Why is a phone ringing on the TV show's sound track?

[The Controvert]

I've noticed a chirping digital-style phone ring in the background of several TV shows now. I can tell it's part of the sound track by replaying the scene. Shows it's appeared in:

Lie to Me
NBC Nightly News
Mr Sunshine
Outsourced

It annoys me because it sounds exactly like my home phone is ringing. It would be like listening to a song on the car radio and hearing a police siren on the sound track.

Is this a horrible new foley-artist trend to convey to the audience that they're watching a real office with phones ringing all the time? :confused: If so, I really wish they would cut it out already! Has anyone else noticed this and do you find it super annoying?

[It's Not Rocket Surgery!]

I don't know, but I bet it's a call from Mr. Wilhelm (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_scream)!

Similarly annoying, at least at our house, are the several commercials that feature a doorbell that sounds exactly like ours. It drives the dogs nuts!

[jayjay]

In a similar vein, radio ads that have either honking horns, screeching tires, or police/ambulance/fire sirens as background noise. It's absolutely nerve-wracking when you're driving!

[Wheelz]

Lie to Me
NBC Nightly News
Mr Sunshine
OutsourcedNBC Nightly News? It's probably an actual phone ringing.
The others, yeah, I'm guessing just a stock sound effect for ambience. Funny though, it's never stood out for me before. But I can see what you mean if it sounds like your own phone. Whenever a TV character has the same text-message alert as me, it sort of jerks me to attention. We're all Pavlov's Dogs, I guess.

In a similar vein, radio ads that have either honking horns, screeching tires, or police/ambulance/fire sirens as background noise. It's absolutely nerve-wracking when you're driving!There should be a special level of Hell reserved for advertisers who do this!!

[sco3tt]

Similarly annoying, at least at our house, are the several commercials that feature a doorbell that sounds exactly like ours. It drives the dogs nuts!

It seems that 90% of the episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm feature a scene where someone rings a doorbell, the standard two-tone bell that I (and probably you and everyone else) have. When I used to watch that show I could always count on my dog to start barking at the front door at some point.

[Marc Xenos]

In a similar vein, radio ads that have either honking horns, screeching tires, or police/ambulance/fire sirens as background noise. It's absolutely nerve-wracking when you're driving!

BING - frickin' - OH!!!

Hey, speaking of TV irritations, how about those reality shows that have so much bleeped-out profanity, that it's like watching a documentary about Morse Code?

[jasonh300]

I've noticed that cell phones in commercials and on TV no longer ring, but they vibrate, LOUDLY. I can't stand that sound.

[SciFiSam]

It's just to set the scene. If there were no background phones ringing in a busy office, people would complain that it's unrealistic. I know what you mean about it being sometimes making you think it's your own phone, though. My dog also barks when someone on the TV knocks on the door.

[Freudian Slit]

Is this anything new? haven't there been phones on TVs for a while?

[jackdavinci]

Can I just mention... cell phones have been central to many a TV plot, but there is one particular cell phone ring tone that will be forever branded in my brain as "the Medium ring tone". I don't think any ring tone has has more play in any series than that one.

[Euryphaessa]

In a similar vein, radio ads that have either honking horns, screeching tires, or police/ambulance/fire sirens as background noise. It's absolutely nerve-wracking when you're driving!

Or ads with that annoying generic beeping alarm clock. That just puts me in a bad mood.

[digs]

Can I just mention... cell phones have been central to many a TV plot, but there is one particular cell phone ring tone that will be forever branded in my brain as "the Medium ring tone". I don't think any ring tone has has more play in any series than that one.

So... anyone who doesn't want to be annoyed could change their ring tone.

I did, and I'm an Olde Farte™.


("There's a manual for that!")

[jackdavinci]

So... anyone who doesn't want to be annoyed could change their ring tone.

I did, and I'm an Olde Farte™.


("There's a manual for that!")

I tried but I wasn't able to figure out how anything you wrote was a response to my post.

[Unauthorized Cinnamon]

NBC has been flogging the everliving shit out of Hop lately, allegedly putting literal Easter eggs in the shows. Perhaps the chirp is to alert you to one?

[The_Raven]

Well, you've listed 2 NBC shows, 1 ABC and 1 Fox. Unless this is some global viral marketing phenomenon, I think you need to look between the couch cushions there, chief. :D

[fiddlesticks]

Obviously the people have spoken already, all those shows save "NBC Nightly News" have been canceled since this thread was last seen at the top of the message board.

[Tangent]

Heh. Outsourced was set in a call center. Of course there's going to be phones ringing.

[JoelUpchurch]

I get annoyed with shows that have characters that use Skype and they use the actual Skype ring tone. It also annoys me that the video quality is so much better than anything I get in Skype.

[twickster]

The thread was bumped by a spammer. Since others have posted in addition, though, I'll leave it open.

[cochrane]

I was watching the movie John Q (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Q) with Denzel Washington. A fax machine rang in one scene. It not only sounded exactly like my own fax machine, the ringing even seemed to come from that direction on my home theater speakers. I paused the movie and the ringing quit. I then had to replay the scene to make sure the ringing was on the soundtrack and not my fax actually ringing. It was eerie.

As for the doorbell sound and the dogs, I used to have dogs that would react to a doorbell sound on TV. Not my current dog, though. He only pays attention if it's the real thing.

[Postariti]

Our silly dog barks at the door when a phone rings on television. It sounds nothing like a doorbell, but you can't convince her.

[TBG]

There should be a special level of Hell reserved for advertisers who do this!!

Due to overcrowding, they have to make due with being placed into the level filled with child molestors and people who talk during movies.

[Corcaigh]

Everytime my mother hears a doorbell on TV she thinks it's someone at our door... I tell her it was on the TV. I often wonder if I've left some misfortune standing on the doorstep because I thought it was a doorbell on TV...?

A good few years ago there was a song in the [UK] charts that had birdsong in the chorus, used to drive people's cats mental, and they'd leap around trying to find the birds. Sadly it was pre internet and smartphones...

[Hail Ants]

This may be a bit obscure but starting about ten or fifteen years ago I started to notice that anytime there's a scene around technology of some kind, a computer room, an airline cockpit, a laboratory etc. the sound of an old MFM hard drive could always be heard. It's hard to describe exactly but they were in the original IBM PCs and clones and have a very distinct, sort of squeaky sound. Animated shows in particular use this.