# Stupid little TV questions that have annoyed you - but don't deserve their own thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 3, 2006, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-little-tv-questions-that-have-annoyed-you-but-dont-deserve-their-own-thread/379032 "2006-11-03T22:48:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2006, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-little-tv-questions-that-have-annoyed-you-but-dont-deserve-their-own-thread/379032/21 "2006-11-04T15:29:35Z")
If Lorne the Host can read peoples’ \*souls \* when they sing, then how can he read vampires, demons, and Wolfram & Hart lawyers, all of whom are presumably soulless? ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2006, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-little-tv-questions-that-have-annoyed-you-but-dont-deserve-their-own-thread/379032/22 "2006-11-04T15:36:57Z")
[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas] Rachel was initially a spoiled rich girl who was trained to do nothing and so ended up as a waiter at Central Perk. Yet she manages to jump into a high end job in the very competitive NYC fashion industry in a year? Who was she sleeping with? [/QUOTE] Hi, my name is \*\*Cluricaun \*\* and I’m glad I did it. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Motorgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2006, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-little-tv-questions-that-have-annoyed-you-but-dont-deserve-their-own-thread/379032/23 "2006-11-04T16:05:13Z")
[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas] Rachel was initially a spoiled rich girl who was trained to do nothing and so ended up as a waiter at Central Perk. Yet she manages to jump into a high end job in the very competitive NYC fashion industry in a year? Who was she sleeping with? [/QUOTE] Actually, she was a waitress for more than 2 years - until about halfway through season 3, when she goes to work as an assistant to a buyer at Bloomingdales (she was recommended for the job by a random cute guy she met at the theme restaurant where Monica was working - his name was Mark and he probably hooked her up with the job because he thought she was hot). She then spent 2 years at Bloomingdales, about a year as assistant to a buyer, and a year as a personal shopper, and then she had an interview at Ralph Lauren halfway through season 5. She started out at Ralph Lauren in a pretty junior position, working for someone in the men’s division, and then got a promotion in season 7 at which point she got a staff member. So in all a fairly believable progression for someone with some kind of fashion talent, I suppose. Ugh - how much did I just reveal about my obsession with Friends? :o ---
**Author:** ![Motorgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2006, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-little-tv-questions-that-have-annoyed-you-but-dont-deserve-their-own-thread/379032/24 "2006-11-04T16:07:01Z")
[QUOTE=Motorgirl] Actually, she was a waitress for more than 2 years - until about halfway through season 3, when she goes to work as an assistant to a buyer at Bloomingdales (she was recommended for the job by a random cute guy she met at the theme restaurant where Monica was working - his name was Mark and he probably hooked her up with the job because he thought she was hot). [/QUOTE] I forgot to mention the brief stint she did as an office lackey at Fortunata Fashions between her waitress job and the job at Bloomingdales. ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2006, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-little-tv-questions-that-have-annoyed-you-but-dont-deserve-their-own-thread/379032/25 "2006-11-04T16:34:13Z")
[QUOTE=kaylasdad99] Whatever happened to Richie Cunningham’s older brother. He goes upstairs one night, and never comes back down. WHAT THE F\*\*\* IS UP THOSE STAIRS??? [/QUOTE] Bobby Martin’s skis. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2006, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-little-tv-questions-that-have-annoyed-you-but-dont-deserve-their-own-thread/379032/26 "2006-11-04T16:34:24Z")
In _Smallville_, how does Clark keep going to public school and then public university without vaccination records? (Whenever I bring this up, Mr. Del is _amazed_ that this is the one thing about the show that bugs me as unrealistic.) I know the initial adoption was fudged with help from Lionel so those papers could have indicated an MMR that he never received, but he’s going to need boosters and such after that. I always get the feeling that the Kents try to avoid situations where they have to actively lie about Clark, so I can’t see them forging his vaccination record, or claiming to practice a religion that they don’t (and the town seems small enough that if they _did_, someone would know them and say “Um, no, you’re not.”) ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2006, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-little-tv-questions-that-have-annoyed-you-but-dont-deserve-their-own-thread/379032/27 "2006-11-04T16:41:52Z")
I’ve never seen the episode of _Good Times_ where Florida returns after marrying _Carl the Atheist With Lung Cancer™_ and moving out west. Did they say that Carl died or that she divorced him or that she dreamed the last season or what? On _Hogan’s Heroes_, did it ever say whether Klink and the POWs were speaking in English or in German? (And does it make me unpatriotic that I often wanted to see Hogan found out and shot? Or a guest appearance by Kurt Vonnegut as himself?) ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2006, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-little-tv-questions-that-have-annoyed-you-but-dont-deserve-their-own-thread/379032/28 "2006-11-04T18:20:45Z")
Always bothered me that on Roseanne, Crystal (one of her best friends and moreover Dan’s stepmother) and Dan’s father dissapeared. Well before the appalling last season. His mother get’s, at least, mentioned up till the end but his half brother (!) and the woman who gave birth to him just go. They never should have given that woman control over her own show. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2006, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-little-tv-questions-that-have-annoyed-you-but-dont-deserve-their-own-thread/379032/29 "2006-11-04T18:50:49Z")
[QUOTE=betenoir] Always bothered me that on Roseanne, Crystal (one of her best friends and moreover Dan’s stepmother) and Dan’s father dissapeared. Well before the appalling last season. His mother get’s, at least, mentioned up till the end but his half brother (!) and the woman who gave birth to him just go. [/QUOTE] Also disappearing were Lonnie (Chrystal’s son from her first marriage) and Dan’s younger half-sister. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2006, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-little-tv-questions-that-have-annoyed-you-but-dont-deserve-their-own-thread/379032/30 "2006-11-04T18:58:13Z")
[QUOTE=delphica] In _Smallville_, how does Clark keep going to public school and then public university without vaccination records? (Whenever I bring this up, Mr. Del is _amazed_ that this is the one thing about the show that bugs me as unrealistic.) I know the initial adoption was fudged with help from Lionel so those papers could have indicated an MMR that he never received, but he’s going to need boosters and such after that. I always get the feeling that the Kents try to avoid situations where they have to actively lie about Clark, so I can’t see them forging his vaccination record, or claiming to practice a religion that they don’t (and the town seems small enough that if they _did_, someone would know them and say “Um, no, you’re not.”) [/QUOTE] It’s pretty easy to forge a vaccination record. It’s just a form that the doc fills out. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2006, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-little-tv-questions-that-have-annoyed-you-but-dont-deserve-their-own-thread/379032/31 "2006-11-04T19:00:07Z")
Has any major character ever been evicted or had a house foreclosed on in an TV show and had to move? ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2006, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-little-tv-questions-that-have-annoyed-you-but-dont-deserve-their-own-thread/379032/32 "2006-11-04T19:02:45Z")
[QUOTE=Sampiro] On _Hogan’s Heroes_, did it ever say whether Klink and the POWs were speaking in English or in German? (And does it make me unpatriotic that I often wanted to see Hogan found out and shot? Or a guest appearance by Kurt Vonnegut as himself?) [/QUOTE] There was at least one joke based around the prisoners pretending not to understand German when Schultz used it when talking to them (IIRC, he entered their dorm and said ‘Achtung!’ and they went through a whole thing about not understanding him), so it was apparently English - I mean, obviously they did understand German (it’s easy to wank away that Klink talking to other Nazi officers, rather than the prisoners is speaking German, but it’s in English for our benifit). ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2006, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-little-tv-questions-that-have-annoyed-you-but-dont-deserve-their-own-thread/379032/33 "2006-11-04T19:04:32Z")
[QUOTE=Tengu] I mean, obviously they did understand German [/QUOTE] Grar…where’d the rest of my comment go? \<\_\< ‘… but the gag wouldn’t work if they spoke German regularly.’ ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2006, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-little-tv-questions-that-have-annoyed-you-but-dont-deserve-their-own-thread/379032/34 "2006-11-04T20:25:07Z")
> [@](#): > > Has any major character ever been evicted or had a house foreclosed on in an TV show and had to move? The series finale of _Barney Miller_ had their precinct station being declared a national landmark and closed. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2006, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-little-tv-questions-that-have-annoyed-you-but-dont-deserve-their-own-thread/379032/35 "2006-11-04T20:28:55Z")
> [@](#): > > On Hogan’s Heroes, did it ever say whether Klink and the POWs were speaking in English or in German? (And does it make me unpatriotic that I often wanted to see Hogan found out and shot? Or a guest appearance by Kurt Vonnegut as himself?) When I was younger, I thought it was a historical inaccuracy in _Hogan’s Heroes_ that Hogan and LeBeau were in a POW camp at the same time - France had surrendered a year before the United States entered the war. But I later found out that because the French signed an armistice not an actual surrender treaty, all French POWs were kept in custody by the Germans. ---
**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:** [November 4, 2006, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-little-tv-questions-that-have-annoyed-you-but-dont-deserve-their-own-thread/379032/36 "2006-11-04T20:30:18Z")
> [@](#): > > Whatever happened to Richie Cunningham’s older brother. He goes upstairs one night, and never comes back down. > > WHAT THE F\*\*\* IS UP THOSE STAIRS??? [Bugs Bunny] Don’t go up theah! It’s Dark!![/Bugs Bunny] ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2006, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-little-tv-questions-that-have-annoyed-you-but-dont-deserve-their-own-thread/379032/37 "2006-11-04T20:52:45Z")
[QUOTE=friedo] It’s pretty easy to forge a vaccination record. It’s just a form that the doc fills out. [/QUOTE] It’s very easy, actually. When I applied to grad school here, all they needed was a form signed by a doctor. No records, no lab results, no nothing. I could have signed that form myself and no one would have been the wiser. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2006, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-little-tv-questions-that-have-annoyed-you-but-dont-deserve-their-own-thread/379032/38 "2006-11-05T01:31:55Z")
[QUOTE=kaylasdad99] Whatever happened to Richie Cunningham’s older brother. He goes upstairs one night, and never comes back down. WHAT THE F\*\*\* IS UP THOSE STAIRS??? [/QUOTE] Maybe Mork chose him to be the human specimen to take back to Ork. ---
**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:** [November 5, 2006, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-little-tv-questions-that-have-annoyed-you-but-dont-deserve-their-own-thread/379032/39 "2006-11-05T02:54:26Z")
Add to the list of diappearing characters: Bob Hartley’s sister (Ellen, played by Pat Findlay.) ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2006, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-little-tv-questions-that-have-annoyed-you-but-dont-deserve-their-own-thread/379032/40 "2006-11-05T04:42:11Z")
[QUOTE=Sampiro] Has any major character ever been evicted or had a house foreclosed on in an TV show and had to move? [/QUOTE] The guys in **The Young Ones** have to leave their house in the first episode because their house is being demolished. They move in the second episode. But uh…the houses looked pretty much the same 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-little-tv-questions-that-have-annoyed-you-but-dont-deserve-their-own-thread/379032.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-little-tv-questions-that-have-annoyed-you-but-dont-deserve-their-own-thread/379032.md?page=3)