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

[CoderLady]

Two detectives drive up, park and get out of their car to question a guy on the street. The guy takes off running. One of the detectives runs after him, the other one jumps back into the car. The foot chase goes on through a maze of back alleys and yards with the suspect/potential witness pulling away from the detective until he bursts out into the open, at which time the detective in the car who has somehow managed to follow them pulls up in front of him and blocks his path long enough for the running detective to catch up and nab him.

[BookWitch]

1 hour ago, CoderLady said:

Two detectives drive up, park and get out of their car to question a guy on the street. The guy takes off running. One of the detectives runs after him, the other one jumps back into the car. The foot chase goes on through a maze of back alleys and yards with the suspect/potential witness pulling away from the detective until he bursts out into the open, at which time the detective in the car who has somehow managed to follow them pulls up in front of him and blocks his path long enough for the running detective to catch up and nab him.

Not to mention running guy is crashing into flower vendors and knocking stuff over.  Haven't seen the plate glass window one in awhile. 

[bijoux]

On 11/29/2020 at 4:01 AM, kiddo82 said:

I'm not saying I'm above an emotional outburst, but I've never once smashed a mirror in anger.   Characters on TV seem to do this all the time.  And then we get a shot of their shattered reflection in the mirror.  Or in a public bathroom they rip the paper towel dispenser off the wall.  I always like it when they show the person actually hurting either their hand or their foot as a result of said outburst.  

I admit to airing my teenage frustrations over a botched haircut by smashing a hand held mirror in a bathroom sink once. I didn't stare at my fractured reflection afterwards, but picked up the pieces after some deep exhales. I didn't repeat it, but it was a pretty effective way to vent. 

[Moose135]

16 hours ago, Blergh said:

none of the Waltons or Ingalls were seen shoveling manure from the livestock's stalls! I know it's by no means a pleasant or photogenic activity but  this is something farmers MUST do on at least a daily basis if they want to keep said livestock healthy! 

I don't need my television - especially something that isn't a documentary - quite that realistic.

[andromeda331]

5 hours ago, CoderLady said:

Two detectives drive up, park and get out of their car to question a guy on the street. The guy takes off running. One of the detectives runs after him, the other one jumps back into the car. The foot chase goes on through a maze of back alleys and yards with the suspect/potential witness pulling away from the detective until he bursts out into the open, at which time the detective in the car who has somehow managed to follow them pulls up in front of him and blocks his path long enough for the running detective to catch up and nab him.

 

4 hours ago, BookWitch said:

Not to mention running guy is crashing into flower vendors and knocking stuff over.  Haven't seen the plate glass window one in awhile. 

He's also knocking people down. Just so you know he's a bad guy.

[Brandi Maxxxx]

20 hours ago, Blergh said:

Oh, and something else I thought was a bit much: none of the Waltons or Ingalls were seen shoveling manure from the livestock's stalls! I know it's by no means a pleasant or photogenic activity but  this is something farmers MUST do on at least a daily basis if they want to keep said livestock healthy! 

 

4 hours ago, Moose135 said:

I don't need my television - especially something that isn't a documentary - quite that realistic.

I don't think we need to see them handling animal waste any more than we need to see them handling their own waste.

[Trini]

5 hours ago, andromeda331 said:

 

10 hours ago, BookWitch said:

Not to mention running guy is crashing into flower vendors and knocking stuff over.  Haven't seen the plate glass window one in awhile. 

He's also knocking people down. Just so you know he's a bad guy.

I hate that trope; it faster to NOT knock into everyone!

[Shannon L.]

The cops/FBI always find the criminal they are looking for while they are in the act of committing their crime.

[smittykins]

12 hours ago, Brandi Maxxxx said:

don't think we need to see them handling animal waste any more than we need to see them handling their own waste.

However, I do remember Carrie Ingalls running to the outhouse.

[Raja]

38 minutes ago, Shannon L. said:

The cops/FBI always find the criminal they are looking for while they are in the act of committing their crime.

Which does remind me of a real life LAPD unit with a couple of movies about them. Back before 3 strikes laws the police waited for their target to commit a bigger felony just so the prison sentence would be longer, assuming the criminal didn't try to fight the undercover cops who surprised them into a gunfight.

[DoctorAtomic]

19 hours ago, andromeda331 said:

 

He's also knocking people down. Just so you know he's a bad guy.

Like if anyone came charging at me knocking people over, I'd clothesline them. 

[DoctorAtomic]

You will eat the apple with a knife if you are the bad guy. 

[Irlandesa]

6 hours ago, DoctorAtomic said:

You will eat the apple with a knife if you are the bad guy. 

 

I....eat applies with knives. 

[Zella]

12 hours ago, smittykins said:

However, I do remember Carrie Ingalls running to the outhouse.

The outhouse gets a fair amount of shoutouts in the show! 🤣

[SVNBob]

10 hours ago, DoctorAtomic said:

You will eat the apple with a knife if you are the bad guy. 

 

3 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

 

I....eat applies with knives. 

So do a couple of Big Damn Heroes that I know of...

 

[WinnieWinkle]

I've noticed this before but a Christmas movie I was just watching did this every single time - people who are on the phone and just hang up.  No good bye, no see you soon, nothing.  The person on the other end says something and the character we're watching just hangs up.  Who does this?  Maybe once in  awhile or if you got a crank call or something.  But in conversation with someone you know or are doing business with you just hang up??  I don't think so!

[Irlandesa]

6 hours ago, WinnieWinkle said:

No good bye, no see you soon, nothing.  The person on the other end says something and the character we're watching just hangs up.  Who does this? 

Ha.  Apparently I do this.  My sister will chastise me even though I think it's perfectly clear when our conversation is over and a "goodbye" is unnecessary. 

I am starting to realize I am an evil person who does a lot of faux things. 

I can live with this.

[WinnieWinkle]

16 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

My sister will chastise me even though I think it's perfectly clear when our conversation is over and a "goodbye" is unnecessary. 

I think if both people in the conversation know the conversation is over then how you end your call is entirely up to you.  The situations I'm citing though aren't that clear cut.  To me just hanging up after someone else has spoken is just not something I think I'd do. I know if I were the one at the other end of the call I'd assume the other person was either mad at me or that their house suddenly caught fire!

Edited December 8, 2020 by WinnieWinkle

[Katy M]

3 hours ago, WinnieWinkle said:

I think if both people in the conversation know the conversation is over then how you end your call is entirely up to you.  The situations I'm citing though aren't that clear cut.  To me just hanging up after someone else has spoken is just not something I think I'd do. I know if I were the one at the other end of the call I'd assume the other person was either mad at me or that their house suddenly caught fire!

They actually addressed this in 7th Heaven.  Kevin, who married one of the main character "kids", Lucy, asked why nobody in the family ever said goodbye before hanging up the phone.  That he had started doing and people outside the family thought he was crazy. I don't remember what the answer was, but somthign along the lines of that's just what we've always done, we never noticed, something like that.

Edited December 8, 2020 by Katy M

[Zella]

They must not be Southern. All Southern goodbyes require multiple goodbyes. Most people joke about the in-person ones, but as someone originally from North Carolina who lives in Arkansas, my experience is the phone ones are just as protracted. LOL I don't think I've ever had anyone hang up without saying goodbye, and I'd find it really rude and puzzling if they did. 

Edited December 9, 2020 by Zella

[Haleth]

How do you know the conversation is over if no one says goodbye?

[Quof]

And how do you end an unhappy conversation when you can't slam down the receiver?

[Katy M]

21 minutes ago, Haleth said:

How do you know the conversation is over if no one says goodbye?

The click in your ear?

[Blergh]

2 hours ago, Quof said:

And how do you end an unhappy conversation when you can't slam down the receiver?

 Truly, cellphones need to have a SLAM button for those annoying telemarketers who refuse to accept any 'no thank yous' !

Still, for those who actually want to hear from each other, I think it's a bit rude to end the conversation by just hanging up instead of any kind of goodbye and I'm glad no one in my life does that even if it's done  on TV.

[Bort]

4 hours ago, Quof said:

And how do you end an unhappy conversation when you can't slam down the receiver?

I miss being able to slam the receiver. I also miss being able to huffily snap a flip phone closed. Angrily stabbing a finger at a touch screen just isn’t the same.

[Blergh]

1 minute ago, kariyaki said:

I miss being able to slam the receiver. I also miss being able to huffily snap a flip phone closed. Angrily stabbing a finger at a touch screen just isn’t the same.

Yeah, the offending party can't hear any kind of slam!

 

Alas, phone manners have only gone downhill since cells came into being- but I'm still not convinced that it's good manners to just end a phone convo (instead of saying a goodbye) with someone one had had a perfectly civil convo up to that point (unlike those on TV). 

[Dejana]

On 12/7/2020 at 1:14 PM, WinnieWinkle said:

I've noticed this before but a Christmas movie I was just watching did this every single time - people who are on the phone and just hang up.  No good bye, no see you soon, nothing.  The person on the other end says something and the character we're watching just hangs up.  Who does this?  Maybe once in  awhile or if you got a crank call or something.  But in conversation with someone you know or are doing business with you just hang up??  I don't think so!

It's probably a screenwriting thing; exchanging goodbyes would be considered wasted words/time that could go to some other thing that moves the story forward.

[Browncoat]

6 hours ago, Haleth said:

How do you know the conversation is over if no one says goodbye?

Gracie Hart: In Hawaii, don't they use aloha for, like, hello and goodbye?
Miss Hawaii: So?
Gracie Hart: So if you're on the phone with somebody and they won't stop talking, how do you get them? You say, 'Okay take care, aloha' don't they just start over again?

Edited December 9, 2020 by Browncoat

[MaryMitch]

16 hours ago, Zella said:

They must not be Southern. All Southern goodbyes require multiple goodbyes.

My sister just sent me this, and it is SO true of my family:

[janie jones]

2 hours ago, Dejana said:

It's probably a screenwriting thing; exchanging goodbyes would be considered wasted words/time that could go to some other thing that moves the story forward.

I think you're probably right, but they don't need to do the whole "Okay, well I'll let you go," "Yeah, thanks for calling," etc. that normally signals the end of a conversation, especially since you usually only hear one side of the convo anyway. "Thanks for the info. Bye" literally takes less than two seconds of screentime.

Something that's related is when they show someone's text message conversation, and whatever message is relevant to the plot is the first message ever exchanged between the two people, even though they have a long relationship and would realistically have a message history. That's one thing I liked about Master of None: they showed the previous messages the characters had exchanged. (I will say, though, that my sister recently told me she deleted our text conversation from her phone because I sent her a gross picture of some fungus I saw on a walk. So maybe all these people just send each other gross fungus pictures and what we, the viewers, see is the first message post-fungus.)

[Bastet]

1 hour ago, janie jones said:

Something that's related is when they show someone's text message conversation, and whatever message is relevant to the plot is the first message ever exchanged between the two people, even though they have a long relationship and would realistically have a message history.

I don't text, so when on Major Crimes they showed a text Gus sent to Rusty continuing their verbal argument from earlier, I thought it was funny that, rather than "Fine, you win; I won't take the job" being its own text, it was a reply to a totally innocuous "I'll be there around 9:00" text conversation that predated the verbal argument.  But you're saying that's what most people do, so I guess I need to retroactively give them points for realism.

[Bort]

3 hours ago, janie jones said:

Something that's related is when they show someone's text message conversation, and whatever message is relevant to the plot is the first message ever exchanged between the two people, even though they have a long relationship and would realistically have a message history. That's one thing I liked about Master of None: they showed the previous messages the characters had exchanged. (I will say, though, that my sister recently told me she deleted our text conversation from her phone because I sent her a gross picture of some fungus I saw on a walk. So maybe all these people just send each other gross fungus pictures and what we, the viewers, see is the first message post-fungus.)

I delete my text messages periodically. All those old messages hog memory on your phone and it adds up. 

[biakbiak]

4 minutes ago, kariyaki said:

I delete my text messages periodically. All those old messages hog memory on your phone and it adds up. 

Same though when I mention that people think I am insane.

[DoctorAtomic]

We have a friend that takes like an hour to leave anywhere. 

But - you'll all be pleased to know I was able to speak the phone, a real phone, down on someone. 

[Lugal]

On 12/9/2020 at 5:19 AM, Katy M said:

The click in your ear?

Around my area that's just crappy phone service.

[paulvdb]

I can see real kids deleting a teacher's or principal's messages from the answering machines. Or even pretend to be their parents on the phone. But how many real kids hire actors to play their parents when the teacher or principal wants to meet them in person?

[Shannon L.]

In small towns especially, the really nice people have decent sized to large houses that are beautifully kept inside and out with beautiful yards and the not so kind/crass people live in small, beat up houses/trailers with ugly looking lawns. 

[kiddo82]

The Simpsons did a parody of Hallmark Christmas movies last night and it was pretty perfect.  A big city woman travels to Springfield and falls in love with a townie (Principal Skinner.)  She's there to produce a Christmas movie for the Heartmark Channel and wouldn't you know?  She hates Christmas movies.  And looks down upon quaint towns..  My favorite part is that her surgeon fiancee in the big city is only ever referred to as "surgeon fiancee."  Ellie Kemper and Chris Parnell guest starred.  

[DoctorAtomic]

It HAD to be a Christmas movie. 

[ShortyMac]

Every time that a doctor is on a plane, an emergency comes up. Usually, a pregnant woman going into labor. Even if they're not an OB/GYN, they always know how to deliver a baby.

Edited December 17, 2020 by ShortyMac

[Quof]

 

16 minutes ago, ShortyMac said:

they always know how to deliver a baby.

A 4 year old can help Mommy deliver a baby, with guidance from the 911 operator.  It's nature - the baby's coming out, no matter what.

[Anduin]

1 hour ago, ShortyMac said:

Every time that a doctor is on a plane, an emergency comes up. Usually, a pregnant woman going into labor. Even if they're not an OB/GYN, they always know how to deliver a baby.

I know a doctor, and can confirm that emergencies do sometimes happen on planes. Not every time, but sometimes.

[Haleth]

2 hours ago, Anduin said:

I know a doctor, and can confirm that emergencies do sometimes happen on planes. Not every time, but sometimes.

This happened to us once.  An old, frail woman in front of us passed out and the plane had to be diverted to a nearby airport.  There wasn't a doc on board but a couple wonderful nurses jumped in to help.  They felt that she was probably dehydrated.  It was pretty scary.

[Blergh]

2 hours ago, Anduin said:

I know a doctor, and can confirm that emergencies do sometimes happen on planes. Not every time, but sometimes.

True that! I'm no doctor. However one time I was on a plane and one of my fellow passengers had a medical emergency. After the flight attendants asked if any of us fellow passengers were doctors ( IIRC, there was one on board who helped), it wound up that the plane had to make an emergency landing at the nearest airport to offload the stricken passenger and our flight wound up being about two hours late to the intended destination.  If the crew had found out whether the distressed passenger was okay in the other city by the time we landed, they didn't share it with the rest of us.

 

To keep this ontopic, I can recall airline passengers having medical emergencies if it was key to the plot but NEVER when the focus was on someone else trying/needing to reach a destination by a certain time only to have that delayed by a fellow passenger's medical emergency. 

Edited December 17, 2020 by Blergh

[Raja]

4 minutes ago, Blergh said:

True that! I'm no doctor. However one time I was on a plane and one of my fellow passengers had a medical emergency. After the flight attendants asked if any of us fellow passengers were doctor ( IIRC, there was one on board who helped), it wound up that the plane had to make an emergency landing at the nearest airport to offload the stricken passenger and our flight wound up being about two hours late to the intended destination.  If the crew had found out whether the distressed passenger was okay in the other city by the time we landed, they didn't share it with the rest of us.

 

To keep this ontopic, I can recall airline passengers having medical emergencies if it was key to the plot but NEVER when the focus was on someone else trying/needing to reach a destination by a certain time only to have that delayed by a fellow passenger's medical emergency. 

I have only heard the medical assistance call once on a trans Pacific flight somewhere in the 8 hour leg between Hawaii and Guam. Hopefully the thoughts and prayers and the doctors worked as we made it to Los Angeles without diverting. Now if the airliner was also carrying a deceased passenger nobody told us.

[WinnieWinkle]

1 minute ago, Raja said:

Now if the airliner was also carrying a deceased passenger nobody told us.

My parents were flying to England when a passenger seated near them died.  No one really needed to make an announcement because, sadly, the solution to the deceased passenger was to keep them in place but covered with a blanket.  Mom said it was a very quiet flight.  Pretty grim.

[Shannon L.]

A high school friend of mine died on a flight a few years ago (she was in her 40s).  I forget what happened, but she didn't die in her sleep while napping- those seated around her knew something was happening and had to call for help.  There was a doctor on the flight, but there was nothing he could do. 

[Irlandesa]

7 hours ago, ShortyMac said:

Every time that a doctor is on a plane, an emergency comes up. Usually, a pregnant woman going into labor. Even if they're not an OB/GYN, they always know how to deliver a baby.

A doctor should know the basics on how to deliver a baby.  It's one of the rotations they do in training.

But what I found funny is that 75% of the time,  a woman on TV will not deliver a baby in the hospital.  It'll be on a plane, in an elevator, in a cab...etc.

I know that kind of thing happens in real life (Hi wife of Seth Meyers) but not at the percentage it happens on TV.

[DoctorAtomic]

The Seth Meyers story is worth it for the punch line about the door man.

I don't know if I'd be able to restrain myself with the Airplane! quotes if I was on a flight and someone asked if there was a doctor. Surely, it would be in poor taste. 

[shlbycindyk]

39 minutes ago, DoctorAtomic said:

The Seth Meyers story is worth it for the punch line about the door man.

I don't know if I'd be able to restrain myself with the Airplane! quotes if I was on a flight and someone asked if there was a doctor. Surely, it would be in poor taste. 

So true and don't call me Shirley.