# "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:** 6
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2020, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/101 "2020-04-18T01:12:00Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > AMC showed _The Good Earth_ last night. I wonder what modern Asian Americans would think about a Pearl Buck story. One data point: My brother-in-law married a Chinese woman a few years ago. She lived in China for the first fifty-plus years of her life before she emigrated to marry him. I asked her once about the book _The Good Earth_ (book, not movie), whether it was well known in China, how it was perceived. She rolled her eyes and informed me that it was indeed well known and considered highly racist. --Perhaps not the type of “Asian American” you’re looking for, but I thought her reaction was…instructive. ---
**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 18, 2020, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/102 "2020-04-18T02:14:20Z")
> [@nightshadea](#): > > 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 … Yes. But as I think I remember it, for whatever reasons the movie doesn’t show Marvin answering any questions at all. He just gives them Jack’s name and he’s in. That’s what bothers me, although it shouldn’t- it’s just movie shorthand. ---
**Author:** ![moojja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@moojja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moojja)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2020, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/103 "2020-04-18T02:48:47Z")
> [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](#): > > One data point: My brother-in-law married a Chinese woman a few years ago. She lived in China for the first fifty-plus years of her life before she emigrated to marry him. I asked her once about the book _The Good Earth_ (book, not movie), whether it was well known in China, how it was perceived. She rolled her eyes and informed me that it was indeed well known and considered highly racist. --Perhaps not the type of “Asian American” you’re looking for, but I thought her reaction was…instructive. The movie is horribly racist. The book is very accurate for a certain time and place sort of thing. I would not consider it racist, but it details a certain rural life that some Chinese find embarrassing. I, personally, found the rags to riches story to be unbelievable. But the description of rural farm life is pretty much accurate. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2020, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/104 "2020-04-18T02:55:10Z")
> [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](#): > > One data point: My brother-in-law married a Chinese woman a few years ago. She lived in China for the first fifty-plus years of her life before she emigrated to marry him. I asked her once about the book _The Good Earth_ (book, not movie), whether it was well known in China, how it was perceived. She rolled her eyes and informed me that it was indeed well known and considered highly racist. --Perhaps not the type of “Asian American” you’re looking for, but I thought her reaction was…instructive. I love that book. I didn’t know it was criticized as racist. We all have our blind spots I guess. I’d be interested to know how so. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2020, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/105 "2020-04-18T04:12:45Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > The timeline diverged with the assassination of Hitler. Before that. According to _Django Unchained_, the Civil War started in 1860. I love it when people point that out as a “goof.” ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2020, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/106 "2020-04-18T05:23:43Z")
> [@nightshadea](#): > > 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 Do you have links to any articles on this? I don’t disbelieve you. I just find it fascinating. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2020, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/107 "2020-04-18T05:49:29Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > You’ll also notice a lot of shows prior to the 2000s had bad guys able to beat the tar out of cops and get basically a misdemeanor out of it at most. Every episode of Walker Texas Ranger had bad guys who get into fights with chairs or pool cues against Texas Rangers that today would be felonies, as opposed to just letting them go as happens in the show. Actually not too far off from reality. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2020, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/108 "2020-04-18T15:10:08Z")
Another classic movie: _Dark Victory._ Today, the doctor would get hugely sued for not telling his patient that she has an incurable brain tumor, yet telling her best friend. And then, leaving evidence of the diagnosis out where she could discover it. Oy vey! And what, they didn’t have MRIs and chemo in 1939? ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2020, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/109 "2020-04-19T00:40:22Z")
> [@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. Speaking of thinking like 60’d people, there was at least one time in TNG where someone gave someone else tons of “homework” on a PADD. But it wasn’t just one pad, it was like ten. If the PADD is like a tablet, one should have enough memory to hold everything. And if it is just a Personal Access Display Device with no memory, why would you need more than one? The scene did not seem to being played for in-universe humor. ---
**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 19, 2020, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/110 "2020-04-19T01:07:34Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Speaking of thinking like 60’d people, there was at least one time in TNG where someone gave someone else tons of “homework” on a PADD. But it wasn’t just one pad, it was like ten. If the PADD is like a tablet, one should have enough memory to hold everything. And if it is just a Personal Access Display Device with no memory, why would you need more than one? > > The scene did not seem to being played for in-universe humor. Something that happens all the time in TNG/DS9/Voyager is when a character enters a room and physically hands another character a PADD in order to turn in a report, or letter, or whatever. There was an episode of Voyager that had Neelix walking all over the ship passing out PADDs containing letters from home to the crew. Have the people of the 24th century lost the technology for sending email? That Voyager episode felt particularly silly since they apparently had the ability to transmit data across light years of space, but then when it reached Voyager they couldn’t route the messages to the correct crew members. Yes, I know most of the time it’s done to give two characters a reason to be in the same room. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2020, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/111 "2020-04-19T01:11:49Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#): > > Do you have links to any articles on this? I don’t disbelieve you. I just find it fascinating. no, just what the head manager told me when he was doing a return for me because I made the remark "I could have come in at 1 or 2 am like I usually do " and he said “not anymore” and explained it to me … ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2020, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/112 "2020-04-19T02:13:23Z")
> [@robardin](#): > > Haha, yes, when I first moved from a Blackberry to an iPhone in 2007, having a “flashlight” app was an unexpected advantage over the previous device. The first time I thought about using it in a dark room, nerd that I am, I couldn’t help but exclaim: “What have I got in my pocket? … Why, it’s _a light when all other lights go out!_” I have a [tritium source](https://www.amazon.com/Luminous-Fluorescent-Hurricane-Emergency-Survival/dp/B077P2DLX1/ref=sr_1_8?dchild=1&keywords=tritium+keychain&qid=1587262214&sr=8-8) that I wear on my neck chain with my dogtags [and I also have one attached to my keyring, and my bedside flashlight] It started as a joke 12 or 13 years back, I know a caver, and many cavers giving tours of places like Mammoth Caves will flip the lights off to show how absolutely dark it is in there … and they will mention how long batteries in a flashlight will last. Anmar pointed out that this point source will actually provide enough light to at least let one crawl and avoid falling down a hole =) > [@Chronos](#): > > You can still get lost with GPS, but you can’t get _as_ lost. Even without map data, your GPS can still tell you that you’re 100 miles southeast of your destination. So let’s say you’re on a north-south road: Take it north. Somewhere between 60 and 80 miles, look for a crossroad, and take it west, and so on. It probably won’t be the quickest route, and you might have to do a little backtracking, but it’ll get you there. > > It’s only a problem if you do the cheap sitcom thing of Turn Right Now, and so you veer off into a cornfield. I tend to get maps - I have in my car the current atlas, and when I went to Nevada, I bought a new Nevada state map. We also have a satellite GPS in addition to the telephone GPS. WE have plans of bombing around in desert areas that are no where near cell towers =) > [@LVBoPeep](#): > > I live in Vegas and my best friend lived in Elko for several years. It was horrifying that he would have gotten off the highway, especially in that weather- there is nothing but wilderness for that top half of the state and they were no where near anything that would have been a short cut around Vegas (which was still over 400 miles away) There is no way he should have gotten more than a mile off that road without realizing he was in deep trouble, I never understood not turning back. I have used back roads around Elko but well known ones and even those can feel dodgy (and flat tire inducing if not prepared). Not to mention gasoline/diesel access - I recoursed to the winter Western NY habit of not really dropping below half a tank - it isn’t uncommon to go 4 or 5 hours without seeing anything close to a fuel station. ---
**Author:** ![Yorkshire\_Pudding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/59ef9b/32.png) [@Yorkshire\_Pudding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorkshire_Pudding)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2020, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/113 "2020-04-19T02:36:00Z")
My first thought was Breaking Bad, but that’s not a time difference thing. It was more: “I’m afraid you have cancer, Mr. White” - “Oh my god! I’ll have to cook wicked-strong blue meth in an RV with one of my old students to be able to afford the treatment!” “…erm…no? The NHS will be sorting that out for you, obviously. And it’s called a ‘motorhome’, FYI.” But other than that, I’ve been watching a lot of The Professionals recently. Setting aside the obvious boys-in-the-playground fantasy of the premise, the series did take place against the backdrop of the real world. When Bodie was off duty with his girlfriend, he apprehended a terrorist, nicked a car because the gang had found his, and holed up in a remote vicarage. He tried to call it in but the gang cut the phone lines. He’d left his radio in his car, so that meant the entire story turned around Doyle and Cowley working out where Bodie might have ended up. The lost radio was easy enough to write, but the vicar & his housekeeper in their own house, plus Bodie and his girlfriend _all_ being without a mobile? I guess you could write it as a signal issue, but it would feel pretty contrived. Not really a likely plot today. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2020, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/114 "2020-04-19T03:37:05Z")
I saw some cheesy movie that had the killer, a rising Hollywood star, murdering her blackmailer. Leading me to wonder if that movie was made today, what on earth somebody could blackmail her for in the '20s? Unwed mother? Would not be a secret and she would have custody. She’s really black and has been passing? Sure, pal. Child is a different race? Hmpf. Lived with lover without marriage? Nope. Lesbian? Nope. Made a porno early in her career? No, that’d be on the internet, she’d be even more famous, she’d probably have a reality show. Worked previously as a hooker? See above. Secretly born a man? Nope, she’d be a media darling, probably have a reality show. Any of those things would have worked so well at various points in the past but today? No. And she’s too young and wrong sex to be a Korean war deserter, Vietnam war deserter, that kind of thing. She can only be secretly a murderer. And who would blackmail her knowing that she was already a murderer and might just do it again? End of plot. I don’t actually remember what the Hollywood rising star was getting blackmailed for. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2020, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/115 "2020-04-19T03:52:40Z")
Murder She Wrote and pretty much any amateur Detective show. The Police would ignore them or throw them in jail today. Now, that said- Castle did it well. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2020, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/116 "2020-04-19T05:04:31Z")
> [@moojja](#): > > The movie is horribly racist. The book is very accurate for a certain time and place sort of thing. I would not consider it racist, but it details a certain rural life that some Chinese find embarrassing. I, personally, found the rags to riches story to be unbelievable. But the description of rural farm life is pretty much accurate. My SIL is pretty careful about words like “racist”–I don’t believe she meant that Chinese people found the book an embarrassing reminder of their past, but rather that many of them do indeed perceive the book to be, well, racist–expressing incorrect and unhelpful stereotypes. Buck saw herself as at least as much Chinese as American, perhaps more so; the impression I got in this admittedly brief conversation is that Buck was perhaps not as immersed in Chinese ways and Chinese people as she thought she was. I think my SIL would take issue with the claim that the book’s depiction of rural Chinese life is “pretty much accurate.” But as I say it was a short conversation, and goodness knows I’m no expert. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2020, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/117 "2020-04-19T07:50:43Z")
> [@Yorkshire\_Pudding](#): > > My first thought was Breaking Bad, but that’s not a time difference thing. It was more: > “I’m afraid you have cancer, Mr. White” > > - “Oh my god! I’ll have to cook wicked-strong blue meth in an RV with one of my old students to be able to afford the treatment!” > “…erm…no? The NHS will be sorting that out for you, obviously. And it’s called a ‘motorhome’, FYI.” I hate when smug Europeans pull the ultimate GOTCHA! with they try to explain the plot away of Breaking Bad as “If only he had Universal Health Care it wouldn’t have happened” and it’s like they never even watched the TV show. 1. He had terminal lung cancer, and even when treated lung cancer has an abysmally low survival rate Universal Health Care be damned. 2. He wanted to provide for his family after his death and have them live comfortably which has nothing to do with Universal Health Care. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2020, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/118 "2020-04-19T08:05:41Z")
Home Alone. They’re running late to the airport because they have a power outage and all their clocks get reset. Somehow they make it to the airplane, only to realize they’ve left Kevin behind. And they’re out of contact with him for days. Wouldn’t happen in today’s world, with cell phones. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2020, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/119 "2020-04-19T09:28:14Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#): > > Do you have links to any articles on this? I don’t disbelieve you. I just find it fascinating. [https://www.oddee.com/item\_99147.aspx](https://www.oddee.com/item_99147.aspx) > **[Teen caught living in Walmart built 'secret hidden compounds' in store](https://www.syracuse.com/news/2014/08/teen_living_in_walmart_corsicana_texas_hidden_compounds.html)** > > The boy changed clothes, wore diapers and stole food and drink to avoid getting caught. > **[Transient found secretly living inside electrical room at Red Bluff clothing...](https://krcrtv.com/news/local/transient-found-secretly-living-inside-electrical-room-at-red-bluff-clothing-store)** > > Workers at the Ross store in Red Bluff made a shocking discovery Tuesday. They found a transient had been living in the electrical room at the store without anyone knowing. It happened at the Ross store on South Main Street in Red Bluff. Officers... ---
**Author:** ![Yorkshire\_Pudding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/59ef9b/32.png) [@Yorkshire\_Pudding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorkshire_Pudding)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2020, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/120 "2020-04-19T10:28:58Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > I hate when smug Europeans pull the ultimate GOTCHA! with they try to explain the plot away of Breaking Bad as “If only he had Universal Health Care it wouldn’t have happened” and it’s like they never even watched the TV show. > > 1. He had terminal lung cancer, and even when treated lung cancer has an abysmally low survival rate Universal Health Care be damned. > > 2. He wanted to provide for his family after his death and have them live comfortably which has nothing to do with Universal Health Care. My my, somebody’s cage has been rattled. I watched it, end to end. I got it. However it played out as his concerns and his activities developed, whatever his motives in the long run, the initial “got cancer, lack of insurance is a problem” _was_ there. In a country with free-at-point-of-delivery healthcare, that initial panic is not there to start the ball rolling, so that comes across as a wouldn’t-happen-here premise. Same as “But the cops would have just drawn their guns, there’s only one armed robber and there are four of them, he’d never get away…oh…yeah…UK cops.” You don’t have to be smug to notice the difference between different nations and the consequent likelihood of characters from those nations behaving a particular way. I know, because I’m not. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922.md?page=7)