Timeline

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yardgames

Retired Administrator
It hasn't changed too much since then. David encoded the original, maybe he did something different. Once I'm finished messing with it after season 6, I can have him encode it a second time, but for now, you're not missing too much. It's difficult to plot a season before the entire season airs anyhow.
 
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yardgames

Retired Administrator
Appanah, I looked long and hard into your suggestions. As it is, Kitty's Back is just one of those odd things that they do that we need to ignore because there is no way around it.

Kitty's Back cannot be made earlier because Pearl Harbor, (which must happen on or around December 5) comes prior to it.

I tried shuffling things on the other end, therefore. I decided to move Jamie's birthday to December. This moved Grandma Sues and a couple of minor changes to April, which didn't make much of a difference, except nothing happened from January to April, which isn't a rare string. But where it got messy is trying to move the Baby series to December. See, that meant having to move Vegas, Watching the Baby, Good-Bye Kitty, and Thanksgiving. The big deal there is obviously Thanksgiving, which happened on Thanksgiving, which is never in December. Therefore, Jamie's birthday couldn't be moved to December. (Not to mention the dance in Watching the Baby is a fall dance.)

Thanks for the observation, though.
 
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yardgames

Retired Administrator
I'm not going to upload a new timeline this week, because it hasn't changed much, and some people are having some issues viewing it. I attempted to make a major change in response to a suggestion from Appanah, but it really just made a mess and proved quite impossible, so I abandoned it.

For those of you who have had issues, Billboard took place in April, and there was then a large gap that spanned the summer. Reese turned 18 in July, and Dewey's Opera and Living Will were both in September; also at which time, Dewey turned twelve and Jamie turned two.

In Tiki Lounge, Dewey states that Jamie "isn't even two!" which implies that, although he's not two, he is close. Therefore, it's necessary to keep Tiki Lounge before his birthday, but not necessarily a long time before his birthday. I've placed Tiki Lounge in September.

Another important development: According to my timeline, theoretically, beginning with Dewey's Opera, Dewey is now in sixth grade; Malcolm is now a senior, and Reese graduated in May.

Because Reese has graduated already, he probably wouldn't stick around home, but I don't know if we'll have an ep where he leaves and/or graduates. For right now, I don't think we can make any type of assumption like that, but bear in mind that this timeline will need to change dramatically by the end of season six, because, to put it graphically, Reese should be graduating in June, 2005.

As I've said, it's proving difficult to plot a season in progress, simply because we don't get enough information from any one given episode; it's much easier to compile the information from several episodes. Believe it or not, there's only six ep's left this season, so once they're done, I'll change a variety of items on the timelnie.

Thanks for your continued feedback.
 
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yardgames

Retired Administrator
Well, with season six done, I resurrected the timeline file and completed it to the best of my ability. There are a few kinks, but there are major changes sicne the last version I've published. Namely, every episode until Buseys Take a Hostage must be before June. We had no telltale signs before that episode, but in June, we find out Reese flunks his finals, which (in the US) happens in June. This created a bit of a log jam of episodes surrounding spring break. In order to make it work, Hal and Lois had to celebrate their anniversary a month and a half earlier for some reason, and Chad's Sleepover is a Friday night at the end of March; No Motorcycles is that weekend. That makes wya for Butterflies over spring break the first week in April.

I've changed Lois' age to be two years old, reflecting the argument she had with Hal. Other episodes that make little reference to timing were placed sporadically between December (Hal's Christmas Gift) and March (figuring, Billboard had to be early March; wherever the imaginary place is where the Wilkersons live, February seems a bit cool for that sort of thing yet.)

Anyway, if anyone has a better solution for the six episodes really logjammed together during March and April, let me know. The primary thing I have been unable to accomplish is getting Lois Battles Jamie closer to the anniversary. Remember, the episodes need to remain in their original air order on the timeline.

One final note: Before saying the file doesn't work, try it with the latest version of Internet Explorer. Browsers like Firefox may have problems rendering it. If it still doesn't work, I'll ask David very nicely to do whatever he did the first time that made it very compatible.
 
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yardgames

Retired Administrator
It's a good idea, although I don't have as much of that information readily available. I think the question that would have to be asked in this point is whether it would make things more or less difficult to plot on the timeline.
 
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yardgames

Retired Administrator
Thanks, and welcome to the forums.

Initially, I worked a couple of hours on it, I worked on it one season at a time, then put it together and adjusted it so everything worked out. Then I needed to improve it during the course of season six.
 
tjpeople

tjpeople

Site Administrator
Staff member
Long Time No See this thread. But if you aint too busy Sam, you might wanna update it. Just thoguth about it when thinking about last episode spolier.

I could do it but id be rubbish, aint very good at the remembering loads of stuff thing.
 
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yardgames

Retired Administrator
Actually, I've been updating it, I just haven't posted it for awhile. There were a couple of major things in Hal Grieves I need to take into account when I have time. It could, in fact, change the entire timeline.
 
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Deleted member 1693

Guest
Oh, man... What a marvel. I still can't get over how much of a fan and how focused you must be to complete something like this!
 
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AlexTheMartian

New member
yardgames said:
Hendrix, thanks for the correction. I looked into it, and unfortunately, it's not completely meant to work out. The writers don't think about it that hard so it's not all going to work out. If I move Cynthia's Back to March, then Company Picnic would have to be in March as well, and I really don't think one could have a picnic--in which the leaves are green, I might add--in March...regardless of where they live. Even April is a bit of a stretch there.

We just have to pretend maybe he meant it was or just ignore it because, as I said, it's not going to fit otgether perfectly.

Thanks for your reply.

The version I've attached includes Malcolm's Car. From what I could see, there's really no evidence that shows much of anything about timing, other than the clothing is still spring-like, so I've decided to keep Malcolm's Car in April for now. Let me know if you saw clues I didn't.

Admin, I saved it as an htm file this time, but it didn't turn out as pretty as when you did it. Did you manually put each season on a new line? That's really handy. Anyway, here's the updated version. I'd be thrilled to continue to hear your feedback.
Click to expand...

Ok, I know this above reply is over 3 years old, but I must question into the possibility of ruling out months due to the trees/leaves looks.

The above reply states "I really don't think one could have a picnic--in which the leaves are green, I might add--in March...regardless of where they live."

I live in the same city the majority of the filming takes place, and no matter what you say about the location the fictional family lives, the on-location filming takes place at REAL locations. There are many places in the United States where there is mostly green plants in March. Right now we are in Apirl, and every tree around me in Los Angeles is vibrantly green and have been that way for a month or even more. It does not snow here, and I never seen it go bellow 50F where I live, so the majority of trees here are not ones that usually will have leaves fall. However some of them might turn autumn colors and have leave falls, but by March all of those are turned green again.

This picnic was just an example I picked, but I would like to know if other dates have been shifted becuase it has been overlooked that the family most likely lives in the southern half of the U.S. and therefore winter would not cause that big of a difference in the looks of trees. For example, in Los Angeles, the climates of March and May can be very similar.
 
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yardgames

Retired Administrator
There were a number of factors that went into the final timeline (which that post doesn't refer to by the way, but a much earlier copy) and each of those factors were weighted in importance. I had to consider the weather. I mean, Buseys Take a Hostage couldn't have happened in July because Dewey was dreaming for a snow day, and spring break eps like Jury Duty and Butterflies have to happen in spring. In future revisions, though, actual weather like whether one would have a picnic in January were weighted less than the other factors.
 
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