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

[proserpina65]

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 noticed that houses with two sets of stairs tend to be older, where the back stairs lead down into the kitchen most of the time.  Possibly for servants, but I know my great-grandmother's family never had any, so I'm not sure.  Of course, they didn't originally build the house, so maybe the previous owners had servants.  What I can say is that her kitchen stairs were narrow with very tiny steps, and falling down them was a right of passage for every child in the family.

17 hours ago, DoctorAtomic said:

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.

I have a futon as my living room couch.  I slept on it for a week once when a friend came to stay.  I would rather sleep on the floor than on that torture device.  (Fortunately I now have a guest room with a double bed in it.)  I keep saying I'm going to replace it with a real couch because it's too damned low and getting up off of it is harder and harder all the time, but every time I think it might happen, the cats/car/house need major fixes which suck up any spare money.

18 minutes ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

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. 

Throwing some on a bonfire, however, is a really stupid idea.

 

[Shannon L.]

3 hours ago, tearknee said:

a car doesn't protect you from bullets

Neither do many of the doors, walls and tables tv characters hide behind.

Can we revisit (from quite some time ago) parking and traffic?  I always read about it in regard to places like NYC, but I was watching an episode of NCIS: Los Angeles last night and they went to a small restaurant on the beach and not only was there a parking spot, but there was also almost no one on the street at all.  The reason I hate beach towns/cities is that they are super crowded with both traffic and people and parking is a nightmare.  It's a little easier in the winter, but when the weather is good, forget about it.  

[Raja]

24 minutes ago, Shannon L. said:

 

Can we revisit (from quite some time ago) parking and traffic?  I always read about it in regard to places like NYC, but I was watching an episode of NCIS: Los Angeles last night and they went to a small restaurant on the beach and not only was there a parking spot, but there was also almost no one on the street at all.  The reason I hate beach towns/cities is that they are super crowded with both traffic and people and parking is a nightmare.  It's a little easier in the winter, but when the weather is good, forget about it.  

I guess it would only work if they parked their cool undercover cars in reserved police parking spots. I remember a plot point from Starsky and Hutch that everyone knew Starsky's Ford was a cop car.

As we are working out of the pandemic lock down rules there was that small pause with little traffic to worry about 

[Trini]

3 hours ago, Shannon L. said:

Neither do many of the doors, walls and tables tv characters hide behind.

LOL -- Sometimes I do wonder who sells all that bulletproof furniture!

[Raja]

48 minutes ago, Trini said:

LOL -- Sometimes I do wonder who sells all that bulletproof furniture!

Q has a shop, he'll sell to anyone.

[tearknee]

And that sugar glass!

 

(Although an upside of 1985-A Biff Tannen getting hit in the face with the Delorean door in BTTF II is that the asshole probably had a broken jaw until the timeline was repaired!).

[Raja]

2 minutes ago, tearknee said:

And that sugar glass!

 

(Although an upside of 1985-A Biff Tannen getting hit in the face with the Delorean door in BTTF II is that the asshole probably had a broken jaw until the timeline was repaired!).

Jim Rockford is the only character that I remember who regularly hurt his hands when throwing bare knuckled punches. 

[Dimity]

The above reminds me of another faux thing - an episode where a character, usually but not always a woman, has a hair catastrophe which miraculously is fixed by the next episode.  Sometimes I wish I had TV hair that could  grow back in a week but mostly I think that would probably be really, really weird.

[tearknee]

5 minutes ago, Dimity said:

The above reminds me of another faux thing - an episode where a character, usually but not always a woman, has a hair catastrophe which miraculously is fixed by the next episode.  Sometimes I wish I had TV hair that could  grow back in a week but mostly I think that would probably be really, really weird.

Michelle Tanner dressing up as a punk with dyed hair, told by Danny to clean herself up then goes into the bathroom -- and comes out with normal hair etc.! Switching twins for the win! ;)

[Mabinogia]

1 hour ago, Dimity said:

The above reminds me of another faux thing - an episode where a character, usually but not always a woman, has a hair catastrophe which miraculously is fixed by the next episode.  Sometimes I wish I had TV hair that could  grow back in a week but mostly I think that would probably be really, really weird.

Oh yes, and how all teenagers on television are somehow master stylists. They'll hack their hair off, all jagged uneven ends, and yet, a little gel here and some curling there and poof, perfect hair again. I remember trying to cut my bangs once in middle school. Try as I might, I was not cool enough to make Staircase bangs a thing. 

[Calvada]

1 hour ago, Raja said:

Jim Rockford is the only character that I remember who regularly hurt his hands when throwing bare knuckled punches. 

Jim also ended up in the hospital a few times; he didn't just shake off being beat up.  However, he and other TV PIs were always getting knocked out by someone bashing them on the head from behind and never seemed to have long-term consequences.  It was amazing when Elementary had a story line about Sherlock sustaining a concussion after being assaulted and ultimately being diagnosed with post-concussion syndrome.  

[Shannon L.]

1 hour ago, Mabinogia said:

Oh yes, and how all teenagers on television are somehow master stylists. They'll hack their hair off, all jagged uneven ends, and yet, a little gel here and some curling there and poof, perfect hair again. I remember trying to cut my bangs once in middle school. Try as I might, I was not cool enough to make Staircase bangs a thing. 

I like how all women seem to be able to cut their hair into a perfect bob, which, if I'm not mistaken,  is one of the most difficult hairstyles to master 

[Raja]

43 minutes ago, Calvada said:

Jim also ended up in the hospital a few times; he didn't just shake off being beat up.  However, he and other TV PIs were always getting knocked out by someone bashing them on the head from behind and never seemed to have long-term consequences.  It was amazing when Elementary had a story line about Sherlock sustaining a concussion after being assaulted and ultimately being diagnosed with post-concussion syndrome.  

I am guessing that since James Garner couldn't hide his disabilities from the wounds he received in the Korean War they allowed Jim to get hurt and show the pain he was in. Where as most characters can do anything as a partial result of their combat soldering experience.

The entire community from boxers having many more fights and football players getting up from having their "bell rung" just felt differently about concussions back then.  Some old memory is telling me that my father used to joke about Mannix getting knocked out.

Edited August 20 by Raja
CTE paragraph

[tearknee]

4 hours ago, Raja said:

Q has a shop, he'll sell to anyone.

Llewlyn or de Lancie?

[Raja]

12 minutes ago, tearknee said:

Llewlyn or de Lancie?

Q Branch Shops. Every 00's last stop before going on mission 

[tearknee]

My joke fell on its face, didn't it? 

[Browncoat]

13 hours ago, tearknee said:

My joke fell on its face, didn't it? 

Not to me!

[andromeda331]

23 hours ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

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. 

Burn Notice had an episode where it showed that shooting at a gas tank of the truck won't cause an explosion. They tape extra stuff underneath it that will cause an explosion.

Edited August 20 by andromeda331

[Mabinogia]

17 hours ago, tearknee said:

Llewlyn or de Lancie?

When I hear Q my first instinct is De Lancie so it takes me a minute to figure out why that Q would have a gadget shop, then I remember Bond's Q and the lightbulb goes off. lol

[Palimelon]

The Q² crossover we never knew we needed.

[Zella]

2 Q 2 Furious. 😁

[Cobalt Stargazer]

3 hours ago, Zella said:

2 Q 2 Furious. 😁

Where cars do fly.

[merylinkid]

On 8/19/2024 at 9:49 PM, Calvada said:

Jim also ended up in the hospital a few times; he didn't just shake off being beat up.  However, he and other TV PIs were always getting knocked out by someone bashing them on the head from behind and never seemed to have long-term consequences.  It was amazing when Elementary had a story line about Sherlock sustaining a concussion after being assaulted and ultimately being diagnosed with post-concussion syndrome.  

Johnny Gage on Emergency was often treated by his own squad multiple times.     He would be in the hospital for a bit, then back at work next shift right as rain.     

[Raja]

1 hour ago, merylinkid said:

Johnny Gage on Emergency was often treated by his own squad multiple times.     He would be in the hospital for a bit, then back at work next shift right as rain.     

To be fair it wasn't the next shift it was the next episode and there wasn't serialized stories just a day in the life of Station 51 format. I can't recall any call back to the big brush fire or the fighter jet that slammed into an apartment building. 

  Officers Reed and Malloy of Adam-12 were cops when the paramedics were doing their first job in the Emergency pilot film. And later Johnny Gage was trying to find the ending of an Adam-12 TV episode. There were the occasional two part episodes or TV movies set with other fire departments as Webb made a few   back door pilots for younger sexier firefighters to roll forward.

By then the based on "the story you heard was true" of Dragnet, Adam-12, Emergency and some of the Police Story anthology episode fade had run its course.

 

Edited August 24 by Raja

[Calvada]

I've been doing a rewatch of The Rockford Files, I'm in the middle of season 3, and I think Jim gets clocked from behind in just about every episode.  When he comes to, he just shakes it off, maybe puts some ice on his head, asks for an aspirin.  (BTW - don't take aspirin after a head injury unless you want to risk a brain bleed.)  In real life he would be coming through every door on full alert for a bad guy carrying a blunt instrument.  Also possibly slurring his words, have a constant headache, be dizzy, or sensitive to light.

[Zella]

5 hours ago, Calvada said:

I've been doing a rewatch of The Rockford Files, I'm in the middle of season 3, and I think Jim gets clocked from behind in just about every episode.  When he comes to, he just shakes it off, maybe puts some ice on his head, asks for an aspirin.  (BTW - don't take aspirin after a head injury unless you want to risk a brain bleed.)  In real life he would be coming through every door on full alert for a bad guy carrying a blunt instrument.  Also possibly slurring his words, have a constant headache, be dizzy, or sensitive to light.

My grandparents have been rewatching The Rockford Files on GET TV, and my granny made the same observation last night about how many times poor Jim takes a blow to the head. 

[proserpina65]

On 8/24/2024 at 10:48 AM, Raja said:

I can't recall any call back to the big brush fire or the fighter jet that slammed into an apartment building. 

Related side note: there was a multi-episode arc late in the show's run about a small plane colliding with a commuter-sized airplane (being used by a political candidate), then the wreckage of both crashing into a suburban neighborhood.  Upon watching it again in the last year, I thought for sure it must've been inspired by an actual incident which had been featured on Air Disasters but it turns out the Emergency! episode aired about 6 months earlier.  Weirdly prescient.

[Raja]

30 minutes ago, proserpina65 said:

Related side note: there was a multi-episode arc late in the show's run about a small plane colliding with a commuter-sized airplane (being used by a political candidate), then the wreckage of both crashing into a suburban neighborhood.  Upon watching it again in the last year, I thought for sure it must've been inspired by an actual incident which had been featured on Air Disasters but it turns out the Emergency! episode aired about 6 months earlier.  Weirdly prescient.

I was probably thinking the same when I saw that Air Disasters. And that was one of those two hours where we had mostly a different shift of younger firefighters in Station 51 as the possible new cast members.

As a story ideal if it was done after the tragedy it would have  probably be seen as too soon and ghoulish by the network audience,  with further contempt because of the melodrama tacked onto the ripped from the headlines story.

I do remember a Charlton Heston, TV movie about real life plane crash 3 years after the fact. But the fight that the flight crew put up to the end saved more than half of passengers from what looked like an unsurvivable crash.

[andromeda331]

Except for shows like the Crown and Downton Abbey rich people only have one servant. No matter how big the house is. The Nanny had Niles, Soap had Benson, Fresh Prince had Geoffrey, and Frasier had Daphne who wasn't a maid but a physical therapist. 

And their all sarcastic. 

Edited September 12 by andromeda331

[Palimelon]

Sarcastic, sassy, and opinionated. Apparently good help is really hard to find in TV Land.

[tearknee]

And Mister Sheffield couldn't even afford a real British man. No wonder he keeps losing to Lloyd Webber,

[tearknee]

See also: Robin Masters having to hire a Texan...