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

[MaryMitch]

When my dad was 90, he lost his wedding ring. He found a split key ring to wear until we could find a new ring for him. ❤️

[juno]

I just realized that the night after I get dumped by my girlfriend I can go to any bar that same night and find a replacement. How about that crazy luck.

[Blergh]

No matter how painful or messy a breakup one's  been through, few  if any teens (or for that matter, adults) on TV ever decide that the dating scene's a bore & a drag and decide to content themselves re staying solo!

[SoMuchTV]

9 hours ago, juno said:

I just realized that the night after I get dumped by my girlfriend I can go to any bar that same night and find a replacement. How about that crazy luck.

Just curious - at that bar, do the drinks have ice cubes that don't float?  Because I see those on tv every once in a while.  I wondered if it's actually something that trendy bars have - like clear marbles that they chill - but it seems like that would be a potential choking hazard.

[juno]

5 hours ago, SoMuchTV said:

Just curious - at that bar, do the drinks have ice cubes that don't float?  Because I see those on tv every once in a while.  I wondered if it's actually something that trendy bars have - like clear marbles that they chill - but it seems like that would be a potential choking hazard.

I believe they do. You see it is a magical bar where only single women go and men that just got dumped. Where you get served the second you get to the bar. Where all the servers are gorgeous and female (unless of course you are a single female that just got dumped). Of course and no one seems to pay for anything.

[Laura Holt]

58 minutes ago, juno said:

Of course and no one seems to pay for anything.

This is part of one of my favourite faux things - people go to restaurants, order food, do not under any circumstances actually eat any food brought to them, and then for various plot related reasons, leave.  I guess since they don't actually eat the food it's only fair they not pay for it either!

[Bastet]

They only pay if they're stomping off, angry at their dining companion -- then they conveniently have the right amount of cash on hand to toss onto the table.

[Raja]

1 hour ago, Bastet said:

They only pay if they're stomping off, angry at their dining companion -- then they conveniently have the right amount of cash on hand to toss onto the table.

Because anytime a card is used it is declined 

[Mabinogia]

2 hours ago, Bastet said:

They only pay if they're stomping off, angry at their dining companion -- then they conveniently have the right amount of cash on hand to toss onto the table.

I am always jealous of this. I never have the right amount and have to wait for change before I can toss the cash on the table and storm out in a huff. By the time I've calculated the tip, my huff is nearly expired. It is so hard to be dramatic when you have to do math.

[DoctorAtomic]

You just throw a couple of 20s. Don't worry about the exact cost when there's outrage!

[meep.meep]

On 8/27/2023 at 5:32 AM, SoMuchTV said:

Just curious - at that bar, do the drinks have ice cubes that don't float?  Because I see those on tv every once in a while.  I wondered if it's actually something that trendy bars have - like clear marbles that they chill - but it seems like that would be a potential choking hazard.

No, trendy bars don't have anything like this.  For filming when they may have to do multiple takes over several hours, if the drink has to look like it has ice in it, they use polished stones like you might put in a fish tank or fancy flower arrangement.  The actors aren't going to drink the drink, although they might stroke the rim.

Same reason why they don't eat the food.

Of course in the magic bar where the guy goes to get lucky after being dumped, he's not throwing money down and dramatically stomping off.  Because he's getting lucky!

[DoctorAtomic]

Magic? Or SCIENCE?

[Cloud9Shopper]

I’ve been rewatching Glee (don’t judge me; it’s not high quality TV but it is delightfully campy most of the time), and the wedding of Kurt’s dad and Finn’s mom (Burt and Carole) was just one of many unrealistic TV weddings. It felt like the ceremony and reception were more about the Glee club performing than, you know, the couple actually getting married. (Then again I’m not a fan of the over-the-top, over-choreographed displays a lot of real life weddings have become anyway, so take that with a grain of salt.) And why are all the glee kids in the wedding party? What’s wrong with just having Kurt and Finn stand up with their parents while the rest of the kids sit with the guests? Do Burt and Carole even know the other Glee kids that well to want them to make up the entirety of the wedding party? 

And of course it was wildly unrealistic how Kurt planned this wedding in a few days or a week or some other ridiculously short timeline. 

And in the same episode Sue marries herself. That was also just as absurd, but Jane Lynch sells that material well so I didn’t get as annoyed in that scene. Plus it had Carol Burnett! 

All the TV wedding tropes in general are just weird for me. I have very rarely enjoyed a wedding scene even on my favorite shows. Even now, when I’m on S7 of ER and my favorite couple (Mark and Elizabeth) are getting married this season, I hated that their wedding was barely shown and the writing was borderline cringeworthy with all the shenanigans in his way when it came to actually getting to his own wedding. 

[Bastet]

36 minutes ago, Cloud9Shopper said:

Even now, when I’m on S7 of ER and my favorite couple (Mark and Elizabeth) are getting married this season, I hated that their wedding was barely shown and the writing was borderline cringeworthy with all the shenanigans in his way when it came to actually getting to his own wedding. 

Wedding ceremonies are as boring on TV - unless wacky hijinks ensue - as they are in real life (they're just something you sit through to get to the reception), so I had no issue with not seeing theirs (and not only because they were one of the most dull TV couples I've ever endured - interesting Elizabeth was so wasted on largely inoffensive but blah Mark - I don't care about the exchange of vows even with couples I like), and her side of the "get me to the church on time" shenanigans was fun.  His didn't land.

Weddings are one time when I don't care that TV rarely reflects reality, since a typical wedding is no basis for an interesting episode of TV.  Some of the particular tropes offered up in place of that reality are tired, unappealing, or outright offensive, but that one was hit and miss for me, as her side hit and his missed. 

 

[Cloud9Shopper]

7 hours ago, Bastet said:

Wedding ceremonies are as boring on TV - unless wacky hijinks ensue - as they are in real life (they're just something you sit through to get to the reception), so I had no issue with not seeing theirs (and not only because they were one of the most dull TV couples I've ever endured - interesting Elizabeth was so wasted on largely inoffensive but blah Mark - I don't care about the exchange of vows even with couples I like), and her side of the "get me to the church on time" shenanigans was fun.  His didn't land.

Weddings are one time when I don't care that TV rarely reflects reality, since a typical wedding is no basis for an interesting episode of TV.  Some of the particular tropes offered up in place of that reality are tired, unappealing, or outright offensive, but that one was hit and miss for me, as her side hit and his missed. 

 

And yet ER gave Abby and Luka a whole episode of their wedding that never should have happened, with Abby shrieking and snapping at him and the officiant, needing to be shoved down the aisle while she sulked, and looking like she had just rolled out of bed to go to Walmart. (Not to mention how totally unprepared they were for marriage anyway and Abby’s refusal to plan a wedding.) Abby was an ugly bride inside and out. It would have been way more entertaining had Luka walked out of the venue and refused to marry her because of her attitude, leaving her there humiliated. You could tell ER was way past its expiration date at that point.

But I could write a whole post in the unpopular opinions thread about why I don’t get how they’re a near universally beloved couple. I’ll take Mark and Elizabeth being “boring” any day over that shitshow. 

[Ohiopirate02]

There have been a few TV weddings where I just do not understand the timeline of events.  Only on TV can a day last however many hours necessary for all the hijinks to happen.  

[proserpina65]

On 8/25/2023 at 5:29 PM, Mabinogia said:

I think, if I saw a guy alone that I thought was attractive and he wasn't wearing a ring I'd flirt with him, so in that sense, yeah, I'd assume he wasn't married until he said, "Sorry, I'm married". Then I'd back off. 

Yeah, I might make an approach but I'd back off immediately if he said he was married.  Because I know men who can't wear rings for safety reasons, like my former SIL's brother-in-law who had a finger ripped off by machinery because he didn't take off his wedding ring before starting to work.

[Shannon L.]

It never ceases to amaze me how much women can eat on tv and still remain rail thin.

[Bastet]

13 minutes ago, Shannon L. said:

It never ceases to amaze me how much women can eat on tv and still remain rail thin.

That drove me absolutely crazy on The Closer and Rizzoli & Isles.  You do not consume a diet of candy, take-out, and southern fried everything and look like Kyra Sedgwick, or eat burgers and beer for most meals and look like Angie Harmon, so that Brenda and Jane's terrible eating habits were on constant display and discussed made it all the worse.

[Mabinogia]

1 hour ago, Bastet said:

That drove me absolutely crazy on The Closer and Rizzoli & Isles.  You do not consume a diet of candy, take-out, and southern fried everything and look like Kyra Sedgwick, or eat burgers and beer for most meals and look like Angie Harmon, so that Brenda and Jane's terrible eating habits were on constant display and discussed made it all the worse.

Of all the times I wish RL was more like TV, this is the big one. That and having a massive apt in Manhattan on a low paying job I never actually have to go to. 

[juno]

9 hours ago, Cloud9Shopper said:

And yet ER gave Abby and Luka a whole episode of their wedding that never should have happened, with Abby shrieking and snapping at him and the officiant, needing to be shoved down the aisle while she sulked, and looking like she had just rolled out of bed to go to Walmart. (Not to mention how totally unprepared they were for marriage anyway and Abby’s refusal to plan a wedding.) Abby was an ugly bride inside and out. It would have been way more entertaining had Luka walked out of the venue and refused to marry her because of her attitude, leaving her there humiliated. You could tell ER was way past its expiration date at that point.

But I could write a whole post in the unpopular opinions thread about why I don’t get how they’re a near universally beloved couple. I’ll take Mark and Elizabeth being “boring” any day over that shitshow. 

I loved ER but the character of Abby was one of the biggest duds I have ever seen. Movie or TV. Boring, mean, selfish and arrogant. Can't believe the showrunners loved her so much. I would have given her 1 season. Maybe not even that much.

[Cloud9Shopper]

2 hours ago, Shannon L. said:

It never ceases to amaze me how much women can eat on tv and still remain rail thin.

This was always talked about on the Gilmore Girls subreddit too! Rory and Lorelai ate all that diner food on the daily and still stayed thin. 

[Shannon L.]

1 hour ago, Cloud9Shopper said:

This was always talked about on the Gilmore Girls subreddit too! Rory and Lorelai ate all that diner food on the daily and still stayed thin. 

I'm making my way through GG now and it's what's prompted me to write this.  Like I said in an earlier post, I could have a field day in this thread with that show alone.

[juno]

4 hours ago, Cloud9Shopper said:

This was always talked about on the Gilmore Girls subreddit too! Rory and Lorelai ate all that diner food on the daily and still stayed thin. 

The only other show that had "epic" eating at a diner was Rules of Engagement. Every episode food at that diner. Don't watch on an empty stomach.

[Laura Holt]

On the subject of food, shows that have someone preparing food in a restaurant, competitively or as a caterer - and I mean real life shows as well as their fictional counterparts -  and the women almost always have long flowing hair.  I am amazed that they don't get some of that hair in the food.

[Lugal]

1 hour ago, Laura Holt said:

On the subject of food, shows that have someone preparing food in a restaurant, competitively or as a caterer - and I mean real life shows as well as their fictional counterparts -  and the women almost always have long flowing hair.  I am amazed that they don't get some of that hair in the food.

They're also health code violations, but no one on TV ever seems to be cited.

[Raja]

2 minutes ago, Lugal said:

They're also health code violations, but no one on TV ever seems to be cited.

Health code violations is something for cops to threaten to use as extrajudicial punishment to force a witness statement on TV.

[Haleth]

21 hours ago, Laura Holt said:

On the subject of food, shows that have someone preparing food in a restaurant, competitively or as a caterer - and I mean real life shows as well as their fictional counterparts -  and the women almost always have long flowing hair.  I am amazed that they don't get some of that hair in the food.

There was a story on the Today Show yesterday about a teenager who runs a successful French toast truck with her mom.  We see her at work with her long hair hanging down.  My immediate thought was she needs to tie back her hair.  Yuck.

[proserpina65]

On 8/30/2023 at 12:15 PM, Lugal said:

They're also health code violations, but no one on TV ever seems to be cited.

Except that episode of Friends where Phoebe dated the health inspector who shut down just about every place they went to eat.

[Danielg342]

On 8/27/2023 at 1:59 PM, juno said:

I believe they do. You see it is a magical bar where only single women go and men that just got dumped. Where you get served the second you get to the bar. Where all the servers are gorgeous and female (unless of course you are a single female that just got dumped). Of course and no one seems to pay for anything.

TV, in general, greatly overestimates the ease at which people can find a mate. It's not just going to a bar- oftentimes, it's simply the next scene (be it at a restaurant, the grocery store, or just literally bumping into someone on the street) where the scorned lover instantly meets their next partner. Many times, the jilted person isn't even looking and their next love falls metaphorically in their laps (maybe even literally- I bet a show or two has done that before).

Heck, it doesn't even matter how old the person is- be someone in your 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, even your 80s...in TV land, no matter where you go, you'll always have some willing mate (who just happens to also be around your age) ready to go and meet up with you wherever you happen to stumble.

Unless it's done for some kind of storyline reason, you'll never see someone who is single and looking get frustrated at how hard it is to find a new partner. They'll instantly find a new partner as soon as they lose their previous partner. I mean, I get it- there's a point where seeing someone try yet fail to find love simply becomes annoying and not interesting- but it's frustratingly (and for a single guy like me) and depressingly not accurate.

Of course, I don't look half as good as the actors on TV, so maybe that's why I don't instantly find a woman the minute I walk out of my door.

*shrugs*

Edited September 1, 2023 by Danielg342
typo

[Laura Holt]

2 hours ago, Danielg342 said:

Unless it's done for some kind of storyline reason, you'll never see someone who is single and looking get frustrated at how hard it is to find a new partner. They'll instantly find a new partner as soon as they lose their previous partner. I mean, I get it- there's a point where seeing someone try yet fail to find love simply becomes annoying and not interesting- but it's frustratingly (and for a single guy like me) and depressingly not accurate.

Even on shows like Two and Half Men where a character like Alan is supposedly always alone and never has a woman in his life it's the rare episode where he hasn't hooked up with someone.  Doing the math in any given one year period (if one year is a season)  Alan has had at least 6-7 relationships.  I think most single people who are looking for love or just for sex would find that to be a pretty enviable average and yet in TV land this is what they consider single and frustrated.

Edited September 1, 2023 by Laura Holt

[Danielg342]

8 hours ago, Laura Holt said:

Even on shows like Two and Half Men where a character like Alan is supposedly always alone and never has a woman in his life it's the rare episode where he hasn't hooked up with someone.  Doing the math in any given one year period (if one year is a season)  Alan has had at least 6-7 relationships.  I think most single people who are looking for love or just for sex would find that to be a pretty enviable average and yet in TV land this is what they consider single and frustrated.

I don't know what the raw numbers are, but my guess is that most people don't even average 6-7 relationships in their entire lives, let alone in an entire year.

George Costanza was pretty bad for it too- Seinfeld never hid the fact he was considered "ugly" yet there he was, having something like 40 relationships over the course of the series. I mean, I suppose living in New York that's possible, but still...

Maybe actors really do have more relationships than the average person because I'm told the profession makes you really get close to a lot of people (oftentimes literally) and, arguably, in Hollywood at least they have a wide net of people available to them for their entire lives because of their lifestyle. Still, I'm not many of them have 40 relationships over their lives or half a dozen over a year.

[Kel Varnsen]

15 hours ago, Danielg342 said:

George Costanza was pretty bad for it too- Seinfeld never hid the fact he was considered "ugly" yet there he was, having something like 40 relationships over the course of the series. I mean, I suppose living in New York that's possible, but still...

At least the writers admitted that there was a reason for that, at least in the early seasons. Jason Alexander was a "real" actor while Jerry Seinfeld was a comedian who didn't really have acting experience. And Kramer was supposed to be a weirdo shut-in. So the logic was if they wanted to do dating/romance storylines for one of the guys, George made more sense than Kramer and Jason could handle the acting better than Jerry.

My favourite is the opposite, the characters who by all accounts should have no problems meeting women but their difficulties in getting dates is a major part of their plotlines. The worst for that was probably Otis from Chicago Fire. His character was supposed to be some weirdo nerd who liked sci-fi/comics stuff and could never get dates. But in reality he was a firefighter who also work in a bar that he was co-owner of. Plus there are women who like comics and sci fi stuff. He should have had no problem getting dates.

[DrSpaceman73]

26 minutes ago, Kel Varnsen said:

At least the writers admitted that there was a reason for that, at least in the early seasons. Jason Alexander was a "real" actor while Jerry Seinfeld was a comedian who didn't really have acting experience. And Kramer was supposed to be a weirdo shut-in. So the logic was if they wanted to do dating/romance storylines for one of the guys, George made more sense than Kramer and Jason could handle the acting better than Jerry.

My favourite is the opposite, the characters who by all accounts should have no problems meeting women but their difficulties in getting dates is a major part of their plotlines. The worst for that was probably Otis from Chicago Fire. His character was supposed to be some weirdo nerd who liked sci-fi/comics stuff and could never get dates. But in reality he was a firefighter who also work in a bar that he was co-owner of. Plus there are women who like comics and sci fi stuff. He should have had no problem getting dates.

But Jerry had tons of women and dates too.  Someone counted it was over 70 during the course of the show. They weren't just giving all the dating storylines to george

[Kel Varnsen]

5 hours ago, DrSpaceman73 said:

But Jerry had tons of women and dates too.  Someone counted it was over 70 during the course of the show. They weren't just giving all the dating storylines to george

Sure he did over the course of the series. That is why I mentioned the early seasons, where George was more likely to get the romance plots.

[Danielg342]

13 hours ago, Kel Varnsen said:

At least the writers admitted that there was a reason for that, at least in the early seasons. Jason Alexander was a "real" actor while Jerry Seinfeld was a comedian who didn't really have acting experience. And Kramer was supposed to be a weirdo shut-in. So the logic was if they wanted to do dating/romance storylines for one of the guys, George made more sense than Kramer and Jason could handle the acting better than Jerry.

According to this, George had 47 girlfriends and most of them appeared later in the series. The same site chronicles 66 girlfriends for Jerry (excluding six who were unseen), showing that Jerry had, consistently, more girlfriends at any one time than George did.

The site also says Kramer had 16 girlfriends over the course of the series.

So maybe, at best, the writers didn't realize what they had actually done. since the facts don't seem to back up what they said.

13 hours ago, Kel Varnsen said:

My favourite is the opposite, the characters who by all accounts should have no problems meeting women but their difficulties in getting dates is a major part of their plotlines. The worst for that was probably Otis from Chicago Fire. His character was supposed to be some weirdo nerd who liked sci-fi/comics stuff and could never get dates. But in reality he was a firefighter who also work in a bar that he was co-owner of. Plus there are women who like comics and sci fi stuff. He should have had no problem getting dates.

Though Criminal Minds never really explored the love struggles of its characters, Spencer Reid is up there too- with a twist. Matthew Gray Gubler is a published model, but his character, Reid, is looked at as "weird" and "homely" because he's awfully nerdly and awkward. The show seems to think it's an utter surprise that Reid gets so much as a simple "hello" from a woman, let alone have an actual date.

Yet Reid has more, on-screen, love interests than the other male characters on the show, including the likes of Shemar Moore's Derek Morgan (whom we are told is a lady's man), with Reid getting kissed, on-screen, before Morgan got his first on-screen kiss in the series. Reid is the only one on the show who has multiple dates and multiple girlfriends (seven, by my count- Reid may not have, ultimately, loved Cat Adams back but Cat did pursue him).

The rest of the characters are either married or have steady relationships- which, I guess, one could argue is better than what Reid accomplished, though, on-screen, it sure at least looked like Reid was much more successful than the show gave him credit for.

[andromeda331]

On 9/1/2023 at 5:27 AM, Danielg342 said:

TV, in general, greatly overestimates the ease at which people can find a mate. It's not just going to a bar- oftentimes, it's simply the next scene (be it at a restaurant, the grocery store, or just literally bumping into someone on the street) where the scorned lover instantly meets their next partner. Many times, the jilted person isn't even looking and their next love falls metaphorically in their laps (maybe even literally- I bet a show or two has done that before).

Heck, it doesn't even matter how old the person is- be someone in your 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, even your 80s...in TV land, no matter where you go, you'll always have some willing mate (who just happens to also be around your age) ready to go and meet up with you wherever you happen to stumble.

Unless it's done for some kind of storyline reason, you'll never see someone who is single and looking get frustrated at how hard it is to find a new partner. They'll instantly find a new partner as soon as they lose their previous partner. I mean, I get it- there's a point where seeing someone try yet fail to find love simply becomes annoying and not interesting- but it's frustratingly (and for a single guy like me) and depressingly not accurate.

Of course, I don't look half as good as the actors on TV, so maybe that's why I don't instantly find a woman the minute I walk out of my door.

*shrugs*

The only time I've ever seen it was on Sex and the City Carrie's editor at Vogue played by Candice Bergen talked about hard it was to find a guy over a certain age. Apparently the best she can do is a married man.

 

[Danielg342]

36 minutes ago, andromeda331 said:

The only time I've ever seen it was on Sex and the City Carrie's editor at Vogue played by Candice Bergen talked about hard it was to find a guy over a certain age. Apparently the best she can do is a married man.

 

I think it's more common to have a single scene, usually at this mythic "singles bar". If it's a male protagonist, they will try to strike up numerous conversations with women that will end badly, whereas if it's a female protagonist, she will find herself hounded by numerous men, whom she finds repulsive and turns them down.

All this is done for comedic effect, and, either at the end of the scene or in the very next scene, the frustrated protagonist finds someone to vent with concerning their rejections (they may even say they're "done" with dating). If this person is someone we haven't met before, they will become the protagonist's new love interest, but if it is someone we've seen before, they'll likely tell the protagonist to try again and, as luck would have it, at the very place the two friends are meeting in is someone the protagonist can talk to and instantly strike up a romance with.

I only wish I had such luck.

I don't think I have ever seen a scene in Hollywood where the protagonist chats up someone, the two of them are cordial but no connection is made. That would be far more accurate than the "rejection conga line" or the "instant pair up" that we usually get from Hollywood.

Of course, I guess it's not that entertaining, so no one writes it.

The age thing gets me too...it doesn't matter if the protagonist is 55 yet finds himself in the middle of a rave, which should be filled with people literally half his age. The protagonist *will* find someone who is their age and hit it off with them as well, even if the chances of them doing so at such an event would be very slim.

[Cloud9Shopper]

I’m on S7 of my latest watch through of ER, and I really don’t like Luka this time around, but I can’t imagine how he’d be employed at any real life hospital. He has a major temper rivaling that of Elliot Stabler (can you imagine if the two of them met?), at least in my opinion. But he also does not seem to know how to call in sick or ask for personal time. He kills a mugger in S7 and just seems to disappear from the hospital and can’t be found anywhere or reached by pager (or however you got a hold of a doctor in 2000) and he does the same thing in S9 after the car accident where he nearly kills a med student (who he slept with) in a car accident. Although I think after the accident, Kerry wanted to fire him. I wish she had and spared us four more years of misery. And let’s not mention all the times he punches people…I couldn’t even watch him kill the mugger. It was the second most disturbing scene on ER for me so far next to watching Mark get attacked in S3. (I bury my head in a pillow or get a drink when that scene is looming.) 

And what’s even wilder is that Abby saw this happen and goes and makes out with him the next episode, and then she eventually gets knocked up by him and marries him. What a way to kick off a relationship that eventually leads to marriage and a kid. Poor Abby/Luka offspring. Good thing they only had one.

 

[Kel Varnsen]

9 hours ago, Cloud9Shopper said:

he does the same thing in S9 after the car accident where he nearly kills a med student (who he slept with) in a car accident.

I can't remember did he actually have sex with the med student or was that just a rumour based on how they were spending time together and how they were acting. Either way though, if you are some kind of supervisor of students, especially who aren't getting paid and basically require your approval to move ahead in their career, even putting yourself in a situation where it could be perceived that you had sex with a student should be enough for some kind of disciplinary action.

[juno]

I didn't realize that I could create an account with a singles website and find the person of my dreams the same day! Wow, I am going to do this right now.

[Kel Varnsen]

I was thinking about various sci-fi type shows that I watch like Black Mirror and the different MCU shows and I realized that only on TV do technological advancements happen kind of in a vacuum. Which means TV people can live in a world that has very specific massive advances in science, like teleportation or interstellar travel or lifelike robots but they will still drive the same crappy cars and use the same basic computers and phones that we have. Even though technology doesn't work like that at all.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

3 hours ago, Kel Varnsen said:

I was thinking about various sci-fi type shows that I watch like Black Mirror and the different MCU shows and I realized that only on TV do technological advancements happen kind of in a vacuum. Which means TV people can live in a world that has very specific massive advances in science, like teleportation or interstellar travel or lifelike robots but they will still drive the same crappy cars and use the same basic computers and phones that we have. Even though technology doesn't work like that at all.

To be fair, I always wonder if real life scientists get offended about how they're portrayed in movies or on TV. I watched The Thing the other night, the one with Kurt Russell, and I'm pretty sure a professional scientist or researcher's first instinct would not be to dig up and then defrost  a big ice block with some kind of critter inside it. Just in case. Fictional scientists are always messing around with things they don't understand and can't control, so it's probably better if they keep their inventions to themselves until they're perfected.

[DoctorAtomic]

That's because they're *rogue* scientists. 

[possibilities]

Some real life dumbass scientists did invent a nuclear bomb, though. 

[Shannon L.]

Maybe it was just my teachers,  but do most high school teachers keep teaching until the bell rings? My teachers always wrapped up a few minutes before the bell. Some would even let us line up by the door so when the bell rang, we could just walk out.

[Ohiopirate02]

2 minutes ago, Shannon L. said:

Maybe it was just my teachers,  but do most high school teachers keep teaching until the bell rings? My teachers always wrapped up a few minutes before the bell. Some would even let us line up by the door so when the bell rang, we could just walk out.

Mine varied based on how many years teaching they had under their belt.  Veteran teachers were able to wrap things up before the bell, the newer ones still hadn't gotten their lessons edited to fit the time.  Unless there was a big shift in the curriculum that required the teachers to develop new lesson plans.  I found the same to hold true as an undergrad with one exception.  I took a course that was supposed to be on the French Revolution and Napoleon and by the end of the semester we had just gotten to 1789.  I don't know what happened to my prof that spring, but he wasted the whole semester talking about the lead up.  I came away from that class knowing more than I needed to about Louis XIV and Louis XV and nothing about Robespierre or Danton.  

[DoctorAtomic]

Usually they wrapped up, but sometimes they lost track of time. 

[partofme]

1 hour ago, Shannon L. said:

Maybe it was just my teachers,  but do most high school teachers keep teaching until the bell rings? My teachers always wrapped up a few minutes before the bell. Some would even let us line up by the door so when the bell rang, we could just walk out.

I had teachers that taught until the bell rang.  I never had a teacher who let us line up by the door.

[Browncoat]

Most of my teachers taught until the bell rang.  Then there was the mad scramble to pack up and get to your next class -- I think we had ten minutes, but the school was fairly compact, so it was generally plenty.