What Are Some Unrealistic or Unusual Things That Old Movies & TV Shows Used To Do?

A friend lifted a bottle of chloroform from the locked science supply closet at middle school and gave me some he poured off in a plastic bottle. I wasn't sure what to do with it and set it on my Yamaha digital piano in my bedroom. but in a few days the chloroform ate through the plastic bottle and then ate through the plastic of the digital piano, ruining it forever. Then I threw the mess away. Which was probably for the best, as I am sure I would have gotten in some sort of trouble for chloroforming someone.

R1 yikes. I had no idea it was so potent.

Why didn’t the crooks on Batman just shoot the caped crusaders?

Godzilla

"In order to identify a drug they would dip their finger and taste. Really? "

I *think* what they were doing is seeing if the powder being sold as cocaine caused localized numbness on the tongue, rather than trying to identify the taste. Cocaine used to be used as a topical anesthetic for dental work, because it can numb mucous membranes quite nicely, before the authorities realized that some dentists were selling cocaine on the side.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, because I'm no experts on cocaine.

R5 Mexican drug cartel

Remember when Paula killed all of those models? In the end she had no hair and burn scars all over her arm.

Adding bionics to your body.

R5 It was used in eye surgery as well.

Jumping off of a 12-story building and running 65 miles per hour.

R9 nose bleeding, too. In the 70’s my cousin suffered from constant bloody noses.

I used to think quicksand was as common as sneezing.

Not limited to old movies: One punch and you're knocked out, always for the exact amount of time required by the plot.

Yes - they taste cocaine (only cocaine usually) for the numbness. It won't really get you high.

Chloroform was on almost every TV cop or mystery drama in the 1970s. And quicksand - that was a real danger I lived with when I was a child because it was in so many TV shows and cartoons.

Cousin Oliver

Me too R12. As a kid walking the streets of Brooklyn, I was always on the lookout for quicksand.

[quote] Please correct me if I'm wrong, because I'm no experts on cocaine.

Amazon princesses fighting crime in bathing suits.

Women fainting left and right.

The damsel in distress tied to the railroad tracks.

Having surgery and hooked to no IV, etc.

Two guys carrying a very large pane of glass always stopped in the middle of the road during a car chase.

Empty big cardboard boxes that just happen to be everywhere and acts as a buffer when thrown in to them.

People routinely getting clobbered over the head without any serious concussions or even death.

Put me down as another one who was petrified of quicksand.

Wow, this quickly became the Epitome of a Mary thread.

The leading lady goes undercover wearing glasses and a bad wig and is undetected.

R25 what does that mean?

No one ever knows they are being followed by undercover cops. Really?

R26, that's one of the reasons Superman was so ridiculous. Glasses and a suit really changed a big hunk like Christopher Reeves that much?

People dying quickly by being bumped on the head. People getting shot but not bleeding at all.

Pretty much every 60's and 70's show had the most hilariously badly choreographed fight scenes.

One of the campiest aspects of The Avengers were the fight scenes. Mrs. Peel looked as if she was doing a modern dance recital and every karate chop to the shoulder resulted in unconsciousness. The poor actor playing Steed didn't even have Diana Rigg's athleticism so his fight scenes were even worse. They used stunt doubles much more often with him.

Also, women's stunts were often done by men. You'd see some skinny actress in a fight and then see some chunky man in a wig and dress materialize in her place.

Also, wigs were much more obvious. Yeah, women wearing wigs was the style in the hair crazy sixties, but what was the excuse for middle aged and older men?

The loaf of French bread always peeking out of the top of a brown paper bag when a character went grocery shopping.

R29 let’s not forget Wonder Woman. Once she put those glasses on she was Diana Prince.

When someone coughed, you just knew that they had a terminal disease.

[quote] People routinely getting clobbered over the head without any serious concussions or even death.

Conversely, in slasher films, people are killed instantly in such a way that if it happened in reality, they'd either linger for several minutes or even hours, or perhaps not die at all.

R34 OMG I’m always joking with my husband about the Brady Bunch. Cindy casually coughs, next you hear, “Oh Mike, we will need to cancel the boating trip.” Next, Carol and Cindy are heading for tonsillectomy’s. Wtf?

Simultaneous thunder and lightning.

Everyone wakes up looking beautiful and handsome.

r36, You stupid ass racist bitch. You are nothing. NOTHING. DIE IN A FKIN GREASE FIRE BITCH.

In sitcoms everyone sitting on the same side of the kitchen table because there was no fourth wall.

Western movies where the men rough their women up.

When trapped in a room, there was always an air vent large enough for one to crawl through. No tools needed to remove the front grill.

Question: Did Mike provide Alice with Health Insurance.

Robots cleaning 🧹

Was there ever really a cop show on TV where the cops would yell "Freeze Turkey!" ? Where did that come from?

The cars blow up with no engine in them. If you use slow motion most of the cars are hollow.

Picking a lock with a bobby pin.

I would always check, especially at night to make sure no one was hiding in the back seat of my car.

Back in the 70s cars were big enough to do this.

Breaking down a door with your shoulder. "Stand back!"

Dialling five or six numbers on the phone. Immediate answer.

People committing suicide by walking into the ocean

On crowded city streets, finding convenient street parking spaces, right in front of the bank, or wherever.

Quicksand must have been a common element to late 60s and early 70s television. When I was four, I dreamed that Bill Cosby and Groucho Marx lured the Scooby Gang to their property and the gang went into the mucky, boggy backyard, walked into quicksand and were devoured by carnivorous giant snapping turtles. I watched on a closed-circuit screen monitor, sipping a RC cola, while Groucho and Bill rubbed their hands and cackled.

People always dialing a phone number without having to use a phone book.

Eavesdropping with glass to wall, or listening through a vent in the next room.

When people are all in the same room, and then two people begin to whisper (loudly) supposedly no one else can hear. Whatever.

[R38] An effect like that can occur - it means the lightning strike is directly overhead. Which means you're probably safer staying indoors with the killer or ghost or gangster or whatever it is rather than fleeing into the storm and getting fried.

The titty dance stairway entrance. While we all love breasts, we received a blur of bouncing boobs in the 70s. I was stuck with a family of mouth breathers who ate it.

Me catching a fleeing criminal by rolling down the window of my Lincoln Continental

Me chasing 18yr perp wearing a wool suite and 2 in of pancake makeup in 110% humidity without breaking a sweat

Me chasing down gangs of teenage ruffians without breaking a hip.

A car chase always ends up plowing into a fruit stand, especially in ethnic neighborhoods.

Also cars never needing to be warmed up.

People on TV or in movies never interrupt the story to go to the bathroom.

Brandy as a panacea for everything. Oh, wait...

Cars screeching their tires on dirt roads.

A kidnapper lets his child hostage call his/her mother, but only for two seconds. The rotary phone goes to a dial tone immediately and the frau pounds on the little hang-up buttons frantically while screaming “HELLO? HELLO?? HELLOOO?!?!?” before sliding down the wall and sobbing on the floor.

Also, every time they show a computer the website on its screen looks like Angelfire or, conversely, some cobalt-blue futuristic thing with a 3D holographic head or human body spinning in space. There’s no middle ground.

How come no one seemed to notice on "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" that having all those "air vents" that allowed crew to crawl through in case of emergencies meant THAT THE SUBMARINE WAS NOT WATER TIGHT!

Huh?? Huh?

[quote]One of the campiest aspects of The Avengers were the fight scenes. Mrs. Peel looked as if she was doing a modern dance recital and every karate chop to the shoulder resulted in unconsciousness. The poor actor playing Steed didn't even have Diana Rigg's athleticism so his fight scenes were even worse. They used stunt doubles much more often with him.

R31, I read a book on "The Avengers" several years ago and the producer, Brian Clemens, in regard to Emma's fight scenes, said he did not want them to look all that realistic. He said he wanted Emma's fights to be balletic, or just more like a dance, in order to avoid her looking like a man when taking on someone. I can't remember what he said in regards to Steed's fights other than they made his bowler hat like steel so he could knock villains out with it.

People staring at the receiver after a shock phone call. Who the fuck ever did that?

The driver of a car sliding across the front bench to get in or out of the passenger door.

Why's it so hard to recreate the 1970s? They look like cartoons.

[quote]let’s not forget Wonder Woman. Once she put those glasses on she was Diana Prince.

I've posted this before in previous WW threads but an inconsistency about the character that always bugged me was how, whenever she was Diana Prince, she was just an ordinary person with no superpowers. Yet, on Paradise Island, she like all of the other women seemed to have superhuman ability even though she was only wearing one of those little frilly dresses and not the WW costume with the gold belt around her waist (which was supposedly the source of her strength). It simply made no sense.

People sitting side by side but conversing with their reflections in the mirror.

People stealing TV sets and stereos and record players so they could pawn them for drug money.

No camera, no DNA everything is based on eye witnesses. But they lie, too.

Spanking a child.

Two things:

1) No one ever said "goodbye" before they hung up the phone.

2) That move (see video) where the good guy grabs the bad guy by the sides of his head, and does a quick twist, and it kills him. It always looked fake.

[quote]the good guy grabs the bad guy by the sides of his head, and does a quick twist, and it kills him.

I hate that too.

Women swanning around their suburban homes and city apartments in 3-inch heels and cocktails dresses even though they’re home for the evening.

Everywhere in Washington has a view of the Capitol or the Washington Monument. Amazingly, you can see the Empire State Building from everywhere in New York, and every street in Los Angeles is directly under the Hollywood sign.

R70, real people actually did that all the time to avoid getting out into traffic. Bench seats are less comfortable but more convenient than bucket seats.

R32, along with the carrot greens. And all groceries in paper bags, even in the 1990s.

Everyone is either drinking coffee, about to make coffee or just made some coffee.

You have to wonder why they bothered, since no one in the history of movies or TV ever poured a full cup of coffee or ever drank more than a sip of any coffee that did happen to makes its way into their cup.

Also - no brand names, anywhere, ever.

^^^ make, not makes

[quote][R32], along with the carrot greens. And all groceries in paper bags, even in the 1990s.

Right and Checker cabs in New York loooong after they disappeared from the streets.

I thought it was celery that was supposed to be sticking out the top of the brown paper grocery bag.

The actors & actresses are always carrying bags, purses, & suitcases that are obviously empty (not heavy at all).

When someone is running with a suitcase of money it will inevitably fall open and the money will fly everywhere, aided by a convenient gush of wind. Then a crowd will swarm to grab what they can.

White women speaking jive.

OP, when I was a little gayling I thought Charlie's Angels were so glamorous and sophisticated with their car phones.

Slapping a “hysterical” person.

[quote]Brandy as a panacea for everything.

I was just thinking about that one! Delicate ladies in old movies were offered a bit of sherry to calm their nerves after a tragedy. That's partly why it was so funny when Niles and Frasier had to sip on some sherry to calm down.

[quote]The actors & actresses are always carrying bags, purses, & suitcases that are obviously empty (not heavy at all).

Drinking from empty cups is also really obvious. Sometimes you'll see something like water in a cup that's supposed to be coffee, it always makes me laugh.

Kelly, Kris, Tiffany, and later, Kris, Kelly, and Julie solving a case post-Sabrina.

Seriously, she was the smart one.

The person who eavesdrops on someone’s conversation just at the right moment.

With a water glass pressed to their ear!

R93 Kris was actually pretty smart.

[quote]People stealing TV sets and stereos and record players so they could pawn them for drug money.

Not only is this realistic, but it's also kinda prevalent

Multi-cultural street gangs and racially diverse packs of thugs. I’m not being racist I swear, but a gang with a black guy, a white guy, an asian guy and a latino guy don’t exist. Gangs always form along racial or ethnic lines, but in Hollywood gangs have to comply with affirmative action and undergo diversity training.

Addressing every family member by their name multiple times in a single sentence: Bob I'm going to the market today Bob to by asparagus Bob for tonight's dinner Bob.

Getting thrown through a window or a glass door results in no injuries whatsoever.

Punching through a glass pane to reach in and open a door.

If you've recorded a conversation covertly on a reel to reel tape, the tape will rewind to exactly the right incriminating point when you play it back to someone.

Knocked out by a bottle

Referring to a sibling as "bro" or "sis". Does anybody actually do this in real life?

Two female friends going to women's self-defense class. Once.

[quote]Brandy as a panacea for everything.

Except for British movies and TV, where the panacea is "a nice cuppa tea."

Almost every crime movie has a cop buying a Hot Dog, taking 1-2 bites and throwing the rest away.

Amnesia, usually from a car accident. Especially on soap operas. That way, you could get the character involved with someone else, but it wasn’t really cheating, since he/she couldn’t remember.

Decide to move, go look at a few houses, decide that where they live now couldn't be more perfect and stay put.

Birthing a baby. The baby is delivered with no blood.

Calling your sibling "big brother" or "little sis" so we know exactly what the relationship is. In the 80s, Soap Opera Digest (though this is not confined to soaps) once said the Brady's on DOOL (Roman, Kimberly, Kayla and Bo) always did this partly as a shortcut to the fact how disparately they were all written whereas the Snyders on ATWT never referred to one another that way (and it's true as I watched for years.)

R103, you beat me to it.

The character actor changes six months into filming and we are all supposed to be ok.

Bewitched changed Darren’s. Damn them.

R86 Yesss the obviously empty, completely flat purses drives me nuts!

Milk is always in a pitcher. Even when there's that morning scene with the kids racing to the table and eating one spoonful of cereal before the overwhelmed working mom rushes them out the door — TIMMY! YOUR BACKPACK!!! — there's a glass pitcher of milk on the table.

Man being in excited, overjoyed, stuttering disbelief when wife tells him she's pregnant (without saying the actual word "pregnant").

Abused children and women who have been raped are required to sit with their knees drawn up. No other position will do.

[quote] The damsel in distress tied to the railroad tracks.

That was a metaphor for rape.

You do know what a metaphor is, don't you dear?

Drinking and driving is ok.

People tuning into a television news broadcast (or, in very old movies/programs, the radio) just in time to hear a relevant breaking story. For once, I'd love to see a character watching the news to hear, "A shocking new development in a recent unsolved murder! But first we go to Brenda Starr who is reporting live from the zoo which just saw a baby giraffe born earlier this morning. Brenda, how is the little cutie doing?"

Nobody ever locks the door when they come home. Nobody!

In shows set in workplaces , coworkers having ridiculously close relationships and everybody being best buddies with each other outside of the office. Like always hanging out /hooking up/dropping by each other 's place.

In old movies, women go to bed with a face full of makeup and coiffed hair. And when they wake up, their hair is perfect and their makeup is intact.

The one I remember, which you don't see any more is the hero being sewn into a wet animal hide that is supposed to squeeze him to death as it dries. This used to be used all the time in westerns and jungle adventures.

Bohemian artists or unemployed people who have spacious NYC apartments.

Here's one. Has someone done this? When the characters use dialogue to fill you, the viewer, in on the story, such as:

"When you left your second husband to be with me and married me on the day you got your divorce..."

Characters who can walk and run just fine after an elaborate fist fight and a 2 story fall.

[quote]Man being in excited, overjoyed, stuttering disbelief when wife tells him she's pregnant (without saying the actual word "pregnant").

And the wife managing to keep the BIG NEWS to herself for days until some Kodak moment...along with a nod and a smile.

Male cops going "undercover" by dressing up as women. I remember this happening on on "Barney Miller", where Wojo, of all people, was required to dress in drag.

Everyone slouches on a couch after a breakup.

Women wear flannel pajamas and a messy bun, and eat ice cream straight out of the container using a giant serving spoon. The coffee table is covered in loose photos, stacks of photo albums, flowers she saved and dried, and a few pieces of jewelry. If she isn't hugging the pint of ice cream to her chest, she's robotically winding a music box or shaking a snow globe.

Men wear plaid pajama pants and a college t-shirt with a stretched-out neck. They mindlessly eat cereal out of the box before angrily throwing it across the room in a display of manly loss. The coffee table holds an array of white Chinese takeout containers, some knocked over and spilling food onto the table, and a couple of open pizza boxes displaying a dried-out, half-eaten pizzas. When the camera pulls back we see that the floor around the couch is littered with even more food packaging.

[quote]Nobody ever locks the door when they come home. Nobody!

Nor the car.

In the old days, less so now...there was always a landmark building or structure through the window, the Eiffel Tower and such.

I always thought everyone in New York had views of twinkling skyscrapers through their apartment windows.

No one looks or acts drunk convincingly. It involves a little more than acting like Cousin Geri.

[quote] A friend lifted a bottle of chloroform from the locked science supply closet at middle school and gave me some he poured off in a plastic bottle. I wasn't sure what to do with it

I could have given you plenty of suggestions!

R133 lmao

On The Avengers TV show, Steed would hit someone with his umbrella & they were knocked out. Similarly, Mrs Peel would throw a pillow at someone & boom, they were comatose. She was also flipping big fat Russian guys over her head.

What cracks me up about all these tv shows & movies is that a gang of bad guys will suddenly appear. Our hero then takes them on one at a time. Like this gang wouldn’t jump on the hero all together.

One thing they do today that's absolutely ridiculous is that someone twists someone's neck to kill them,, which is pretty much physically impossible. i could buy it with vampires or superheros, since supposedly they have superhuman strength, but Ash Tyler did it the first season to Hugh Culber on Star Trek: Discovery and killed him (even though Hugh was later brought back from the dead).

Cars going over cliffs and exploding like they are full of TNT, in some cases before they even hit the ground.

The TV show Perry Mason always got me how, Perry was able to get someone on the witness stand and get them to admit to being the killer. Someone you had no reason to believe they were the killer but Perry knew and they just broke down and admitted everything with little to no evidence.

Radiophones were a common, albeit expensive option for cars in the 1960s and 1970s. Expensive as heck, but this was the technology that preceded today's mobile communications. In telecom, you'll see this era referred to as 0g versus 1g for the first generation of cell phones and today's 5g.

[quote]On crowded city streets, finding convenient street parking spaces, right in front of the bank, or wherever.

It's called "Doris Day parking."

r120. Or, even more importantly, when going out. It always seemed so silly, the director couldn't spare 10 seconds for the person to lock the door?

This happened after VCRs came on the scene. The person watching the tape would speed up the action and fast forward to where they wanted and the sound would go all speed and the people’s voices would sound all high pitched. That doesn’t happen in real life . There is no sound.

People or children falling asleep right away, on their backs, staring at the ceiling, perfectly straight. No one on their sides with mussed hair or sleeping on their stomachs, with bed head.

Couples kissing in the morning or having sex right away and no one brushes their teeth or pees first.

Teens' rooms perfectly put together with all the latest cool band posters and clothes and nothing on the floor and no clutter or mess.

Kitchens perfectly clean with no dishes in the sink and no junk on the table. Even on Friends, that apt. didn't look lived in.

Call me! My number is 555-....

Walking into a 1970s parking garage and not finding a psychopath, usually played by Aaron Spelling’s personal friend the disfigured Gary Conway, waiting to run you down with screeching tires.

This one is only on TV. The shot starts with a panting man on top of a woman in a way that implies they are nanoseconds post-orgasm. She, in her undisturbed bra, says something like "you were amaaaaazing" to drive the point home.

In one smooth motion, he rolls over onto his back and the sheet that was perfectly draped over his ass somehow manages to be just-as-perfectly draped over his crotch without any part of it being stuck under his body or between his legs. Then she stands up and we see that in addition to her bra remaining untouched, her underwear is on and not the least bit askew.

...and the hands of each person remained in full view throughout this entire episode.

[quote] The leading lady goes undercover wearing glasses and a bad wig

And is chewing gum with her mouth open.

[quote] The driver of a car sliding across the front bench to get in or out of the passenger door.

That was the law when I was a kid. You could not open a car door or exit the car on the driver side. It was interfering with traffic, It’s one of the reasons why they have parking spots with vertical lines in front of buildings.

My mother used to drive, have us in the backseat, get out of the car door on the passenger side, then open the door for us to get out. But if she was driving my grandfather or another adult and they parked, they would both look for a cop car & if they didn’t see one, she’d get out on the driver’s side.

Someone walks into the living room or den, grabs the remote, turn in the tv and a movie from the 1930s or 1940s is playing. This used to happen on the Sopranos a lot.

Someone gets hit over the head with a bottle, the bottle breaks, they’re temporarily knocked out and when they wake up and start fighting again, there’s no blood.

On Breaking Bad, except for one episode, all the meth users had Hollywood teeth. And Jesse Pinkman was beaten up about 100 times but had no scars, broken teeth or smashed nose.

Really bad accents

Bad acting

Listening in on the extension. In real life it always created a sort of echo that people noticed "Has someone picked up the other phone?" - but this never happened in movies.

Exactly, R153. Unless, of course, you unscrewed the mouthpiece and removed the microphone before picking up the extension. But they never did that.

The Dramatic Exit.

“Well, if that’s how you feel about it, Jim, I guess I never should’ve bothered in the first place.”

And then she struts out of the room. No goodbye, no see ya — she made her point and Jimmy now thoughtfully looks into his crystal glass with whiskey on the rocks.

People just hang up the phone directly without any comment, instead of saying something like, "Well, I've got to go now... goodbye."

Women in Westerns or the Civil War era or some such time wearing elaborately coiffed hairstyles (obvious wigs) and heavy eye shadow and lipstick that didn't exist then.

"gurl, BYE!"

Yes , R157 esp on a show like The Wild Wild West. That was very contemporary not 1880s.

Shooting a PERP and totally missing them. even when there was no way to miss.

Getting knocked out or going down from a karate chop to the back of the neck. My siblings actually took turns trying this on each other while I sat there and watched, it might be one funniest things I ever saw.

That villain is really copping a feel of Lynda's tits in OP photo.

[quote]…That was the law when I was a kid. You could not open a car door or exit the car on the driver side. It was interfering with traffic…

This has never been a law anywhere in the US. Your mom probably told you that to keep you from opening the left rear car door.

Sorry, R162, but your identification is a tad off. Those are Debra's titties he's twisting.

Yes that's Debra, not Lynda.

Thanks. I realised that I may have been wrong after I posted and it may have been Debra (because of the outfit). Thanks for the correction.

I wonder if Debra was a terror on the set?

All houses are spotless, perfectly decorated, and look like something out of Architectural Digest. No mess, no boxes everywhere (unless the point is too establish that the character is NUTS or a hot mess)

Characters on an out of control speedboat, heading toward land, being launched into the air and landing safely.

[quote]Everyone wakes up looking beautiful and handsome.

Well, not everyone.

[quote]Spanking a child.

Everybody know that never happens in real life, R76.

When characters in a TV show or movie are themselves watching television, it's always a loud western, with horses' hooves, gunfire and Indian war whoops blaring from the TV set.

Baking a loaf of bread that expands exponentially, along with the baking sheet, beyond the confines of the oven.

"Characters who can walk and run just fine after an elaborate fist fight and a 2 story fall. "

I love "Game of Thrones", even though there was a scene where a normal human being was stabbed twice in the gut, stabbed deeply... and then got up and ran away from a villain at top speed for another ten minutes.

And THEN, fell in a filthy canal full of sewage. And was just fine in a few days, no peritonitis or anything. That was the low point of the show for me.

Forensic experts, medical experts, or lawyers who play detective and solve the case before the police.

Most trained assassins are waifish, anorexic looking gals who don't look like they could beat up a fourth grader.

Women who wear high heels in the most inappropriately casual situations. In the movies, female mail carriers, waitresses, even forensic pathologists wear extremely high heels on the job!

No, really, in the first "Men in Black" film, the hot young coroner is doing an autopsy in black stockings and high heels.

Women give birth with one push, two ladylike groans, and three beads of sweat on a perfectly made-up face. The four-month-old baby that comes out is dry and clean apart from a tiny smear of strawberry jam on its forehead.

As a gayling it annoyed me to no end that the Nazis mistook Drusilla to be Lynda fucking Carter!

Anyone who plays tennis plays it at a country club. They wear either a terry cloth headband or a towel around the neck, which they put on with dramatic flair when they’re done with the game.

If they perspire, a simple dab on the cheek with said towel magically removes all perspiration from their entire body.

Male characters, especially married ones, have a little cocktail when getting home from work, no doubt to ease the tension and stresses of the office.

Would that be a fried chicken grease fire R40?

The bad guy knocks down the good guy during their big fight. He then aims his gun at the good guy, and then gives a 5 minute monologue on how he has long awaited this moment and how he’s going to continue his reign of terror, thereby giving the good guy ample time to either a)find his own killing weapon or b)allow his friends to find and save him.

Good thread!

Average Joe (or way less than average) men married to above-average (looks-wise) women.

Nobody ever has to pee or take a dump.

R176 My mother always wore heels. Always. Best of all - hers were steel tipped. My dad bought them for her at his job in an aircraft factory, so they were "safety shoes" for women. Why were they the best? We were the Poors, and mother would wear those shoes to the IGA. When nobody was looking, she'd knock the canned goods across her toe.

That's a concept the DLEGs are smiling at. In those days "dented cans" were usually half off, so a bit of larceny and union dues cut our large family's grocery bill considerably.

...

If the character's home did not have a view of the Capitol, the Empire State Building or the Hollywood sign, it had a view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

If the bad guy ran out of bullets he'd just throw the gun at Superman.

In the really old movies the actor's hat would stay on after being punched and knocked down.

Married couples sleeping in separate beds. That was a big one.

Pianos falling from apartment windows

That dude is smiling because he grabbed Lynda Carter's boob

We were really supposed to believe Debra Winger was Lynda Carter's sister? Lynda Carter was insanely gorgeous and Debra...well....wasn't.

In old movies and television, especially film noir and TV shows influenced by noir, it rains a lot in Los Angeles. Really a lot. Rain, rain, rain. Boulevards with lots of neon signs - the tawdrier the better - are especially rainy.

Fortunately, thanks to that wonderful Southern California climate, it only rains at night.

R182, also allowing the bad guy to exposit an explanation for all the mysteries of the movie/TV episode that you were wondering about.

Anything he missed will be explained in a 30-second coda at the end, wherein the hero explains to his sidekick various stuff that the sidekick should already know (but the audience didn’t know, or the writer didn’t trust the lowest-common-denominator audience to figure out on their own).

R149, Night of the Living Dead apparently runs 24/7 on some channel or other, judging by how often it’s showing on the TV in the background in scary movies. (In fact, this is because NOTLD is in the public domain, so anyone can use it in another work without paying for the rights.)

People never did smack, weed, or drank booze like in real life. Especially the teens.

R120, or, if they do lock the door, it’s because they’re visibly terrified – and with good reason because, if they lock the door, it’s a sure sign that the murderer is already in the house.

Related to R140, no one ever parks in a public garage or surface parking lot except to be a crime victim. If you see a person, especially a woman, parking in a garage, you know they’re in for a bad time. Also, no one uses parking lots in the daytime, only late at night when they’re totally deserted except for the victim-to-be.

The no goodbye on a phone call still happens.

This one bugs the shit out of me. People in a car having a conversation. The driver keeps looking at the passenger to carry on the conversation as if they were sitting at a cafe or something. Pay attention to the goddamn Road!

R198, it's like a teaser because half the time when they do that, there's an accident, so you keep waiting for one to happen. When it doesn't, you want to say, "haven't you people ever heard of Chekhov's gun?"

Per R198, no rear view mirror in the car.

All rural people go to church every Sunday and the men all wear suits and the women wear frilly dresses with hats and gloves.

I think this one still happens once in awhile.

For anything set in Seattle, the Space Needle will be involved somehow and at some point a character will ride the Monorail like it's a device for commuting when in reality it only runs about 12 blocks and is mostly used by tourists.

Unrealistic things in British TV/Film:

American characters will ALWAYS be VERY LOUD and BRASH. They'll either have broad Southern/Texan accents or broad New Yawk City urban accents.

If it's a period show and they want to offer "diversity", there will be a black American character who is a Jazz musician/singer.

Old ladies always wear floral print dresses that are long sleeved and high necked with lace collars. They probably wear hats and have shawls and gloves, even for shows set in the 80s and into the 90s and despite the fact, that look died in the 60s.

Bad guys who have no survival mode. Instead of running away or screaming in pain for help, shoot him, he keeps coming, stab, he's coming for you, beat him unconscious, as soon as he wakes his only motive is to kill YOU!

[quote]The driver of a car sliding across the front bench to get in or out of the passenger door.

That was the beauty of the bench seat. They should bring them back.

[quote]The leading lady goes undercover wearing glasses and a bad wig

[quote]And is chewing gum with her mouth open.

How very DARE you! I EARNED that Oscar!

Putting a whole box of detergent in the machine and having a house full of suds 10 minutes later.

r206 Bench seats made giving blowjobs easier too.

A husband will overhear a conversation about 'the patter of little feet' and assume his wife is pregnant. Of course he won't ask her outright about it.

It will turn out she's going to be looking after a neighbour's puppy or something.

[quote]How very DARE you! I EARNED that Oscar! —J. Roberts

I never won an Oscar but you did. “Earn” has got fuck all to do with it.

When people are studying CCTV footage of a crime scene, zooming in via a computer makes the image sharper and sharper rather than a blurry mess.

[quote]Putting a whole box of detergent in the machine and having a house full of suds 10 minutes later.

Well, gotta admit and this is true, when some dishwasher detergent company put Dawn in their pods I thought, well I'll just do it myself. Now I didn't fill the detergent cup full of dawn by any means but I came back into the kitchen and soap suds were coming out of all sides of the dishwasher. Have no idea how since water doesn't come out, but my kitchen floor had about two inches of foam and it kept spreading.

OLDER Black people call their siblings "Brother, Sister, Brother-n-law" etc

How when a couple arrive at a house the woman hands the front door key to the man so he can unlock the door. This was on a Golden Girls episode and I didn't get it then either.

Women wearing curlers in their hair to bed. Who thought this was a good idea?! It must have hurt like hell trying to sleep on it.

Has anybody mentioned this one yet? Bad guys getting shot and falling down dead without an ounce of blood anywhere on there body or on the ground.

Usually happened in old B&W movies and TV shows.

The forensic scenes with low, sexy lighting. Examining evidence and autopsies in near darkness is the sure path to scientific discovery.

Taking muffins out of the oven and immediately serving them. Even worse when somebody immediately reaches for one and doesn't burn their hand.

Houses don't have window screens or storm doors. Orange juice is always served in a pitcher. Everyone has a dining room. Smokers without ashtrays.

In horror movies, all of the exterior walls are basically made of windows, with no blinds, including the front door. Even in suburban neighborhoods. No privacy at all, and the killer can just look right in. And the terrified inhabitants of the house never think to draw the curtains or close the blinds if there are any.

"Women wearing curlers in their hair to bed."

That actually happened. For much of the 20th century, women wore curlers when they slept (how I don't know), or wore curlers when out and about. Wearing curlers out and about was considered a low-rent look, because of course all the women with money to spend went to the salon once a week to have their hair set, and didn't wash it in between salon visits. They just added more hairspray. This lasted until blow-dryers came in in the seventies.

I was the world's most embarrassing little girly prisspot in the world during the sixties, but even I thought my mother and her friends were ridiculous about their hair.

I wish actors would take a few minutes to put away the groceries, including the French bread, celery and carrots, before they take that important phone call on which the plot hangs. Don't just leave the bag of groceries on the counter! So what if there's a kidnapping. Put that stuff in the refrigerator where it belongs.

And use produce bags for fuck sake!

That too.

That too.

Bad guys passwords are easily guessed by the hero after a couple of attempts and do not involve any uppercase, numbers, or special characters.

[quote]That actually happened. For much of the 20th century, women wore curlers when they slept (how I don't know)

Trying to sleep in curlers was very uncomfortable, of course, a problem that the introduction of rubbery Spoolies in the 1950s was intended to solve.

Straight characters who detest each other suddenly wind up falling madly in love or lust. Usually when someone hates someone for a long period of time.... they continue to hate that person .

One of my neighbors (lady) when I was younger seemed to be always in curlers. She would go to the store (shopping) in curlers, with a kerchief "covering" the curlers.

Archie Bunker was the first character on TV to audibly flush a toilet (presumably after some #1 or #2; and Mike & Carol Brady the first married couple shown to share a bed. The Brady kids, however, had no toilet in the Jack & Jill bathroom. Two steps forward, one step back.

[quote]Straight characters who detest each other suddenly wind up falling madly in love or lust

That one goes back at least as far as Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing."

R231, I believe the first married couple shown to share a bed on TV was Herman and Lily Munster. 1964. But then, they were monsters.

Samantha and Darrin were also sharing a bed from the start on "Bewitched."

But then, she was a witch.

Bad guys with guns can never hit anyone despite shooting hundreds of times at good guys. Good guys are basically bullet-proof. On the other hand, one shot at a bad guy and he dies a spectacular death, plummeting down roofs or spinning over cars.

A couple go out to dinner where a huge and powerful drama or confrontation was played out, then, we see them in the car driving home, but they only begin discussing the dramatic dinner party once through the front door of their house. What did they do in the car I wonder, listen to talk radio?

Pretending to fall in love with someone because of a bet or a dare.....but then you wind up falling for that person for real!

[quote]Pretending to fall in love with someone because of a bet or a dare.....but then you wind up falling for that person for real!

Right and taken so long to do so, the object of his affection has cooled off and found someone else. How will this adorable but infantile young man win her back? Stay tuned!

FLASH FORWARD FIVE YEARS and a flip through a series of quirky and hilarious snapshots reveal the wedding, two children and a third on the way!!

THE END.

r229, soaps overuse this trope to death.

another fear of quicksand although I lived in Nassau County on Long Island

What are you talking about, R240?

All pranks work perfect. Bucket of water over someone’s head. As if, who does that?

IN REGARDS TO THE OPENING of this topic thread, where the undercover nazi bad guy has debra winger in his grasp and chloroforming her ( you know in reality he would do the deed with what he thought was THEE wonder woman while she was knocked out!)....

anyone see the chloroform scene from wonder woman the 1st episode (set during world war 2) entitled "fausta, the nazi wonder woman"?...

totally erotic and kinky pervy fetish power trip incarnate! the scene is on youtube for anyone who cares to watch! the nazi bad guy almost savagely ripping off her magic lasso, wrapping it around her and forcing her to tell the truth on her weakness and how to capture her and make her powerless and so on! add in wonder woman's almost orgasmic breathless responses to these questions and well there you have it!

if this was real, once again, that nazi bad guy actor whose NOT classical handsome or good looking but his actions make him sexy and macho dominating in the scene would have sex with THEE wonder woman! i mean OF COURSE HE WOULD!

anyway, in regards to this scene, one wonders how many takes they had to do and how choreographed it had to be so this male actor doesn't LITERALLY grab carter's huge breasts, that her breasts don't fall out from her bustier and the male actor behind her doesn't come into sexual contact with carter's body in anyway even in such close contact physically which they did end up together as.

[quote]Pretending to fall in love with someone because of a bet or a dare.....but then you wind up falling for that person for real!

Someone has been watching Hallmark Channel movies!

People all come through the door of their house laughing after an evening out and recounting all the antics of the evening.

Do chefs today actually wear those tall white toques?

On a lot of 70's cop shows when a car rear-ended another one it would go over the stationary car and roll over. Sometimes you'd catch a glimpse of the ramp behind the stationary car.

Nuns in full habit, even decades after most orders consigned them to the trashcan.

[quote]all the women with money to spend went to the salon once a week to have their hair set, and didn't wash it in between salon visits.

Going a whole week without washing your hair? That is just NASTY.

What’s the issue with car phones, OP? They’ve been around since the 1950s.

R251 right, but the phones are not wired in the car. Specifically, Charlie’s Angels.

I’m not reading the whole damn thread, so if someone said it already tough! But I have never seem quicksand and have many doubts it acts like anything on TV or in the movies. If it was so bad, we would be eradicating it from the earth, asphalting it over to protect all from being sucked into it.

Shows that wanted to look diverse in the Sixties and early Seventies, but didn't want to put blacks in key parts, always had black judges. They had very few lines, but one was always "I'm going to allow that".

I'm surprised no one has mentioned disappearing family relatives. When Mike Douglas of My Three Sons left , he was soon totally forgotten (and he was one of The Three Sons!). I think Andy Taylor's dead wife on TAGS got one mention, and Danny Thomas told his kids "Mommy went to heaven" and was never mentioned again. Ben Cartwright never referenced Adam once he left the Ponderosa, and Hoss' fans were left wondering where the big guy went.

Also, R254, that happens in the current run of the Ana Faris show, [italic]Mom.[/italic] In the beginning of the series, the Ana Faris character had two teenagers, a boy and a pregnant girl. The girl eventually had the baby. The boy, girl and baby were then featured less and less, and have, for the past couple of years, disappeared completely, never to be seen, heard of or mentioned again. It's actually no great loss, since their mutual presence was distracting and had nothing to do with many plot lines.

Unathletic kids suddenly become school sports heroes in one episode.

People shot in the head are able to speak 15 minutes later

This has always bothered me since I was a kid: In commercials or TV shows, someone takes a fake bite out of food and it's obvious they are only chewing air.

R258 or a 85lb chef acting like they love food. You know they aren’t eating that shit.

Man gives money to a prostitute ouf of kindness and doesn't expect her to have sex with him.

R201 … and the organist will be a plump woman in a print dress who accompanies the choir and congregation in singing “Bringing in the Sheaves” and “Shall We Gather at the River”. Or maybe "Rock of Ages". Those are the only three hymns that rural congregations know.

R203 – The Americans, no matter how otherwise worldly, will have no knowledge of the aristocracy or access to an etiquette book and will call anyone who’s ever been to Harrod’s “your lordship” or “your dukeship”.

R246, if they’re not laughing, then they’re all smoochy and wait-till-I-get-you-in-bed. This goes triple if it’s a married couple and the kids are upstairs asleep. One thing you know for sure – there will be no sex in that house tonight because [comic event/scary event/tragic event].

[quote] Man gives money to a prostitute ouf of kindness and doesn't expect her to have sex with him.

That's because she's "Hooker with a Heart of Gold." You can fall asleep and leave your wallet in the next room. Never fear, she will not steal.

Forgot to post her picture (Hooker with Heart of Gold).

R252 not all were. The “bag phone” existed during the period, and was high end at the time. Oldsmobile offered this, either as built in or a bag phone.

R265 How comes it’s always the heart of gold and never the twat of chlamydia?

OP, carphones became available in the early 1960s.

Even if someone were bionic or had superpowers, only Superman could jump off a tall building and land safely without a rope or some type of device. On the other hand, anyone with great strength or superpowers could jump up to the top of a tall building.

People never being weightless in space.

When someone is being chased on foot by a bad guy in a car they never make a quick turn to get out of the way. They run in front of the car. Especially in parking garages. You can escape the bad guy by dodging behind a pillar, but they never do.

Women going to bed with styled hair and full makeup; eye shadow, lipstick, the works. They also wake up looking like that.

[quote]Orange juice is always served in a pitcher.

Yeah I always serve it out of the can.

When a band plays "live" on a talk show or old Bandstand type show there are never any wires coming out of the electric guitars or the microphones.

R273 orange juice is very unhealthy, especially when it originates from a can.

Friends/romantic partners have huge blowout fights, and the next day it's all "I'm so sorry!" and all is forgiven. In real life, I say one wrong thing, and the other person ices me out forever.

R276, that type of person is bipolar or has some other type of mental illness.

[quote]The Americans, no matter how otherwise worldly, will have no knowledge of the aristocracy or access to an etiquette book and will call anyone who’s ever been to Harrod’s “your lordship” or “your dukeship”.

Americans have never given a rat's ass about aristocratic titles and think the whole thing is ridiculous. They think the French had the right idea.

There's drama at the wedding of every sitcom character.

Either (a) the bride is late or (b) she's fallen in love with someone else or (c) someone has an announcement when the Catholic minister asks if anyone has an objection to these two getting married.

Do you speak for all Americans, R278? Anyway, not giving a rat's ass about something is not the same as being ignorant about it or not bothering to learn about it to avoid looking like a boorish fool.

Speeding to the airport to catch the love of your life about to board a flight. Did they buy a ticket and go through security?

Trust me r280 nobody outside of Britain gives a rat's ass about Duke this or Earl that.

The bad guy always dies twice - first the hero apparently kills him. But it turns out he's not really dead! So the hero has to kill him AGAIN.

Or how one 100 lb woman (Charlie’s Angels) can fight three men and keep them submissive with just a small handgun. Really?

Way off topic, but I want to comment on R278's post:

So true. Many Europeans, especially Brits, are entrenched in class status. However, The French did have good intentions (we all know where that road leads to), but only at the beginning.

Americans are profoundly hypocritical in the sense of that we are so contemptuous of the old world order, but worship our extremely wealthy as royalty. We are a society that is obsessed with the accumulation of wealth, with everything else being a distant second. That is not to say that the rest of the world isn't as preoccupied with being rich, but no other culture in the history of mankind has established itself to the degree that we have in the pursuit of money.

True, r285. One thing about the US is that the wealthy seem to be untouchable. CEOs and corporations routinely get away with all kinds of things that are detrimental to most of the US population. Another good thing about the French is that they don't put up with that shit. The wealthy and corporations are not untouchable in France, French citizens will call them out on their behavior and won't let them get away with it. The US really should be more like that.

Not locking doors when characters leave their house.

UFOs always land in the middle of the desert to abduct people.

Extraterrestrials don't seem to land in Queens, Chicago, Boston, DC or LA.

R278/R285, are you guys aware that the U.S. Constitution specifically bans any American citizen from being bestowed a royal title or enjoying the benefits of a title? The only royal palace in the USA is in Hawaii. Thought you might like to know those facts.

^^ Jethro

r289 WTF does that have to do with anything?

[quote]UFOs always land in the middle of the desert to abduct people. Extraterrestrials don't seem to land in Queens, Chicago, Boston, DC or LA.

Actually, this accurately reflects most alleged UFO sightings from the past 60 years.

R292, is that for real?

Absolutely, R293. Reports of close encounters, especially, almost always come from the middle of Nowhere, USA.

In sitcoms asking "Can I see you in the kitchen?" for a big explosive argument and thinking that somehow none of the guests in the next room can hear. Extra points if there are shot of guests quietly sitting and looking uncomfortable, then the arguers strolling out later as if nothing happened.

Why don't the UFOs abduct people from Siberia, Mongolia, the Outback, the Pampas, or any other open and isolated place full of easy pickings, then?

Why abduct just the US yokels, and not Russian, Mongolian, Australian, or Argentinian yokels?

"Man gives money to a prostitute ouf of kindness and doesn't expect her to have sex with him. "

Or Vice Versa. According to the movies, all a man who's hitting rock bottom needs to do to get a place to sleep and some TLC, is appeal to the nearest desperate hooker on the street! She'll feed him and bathe him and let him stay, she'll even give out free pity fucks!

Because hooker go into their line of work out of sheer love for straight male losers, at least in the movies.

R295 I have a funny related story. My apartment is strange. I can hear what's going on outside, but nobody outside can hear anything inside. If a person comes to the door, I'll go right to the door and shout, "Who is it?" or "Please wait a minute!" and they'll keep knocking because they can't hear me! And trust me, I have powerful lungs and diaphragm and learned to sing, so I can get LOUD. I ask and they confirm they couldn't hear me. So maybe sometimes the people outside the kitchen can't hear. Also, the point is, they're not supposed to be listening and are supposed to be minding they're own damned business when they're in someone else's home.

[quote]Why abduct just the US yokels, and not Russian, Mongolian, Australian, or Argentinian yokels?

I'm going to assume this was a rhetorical question.

UFO skeptics for years have asked why UFOs always seem to be sighted over East Bumfuck, as opposed to landing on the lawn of the White House or in the middle of New York City.

R299 that's not correct. In the late 1940s, UFOs were sighted over the White House and Washington, DC.

As for the UFO thread hijack, if they're abducting people from East Bumfucke and putting them back later, I assume they don't want to attract the kind of notice they'd get if they appeared over Central Park or abducted tourists from the Tour Eiffel. But why just do this in the US, in UFOlogist country? Why not take yokes from other places where it's easy to find isolated idiots?

I'm no UFOlogist, but I'm fairly certain that reports of UFO sightings have come from all over the world.

R301, every country has its own policy on how it handles and reports UFO cases. The USA can't do anything about that. Recently obtained declassified files show the former USSR had lots of UFO activity that the American public didn't know.

[quote]R299 that's not correct. In the late 1940s, UFOs were sighted over the White House and Washington, DC.

In a very high-profile case. I was merely repeating a question commonly asked by skeptics. But UFOs have been seen, or at least reported, pretty much everywhere, including over Manhattan.

R304, thanks. I generally don't believe any abduction and butt-probe cases wherever they may have allegedly occurred. If we're not alone, I doubt ETs are interested in drunken rednecks or farmers' daughters.

R300/R303

This thread has been kidnapped by UFOs!

How about when using the telephone, the person would dial 6 numbers instead of 7?

At the dinner table food is pushed around the plate or a fork full is raised to the mouth right before the eater decides to speak.

On television drama and legal programs,, police respond to calls for help and are interested and professional.

On television, there are female police officers, Hispanic officers, black officers, gay officers, even jewish and Asian American officers.

r309, what? There is that much diversity in real life.

In big cities like NYC and LA at least.

Police enter luxury doorman apartments without any problem. For once, I would love to have the doorman refuse entry or send them to the servant's entrance. That is the reality of a doorman building, particularly a Park Ave condo. Don't ask for details, but I saw the police come to a condo with a search warrant and the doorman sent them to the servants entrance. The doorman is under no obligation to allow the police in.

[quote]Or how one 100 lb woman (Charlie’s Angels) can fight three men and keep them submissive with just a small handgun. Really?

Well now you're just being picky.

Does anyone in your life that doesn't live in your residency just walk in your door on their own?

R308 Yessss. I love this dysfunctional family dinner scene from snl. They actually do eat the food.

The hero fights a group of bad guys who each attack one at a time. Just pile on and take him down all at once!

Fuck with a condom then cum on the face and the bottom whore kept his mouth firmly shut.

Women sleeping in full makeup and no smears on face or pillow.

day for night - shooting in the day (as was only possible) and failing to achieve a nighttime feeling.

Poorly conceived filters over bright sky.

Orange filter making everything horrible. Entire movies such as English Patient. Ghastly.

"On television, there are female police officers, Hispanic officers, black officers, gay officers, even jewish and Asian American officers."

What's unrealistic about that? There are female officers, gay officers, etc. in real life.

Woman in tight spot needs to get out of town. She puts a rattan suitcase on her chenille bedspread. She goes to her modest dresser and lifts out a few items of lingerie. Drops these in the suitcase with perhaps a sweater and a gun. Done. Ready.

Art direction of homes in family sitcoms. Has been horrible for 30 years. It seemed better in the 50s, 60s, early 70s.

A woman packs to leave her husband for good and takes a small suitcase that would barely fit enough for an overnight stay.

That drives me nuts too R321. They never pack shoes or toiletries either. And the suitcase is never all the way full.

Amnesia from a blow to the head just hard enough to make you forget your identity, but not hard enough to limit your running, jumping, or fighting for at least the next 55 minutes until an even more preposterous second blow magically restores your memory just in time for the credits.

The woman who needs to get out of town with one light rattan suitcase, and maybe a decent fur, is a surreal dream. I absolutely love it because it is so old fashioned and unrealistic. A few times in my life I have wanted to be able to do that.

When I first became a nurse I had a patient who was at a church dance and got shot in the leg (yes, a dance at a CHURCH) by a jealous husband or boyfriend. The patient told me “And then I got shot and I fell down. And I tried to stand up & I couldn’t! I couldn’t get up. I never knew that if you got shot in the leg, you can’t get up or [italic] nothing! [/italic]”

Too many reruns of “Cannon“ I guess, where fat, wheezy William Conrad used to run after slim bad guys, shooting his gun as he ran. He’d get shot, fall down, get up, run again and shoot the bad guy dead. He’d just have a hole in his pant leg. No blood.

The cops show up at somebody's door because they want to talk to that person, and the person gives them an attitude "Sorry, I'm busy right now etc. etc." and just can't be bothered.

I once had two cops show up at my door (they were looking for one of my neighbors) and before I knew why they were there, I nearly pissed myself I was so nervous.

I once had a patient who had been a cop, and who chased a suspect like cops do in the movies. And just like in the movies, there was a garage door slowly coming down, and the perp ran under it as they do in the movies, and my patient tried to slide under it like cops and space rangers always do in the movies.

Well, it ended with an orthopedic surgeon needing several goes to put his knee back together. When I met him, it was after his third knee surgery.

People never dial the wrong number.

Whenever someone dialed a number there's never a "Oh, sorry, I dialed the wrong number" conversation.

Really? Not once?

People never dial the wrong number.

Whenever someone dialed a number there's never a "Oh, sorry, I dialed the wrong number" conversation.

Really? Not once?

The worst was the racist, misogynistic caricature Theresa Graves had to suffer with “Get Christie Love”.

She couldn’t be an outstanding detective. No she had to have the natural, the flashy tight outfits and tag line, “Freeze, sucka!”

It was pure exploitation.

The leading man always falls for the private investigator cop.

r129, you don't have any straight friends? That shit is real.

Taxi drivers who speak English.

On television and in movies, everyone goes to confession.

Most of the houses or worship are Catholic. There are no synagogues, mosques, temples, Quaker houses, Unitarian churches or Methodists.

Nobody celebrates Passover or Ramadan.

Leave the front doors unlocked.

Couples sitting up in bed talking or watching TV.. Nobody really does this, right?

1. Cops who show up when someone gets raped, attacked, robbed, mugged, gay bashed, etc. 2. Cops who inquire whether they can ask some questions. 3. Cops who say things like "He'll never hurt anyone again" or "We'll catch whoever did this". 4. Cops who want to speak with crime victims. 5. Cops who knock on doors instead of just breaking the door in and shooting everyone.

There's a commercial for some tv show where the captain or sergeant (a woman cop! That in itself is unrealistic and could merit it's own thread) says in front of police officers some cornball line like "We'll do whatever it takes to protect our citizens and our city". That commercial makes me want to scream.

[quote] (a woman cop! That in itself is unrealistic and could merit it's own thread

Seriously?

Hospital shows take place in Chicago.

Legal shows take place in Los Angeles and Boston and Chicago.

[quote]Couples sitting up in bed talking or watching TV.. Nobody really does this, right?

Some couples do.

There's always a parking spot in front of the restaurant or the office.

[quote] What Are Some Unrealistic or Unusual Things That Old Movies & TV Shows Used To Do? [quote]

Employ actual actors? Seems like the quality of acting in telelvision was higher decades ago, with the exception of shows that film in NYC. You can always tell the quality of acting is so much higher than shows in LA LA land. Imagine Law & Order shot in LA> I guess they tried that.

What Are Some Unrealistic or Unusual Things That Old Movies & TV Shows Used To Do?

Portray police and firefighters as lesbian, Chinese, jewish, Puerto rican, Mexican, gay, mixed race, greek? They did that on Claws, Shades of Blue, Brooklyn 99. So stupid. I can't watch them anymore. Too weird and unrealistic. The screenwriters or the casting directors must be trying to make some kind of "statement".

R345, you think all cops and firefighters are white? And none are lesbians? WTF?

How racist do you have to be to stop watching a show because of those reasons?

Watching the Crown and Prince Philip's right hand man and his wife arrive at the airport, where he is to leave for a long trip with Philip. His wife informs him that he will be missing their anniversary, kids birthday, etc.

They didn't discuss any of this beforehand? She conveniently exposits all of this before he gets out of the car. Presumably she'd have discussed all of this with him beforehand.

Has anyone ever gotten into a fight with their roommate and actually put tape down the middle of the apartment.

[quote] Has anyone ever gotten into a fight with their roommate and actually put tape down the middle of the apartment.

I can picture that happening in real life. With siblings who share a room, too.

Hilarious r348

I laugh at old episodes of Law and Order when the police expose a lie someone they have interviewed has told, and they say, why didn't you tell us the truth in the first place. Answer: because then the show would be shorter.

I'll cover quite a few comments in one post.

R320, R345, yes there are many gay police officers. After I came out and was in college, my fag-hag girlfriend wanted to introduce me to an older, smokin' hot officer, but I was too shy, too inexperienced and too young. R337, in my suburb, many people left their front doors unlocked, especially if someone was at home. I knew a family in a in a nearby neighborhood like a Levittown that never locked their front door. R338, my parents often talked and read the paper in bed, but they didn't do the latter together. I never saw my father naked.

If you live in a "safe" suburb (read: white) it's extremely common for people to leave their garage doors open all day long.

This was mentioned once before on a similar thread. Cops interviewing suspects or neighbors and the whole time the people are continuing their work nonchalently like a cop questioning you about a murder next door is an every day occurence and inconvenience.

Streetwalkers who don't use drugs that look like supermodels instead of scrawny meth whores with bad skin and wearing crappy shorts and flip flops.

Seriously r355. Go online and look at police department webpages with mugshots of hookers. They're pretty damn scary-looking. Nobody looks like Julia Roberts. Not even close.

R353 I never understood that.. A garage door is supposed to stay closed except when working in the garage or driving a car in or out. I remember a TV program from a black man's high-rise Manhattan apartment, looking out his windows. He said all those people with the huge, open windows were white people. He was probably telling the truth. Every time a relative visits me, she wants to open every blind in my apartment as if to advertise activity inside. What's wrong with people?

Someone mentioned upthread about cast changes on TV shows without explanation. I would have liked to know what happened to some of the people on Law & Order, like Angie Harmon and Dianne Wiest. At least Jill Hennessy got killed off to end her run.

I have met at least one police officer of every type r309 describes.

[quote] Every time a relative visits me, she wants to open every blind in my apartment as if to advertise activity inside. What's wrong with people?

She wants to get some light and air into your apartment. I don't understand people who keep the blinds drawn all day and sit in a dark apartment or house like a hermit.

^oh except Asian, but not many Asian people in the areas I've lived.

R360, thanks, but the key word in your comment is YOUR. Nobody goes into somebody else's home and does that. Getting light into somewhere causes heat convection, which increases the electric bill which she does not pay. I'm not afraid of the dark or being alone. I'm a sane adult. And I often get compliments about my skin, which is not sun-damaged. As the nice black man said on the TV program, all the open windows in the expensive Manhattan apartments where others could see in were white peoples' apartments.

R336, that’s a post-‘60s phenomenon. In older movies and TV shows, no one is a Catholic except Bing Crosby and various working-class urchins and recent immigrants.

On the other hand, no one is a Methodist, either, or a Presbyterian or a Lutheran. They're all generic Protestants – either with a vaguely Episcopalian flavor (society types), United Church of Suburbia flavor (middle class people), or Baptist flavor (yokels). The little old man who runs the corner store might be Jewish, but he’s a minor, albeit wise and kindly, character.

Don't listen to R363 -- bigoted B.S.

If you ran away from home, you would end up on the streets of Hollywood as a prostitute both male and female.

Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway Alexander: The Other Side of Dawn

R365, what? The comment at R363 is describing the way TV shows and movies presented religious affiliations, not reality. There were movies of a religious nature with specifically Catholic content, but in movies and TV shows where religion is just a sort of background feature, the characters are usually presented as generic Protestants ... sometimes even just generic Christians of no specific denomination. Producers, especially on TV shows, avoided giving their characters specific affiliations unless it was central to the character.

If you watch the movie R366 ending up in Hollywood is not the same as Pretty Woman.

Sorry, cross-posting accident. R366 was intended for R364.

R366 certain TV programs avoiding religious themes. I won't play games. You know what you did.

Yes, really, r284.

R284 I don't want to be patronizing, but those skinny women were former police women who knew how to use a gun. Would you be willing to chance a bullet to the head? If I had a gun and some thug lunged at me, that's would I would do.

R284 and R327 just reminded me two true stories from my past. I was about 9 and with my mother who was playing bingo at the two-story American Legion Post, some stupid woman with a gun in her purse accidentally kicked it, her gun went off and shot a bullet in the upstairs floor. Thankfully it didn't fully penetrate. I remember the police came and she got banned.

In college, my best friend at the time, who is black, lived near a large church. He told me about two older ladies who got were accosted by an attempted mugger. One lady reached in her purse for her gun. The other lady shouted, "Shoot him in the leg!" He ran off trying to not get shot. He was lucky he didn't get shot in the head or lose his family jewels! LOL

R371

R172 I remember watching that episode as a small child and feeling oddly tingly about it.

R373 LOL. OMG, it's colorized! Didn't she say 13 cakes of yeast? As my mother used to say, "That was before you were even thought of." When I need to relax, I watch "I Love Lucy". The Ricardos and Mertzes were true friends. Was the episode where Ricky had to get in the bathtub in the kitchen?

1. When two people are sitting on a sofa in the living room talking and then one gets up and walks behind the sofa and continues talking to the other person from behind. Who does that? 2. When two people are sitting on a sofa in the living room talking and then one gets up and goes over to the window, then the other person gets up and stands behind that person and continues to talk to them. Anyone here do that? 3. When a person has to drive all the way over to someone's house just to tell them something. They never heard of a phone? 4. In movies from the 70s and 80s, the police lieutenant or captain is usually black and bad tempered. 5. If someone is chasing someone, the person being chased will press the button for the elevator which arrives immediately and they get on and the doors close immediately, thereby eluding the person chasing them. 6. Someone shooting a gun at someone runs out of bullets and then throws the gun at the other person as though that will do the job. 7. In old movies, ordinary people having huge spacious apartments with lots of rooms. 8. Kids are usually computer whizzes with the ability to crack passwords and gain access to sensitive data. 9. When two people are driving around at night, there's always a light on inside the car. Who drives around at night with the interior light on? 10. Someone who jumps into a taxi and says "follow that car." No questions asked or anything.

R375 LOL thanks for making me laugh! For 6, hold onto that gun unless you're strong and can hit the perp in the head with it. If your head's never been struck with a heavy object, it's temporarily disabling. 9 can occur if you have a limo, separate rear compartment or privacy glass. Police will probably stop a vehicle driving with its interior light on for an extended period.

where oh where are the linda blair 70's exploitation tv movies in all of this??? !

R377 I didn't know Linda Blair did anything else other than The Exorcist.

R378, let me introduce you to Johnny Stick in "Born Innocent."

R120 - Except Maxwell Smart.

R19, Women fainting all over the place really was much more of a thing when they wore corsets, as in your gif. I saw a play once set in the 19th century and the actress passed out on stage because her stays were too tight. They just couldn't get enough air. That's why smelling salts was once a thing, but now isn't.

R358

Abby Carmichael (Angie Harmon) left to join the U.S. Attorney's office in New York.

Nora Lewin (Dianne Wiest) decided not to run again for District Attorney (According to Dick Wolf. It was never explained on the show.)

R379, thanks, I don't understand who someone could go from starring in a hit movie to doing a television movie! Maybe because she was a minor?

R378

[quote]I didn't know Linda Blair did anything else other than The Exorcist.

Hello!

People always drinking coffee from a cup that is obviously empty and never swallowing.

People sitting in front of a plate of food, but never eating anything.

Someone puts a sleeping pill in a person's drink and they're asleep within 5 min and nothing wakes them up for the next12 hours (I have insomnia and wish they had this power).

A baby gets born on a soap opera, and the next season they're six years old. As a literal-minded TV-watching kid, this used to drive me nuts.

R384 you're obviously not familiar with the drug Chloral Hydrate. A specialist I saw prescribed it to me some time ago. It came in gelatin capsules. It was a powerful hypnotic. Out in less than 5 minutes on an empty stomach! The slang term was slipping someone a Mickey. I believe the FDA recently banned it in the USA. Have you seen the movie "From Russia From Love"? The evil blond man from Spectre in the train's dinner car slips it in Daniela Bianchi's drink while he's pouring it for her. Chloral Hydrate was found in Marilyn Monroe's blood and liver along with Nembutal. I attended a conference by Dr. Cyril Wecht, forensic pathologist. Dr. Thomas Noguchi, who performed Marilyn's autopsy, sat across from me, but I didn't talk to him. Both are record that Marilyn did not commit suicide.

[quote]I'm not afraid of the dark or being alone. I'm a sane adult. And I often get compliments about my skin, which is not sun-damaged.

Lol @ this horseshit!

Most wild west saloon gals look like models or Playboy playmates

I guess chloral hydrate is what the staff used on the outside chef in the Downton Abbey movie to knock him out so Mrs. Patmore could cook for the king's visit. Makes perfect sense.

marilyn monroe was prescribed chloral hydrate by doctors, she was suppose to take them ONLY when she was out of her nembutal which was her regular sleeping prescription drug. her doctors were actually trying to wean her off the nembutal and then eventually the chloral hydrate as well. unfortunately, marilyn at the time had both drugs in her house and both drugs were found in her system, the only question is by her or someone else.

[quote]Most wild west saloon gals look like models or Playboy playmates

And were there only to keep the lonely cowboys company by sharing a drink and making small talk. Those little rooms at the top of the stairs were just where the girls lived, sort of like a sorority house.

Oh yeah, the "Dance Hall Girls" of the old west! Apparently ever saloon in the rural Old West employed a dozen beautiful girls, who served drinks and put on shows and got called "bad girls" by the townsfolk, even if they never did anything worse but show their pretty ankles on the job.

In the real Old West... Mark Twain went out to Nevada in 1867 and saw the Old West for real, and he wrote about the time someone charged him a dime for the chance to stand in line and look through a hole in a tent.. AT A WOMAN!!! The woman was fat and middle-aged and was slaving away at a hot stove, as she was working as someone's cook, but Twain said they had to shove him away from the hole in the tent and let the next guy look his fill, because women were that scarce out in the real Old West.

R390, that's not correct, but I can clarify. I've studied the medical and forensic aspects of Marilyn Monroe's case for many years. First, according to her liver temperature, she died no later than 2230 on Saturday, 4 August 1962, not on Sunday as always reported.

At the time of Marilyn's death, Nembutal had been discontinued for a long time and she didn't have any in her possession, verified by medical records and empty prescription containers. She was under the care of two doctors. Dr. Hyman Engleberg was her internist. Dr. Ralph Greenson was her psychiatrist, who saw her regularly. Dr. Greenson prescribed her a large amount of Chloral Hydrate, which she was only to take at bedtime for sleep. According to count, she was taking more C.H. than prescribed. On Friday, 3 August 1962, she visited Dr. Engleberg. Without Dr. Greenson's knowledge, she requested and received from Dr. Engleberg a prescription for Nembutal (pentobarbital), 100mg capsules, #25 and other meds. Dr. Engleberg always denied that he dispensed that script, which is on video tape. As explained by Dr. Wecht and Dr. Noguchi, the levels of pentobarbital found in MM's blood and liver were far in excess of that contained in 25 capsules (approximately 44). As also explained by both forensic pathologists, Dr. Noguchi found no evidence of any capsules or fragments thereof anywhere in her digestive system, nor the special yellow dye (tartrazine) that Abbott used to make Nembutal 100 mg capsules. There was nothing in her stomach except a small amount of brownish liquid that showed no evidence of either drug. Therefore, Dr. Wecht and Dr. Noguchi insist that Marilyn did not die by ingesting Chloral Hydrate capsules and the 25 Nembutal capsules prescribed to her on Friday.

The plumbing in Marilyn's locked bedroom/bathroom was shut off from the outside. There was no drinking vessel found in her bedroom. Nembutal was also available in 1962 as an injectable and a solution. At Marilyn's autopsy, Dr. Noguchi found a potential injection site in her armpit. He put all available info in his first book. All of Marilyn's organ and blood samples were required to be saved, but when he went back to test them, they were missing from the L.A. County Coroner's refrigerated safe.

R386

"There was no drinking vessel found in her bedroom."

There's a photo of her bedroom that shows something that looks like a drinking vessel on a table near her bed.

R394 I'm just stating the facts as reported. That may look like a drinking vessel, but wasn't. Even if so, there were no beverage containers in her locked bedroom and the plumbing was shut off since her house was being remodeled. The first police officer on the scene, Sgt. Jack Clemmons, made an official report. He reported that the scene looked like it had been staged. The police department was not called until at least 5 hours after Marilyn died, which is illegal.

Jack Clemmons was not exactly credible. Here's some things about HIM, from a very informative Marilyn Monroe blog:

Clemmons was NOT the investigating officer nor was he head of her case. He was the first responding officer who left after 30 minutes to an hour, depending on the source. Clemmons paints himself as this renegade detective but there is nothing to support his ludicrous claims. What we do know is that he most likely handed over some information about the case to Frank Capell for his pamphlet/book "The Curious Death Of Marilyn Monroe".

The second biggest thing is Clemmon's claiming that Marilyn died by lethal injection. Noguchi has been adamant that he went over Marilyn's body with a magnifying glass looking for an injection site. An injection has been ruled out being her body would not have had enough time to close the hole leading to blood loss from it. Clemmons then goes on to claim that Marilyn's digestive tract was fully examined. This is not true. What was examined was her stomach, beginning of intestine, and her colon. Noguchi sent her organs off to be examined but once a cause of death was established these organs were destroyed. It's entirely plausible that the pills were further along in her intestine that was not examined.

Clemmons then went on say in Anthony Summers' atrocious book "Goddess" that Eunice was doing the laundry. This then proceeded to be that Eunice was doing the sheets. There are a few errors with this claim. The first is that there is nothing in the police report. While Eunice is described as "vague and possibly evasive" there is no mention of laundry.

Another major point that was recently made by Gary Vittacco-Robles is that Marilyn most likely did NOT own a washer or dryer. There is no mention of one in the inventory of her home as well as no actual laundry room in the floor plan.

The final strike against Clemmons is sadly his character. In 1965 he was forcibly made to resign after slandering US Senator Thomas Kuchel along with Frank Capell and John Fergus. The reason Kuchel was disdained by these three? He supported the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

It has always gotten me how often someone will leave a house or apartment and leave the front door standing open. Clearly they didn't not grow up with a father like mine. SHUT THE DAMN DOOR.

Also, all those Wild West saloons had Broadway caliber floor shows, with Fosse level choreography and expert singing and dancing

R396, some of what you posted is gossip/hogwash printed in a sensationalist book. Noguchi and Wecht have cooperated and both have spoken publicly. Both the aforementioned fine forensic pathologists reject accidental or intentional suicide. I don't claim to know anything about what actually happened. I'm only interested in facts, not gossip. Any theories Sgt. Clemmons may have had don't matter to me. I'm only interested in what he saw and reported. BTW, Eunice Murray was not a housekeeper. She was a psychiatric nurse hired and planted by Dr. Greenson. Dr. Noguchi has published his own clarification regarding false allegations.

R395

People leave bars, restaurants, food trucks, carnival food kiosks, etc. without leaving money or going thru the motions to pay the bill.

When people go to a bar they just say "I'll have a beer"

Never any specific brand, just beer.

"She was a psychiatric nurse hired and planted by Dr. Greenson."

She sure as hell was never a "psychiatric nurse." She never finished high school.

r382, I also never understood why Linda Blair did so many TV movies right after "The Exorcist", which was a blockbuster hit. Blair received an Oscar nomination for that role.

Four of the five projects following "The Exorcist" (1973) were TV Movies:

"Born Innocent" (1974) (TV Movie)

"Airport 1975" (1974)

"Sarah T. - Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic" (1975) (TV Movie)

"Sweet Hostage" (1975) (TV Movie)

"Victory at Entebbe" (1976) (TV Movie)

[quote]A baby gets born on a soap opera, and the next season they're six years old. As a literal-minded TV-watching kid, this used to drive me nuts.

I vaguely remember Andy Dixon on As the World Turns being born, then he ended up in high school before I did.

R402, please don't use foul language. I'm reporting history and what's on file. Ms. Murray was not simply a housekeeper. Her employment In Marilyn Monroe's lovely bungalow on FIfth Helena Drive in Brentwood was arranged by Dr. Greenson. Any conflict in Ms. Murray's credentials was the responsibility of Dr. Greenson, who died in 1979.

Just before the weekend of 4 August 1962, Marilyn discovered the aforementioned facts and understandably, she was quite upset. That's documented by the fact that Mrs. Murray was normally paid weekly. However, on or about 3 August 1962, Marilyn and her business manager, who was also the court-appointed conservator for Marilyn's instituitinalized mother, terminated Mrs. Murray. Marilyn had her business manager wirte a paycheck for two weeks' pay to Mrs. Murray, I'm certain you're aware of the many discrepancies in the accounts of Mrs. Murray and Dr. Greenson about the events on the night of 4 August and the morning of 5 August 1962. None of the aforementioned was thoroughly investigated. We don't have any control over that. As in the case peripherally related to JFK's assassination. Mrs. Marguerite Oswald, Lee H. Oswald's mother, masqueraded as a registered nurse in full uniform when she was only a nurse's assistant. The purpose of historians and researchers who weren't there and who weren't born yet is to research and find additional facts.

To remain related to the this thread, as a boy Lee Oswald watched the classic 1950s TV program "I Led Three Lives". The program was about Boston advertising executive Herb Philbrick, who in the 1940s inflitrated the US Communist Party for the FBI. Isn't life ironic?

R401 fortunately i've never had to deal with the public, but friends who have tell me that when a customer just asks for a beer, they're either specifically asked or if it's a busy time, the customer who just asks for a beer gets what's most easily available. I've known a few alcoholics. One was generally pleasant and cheery. Generally, she didn't care what brand or type she drank as long as she had beer.

R396, Frank Capell? LOL! Capell was a right-wing extremist who wrote and published fabricated garbage worse than what's peddled in the National Enquirer! Anyone who used his name in the former era was basically blackballed. That word might have a positive connotation today, but hopefully you know its definition from yesteryear!

[Quote]When people go to a bar they just say "I'll have a beer". Never any specific brand, just beer.

Well, this makes sense unless you want to give Budweiser et al free advertising.

OK, as long as we're on the subject, what is "whiskey" when the cowboy bellies up to the bar and asks for a shot of it--- scotch, bourbon, rye? What was the default liquor back in the day?

You would think that Sam the bartender at the Long Branch would be making the occasional martini or rum punch to go with that Bob Fosse floorshow mentioned above, but you never even see a bowl of pretzels, much less a cocktail shaker or frozen daiquiri blender in use. One can only hope the gay bar in Dodge City was a bit more high end.

"OK, as long as we're on the subject, what is "whiskey" when the cowboy bellies up to the bar and asks for a shot of it--- scotch, bourbon, rye? "

Back in the 19th century, it could easily be whatever came out of the still out back! Shipping costs were incredibly high out in the Old Wests, saloons would have a much easier time staying in business if they could brew their own beer or rotgut liquor.

Inns and taverns used to brew their own beer in centuries past, before long-distance shipping became cheap and widely available. You went to one tavern instead of another because their beer was better, because each place had a different brew.

Someone really white goes to the beach for an afternoon and suffers what looks like 3rd degree burns.

Children having ‘kid meetings’ to discuss a dilemma in the household.

That really happens, R410, or happened a lot before the invention of clear sunblock. I've got a couple of second-degree burns just from being out in the sun, bright red and blisters and everything.

R411 obviously does not have the milky white complexion of those of us with Irish forebears. It would be more unusual if I spent a few hours in the sun without protection and didn't have to go to the burn unit.

" I also never understood why Linda Blair did so many TV movies right after "The Exorcist", which was a blockbuster hit."

There's a good reason for that. She wasn't that talented. Tv work is easier and less scrutinized by critics than film roles. No doubt she thought she'd do better in tv movies where once again she played victims. Her theatrical films after "The Exorcist" was all pretty terrible. She just didn't have the talent to sustain a film career. "The Exorcist" was a fluke.

R415.. also the tv movies allowed her to be the "main star" of them..

[quote]I also never understood why Linda Blair did so many TV movies right after "The Exorcist", which was a blockbuster hit. Blair received an Oscar nomination for that role.

Because she couldn't really act. She was coached for "The Exorcist" and see the rest of her films for your answer.

Linda Blair was highly praised when The Exorcist first came out because people thought she was doing the demon voice; the studio was keeping it hush hush that Mercedes McCambridge was the one who dubbed it. Once Blair got an Oscar nomination, McCambridge started publicly grumbling about her lack of recognition and that sunk Linda's chances at an Oscar and kiboshed her career when people figured out she was a lousy actress with a TERRIBLE voice.

She really was awful. She always sounds fake...like she's reading the lines for the first time.

R408, that makes sense. On the other hand, the lack of brand names – or product placement, if you want to think of it that way – makes older movies and TV shows seem less realistic. Modern shows, where brand names abound, feel more like real life because that’s the way things are in the real world. Nobody buys a six-pack that just says "BEER" on the side.

I wish they had been less conservative about brand names in older shows. It would be so cool now to watch, say, Bewitched and see all the mid-'60s household products that we EG's remember from our childhoods. It would be interesting to see the real brands people were using, drinking, etc., from the 1940s or whenever.

Back to the thread topic....

Every bachelor had an awesome apartment that was immaculate and featured a hanging plant in the corner. The container for the plant was usually macrame.

R420 you think Americans living in disorganized apartments and homes wanted to turn on the TV and see disorganized and dirty apartments and homes? Americans turn on the TV as a means of escape and relaxation.

R411 very fair-skinned white people do almost get that burned. Older people said way back, there was no "sun block" lotion, only "light" sunscreen and tanning oil.

R412, not everyone has a dysfunctional family. I've had many conversations with my older sister about family problems that date back to my teens.

R419, old TV programs covered the labels of soft drink and beer cans so they wouldn't "advertise" and have to pay licensing fees. If a program displays that on TV or a movie screen, the broadcaster must pay the appropriate company.

Marry the opposite sex without having same-sex hookups on the side.

R422 only 10% of the population is gay or bi. Everyone of the same gender doesn't do what you do. That's called a guilty conscience.

[quote]Linda Blair was highly praised when The Exorcist first came out because people thought she was doing the demon voice; the studio was keeping it hush hush that Mercedes McCambridge was the one who dubbed it. Once Blair got an Oscar nomination, McCambridge started publicly grumbling about her lack of recognition and that sunk Linda's chances at an Oscar and kiboshed her career when people figured out she was a lousy actress with a TERRIBLE voice. She really was awful. She always sounds fake...like she's reading the lines for the first time.

That really is one of the most overrated horror movies ever. I've seen low-budget cheapies that were scarier than that.

We've been thru this with a separate thread. Dude, when you say shit like that it makes you sound foolish. Unless you saw it exactly as it was meant to be seen, in a theater on the big screen in the dark and not in a brightly lit living room on TV with commercials, you have no idea what you're talking about. It was a world wide sensation. Whether you liked it or not.

^Watched the Exorcist in my brightly lit living room once and right after the girl pukes green slimy pea soup in the pastor's face, they cut to a commercial for an instant soup. I couldn't take it seriously after that.

R423... supposedly only 10% of the population is gay or bi, however in my little ole humble opinion, i think the 10% is those who ACT ON IT... i think it's more like 25% or more in that they don't ACT on it! the truth is every woman and every man if their honest with themselves can see a gorgeous same sex person who has a great body and be attracted to them or at the very least envious of them and want to be them... sexuality is a fluid scale and always will be.

We used to give Nembutal & choral hydrate to all the old demented ladies with fractured hips in the hospital to keep them from climbing out of bed at night. Many of them didn’t even fall asleep. We were so glad when halcion was invented.

“Dear John” letters in WWII. We’re they really that common? I think the women who sent them were shunned.

R429, how were the people back home going to know who the women were who sent them to shun them?

R429, I have not heard that women who sent "Dear John" letters were shunned, certainly not as a general thing. I think everyone went on with their lives, and a woman who respectably married one man after dumping another was respectably married.

The women who WERE shunned were the women in France and other conquered territories, who had relationships with Nazi officers. Once the Nazis were driven out their mistresses had their head shaved and were shunned by everyone, at least until their hair grew back. Which was kind of sucky, because I'd bet serious money that some of those women were offered a choice between becoming a Nazi officer's mistress, or being shipped to a Concentration Camp.

Dear John letters were military beards.

“How come Solly never gits no lettiz from hiz goilfriend back home? Iz he...you know?”

“He tole me he gotta Dear John letter in basic training.”

“Tough break.”

R431, there was one famous French actress who defender her relationship with a Nazi officer with, "My heart belongs to France, but my body belongs to me." No, her head was not shaved.

Male hospital patients are shirtless (not that I'm complaining), unless they are heavy.

A girl dumped her tractor-salesman boyfriend. She sent him a John Deere letter.

Twin beds for married couples. That was never a thing, except on camera.

PSYCHO was the first American film to show a toilet. So before 1960, no toilets.

R436, prior to 1960, no woman ever had to pee!

They just powdered their noses. This involved getting up from meals and leaving the room for several minutes.

R436, George Burns and Gracie Allen slept in separate beds. Don't know if they were twin beds. In the colonies before the USA was established, an entire family sleeping in one large bed was not unusual. A device was placed in the bed to separate parents from children. Typically, only wealthier families had separate beds until more modern times.

The first TV man and wife to sleep in the same bed were Darrin and Samantha Stephens on "Bewitched".

My aunt and uncle had twin beds. Maybe they were inspired by Desi & Lucy? It was that era.

[quote] R430/R431: how were the people back home going to know who the women were who sent them to shun them?

These women could be identified because all the wives back home would have known each other, and known everything about each other. The women who sent those letters always had a new man, at least in the movies. (I just watched “The Thin Red Line” last night. I suppose these letters add some drama to these movies.) So, these trollops were destroying the morale of our fighting men; they were getting something the other wives weren’t getting; and they were divorcing, which wasn’t well thought of anyway.

“My Johnny is never coming home, and she dumps her husband just when he needs her the most, that cunt!” -Mrs.Betty Sue D’Angelo, war widow.

The women in France, Holland, and Belgium who had their heads shaved - it wasn’t don’t very carefully. The women wound up with gashes in their heads. Then they had to fend for themselves at a time when a lot of people were starving.

The NAZIs held on in Holland even when the Allies were pushing through Germany. It was not strategically necessary for the Allies to free it, so they just went around it. As a result, they ran out of fuel over the winter and were on starvation rations for months, and it doesn’t take that long to starve to death.

Oh, and the “John” is always a sweet guy who is great to his wife, not a guido in a wife-beater.

The notion of Psycho and the first sight of a toilet is undone by a film I saw which showed one in a prison cell. If only I could remember the name of the film.

R437, the powder room was always the place that the good woman got into a verbal, sometimes physical, catfight with the scheming tramp.

Whenever the authorities are dealing with a crazed psychotic serial killer, what is the first thing they do? Go to the nearest psychiatric hospital and talk to another crazed psychotic serial killer whom they captured years before.

People wear shower caps in the bathtub.

People take bubble baths.

R445 = Eve Harrington

R446 = Det. Clarese ?

The old cliche of when characters die, their eyes close, and their heads drop to one side.

As a former hospice nurse, I can tell you that never happens.

> People always dialing a phone number without having to use a phone book.

R57, in "the old days", phone numbers were a lot easier to remember:

1) Nearly everyone you called frequently wasn't just in your same areacode... they were in the same 1-3 local exchanges.

2) There were a LOT fewer areacodes. In the 1960s, the whole state of Florida was '305'. As recently as the early 1980s, Florida was just 305, 813, and 904. Orlando's split from 904 into 407 kicked off the first tidal wave, followed by a literal areacode explosion a decade later when metro areas like Miami & Tampa were themselves split off from their suburbs, then overlaid with multiple areacodes themselves.

So really, you had two kinds of numbers to remember:

Friends, whose number was basically {nn}[1..9]-xxxx, where you only had to juggle a few distinct values of {nn}.

Family members, whose areacode was burned into your brain as one of a few distinct 3-digit values with 0 or 1 in the middle, plus 7 digits. And more likely than not, half of your family members shared the same areacode & exchange, so it was like a form of mental data compression.

It wasn't until the turn of the century, with the arrival of number-portability and free nationwide long distance that 10-digit numbers WITH 10 SIGNIFICANT DIGITS really became "a thing". Sure, circa 1999, you could move to Florida & keep your New York phone number... but it had repercussions, because people in your new home would have resented paying long distance to call you. Hell, just 10 years ago, I had to pay for a landline phone I never used because my cell phone's number was from the adjacent county & my community's guardhouse wouldn't call nonlocal numbers to authorize guests.

R450 you make great points, but some people have photographic memories. I'm not MariLu Henner, but I never needed a personal phone book until I was 35, associated with a specific event. All my personal and professional names, addresses and numbers were "in my head". My evil, idiot BIL didn't understand how one I got out my cellular and dialed a friend, the local post office and UPS without accessing my favorites or looking up the numbers.

[quote]The notion of Psycho and the first sight of a toilet is undone by a film I saw which showed one in a prison cell. If only I could remember the name of the film.

Probably talking about how she took the lid off to hide the money, a real toilet.

"People wear shower caps in the bathtub. "

I think that actually used to happen, my mother used shower caps when I was a kid in the sixties. Since those nasty bouffants were only washed when the weekly trip to the salon was made, they had to be protected from water in the meantime, so that meant shower caps!

I can't imagine trying to have sex with a woman who was worried about squashing her bouffant.

R453, pssst, women don't want to have sex. They just want men to take a trip downtown!

^Correction: Many women, especially older women. There are plenty of younger, horny girls who take it up the butt and do nasty things today.

R445, it’s also the place she overheard two other women talking about her or her fiancé in a way that moves the plot forward.

And it’s also the place where the heroine on the run puts a scarf over her head, changes her lipstick color from Ultra-Dark Red to Blacker-Than-Red, puts on sunglasses and *poof* no one recognizes her. She walks right past 15 cops on the lookout for her, the lowlife gambler who’s chasing her, and the nice man she loves but protects by leaving him and gets on a train for Los Angeles (or Chicago, if the story already takes place in LA) without anyone noticing. Or so she thinks …

R445, it’s also the place she overheard two other women talking about her or her fiancé in a way that moves the plot forward.

And it’s also the place where the heroine on the run puts a scarf over her head, changes her lipstick color from Ultra-Dark Red to Blacker-Than-Red, puts on sunglasses and *poof* no one recognizes her. She walks right past 15 cops on the lookout for her, the lowlife gambler who’s chasing her, and the nice man she loves but protects by leaving him and gets on a train for Los Angeles (or Chicago, if the story already takes place in LA) without anyone noticing. Or so she thinks …

R450, I may go back further than you, or maybe it’s just a geographical difference, but no area codes were required for most calls in the DC area.* You just dialed the 7-digit number. Since, as you said, you dialed them often (no such thing as speed dial), you just remembered them.

*You might have had to dial 703 to call a Virginia suburb from Maryland (301 – the whole state), but no 202 was required for DC numbers, at least not from the town where I lived. But you did have to dial 301 to call Baltimore, should anyone ever have a desire to do so. There was a map and guide in the front of the phone book explaining which exchanges required the area code and which didn't ... also, which were local (free) calls and which were semi-long distance. (That is, toll calls that didn't require an area code.) Life was not simple "in the old days".

Nobody has mentioned this so far: testing the temperature of bathwater with a thermometer. This is unusual for us today, but was actually fairly common when there were separate hot and cold taps.

"... and Daddy's nice friend Mr. Epstein is offering summer jobs to all Eugenie's school friends! Is this what you call 'networking', then?"

Whoops, wrong thread!

I was just watching some old cartoons like the Herculoids where the dad, mom & 13 old son all jump out of their 30 foot tree home without injuring their legs (they don't land in bushes or anything like that just solid ground).

I wonder how many Tarzan type films have this same problem (with performers falling onto hidden mats to reduce impact when they jump down from high places).

Mannix was drugged or knocked unconscious 93 times and shot in the arm 18 times. And he could STILL remember his name and hold a glass.

Mobile telephone service was invented in 1910 by Swedish engineer Lars Magnus Ericsson. The technology advanced into the 1940' s and 1950's where it gained wider use.

Well into the 1970's and beyond one thing remained same; mobile calls required going through a "mobile operator" at phone company, no direct dial.

In film Sabrina, Humphrey Bogart's character had a mobile phone in his limo.

R464, Paul Drake had a mobile phone in his car throughout the run of [italic]Perry Mason[/italic], 1957-66. While it was not treated as routine, neither was it treated as an astonishing, previously unheard of innovation. And, indeed, he always placed calls through the mobile operator. What I can't figure out is why Perry didn't have one. Della or his answering service were always tracking him down in the most unlikely places.

"Hello. Richfield gas station. Scotty speaking."

"Hello? Is this the station at Hollywood and Van Ness? Is Perry Mason there?"

"Why, yes. How did you know?"

"Just a wild guess."

R465, LOL, that last part is hilarious. I know service via a mobile operator cost a fortune. As my family's attorney and my attorney said, she didn't watch that stuff because it's fictional garbage. She hated "Perry Mason" and "Murder, She Wrote". I believe mobile direct dial became available in the 1970s.

Wish I had the link to an article where a Jewish(?) girl had a date with Trump in the early 70s. He picked her up in a Caddy convertible with a phone and called to make a reservation at a famous NY steakhouse that only accepts cash and its own credit card. He was a bum, so she had to pay for dinner! It's on the net.

I posted that article not too long ago in the Peter Luger thread, R466.

[quote]The interior was cherry red. The dashboard was red, even the steering wheel was red. It made me feel woozy. Like I was sitting someplace I shouldn’t. It was not the best start for a date.

[quote]The car had a phone in it. I had never been in a car with a telephone. I don’t know why, but I didn’t think it was special. I just thought, who is this guy with a funny last name? He picked it up and said where would you like to go for dinner? I’ll make a reservation. I had no idea. The only place I could think to go in a car was to Peter Luger’s in Brooklyn. He makes the reservation on the car phone and we go.

[...]

[quote]So, my big shot, Cadillac, phone-in-convertible boring date couldn’t pay for dinner. He was stunned and embarrassed. I said, "Let’s get aprons and do the dishes. It would be fun." His face was horror-stricken. He was flustered. Relax, I have the money. Oh, thank God. He swore he’d pay me back tomorrow so many times that I thought it not likely.

[quote]He never did. That may tell you something about my date with Donald Trump.

r464, if you want a TOTAL mindfuck, consider this: CDMA (the fundamental technology that was first used in the US by Sprint and Verizon, and ultimately became the foundation of 3G GSM) was actually invented by a Soviet engineer in the 1960s. All Qualcomm did was recognize that the technology existed, hired as many Soviet engineers as it could after the Iron Curtain fell, developed a low-cost chipset to implement CDMA in mobile phones, and successfully pitched it to Sprint and Primeco (the company that ultimately became Verizon).

From film "Sabrina"

People being slapped across the face

R470, have you been punched in the face? I have; In my mind i saw an "explosion" then stars like in a Warner Bros cartoon. People get slapped in the face often.

I hooked up with a sweet top a few times who asked me to slap him across his face as hard as I could. I was a bit reticent, but he asked and I didn't mind complying with his desire. Maybe he'll see this and email me because he's a great guy and I miss him.

[quote]"Hello. Richfield gas station. Scotty speaking."

Extremely well-played, r465! I'm still laughing.

Apparently no one had normal bodily functions.

"Hold that thought, I need to drain the vein."

"Ew. Was that you?"

[quote] What I can't figure out is why Perry didn't have one

A lesson I quickly learned when I first had a phone installed in the car is it becomes too damn easy for the office tp fin you. I gave the phone away three months later.

Not old but in horror movies/tv the person being chased by a psycho killer always runs down to a basement or up to an attic instead of out the door. Every.Fucking.Time.

r466, what a pathetic thing for you to not even be able to discuss old television shows without some Trump non-sequitors. There is more to life hon.

R476 Aww shaddup Melania!!!

The really nice, large homes, with nice furnishings, that people have. I’m thinking of Friends and Seinfeld in particular. Did Kramer even work?

Escapism is nice, but...

[quote]Twin beds for married couples. That was never a thing, except on camera.

My aunt and uncle, who didn't seem particularly prudish, had separate beds until they moved to another house in the late 70s. The beds were full mattresses, not twins, though.

R476, thanks for your slap on the wrist. However, I heeded excellent advice from my gay, former psychiatrist/neurologist and some lessons from Buddhism that greatly improved my quality-of-life. They are don't be a hateful, bitchy queen, remain positive and avoid negative people! Everyone with intelligence and/or objectivity knows what President Trump and his clan are, so I don't need to take potshots at them here.

To remain on topic, I recall an episode of "All In The Family when Archie Bunker had a can of generic beer and was defending the GOP that didn't care about him (as he always did) and Edith had enough. She jumped up from her chair and proudly exclaimed, "I voted for Jimmy Carter!"

I urged a retired relative who never voted to vote in 2016. She voted for Hillary Clinton. She's in excellent health including a healthy mind and has a superb doctor. My father was the most conservative of Democrats and detested paying taxes, but never voted GOP because he knew what they were about and that everyone has to pay their fair share of taxes for our society to survive and prosper. That's a primary American problem; almost nobody wants to do that, does not have to by current law and believes that's doable. It is not.

R447, I used to take hot baths regularly for a bad bath. So did JFK since they were prescribed. If I added certain aromatherapy oils and salts and they bubbled up in the tub, was I going to complain to their manufacturers? LOL.

No, I just relaxed in there and enjoyed my hot bath and had to clean the tub.

^bad back

Regards phones in cars - now they're not only in cars but in pockets, purses and the like. Ain't technology grand.

R483, I respectfully point out that your "grand technology" permit everyone with them to be tracked and recorded 24/7/365 under the Patriot Act II and other laws. Recently, I needed a number I called once three years ago since my #1 provider stopped issuing billing with all numbers call/received and the call time years ago. Gave the customer service man the date, area code, exchange and location. He replied we'll provide that number/info if it's for a legal matter or a subpoena is issued, but that happened to be a personal call.

Remember "Highway Patrol"? Broderick Crawford would be chasing bad guys, but when they caught up to them, fat fuck Crawford would tell the super-fit cops to cover him while he waddled after the baddies.

The most unrealistic thing I've ever seen in movies? Spencer Tracy and 40-years-younger Robert Wagner as BROTHERS.

R480 You should expect folks to take potshots at the Trumps here.

The OP included tv shows in his title & Trump was the host of a tv show (Apprentice).

I'm surprised he wasn't brought up sooner.

R486, I know that will occur, but I try to restrain myself. That "You're fired!" hogwash never appealed to me. Must appeal to immature or hateful minds.

In other words, it appealed to deplorables.

R452

Those bouffants were teased and shellacked into place with hairsprays that were lacquer in can like Aero-Lac .

By the 1970's Clairol upped the ante with Final Net, a non-aerosol hairspray that did pretty much same thing.

As for shower caps plenty of women still used them in 1970's (and some beyond that decade). Mrs. Carol Brady may have been rocking that short wash and blow dry cut, but plenty of other women and girls were still doing once a week wash and sets either at home or salon. That was a several hour process so they wanted to get maximum use out of their set; hence shower and even slumber caps to protect hairstyle between salon visits or whatever.

Game changer for many girls and women came when Clairol introduced first hot rollers (Kindness hair setter). Not every girl/woman owned a hair dryer (bonnet or hard case) nor could afford weekly salon visits. So they blocked out a day, afternoon or whatever to wash and set their hair. Those curlers had to remain in until hair dried. Armed with a blow dryer and hot rollers you could do a wash and set in less time so in theory getting hair wet wasn't a huge deal. Though not recommended one could always could set hair again even if it wasn't freshly washed.

Clairol hot rollers, approved by America's favorite witch!

R490 I love Elizabeth but at certain times in her public career she sported "crazy eyes" similar to Kate Jackson.

Your video above at 0:27- 0:28 proves my point.

R491, maybe in your opinion, but Liz was a wonderful person and nobody had a bad word to say about her. Her father was GOP and she was a Democrat, which caused bad blood. Her ex-husband, Asher, didn't seem so nice. They divorced not long after "Bewitched" ended. He remarried to Joyce Bulifant, dingbat extraordinaire. Liz was an excellent Password contestant, didn't like celebrity life and enjoyed gardening. She was a gay-rights and AIDS activist. She was a smoker and died of cancer at 62.

I've never heard a bad word about Elizabeth Montgomery. By all accounts she was an absolutely lovely person. A shame she died so young.

Liz Montgomery supported Dick Sargent when he came out. I thought that was cool, back then it was less common for stars to support gay rights (even very liberal stars)

Not only supported him, R494, but Elizabeth and Dick Sargent served as grand marshals of the Los Angeles Pride parade in 1992.

Elizabeth Montgomery had an affair with another director in the last years of Bewitched. She moved in with him after the show stopped.

[quote]To remain on topic, I recall an episode of "All In The Family when Archie Bunker had a can of generic beer and was defending the GOP that didn't care about him (as he always did) and Edith had enough. She jumped up from her chair and proudly exclaimed, "I voted for Jimmy Carter!"

No, that isn't how it happened at all

But I loved Archie's follow up "Oh ho, now it all comes out, huh Edith"

In historical dramas, newspapers and telegrams are going yellow with age.

Speaking of newspapers, in old movies and TV shows, they often lack the date or have just day and month - no year.

I've never understood who the directors thought they were fooling. Was it for reruns during the run of the show? Did they think audiences would see the date and say "nineteen sixty-FIVE?! Well, I'm not watching this. It's not from this year, nineteen sixty-SIX!"

Or did they imagine audiences 10 years hence would not realize they were watching a decade-old TV show?

Getting a drink thrown in the face for behaving badly. Just saw this is Scenes from a Marriage (1973).

R194

In one of the major film release boobs of all time theatrrical distributor for NOTLD failed to include copyright notice on prints. Thus film never was copyrighted and passed into public domain.

Of course who knew that low budget film would turn do tens of millions at box office. Then would come things that weren't even invented such as cable, VCR, DVD, etc.....

R379

Mother was appalled at that scene, and father sensing what was coming sent my brothers and I from the room. For weeks father went on about "smut" being shown on television nowadays.

R493

Then you obviously haven't spoken with supporters or anyone connected with late Dick York.

R485

Broderick Crawford was not only fond of eating, but booze; both of which caused issues with production of Highway Patrol. The man quite literally was a confirmed drunkard and worse racked up a couple DUI offenses. It was all the studio and others could do to keep him off the sauce to get a day's worth of shooting done. Many times shots had to be filmed on private roads either to Mr. Crawford having issues with his license (suspended due to DUI), or he just wasn't safe to let loose otherwise.

Didn't Broderick Crawford quaff of the peen?

R222

Women wore their hair up in curlers because they did wash/set at home and either could not (as in not afford), or would not (didn't like spending ages under ) a hair dryer. Those bonnet and hard case dryers came in all sorts of variations, but some either couldn't afford to buy one or just didn't want to sit for an hour or more. Later on the various portable soft bonnet dryers in theory meant one could move around, but only far as cord reached.

So women just washed their hair, set it,then went to bed or whatever with rollers/curlers until hair dried.

Other main reason for leaving hair set (even after drying) as delaying comb out/styling until just before an event or something. Rather than have comb out at once (and risk ruining hairstyle) you left things up in curlers/rollers until after running errands, bathing, applying make-up. It makes no sense to take out rollers then have a hot shower or bath which will surely cause curls to droop a bit. Some women brought their own rollers to salon so they could leave after wash (maybe a rinse or color), set and dry. There might be a special price for this since customer wasn't charged for "comb out".

The alternative was to remove rollers and do basics of style (including adding hair), then wrap the hair up in a net. We saw this in Steel Magnolias.

Wasn't going out in public with hair in curlers something only lower-class women did? IIRC, it was frowned upon by the upper classes and considered tacky.

The "lower classes" also considered it tacky. I grew up working class and rarely saw curlers in public.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

From 1960's

Yes, there is a blog for "living in curlers"

If my Mother needed to shop with curlers (and it had to be almost an emergency) she went to the IGA store she seldom shopped at because it was kinda ghetto. No way she would have walked into her main store where her friends all shopped.

Especially on tv sit coms, breakfast is cereal and milk, maybe coffee and juice if an adult is eating, but mostly people eat cereal and milk for breakfast.

When a character at a bar orders a beer or whiskey without specifying a brand.

I'm watching the movie "Greta," and they did that thing of ending a phone conversation with no closing pleasantries, not even a goodbye, just hanging up.

R514

Not all strange; until rather recently most bars didn't have a wide selection of beers on tap. You usually got whatever was popular locally which varied by market, and or whatever arrangement bar owner had with a particular brewery or distributor.

As for whiskey pretty much same top brands on sale today were offered in 1960's and 1970's; what you got often depended upon type of bar, in particular regular clientele. Some places had (and still do have) a whole range from bottom to top shelf whiskey; others only a few or even just one. Some local dive joint in a working class neighborhood offered what people bought (or could afford). Maybe they kept some top shelf stuff for the occasional high roller, special event or whatever.

You know there is a shark close by in the sea because it is swimming with its dorsal fin protruding on the surface. Then it goes fully underwater to swim toward somebody to attack.

Radio stations that play only music - scene-appropriate music.

Is it a seduction scene? The seducer turns on the radio and gets only romantic mood music. No commercials, no announcements. No news, weather, traffic or sports.

Is the gangster's goon about to beat up the hero? He turns on the radio and immediately there's loud, blaring jazz. Still no DJ or ads.

Is it a TV show or movie set in the past? Just turn on the radio and the top hits of day play one after the other, no interruptions. It's "Mr. Sandman"! It's "Hey There"! It's "Sh-Boom"! Look, it's 1954! (This is still common, but lazy, practice.)

The only thing real of the original items mentioned was the phone in cars. My next door neighbors sisters boyfriend had a phone in his car in the late 70's. That was back when you didn't necessarily dial the call yourself oh no, you spoke to a mobile operator.

Of course now we ALL have phones in cars. Mine even connects to the car via USB or Bluetooth. And the car even has it's own super secret cellular services - it's not just Chrysler but GM that has this too. It's how I get my monthly maintenance reports via email. I mean why would I pay for either Sirius or Onstar - when my PHONE connects to the car and all those services are INCLUDED on the phone. Pretty funny when even the Chevy dealer said just tell the OnStar people you don't want the service.

And yeah - commerce completely fucked up radio broadcasting. Down here in the Atlanta metro area there's WCLK a good jazz station that's an NPR affiliate too. It belongs to Clark Atlanta University. I find it interesting as the place we came from had Brown University and they shut down the university radio station a couple years back. It's online now - WBRU.

R98, you have to do that in Helen Wagner's voice.

"BOB!"

Medicine cabinets.

Killers, home invaders, ghosts, stalkers, evil police officers seem to wait to attack their victims until after the victim closes the door on the medicine cabinet in the bathroom. Suddenly they are right behind the victim in the bathroom.

Hardworking, dedicated, determined coaches / teachers are all able to take charge of a groups of rude disadvantaged disinterested teenagers / kids (that everyone else has given up on), so that against all odds and without community / family / school support that same group of rude disadvantaged disinterested teenagers / kids against all odd finally wins the state tournament / medal / prize / spelling bee / election.

These shows always have nurses traveling to and from work in full uniforms wearing their caps. Grew up in 1970's knowing many nurses (including family members and neighbors) none of them wore their hats on way to work or on way home.

In old TV shows a person could put on an obviously fake gorilla suit and cause a hall of terrified people to flee the room.

R524 I’m confused, are they in a hall or room?

Watching 1970's detecive shows am amazed that Joe Mannix, Frank Cannon and others routinely arrive at crime scene (or discover) and then promptly begin looking around touching things which contaminates. They also remove evidence, items off murder victims etc... to do their own work first, then later on giving it to LE when done.

Hit send before correcting *detective*.

1. Police who respond to calls for help on detective shows. 2. Characters who report crimes or offer eyewitness reports (Unreal) 3. Police who don't shoot people on crime shows. (So stupid. That's an officer's job to shoot and kill people) 4. Characters on detective shows actually go willingly to a police station to speak with officers (On what planet does this take place?) 4. People who answer questions asked by police. (This seems like some type of propaganda)

Ending phone calls by just hanging up instead of saying "Goodbye" or "Bye" first.

Holding the telephone away from you and staring intently at it when someone on the other end of it has told you surprising news.

Tying a rag through someone's mouth somehow silences them. Yeah... right.

Maybe I'm just weird, but I can personally make a *hell* of a lot of noise, rag in mouth or not. I might not be able to speak clearly, but I could loudly grunt morse code to a 911 operator (who might not know it, but will nevertheless be recording my morse-monologue & hopefully has enough intelligence to recognize it AS morse code and play it back to someone who DOES know it).

The actor uses a cell phone, but the screen never lights up. Busted.

Someone "looking at scrolling characters", saying, "It's 2,000-bit AES encryption", then somehow cracking it a few seconds later.

I have just two words: "Negro" and "Pleaze". Because they'd literally *have* to be a "magical negro" to bruteforce a key that long.

A high-end desktop PC can bruteforce a 40-bit CSS or 56-bit DES key in about 30 seconds.

A 168-bit 3DES key or 64-80 bit RSA key takes about 1-6 weeks if you're a state intelligence agency with abundant resources, and about 6 months to a year with a few high-end PCs.

128-bit RSA should take about 10-25 years for the NSA (if it's their highest priority), and 50-200 for anyone else (unless some fundamental weakness in the key-generation or padding is discovered first).

256-bit? 100-1000 years absent some breakthrough in quantum computing or fundamental as-yet undiscovered weakness.

1024-bit? The universe will reach entropy first.

2048-bit? The big bang will have repeated itself 2 or 3 times already after the universe re-collapses, and all knowledge of our present universe will have been extinguished.

Modern encryption gets defeated, but NEVER via sheer brute force. It's simply impossible, and will continue to be until quantum computing is a real commercial product. And quantum computing itself is still largely theoretical. Imagine a malfunctioning computer where your confidence in the correctness of a given calculation approaches 0% -- that's what "quantum computing" is... an error rate SO HIGH, you can't even separate good from bad because nearly EVERYTHING is 'bad'.

Quantifying r532 in hard numbers to give a real sense of sheer magnitude:

Total grains of sand in the Sahara Desert: 10^28

Total atoms in the solar system: 10^57

Total atoms in the Milky Way Galaxy: 2.4 x 10^67

Total atoms in the known universe: 2.4 x 10^78

Total unique 2048-bit encryption keys: 3.23 x 10^616

That's right... there are approximately 10^538 times as many potential 2048-bit encryption keys as there are literal atoms in the known universe. It just kind of puts it all into perspective.

In the first episode of "The Mandalorian", the sea monster is able to prevent the spacecraft from taking off by holding on to it.

This is a multi-ton spacecraft with enough thrust to not only reach orbit, but achieve escape velocity as well. The temporary addition of a heavy creature would barely slow its ascent. Worst-case, it might delay reaching orbit by a few minutes, and require removal prior to leaving orbit... maybe.

Ice buckets that are always filled with ice that conveniently never melts.

Attractive women home alone for the evening wear form-fitting nightgowns, filmy negligees trimmed with marabou, and high-heeled satin mules ... presumably just in case Cary Grant happens to stop by.

People in current movies are never on their phones. Even young people.

Phones that ring after he receiver was picked up.

Amnesia and years long comas.

Alien abductions

The twin beds thing had nothing to do with Desi and Lucy. They were a morals issue for networks but also a real thing. My parents grew up having to share beds with siblings for parts of their childhoods. They didn’t want to have to do it as adults. King and queen sized beds are much later and made it more CO2 to share a bed. Someone needs to chloroform the trolls who think the world revolves around Lucy.

CO2 should be comfortable

One that you still see, most often in Hallmark Christmas movies: Boxed gifts in which the box and its cover are wrapped separately, so to open the gift, all one has to do is remove the cover and not tear at the wrapping paper. Has anyone ever wrapped a gift this way in real life?

My husband used to wrap gifts in the manner you described. His work was outstanding and always well-received, some packages taking an hour or more. One of his more spectacular creations involved several widths of various ribbons stacked one on top of the other, to which he hand-sewed interlocking brass buckles on the two narrow ends. PITA to my way of thinking(I'm a gift bag and tissue paper kinda' guy), but he loved to do it.

Getting out of the taxicab and then paying the driver through the window. Never happens in real life.

The actress playing the leading lady's mother is less than ten years older than her.

A horse-faced, middle-aged woman with the most annoying personality on Earth can score some of the hottest dick in New York City.

Despite getting hit in the head frequently with anvils, sledgehammers, and shovels, none of The Three Stooges received a traumatic brain injury.

Star Trek’s Captain Kirk could always destroy some evil computer by feeding it contradictions. “

Kirk: Computer, I am a liar. Everything I say is a lie. Acknowledge. Computer: Acknowledged. Kirk: I lied to you,. Compute! Computer: Everything you say is a lie, but you said you were lying, therefore, you are telling the truth. But if you are telling the truth then everything you say is not a lie.

They used this trope as a deus ex for many episodes. It ranks right up there with the one karate chop to the neck equals unconscious victim schtick that was common in many action shows in the 1960s.

^^deus ex machina

The timing is always perfect. Everything always goes as planned.

[quote] and father sensing what was coming sent my brothers and I from the room.

Oh, dear!

To add a little to r125’s post:

When on the telephone, the person we see will tell us what the other person is supposedly saying.

“Yeah hi. Is Frank there?”

“Oh, you say he just left? Did he say where he was going?”

“Oh, to the Santa Monica piers, huh? Ok, thanks.”

r125, it's called exposition. Soaps are notorious for using it to catch the viewer up on the plot line.

"I'd rather not tell you over the the telephone," says the spy/cop-hero's informant.

[Because if I told you now, then you'd know the one bit of crucial information that will crack the case. It's much more fun to leave you guessing after I'm murdered on the way to our rendezvous.]

"I don't want to discuss it over the phone" was always a standard soap opera line, because face-to-face meetings are more "dramatic" than watching someone talk into a receiver.

An action/disaster/horror film where the main character calms down a minor character who is panicking by telling them that everything is going to be okay only for said minor character to get killed off less than half an hour later.

R541

Actually saw this often enough, at least in Manahttan, NYC. Think it had much to do with where a guy kept his wallet.

In those huge old checker cabs there was room to stretch out to reach one's wallet if it was in back pocket. OTOH space in back seat of a Crown Victoria could be rather tight. This especially if driver (as they wont to do) had seat all way back for his own driving comfort.

Movie villains are such bad shots. They fire their weapons at the protagonist, but they never seem to hit their mark.

Also, movie villains think of elaborate ways of dispatching the hero, such as strapping them to a conveyor belt of doom, thus giving them a chance of escaping, rather than just shooting them dead on the spot.

R543 But that woman had a rockin' body! Trust me, that's enough for many straight men.

R449 You mean this doesn't happen?

Watching Cannon and Mannix past few weeks noticed people order drinks or answer "yes" when offered say coffee, but never drink.

Also when coffee is offered and poured out if you look carefully there isn't a whiff of steam. It must therefore be some very cold brew or just colored water. No wonder no one drinks the stuff.

Noticed also no one asks "who is it?" before opening their doors. This was the 1970's or so when cannot imagine people in LA or any other major urban or even suburban area just answering a door that way. The only time you see those old chain devices on doors (and people using them) is when it is for a plot device. Something like door will be kicked in, or the hero will only be allowed to ask questions through a partially opened door.

So many black doctors and surgeons on Grey's Anatomy. In real life, the majority would be nurses or custodians.

R559

Are you joking or just live on Mars or somewhere?

IIRC GA is set in modern times and there are scores of AA doctors. Not all practice at famous lily-white hospitals, but never the less they are out there.

Even going back to 1970's or 1980's medical dramas like Trapper John, M.D, you saw AA interns, residents, and doctors. Most certainly if plot in question involved urban/inner city hospitals.

Actually R103 I ALWAYS call my sister "sis" and never by her name.

Badly written exposition: "Hey, remember when John Smith was convicted of burning down that abandoned warehouse ten years ago, but everyone believed he was taking the rap for Dale Johnson? He's out of prison now"

Or historical dramas where the dialogue sounds like it was cribbed from an encyclopedia entry. "The Archduke Franz Ferdinand was just assassinated. This will cause turmoil throughout Europe, leading to a war!"

r559 is a racist.

Shun him gals!

I know this is an old thread but chloroform is very poisonous R1. If you just use the slightest amount too much on a person it will kill them instantly. Glad you didn't get to play around with it.

One thing that is absolutely ridiculous to me is when someone human ((i.e. not a vampire or person from Krypton) kills someone just by snapping his or her neck with a violent twist. It literally would require superhuman strength to do that--even John Cena couldn't kill someone that way. But on "The Borgias," Micheletto (played by the superhot yet ugly Sean Davis) killed people right and left by simply snapping their necks.

How every number that they dialed started with 555-

Yes, r565,one of my pet peeves, too. Lots of screenwriters have taken the easy way out and had people kill others with a simple twist of the neck, which of course kills the person instantly. Thinking of Chris Meloni killing Brian Bloom in Oz after a blow job with barely any effort. If humans could be killed that easily, we'd all be dead.

[quote]At the dinner table food is pushed around the plate or a fork full is raised to the mouth right before the eater decides to speak.

Sex And The City when they would meet for brunch I noticed that Cynthia Nixon (Miranda) would actually eat, she is the only one.

Here's something they currently do, that I was noticing on some show just last night: kitchen counters always have bowls HEAPED with fruit. Who eats all that fruit before it goes bad?

You've never heard of plastic fruit?

That being said depending upon type of it doesn't take much to created a bowl "heaped" with fruit.

Few bananas, apples, pears, and oranges are more than enough to fill a good sized bowl. Also in a household with more than one person (especially children), idea is often to get people to eat what they see in front of them. Thus if you put out the good for you stuff (such as fruit) people will reach for something out of that bowl.

Well that’s my fruit observation thoroughly debunked.

How about this: People in movies and on TV are always staring poetically and motionlessly off into the distance, thinking their deep thoughts at length. Never a fidget.