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

[Anduin]

In my last apartment, a queen-size bed came with the place. The owner probably got it sometime many years ago, though I can't imagine how anyone got it up the stairs. Maybe hoisted it over the balcony? Anyway, when I moved, I got a double bed. Even living alone, it's good. On hot and sweaty nights, I can move over to a cooler part of the bed in the middle of the night. I just wish it was a little longer.

[possibilities]

We had our own rooms but we stil had twins. Friends who slept over meant someone used a sleeping bag and slept on the floor.

I think it's funny how much different communities have different traditions on bed sizes.

We had a living room sofa that opened up and could be coverted into a queen sized bed, which is where guest couples slept (like grandparents or out of town couples).

Edited August 16 by possibilities

[Shannon L.]

My brother and I had single sized waterbeds (I don't know what it would be considered in mattress sizes).  

Our kids have twin size mattresses and we have a queen size. Personally,  I'd love a king size, but they're too expensive and our bedroom isn't big enough 

Edited August 16 by Shannon L.

[Browncoat]

4 hours ago, Haleth said:

We have an antique Jenny Lind bed that my daughter slept in growing up. It is an odd size frame - a double mattress is a wee bit too small and a queen is too big. The frame is so pretty.

We had one of those, too.  It had a 3/4 size mattress (between double and queen), and had to be custom made.  We used double sheets on it though.

I have a queen now, but had a twin growing up, and in college, and even in my first apartment in grad school because the apartment was a tiny studio.  The twin bed also served as the sofa.  I didn't get the queen until after I finished school.

For me, a king is just a lot of wasted space, but if there were two of me, I'd love a king so I wouldn't have to try to sleep all jammed up against another person.

[Bastet]

7 hours ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

Those of us who had to share a room with a sibling had a twin bed. Those who's parents could afford a home with enough bedrooms for each of their children had double beds. The double bed did make sleepovers easier as long as you and your childhood friend were able to share a bed which is why I believe parents get their kids double beds. One double bed is cheaper than two twin beds and then you don't have a bed taking up space that only gets used a handful of times a year. 

Yes, I'm an only child, and most of my friends when I was young were either also only children or had one sibling, so no one shared a bedroom (my best friend was one of three kids, but they all had their own rooms, too), thus me being a moron who thought twin beds existed only on TV until I was about six years old.  And, yep, we just shared whenever we spent the night together.  As an adult, I hate sharing a bed with another human, but I didn't mind as a kid.  My best friend got a king size bed when we were five, and theirs was the house I slept over at most, so that was cool.  (They didn't go out and buy their five-year-old a huge bed; her little brother was ready to go from crib to bed at the time they moved into a new house, and her parents wanted a new bedroom set rather than the mismatched stuff they had, so they gave my friend's double to the brother and their old king to my friend.)

[Calvada]

8 hours ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

Those of us who had to share a room with a sibling had a twin bed. Those who's parents could afford a home with enough bedrooms for each of their children had double beds. The double bed did make sleepovers easier as long as you and your childhood friend were able to share a bed which is why I believe parents get their kids double beds. One double bed is cheaper than two twin beds and then you don't have a bed taking up space that only gets used a handful of times a year. 

I had many siblings.  I shared a room with three of my sisters for a lot of years.  At one point, my parents owned four sets of bunk beds.  

All the bedrooms on TV are enormous.  In real life, most bedrooms cannot hold all the furniture that TV people have - a king or queen bed, plus a chest at the foot of the bed, a dressing table or desk, nightstands, dressers, an easy chair, etc.  

Edited August 16 by Calvada

[Cobalt Stargazer]

4 hours ago, Calvada said:

I had many siblings.  I shared a room with three of my sisters for a lot of years.  At one point, my parents owned four sets of bunk beds.  

All the bedrooms on TV are enormous.  In real life, most bedrooms cannot hold all the furniture that TV people have - a king or queen bed, plus a chest at the foot of the bed, a dressing table or desk, nightstands, dressers, an easy chair, etc.  

That's because the apartments are also huge. Monica's place on Friends was supposed to have only two bedrooms, but looking at the interior you'd think a couple of families could live there comfortably.

[Palimelon]

Monica's apartment is one of my favorite TV apartments.

[Ohiopirate02]

4 hours ago, Calvada said:

I had many siblings.  I shared a room with three of my sisters for a lot of years.  At one point, my parents owned four sets of bunk beds.  

All the bedrooms on TV are enormous.  In real life, most bedrooms cannot hold all the furniture that TV people have - a king or queen bed, plus a chest at the foot of the bed, a dressing table or desk, nightstands, dressers, an easy chair, etc.  

When you only have 3 walls, you have a lot of room for accent furniture.

[Mabinogia]

14 hours ago, Haleth said:

And I think Sleep Number is a monumental waste of good money. 

I had a Sleep Number bed and it would randomly deflate on me (it was filled with air, not sure if they are still made that way). It didn't happen often, maybe a handful of times, but waking up on the hard plastic "box spring" surrounded by the padded edges that kept it from moving around was like waking up in a coffin. Not fun. SO I agree with your assessment. 

[Haleth]

10 hours ago, Mabinogia said:

I had a Sleep Number bed and it would randomly deflate on me (it was filled with air, not sure if they are still made that way). It didn't happen often, maybe a handful of times, but waking up on the hard plastic "box spring" surrounded by the padded edges that kept it from moving around was like waking up in a coffin. Not fun. SO I agree with your assessment. 

They are still filled with air but the pump will refill periodically during the night.  

[andromeda331]

17 hours ago, Calvada said:

I had many siblings.  I shared a room with three of my sisters for a lot of years.  At one point, my parents owned four sets of bunk beds.  

All the bedrooms on TV are enormous.  In real life, most bedrooms cannot hold all the furniture that TV people have - a king or queen bed, plus a chest at the foot of the bed, a dressing table or desk, nightstands, dressers, an easy chair, etc.  

I was always amazed how many women on TV had a dressing table. I never knew anyone in real life that did. They always did their hair and makeup in the bathroom.

[Dimity]

Another feature of TV houses that I rarely see in real life are two sets of stairs leading to the second floor.  I've been in houses that have this - but not many.  Yet on TV even the most modest of homes seems to offer this.  I assume, of course, that this is for ease of entrances and exits for the characters but definitely more faux than not, especially in more modern houses.

[Browncoat]

2 hours ago, Haleth said:

They are still filled with air but the pump will refill periodically during the night.  

So, they're glorified air mattresses?

[Mabinogia]

2 hours ago, andromeda331 said:

I was always amazed how many women on TV had a dressing table. I never knew anyone in real life that did. They always did their hair and makeup in the bathroom.

I always wanted a dressing table. It seemed so glamourous. But I work for a living and don't have time to waft around in my long silk robe at my dressing table so, yeah, I go with the "slap it on in the bathroom mirror" makeup technique. Faster, though less glam. 

2 hours ago, Browncoat said:

So, they're glorified air mattresses?

Yeah, the one I had, it was a twin, was basically a military grade air mattress with about 3 inch thick padded walls around it all zipped into a standard looking mattress casing. From the outside it looked like a normal mattress. I honestly regretted getting it. I was young and foolish. lol

[Ohiopirate02]

I want a dressing table, but it's not a necessary expense. I never put my makeup on standing in a bathroom because none of the bathrooms I have had over the years have natural light.  

[Dimity]

Another faux thing (honestly I do like most of the shows I watch - really) is the way characters almost always reference the person they're talking to by name even if there is no one else around.  I'm not going to say I never do this but certainly not every other sentence!

[Palimelon]

Or how they reference a non-parent family member by their designation instead of their name. "Hello brother/sister/cousin/niece/nephew/etc". Why, it's almost like they are giving exposition to how they are related to some unseen audience who is watching them for the first time...

[Quof]

40 minutes ago, Palimelon said:

Why, it's almost like they are giving exposition to how they are related to some unseen audience who is watching them for the first time...

That's an expositive device known as "As you know, Bob".   

If I were speaking to someone in my real life, I might say "I have to go to court tomorrow".

If I were speaking to someone in tv-land, who doesn't know me, I would say "As you know, Bob, I am a lawyer. I have to go to court tomorrow."

[Palimelon]

Quote

If I were speaking to someone in tv-land, who doesn't know me, I would say "As you know, Bob, I am a lawyer. I have to go to court tomorrow."

You would say that in tv-land to someone you did know as well.

[Dimity]

6 minutes ago, Palimelon said:

You would say that in tv-land to someone you did know as well.

Including  your spouse and your closest friends.  It's a weird TV thing.  Do the writers think we'll forget the characters names?

Edited August 17 by Dimity

[Raja]

4 minutes ago, Dimity said:

Including  your spouse and your closest friends.  It's a weird TV thing.  Do the writers think we'll forget the character's names?

The Stan Lee comic book rule, every issue is some new fan's first issue. Although its less of a thing in today's stream and binge watching model.  I remember Stargate SG-1 with its extended world building that at the beginning of every new season the alien characters stopped using their words and reverted to using English terms like "the humans" before getting back to that intricate world that nearly 20 TV seasons that a franchise could spawn.

[Raja]

2 hours ago, Palimelon said:

Or how they reference a non-parent family member by their designation instead of their name. "Hello brother/sister/cousin/niece/nephew/etc". Why, it's almost like they are giving exposition to how they are related to some unseen audience who is watching them for the first time...

It caught me on The Cleaning Lady that the Filipino mother didn't not use terms like someone raised there would, particularly when she was dealing with a lawyer and she didn't identify him as Attorney Jones as they do like we would say Doctor Smith. And only the baby child would refer to his older cousin as that since in normal address the elder siblings and family members are efered to their title like a parent or uncle would be. But then on that show the older kids were raised in America

[andromeda331]

7 hours ago, Dimity said:

Including  your spouse and your closest friends.  It's a weird TV thing.  Do the writers think we'll forget the characters names?

I swear the people on NCIS must have thought that given how many people would say Gibbs full name on almost every episode. If you made a drinking game of Leroy Jethro Gibbbs you'd been dead by the end of season one. 

[Ohiopirate02]

9 hours ago, andromeda331 said:

I swear the people on NCIS must have thought that given how many people would say Gibbs full name on almost every episode. If you made a drinking game of Leroy Jethro Gibbbs you'd been dead by the end of season one. 

I live in the South, if someone's mamma and daddy bestowed their offspring with the name Leroy Jethro, then they intend for both names to be used. There is no other reason to saddle a child with both of those names. 

[Dimity]

13 minutes ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

I live in the South, if someone's mamma and daddy bestowed their offspring with the name Leroy Jethro, then they intend for both names to be used. There is no other reason to saddle a child with both of those names. 

Up North we give children a middle name so that they will know they are in Big Trouble when you use it, as in "Leroy Jethro you get in this house this minute!"

[Quof]

19 minutes ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

There is no other reason to saddle a child with both of those names. 

Like Sarah Jessica Parker calling her son "James Wilkie" every time she talks about him.  Do you think his friends call him "Jim"?

[Zella]

Isn't Gibbs supposed to be from Pennsylvania? 

[AgathaC]

21 hours ago, Dimity said:

Another faux thing (honestly I do like most of the shows I watch - really) is the way characters almost always reference the person they're talking to by name even if there is no one else around.  I'm not going to say I never do this but certainly not every other sentence!

Oh my, yes. I love the miniseries Lonesome Dove, but I have to kind of grit my teeth when I watch it because once I noticed all the characters were doing it (all of them — the whole way through), it started driving me nuts.

One of my favorite actresses was Barbara Stanwyck. There was an anecdote about her I read once, shared by a screenwriter who worked with her. He loved her, but said she really took him to task over a few things in his script — and that was one of them. “We’ve been talking for 30 minutes and I haven’t said your name once. People don’t do that when they’re having a conversation!”

[GHScorpiosRule]

2 hours ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

I live in the South, if someone's mamma and daddy bestowed their offspring with the name Leroy Jethro, then they intend for both names to be used. There is no other reason to saddle a child with both of those names. 

He was named after a friend of his father’s who had those first two names.

1 hour ago, Zella said:

Isn't Gibbs supposed to be from Pennsylvania? 

Yes. See my comment above. I watched the mothership until Harmon’s last year. Gibbs was almost always referred to or called Gibbs or Boss.

[Zella]

8 minutes ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

He was named after a friend of his father’s who had those first two names.

Yes. See my comment above. I watched the mothership until Harmon’s last year. Gibbs was almost always referred to or called Gibbs or Boss.

Thanks! I used to watch it with my grandparents, so my knowledge is spotty. LOL 

[GHScorpiosRule]

8 minutes ago, Zella said:

Thanks! I used to watch it with my grandparents, so my knowledge is spotty. LOL 

No worries! My love for Mark Harmon kept me watching until he pretty much left.

[andromeda331]

24 minutes ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

No worries! My love for Mark Harmon kept me watching until he pretty much left.

I like the actor but Gibbs was the first character I went from loving to hating. He was an asshole to everyone. Abby was a close second but Gibbs. Then Tony,  and McGee. I liked Kate except when she was a bulling McGee. She hated it when Tony did it to her but turned around and did the same to McGee. I left after Ziva left. I never hated her but got tired of the neverending stories with her dad and suddenly being stupid when it came to Michael.

[GHScorpiosRule]

1 minute ago, andromeda331 said:

I like the actor but Gibbs was the first character I went from loving to hating. He was an asshole to everyone. Abby was a close second but Gibbs. Then Tony,  and McGee. I liked Kate except when she was a bulling McGee. She hated it when Tony did it to her but turned around and did the same to McGee. I left after Ziva left. I never hated her but got tired of the neverending stories with her dad and suddenly being stupid when it came to Michael.

I’m the opposite when it came to Gibbs. Loved him, warts and all. But that’s a conversation for another thread.

[Zella]

47 minutes ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

No worries! My love for Mark Harmon kept me watching until he pretty much left.

I watched just enough to have strong opinions on characters but extraordinarily selective background knowledge. LOLOL 

18 minutes ago, andromeda331 said:

I like the actor but Gibbs was the first character I went from loving to hating. He was an asshole to everyone. Abby was a close second but Gibbs. Then Tony,  and McGee. I liked Kate except when she was a bulling McGee. She hated it when Tony did it to her but turned around and did the same to McGee. I left after Ziva left. I never hated her but got tired of the neverending stories with her dad and suddenly being stupid when it came to Michael.

I didn't mind Gibbs, but it didn't take me long to find Abby, Tony, and Ziva insufferable. All the annoying personal drama around Ziva is what did me in too. 

[Calvada]

I always wanted the master bedroom closet from Hart to Hart.  As mentioned above, I shared a bedroom with 3 of my sisters, so I had one-quarter of a small closet.  The thought of a closet that you could actually walk into - wow!  The Harts were millionaires, so it made sense they had a lot of clothes and a big closet.  But a lot of TV characters, even those who shouldn't be able to afford a huge wardrobe, seldom wear the same thing twice, so just where are they keeping all those clothes?  And they all seem to have a couple dozen coats. Where are those?  We rarely see an entry closet or even a coat rack as they come into their home, whether an apartment or a house.  

[juno]

3 minutes ago, Calvada said:

I always wanted the master bedroom closet from Hart to Hart.  As mentioned above, I shared a bedroom with 3 of my sisters, so I had one-quarter of a small closet.  The thought of a closet that you could actually walk into - wow!  The Harts were millionaires, so it made sense they had a lot of clothes and a big closet.  But a lot of TV characters, even those who shouldn't be able to afford a huge wardrobe, seldom wear the same thing twice, so just where are they keeping all those clothes?  And they all seem to have a couple dozen coats. Where are those?  We rarely see an entry closet or even a coat rack as they come into their home, whether an apartment or a house.  

I always wanted to be Robert Wagner. I still do.

[Dimity]

21 minutes ago, Calvada said:

  And they all seem to have a couple dozen coats. Where are those? 

In almost every Hallmark Christmas movie the heroine arrives in town with a single suitcase that somehow manages to contain at least 5 coats.  I guess that's what they mean by a Christmas miracle.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

3 hours ago, Dimity said:

In almost every Hallmark Christmas movie the heroine arrives in town with a single suitcase that somehow manages to contain at least 5 coats.  I guess that's what they mean by a Christmas miracle.

It won't even be a big suitcase, because you'd possibly be able to fit large coats into one of those huge rolling suitcases people cart through airports, it'll be one that's the size of a backpack. The reverse of the huge bedroom/apartment rule.

[Palimelon]

Quote

In almost every Hallmark Christmas movie the heroine arrives in town with a single suitcase that somehow manages to contain at least 5 coats.  I guess that's what they mean by a Christmas miracle.

They must all shop at the Mary Poppins Luggage Store.

[Raja]

40 minutes ago, Dimity said:

In almost every Hallmark Christmas movie the heroine arrives in town with a single suitcase that somehow manages to contain at least 5 coats.  I guess that's what they mean by a Christmas miracle.

But it is never cold enough for a hat or gloves to be worn 

[Affogato]

On 8/17/2024 at 10:34 AM, Dimity said:

Another feature of TV houses that I rarely see in real life are two sets of stairs leading to the second floor.  I've been in houses that have this - but not many.  Yet on TV even the most modest of homes seems to offer this.  I assume, of course, that this is for ease of entrances and exits for the characters but definitely more faux than not, especially in more modern houses.

I’ve lived in afairly modest house that had servant’s stairs and a servants quarter in the attic. 

[DoctorAtomic]

For all the cesspool that the internet is, I don't know where else you can have several days discussion about beds. 

I grew up with a twin bed, no like. I didn't have sleepovers, but when I went on them, we all slept in the living room/family room in sleeping bags. In the dorms in college it was an extra long and slightly wider. Better.

One thing I didn't see here was the futon. Once I got an apartment, I slept on a futon for 10+ years. It prepared me to live in Japan, where everyone sleeps on futons. I loved the firmness and being low. When I bought my first bed, I bought a queen. I brought my dog to the store, and no one was there, so I tried all the beds and she jumped on them with me. 

With the futon experience, I ended up with a mattress that's basically a slate plank. Literally no one likes it except the dogs and me. I've had it for over 15 years and I've never slept better. 

Hotels kill me because the beds are way too soft. Once and a while it's a pleasant surprise to get a firm mattress. 

[Dimity]

53 minutes ago, Affogato said:

I’ve lived in afairly modest house that had servant’s stairs and a servants quarter in the attic. 

My parents had a cottage that had been a farmhouse and they had the same thing, back stairs from the kitchen that led up to what had, at one time, been where the 'hired girl' slept.  Poor thing probably had to get up at 5am to light the fires and get the coal stove going. 

[possibilities]

I have a futon! It's not on the floor these days, but for a long time it was. I don't like a soft or bouncy bed.

[andromeda331]

16 hours ago, juno said:

I always wanted to be Robert Wagner. I still do.

I wanted to be Jennifer. Rich, beautiful clothes, house, a devoted husband, a journalist and gets to solve crimes. What a fun life. 

[Shrek]

Nobody else have/had a California King bed? 

[tearknee]

gun myths in TV/movies:

 

An automatic rifle fires anything from 600 to 950 rounds a minute, and if you kept your finger on the trigger you'd be out of ammunition in three seconds! Nobody told Rambo about that, a service automatic rifle under each arm, firing for minutes at a time, but then people rarely run out of ammo on-screen. 

Firing at a petrol barrel/can won't make it explode (& the same with oxygen tanks), a car doesn't protect you from bullets (unless you're behind the engine block) and being hit by the bullet doesn't send you flying backwoods. And when the baddies are shot (war/western/action films), they're lying there dead, even if there's lots of them lying there, they're all dead from one bullet wound!

[Shrek]

1 hour ago, tearknee said:

gun myths in TV/movies:

 

An automatic rifle fires anything from 600 to 950 rounds a minute, and if you kept your finger on the trigger you'd be out of ammunition in three seconds! Nobody told Rambo about that, a service automatic rifle under each arm, firing for minutes at a time, but then people rarely run out of ammo on-screen. 

Firing at a petrol barrel/can won't make it explode (& the same with oxygen tanks), a car doesn't protect you from bullets (unless you're behind the engine block) and being hit by the bullet doesn't send you flying backwoods. And when the baddies are shot (war/western/action films), they're lying there dead, even if there's lots of them lying there, they're all dead from one bullet wound!

And cars don't explode at any stage after going over a cliff. With modern cars & all of their safety crumple zones & other protections people are even likely to survive the whole going over a cliff trope.

[Ohiopirate02]

23 minutes ago, Shrek said:

And cars don't explode at any stage after going over a cliff. With modern cars & all of their safety crumple zones & other protections people are even likely to survive the whole going over a cliff trope.

Also, while gasoline is flammable it is not that flammable. I used to work with a guy who had worked on a landscaping crew before. He would talk about how he and the other guys on the crew would experiment with their cigarette lighters and some of the gas. They found out that the stock "throwing a lit match onto a trail of gasoline" did not play out like movies and TV say it does.