On or in a TV show

[Oflick]

A basic question I've been wondering for the past 30 seconds (someone changed the wording in a wikipedia article I watch): Does someone appear "on" a TV show, or do they appear "in" a TV Show? For example, did Alyson Hannigan appear in Buffy, or did she appear on Buffy?

I always thought "on", but occasioanlly I hear "in". Are both acceptable?

[Microscopic cog]

I don't know, but I'd say you see something on tv, but if you're talking about a charactar, you will see the character in the tv show.

I saw Alyson Hannigan on TV.
Alyson Hannigan appeared in Buffy.

[gmalivuk]

"on TV" is far more common than "in TV", to the point where I'd tend to say the latter is ungrammatical.

"on a TV show" is also more common than "in a TV show", but not by as high a margin, and so I'd say the latter is an accepted but less common variant.

(If someone has the motivation to run a search of the BYU corpus with a list of specific TV shows to see if the grammar changes with that change, go right ahead.)

[Pez Dispens3r]

Perhaps "in TV" implies an involvement in the industry where "on TV" implies an appearance on a show?

I think this holds, but not with the OP's sentence structure. It's, "I work in TV". To some extent, though, I think it's a porous division.

[Derek]

I think you always appear in a movie, but usually on a TV show.

[PM 2Ring]

I don't know, but I'd say you see something on tv, but if you're talking about a charactar, you will see the character in the tv show.

I saw Alyson Hannigan on TV.
Alyson Hannigan appeared in Buffy.

I like this usage.

* tries to resist temptation, and fails *

Sex on TV makes me uncomfortable, especially when I get poked in the eye by the aerial.

[Sizik]

The way I'd understand (or say) it, someone being "in a TV show" implies they played a character, while being "on a TV show" would mean that they're appearing as themselves, and mostly applies to shows that frequently have guests (talk shows, SNL, etc.).

[AvatarIII]

The way I'd understand (or say) it, someone being "in a TV show" implies they played a character, while being "on a TV show" would mean that they're appearing as themselves, and mostly applies to shows that frequently have guests (talk shows, SNL, etc.).

yeah i agree with this. it seems to make sense,

[Anonymously Famous]

"On" seems more correct to me, but I have absolutely nothing aside from personal preference to back it up.

[Felstaff]

After Ken Jennings appeared on the TV show Jeopardy! as a contestant, he had a brief cameo in the TV show Two and a Half Men as an inquisitive post-man.

Just my personal preference. A person appears on a show, a character appears in one.

NB: Ken Jennings has never appeared in the TV show Two and a Half Men. It's a trick called 'lying', which I learned during my time as Dr. Drake Ramoray in the TV show Days of Our Lives, and as panel host Stephen Fry on the TV show Q.I.

[Rodion Raskolnikov]

After Ken Jennings appeared on the TV show Jeopardy! as a contestant, he had a brief cameo in the TV show Two and a Half Men as an inquisitive post-man.

I've never seen "postman" hyphenated before. Conjurns up an image of some kind of highly evolved after-human being that has travelled back in time to make an appearance on Two and a Half Men.

[gmalivuk]

Conjurns up an image of some kind of highly evolved after-human being that has travelled back in time to make an appearance on Two and a Half Men.

Precisely.

[AvatarIII]

After Ken Jennings appeared on the TV show Jeopardy! as a contestant, he had a brief cameo in the TV show Two and a Half Men as an inquisitive post-man.

I've never seen "postman" hyphenated before. Conjurns up an image of some kind of highly evolved after-human being that has travelled back in time to make an appearance on Two and a Half Men.

intestingly the term posthuman has optional hyphenation but is listed in wikipedia without the hyphen, post-man is obviously not PC enough for these days.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posthuman

A posthuman or post-human is a concept originating notably in the fields of science fiction, futurology, contemporary art, and philosophy. These multiple and interactive origins have contributed to profound confusion over the similarities and differences between the posthuman of "posthumanism" and the posthuman of "transhumanism".

[Oflick]

The way I'd understand (or say) it, someone being "in a TV show" implies they played a character, while being "on a TV show" would mean that they're appearing as themselves, and mostly applies to shows that frequently have guests (talk shows, SNL, etc.).

This one makes sense to me.

Though, I'm actually starting to think using "in" to imply a regular appearance, and "on" to imply a guest appearance. I don't know, that also seems to make sense to me in a weird way.

[Sean Quixote]

Spoiler:

After Ken Jennings appeared on the TV show Jeopardy! as a contestant, he had a brief cameo in the TV show Two and a Half Men as an inquisitive post-man.

I've never seen "postman" hyphenated before. Conjurns up an image of some kind of highly evolved after-human being that has travelled back in time to make an appearance on Two and a Half Men.

intestingly the term posthuman has optional hyphenation but is listed in wikipedia without the hyphen, post-man is obviously not PC enough for these days.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posthuman

A posthuman or post-human is a concept originating notably in the fields of science fiction, futurology, contemporary art, and philosophy. These multiple and interactive origins have contributed to profound confusion over the similarities and differences between the posthuman of "posthumanism" and the posthuman of "transhumanism".

And here I was, conjuring up this image...

I like to think that I would treat "on versus in" the same way in almost any situation. The following sentence for example: If I log on Facebook in Firefox, I'm obviously not at my normal computer.

I wanted to say that they're pretty much interchangeable, but perhaps that should be an exclusive or...

[Oflick]

If I log on Facebook in Firefox, I'm obviously not at my normal computer.

Sorry, but I'm not entirely sure what you're trying to say. Why are you obviously not at your normal computer?

[gmalivuk]

If you think you always use them the same way in any situation, why do you read something in a book but on the internet?

[Aiwendil]

Because I had to open the book and look at its insides to read it. If I learned something from reading the back cover, for instance, I'd say I read it on the cover.

But you are quite right that in many cases the use of one preposition or another is a matter of convention. Maybe a better example is that one is 'in' a country or a city but 'on' an island or a continent. Or even more pointedly, something is 'in' the world but 'on' the earth. (For that matter, H.G. Wells wrote about the first men 'in' the moon but nowadays we'd speak of them being 'on' it).

[Sean Quixote]

If I log on Facebook in Firefox, I'm obviously not at my normal computer.

Sorry, but I'm not entirely sure what you're trying to say. Why are you obviously not at your normal computer?

Because my preferred browser is Opera, therefore I must be either at the library or a friend's house.