diff --git a/src/main/java/net/pms/configuration/BaseConfiguration.java b/src/main/java/net/pms/configuration/BaseConfiguration.java
index c9b104c0e68..92aae17476f 100644
--- a/src/main/java/net/pms/configuration/BaseConfiguration.java
+++ b/src/main/java/net/pms/configuration/BaseConfiguration.java
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ public boolean getBoolean(String key, boolean def) {
 		return configurationReader.getBoolean(key, def);
 	}
 
-	public String getString(String key, String def) {
+	public final String getString(String key, String def) {
 		return configurationReader.getNonBlankConfigurationString(key, def);
 	}
 
diff --git a/src/main/java/net/pms/database/MediaTableVideoMetadata.java b/src/main/java/net/pms/database/MediaTableVideoMetadata.java
index 6840da338ea..b51bfb66f1b 100644
--- a/src/main/java/net/pms/database/MediaTableVideoMetadata.java
+++ b/src/main/java/net/pms/database/MediaTableVideoMetadata.java
@@ -614,7 +614,6 @@ public static VideoMetadataLocalized getVideoMetadataUnLocalized(final Connectio
 		return null;
 	}
 
-
 	/**
 	 * Checks whether the latest data from our API has been written to the
 	 * database for this video.
diff --git a/src/main/java/net/pms/external/umsapi/APIUtils.java b/src/main/java/net/pms/external/umsapi/APIUtils.java
index aa021c16869..b9b0f4ba989 100644
--- a/src/main/java/net/pms/external/umsapi/APIUtils.java
+++ b/src/main/java/net/pms/external/umsapi/APIUtils.java
@@ -425,14 +425,16 @@ public static void backgroundLookupAndAddMetadata(final File file, final MediaIn
 
 				if (isTVEpisode) {
 					Long tvSeriesId = setTVSeriesInfo(connection, titleFromFilename, tvSeriesStartYear, titleSimplifiedFromFilename, file, media, seriesIMDbIDFromAPI, tmdbTvIDFromAPI);
+					if (tvSeriesId != null) {
 						videoMetadata.setTvSeriesId(tvSeriesId);
 						TvSeriesMetadata tvSeriesMetadata = MediaTableTVSeries.getTvSeriesMetadata(connection, tvSeriesId);
 						videoMetadata.setSeriesMetadata(tvSeriesMetadata);
+						videoMetadata.setTmdbTvId(tvSeriesMetadata.getTmdbId());
+					}
 					if (isNotBlank(titleFromAPI)) {
 						LOGGER.trace("Setting episode name from api: " + titleFromAPI);
 						videoMetadata.setTitle(titleFromAPI);
 					}
-					videoMetadata.setTmdbTvId(tvSeriesMetadata.getTmdbId());
 					videoMetadata.setTvSeason(tvSeasonFromAPI);
 					videoMetadata.setTvEpisodeNumber(tvEpisodeNumberFromAPI);
 					videoMetadata.setIsTvEpisode(true);
diff --git a/src/main/java/net/pms/store/StoreContainer.java b/src/main/java/net/pms/store/StoreContainer.java
index 5f47c08b8b9..5dd33c18ac4 100644
--- a/src/main/java/net/pms/store/StoreContainer.java
+++ b/src/main/java/net/pms/store/StoreContainer.java
@@ -473,8 +473,14 @@ protected void sortChildrenIfNeeded(String lang) {
 				if (!child1.isSortableByDisplayName || !child2.isSortableByDisplayName) {
 					return 0;
 				}
-				String str1 = Normalizer.normalize(child1.getLocalizedDisplayName(lang), Normalizer.Form.NFKD);
-				String str2 = Normalizer.normalize(child2.getLocalizedDisplayName(lang), Normalizer.Form.NFKD);
+				String str1 = child1.getLocalizedDisplayName(lang);
+				String str2 = child2.getLocalizedDisplayName(lang);
+				if (PMS.getConfiguration().isIgnoreTheWordAandThe()) {
+					str1 = str1.replaceAll("^(?i)A[ .]|The[ .]", "").replaceAll("\\s{2,}", " ");
+					str2 = str2.replaceAll("^(?i)A[ .]|The[ .]", "").replaceAll("\\s{2,}", " ");
+				}
+				str1 = Normalizer.normalize(str1, Normalizer.Form.NFKD);
+				str2 = Normalizer.normalize(str2, Normalizer.Form.NFKD);
 				return str1.compareToIgnoreCase(str2);
 			});
 		}