# "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:** 9
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/161 "2020-04-22T01:53:20Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > But of course, he didnt. The Government will take it all. And then his wife and kids will have to live with the knowledge that their husband/dad was a drug dealer and murderer. Spoiler alert for Breaking Bad… Actually, no. Walter White arranged to have his family cared for in the end by laundering the money through his old business partners (after blackmailing them). ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/162 "2020-04-22T05:34:52Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > Spoiler alert for Breaking Bad… > > Actually, no. Walter White arranged to have his family cared for in the end by laundering the money through his old business partners (after blackmailing them). Well, yes, but in reality, the Treasury is smarter than that. They know that walter was a bad guy, they will get a warrant for any cash, they will seize all bank accounts. ---
**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 22, 2020, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/163 "2020-04-22T08:36:23Z")
> [@Pantastic](#): > > This is a weird myth about the show that can be dispelled by watching the pilot episode, but people keep repeating it nonetheless. I think I’ll have to go and check! FWIW, I didn’t know this was a thing. It’s just what occurred to me when I read the OP. I guess the fact that he _did_ pay for treatment with his meth money, coupled with the famous need to pay for healthcare in his country, informed my memory. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/164 "2020-04-22T12:36:51Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Boycott** : > > 12 Angry Men > > Jury members wouldn’t be all white males. > Someone other than Henry Fonda’s character would have also called out those two jurors who were loud-mouthed bigots. > The testimonies of the old lonely man wanting a bit of attention and the woman dressing up to impress without her eye-glasses proved to be too easily flawed by the jurors yet totally missed by the defense. You would certainly hope that a competent defense attorney would have pointed out the holes in the prosecution’s case. But not all defense attorneys are competent. There was a case a few years back where the defense attorney literally slept through the entire case. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/165 "2020-04-22T13:11:23Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > You would certainly hope that a competent defense attorney would have pointed out the holes in the prosecution’s case. But not all defense attorneys are competent. There was a case a few years back where the defense attorney literally slept through the entire case. Yeah, the assumption that all defense attorneys are competent and would catch holes in the prosecution’s case is… a bit optimistic. While an attorney sleeping through an entire case has pretty much always been rules ‘ineffective council’, some sleeping is OK. In general, it appears that if the lawyer only sleeps through unimportant parts of a case, the verdict can stand: [TIP: Lawyer Who Sleeps for “Substantial Portion” of Trial Is Ineffective – Lowering the Bar](https://loweringthebar.net/2016/03/lawyer-asleep-ineffective.html) or if there is a second lawyer on the case who is awake: [https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Judge-rejects-appeal-from-Houston-death-row-13751264.php](https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Judge-rejects-appeal-from-Houston-death-row-13751264.php) ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/166 "2020-04-22T13:46:00Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Well, yes, but in reality, the Treasury is smarter than that. They know that walter was a bad guy, they will get a warrant for any cash, they will seize all bank accounts. But that is why Walter left the money with his rich ex-partners. The Treasury isn’t likely to be investigating them. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/167 "2020-04-22T13:55:34Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > You would certainly hope that a competent defense attorney would have pointed out the holes in the prosecution’s case. But not all defense attorneys are competent. There was a case a few years back where the defense attorney literally slept through the entire case. I think Henry Fonda’s character even says something like that. Not that the defense attorney was asleep, but that it seemed like an open-and-shut case without much chance of winning, so he probably didn’t give it his full attention. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/168 "2020-04-22T14:04:09Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > Leading me to wonder if that movie was made today, what on earth somebody could blackmail her for in the '20s? They could blackmail her with blog posts she made ten years earlier that might lead to the loss of an important leading role. Or perhaps she made an ill advised effort at accuracy when she dressed up as Foxy Brown (Pam Grier version) for a movie themed party and a former friend has a photo and is threatening to release it to the press. Or, hell, maybe she had a drunken tryst with her roommate who is threatening to come forward saying she was taken advantage of. ---
**Author:** ![cormac262](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@cormac262](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cormac262)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/169 "2020-04-22T15:36:29Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > My point is, the boychik and I both seem to have an instinct for suspending our disbelief through historical differences. > > He recently saw _Wait Until Dark_ (and LOVED it), and I never said a word to him about “Oh, these were the days before cell phones, and back when phones were hard-wired into homes, and it was normal to have only one phone,” etc., etc. He just got it. > > I wonder if there is a “family culture” factor, or some genetic ability to assimilate details that allow people to reconstruct an historical period from subtle clues, making suspension of disbelief automatic. You know-- 60s clothes, 60s cars, no TV, turntable stereo-- he’s in the world of the movie, and his brain pulls lots of details from random conversations he’s had, and things he’s read in books that make him ready for other things that happen in the movie, like phone booths, and a refrigerator that needs defrosting. I think this is the key: using context clues to get an understanding of the limitations/cultures of the time the movie was set in. Because if you don’t, then the list of movies/shows to “What other movies, or TV shows, were set in a context that would be similarly unrecognizable to someone who’s 25 years or younger?” is endless ! Do 25 year old and younger ask: - Why didn’t the slaves in “Spartacus” or Spartans in “300” just whip out their AR-15’s and lay waste ? - Why didn’t the Clanton gang just wear their kevlar at that OK Corral ? - Where were all the drones and Tomahawk cruise missiles when they stormed the beach in “Saving Private Ryan” ? (or why didn’t they just drop a nuke on Berlin to end the whole thing before things got out of hand ?) There has to be some acceptance of the times in order to make any period movie work. So to the OP’s kids asking: “How could they get so lost? Where’s their GPS?” “Why are they walking in the desert when their car broke down instead of calling a tow truck on their cell phone?” “Why would they have to wait 10 business days for a check to clear? They can’t pay with a credit card?!” “OK, if he could only pay in cash, where’s the ATM?” “WHAT? The place was CLOSED all along? Wouldn’t the website have said so before they left?” Apparently they missed some pretty obvious clues that would have indicated the time of the movie: - The video game Clark uses to map out their trip route. Those graphics, controls, and animations were the X-Box of the time - There are plenty of scenes of the car on the road - yet there aren’t even any 90’s cars (no SUVs) - The kids are rocking out to their Walkman in the backseat - no phone/MP3 player, and with wired headsets - When they arrive at cousin Eddie’s place, Rusty asks “do you have Pacman ?”. But neither asks about wifi or a wifi password. I think a better question is “what context clues indicated that “Vacation” was set in the 80’s that the OP’s kids clearly did not pick up on ?” ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/170 "2020-04-22T17:49:13Z")
But if they knew enough about past times to pick up those cues, then they’d know enough not to ask the questions they did ask. They know that there existed a time before cell phones, and a time before guns, and a time before cars, and so on. They know that video games of the past were more primitive than modern video games (and there was a time before the primitive games when there were no video games at all). They know that older cars look different from newer cars. But they don’t know precisely when all of those events fit in sequence. In other words, they know that there was a time before cell phones, but they don’t know that the time when people were driving the cars in that movie and so on was that time. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/171 "2020-04-22T18:19:08Z")
> [@cormac262](#): > > “Why would they have to wait 10 business days for a check to clear? They can’t pay with a credit card?!” > “OK, if he could only pay in cash, where’s the ATM?” For those two, they also missed that the movie had an explicit explanation for the problem in the movie - Ellen lost her bag and reported her cards stolen, so they were all deactivated. While they only said ‘credit cards’ in the movie AFAIR, lots of people refer to debit cards with a VISA or Mastercard logo as ‘credit cards’ even though they’re technically not. ---
**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 22, 2020, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/172 "2020-04-22T18:21:11Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > In other words, they know that there was a time before cell phones, but they don’t know that the time when people were driving the cars in that movie and so on was that time. And thinking about that made me realize, cell phones did exist in the 1980s, but they were still very expensive. In 1980s movies, showing a character using a cell phone was often used as a way to show the audience that this character is very rich, and usually kind of an asshole. I wonder if younger people would pick up on that cue today. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2020, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/173 "2020-04-24T14:13:40Z")
I remember at the time reading about people who’d had cell phones installed in their autos – because they weren’t small enough to handily carry around – and would spend a month making trivial calls (Hey, Rich! Guess where I’m calling from. It’s your driveway! Hyuk hyuk.) until they got their bill of some $300 or more. Billing was by the _second_. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2020, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/174 "2020-04-24T17:14:05Z")
Billing by the second was a good thing–otherwise they would round up to the nearest minute. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2020, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/175 "2020-04-25T03:30:03Z")
_The Andy Griffith Show_. Don’t know of any specific plot that wouldn’t be possible today, but a show set in a small country town in North Carolina that seemingly has no African-American residents would strain credulity these days. ---
**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 25, 2020, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/176 "2020-04-25T04:32:51Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > _The Andy Griffith Show_. Don’t know of any specific plot that wouldn’t be possible today, but a show set in a small country town in North Carolina that seemingly has no African-American residents would strain credulity these days. I totally agree with the part about no African-American residents, but for some specific plots: In one episode the milkman was still using a horse drawn wagon, until the dairy finally pressured him into switching to a truck. The horse had trouble adapting to retirement. Milkmen don’t exist today, although for this plot pretty much any delivery business could be substituted. Except the idea of any commercial business using a horse instead of a truck would never be believable today. Even in the 1960s the idea was that the milkman was way behind the times, but back that it was’t quite so far behind the times as to be unbelievable. I can’t remember a specific plot, but I’m pretty sure there were plots related to the town’s party line telephone system, too. ---
**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 25, 2020, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/177 "2020-04-25T05:39:39Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > _The Andy Griffith Show_. Don’t know of any specific plot that wouldn’t be possible today, but a show set in a small country town in North Carolina that seemingly has no African-American residents would strain credulity these days. Any plot involving Otis the town drunk. They let him have keys to the sheriff’s office and the jail cells so he could let himself in after a binge and then let himself out again when he was sober. He was any number of lawsuits waiting to happen. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2020, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/178 "2020-04-25T05:49:05Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Any plot involving Otis the town drunk. They let him have keys to the sheriff’s office and the jail cells so he could let himself in after a binge and then let himself out again when he was sober. He was any number of lawsuits waiting to happen. When the TV reunion movie was made Otis had dried out. He was driving an ice cream truck. And I liked it when Andy delivered his own grandson, when his DIL went into labor unexpectedly. As he put it to Opie _“There’s a number of kids in this town that saw my face before they saw their mommas’.”_ ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2020, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/179 "2020-04-25T05:54:00Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > I remember at the time reading about people who’d had cell phones installed in their autos – because they weren’t small enough to handily carry around – and would spend a month making trivial calls (Hey, Rich! Guess where I’m calling from. It’s your driveway! Hyuk hyuk.) until they got their bill of some $300 or more. Billing was by the _second_. my school psychologist had a cell phone in her car that had its cradle built into the center and was corded she had it like 5 years but she only made 4 calls on it when she had car problems because it was like 5 bucks a call… about 5 years later the lady I worked for had a brick cell phone because she was in a wheelchair and drove … she said it was 1.00 a minute and that was for in or out calls and that was in 92 anyone remember when having a fake cellphone in your car was a fad ? around here that died after the 12th or so car was broken into in a month and it was stolen … ---
**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 25, 2020, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922/180 "2020-04-25T09:56:21Z")
There was a British sitcom called The Smoking Room, the entirety of which consisted of interactions between colleagues in the smoker’s break room. I guess you could talk about anything involving smoking in public buildings or vehicles - certain episodes of The X Files would have a very different feel! - but where a situation or premise is concerned, the entire concept of The Smoking Room relies on something which has been outlawed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-movies-or-tv-shows-with-situations-or-premises-basically-impossible-today/851922.md?page=10)