Talk:Numbers (TV series)

Mathnet

Has mathematics ever been used in a way similar to what is portrayed in this series? — B.Bryant 13:50, 12 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Mathnet is sorta like this. Using math to solve crime. It was on the PBS TV show Square One. Mathnet was a parody of "Dragnet". They were both set in LA too... --Weyoun6 02:04, 4 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not sure. What does the article overview imply? Does this article need spoilers/prefaces for each show? — Oracle 10:27, 18 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Characters

I've put the information about the characters in this article as there wasn't enough to warrant them having an article each. It also makes it easier for someone to find out all about the show on the one page. I've made redirects to here from the pages in case someone looks up the character not the show. --Chammy Koala 16:38, 30 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Errata

Do you think we ought to add some Errata? For instance, in episode 11, season 1, they describe a situation where an LCD is observed through radiation and records what is displayed. I'm pretty sure only CRT's can be spied on this way, and perhaps it would be good to fix some of the errors that naturally occur when science goes thru a hollywood screenwriter's hands. This is probably less important on a show that doesnt try to teach you science, but I think it would be a good idea. --Weyoun6 04:57, 6 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

TEMPEST includes a link to Electromagnetic Eavesdropping Risks of Flat-Panel Displays, which says, "Electromagnetic eavesdropping of computer displays – first demonstrated to the general public by van Eck in 1985 – is not restricted to cathode-ray tubes. Modern flat-panel displays can be at least as vulnerable."

—wwoods 18:32, 20 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

However, there are a number of occasions where Charlie is able to apply statistical methods to samples way too small to obtain any reliable conclusion (such as inferring a distribution law from just a couple of data points); the results obtained in image reconstruction are also usually a little too good (MEM image restoration is pretty amazing, but not almighty, and certainly can't obtain crystal-clear images from an original which consists only of electronic noise because the exposure was below the camera's CCD's threshold); and don't get me started on the references to quantum mechanics and general relativity which are then being applied to human behaviour, complex systems and the like. The scriptwriters quite clearly often skim only the buzzwords from their consultants' advice and give more importance to a gripping plot than mathematical exactness. So an errata section might be in order after all. 142.3.164.195 00:17, 15 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I would say that adding errata is fine, but it wants to be attached to the appropriate episode summary on the List of NUMB3RS episodes page, in a similar way to the trivia comments on some of the later episodes. A possible problem is the Wikipedia policy of no original research, however. Mike Peel 10:19, 15 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Another consideration, do we really want to nit-pick this much? Of course things aren't going to be exact and sample sizes will often be too small; the point of the show is to entertain, not necessarily textbook teach. If someone is interested in whatever concept is being discussed, they will researchon their own and reach a similar answer. --LadyShelley 19:26, 16 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

To Stub or Not To Stub?

AySz88 just added the stub designation for the episode list. Does it really qualify as a stub? After all, the title is "Episode List," not 'Episode Overviews' or 'Sysnoses', just a list of the episodes. (AySz88 lists the change as adding the stub sign to the "overviews"). Should it be changed/expanded? Or is the stub really necesary? (The Swami 01:35, 30 August 2005 (UTC))[reply]

Looking at the table, it looks to me like its maker intended the "Overview" column to be filled in by other users; thus, I marked it as such. Alternately, someone could go delete the column if such information is deemed unnecessary; however, other shows like First Monday have summaries. AySz88^-^ 00:07, August 31, 2005 (UTC)

Mmm, good point... alright, that makes sense. I agree, let's leave the stub. Thanks for bringing the last column to my attention. You are correct, it needs a stub. Thanks for tolerating my oversight (The Swami 02:27, 31 August 2005 (UTC))[reply]

Hi, I'm really new to this, sorry. I started adding Overviews but that made the table look pretty ugly. Is there a way to make the columns and text sit better? Also, I'd like to link to all the different math concepts that get mentioned in the episodes but that would make the overview really long. Is there a better way to do that?

Hey there, welcome! It looks fine to me, but I haven't had much experience with tables on Wikipedia. Go ahead and add your information and links, and I'm sure someone experienced with table formatting will come and help make it look better. :) AySz88^-^ 18:35, 5 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I've added back the section stub designation, as it looks rather odd now that the list of articles has been moved off to a seperate page. Ideally, I guess we could do with some sort of overview to the season - but Numb3rs doesn't really permit this, as it's a very episodic show. Any ideas? Mike Peel 23:10, 30 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Adding Math Concepts

I like the idea of adding the mathematical concepts used in each episode to the list of synopses. I wonder if there's any way to do this that wouldn't 'uglify' the page too much. Perhaps listing them under a "Related Mathematics:" section after each synopsis? Maybe a seperate list entirely? Any thoughts (The Swami 02:47, 7 October 2005 (UTC))[reply]

I also like the idea of linking in the mathematical concepts - but this is probably best done in line with the text rather than in specific sections. That way, visitors can see more easily how each concept fits in the with episode. Mike Peel 23:10, 30 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Citing Sources

I don't want to seem grumpy, but it would be nice if credit were given to my web site Running the NUMB3RS for some of the character and trivia information listed in this article. I've added a link in the Fan Site area, but still ... it's wiki etiquette to cite sources used. --LadyShelley 03:21, 7 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Since many people edit these articles, you may want to take a look at the article history and leave a message on the specific user's Talk page. If you find that information has been taken from your site, feel free to add citations! Thanks! AySz88^-^ 18:33, 5 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I have, unfortunately, most of the edits are made by anonymous editors, which means I only have an ISP to go by. The site is there to be used an referenced, I have no issue with the information being used, just that it needs to be noted where the information came from. --LadyShelley 21:46, 8 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

All of the information on the characters is derived from watching the show. The site aforementioned is not unique for information. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.253.120.206 (talk • contribs) 22:38, October 30, 2005 (UTC)

Well, there has been a lot of changes to the article since the above was posted.... And, ultimately, *all* the information is derived from the show, so chances are there'd be similarities anyway. AySz88^-^ 04:05, 31 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

If you feel a copyright infringement has been made on this article, you should post it at Wikipedia:Copyright issues so that proper action may be taken to remove any such infringement. Havok (T/C) 23:36, 31 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Fan Site Links

Why does the Numb3r Cruncher list link keep getting deleted? This is a legit list, it does exist; I've also checked the link and it works. --LadyShelley 23:16, 31 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia is not a repository for links. And adding a link to a group that has 300 members is more ego boosting then anything else. Havok (T/C) 23:33, 31 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

While this may be true, there were some good fan run sites listed in the fan section that supplemented the wiki article. (And I don't mean just mine, the SDKG site and the Peter MacNichol site are both fan run sites with good information.) How do you suggest these sites get listed? --LadyShelley 23:48, 31 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Ahh, Ok I read the notes for the main site about the actor pages, so we are back to what to do about fan-run sites that do offer legitimate information in compliment to the wiki articles. --LadyShelley 00:04, 1 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

The problem is not the links themselves, but more who decides which to keep and which to remove. We can not keep all of them. And yes, many fan sites offer substantial information and are well worth the mention, but again, who decides which one? In most cases it derives from which site is "notable"; in this instance it is more likely that someone will find the website www.numb3rs.org then www.yahoo.com/webpage/long/link/numb3rs_fan_club_wee/ Any thoughts about how to better conform to something like this? Havok (T/C) 00:14, 1 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

OK I think I see where you're going with this. Basically numbers.org is a repository site, with a few other goodies added on, but it also contains links to the yahoo lists and such there. Folks read the article here, follow the link to there and will theoretically find other Numb3rs sites that way. Gotcha. Thanks for the explanation. :-) --LadyShelley 00:34, 1 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Only happy to help. ;) Havok (T/C) 00:42, 1 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Pictures

Most of the pictures in the article are rather dark. Can anyone brighten them up, or maybe replace them with better ones? Sorry I cannot do this myself. Pelago 16:29, 31 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I wouldn't consider 2/16 to be "most" but I'll try and get to it. Goofyman 03:05, 10 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Split some of the characters off onto their own pages?

I'm getting the feeling that some of the characters, mainly Charlie, should be getting their own page sometime soon - his synopsis specifically is starting to get rather long. This would probably require a general rearrange of this page, though, and ideally additional content in some other sections of it, which I'm not too sure how to go about. Any suggestions? Mike Peel 23:10, 30 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Great minds I tell ya. I was thinking the same thing a couple of weeks ago. The article right now seems to be about the characters, not the show itself. If we split off the characters (at least Charlie, Don, and Alan and maybe have a new page for "supporting characters") What information could be added to the main Numb3rs article? --LadyShelley 19:05, 31 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I'm thinking of some sort of general overview to the show - the main background of it, describing what it's generally about, etc. Some of this content's already in the article, but entwined with the characters - for example, "Don is an FBI Special Agent who recruits his mathematical genius brother, Charlie Eppes, to help him and the Bureau solve some of their most difficult cases." So rather than having to read the character's bios, visitors would just read a general overview, with links off to characters and episodes for more in depth information. Mike Peel 12:06, 1 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I'd also suggest paring down the trivia section (this seems to be a dumping ground for just stuff as a competition to see who can update first from the latest episode. Not a good thing for the article) and checking if the external links really link to anything. I've been wandering through other TV show articles to find examples of things we might want to emulate. The West Wing has a good article. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation also seems to be good. Anyone else have an opinion on this? --LadyShelley 16:50, 1 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I've now gone ahead and made this change, as noone else provided their opinion. Charlie Eppes, Don Eppes, Alan Eppes and Larry Fleinhardt all have their own pages, and the rest are on Characters of NUMB3RS. I think that this article could be expanded a fair bit now, but ideally the only content that should be on it is that which relates to the show in general - that relating to specific characters should go on the characters pages, and that relating to individual episodes should go on the List of NUMB3RS episodes page. Mike Peel 22:31, 23 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Looks good. I went in and cleaned out the dead links. What do we do with the trivia section? It's just messy and a lot of it could be deleted or moved to character pages. Anyone have a problem with me going through a weeding? --LadyShelley 18:05, 24 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

My response would be "Please do". I did go through it and trim it a little, but I wasn't sure what to do with the bulk of it. Also, it seems that subsequently people have started adding the same old stuff onto the end of it (i.e. character-specific stuff).

Would it be worth removing the trivia section in its entirity, replacing it with a "Production notes" sort of thing, or merging the trivia content into the rest of the page? Mike Peel 19:48, 24 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

"Production Notes" might be a better solution, it would pare down a lot of what's there now. Let me fiddle and see what folks think, we can always revert and try something else. --LadyShelley 02:39, 26 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

OK take a gander. Most of the trivia stuff already existed either in the character pages or the actor bio pages, so it was deleted from the main article. The on going list of who did not appear is which episode, was getting to be too much and as the series continues will happen more and more, so those were just removed all together. The section has bee renamed "Production notes" and should just be used for production related info. On a side note, a link has been added for the ITV web page for the series, this needs to be added to the show template I think. --LadyShelley 03:03, 26 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It looks much better, methinks. I've removed the link to the ITV3 website, as it was just generically going to their website rather than anything NUMB3RS related. The ITV3 wikilink in the international broadcast dates section is sufficient for that. I think that the only remaining issue I have with the page is the lack of references - see Wikipedia:Citing_sources. I've added in the references structure, and when I get chance I'll try to fill in the missing ones. Mike Peel 10:43, 26 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

References

Number 5 regarding the Craftsman home probably came from my site. However I got it from an article written I think for the LA Times. I'll go back and check my info and add that one. (BTW how do you add info to the reference section? I click teh edit and get a practically empty page) --LadyShelley 21:10, 26 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yep here's the info

Arts and Crafts by the 'Numb3rs' by Christy Hobart, Special to The Times Los Angeles Times, Feb. 17, 2005

Problem is you have to pay I think to actually see the whole article on line, any indeas on how to link this? --LadyShelley 21:16, 26 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think that it matters whether or not the article is pay-per-view or anything, so long as the reference is present so that we know where the fact came from. From what I was reading, it doesn't even matter if a link in the references stops working - leaving it there if it can't be replaced with a working link means that people still know where the fact came from.

The references system is slightly odd. To add stuff to the references section, you need to edit the place where the reference occurs, putting the text in between the <ref name="reference_name"> and </ref> tags, probably using a Template:cite news or similar template. More info is on the Wikipedia:Citing_sources page. Mike Peel 22:22, 26 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I've added references for the Craftman home article and the link to Ed's web page. The MIT reference is from a comment one of the creators said on numbers.org forum and TWoP. I have no idea where those threads are now, or how we would reference them. --LadyShelley 18:10, 28 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

inspiration

Hi, just an anonymous lurker, but I thought the following might be of some use to the article: "THE NUMB3RS GUY Bill Nye the Science Guy has inspired lots of middle schoolers to take apart their clock radios. It turns out the PBS host has also inspired a couple of TV executives to try an experiment. The CBS drama Numb3rs, which stars Rob Morrow as an FBI agent and David Krumholtz as his crime-fighting mathematician brother, was sparked by a lecture Nye gave 10 years ago on the subject of turning kids on to math and science. Now the show's creators, husband and wife Nick Falacci and Cheryl Heuton, have enlisted their hero to guest-star Dec. 16 as an engineering professor from the fictional Cal Sci..." Source: TIME Magazine, 12-04-2005, "People" section written by Rebecca Winters Keegan http://www.time.com/time/archive/printout/0,23657,1137661,00.html

title in capital letters

i changed the title... to put capital letters in a title is out of... how to say it politically correctly? a logo can appear in the article though... kernitou talk 06:15, 7 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I was going to point out that the show's name is officially spelt with capital letters, and hence the use of capitals in the title of the page is justified, however it seems that there is a mix of the use of "NUMB3RS" and "Numb3rs" on the internet (there's even such a variation on the official webpage). Unless someone knows for definite that the title should be all capitals, then we should probably keep it in the 'new' lower case form. Mike Peel 09:31, 7 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Going off TV Guide, the show is written in all caps, the series name in the credits is in all caps as well. I can ask Nick and Cheryl for the official word if it's deemed necessary. --LadyShelley 01:18, 8 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Season Three

tv.com has the wrong start date. According to the upfronts info, Numb3rs is not moving from Friday nights (the 19th is a Tuesday). zap2it This is the CBS lineup for fall. We should remove that Sept 19 date I think.

--LadyShelley 01:32, 8 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

DVD Running Time

How is the first season DVD 43 minutes long? Shouldn't it be hours?

Never mind, I figured it out.

TI Math Initiative Added

I added a reference to the TI/NCTM outreach program based on the show, as a way of citing the usage of the concepts by teachers. My apologies for not saying so in the edit summary.--Braindrain0000 04:21, 24 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for doing so. There was an entry for the TI program in the Trivia, but it belongs more in the NUMB3RS and Mathematics section than the trivia section, so I've merged it with your reference. Mike Peel 06:54, 24 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Would it be better to have the in-text link on the name point to the official page or the internal stub? --Braindrain0000 00:41, 25 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I'd say the offical page, I really don't think there's a whole lot to add to the stub article. (It might be worthy of deletion all together, there's just not much really write an article.) --LadyShelley 04:24, 25 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The closest 'official' answer to this that I can find is from the Wikipedia:Manual of Style (links), which says that "You should not add a descriptive title to an embedded HTML link within an article" (see Link titles). As long as we have an article on it, I'd say link to that. If we did not have an article on it, I'd put the link to the website in the External Links section. Mike Peel 06:50, 25 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Merge in List of NUMB3RS episodes?

Following up from Ladida's edits, I think that it would be best to replace the 'Episodes and DVD releases' section with the content of List of NUMB3RS episodes pretty much as it stands. My reasons for suggesting this are as follows:

There isn't enough content at the moment to justify two pages
It would reduce duplication of the same information
The information at the list page would probably be better suited being on this page

What do y'all think? --Mike Peel 14:41, 1 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Since the List of NUMB3RS episodes page isn't actually a list of NUMB3RS episodes (it links to the subpages NUMB3RS (Season 1) and NUMB3RS (Season 2)), I'd go along with this idea. --ScottAlanHill 18:46, 1 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]