# Nice little touches in TV shows/films **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 29, 2009, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-little-touches-in-tv-shows-films/508164 "2009-08-29T16:44:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Nicest\_of\_the\_Damned](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/8baadc/32.png) [@Nicest\_of\_the\_Damned](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nicest_of_the_Damned)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-little-touches-in-tv-shows-films/508164/21 "2009-08-31T02:32:06Z")
> [@Covered\_In\_Bees](#): > > Mad Men is also being hailed as one of the best shows ever, is there a link? I haven’t actually seen it, an honest question. Hulu has the Season 3 premiere episode until Sept. 22, but unfortunately it looks like they won’t have any more episodes available. [http://www.hulu.com/mad-men](http://www.hulu.com/mad-men) ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-little-touches-in-tv-shows-films/508164/22 "2009-08-31T02:39:15Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Man, I’m glad I live in a time period when it’s socially acceptable to just wash your hair whenever you want. I can’t imagine how my hair would look after a week without doing anything to it. Not doing ANYTHING to it. My dear, you are showing your youthful age if you don’t know that you would have to put up your hair in curlers before bedtime to keep the set. Curlers. Mesh tubes with a circular brush sticking out of each one, with bristles that stuck you the moment you laid your head on your pillow. I mean, I assume that’s what happened because that’s what grossed me out when my mom did it. I’ve never watched that show because I grew up on the same block as those guys and have a “been there, done that, wished Mr and Mrs Jones would fight at home” attitude. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-little-touches-in-tv-shows-films/508164/23 "2009-08-31T02:41:12Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Not doing ANYTHING to it. My dear, you are showing your youthful age if you don’t know that you would have to put up your hair in curlers before bedtime to keep the set. Curlers. Mesh tubes with a circular brush sticking out of each one, with bristles that stuck you the moment you laid your head on your pillow. > > I mean, I assume that’s what happened because that’s what grossed me out when my mom did it. I’ve never watched that show because I grew up on the same block as those guys and have a “been there, done that, wished Mr and Mrs Jones would fight at home” attitude. You would?! Wow. How is it that anyone in the modern era manages to have good hair when people back then were doing all that crap to themselves to look nice? Granted, I don’t know, maybe I just got lucky in that department but I maybe blow dry it once in a while when I want it to look bigger/straighter but even when I just sleep on wet hair, it looks fine in the morning. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-little-touches-in-tv-shows-films/508164/24 "2009-08-31T03:20:00Z")
Ask someone Of a Certain Age who is not a guy for the specifics. Others point to girdles as the most tortuous implements of “beauty,” but I could never fall asleep with my hair in curlers and torturers around the world know that sleep deprivation can be an effective tool. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-little-touches-in-tv-shows-films/508164/25 "2009-08-31T04:19:56Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Heh. Yeah, I was going to point out the Seinfeld episode that was all about looking for a parking spot. Also the one where George gets in a fight over the perfect parking spot. OR the one where they park in the handicap spot because it’s the only one available. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-little-touches-in-tv-shows-films/508164/26 "2009-08-31T04:21:53Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > Also the one where George gets in a fight over the perfect parking spot. OR the one where they park in the handicap spot because it’s the only one available. I love his line about how parking is like sex–why pay for it when with a little extra effort you can get it f or free? ---
**Author:** ![Leiko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Leiko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leiko)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-little-touches-in-tv-shows-films/508164/27 "2009-08-31T07:37:46Z")
> [@Lightnin](#): > > One of my favorite little touches is in the movie _Stardust_. I’ll spoiler it, just in case: > > When Primus’ throat is slit while he’s in the tub, his blood is blue. There’s no explanation for this, and nobody comments on it. The viewer is just supposed to know that royalty are called blue bloods. That never occurred to me. I had thought that in addition to his slit throat, Primus had also been poisoned with something that affected the color of his blood somehow. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-little-touches-in-tv-shows-films/508164/28 "2009-08-31T13:40:11Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > You would?! Wow. How is it that anyone in the modern era manages to have good hair when people back then were doing all that crap to themselves to look nice? Granted, I don’t know, maybe I just got lucky in that department but I maybe blow dry it once in a while when I want it to look bigger/straighter but even when I just sleep on wet hair, it looks fine in the morning. They wouldn’t have thought your hair looked fine, back then. They would have probably thought you looked like a hot mess. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-little-touches-in-tv-shows-films/508164/29 "2009-08-31T15:31:33Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > They wouldn’t have thought your hair looked fine, back then. They would have probably thought you looked like a hot mess. Even when it’s been blow dried to perfection and is totally straight? I really doubt that. ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-little-touches-in-tv-shows-films/508164/30 "2009-08-31T15:37:45Z")
I loved how on the TV show _Angel_, Angel could never get his cell phone to work correctly. Now that’s realism! ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-little-touches-in-tv-shows-films/508164/31 "2009-08-31T15:41:20Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Even when it’s been blow dried to perfection and is totally straight? I really doubt that. [Here.](http://www.fiftiesweb.com/fashion/hair-style.htm) You wouldn’t likely have worn totally straight hair. Curls were in fashion. If you didn’t have natural curls, you’d have to give yourself some by sleeping in rollers or getting it done at the beauty parlor or whatever. No, not everybody did this, but a lot of people did. My grandmother still went to the beauty parlor once a week to get her hair washed and set, until the day she went into the nursing home. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-little-touches-in-tv-shows-films/508164/32 "2009-08-31T15:46:36Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > [Here.](http://www.fiftiesweb.com/fashion/hair-style.htm) You wouldn’t likely have worn totally straight hair. Curls were in fashion. If you didn’t have natural curls, you’d have to give yourself some by sleeping in rollers or getting it done at the beauty parlor or whatever. No, not everybody did this, but a lot of people did. My grandmother still went to the beauty parlor once a week to get her hair washed and set, until the day she went into the nursing home. But nowadays, straighter hair is in style and I don’t think someone who’s got curly but well maintained hair is a “hot mess” unless they’ve got some hideous poodle perm or something. I mean people can be out of style and still look hot. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-little-touches-in-tv-shows-films/508164/33 "2009-08-31T15:51:48Z")
My grandmother STILL gets her hair washed and set once a week. She’s 94 and the lady comes to the independent living facility. They all have their “regular appointments” just like they did in 1954. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f07891/32.png) [@Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Plastic_Ninja)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-little-touches-in-tv-shows-films/508164/34 "2009-08-31T15:57:39Z")
To continue the hijack, I’ve always wondered how you’d do your hair if you had naturally curly hair. [This](http://www.hairstyles53.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/curly-hair-gallery.jpg) is not me but it’s about my tightness of curl, would I have been able to get away with barrette-ing it away from my face or would I have had to comb the top down to look sleek and pouf out the rest? ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-little-touches-in-tv-shows-films/508164/35 "2009-08-31T15:58:45Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > But nowadays, straighter hair is in style and I don’t think someone who’s got curly but well maintained hair is a “hot mess” unless they’ve got some hideous poodle perm or something. I mean people can be out of style and still look hot. Well…OK. Earlier, you said “How is it that anyone in the modern era manages to have good hair when people back then were doing all that crap to themselves to look nice?” The answer is, there were different standards for haircare and hair styles then. (Corollary answer is that there are different ways of looking nice, and even today there are higher and lower maintenance ways to do your hair and still be in the range of “looking hot”.) Are you looking for an answer like, “People back then were stupid?” Because I’m actually not even sure what we’re discussing at this point. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-little-touches-in-tv-shows-films/508164/36 "2009-08-31T23:16:39Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > Well… [snippy] Are you looking for an answer like, “People back then were stupid?” That’s my vote, as someone who lived through it. The Hubby toiled from 7 to 7 in an office, while Wifey made elaborate meals, raised the kids, “put up” her hair in rollers, stripped the old wax off her kitchen floor with a razor blade, and … are you ready … washed and dried and then wet her husband’s shirts with a special shaker-bottle and froze them in the freezer for a day or two and then ironed them (for hours, it seemed) to make sure he’d “get ahead at work”! I did not see that on TV. I lived it. It was stupid and most of the wives ended up resenting it (while their spouses wondered why “the little gals” were unhappy and why they didn’t know their own children). Suburbia in the Eisenhower era was repressive. And I just got some cheap therapy – thanks, all! ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-little-touches-in-tv-shows-films/508164/37 "2009-09-01T02:00:02Z")
My 80 year old mom still puts what hair she’s got in the rollers with the brushes inside, held with bobby pins. AND still sleeps in them. :eek: I remember my teenage cousin rolling her hair up using empty orange juice cans for rollers back in the 60’s. That’s what they did before the blow dryer/round hairbrush was invented. I always thought the knitted afghan on Roseanne’s couch (knitted by grandma?) really looked perfect there. Oh, and the monstrous, deliberately tacky Christmas display they defiantly put up after getting a letter from a neighborhood group that dictated all houses should conform to a certain statement. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-little-touches-in-tv-shows-films/508164/38 "2009-09-01T05:29:44Z")
> [@zamboniracer](#): > > I loved how on the TV show _Angel_, Angel could never get his cell phone to work correctly. Now that’s realism! Actualy, the reason he couldn’t work his cell phone was that other than cars, Angel had zero grasp of 20th-century technology. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-little-touches-in-tv-shows-films/508164/39 "2009-09-01T05:35:21Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > Well…OK. Earlier, you said “How is it that anyone in the modern era manages to have good hair when people back then were doing all that crap to themselves to look nice?” The answer is, there were different standards for haircare and hair styles then. (Corollary answer is that there are different ways of looking nice, and even today there are higher and lower maintenance ways to do your hair and still be in the range of “looking hot”.) Are you looking for an answer like, “People back then were stupid?” Because I’m actually not even sure what we’re discussing at this point. 🙂 Well, I just mean that I never go to a stylist or anything and I usually manage to do a good job on my hair on my own. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-little-touches-in-tv-shows-films/508164/40 "2009-09-01T06:18:23Z")
I liked that Adam West’s Batmobile had an afterburner, and that he was a stickler for seat belts. The former distracted form the fact that it could only go about 15 mph. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-little-touches-in-tv-shows-films/508164.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-little-touches-in-tv-shows-films/508164.md?page=3)