# "Classic" movies or TV shows with situations or premises basically impossible today **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 16, 2020, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922 "2020-04-16T13:18:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/81 "2020-04-17T15:41:53Z")
> [@MEBuckner](#): > > And of course the whole darned plot on that one is now anachronistic–“Someone left a baby on my doorstep and claims my late husband is the father? Hm…I _could_ hire the eccentric and notoriously expensive detective Nero Wolfe to launch a lengthy and laborious investigation to find the baby’s mother in order to indirectly determine the likelihood that my late husband was the father. Or, I could just find an old hair brush that belonged to Richard (with at least one complete hair follicle still lodged in it) and have that tested against a sample of the baby’s DNA.” Give Wolfe his due, though – he warned her that (in those pre-DNA testing days) he would not be able to prove paternity, but she hired him anyway. Wolfe may be expensive and ecceentric, but he always warns his prospective clients about both his fees and the limits to his capabilities. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/82 "2020-04-17T16:00:46Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Right up until 9/11, it was perfectly legal to have a disassembled firearm in your checked luggage. Not ammo, but the firearm was fine. At least, in the US, in domestic luggage. [Unloaded firearms as well as ammunition are both still legal to carry in checked luggage in the United States](https://www.tsa.gov/travel/transporting-firearms-and-ammunition); they must be declared when the bag is checked, and must be in proper containers. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/83 "2020-04-17T16:03:28Z")
> [@MEBuckner](#): > > [Unloaded firearms as well as ammunition are both still legal to carry in checked luggage in the United States](https://www.tsa.gov/travel/transporting-firearms-and-ammunition); they must be declared when the bag is checked, and must be in proper containers. Really? Because I saw one confiscated from checked luggage about 8 years ago. Maybe it was because the passenger didn’t declare it. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/84 "2020-04-17T16:05:55Z")
> [@flip-68](#): > > getting personal information about other people over the phone happens a lot in old movies. > > my wife and I watched Midnight Run last night and Deniro’s character has his credit card cancelled by a rival who calls up the help line to find out where it was last used - no security questions asked. I wonder if it was ever really that easy even then. Hollywood often speeds us past the typical bullshit we endure everyday just to live in a society. It’s not like people say ‘hello’ or ‘goodbye’ on the phone on film either. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/85 "2020-04-17T16:57:20Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > So does the ability to look at stuff from another time through its own lens get passed down through families? I’d like to think all people can do this; even my kids in the anecdote in my OP, when they expressed their surprise at the events of “Vacation” (at ages 10 through 14), they definitely understood that those technological devices were obviously “not a thing” when the movie was taking place, and that the situations were entirely (well, mostly) plausible in the context of the times, if absurd. They just couldn’t believe that those times were _something so recent as when I was their age_, because what was missing (and what drove the comedic situations) seemed so completely… _Essential_ to them. Instead of finding the situations funny, their reactions were consistently “I’m so glad I didn’t live back then.” Their pity overwhelmed their amusement, tinged with horror at the idea that they had just missed “having to live like that” by only one generation! The lack of security checking at airports and whatnot from the past is also something that stands out to them in watching older movies/shows, but in the other direction. “Too bad that all had to end.” ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/86 "2020-04-17T17:10:58Z")
Uma Thurman flew to Japan in ‘Kill Bill’ with her big honkin’ sword in its own seat next to her on the plane, lol. I don’t know if it was legal to do that at the time, I doubt it. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/87 "2020-04-17T17:26:49Z")
> [@flip-68](#): > > getting personal information about other people over the phone happens a lot in old movies. > > my wife and I watched Midnight Run last night and Deniro’s character has his credit card cancelled by a rival who calls up the help line to find out where it was last used - no security questions asked. This is one of our favorite movies. Yes it’s a comedy, not intended to be hyper-realistic, but the scene you describe is the only one that ALWAYS interrupts my suspension of disbelief. Free gift bonus reference: “Now here come two words for you…” ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/88 "2020-04-17T17:51:01Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > You as a passenger could actually take guns onto planes up until…sometime in the 70s?. Google searching is failing, because all the top matches are about the TSA and idiots who are trying to take their guns on planes now. > > Also note Die Hard where John is carrying his weapon in regular seating: “It’s OK, I’m a cop.” I’m not convinced that was even true then, but, hey, it’s Hollywood. Which is something that always stands out to me in the classic _Twilight Zone_ episode “Terror at 20,000 Feet”. William Shatner’s character steals a gun off of another passenger to shoot the creature on the wing. That could obviously never happen today. Of course you can’t open the emergency exit on a modern plane while it’s pressurized, too, but I think that would have been true back then, too. Most of the piston engined airliners of the 1950s were pressurized as well. That bit might have been Hollywood taking some license. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/89 "2020-04-17T18:14:15Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > Of course you can’t open the emergency exit on a modern plane while it’s pressurized, too, but I think that would have been true back then, too. Most of the piston engined airliners of the 1950s were pressurized as well. That bit might have been Hollywood taking some license. It might even be “Didn’t do the homework.” ---
**Author:** ![Jet\_Jaguar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jet_jaguar/32/3562_2.png) [@Jet\_Jaguar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jet_Jaguar)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/90 "2020-04-17T18:24:22Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > I feel like everyone saying “cell phones would ruin this plot” haven’t watched a movie released in the last ten years. Having someone’s phone battery die, or get lost, or not have any signal is a pretty common plot device. Yup, TV Tropes even has a page for that: [Cell Phones are Useless.](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CellPhonesAreUseless) ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/91 "2020-04-17T19:07:20Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > William Shatner’s character steals a gun off of another passenger to shoot the creature on the wing. That could obviously never happen today. It’s a police officer (IIRC he’s transporting a prisoner). Law enforcement officers (not just air marshals) [are still allowed to carry guns](https://www.tsa.gov/travel/law-enforcement) in certain circumstances. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/92 "2020-04-17T19:39:59Z")
> [@Joeu](#): > > I’ve got a clip I use in class a lot from Star Trek (TOS). Kirk is in sickbay, and Nurse Chapel asks Dr. McCoy what might be wrong with him. McCoy says, “I don’t know. But I intend to find out. I’ll be in the Medical Records Library.” And he leaves. There’s a computer terminal literally RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM on his desk in sick bay. But he still has to go somewhere (downstairs?) to the Medical Records Library which has to be a physical space with file drawers or something. I’m guessing that’s a lack of foresight on the part of the writers; they were almost certainly thinking like 1960s people, whose mindsets imagined there would be a separate Medical library that would exist in a different physical space. Or at the very least, be accessed from a different physical space than the bridge computers. Their frame of reference, and probably more importantly, that of their viewers, was like that. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/93 "2020-04-17T19:45:38Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I’m guessing that’s a lack of foresight on the part of the writers; they were almost certainly thinking like 1960s people, whose mindsets imagined there would be a separate Medical library that would exist in a different physical space. \*\* Or at the very least, be accessed from a different physical space than the bridge computers. \*\* Their frame of reference, and probably more importantly, that of their viewers, was like that. It’s a HIPAA requirement. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/94 "2020-04-17T22:02:18Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > Uma Thurman flew to Japan in ‘Kill Bill’ with her big honkin’ sword in its own seat next to her on the plane, lol. I don’t know if it was legal to do that at the time, I doubt it. That was actually addressed with a great visual joke in the movie: if you look closely at that shot of her on the plane, you’ll see that the aisle has hooks where you can put your carry on swords, with a couple other swords from other passengers being stored in them. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/95 "2020-04-17T22:20:59Z")
> [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > Would “Evening Primrose” be possible today? It’s a play about a secret group of people who live in a department store at night after it closes for business. My retail experience is pretty limited, it seems to me that store security is tighter than it used to be. On the other hand, I worked in a comedy club at a mall and we frequently had homeless people wandering backstage after-hours stealing our stuff, so it isn’t impossible… our Walmart quit being 24 hours except in Nov and Dec due to it had a “crew” of homeless people literally living in it …apparently these people became so attuned to how to avoid the workers and security and even the cameras that it took months to catch them The only way they knew they were there was the trash and things they used like apparently they were using the hose in the garden and soap and towels from the store to bathe and people would find the remains later … The only way they caught them was tye locked down the entire store unannounced one night and had sheriff deputies around the exits and inside with k9 and searched every inch nook and cranny … supposedly caught around a dozen or so people Now they close about 12 am ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/96 "2020-04-17T22:28:56Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#): > > This is one of our favorite movies. Yes it’s a comedy, not intended to be hyper-realistic, but the scene you describe is the only one that ALWAYS interrupts my suspension of disbelief. > Free gift bonus reference: “Now here come two words for you…” actually this was possible up until the 90s if you knew enough information about the person if fact you don’t nee that much info today to cancel a credit card … heck last year the neighbor wen through a thing where when crazy ex-girlfriend realized she was replaced she called and had all his utilities turned off … more than once … they set it up so if he needed them turned of he had to do it in person … ---
**Author:** ![Manwich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e480ec/32.png) [@Manwich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manwich)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/97 "2020-04-17T22:45:15Z")
The Flintstones would very different with our knowledge of dinosaurs and flint knapping. ---
**Author:** ![Wolf333](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf333/32/3460_2.png) [@Wolf333](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolf333)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/98 "2020-04-17T22:56:28Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > I feel like everyone saying “cell phones would ruin this plot” haven’t watched a movie released in the last ten years. Having someone’s phone battery die, or get lost, or not have any signal is a pretty common plot device. “Why is my phone always dead? I paid $13 for it!” - Jake Peralta ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/99 "2020-04-17T23:15:35Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > That was actually addressed with a great visual joke in the movie: if you look closely at that shot of her on the plane, you’ll see that the aisle has hooks where you can put your carry on swords, with a couple other swords from other passengers being stored in them. It is important to realize that _Kill Bill_ and other Tarantino movies take place in a alternate dimension similar to, but not exactly like, our own.😃 ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/100 "2020-04-17T23:22:11Z")
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