, and Wyle hasn't had Clooney's success.
Tennant
Tennant Stuart wrote:
That's what I get for not paying attention to the entire thread! :)
Thanks for clearing up the epi numbers, I didn't realize that IMDB had an issue there. But from what I'm gathering, IMDB has many issues... :)
e.
In article , "Eileen G. Downey" wrote:
Grin.
Yes, there are quite a few errors with guest appearances, because they're handled in a different way from other cast lists. Unfortunately attempts to correct them often makes them worse, with repeated entries.
Tennant
Tennant Stuart wrote:
I should know better than to take anything on the web at face value. That'll teach me!
Is it true that any random person can make an update to IMDB? It looks that way but I wasn't sure. If that's the case then it's no wonder there are so many errors.
e.
In article , "Eileen G. Downey" wrote:
Grin.
You must register, and the document setting out the rules for submitting an update is *several*thousand* lines long. Even then, it may well not be accepted by the people who maintain the various sections, or the database coordinator. But in the past this didn't stop little wars from breaking out over disputed data, such as the spelling of Rachel's surname.
Tennant
Tennant Stuart wrote:
Thanks, Tennant!
e.
In article , "Eileen G. Downey" wrote:
You're welcome, Eileen. :)
Tennant
On Wed, 3 Apr 2002, Eileen G. Downey stated this considered view. Waking from my doze, I hastily scrawled -
Yes.
I don't know what, if anything, they do in the way of verification though.
They'd missed out a guest appearance for Laura San Giacomo (the busty lead actress in Just Shoot Me), so I added it.
Tennant Stuart wrote in message news:...
Fisher Stevens 'TOW all the Boobies. But, like you said, depends on how big a star!
In article , [email] (Gateway) wrote:
Yes, he's not exactly in the same league as Pitt & Willis, is he?
Like I said, if you want to include everyone, that's over 600 names.
Tennant
Tennant Stuart wrote in message news:...
With that kind of criteria, who's Dina Meyer? I had to follow your link to find anything that she's done.
What about Chris Isaaks and Chryssie Hynde? They're big stars. Jason Alexander? He's got a Tony, was on the number 1 television show for years and has been in some big movies. And if you've got Billy Crystal and Robbin Williams then you should add Helen Hunt for her brief appearance. Tom Selleck isn't puff pastry either - was he considered a guest?