I have extended the Heartbreak High Timelines concept to cover a few other shows. The backend code was converted from Perl to PHP, whilst the frontend did not change much.
The main impediment was finding the source data - lists of shows' cast members and when they were on. The Internet Movie Database proved to contain some useful, though by no means complete, information. I then put the project on hold while I worked out whether I was actually allowed to use their data.
After some emails to their licensing bots I eventually got directed to their Can I use IMDb data in my software? page. This says, in essence:
1. Obey their conditions of use
2. Don't grab the data dynamically
3. "The data can only be used for personal and non-commercial use and must not be altered/republished/resold/repurposed to create any kind of online/offline database of movie information (except for individual personal use)."
4. Acknowledge the IMDB as your source
OK, so did my site of television soapie stars' appearances qualify? Well, points 1,2 and 4 were fine, but I needed to check point 3 in more detail.
"personal and non-commercial use": yes, I'm just doing this for fun, not profit
"must not be altered/republished/resold/repurposed to create any kind of online/offline database of movie information (except for individual personal use)": hmm, this is something I created for other people to have fun with, so it's not individual personal use, so I'd better not be creating a database of movie information. Since my site is not a database, or about movie information, it's all clear.
Yay! At the top of all the pages on my sites, you will now see that the "Heartbreak High TImelines" tab has been replaced by "Television Timelines".