[WikiEN-l] Episode summaries

[ScottL]

Oldak Quill wrote:
> On 17/10/06, Chris Picone <ccool2ax at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Sorry, I'm new to mailing lists, so bear with me. I am user Ccool2ax
>> on English WIkipedia (too lazy to link), and I've noticed in the past
>> that many "Episode summaries", plot summaries of TV shows, have
>> absolutely no sources. They are completely OR. Family Guy, the
>> Simpsons, Lost, all of them have no sources! Every time I bring up
>> discussion I get "The episode is teh reference!" as a reply. I'm here
>> to ask you guys what we should do about these thousands and thousands
>> of OR articles? So far, all there is is WP:EPISODE (again too lazy to
>> link), a small essay saying that episode summaries need sources. What
>> should we do?
> 
> 
> The episode is a source, the problem is whether we should be using primary
> sources like this.

   "Like this"?  He has described a behavior that is vague enough that 
it could be totally appropriate use of the episode as a source or not. 
Shows like books are perfectly good sources for the facts of the events 
they contain.  The problem is when we wonder into the area of literary 
criticism, in that case the episode or book is not a valid source for 
the simple fact that it does not verify the criticism.

SKL