Alternatives to "My phone number is 555-5555" in films

I think the new phone number should be 966-2437. :smiley:

Even though this is a zombie thread, I can’t resist mentioning the fun movie Last Action Hero with Arnold Schwarzenegger. (The joke about 555-numbers is 35 seconds into the clip.)

In 2013 it is trivial for a studio to get a set of numbers to be used in its movies and shows. If someone wanted to call, the outgoing message could be promotional material.

Hell Scrubs did this years ago, when Turk got his new cell phone, with the number 916-CALL-TUR(K).

I have read multiple stories over the years where the current owners of the “Brady Bunch” home were routinely getting knocks on their door, asking for the kids by name and wanting to see the house (which was not used for the interior shots).

People are crazy :smiley:

Back in the Seventies, the old cop show Kojak occasionally used the phone number “246-4200.” I don’t know if that’s still a working number in Manhattan, but back then, if you called it, you’d get Dial A Prayer!

That is, you wouldn’t get a person, you’d get a recorded message praising Jesus.

There USED to be (and may still be) a lot of phone numbers in New York that began with “936-”, and most of those numbers got you recorded messages of one kind or another (there was Dial-a-Joke, Sports Phone, Weather Report Phone, and so on). Maybe writers could use 936- numbers in movie screenplays, at least until thta became as stale and cliched as 555- numbers.

The phone number for The Plaza in Home Alone was the actual reservation number for the hotel. I guess they thought it would be good advertising but it just ended up with a bunch of kids calling whenever the movie played on TV.

I heard Robert Cormier speak and he said he used his home phone number in one of his books just to see what would happen. He was really disappointed that 15 years later he hadn’t received a single call.

The first book of The Baby-Sitter’s Club series had the girl’s phone numbers with the prefix KL5-xxxx. Doesn’t take much brainpower to realize that KL5 translates to 555.
(Were there phone numbers like that in the 1980s? Civilian non-commercial phone numbers, I mean?)
Most full phone numbers don’t appear in books, though. Though if there are any other examples where they do, I’m interested to know.

And there is the SNL example with Mike Myers as Linda Richman. The “phone number” for that show was 555-4444. The emphasis in this case was on the fours with the pronounced Jewish New Yorker accent.