# They were all just dreams! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 20, 2005, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-were-all-just-dreams/309067 "2005-06-20T16:14:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2005, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-were-all-just-dreams/309067/41 "2005-06-21T01:31:06Z")
It’s built more of fantasies and a writer’s plotting as he’s lying gravely ill and often semi-conscious in hospital, but the BBC miniseries [The Singing Detective](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00007HGIJ/qid=1119317093/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl74/103-4301678-1647862?v=glance&s=dvd&n=507846) almost fits here. The writer passes the time as he drifts in and out by working on a novel featuring himself as a lounge-singer/private-eye character. ---
**Author:** ![Mehitabel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mehitabel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mehitabel)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2005, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-were-all-just-dreams/309067/42 "2005-06-21T03:37:02Z")
Yes, in MWC Peg and Marcy’s pregnancy was just a dream by Al–a device used to recover from a real-life tragedy (Sagal’s daughter Ruby died at seven months gestation and was stillborn). In **Reno 911!** , Jonesy and Dangle played a practical joke that went horribly wrong when the ditziest deputy overreacted and shot everybody to death, inclduing herself, and excepting Jones. That was the s1 cliffhanger. Then in the first moments of s2, Dangle woke up gasping and grateful it was all a dream until he realized he was in bed with Kenny Rogers (played by Kenny Rogers, a good sport). THAT made another deputy, Garcia, wake up gasping–he was the one who had dreamed it was all Dangle’s dream. Great stuff. ---
**Author:** ![DarRRva](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/53a042/32.png) [@DarRRva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarRRva)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2005, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-were-all-just-dreams/309067/43 "2005-06-21T04:17:11Z")
Well there was the episode of southpark where they were trapped in the schoolbus on the edge of a cliff and they couldn’t go outside or a big scary monster would eat them! There were many retellings of old southpark stories, all featuring ice-cream. Then the bus fell into a huge pile of ice cream. Then one of the kids wakes up and his mum reassures him that it was a just a dream. Then she tells him to eat some “delicious beetles”. Then another one of the kids wakes up and it turns out he had been dreaming the whole thing. There’s the Y2K episode of family Guy when the world blows up and all sorts of craziness results. Then it turns out it was all the dream of Victoria Principal, who tells her husband Patrick Duffy about it. He tells her not to worry, and then asks her “What’s family guy?” dun dun dun… I’m sure this is a reference to something, but I don’t know what… And then there’s the end of the book The Athenian Murders by Jose Carlos Somoza. **Weirdest. Ending. Ever.** I can’t really explain it, it’s too weird and convoluted, but anyone who has read it will agree. It’s kind of Sophie’s Worldish. ---
**Author:** ![RobuSensei](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/919ad9/32.png) [@RobuSensei](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobuSensei)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2005, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-were-all-just-dreams/309067/44 "2005-06-21T04:21:45Z")
Do video games count? (Super Mario Brothers 2 – the American version) ---
**Author:** ![Leviosaurus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Leviosaurus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leviosaurus)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2005, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-were-all-just-dreams/309067/45 "2005-06-21T04:37:36Z")
> [@JThunder](#): > > _Under the Rainbow_ with Chevy Chase and Carrie Fisher. I never made it through to the end. Did Chevy Chase wake up and find out that he’d never actually made that movie, and his career hadn’t actually tanked as a result? ---
**Author:** ![PastAllReason](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f07891/32.png) [@PastAllReason](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastAllReason)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2005, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-were-all-just-dreams/309067/46 "2005-06-21T06:14:16Z")
There was also an episode in the third season of Northern Exposure where Joel’s twin brother, Jules, comes to Cicely, havoc ensues, but it all turns out to be Joel’s dream. This episode comes with a Wizard of Oz ending where Joel awakes in bed and is surround by town residents. Just watched the ep this weekend on the newly released third season. ---
**Author:** ![HubZilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ccd318/32.png) [@HubZilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HubZilla)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2005, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-were-all-just-dreams/309067/47 "2005-06-21T06:34:24Z")
Didn’t Spider-Man’s comics do this? I recall reading they wrote themselves into a hole when Aunt found out Peter Parker is Spider-Man ---
**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:** [June 21, 2005, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-were-all-just-dreams/309067/48 "2005-06-21T12:15:07Z")
How about the **Dick Van Dyke** episode with Twilo (Danny Thomas)? The entire episode is a dream, but then they wake up, and _that’s_ a dream, but then they wake up and _that’s_ a dream. Actually, there’s an episode of Spongebob Squarepants that has even _more_ levels of dreams-within-dreams. ---
**Author:** ![Fromage\_A\_Trois](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a88e57/32.png) [@Fromage\_A\_Trois](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fromage_A_Trois)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2005, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-were-all-just-dreams/309067/49 "2005-06-21T12:57:06Z")
There’s an episode of **Futurama** , in which Fry dies due to be skewered by a giant bee sting, trying to prevent Leela from being stung. He keeps appearing in her dreams, so she is certain he’s alive… but he tells her to wake up, and she does. Eventually, it turns out that in fact she’s been in a coma, and Fry is fine… he’s been by her bedside, asking her to wake up. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2005, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-were-all-just-dreams/309067/50 "2005-06-21T15:20:56Z")
[Femme Fatale](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0280665/). Avoid this turkey like the plague. Even shots of the stunning Rebecca Romijn (I can’t bring myself to write Romijn-[sub]Stamos[/sub]) does not make this incredibly stupid thriller tolerable. ---
**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:** [June 21, 2005, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-were-all-just-dreams/309067/51 "2005-06-21T15:29:27Z")
> [@Stephe96](#): > > If I remember correctly, Ira Levin’s godawful ‘Son of Rosemary’ novel ends with the implication that the original ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ was, in fact, all a dream. That’s how I remember it, anyway…I’ll be glad to be corrected if I’m wrong. > > “Son of Rosemary.” A horrible book. Really horrible. You remember right. I consider “Son of Rosemary” to be the worst sequel of the best book. ---
**Author:** ![Agonist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/439d5e/32.png) [@Agonist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agonist)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2005, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-were-all-just-dreams/309067/52 "2005-06-21T17:18:37Z")
\*\*The Princess Bride \*\* had that great dream sequence where Buttercup marries Prince Humperdink (ending with the old woman screaming, “Rubbish! Filth! Slime Muck! Boo!”) ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2005, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-were-all-just-dreams/309067/53 "2005-06-21T19:02:34Z")
There was an Episode of the X-files where Murder and Scully was investigating some Mushrooms in North Carolina. Eventualy, they figure out that it has hallunigentic effects, and that in actually, most of the episode is a fantasy where they’re acting being slowly digested inside a cave by a giant piece of fungi while they’re happily drugged and halluncinating. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2005, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-were-all-just-dreams/309067/54 "2005-06-21T20:18:32Z")
Okay, that didn’t quite come out right. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2005, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-were-all-just-dreams/309067/55 "2005-06-21T20:22:54Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > The original _Invaders from Mars._ One of the scariest movies I remember from when I was a kid. Wasn’t the remake also a dream until the very end? ---
**Author:** ![don\_Jaime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b4bc9f/32.png) [@don\_Jaime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_Jaime)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2005, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-were-all-just-dreams/309067/56 "2005-06-22T03:42:56Z")
The famous Dan Quayle episode of _Murphy Brown_ opens with a dream-within-a-dream sequence. _Batman: The Animated Series_ had a full episode where Barbara Gordon dreamed she died and her father took Batman out. Both of these had me fooled for a bit. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2005, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-were-all-just-dreams/309067/57 "2005-06-22T04:30:30Z")
> [@Leviosaurus](#): > > I never made it through to the end. Did Chevy Chase wake up and find out that he’d never actually made that movie, and his career hadn’t actually tanked as a result? The head good Little Person, Rollo Sweet, wakes up and he’s still back in the diner in Nowhere. But the studio bus to Hollywood (to go to the making of WoO) is about to leave and he rushes to make it. Note: The reason I know this is not because I am a fan of the film, but because I am a fan of the late Corky Hubbert, who played Rollo. Saw him regularly around campus in our college days. Once almost tore a street preacher a new one. Go see “The Ballad of the Sad Cafe” with Vanessa Redgrave, Keith Carradine and Rod Steiger instead. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2005, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-were-all-just-dreams/309067/58 "2005-06-22T04:59:37Z")
The Kids in the Hall’s [**"Pear Dream"**](http://www.kithfan.org/work/transcripts/one/pear.html). ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2005, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-were-all-just-dreams/309067/59 "2005-06-23T02:18:16Z")
Anyone remember this one? [Wisdom](http://imdb.com/title/tt0092225/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnxteD0yMHxsbT01MDB8dHQ9MXxmYj11fHBuPTB8cT13aXNkb218aHRtbD0xfG5tPTE_;fc=1;ft=50;fm=1) He gets shot at the end of the movie. And, of course, wakes up in the bathtub… never having even started his day. ---
**Author:** ![Fortean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/96bed5/32.png) [@Fortean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fortean)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2005, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-were-all-just-dreams/309067/60 "2005-06-23T10:22:46Z")
> [@](#): > > There was an Episode of the X-files where Murder and Scully was investigating some Mushrooms in North Carolina. Eventualy, they figure out that it has hallunigentic effects, and that in actually, most of the episode is a fantasy where they’re acting being slowly digested inside a cave by a giant piece of fungi while they’re happily drugged and halluncinating. Ooh yes and there was another episode where Mulder was captured by a cogniscent computer and had mad sexy dreams about nurses with big boobs chopping his limbs off. And there was another another episode where Mulder was given a load of drugs and dreamt about marrying Fowley and having kids, in an almost too-obvious to bear ripoff of The Last Temptation of Christ. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-were-all-just-dreams/309067.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-were-all-just-dreams/309067.md?page=4)