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

[andromeda331]

Back to the dances for a second. Girls on TV always have a new dress for every dance their school has. Not one ever has a parent that says nope wear something you already have I'm not paying for a new dress when you have five in your closet. Or no you just got a new dress for homecoming your not getting a new dress for the winter dance and/or Valentine dance. Even when the family is cash strapped somehow the daughter still ends up wearing a new dress to every dance. 

[GHScorpiosRule]

4 minutes ago, andromeda331 said:

Back to the dances for a second. Girls on TV always have a new dress for every dance their school has. Not one ever has a parent that says nope wear something you already have I'm not paying for a new dress when you have five in your closet. Or no you just got a new dress for homecoming your not getting a new dress for the winter dance and/or Valentine dance. Even when the family is cash strapped somehow the daughter still ends up wearing a new dress to every dance. 

Actually, I did have a different dress for different dances. Of course, this was during my junior and senior year, and I had a part-time job, so received employee discount so I could afford to buy them. And my parents weren’t well to do.

[Brattinella]

I had two dance dresses, both made by my mom.  One was made in slipper satin with matching lace.  The other was green gingham for my square dancing.

[andromeda331]

51 minutes ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

Actually, I did have a different dress for different dances. Of course, this was during my junior and senior year, and I had a part-time job, so received employee discount so I could afford to buy them. And my parents weren’t well to do.

27 minutes ago, Brattinella said:

I had two dance dresses, both made by my mom.  One was made in slipper satin with matching lace.  The other was green gingham for my square dancing.

Lucky! You both had nicer parents then I did. I definitely got the 'I'm not shelling out money for another dress you have plenty of clothes in your closet' until I was old enough to get a job and blow my money however I wanted. The only exception was senior prom. That one Mom wanted to pay for. The rest of the time before I could work was I'm only buying one dress this year and that's it. 

[Brattinella]

1 hour ago, andromeda331 said:

Lucky! You both had nicer parents then I did. I definitely got the 'I'm not shelling out money for another dress you have plenty of clothes in your closet' until I was old enough to get a job and blow my money however I wanted. The only exception was senior prom. That one Mom wanted to pay for. The rest of the time before I could work was I'm only buying one dress this year and that's it. 

I didn't feel so lucky at the time; it made me feel like po' folks.  What a snot I was!  I look back on it, and I was allowed to choose any fabric, that satin and lace was pretty darn expensive.  My mom labored long and hard over those dresses, she was a good soul.  I miss her.

[bilgistic]

My mother made my junior prom dress. I told her how I wanted it to look and she made it happen. It had a strapless black sequined sweetheart-neckline bodice and white satin mermaid skirt. I found my senior prom dress at Macy's in Atlanta (in 1993, back when Macy's wasn't everywhere like it is now) when I was there to dance in the Peach Bowl with my high school dance team. I paid $35 for a black satin slip dress with spaghetti straps and a lace overlay. I wore black hose with seams up the back of the legs, and made a choker with a black ribbon and button cover, which looked like a small pearl brooch. I thought I was hot stuff. In retrospect, it was all a bit much!

[Brattinella]

20 minutes ago, bilgistic said:

My mother made my junior prom dress. I told her how I wanted it to look and she made it happen. It had a strapless black sequined sweetheart-neckline bodice and white satin mermaid skirt. I found my senior prom dress at Macy's in Atlanta (in 1993, back when Macy's wasn't everywhere like it is now) when I was there to dance in the Peach Bowl with my high school dance team. I paid $35 for a black satin slip dress with spaghetti straps and a lace overlay. I wore black hose with seams up the back of the legs, and made a choker with a black ribbon and button cover, which looked like a small pearl brooch. I thought I was hot stuff. In retrospect, it was all a bit much!

It sounds wonderful!

[Jacqs]

it's a bit of a waste to be anti-dresses. Pants and shorts are shared with boys and men, so wearing pants isn't really much of a "just as feminine" statement even for non-tomboys.

[Danny Franks]

On ‎1‎/‎31‎/‎2019 at 3:27 PM, ganesh said:

I'm surprised that Sean Bean made it through to that far in to a tv show. 

You've obviously never seen Sharpe, where Sean Bean survives increasingly absurd and hopeless situations all the time - From being trapped in French territory and hunted by various nemeses to leading a Forlorn Hope company in the assault on the walls of an occupied Spanish fortress. I figure his whole career since then has been making up for all the deaths Richard Sharpe avoided.

[Trini]

I think you all might appreciate this: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend typically does musical parodies, and the last episode they did one pointing out the differences between fighting in TV/movies vs. real life:

---

Punching sound effects is a pet peeve of mine. Apparently there's like only 3 sound effects for that in all of Hollywood.

[Shannon L.]

I might have mentioned this one already, but I don't think I've seen anywhere near as many people sitting on desks, tables and counters (instead of chairs that are right there) in real life as I do on tv.

Apparently, every single town in America has that one, huge, abandoned house, that's dirty and rotting, with the doors and windows boarded up, vines growing all over it and a fence around the whole property.  Old, unattended houses?  Yes.  Old abandoned houses?  Yes.  But tv takes them to a whole different level.

[ganesh]

Ha, I sit on the desk when I go talk to the students in their cubicles. 

[Blergh]

33 minutes ago, Shannon L. said:

I might have mentioned this one already, but I don't think I've seen anywhere near as many people sitting on desks, tables and counters (instead of chairs that are right there) in real life as I do on tv.

Apparently, every single town in America has that one, huge, abandoned house, that's dirty and rotting, with the doors and windows boarded up, vines growing all over it and a fence around the whole property.  Old, unattended houses?  Yes.  Old abandoned houses?  Yes.  But tv takes them to a whole different level.

  Actually, the only times I can remember anyone in my career sitting on a desk or chair was when a supervisor would do so while conducting  a staff meeting. Needless to say, this did NOT convey a time to relax or be comfortable to the rest of the staff. I'll leave it at that! 

 My home city has quite a few abandoned houses with doors and windows boarded up but also a few which still have the actual residents living there but who have let things get so dirty, rotten with doors and windows  to the extent that the places LOOK abandoned.

[ganesh]

I didn't do it this time. 

[shapeshifter]

2 hours ago, ganesh said:

Ha, I sit on the desk when I go talk to the students in their cubicles. 

Ew. 
This is why we aren't friends IRL.
But then I don't really have "friends" IRL.
Off to see my former-work-daughter and her babies at her former place of work.

Edited February 13, 2019 by shapeshifter

[ganesh]

It's not their desk. 

[Anela]

Do people really leave their car keys above the thing over the wheel? the sun visor? 

[Katy M]

Just now, Anela said:

Do people really leave their car keys above the thing over the wheel? the sun visor? 

Nobody I know does. They also don't leave them over the tire.  Is it really that difficult for people in TV land to carry their keys?

[meep.meep]

Since they don't seem to understand the principle of locking their cars, maybe it is that difficult.  Maybe their pockets are really really small.

I'm personally so worried about accidentally locking the car with the keys inside, that I haul them around everywhere!

[Anela]

56 minutes ago, Katy M said:

Nobody I know does. They also don't leave them over the tire.  Is it really that difficult for people in TV land to carry their keys?

My dad leaves a spare key under the van somewhere, but he carries the main set around with him, and we make sure the doors are locked (it's an old van, and sometimes the side and back door don't lock automatically). I've never seen him leave them over the visor, or around the dashboard (which I just saw in a movie - the woman first checks over the visor, and then sees them somewhere else).

Edited February 15, 2019 by Anela

[Dr.OO7]

I'm a detective working on a case. A psychic will join the investigation. I'll scoff at the idea and ridicule it. . .

Until at some point, the psychic says something to me that they couldn't possibly have known about. 

And I'll be rattled and left wondering if this mumbo-jumbo is true after all.

Edited February 21, 2019 by Camille

[Brookside]

On ‎1‎/‎6‎/‎2019 at 7:49 PM, Camille said:

Anytime the police need to arrest a doctor, they go barging into his/her office/exam room/operating room, always ignoring whoever tells them "You can't go in there!" Showing absolutely no regard for the patient whose privacy they're violating, or for contaminating the sterility of the OR, or for embarrassing the doctor and endangering his/her reputation (because the way these crime shows are, half the time, the doctor will turn out to be innocent).

I HATE it.

Cop shows where the suspect is quietly minding his/her own business drinking a cup of coffee.  Then the police shout "Stop, Police" from yards away, so the suspect can get up and run and start the inevitable chase. Instead of just walking up and arresting them.

[MaryPatShelby]

On 2/15/2019 at 12:40 PM, Anela said:

Do people really leave their car keys above the thing over the wheel? the sun visor? 

And a related question, do people really have a photo of a loved one, usually dead, in the sun visor?

[Jacqs]

Only on TV are little girls still "dolls and dresses and tea parties". They are not even aiming at the parents' watching's nostalgia as the parents of 2019 would have been children long after pants for girls were allowed at schools etc.

[shang yiet]

A woman will slap a jerk or a villain or spit at him in contempt but he won't slap her back because even jerks or villains can be gentlemen deep inside. 

[2727]

34 minutes ago, shang yiet said:

A woman will slap a jerk or a villain or spit at him in contempt but he won't slap her back because even jerks or villains can be gentlemen deep inside. 

It's starting to change IRL now with police treating battery cases equally without regard to gender, but it ticks me off that almost all TV shows and movies still think it's cute when a woman outright slaps, throws a drink, punches or kicks a man. I don't care what the man said or how much smaller/weaker she is, it's still battery. (Aside from self defense, of course.)

Watched a show last night where a sister punched and shoved her brother and all he got to do was rub his shoulder and say, "Ow." The audience is meant to chuckle at him.

[ganesh]

Yeah, they had the daughter on Outlander (not the villain) slap around several of the other characters including her biological father but it was played to be ok. 

Edited February 22, 2019 by ganesh

[Bort]

2 hours ago, ganesh said:

Yeah, they had the daughter on Outlander (not the villain) slap around several of the other characters including her biological father but it was played to be ok. 

Which makes sense because in the timeframe she was in and originally from, it WAS okay.

Now? No. But she's not present-day.

[ganesh]

The first one, I'll let slide, but for the rest, no. She's not from that time. 

[Bort]

Isn’t she from the 60s? It was still okay then.

[Jacqs]

The whole "women and girls can hit men and boys freely on TV" is meant to be some sort of empowerment/revenge thing. The fact that it destroys a lot of real world male support for equality - when there are no allies to throw away in this struggle - doesn't seem to occur to these 1970s and 80s relics writing these tv shows.

[auntlada]

On 2/22/2019 at 1:04 AM, Jacqs said:

Only on TV are little girls still "dolls and dresses and tea parties". They are not even aiming at the parents' watching's nostalgia as the parents of 2019 would have been children long after pants for girls were allowed at schools etc.

I know plenty of little girls who like to wear dresses (often frilly and inappropriate for play to a mother's eye, what with the impossibility of cleaning them), play with dolls and have tea parties, not because they are force-fed that because they are girls but because they want to.

[Lugal]

On 1/21/2019 at 4:49 PM, Oosala said:

Only on TV:  This one is from the days when everyone only had a landline.  Every time the phone rings, everyone in the immediate vicinity turns and looks at the phone, and stares at the phone for 2 or 3 rings.  Even the people who live in the house.  I'm old and have spent many years living in a home and working in an office with only a landline phone.  The phone rings and I just moved to the phone and picked up the receiver.  Why would I waste time staring at the damn thing?

Actually this would and still does happen in my family.  It's more a matter of waiting to see if anyone else will pick it up.  Since the vast majority are junk calls, none of us really want to answer it (unless we can see who's on the caller ID and it's someone we actually want to talk to).

[galaxygirl76]

6 hours ago, auntlada said:

I know plenty of little girls who like to wear dresses (often frilly and inappropriate for play to a mother's eye, what with the impossibility of cleaning them), play with dolls and have tea parties, not because they are force-fed that because they are girls but because they want to.

My seven year old loves dresses and skirts(shorts are for boys she told me), loves her dolls and barbies, and frequently has teaparties with them. Sometimes a dinosaur shows up too. She's fun. 

[andromeda331]

4 minutes ago, galaxygirl76 said:

My seven year old loves dresses and skirts(shorts are for boys she told me), loves her dolls and barbies, and frequently has teaparties with them. Sometimes a dinosaur shows up too. She's fun. 

A tea party with dinosaurs sounds so adorable. 

[Jacqs]

Trousers and shorts are shared with boys and men so I'm not sure where the catch cry of them being " a woman can be just as feminine" in them comes from...

[Silver Raven]

On 2/22/2019 at 10:04 AM, 2727 said:

It's starting to change IRL now with police treating battery cases equally without regard to gender, but it ticks me off that almost all TV shows and movies still think it's cute when a woman outright slaps, throws a drink, punches or kicks a man. I don't care what the man said or how much smaller/weaker she is, it's still battery. (Aside from self defense, of course.)

Soap operas thrive on this trope.

[biakbiak]

1 hour ago, Jacqs said:

Trousers and shorts are shared with boys and men so I'm not sure where the catch cry of them being " a woman can be just as feminine" in them comes from...

Shirts, shoes, hats, socks, underwear, etc are also something shared with men and boys that doesn’t mean that some can be stereotypically “feminine”.

[Jacqs]

Underwear can be gendered - satin or lacy bras and panties. Because of the Americanisation of Australian slang, the gendered word panties is becoming more widely used here then the "undies" that i grew up with.

[Shannon L.]

All mob members are Italian, complete with the thick, New York accent. 

[methodwriter85]

White suburban parents not getting hip-hop even though the average parent of a teenager now would have been a teen in the 80's/90's when hip-hop hit hard.

[ganesh]

That totally blew my mind.

[selkie]

On a related note- jokes about people over 40 not really understanding The Internets (I'm looking at you, Lena Dunham) even though we were the ones out there using a VAX  terminal or some clunky unix thing to check out e-mail before the WWW part of the internet existed, and then when Tim Berners-Lee cam along were handcrafting the first web pages by memorizing a bunch fo HTML tags. 

[Lugal]

It seems like lately on every show whenever people drink tea, it's always Earl Grey.  There are other kinds of tea out there (and a lot of them better than Earl Grey).

[Anduin]

11 minutes ago, selkie said:

On a related note- jokes about people over 40 not really understanding The Internets (I'm looking at you, Lena Dunham) even though we were the ones out there using a VAX  terminal or some clunky unix thing to check out e-mail before the WWW part of the internet existed, and then when Tim Berners-Lee cam along were handcrafting the first web pages by memorizing a bunch fo HTML tags. 

I'm 40, and I understand the net fine. Not every bit of deeper magic, but I have been using it since 1996.

Just now, Lugal said:

It seems like lately on every show whenever people drink tea, it's always Earl Grey.  There are other kinds of tea out there (and a lot of them better than Earl Grey).

But it's Captain Picard's drink! Surely you don't want to disagree with Picard.

[biakbiak]

4 minutes ago, Anduin said:

But it's Captain Picard's drink! Surely you don't want to disagree with Picard.

Earl Grey is trash!

[Lugal]

Just now, Anduin said:

But it's Captain Picard's drink! Surely you don't want to disagree with Picard.

That is true, but I just don't like Earl Grey tea.  I tried, but I'm a terrible trekkie!

Ironically before they started TNG, they told Patrick Stewart that his character would drink a lot of tea and asked if he had any recommendations. He suggested lapsang souchong, but the producers didn't think anyone would know what it is, so they went with Earl Grey instead.  Which is a shame because lapsang souchong is a much better tea.

[shapeshifter]

24 minutes ago, selkie said:

On a related note- jokes about people over 40 not really understanding The Internets (I'm looking at you, Lena Dunham) even though we were the ones out there using a VAX  terminal or some clunky unix thing to check out e-mail before the WWW part of the internet existed, and then when Tim Berners-Lee cam along were handcrafting the first web pages by memorizing a bunch fo HTML tags. 

I'm 65 and this one burns me because IRL it's the same assumption. I can still fix HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code in my sleep, y'all!
And the college undergrads are so grateful when I show them some MS Word-fu M4gik, like Ctrl+T (or Cmd+T on a Mac) for a hanging indent--or, better yet, how to do it in Google Docs.
But all of us 65 and over are getting laid off because they think we don't know stuff.
And it so doesn't help that on TV that's how we are represented.</rant> 

[ganesh]

2 hours ago, selkie said:

On a related note- jokes about people over 40 not really understanding The Internets (I'm looking at you, Lena Dunham) even though we were the ones out there using a VAX  terminal or some clunky unix thing to check out e-mail before the WWW part of the internet existed, and then when Tim Berners-Lee cam along were handcrafting the first web pages by memorizing a bunch fo HTML tags. 

I'm an over 40 vim ninja, so come at me millennials. I was running Mosaic on UNIX. 

[Anela]

2 hours ago, selkie said:

On a related note- jokes about people over 40 not really understanding The Internets (I'm looking at you, Lena Dunham) even though we were the ones out there using a VAX  terminal or some clunky unix thing to check out e-mail before the WWW part of the internet existed, and then when Tim Berners-Lee cam along were handcrafting the first web pages by memorizing a bunch fo HTML tags. 

I'm over 40, and know enough. I'm tired of people acting like 40 is ancient. 

2 hours ago, Lugal said:

It seems like lately on every show whenever people drink tea, it's always Earl Grey.  There are other kinds of tea out there (and a lot of them better than Earl Grey).

I loathe Earl Grey. My dad once got me a tea at the bookstore, and they gave him that, instead of my usual. Blech. I took one sip, and had to get a different one. 

2 hours ago, Anduin said:

I'm 40, and I understand the net fine. Not every bit of deeper magic, but I have been using it since 1996.

Same.