In order to qualify for addition to the Specials section of a television series, the video in question must have either aired on television or have been streamed on the official series website or network website. The only exceptions to this are pilots and episodes that weren't aired for various reasons, including but not limited to: series cancellation, being banned due to content.

All other content such as extras on DVDs which are not part of the storyline (bloopers, makings of, deleted scenes, cast interviews, etc.) DO NOT belong on here UNLESS they aired on television or were streamed on the official series website. Director’s cuts of individual episodes are also not allowed, however, exceptions may be made in strange cases.

Allowed: Aired or officially streamed special content (such as webisodes), pilots, unaired episodes, cast interviews or making-ofs. This includes OVAs/side stories/re-tellings/recap episodes (if unnumbered or numbered with a decimal such as 4.5)/etc. for anime.

Not Allowed: Director's/Extended Cuts and DVD style extras such as: trailers, bloopers,  deleted scenes. Cast interviews or making-ofs made available only on DVD are not allowed.
Also not permitted are compilations of seasons merging every episode into one long video featuring little to no changes (i.e. 2003’s Star Wars: Clone Wars).

Related Movies: Movies that continue the arc of a show should no longer be added as Specials. They should be added to our movies section. Movies that had been previously added will remain for now. The ability to link movies to a series is forthcoming at which point historical records will be removed.

Movie vs. Special?

As of November 13, 2019 — the date when we introduced movies to TheTVDB — movies should no longer be added to a series in the specials season. Any feature-length movie related to a series should be added as its own movie entry on the site. Please refer to our movie guidelines for definition of a movie.

Even if a series-related movie was released before the November 13, 2019 date, it still should not be added to a series if it does not exist now. 

Of course, there were some movies that were added as specials to a series prior to this date. We have decided to grandfather these specials in and allow them, and also allow these specials to be added as movie records.

Some examples that currently exist on the site:

• Friends: The Reunion: This was deemed as a movie because it was feature-length and was not simply a cast interview. It was not added to the specials season of Friends.
• The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Reunion: This was deemed as a movie because it was feature-length and was not simply a cast interview. It was previously added to the specials season of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, but we have decided to delete it due to this policy.
• Breaking Bad: El Camino: This was easily identified as a movie, and added as one. But since it was added to the specials season of Breaking Bad before the 11/13/19 date, we've allowed it to exist both there and as a movie.

Ideally, the way we'd do this is introduce the ability to link a movie entry to a special episode of a series. But since we don't have this ability yet, we will use the above guidelines to determine how series-related movies should be added to the site.

**Additionally, we encourage everyone to use the “Before” and “After” fields for each special episode to denote where a special falls chronologically and story-wise. This can be found after you create a special, and then click "Edit Episode."

NEW MAY 2020 — You are now able to denote whether a special falls within a series storyline or not. When editing a Special, look for the section called Special is Critical to Show's Story — then select Yes or No from the drop-down menu.