Faux Life: Things That Happen On TV But Not In Reality

[Annber03]

3 minutes ago, JacquelineAppleton said:

A lot of commercials seem to use little girls for emotional  manipulation reasons.

So do public service announcements - the recent Australian government

PSA for National Missing Persons Week chose to use a father and young

daughter as the ones left behinf, rather than a father and young son.

Yeah, I've definitely noticed that, too. Sad little girls pull out the protective instincts in people, it seems. Just your description of it alone makes it sound heartbreaking.

On a related note regarding your mention of Australian PSAs, I remember seeing a video once on YouTube showing a compilation of PSAs from around the world, most of which were anti-drug/drinking related, or advertising the importance of paying attention to the road while driving.

And the main thing I took away from that video was that HOLY SHIT, Australia does not mess around when it comes to scaring the bejesus out of viewers with those kinds of ads. The same could be said for many of the ads from the UK that were in that compilation, too-I felt like both places were in some sort of unspoken competition to see who could come up with the most disturbing, nightmare-inducing PSAs. Mind, there's been some freaky, memorable ones from here in the States, too, that come to mind for me, but even then....

[Jacqs]

@Annber03 Here's the PSA i was talking about. Using a long haired girl and putting a hair bow in her hair is also trying to get a specific reaction from the audience that you wouldn't get with a short haired butch tomboy:

[Annber03]

Looking at the actual ad, I think if you put any little kid in there and had them being all sniffly it could work. But yeah, it'd be interesting to see how the dialogue would've come off had they had a different kid in the role. Particularly the bit about wanting a new car.

For me, personally, it'd be an emotional ad no matter what-when the dad started talking about why they needed to keep this car I legit got all misty-eyed. Damn. 

[Jacqs]

Yeah but the gender of the child and the long hair and hair decoration are designed to help get a specific reaction from the parents in the audience. I'm only surprised that they didn't put her in a pink satin dress with white underskirt.

[Trini]

On 8/22/2018 at 3:31 AM, jennblevins said:

I have a couple of necklaces with magnetic clasps — they could probably be pulled off without hurting the necklace, although it would dig into the back of the neck before the magnets disconnected.

This is my other issue with necklace snatching -- doesn't it hurt the person? Okay, half the time the snatcher doesn't care about the person, but still!

[Jacqs]

@Annber03 Sorry, it's partly me not realising what is happening in the Missing Persons PSA. I just realised that the kid is carrying a birthday present at the start of the short - that must be why she's wearing the fancy hair band and special outfit - they are on their way to a birthday party. I think the Rapunzel hair is just because most people still emotionally associate long hair with femininity. But like you said, the PSA would play out differently with a little boy because sad little girls make adults feel protective, particularly adult women.

[Silver Raven]

On 8/20/2018 at 5:20 AM, Raja said:

Around the time of the second LA Riots, the Rodney King ones I was working with a next generation of low income youth around LA and the Compton schools. I was amazed at the number of barely 30 year old grandmothers that I was encountering. Meanwhile in the broader society  first time mothers were getting older and older. On TV the sexy lead of shows were increasingly in their 40s.  So we had this interesting situation of grandparents, of the TV character class both being older than in the early days of TV however being younger looking and more active  than the grandparents of shows produced from the 50s well into the 80s

Whenever I watch old 40s and 50s era "etiquette" films that were designed to show kids how to behave, the parents of teenagers always look like they're in their 50s.

On 8/22/2018 at 1:06 AM, Annber03 said:

Yeah, I've definitely noticed that, too. Sad little girls pull out the protective instincts in people, it seems. Just your description of it alone makes it sound heartbreaking.

On a related note regarding your mention of Australian PSAs, I remember seeing a video once on YouTube showing a compilation of PSAs from around the world, most of which were anti-drug/drinking related, or advertising the importance of paying attention to the road while driving.

And the main thing I took away from that video was that HOLY SHIT, Australia does not mess around when it comes to scaring the bejesus out of viewers with those kinds of ads. The same could be said for many of the ads from the UK that were in that compilation, too-I felt like both places were in some sort of unspoken competition to see who could come up with the most disturbing, nightmare-inducing PSAs. Mind, there's been some freaky, memorable ones from here in the States, too, that come to mind for me, but even then....

This is from the Australian Metro System

[Annber03]

@Silver Raven

...well. That ad was...something :p. I'm gonna have that song stuck in my head the rest of the evening now. 

("Use your private parts as piranha bait"???)

[jennblevins]

19 hours ago, Trini said:

This is my other issue with necklace snatching -- doesn't it hurt the person? Okay, half the time the snatcher doesn't care about the person, but still!

Half the time it hurts to just wear a necklace, never mind having it yanked off!  (Maybe just me?) Magnetic clasp or not, if someone tried to forcibly remove my necklace, I’d be tempted to forcibly remove some of their hair. 

[Jacqs]

i still wish i hadn't given into pressure to wear a necklace to prom. Or a dress that was my mother's fav color...

[Shannon L.]

Everyone woman's best friend wears the same size clothes and shoe size as evidenced by the number of times we see the following scenario:

"Wait...you're not going to wear that are you?"

"Yeah..."
"No, you can't wear that.  Come with me"

Then they look through the friend's closet to find just the right outfit, including shoes, and they always fit perfectly.

Also, whenever someone is having dinner with a very wealthy family, they always look at the cold bowl of clear liquid and mistake it for soup when it's really a finger bowl.

[Nordly Beaumont]

When a rich person loses their money or (more likely) has a temporary freeze on their money, they have to learn to shop more economically. So they go Thrift Store shopping - hilarity ensues! But why did they even need new clothes? They have plenty!

[Bastet]

1 hour ago, Shannon L. said:

Everyone woman's best friend wears the same size clothes and shoe size as evidenced by the number of times we see the following scenario:

"Wait...you're not going to wear that are you?"

"Yeah..."
"No, you can't wear that.  Come with me"

Then they look through the friend's closet to find just the right outfit, including shoes, and they always fit perfectly.

My best friend and I do wear the same size clothes and shoes, and the few times we have needed to borrow something from each other, we have remarked on what a stroke of luck it is.  My other two closest friends are both significantly shorter than me, with feet several sizes smaller.  The only thing I could borrow from one of them would be a scarf.

[Silver Raven]

3 hours ago, Shannon L. said:

Also, whenever someone is having dinner with a very wealthy family, they always look at the cold bowl of clear liquid and mistake it for soup when it's really a finger bowl.

They actually went there in Crazy Rich Asians.

[shapeshifter]

3 hours ago, Shannon L. said:

Also, whenever someone is having dinner with a very wealthy family, they always look at the cold bowl of clear liquid and mistake it for soup when it's really a finger bowl.

I have some vague memory from childhood of being somewhere that had those finger bowls and embarrassing my mother by asking what they were for.

 

2 hours ago, Bastet said:

My best friend and I do wear the same size clothes and shoes, and the few times we have needed to borrow something from each other, we have remarked on what a stroke of luck it is. 

I recall a neighbor lending me boots to wear to the show-opening of a very good looking fellow artist in the 80s. They fit perfectly. Very Cinderella. I should've gone dancing with him--I don't recall why I said no. *Sigh.* Pre-Facebook. I can't even recall his name.

Edited August 28, 2018 by shapeshifter
wrong decade

[Shannon L.]

38 minutes ago, Silver Raven said:

They actually went there in Crazy Rich Asians.

Yeah, that's where I got it and I remember seeing it several times over the years.

Edited August 28, 2018 by Shannon L.

[Pindrop]

The Misunderstanding (often the low point of Act 2/3 in RomComs but also seen in many soaps and teen dramas).

Features: -

• The misunderstanding would always take 30 seconds to resolve if those involved actually bothered to converse.
• In order to prevent the misunderstanding being discovered; either, a) huge contrivances of plot are required, or, b) the characters must behave like astonishingly unreasonable arseholes; the sort of people, who in real life, you would cut out of your social circle instantly for treating you with such contempt, disdain and disrespect. 
• Yet all is eventually explained, forgiven and forgotten despite the unpleasant behaviour of one or all involved, rather than being a thorn of distrust in the side of the relationship, or a seething ball of resentment.  

Edited August 30, 2018 by Pindrop

[ChromaKelly]

On 8/27/2018 at 8:16 PM, Shannon L. said:

 

Also, whenever someone is having dinner with a very wealthy family, they always look at the cold bowl of clear liquid and mistake it for soup when it's really a finger bowl.

I have never once been to a dinner that had a finger bowl. I guess I'm not Fancy.

[ratgirlagogo]

8 hours ago, Pindrop said:

The Misunderstanding

This is generally referred to as the Idiot Plot.  James Blish invented the term and most of the rest of us learned it from Roger Ebert.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IdiotPlot

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiot_plot

[DrSpaceman]

The Idiot Plot is helped by the fact that in TVLand, you can't hear through doors, walls or even into the next room.  A couple can step three feet away from someone and suddenly they can't hear anything you are saying.  Conversation in the kitchen with someone in the next room?  No, they can't here, there is a flimsy revolving door there!!!  Its soundproof!!!

[DrSpaceman]

Hospital drugs before surgery work very quick and are more like a truth serum than pain meds.  You give them to a patient and suddenly they are revealing their true thoughts and deep seated feelings to all those around them!

Also someone wakes up from a coma on TV and they look great!!!   Not bloated and smelly and needle stuck and muscle atrophied like in real life, but like they just woke up from a short nap after getting all dolled up to go out for the night.  And they can talk perfectly, not hoarse or straining their voices from the intubation. OH they might have a little nasal canula oxygen or a peripheral IV stick here or there, but other than that they are perfect. 

But of course they can't remember anything or anyone

[shapeshifter]

52 minutes ago, DrSpaceman said:

But of course they can't remember anything or anyone

--from one second before they witnessed a crime or a friend confessed undying romantic love to the coma/amnesia character

[Jacqs]

On My Three Sons should they have had Dawn Lyn (Dodie) match her on-screen "mom" Beverly Garland (Barbara), either with a blonde wig or blonde hair dye?

Mis-matches like that always remind me of Ruthie Camden (Seventh Heaven) and how she's probably the daughter of the ethnic guy across the street...

[MaryMitch]

18 hours ago, JacquelineAppleton said:

On My Three Sons should they have had Dawn Lyn (Dodie) match her on-screen "mom" Beverly Garland (Barbara), either with a blonde wig or blonde hair dye?

Then she would have looked like a Brady!  I always thought Cindy Brady's hair was ridiculous.

I don't think Beverly Garland was/is a natural blonde either.

[kassygreene]

2 minutes ago, MaryMitch said:

Then she would have looked like a Brady!  I always thought Cindy Brady's hair was ridiculous.

I don't think Beverly Garland was/is a natural blonde either.

As most "blondes" of the era were not natural blondes (look at the roots - nearly always dark), it was much more realistic for the children of those "blondes" to have brown hair... and dying the hair of a child always skeeves me out.

[fishcakes]

On 8/27/2018 at 5:16 PM, Shannon L. said:

Also, whenever someone is having dinner with a very wealthy family, they always look at the cold bowl of clear liquid and mistake it for soup when it's really a finger bowl.

A friend told me that he once was served what he thought was dessert in a Japanese restaurant, but when he bit into it, he realized it was a rolled up hot washcloth to clean his hands with.

[Katy M]

13 minutes ago, fishcakes said:

A friend told me that he once was served what he thought was dessert in a Japanese restaurant, but when he bit into it, he realized it was a rolled up hot washcloth to clean his hands with.

I think he might be exaggerating.  Even if he thought it was a dessert by sight, before he could take a bite he would have to get it to his mouth.  That either means picking it up with his hands, where he would feel it was cloth, using a knife and fork, which probably wouldn't work to well, or using chopsticks where the washcloth would be too big, or at least big enough that it would flop in the chopsticks, making it obvious it wasn't food.

[Jacqs]

2 hours ago, Katy M said:

I think he might be exaggerating.  Even if he thought it was a dessert by sight, before he could take a bite he would have to get it to his mouth.  That either means picking it up with his hands, where he would feel it was cloth, using a knife and fork, which probably wouldn't work to well, or using chopsticks where the washcloth would be too big, or at least big enough that it would flop in the chopsticks, making it obvious it wasn't food.

You twist the story - you bring facts into the story :)

[Pindrop]

Ok, if I had a hot gay mate, I would think, fuck it, I have enough gay in me that we can have fun, but in shows, they always act like Santa is judging them, and Santa is gay! 

[ChromaKelly]

When confronting your arch-nemesis, it's best to do it on a catwalk above whirring machinery that will surely kill you, a pit of alligators, molten lava, sharks with laser beams...

[ganesh]

You're correct, which is why the scene in Heat was so great. 

[meep.meep]

On 8/30/2018 at 2:10 PM, DrSpaceman said:

 

Also someone wakes up from a coma on TV and they look great!!!   Not bloated and smelly and needle stuck and muscle atrophied like in real life, but like they just woke up from a short nap after getting all dolled up to go out for the night.  And they can talk perfectly, not hoarse or straining their voices from the intubation. OH they might have a little nasal canula oxygen or a peripheral IV stick here or there, but other than that they are perfect. 

That's because TV hospitals have hair and makeup experts on staff to go around and keep everyone looking spiffy.  Never know when those coma patients are going to wake up.   What if their mascara isn't perfect?

[Jacqs]

57 minutes ago, meep.meep said:

That's because TV hospitals have hair and makeup experts on staff to go around and keep everyone looking spiffy.  Never know when those coma patients are going to wake up.   What if their mascara isn't perfect?

There's a wonderful genderswap fiction where a cold-feeted bride magically turns a male best friend into her duplicate to stand-in for her at the wedding and he goes to bed without taking off Jessica's full face of make-up ("It looks like Tammy Faye Bakker exploded all over the pillow!")

[shapeshifter]

In reruns of The Nanny and Monk airing on different stations this morning, both had scenes in which the main character accidentally dropped something in a coffin during a funeral. Hi-jinks ensue.
Does this ever happen IRL?

Edited September 6, 2018 by shapeshifter

[Katy M]

1 hour ago, shapeshifter said:

In reruns of The Nanny and Monk airing on different stations this morning, both had scenes in which the main character accidentally dropped something in a coffin during a funeral. Hi-jinks ensue.
Does this ever happen IRL?

I doubt it.  I supposed once in a great great great while, someone may drop something. But, I doubt hijinks ensue.  You either notice immediately and reach in and get it.  You notice a bit later and speak to the funeral director to get it.  Or, you notice it after it's been buried and you're just SOL.

[Shannon L.]

No matter what forest you need to run into, it always has trees wide enough to make a clear path--and the path is indeed clear.  No thick brush, very few fallen trees or branches, no low hanging branches or trees big enough and close enough together that you need to push the branches aside lest you get smacked in the face by them.  Just a nice, clean, clear path with maybe the occasional log to jump over.

[Bastet]

24 minutes ago, Shannon L. said:

Just a nice, clean, clear path with maybe the occasional log to jump over.

Trip over, especially if you're a woman.  So the killer can catch up with you.

(I guess I should be happy for the log; after decades of horror movies, I'm so tired of women tripping over their own damn feet while fleeing.)

[Jacqs]

I met Elizabeth Smart at one of her speaking engagements and she spoke about those who criticized her for not trying to escape/not fighting back. She said "do they think i wanted to be hurt?". Expecting every woman to be all ninja/"I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar!" is ridiculous and misjudging a situation can get a woman killed.

[AuntieL]

Seriously, people criticize a kidnap victim, a young girl at the time, for not fighting back?  FFS it's real life not a Marvel comic movie. The fact that she came out of it alive and  able to function in the world is a testament to her strength. 

[Jacqs]

4 minutes ago, AuntieL said:

Seriously, people criticize a kidnap victim, a young girl at the time, for not fighting back?  FFS it's real life not a Marvel comic movie. The fact that she came out of it alive and  able to function in the world is a testament to her strength. 

despite the advice of surely well intended people or what statistics can say, there’s not one correct way to react in that situation. You can get lucky and read a person right, or you can inadvertently make the situation worse. Expecting women (or even a man) to be some ninja ready to fight off an attack like in the movies is absurd, and no victim should be expected to behave in a certain way. I can’t believe anyone could criticize the actions of someone trying to survive.  

Some could be put off or scared by a woman fighting back. Other women like Mickey Shunick and Diana Quer fought off their attackers and were killed for it.

The same can be said for being compliant. Lisa McVey did everything Bobby Joe Long told her to, and in the end she convinced him to let her go. But then serial killer Monte Rissell got angry when one of his victims pretended to want to have sex with him, and he killed her.

[Nordly Beaumont]

4 hours ago, Shannon L. said:

No thick brush, very few fallen trees or branches, no low hanging branches or trees big enough and close enough together that you need to push the branches aside lest you get smacked in the face by them.  Just a nice, clean, clear path with maybe the occasional log to jump over.

Oh, I never thought of this! Whenever I've walked in a forest or wooded area I've had to constantly watch the ground for tree roots, rocks, and uneven ground. Just think, if I walked through horror movie forests, I could look around and enjoy the scenery for once!

[shapeshifter]

Some woods have such dense undergrowth that you'd have to be a frickin' flyin' squirrel to escape anyone.
But not on TV.

[Browncoat]

And no one who goes into the woods on TV ever runs into a spider web at face level.  That always happens to me!

[DrSpaceman73]

On ‎9‎/‎6‎/‎2018 at 1:09 PM, Katy M said:

I doubt it.  I supposed once in a great great great while, someone may drop something. But, I doubt hijinks ensue.  You either notice immediately and reach in and get it.  You notice a bit later and speak to the funeral director to get it.  Or, you notice it after it's been buried and you're just SOL.

You mean you don't end up secretly digging up the coffin yourself to retrieve said object? (which also happens often on TV shows.  )

[Katy M]

3 hours ago, DrSpaceman73 said:

You mean you don't end up secretly digging up the coffin yourself to retrieve said object? (which also happens often on TV shows.  )

I don't know from personal experience, but I have a feeling it is a lot harder to dig a grave than how they make it look on TV.  I suppose re-digging a freshly dug grave would be easier, but still.  f the coffin is really 6 feet down, and 6 feet long and maybe 2 feet wide, that's a lot of dirt.

[DrSpaceman73]

This is one where I really don't know if its true but is used quite often on TV :  do people really try to live in storage sheds? 

I can imagine all sorts of weird ass shit and secret stuff is hidden in them, but I wonder if people do live in them. 

[Annber03]

4 minutes ago, Katy M said:

I don't know from personal experience, but I have a feeling it is a lot harder to dig a grave than how they make it look on TV.  I suppose re-digging a freshly dug grave would be easier, but still.  f the coffin is really 6 feet down, and 6 feet long and maybe 2 feet wide, that's a lot of dirt.

If my time watching true crime shows is any indication, yeah, it's definitely tougher. Especially depending on what time of year you try to dig a grave, 'cause of the ground being cold and hard in the winter and all. Lot of people get tripped up trying to hide bodies that way. 

[meep.meep]

There was a contestant on Survivor who was a gravedigger, and he was ripped!  Perfect body.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti (English painter) had his wife's coffin dug up so that he could retrieve the book of poetry, unpublished, that he had buried with her.

3 minutes ago, DrSpaceman73 said:

This is one where I really don't know if its true but is used quite often on TV :  do people really try to live in storage sheds? 

I can imagine all sorts of weird ass shit and secret stuff is hidden in them, but I wonder if people do live in them. 

A series of earthquakes destroyed lots of buildings in Christchurch, New Zealand.  They are using shipping containers to provide housing until they can decide where and when it will be safe to rebuild.  So yes.

[Bastet]

One of the great things about being a TV character is that if you need to dig up a grave, buried treasure, or what have you, not only can you do it quickly and without breaking a sweat, you are so skilled you will dig out a perfect square or rectangle, with perfect edges even.  And, even if a grave, you'll only have a small mound of removed dirt to deal with.

[DrSpaceman73]

1 hour ago, meep.meep said:

There was a contestant on Survivor who was a gravedigger, and he was ripped!  Perfect body.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti (English painter) had his wife's coffin dug up so that he could retrieve the book of poetry, unpublished, that he had buried with her.

A series of earthquakes destroyed lots of buildings in Christchurch, New Zealand.  They are using shipping containers to provide housing until they can decide where and when it will be safe to rebuild.  So yes.

OK so yes in those circumstances, they used the shipping containers to house people, which is fine.

But outside of those explicit conditions where they were basically repurposed for this, say the permanent storage areas you see in cities or off the side of the road, do people actually try to rent and live in those?  I am sure its illegal.  IT should be if its not.  But do people do it anyway?