this new listing is poor. It's a TV series, sure, but would much more appropriately list as a TV movie. Italians regularly put out TV movies in 1-hour installments and then released them later all-put-together. If they're going to have it listed by-episode then there should be more than one.
Also, all the user comments are gone and the cast list is fragmented.
Agreed! It looks quite bad now. While I understand the point of adding episodes to TV series, I think doing this with mini series' is rather a bad idea - particularly with an international co-production like MARCO POLO because the amount of episodes varies from country to country, as does the length of each episode. The US version originally had 4 episodes but is often aired as 6. When it first aired in Germany it was also in 6 parts but the Italian version actually consists of 8 episodes. The international versions are all abridged and missing *lots* of footage found in the Italian version but even the Italian version is missing some footage from the international version (including Tad Horino's performance as 'The Immortal'). Cast listing is different too; with the Italian version listing tons of actors who are uncredited in English language versions but still missing a few minor parts that *do* get credited in the English versions. The English credits list some of the big names (like Anne Bancroft and John Gielgud etc) in the episodes that they don't actually appear in too but the Italian credits only credit them in the episodes they actually appear in. Unfortunately, the names of most of the Asian actors are terribly mis-spelled in the Italian credits.
In any case, Episode 1 of the US version does not in any way correspon to Episode 1 of the Italian version, so how does one go about adding specific episode cast lists to this series? I suppose the best thing would be to add the 8 Italian episodes with comprehensive episode cast lists and then add additional cast information from the international versions. Still, where does one put Tad Horino then since he isn't present at all in the Italian version? Also, the Italian episodes aired from December 1982 to January 1983, whereas the US version aired in May. Should the episode listing reflect the earliest released version or not? Really... it would have been much, much better to not have episode listings for mini series' at all.
I totally agree with you, so how do we go about fixing that and/or sending what you just posted to the IMDB powers that be?
The English credits omit a few of the actors as well - like Franco Fantasia (as usual) but also a few bigger names like Vladek Sheybal.
Sadly, I don't really think the IMDb guys care. I just went ahead and added the 8 Italian episodes plus cast information. It ain't perfect but it will at least be an improvement on how it currently looks...
Franco Fantasia is actually credited in the Italian cast list but Vladek Sheybal is curiously uncredited even though his part is certainly large enough to warrant an on-screen credit. John Karlsen, too, is uncredited in the English version.
who did John Karlsen play?
Was he an English language VO dubber? I see his name pop up in every credit list alongside the same troupe of other expatriate U.S. actors / dubbers in Italy at the time; Mickey Knox, Russel Case, Larry Dolgin, etc.
John Karlsen is the old white-haired priest-judge at the end. It's a pretty small part. I really like Karlsen. He's had a pretty amazing career and been in a lot of movies (often uncredited). The funniest thing about him is that he seems to have always looked exactly the same. The earliest film I've seen him in is Fellini's 8 1/2 (1960), and he looked just as old then as he did in 1982, even though he was only around 40 at the time.
I don't know if he was a dubber, though, but I think chances are good that he indeed have done some dubbing work.