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

[andromeda331]

14 hours ago, Katy M said:

Or you will just provide all your services for free making the audience wonder how you pay your bills.

I always wondered how Michael on Burn Notice paid his bills since he seemed allergic to being paid by his clients. 

[Zella]

That's one thing I really appreciated about The Rockford Files. Jim's shabby lifestyle reflected his shady clientele and whatever they were paying him (or not paying him) pretty well as a general rule. 

[Shannon L.]

I'd really like to know where I can find these lakes and ponds, surrounded by wooded areas, where I can sit in the moonlight and not be constantly waving away and slapping at a swarm of mosquitoes. 

[DrSpaceman73]

14 hours ago, Shannon L. said:

I'd really like to know where I can find these lakes and ponds, surrounded by wooded areas, where I can sit in the moonlight and not be constantly waving away and slapping at a swarm of mosquitoes. 

The same state where you can have a relaxing isolated dinner on the beach without a thousand seagulls trying to eat your food and poop on you

On 10/5/2023 at 1:16 AM, andromeda331 said:

I always wondered how Michael on Burn Notice paid his bills since he seemed allergic to being paid by his clients. 

He lived in an abandoned warehouse and primarily survived on eating yogurt, which one client offered him a lifetime supply for free. 

 

I assumed he had money saved from prior jobs and work and a lifestyle of pretty much no indulgences

[Raja]

On 10/4/2023 at 10:16 PM, andromeda331 said:

I always wondered how Michael on Burn Notice paid his bills since he seemed allergic to being paid by his clients. 

A trigger happy ex girlfriend, family too, if you're desperate

[SoMuchTV]

Here's one (thanks, Frasier).  Someone lives somewhere for years and accumulates a lifetime's worth of carefully curated stuff.  Decides to move to City A.  Then at the last moment decides, no, I'm going to City B.  Then lives there for another many years and decides to do X.  No, never mind, I'm going to settle in City Y.  There must be moving trucks screeching to a halt and doing U-turns across the nation!

[Laura Holt]

1 hour ago, DrSpaceman73 said:

15 hours ago, Shannon L. said:

I'd really like to know where I can find these lakes and ponds, surrounded by wooded areas, where I can sit in the moonlight and not be constantly waving away and slapping at a swarm of mosquitoes. 

The same state where you can have a relaxing isolated dinner on the beach without a thousand seagulls trying to eat your food and poop on you

My favourite in this department are the ones where they all sit around the campfire (usually, of course, with someone strumming a guitar) and not one person gets smoke in their eyes. 

Corner Gas did a funny take on this where they had Oscar moving around the campfire and no matter where he sat the smoke went straight to him.  Much like what happens to me.

[Mabinogia]

1 hour ago, Laura Holt said:

Corner Gas did a funny take on this where they had Oscar moving around the campfire and no matter where he sat the smoke went straight to him.  Much like what happens to me.

When I used to go camping we had one person like that, the smoke always headed her way. We all tried to avoid sitting next to her. If you walked up to our campsite you'd see about 8 people all crammed on one side of the fire with her sitting alone on the other.

[Kel Varnsen]

12 hours ago, DrSpaceman73 said:

The same state where you can have a relaxing isolated dinner on the beach without a thousand seagulls trying to eat your food and poop on you

He lived in an abandoned warehouse and primarily survived on eating yogurt, which one client offered him a lifetime supply for free. 

 

I assumed he had money saved from prior jobs and work and a lifestyle of pretty much no indulgences

I had a few different explanations for how Michael had any money. One was that the jobs on the show weren't all the ones he took. Or that when a job involved infiltrating criminal groups he just stole from them, either directly or using his hacker buddy. Or he was also a spy for many years and Jack Bristow on Alias had a giant storage unit full of money, guns and other spy stuff. Surely he stole or kept that from various spy operations, so I figured that Michael had a similar stash of cash saved up from his spy days.

[DrSpaceman73]

Hallmark movies for Christmas. There are so many things bit the one I just noticed is every town square has a gazebo and it's decorated for Christmas. 

[Notabug]

1 hour ago, DrSpaceman73 said:

Hallmark movies for Christmas. There are so many things bit the one I just noticed is every town square has a gazebo and it's decorated for Christmas. 

On the same note, every single character's home, no matter how humble, looks like Santa's elves vomited $10grand in Christmas decorations all over it.  Even the kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms are crammed with Christmas crapola.  Nobody goes the minimalist route.

Also, every single town has a massive Christmas festival lasting for days in which all the citizens come out to participate.  And, the crowning event of said festival is that everyone, having nothing better to do, turns out on either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day for the grand finale.

Edited October 23, 2023 by Notabug

[DoctorAtomic]

We actually have a little town square and they do a tree lighting event with the mayor. 

[badhaggis]

7 minutes ago, DoctorAtomic said:

We actually have a little town square and they do a tree lighting event with the mayor. 

Inquiring minds want know is there a gazebo too?

[JustHereForFood]

What I've always envied is that people who are employed full-time have so much free time in the weeks before Christmas and no problem to take a day or a week off on a short notice if the plot demands it. In all my job experiences, the time before Christmas was always the busiest and it has always been either impossible or very hard to get as much time off as I wanted, even though I always try to spare as many vacation days as I can during the year to take as many as I can during the holidays.

[proserpina65]

1 hour ago, Notabug said:

On the same note, every single character's home, no matter how humble, looks like Santa's elves vomited $10grand in Christmas decorations all over it.  Even the kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms are crammed with Christmas crapola.  Nobody goes the minimalist route.

I can honestly say that my mother's house has looked like this for years.  I refer to it has having had Christmas explode all over it.  Of course, it did take her DECADES to accumulate so many decorations, but not necessarily a lot of money because she tended to get stuff from thrift stores and yard sales or make it herself.  Her house, however, has never looked like DESIGNER Christmas exploded in it.

27 minutes ago, DoctorAtomic said:

We actually have a little town square and they do a tree lighting event with the mayor. 

Same with my town and the one where I grew up.  But only one of them had a gazebo, and the tree lighting is just a couple of hours one evening, not a week-long festival.  My current town does have a Christmas parade, though.

[DoctorAtomic]

1 hour ago, badhaggis said:

Inquiring minds want know is there a gazebo too?

Sadly, no. It's not really a 'town square' town square. It's just a small plot of park kind of jammed in downtown where it just is kind of there. 

However, we do have lights strung up along the river. No one wants to go out in winter because once it snows, it's brutal. One of the side benefits of covid was that if it snows, I'm staying home and that's it. And I live 3 miles from work. 

55 minutes ago, JustHereForFood said:

What I've always envied is that people who are employed full-time have so much free time in the weeks before Christmas and no problem to take a day or a week off on a short notice if the plot demands it. In all my job experiences, the time before Christmas was always the busiest and it has always been either impossible or very hard to get as much time off as I wanted, even though I always try to spare as many vacation days as I can during the year to take as many as I can during the holidays.

We cannot get anything done before xmas. It's pulling teeth to get your forms signed, etc., because everyone is so checked out. 

[Cobalt Stargazer]

5 hours ago, JustHereForFood said:

What I've always envied is that people who are employed full-time have so much free time in the weeks before Christmas and no problem to take a day or a week off on a short notice if the plot demands it. In all my job experiences, the time before Christmas was always the busiest and it has always been either impossible or very hard to get as much time off as I wanted, even though I always try to spare as many vacation days as I can during the year to take as many as I can during the holidays.

I thought that was year-round in TV Land, though. Procedurals tend to be different because the entire show revolves around work, but you'd think no one else on TV needs their job, since they skip out in the middle of a shift to go have a confrontation or tell someone they're madly in love with them. Sometimes both, depending on how it goes.

[Ohiopirate02]

2 hours ago, JustHereForFood said:

What I've always envied is that people who are employed full-time have so much free time in the weeks before Christmas and no problem to take a day or a week off on a short notice if the plot demands it. In all my job experiences, the time before Christmas was always the busiest and it has always been either impossible or very hard to get as much time off as I wanted, even though I always try to spare as many vacation days as I can during the year to take as many as I can during the holidays.

This is why all those "single big city girls who go home for the holidays for the first time in a decade" all work in publishing.  

[Laura Holt]

35 minutes ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

This is why all those "single big city girls who go home for the holidays for the first time in a decade" all work in publishing.  

My favourite "faux" thing is when the big city gal is in advertising and is tasked with coming up with a big Christmas campaign that is supposedly going to launch at Christmas - and for reasons of the plot has to juggle doing this while going home to help Aunt/Mother/Grandma run the Christmas cookie drive/win a Christmas contest of some kind/save the family business.

[DoctorAtomic]

50 minutes ago, Laura Holt said:

My favourite "faux" thing is when the big city gal is in advertising and is tasked with coming up with a big Christmas campaign that is supposedly going to launch at Christmas - and for reasons of the plot has to juggle doing this while going home to help Aunt/Mother/Grandma run the Christmas cookie drive/win a Christmas contest of some kind/save the family business.

Even though "Christmas" basically starts now. 

[Notabug]

1 hour ago, Laura Holt said:

My favourite "faux" thing is when the big city gal is in advertising and is tasked with coming up with a big Christmas campaign that is supposedly going to launch at Christmas - and for reasons of the plot has to juggle doing this while going home to help Aunt/Mother/Grandma run the Christmas cookie drive/win a Christmas contest of some kind/save the family business.

And we all know the big city gal is going to give up her high paying corporate job and Manhattan loft to move back to small town USA, live in her parents' house and start her own business there selling handmade Christmas ornaments all year 'round because that's a great plan for a business!  She'll be set financially for life within 6 months!  And we all know that owning your own business isn't stressful at all and nobody works 7 days a week running their B&B or bookshop, so she'll have plenty of time to go to the Christmas fest and star in the Nativity play and go on sleigh rides and build snowmen.

She is also going home for the weekend and packing no fewer than half a dozen winter coats; everything from down jackets to cashmere overcoats, to hang out sipping hot cocoa in the local diner.

She will also meet the man of her dreams who is a local farmer or fireman or housepainter and they will go out in the woods to chop down their own Christmas tree.  Except, when they put it up, it looks just like a fake Balsam Hill tree; not real at all.

Edited October 23, 2023 by Notabug

[Laura Holt]

7 minutes ago, DoctorAtomic said:

Even though "Christmas" basically starts now. 

Yep, saw a Walmart Christmas commercial this morning.  I think they should have a rule that they can't air Christmas commercials until they stop airing the pumpkin spice ones!

Anyway I confess I  do like to watch the Christmas movies (even Hallmark) but this thread could  have been created expressly with the Hallmark Christmas movies in mind!

[DoctorAtomic]

I have a total of two winter jackets; regular and uh-oh. 

[Mountainair]

I own about 10 winter jackets but not the designer kind Hallmark movie people wear. It gets cold where I live and I am gifted a winter jacket almost every year and hang on to things so I digress. 
A few years ago I had my first real Hallmark movie Christmas experience. I took my three kids to the local Christmas tree lighting complete with decorated gazebo, Mr. And Mrs. Clause strolling the sidewalk, roasted chestnuts, Christmas Carolers, Hot Chocolate etc. it was certainly magical but this was also located in Biltmore Village (in other words at the “free” part of the Biltmore experience in Asheville). 

[JustHereForFood]

Also, it always snows just at the right time. I live in a four-season climate and remember it always snowing on Christmas when I was a kid but it never snows now 😒.

Maybe in few years, we will start getting movies like Christmas in the Time of Global Warming.

[DrSpaceman73]

1 hour ago, JustHereForFood said:

Also, it always snows just at the right time. I live in a four-season climate and remember it always snowing on Christmas when I was a kid but it never snows now 😒.

Maybe in few years, we will start getting movies like Christmas in the Time of Global Warming.

It snows enough to make it look pretty and white. 

But not enough that you have to shovel a driveway, clear roads, scrape the ice off windows,  trudge through muddy slush or fall on Any ice

 

Well except you can comically fall without getting hurt so the handsome man you instantly hate can laugh at you before helping you up out of pity.  Which makes you realize you secretly love him. 

 

[Trini]

4 hours ago, DoctorAtomic said:

I have a total of two winter jackets; regular and uh-oh. 

Heh! I have two as well -- above freezing, and freezing.

---

But back to topic:

I'm sure it's been mentioned already; but in these crime shows set in big congested cities with narrow streets, there's always parking available by the crime scene! Even with all the other cop cars and ambulances.

[Irlandesa]

6 hours ago, Laura Holt said:

My favourite "faux" thing is when the big city gal is in advertising and is tasked with coming up with a big Christmas campaign that is supposedly going to launch at Christmas

Yep, the big Christmas toy idea that is going to be revealed at a big gala ON Christmas Eve. 

Cuz no one has any plans that night, right?

[andromeda331]

8 hours ago, Laura Holt said:

Anyway I confess I  do like to watch the Christmas movies (even Hallmark) but this thread could  have been created expressly with the Hallmark Christmas movies in mind!

So do I. But I have to wait until after Thanksgiving before I can get into watching Christmas movies. I just can't do it any sooner. 

[Haleth]

13 hours ago, Mountainair said:

A few years ago I had my first real Hallmark movie Christmas experience. I took my three kids to the local Christmas tree lighting complete with decorated gazebo, Mr. And Mrs. Clause strolling the sidewalk, roasted chestnuts, Christmas Carolers, Hot Chocolate etc. it was certainly magical but this was also located in Biltmore Village (in other words at the “free” part of the Biltmore experience in Asheville). 

A Biltmore Christmas, coming soon to Hallmark channel. 

[DrSpaceman73]

25 minutes ago, Haleth said:

A Biltmore Christmas, coming soon to Hallmark channel. 

Oh wow you're serious.  Doesn't surprise me

 

The biltmore has actually been used in several movies. 

[Haleth]

I was actually kidding. I don’t watch Hallmark movies but it sounded like a good title. 

[Zella]

3 hours ago, DrSpaceman73 said:

The biltmore has actually been used in several movies. 

It is a really beautiful house and location. 

[DrSpaceman73]

5 hours ago, Haleth said:

I was actually kidding. I don’t watch Hallmark movies but it sounded like a good title. 

No there really is a movie they made just this year with that title

 

https://www.hallmarkchannel.com/a-biltmore-christmas

 

 

Edited October 24, 2023 by DrSpaceman73

[Ohiopirate02]

5 hours ago, Haleth said:

I was actually kidding. I don’t watch Hallmark movies but it sounded like a good title. 

It does and the Asheville area makes an almost perfect Hallmark locale.  Decent sized city in the middle of the picturesque Appalachian mountains with a large Victorian estate nearby.  

[Mountainair]

I gave up on Hallmark Christmas movies a few years ago but will watch Biltmore Christmas. Got tons of media around here when it was being made and it has a time travel element which I’m always a sucker for. 
For those old people like me if you remember the Richy Rich series of movies (McCaully Caulkin- Home Alone fame) those were filmed at the Biltmore as well. 

[Zella]

3 hours ago, Mountainair said:

For those old people like me if you remember the Richy Rich series of movies (McCaully Caulkin- Home Alone fame) those were filmed at the Biltmore as well. 

I didn't realize that about Richie Rich. Parts of The Last of the Mohicans with Daniel Day-Lewis were filmed on the Biltmore estate too. I got in a pretty heated argument with one of my college professors over that. She assumed the movie was filmed in New York State, where the story was set. Nope. It was all filmed in Western North Carolina. I think it really pissed her off that I was right. LOLOL

Edited October 25, 2023 by Zella

[GHScorpiosRule]

13 hours ago, Zella said:

Parts of The Last of the Mohicans with Daniel Day-Lewis were filmed on the Biltmore estate too. I got in a pretty heated argument with one of my college professors over that. She assumed the movie was filmed in New York State, where the story was set. Nope. It was all filmed in Western North Carolina. I think it really pissed her off that I was right. LOLOL

Seriously? Daniel Day-Lewis, Mann, Madeleine Stowe, and the other cast who are on the dvd, blu-ray, updated editions, ALL state that it was North Carolina. There was a funny bit (to me), when Daniel Day-Lewis said how "they" would never get out of the woods/forests of North Carolina!

GORGEOUS scenery and remains one of my top 10 favorite movies.

[Zella]

11 minutes ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

Seriously? Daniel Day-Lewis, Mann, Madeleine Stowe, and the other cast who are on the dvd, blu-ray, updated editions, ALL state that it was North Carolina. There was a funny bit (to me), when Daniel Day-Lewis said how "they" would never get out of the woods/forests of North Carolina!

GORGEOUS scenery and remains one of my top 10 favorite movies.

It was a weird conversation. My family is actually originally from the area, and we were still living there when it was filmed. It was a big deal locally. (I was too little to remember, but my dad does. One of his friends was actually fired as an extra. LMAO) I have no idea why she was so convinced it was elsewhere or why she doubled-down so hard. I normally wouldn't have argued so forcefully with a professor, but I was not backing down because I knew I was right. 

I watch the movie at least once a year. It's one of my favorites too! Also one of my all-time favorite movie soundtracks! 

Edited October 25, 2023 by Zella

[AgathaC]

On 10/23/2023 at 7:11 PM, DrSpaceman73 said:

It snows enough to make it look pretty and white. 

But not enough that you have to shovel a driveway, clear roads, scrape the ice off windows,  trudge through muddy slush or fall on Any ice

 

Well except you can comically fall without getting hurt so the handsome man you instantly hate can laugh at you before helping you up out of pity.  Which makes you realize you secretly love him. 

 

A couple of years ago my husband and I saw a few minutes of one of those Hallmark movies set in Memphis. Of course, there was lots of billowy snow on the ground. We live not terribly far from Memphis. We get big, billowy snow once every five years or so. And then it shuts down the whole city for days. It’s not like we have plows to clear the roads. Not to mention the decent chance of a power outage. Everybody wouldn’t be out strolling around, sipping hot chocolate and engaging in romantic shenanigans. They’d be trapped indoors praying the power stays on and that they don’t run out of toilet paper or non-perishable food items.

[DoctorAtomic]

My senior thesis was romantic shenanigans. 

[paulvdb]

I'm not an American, but do kids really not graduate from high school if they forgot to return a book to the school library? And another high school graduation related thing: people finding out that they never graduated high school many years ago because they failed one assignment. And now having to do the assignment so that they can pass that subject and get their high school diploma.

[Raja]

50 minutes ago, paulvdb said:

I'm not an American, but do kids really not graduate from high school if they forgot to return a book to the school library? And another high school graduation related thing: people finding out that they never graduated high school many years ago because they failed one assignment. And now having to do the assignment so that they can pass that subject and get their high school diploma.

It was more that you weren't allowed to be in the public ceremony or given the souvenir certificate to frame and put on the wall if you owed the school money in library and/or text books.

While there are those who barely pass the requirements to qualify for graduation and/or one teacher who can ignore public pressure and fail someone making them ineligible in my experience not the normal one. The  place most are in is that most have finished their state qualifying requirements before their last semester or they had dropped out long before they got near completing.  So the adult back to school shows would focus on one class because for drama/comedy you are looking at that single student and teacher potential couple story.

Edited October 30, 2023 by Raja

[Ohiopirate02]

1 hour ago, Raja said:

It was more that you weren't allowed to be in the public ceremony or given the souvenir certificate to frame and put on the wall if you owed the school money in library and/or text books.

They can also refuse to release transcripts if you owe the school money.  Colleges, universities, scholarship organizations, and employers do not normally care about a high school diploma.  They care about seeing your official transcripts to prove you fulfilled the state requirements to graduate high school.  And "official" transcripts can only come from the school.  Also, some employers like the federal government will require your high school transcripts when applying for jobs even if you already have a decade of experience in the field and other degrees.  

[Quof]

I've been involved in litigation in which the Plaintiff got his job by providing a forged university diploma.  The employer relied on the diploma provided by the job applicant and never asked for proof from the school, such as a transcript.

It was a true Matlock moment when that was revealed.   

[DearEvette]

3 hours ago, Raja said:

So the adult back to school shows would focus on one class because for drama/comedy you are looking at that single student and teacher potential couple story.

Yeah, that is purely for tv.  Most places have an upper age limit to attend high school in person.  No way they are gonna let Rodney Dangerfield come back to sit in a high school classroom.  LOL.

1 hour ago, Quof said:

The employer relied on the diploma provided by the job applicant and never asked for proof from the school, such as a transcript.

That employer should invest with contracting with a credentialing service if proof of degree is a requirement of employment.  We always tell students the Diploma is a nice wall ornament.  The real credential is the transcript with the degree posted on it.  Anybody with a printer can fake a Diploma. 

My most recent only on tv peeve is I was watching a show where a character got a job as a college instructor part time to teach an introductory required class.  And there was a scene where she was flirting with the department chair (just no!) and he said "now all you have to do is come up with a title for the course."  Uh... no.  A part time new hire isn't going to create the title for a required introductory course.  Who even does that?  A lot of Adjuncts don't even get to create their own syllabus much less the title of the course.  LOL.

[DrSpaceman73]

4 hours ago, paulvdb said:

I'm not an American, but do kids really not graduate from high school if they forgot to return a book to the school library? And another high school graduation related thing: people finding out that they never graduated high school many years ago because they failed one assignment. And now having to do the assignment so that they can pass that subject and get their high school diploma.

No those are tv things primarily. 

1 hour ago, Quof said:

I've been involved in litigation in which the Plaintiff got his job by providing a forged university diploma.  The employer relied on the diploma provided by the job applicant and never asked for proof from the school, such as a transcript.

It was a true Matlock moment when that was revealed.   

Sounds like the premise to community

 

He had a diploma from Colombia / columbia. Now he needs one from America. 

[JustHereForFood]

5 hours ago, paulvdb said:

And another high school graduation related thing: people finding out that they never graduated high school many years ago because they failed one assignment. And now having to do the assignment so that they can pass that subject and get their high school diploma.

Sounds like one of my recurring nightmares and from what I've heard, it's a  common one.

[DrSpaceman73]

38 minutes ago, JustHereForFood said:

Sounds like one of my recurring nightmares and from what I've heard, it's a  common one.

My most common recurring dream is I'm back in high school don't know my schedule and can't make it to any of my classes. 

[Katy M]

10 minutes ago, DrSpaceman73 said:

My most common recurring dream is I'm back in high school don't know my schedule and can't make it to any of my classes. 

I've had that one.  Or that I don't even know I'm in a class until it's time to take the final.  So stressful!!!!

Also, that only happens on TV is that you find out that you have enough credits to graduate at the end of junior year when you weren't even trying to graduate early.  IIRC, it was super easy to graduate a year early.  But, you had to double up on a couple of classes like English, so the likelihood of doing that accidentally was pretty low.