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

[Raja]

Thanks for nailing down the physics, but now, what about the statistics on it actually occurring anywhere but On TV? Like I mentioned above, "drive by" shootings are commonplace--someone(s) driving by in a car shoots at someone(s) standing on the street or in front of a home. But do real life cops (or robbers) ever shoot at the tires of a moving car?

I remember Snoop on The Wire teaching one of her junior hitmen after he tried a "drive by" like LA gangsters and missed. Most of those shots in any drive by miss and at the worst hit an innocent in collateral damage. it takes an experienced driver and gunner to stop, shoot and then drive off like tank crews did before the 1980s and fully stabilized computer driven fire control systems became available

[ganesh]

IRL, the UPS came to my apartment and delivered a sword. No joke. Turns out it was my (still) good friend who lived across the street bought it for her boyfriend when she was in Spain. So, I called her and was like, "uh?" Turns out she put me as an alt address just in case. Hilarity. 

[janie jones]

But do real life cops (or robbers) ever shoot at the tires of a moving car?

Can I tell you something that does happen in real life?  My mom yelling "shoot the tires!" whenever a bad guy in a car is fleeing from cops on TV.

Edited July 19, 2015 by janie jones

[shapeshifter]

Can I tell you something that does happen in real life?  My mom yelling "shoot the tires!" whenever a bad guy in a car is fleeing from cops on TV.

Hee! I am guilty of having done that too. Especially when watching with my daughter.

[janie jones]

Mom?

[Kromm]

ONLY ON TV "70s EDITION"

 

I just got reminded of this in another topic elsewhere on Previously.  Only on TV (specifically 70s TV Game shows in this case) did people call sex "Whoopie".  Ever.

[Shannon L.]

Does anyone else ever hear a man address his son as "son" all the time?  I haven't. But, in tv, it's always "Of course, son", "I love you, son", "You're my son....[whatever]", "What is it, son?" etc...

[ABay]

On a related note: brothers always call each other "brother" but only if they hate each other.

[Snow Apple]

Also, a character look at the only other person in the room right in the face and then call them by name ("Kelly, pass me the milk"). Why so specific? Who else are you looking and talking to?

[legaleagle53]

Does anyone else ever hear a man address his son as "son" all the time?  I haven't. But, in tv, it's always "Of course, son", "I love you, son", "You're my son....[whatever]", "What is it, son?" etc...

 

Yet a daughter is never addressed as "daughter."

Edited July 21, 2015 by legaleagle53

[Rick Kitchen]

Brothers call their sisters "Sis", too.

 

My father's family did it (four boys and one girl), even my grandparents called their daughter "Sister".  She even shows up as "Sis" in the census.

[ganesh]

I use people's names all the time when I talk to them, even if it's just me and them. 

[paulvdb]

Two women are talking about their recent break-ups and the first woman tells the second woman: "We don't need men." The second woman will interpret this as an invitation to kiss the first woman.

[ganesh]

I've seen this happen *so many times*. All those women who dated women after they broke up with me. 

[shapeshifter]

Two women are talking about their recent break-ups and the first woman tells the second woman: "We don't need men." The second woman will interpret this as an invitation to kiss the first woman.

I've seen this happen *so many times*. All those women who dated women after they broke up with me.

More often I see them eating ice cream--and never the cheap stuff that comes in a rectangular container.

[MaryPatShelby]

Yet a daughter is never addressed as "daughter."

Except on Parenthood, in which Zeke (yeah, I spelled it wrong on purpose) called everyone except his wife by their relationship to him.

[CoderLady]

More often I see them eating ice cream--and never the cheap stuff that comes in a rectangular container.

 

As an ice cream junkie (I'll eat it until it's gone) the way they treat the stuff in these scenes drives me nuts. They don't really eat it - they usually just drag their spoons lightly over the surface of the ice cream to pick up a little on the edge then wave their spoons in front of their faces while they talk. If anyone actually eats any it's an amount half the size of a pinky fingernail. Believe me, I watch each spoonful as closely as a dog watches a person eat potato chips. It's torture.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

As an ice cream junkie (I'll eat it until it's gone) the way they treat the stuff in these scenes drives me nuts. They don't really eat it - they usually just drag their spoons lightly over the surface of the ice cream to pick up a little on the edge then wave their spoons in front of their faces while they talk. If anyone actually eats any it's an amount half the size of a pinky fingernail. Believe me, I watch each spoonful as closely as a dog watches a person eat potato chips. It's torture.

 

If it makes you feel better, its probably not really ice cream, but something like mashed potatoes that won't melt during however many takes they have to do.

[CoderLady]

If it makes you feel better, its probably not really ice cream, but something like mashed potatoes that won't melt during however many takes they have to do.

 

Ok, a little. Thanks. But it looks like sweet, sweet ice cream and it makes my inner junkie fall on the floor wailing and screaming for the stuff.

[Bastet]

Or worse, shortening.  In which case who can blame them for not eating it?  But I don't fault them, anyway -- with numerous takes, it can become an issue.

[ganesh]

Well now we all know how to stay on CoderLady's good side. Bring ice cream.

[CoderLady]

Anything containing vanilla! I suppose that's why the shortening or mashed potatoes looks so real to me -- it looks like vanilla. Ice cream junkies are easily fooled.

[DeLurker]

Brothers call their sisters "Sis", too.

 

My father's family did it (four boys and one girl), even my grandparents called their daughter "Sister".  She even shows up as "Sis" in the census.

My 2 kids call refer to each other as "Brother" or "Sister" fairly frequently when talking with me and I do the same (e.g., tell Brother it is time for dinner).  While I never refer to any of my brothers as brother, 3 out of 4 of them often call me Sis.

[ZuluQueenOfDwarves]

Here's one I saw during an Orange is the New Black rewatch, but has been cropping up with more and more frequency elsewhere: when a couple engages in oral sex (usually cunniligus), the recipient will be under a heavy quilt or comforter, and rather than pull them off, the partner will simply disappear under the covers. Because, you know, suffocation and heat exhaustion are sexy.

Bonus: everyone wears a shirt for the whole act.

[ganesh]

The vagine is esoteric and mysterious as it is. I'm not going down there covered in your grandma's quilt. I've got this set up with those light fixtures you see on the highway at night when the third shift is working, and this mirror get up like they used to see into the pyramids.

 

On the other side, when the woman down on the man, he always throws his head back and closes his eyes. I'm looking. I don't care. I like to watch. 

 

Also, only on tv do people "go for a run" at like 11, midnight. You know what I like to do then? Nothing. Because I'm sleeping. 

Edited July 26, 2015 by ganesh

[DearEvette]

I remember a friend of mine was lamenting that fact that people on tv, when they go grocery shopping, always shop with cloth, sustainable bags and they always buy french baugettes that peek out the tops of the bags very picturesquely.  Also their vegetables always have the leafy tops on them, esp. carrots.  We wondered if people on tv every bought bagged carrots with the tops cut off?  Or pre-fab baby carrots?

Edited July 26, 2015 by DearEvette

[Bastet]

I shop like a TV character.  I always use cloth bags, I only buy carrots that still have their leafy tops (otherwise, they may be quite old), and, yes, I have been known to pick up a baguette. 

[Kromm]

I shop like a TV character.  I always use cloth bags, I only buy carrots that still have their leafy tops (otherwise, they may be quite old), and, yes, I have been known to pick up a baguette.

Are you rich? Or what used to be called a Yuppie? Or a current Hipster-type (not the same as a Yuppie, of course, but another group who'd culturally be identifiable with going "all natural", even if it costs more, and "saving the environment" with a purposefully cloth bag?

I think the accusation is that TV people (seemingly) shopping like that even if they aren't always in the right (apparent) demographic.

But actually I think it might not be true. We see plenty of blue-collar shopping on TV (and plenty that happens in the past on shows set then). People pulling generic peanut butter (because not only don't they want to pay the sponsor but generic also implies blue collar) out of paper shopping bags. Actually maybe I have to run through my memory banks a bit here. What you don't see often on TV are PLASTIC shopping bags, like 95% of us get in the supermarket even still. If it's not the Yuppies or Hipsters using Cloth, it's paper bags. Used with the intention, it seems, so that we can have characters sit them on kitchen counters when they walk in nice and those bags settle down on those counters nice and "squared"--so they never slump over or risk having things roll out onto a counter (or even make a big "clunk" noise when they put them down). I mean real life people... things fall out of shopping bags. On TV? Nope. They come in their nice paper squared bags, settle down nice and noiselessly on the counter, and then people pull things out of the top of them nice and organized-like.

Edited July 26, 2015 by Kromm

[Bastet]

Are you rich? Or what used to be called a Yuppie? Or a current Hipster-type (not the same as a Yuppie, of course, but another group who'd culturally be identifiable with going "all natural", even if it costs more, and "saving the environment" with a purposefully cloth bag?

 

I live in a city that has outlawed plastic bags at grocery stores and similar establishments, but I've been using cloth bags for about 20 years (in fact, I still have two from just about that long ago).  It's not a trend for me, just a longstanding belief that to do otherwise is wasteful in a way that is easily avoided. 

 

I don't watch much current TV, so I don't know what "type" of characters are being shown with the stereotypical reusable bag with a baguette and something green sticking out the top.  It's not something to which I ever paid much attention, but I suspect it has been more common on TV than in reality.  On Roseanne, they unloaded paper bags full of processed food, very in keeping with the Conner family's lifestyle, but that's about all that comes to mind. 

Edited July 27, 2015 by Bastet

[Quof]

I mean real life people... things fall out of shopping bags. On TV? Nope

You missed Steve and Miranda dropping the shopping bags, and finding their wedding venue, on SATC.

[Kromm]

Heh. In the US at least I think that limits you to about 3 or 4 major cities (although who knows how many minor ones--mainly on the West Coast, but I think North Carolina and Hawaii have it now too).

It really does tickle me that California (one of the big early states to do this) is so super-environmentally conscious about plastic bags, but the same population wastes water by the ton (although to be fair, the main water waste if coming from agro-business mismanaging it, but also one-percenters).

I await seeing how this all plays out in TV cliches.

You missed Steve and Miranda dropping the shopping bags, and finding their wedding venue, on SATC.

Ah. DROPPING bags is different. Breaking bags too. Those happen on TV. Scenes where people have to help other people pick stuff up in a parking lot, for example.

But simply having bags make a huge "clunk" on a kitchen counter, things breaking inside them when you put them down badly, and things rolling out the side of dodgy and badly packed plastic bags? Now THAT'S real life.

In TVland, be they blue collar or white, they have perfectly packed, squared off paper sacks that settle quietly and perfectly.

Edited July 26, 2015 by Kromm

[Cobalt Stargazer]

Heh. In the US at least I think that limits you to about 3 or 4 major cities (although who knows how many minor ones--mainly on the West Coast, but I think North Carolina and Hawaii have it now too).

 

I live in NC, and most of our grocery stores still use plastic bags. Wal Mart and Target too. You can use cloth bags, but you have to bring your own or buy one from the store.

[DittyDotDot]

Are you rich? Or what used to be called a Yuppie? Or a current Hipster-type (not the same as a Yuppie, of course, but another group who'd culturally be identifiable with going "all natural", even if it costs more, and "saving the environment" with a purposefully cloth bag?

 

I use cloth bags. When I can remember to take them with me, that is. Just the regular old grocery store, though. When I forget my bags at home, I ask for paper and then take them to the local food bank for them to use again. I live in a rural area and it seems the majority of people use cloth bags here.

[Kromm]

I live in NC, and most of our grocery stores still use plastic bags. Wal Mart and Target too. You can use cloth bags, but you have to bring your own or buy one from the store.

Apparently it was just PART of North Carolina (not the whole state) and they got banned and then UN-banned after the local paper bag factory got destroyed... by a tornado.

Yes, truth is stranger than fiction.

 

 

I use cloth bags. When I can remember to take them with me, that is. Just the regular old grocery store, though. When I forget my bags at home, I ask for paper and then take them to the local food bank for them to use again. I live in a rural area and it seems the majority of people use cloth bags here.

I wonder if we should distinguish between "cloth" and those polymer reusable shopping bags. Which I don't think I've EVER seen on TV at all. It's either genuine cloth on TV, or paper.

 

Edited July 26, 2015 by Kromm

[DearEvette]

 

I don't watch much current TV, so I don't know what "type" of characters are being shown with the stereotypical reusable bag with a baguette and something green sticking out the top.  It's not something to which I ever paid much attention, but I suspect it has been more common TV than in reality.  On Roseanne, they unloaded paper bags full of processed food, very in keeping with the Conner family's lifestyle, but that's about all that comes to mind. 

 

Yeah, I think part of the lament was that, that 'pretty shopping' was seemed to presented at the norm regardles of the supposed financial situation.  Only on a show like Roseanne, where part of the identity of the show was the blue collar-ness & near-poverty of the Connors would they show the  opposite.  It was like it was a direct answer to the 'pretty shopping' experience. 

[DittyDotDot]

I wonder if we should distinguish between "cloth" and those reusable Paper Sack (or larger) sized polymer reusable shopping bags. Which I don't think I've EVER seen on TV at all. It's either genuine cloth on TV, or paper.

 

 

I have one old muslin cloth bag that I prefer and two of those reusable cloth shopping bags you can buy at the grocery store. I don't really care for them, but sometimes I have more items than will fit in the muslin bag.

 

BTW, I would buy carrots with the tops on, if I can find them, but also have been known to buy them without. But I would never buy a baguette as I'm not too fond of hard crusted bread. ;)

Edited July 26, 2015 by DittyDotDot

[FormerMod-a1]

I've bought carrots with the tops, but the greens are never artfully sticking up out of the bag.

[janie jones]

What I see in real life that's different from TV is that people have a mishmash of lots of different bags that they got at different grocery stores and that are made of different materials, rather than people on TV who shop with like two matching cloth bags.  And I've never in real life seen anyone do the thing where they have a paper bag inside a plastic bag.

 

By the way, did you guys know that Target has paper bags?  You have to ask and they don't put them where you can see them, but they do have them, and they're nice bags with handles.

[Demented Daisy]

We're military (so not rich, nor Yuppie) and we use whatever bags we have in the car.  A lot are old cloth bags we used in Europe because the stores don't provide bags of any kind.  The stores we went to in England (Tesco, Asda -- 12 years ago) and Germany (Real -- 4 years ago) didn't, anyway.  Base commissaries also sell cloth bags instead of the polymer reusable bags.

 

Only on tv do buses not slow down when a person is standing in the street for 30 seconds.  Those buses mow them down every time!  (Just saw it on a S1 episode of The Blacklist.)

[Kromm]

I've bought carrots with the tops, but the greens are never artfully sticking up out of the bag.

The tops are edible if they're good enough quality.

 

That said, the supermarkets frequently seem to charge a hell of a lot more for carrots THAT fresh.  Better to find a farmer's market (where it's still expensive, but at least you know what you're getting for sure).

[Kel Varnsen]

But actually I think it might not be true. We see plenty of blue-collar shopping on TV (and plenty that happens in the past on shows set then). People pulling generic peanut butter (because not only don't they want to pay the sponsor but generic also implies blue collar) out of paper shopping bags. 

Just a bit off topic, but I think it is the other way around. My understanding is that products on TV are generally generic, not because the show would have to pay to use them, but because they don't want to give away free advertising. My biggest piece of evidence for this is The Price is Right, where any time they play a game that uses grocery products, they will always show name brand products; but you can always tell the paid sponsors, because they name the product and the description sounds like ad copy. But for products that aren't paid sponsors, where an intern probably picked them up at an actual store, it becomes a much more generic description.

[Kromm]

And I've never in real life seen anyone do the thing where they have a paper bag inside a plastic bag.

I've done that my whole life.

 

Stores in fact used to do it quite a lot when they heavy packed paper bags. It's arguably LESS environmentally wasteful because you can use less total bags--you can heavy pack everything (even moreso than double paper).

[selkie]

Are you rich? Or what used to be called a Yuppie? Or a current Hipster-type (not the same as a Yuppie, of course, but another group who'd culturally be identifiable with going "all natural", even if it costs more, and "saving the environment" with a purposefully cloth bag?

I think the accusation is that TV people (seemingly) shopping like that even if they aren't always in the right (apparent) demographic.

What you don't see often on TV are PLASTIC shopping bags, like 95% of us get in the supermarket even still. If it's not the Yuppies or Hipsters using Cloth, it's paper bags. Used with the intention, it seems, so that we can have characters sit them on kitchen counters when they walk in nice and those bags settle down on those counters nice and "squared"--so they never slump over or risk having things roll out onto a counter (or even make a big "clunk" noise when they put them down). I mean real life people... things fall out of shopping bags. On TV? Nope. They come in their nice paper squared bags, settle down nice and noiselessly on the counter, and then people pull things out of the top of them nice and organized-like.

 

I suspect that not using plastic bags makes it easier on production. As you said, they move around a lot when you set them down, and if you know you're going to have to cut together multiple takes for a scene, easier to have a prop that will look the same when placed on its mark ten times in a row than having to worry about plastic bags looking different on the counter when you're trying to do the final cut for that scene.

[Kromm]

I suspect that not using plastic bags makes it easier on production. As you said, they move around a lot when you set them down, and if you know you're going to have to cut together multiple takes for a scene, easier to have a prop that will look the same when placed on its mark ten times in a row than having to worry about plastic bags looking different on the counter when you're trying to do the final cut for that scene.

Yes, but there being a logical reason doesn't mean it's not perfectly fitting for the topic! It's a slice of TV life that doesn't resemble most of our actual lives, but is fairly consistent show to show.

 

I suspect there are quite a few things like that.  Things production has to do consistently on a show for consistency's sake that in real life people do rarely to never. I can't quite settle on it exactly, but something in the back of my mind thinks there are probably things having to do with cars that fit this.

[ganesh]

When I lived in Berkeley, a referendum passed from the county that you had to bring your own bags or you were charged 10 cents for each bag you needed. One of the markets I went to, gave you a cloth bag if you spent over $50. I got 4 of those. Most people I ran into had their own bags, whether the local market, supermarket chain, or BevMo.

 

So, now, in my new mountainous home, I keep my bags in my (new first ever) car and I bring them to the grocery store nbd. I've noticed most people have their own bags or use paper ones. 

 

I've never come across carrots with the tops though. Even when I buy loose carrots, the tops have been snipped off,

Edited July 27, 2015 by ganesh

[Kromm]

I've never come across carrots with the tops though. Even when I buy loose carrots, the tops have been snipped off,

They're no doubt cheaper to ship without the tops.  But also, it means you've lost any surety you might have had about how fresh they are. I don't think Carrot Tops stay unwilted for very long. At the very least they'd probably require a level of refrigeration carrots normally might not need. 

[Haleth]

Shoot, I've been using cloth bags by choice for years.  I leave a stack of them in my car.  Who wants a pantry full of plastic shopping bags?

[FormerMod-a1]

I don't think the "Only On TV" part was just using cloth shopping bags, or just buying carrots with the greens attached, or just the baguette.  It was the combination of those things plus having the baguette and the carrot greens sticking out the top, and that everyone seemed to do it.

[ganesh]

I actually use the plastic bags for garbage.

[mansonlamps]

I actually use the plastic bags for garbage.

Or cat litter.