Template talk:TCMDb title

Links only work in limited regions

For many people, clicking the links produced by this template is a waste of time, because these links only work in limited regions of the world. Can we update the template to flag this issue, similar to the subscription required template?

• The links produced by this template do not work for many people
• In large parts of the world, these links redirect to https://www.tcm.com/unavailable
• In these cases, the TCM page can take long to render (10 seconds +)
• The TCM page just says "Not Available – Oh no! Turner Classic Movies isn't available in your region"
• This redirect appears to depend on location, as derived from IP address
• The output produced by the template does not flag this issue

Superp (talk) 08:52, 11 October 2021 (UTC)

Template-protected edit request on 11 September 2025

Please change
[[Turner Classic Movies|TCM Movie Database]]
to
[[Turner Classic Movies#TCM Movie Database (2006–2019)|TCM Movie Database]]
so it's a direct link. Blippy1998 (talk) 14:52, 11 September 2025 (UTC)

 Done. I used an anchor instead of the current heading, the latter of which might change. – Jonesey95 (talk) 14:56, 11 September 2025 (UTC)

Template-protected edit request on 14 January 2026

Prefix line 2 URL https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/ with https://web.archive.org/web/*/

Based on result of discussion to keep as an archived link from recent December 2025 TFD Chchowmein (talk) 02:06, 14 January 2026 (UTC)

Done. Izno (talk) 23:23, 14 January 2026 (UTC)

TCMDb links are no longer active

Yesterday, TCM announced they have updated their homepage to improve user accessibility. Unfortunately, it erased the database links and all those links now redirect to the updated homepage. There's no telling if TCM will restore those links but they are officially dead for now. Only a few of them such as Casablanca have been archived. PrinceArchelaus (talk) 01:39, 19 November 2025 (UTC)

Woof. Improve accessibility my butt! Is there a way to somehow have this template work via archive.org within the template? Because otherwise, I don't see much of its use anymore if the site is just gone. :/ Andrzejbanas (talk) 15:35, 5 December 2025 (UTC)

In my eyes, it's not too intuitive to have the template deal with looking at Wayback to find a viable archive. That should be done on an individual basis to A) see if the old page was even archived, and B) find a "proper" archive if they exist. For example with Casablanca, if you just go to the Wayback here without specifying a specific archive date, the latest archive comes back with a "403 Forbidden" error. So not easily solvable. - Favre1fan93 (talk) 16:46, 5 December 2025 (UTC)

That's unfortunate. I think we'll have to grasp the scope of how much is actually lost and see what the viability of this kind of short-cut link is anymore. The Turner Classic Films site had a lot material linked to it across film articles. I'll report it on the talk page of WP:FILM too just to have it get some more notice out. Andrzejbanas (talk) 14:34, 8 December 2025 (UTC)

I am the bot operator that does kind of URL work. A bot request was made today at Wikipedia:Link_rot/URL_change_requests#I_can_fix_TM:TCMDb. I will follow up with a course of action there, in case anyone wants to participate. -- GreenC 22:32, 12 December 2025 (UTC)

The above discussion was archived at Wikipedia:Link rot/URL change requests/Archives/2025/December#TM:TCMDb. --Guy Macon (talk) 14:53, 11 April 2026 (UTC)

Per Wikipedia:Help desk#Template:TCMDb title I am asking that the documentation to this template be changed to reflect the November 2025 changes documented at Turner Classic Movies#TCMdb.

In particular, the instructions "Visit the TCM Movie Database. In the keyword search field, type in the title you want to link to, and click 'Search' " no longer work because the database no longer exists. Obvious search terms such as "Serenity", "Cliffhanger" and "Saving Christmas" no longer bring up anything useful. "Screaming Eagles" and "Cocoanuts" bring up articles, but not the original database entries that the editors who applied the template originally linked to.

Having the template send the reader to an archived copy of the actual database entry would be a Good Thing of it worked, but the examples on the template documentation page for Screaming Eagles don't do that. They lead (not directly; after you pick a snapshot and click on it) to a different article about the same film, not an archived copy of the original database entry. --Guy Macon (talk) 14:53, 11 April 2026 (UTC)

A Good Thing:

(example: The Canary Murder Case id=70163) :

send to https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/70163/*

or to an explanatory page with , similar to GeoHack

TCMDb has original content articles, the only information unique to Turner Classic Movies, the outsourced metadata was from Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide, and later from AFI Catalog of Feature Films and should be cited separately.

Xo4v (talk) 19:58, 15 April 2026 (UTC)

new TCMDB

http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/3822/More-Than-a-Secretary

now

https://www.tcm.com/watchtcm/titles/3822

find articles:

search: More-Than-a-Secretary site:www.tcm.com/articles

find: https://www.tcm.com/articles/150877/more-than-a-secretary

Xo4v (talk) 21:11, 2 May 2026 (UTC)

Out of the Blue (1947 film) :

https://web.archive.org/web/20101220000046/http://tcmuk.tv/movie_database_results.php?action=title&id=85961

https://web.archive.org/web/20241215152551*/http://www.tcm.com:80/tcmdb/title/85961/Out-of-the-Blue/

Xo4v (talk) 09:36, 6 June 2026 (UTC)

The Third Man at the TCM Movie Database (archived) TCMDb title|92904|The Third Man

Fix is:

https://www.tcm.com/watchtcm/titles/92904

https://web.archive.org/web/20180916100223/http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/92904/The-Third-Man/articles.html

Xo4v (talk) 20:34, 18 June 2026 (UTC)