# Small TV Coincidences **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted\ **Created:** [June 3, 2021, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-tv-coincidences/943538 "2021-06-03T13:08:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2021, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-tv-coincidences/943538/21 "2021-06-04T08:54:33Z")
The legendary coincidence my family talked about for decades was in the 90s my family had just checked into a hotel during a road trip. My mom asked what time it was (nobody had a watch or a phone to easily check at the time) so my thought was to turn on the TV and switch to CNN to find the current time. Literally the moment the TV turned on it was on TBS and a character in a TV show said “It’s 7:30” and it was literally almost 7:30 when that happened. My mom for years was convinced it was deliberately set up by myself somehow. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2021, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-tv-coincidences/943538/22 "2021-06-04T12:07:20Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > Literally the moment the TV turned on it was on TBS and a character in a TV show said “It’s 7:30” and it was literally almost 7:30 when that happened. Ooh, that just reminded me of a spoooky time-related coincidence that happened to me. I couldn’t sleep and was watching “The Exorcism of Emily Rose” late at night. In one scene, Emily is sleeping in her dorm room at college when she has a possession-related attack of muscle spasms that horribly contort her body. The camera zooms in to her alarm clock to show that it’s 3:00 am (a significant time that comes up at several points in the movie- like the demon equivalent of the witching hour). I instinctively look down to a clock on a shelf below the TV-- an alarm-style clock with the same type of red digital numbers… …and it’s also 3:00 am EXACTLY. ---
**Author:** ![Kzbre5m](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f08c70/32.png) [@Kzbre5m](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kzbre5m)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2021, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-tv-coincidences/943538/23 "2021-06-04T12:19:35Z")
> [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](#): > > Two back-to-back commercials during an episode of Star Trek:TNG in the 90s: > > A feminine hygiene ad which had the tagline “Why douche?” > A Bud Dry ad with the tagline “Why ask why?” A trifecta would be if it was the episode with lots of Data angst asking “Why?”. (Well, most of TNG has that…) ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2021, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-tv-coincidences/943538/24 "2021-06-04T12:23:32Z")
I was channel surfing late one night the '90s and came across the scene in _ **The Terminator** _ where Michael Biehn is banging Linda Hamilton. I hit the clicker and the scene switched to the one in _ **Timebomb** _ where Michael Biehn is banging Patsy Kensit. How often can things like this happen? ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2021, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-tv-coincidences/943538/25 "2021-06-04T12:32:54Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > How often can things like this happen? Ha, that’s a good one. Not familiar with the movie ‘Timebomb’-- does that movie also have a time-travel component, or is it just about a bomb on a timer? If the former, there’s clearly a time-travel paradox involved allowing Biehn to be getting laid in two places at once. It’s a little-known fact that the remaining survivors in the apocalyptic future are 90% descendants of Biehn. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2021, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-tv-coincidences/943538/26 "2021-06-04T12:39:34Z")
Not surprised you haven’t heard of it. Looks like it went almost straight to video. > **[Timebomb (1991 film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timebomb_(1991_film))** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > Timebomb is a 1991 American science-fiction action film written and directed by Avi Nesher and starring Michael Biehn, Patsy Kensit, and Richard Jordan. > Mild-mannered watchmaker Eddy Kay (Michael Biehn) runs into a burning building to save a trapped woman and is featured in the news as a result. Watching the news, Colonel Taylor (Richard Jordan) is shocked to see Eddy, whom he had assumed to be dead. A game of cat and mouse begins as Eddy, with t... Sounds a bit like _ **Telefon** _ with Charles Bronson back in the '70s. > **[Telefon (film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telefon_(film))** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > Telefon is a 1977 spy film directed by Don Siegel and starring Charles Bronson, Lee Remick and Donald Pleasence. The screenplay by Peter Hyams and Stirling Silliphant is based on the 1975 novel by Walter Wager. > After the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Soviet Union planted a number of long-term, deep-cover sleeper agents all over the United States, spies so thoroughly brainwashed that even they did not know they were agents. They can be activated only ... ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2021, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-tv-coincidences/943538/27 "2021-06-04T17:41:08Z")
Just thought of another one: Last week, I saw Patty Duke in an episode of _ **Hawaii Five-O** _. An hour and a half later, I switched to the Game Channel. There’s Patty Duke as a panelist on _ **Match Game '74** _. How often do you see Patty Duke in anything she did nowadays? ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2021, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-tv-coincidences/943538/28 "2021-06-04T18:22:06Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Last week, I saw Patty Duke in an episode of _ **Hawaii Five-O** _ . > > An hour and a half later, I switched to the Game Channel. There’s Patty Duke as a panelist on _ **Match Game '74** _ . > > How often do you see Patty Duke in anything she did nowadays? Are you sure one of them wasn’t her cousin Cathy? ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2021, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-tv-coincidences/943538/29 "2021-06-04T18:26:59Z")
She was also on _ **$100,000 Pyramid** _ last week, so maybe there was another cousin? 🤔 ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2021, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-tv-coincidences/943538/30 "2021-06-04T18:40:07Z")
…or maybe you just have a lot of old TV shows on in the background while you’re working, like I do 😄 ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2021, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-tv-coincidences/943538/31 "2021-06-04T18:53:10Z")
Sometimes I have music playing in the background, but at 66 I’m unlikely to get another chance to see all these shows from my past again. ---
**Author:** ![phs3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8491ac/32.png) [@phs3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phs3)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2021, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-tv-coincidences/943538/32 "2021-06-04T19:10:32Z")
This is the Lattice of Coincidence phenomenon, explained by that great philosopher, Tracey Walter, in his role as Miller in Repo Man: [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4nvmyMU9is) ---
**Author:** ![aurora\_maire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aurora_maire/32/328_2.png) [@aurora\_maire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurora_maire)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2021, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-tv-coincidences/943538/33 "2021-06-04T20:24:06Z")
> [@solost](#): > > …and it’s also 3:00 am EXACTLY. We had the “11:59 incident”. In the late 70s several of us were at a friend’s house watching a movie, high as kites. He had one of those old clocks where the numbers flipped. There was a scene in the movie where a digital clock changed from 11:59 to 12:00. At the same time, we heard “click, click, click” as his clock flipped to 12:00. It was spooky enough that we talked about it for years. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2021, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-tv-coincidences/943538/34 "2021-06-04T20:29:12Z")
It happens with “that guy” even more often. The other night I was watching an episode of _Deep Space Nine._ [Brian George](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0313364/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t13) (maybe you remember him as Raj’s father on Big Bang Theory) played Bashir’s father. Less than two hours later he showed up on _The Nanny_, playing a butler even snootier than Niles. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2021, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-tv-coincidences/943538/35 "2021-06-05T00:15:20Z")
Tonight at 20:00 on PBS: Geoffrey Hughes as “Onslow” in the Britcom _ **Keeping Up Appearances** _. Tonight at 21:00 on TVO: Geoffrey Hughes as “Vernon Scripps” in the police drama _ **Heartbeat** _. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2021, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-tv-coincidences/943538/36 "2021-06-05T00:24:51Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Tonight at 20:00 on PBS Minor correction: VISION TV (ch. 60), not PBS (ch. 61). ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2021, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-tv-coincidences/943538/37 "2021-06-05T02:41:36Z")
One fine Saturday when I was a kid, Phyliss Diller’s Rolls-Royce got stuck in the snow, and I brought her home to use the phone. She sits in the living room, and the cheesy afternoon Monster Movie was playing. The screen showed the title _“Chiller Diller Matinee”_. She thought that was hilarious! ---
**Author:** ![pirviii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pirviii/32/3233_2.png) [@pirviii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pirviii)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2021, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-tv-coincidences/943538/38 "2021-06-05T04:01:12Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > She was also on _ **$100,000 Pyramid** _ last week, so maybe there was another cousin? She was on Super Password this week. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2021, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-tv-coincidences/943538/39 "2021-06-05T12:32:24Z")
Watching Star Trek reruns one night, there was a Next Generation episode featuring Tony Todd as Worf’s long lost brother Kurn, followed by a DS9 episode featuring Tony Todd as an elderly Jake Sisko. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2021, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-tv-coincidences/943538/40 "2021-06-05T13:37:19Z")
He was quite the crack up - probably did it to mess with you. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-tv-coincidences/943538.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-tv-coincidences/943538.md?page=3)