The significance of billing order

[Formerly Known as FKAJ]

By my count, there are four orders that actors can be billed in an opening credit sequence:

1: Alphabetically: The case with Lost, Heroes and a few other shows. This is normally applied to large ensemble casts of which there is no real star, and are usually run over opening scenes instead of within an opening credit sequence. Showss that used an opening sequence and alphabetical billing included Dallas, Melrose Place and Sea Patrol. The exception is a show which uses a sequence which starts with the star and lists others alphabetically instead of in order of importance, such as All Saints and Star Trek DS9.

2: In order of arrival: The case with 90210, CSI, ER, Blue Heelers, etc. Although this tends to start as one of the others and becomes this as characters come and go.

3: Random order: headLand is the only obvious one I can think of for this, although I suppose Neighbours and Home and Away (the 2007-2008 version, especially) qualify, to some extent.

4: An order which actually tells you something about the show. The original Law and Order would be a great example of this, as it always goes: Snr Detective, Jnr Detective, Captain/Lieutenant, EADA, ADA, DA.

OK, this is a subject I've put way too much thought into. My preference is for number 4 which it makes it kind of disappointing, when a show switches to the less creative number 2. Alphabetical order works fine when it's a big cast like Lost, but it's annoying in ones like Star Trek and Sea Patrol when the obvious choice would seem to be to list the cast by the rank of their characters.

Any thoughts?

[DinerLandlord]

A lot of show have done away with big opening sequences in the past decade, so you don't tend to notice this as much. I associate opening sequences with 90's show mostly. It's strange how Friends was done. None of the actors were well known, so they just listed them alphabetically, which conveniently ordered them into the three girls followed by the three guys. I wonder if they made a new episode of Friends today how would it be done. Obviously Jennifer Aniston would get top billing, but I reckon the other actors would all battle over who gets put second.

I personally like number 4 best. For example Buffy. It was always Buffy followed by the other characters in order of importance to the show with the exception of the final character. Giles, and later Willow, were at the end signifying that they were actually the second most important characters. They did that with CSI as well. Grissom, then Catherine etc, with Jim Brass at the end.

They also did that with H&A between 2004 and 2006. Sally was always at the beginning with either Flynn or Alf, followed by the rest of the cast, with quite important characters at the end, like Hayley, or Peter or Dan and Leah.

[Danni02]

The order they appeared in that episode. Im sure that happens in some shows.

[Red Ranger 1]

It happens on closing sequences but not on opening sequences since it changes every week.ITV use it for shows like Heartbeat and their two soaps.They used to use a similar system on Casualty and Holby City but now Casualty uses a rather random system for the regulars which seems to be based on their prominence in the episode.They have something similar on EastEnders, when the characters who had the cliffhanger are always listed first.(Holby City recently started using an American-style "regular credits at the start" system.I did once come up with a complicated system for listing ten Casualty regulars, based on seniority and longevity, but if they follow suit they'll probably just list all of them.)

Home and Away uses the "order of debut" system for the closing credits these days.(Or rather "length of current stint", so Colleen after Irene ignoring her '80s appearances, Aden after Rachel, Belle, Annie and Geoff ignoring his 2005 stint.)

I think if you've got a large ensemble cast, where no-one is more important than anyone else, alphabetical order works best.Using rank would be a bit misleading on a show like Star Trek:Voyager, where the lesser ranked characters like the Doctor and Seven tended to have the biggest parts. Prominence works best on a show where there isn't much room for debate like Buffy.

[emmasi]

I think that alphabetical is fair for a large cast, especially when there are episodes where not everyone appears. I like that I can watch Heroes and know that if I don't see my favourite actors in their designated spots, I can cease getting my hopes up.

Gilmore Girls is the most interesting credit arrangement that I've seen. It pretty much goes in order of importance, starting with Lorelai and Rory, then it shows the recurring characters that will be starring in the episode. But if they're not in the episode, they don't get shown, so once again you know from the start whether your hopes should be up or not. The thing on Gilmore Girls that gets weird after a while is the way that Richard is credited, as "a very special guest appearance," as if he's not in it almost every episode... I assume it's out of respect for the actor because I guess he's been around for a long time and it's impressive to have him being a regular on a humble little TV series, but it still strikes me as odd.

I never really liked Alison Hannigan getting the last frame of the Buffy credits either. Giles was Giles. He didn't exactly fit in with the teen crowd, so it made sense to have him at the end, like he's just watching over the rest of them from a distance, but we all know that they'd be doomed without him, and so it's made to feel extra important that he's there. Willow was never that kind of character. If anything, she got less important by the time Giles left. It probably would have made more sense to put Dawn as the final character, to once again illustrate that she didn't quite fit in with the rest of the group, but her being there was still important. Not as important as Giles, obviously, but hey, she's a centuries old Key to a Hell dimension. That's gotta count for something, right?

[c120701]

Neighbours used to rotate their closing credit order in family blocks, so that each family would get a chance at being credited first, they would also rotate within their family. These days each character (although it seems to exclude children) gets a chance at first billing, so whoever is last one week is first the next.

[Barbara]

Gilmore Girls is the most interesting credit arrangement that I've seen. It pretty much goes in order of importance, starting with Lorelai and Rory, then it shows the recurring characters that will be starring in the episode. But if they're not in the episode, they don't get shown, so once again you know from the start whether your hopes should be up or not. The thing on Gilmore Girls that gets weird after a while is the way that Richard is credited, as "a very special guest appearance," as if he's not in it almost every episode... I assume it's out of respect for the actor because I guess he's been around for a long time and it's impressive to have him being a regular on a humble little TV series, but it still strikes me as odd.

I'm pretty sure the Gilmore Girls credit stays the same all the time. Luke, Sookie, Michel, Lane, Emily and Richard are always in the credits even when they're not in the episode. The credits change from season to season when some characters are added or deleted like Dean, Kirk, Jess, Logan etc. Unless the credits are different in Australia.

I've always found it a bit strange the way they always credit Richard as "a very special guest appearance". Okay, he doesn't appear in every episode (there are quite a few episodes where Lorelai and Rory only have dinner with Emily because Richard is on a business trip) and Edward Herrmann has a pretty big resume but still, it's odd.

[emmasi]

Hm. It's just the way I've noticed it on the Arena reruns. I think that Loralai and Rory are credited no matter what, and I assume they're in every episode anyway, but I'm sure that Dean and Jess got added and taken out, depending on whether or not they were in the actual episodes, because I used to watch the credits to see if they were in it, and if they weren't, I was disappointed.

[alexx]

In the 80's and 90's Home and Away's credits always featured the Fletcher/Ross's first then went on from there, usually the Stewarts and so on.

The Flying Doctors did cast who were the longest serving first.

[-g-l-a-m-o-r-ous-]

In Fair City they normally just credit those who appeared on the episode in the order they appeared in.