# They're always empty! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted, movies\ **Created:** [February 12, 2022, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378 "2022-02-12T19:54:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**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:** [February 14, 2022, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/81 "2022-02-14T22:15:52Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > This has been old for so long it’s due to retire. Two days from now? ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2022, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/82 "2022-02-14T22:23:07Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Pick up the damn gun! Tell that to MacGyver. The only episode I ever watched, he escaped three times (!) from the bad guys, only to be recaptured because he refused (I guess it was his thing?) to use a gun. Prop tip: if you are averse to guns, maybe being a spy isn’t the career choice for you. ---
**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:** [February 14, 2022, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/83 "2022-02-14T22:23:39Z")
Women on TV never take off their makeup before they go to bed. And couples never seem to have bad breath or BO when they wake up next to each other in the morning. Come to think of it, I’ve never seen a man on TV hurry to take a whiz first thing in the morning. I’d climb over my partner to get to the bathroom in time. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2022, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/84 "2022-02-14T22:24:18Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Two days from now? And it just bought a boat. The “Live 4 Ever”. MENDOOOOZAAA! ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2022, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/85 "2022-02-14T23:06:40Z")
I can’t believe we’ve gotten this far in and no one’s mentioned the fact that in TV shows and the movies, no one _ever_ says “good-bye” at the end of a phone call. They just hang up. ---
**Author:** ![swampspruce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampspruce/32/261_2.png) [@swampspruce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampspruce)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2022, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/86 "2022-02-14T23:30:19Z")
Oh, thank you for this! ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2022, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/87 "2022-02-14T23:33:36Z")
Yeah, I watched Okja last night, in which a solid gold pig the size of a piggy bank is hefted by a number of people, with no discernible effort. ---
**Author:** ![swampspruce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampspruce/32/261_2.png) [@swampspruce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampspruce)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2022, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/88 "2022-02-14T23:37:15Z")
The proper answer to this is always Double Tap. Problem solved. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2022, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/89 "2022-02-14T23:42:46Z")
Movies and TV shows still do that thing where the bad guy is bopped over the head with a vase or similar object and knocked out, only to wake later with seemingly no neurological complications. When we tried it, it wasn’t that simple and I was told to no longer do that at work. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2022, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/90 "2022-02-14T23:48:57Z")
Chasing a bad guy into a blind alleyway in NYC. There aren’t alleyways in NYC, not in Manhattan, anyway. Maybe in the boroughs but even then they are, like lots with chain link fences-- spaces where buildings used to be but got knocked down. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2022, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/91 "2022-02-14T23:52:04Z")
As a humorous aside, I’ll note here that Kristen Bell’s wine glass is virtually _ **never** _ empty in her current Netflix show [![](https://mediaproxy.salon.com/width/1200/https://media.salon.com/2022/01/the-woman-in-the-house-across-the-street-from-the-girl-in-the-window-still04.jpg) ](https://mediaproxy.salon.com/width/1200/https://media.salon.com/2022/01/the-woman-in-the-house-across-the-street-from-the-girl-in-the-window-still04.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2022, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/92 "2022-02-14T23:57:13Z")
> [@swampspruce](#): > > Double Tap And, cardio! ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2022, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/93 "2022-02-15T02:00:51Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > When we tried it, it wasn’t that simple and I was told to no longer do that at work. Did you remind them that all you have to do is hit them on the head again and they’ll be fine? > [@Biggirl](#): > > There aren’t alleyways in NYC, not in Manhattan, anyway. I just watched a [youtube video](https://youtu.be/IDWIKU9KSYQ?t=367) about location scouting. They mentioned specifically that. Because of that, the majority of “dark/back alleys” filmed in New York are done in one specific alley due looking like viewers expect a dark/back alley in New York to look. (ETA, should be cued up, but if not, it starts at 6:07) ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2022, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/94 "2022-02-15T02:05:32Z")
Where I grew up in The Bronx there were very narrow alleys in between apartment buildings where the garbage cans were kept. _Very_ narrow. Just you and the garbage can fit. Although, if you shimmied down enough it opened out and there was an apartment down there where the super lived. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2022, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/95 "2022-02-15T02:11:37Z")
Now Chicago; there you have a city that knows how to have alleys. ---
**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:** [February 15, 2022, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/96 "2022-02-15T04:39:58Z")
Ahh, Chicago. There are entire neighborhoods that are nothing but alleys. Moody, cinegraphic alleys. More stuff needs to get shot in Chcago! > [@Joey\_P](#): > > the majority of “dark/back alleys” filmed in New York are done in one specific alley due looking like viewers expect a dark/back alley in New York to look. Reminds me of “THE Chinatown alley” in San Francisco. Same deal: only one alley looks like “Archetypal Chinatown” to movie/TV-goers. My kid lived a block away, and the third time we walked down that alley (with the laundry backlit across the narrow space and little Asian ladies yelling across to each other), I asked him about it. He’d grown numb to the iconic-ness of the location, but said “Yeah, lotsa times you can’t walk down here cuz they’re filming somethin’.” ---
**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:** [February 15, 2022, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/97 "2022-02-15T04:48:34Z")
> [@digs](#): > > More stuff needs to get shot in Chcago! A sentence never spoken before. ---
**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:** [February 15, 2022, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/98 "2022-02-15T13:27:51Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > As a humorous aside, I’ll note here that Kristen Bell’s wine glass is virtually _ **never** _ empty in her current Netflix show In what I thought was an otherwise disappointing parody, there was a subversion of a trope related to this in the last episode that made me chuckle: Kristen Bell’s character is on a plane. Flight Attendant: do you want a glass of wine? Kristen Bell’s Character: no thanks, I don’t drink wine anymore… (So, clearly her character is now coping with her grief and moving on with her life, symbolized by her kicking her dependency on alcohol!) Kristen Bell’s Character: …I’ll have a vodka on the rocks. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2022, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/99 "2022-02-15T17:32:52Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > I understand that a nitroglycerine can be an immediate life-saver for heart events, but I’m not aware of any other prescription meds you can carry around in a bottle and take with your shaky hands the moment you feel off One of the available migraine meds maxalt, a sublingual tab. My blessed Zofran [nausea med] has a sublingual dissolvable tab - it can stop nausea in its tracks and not vomiting is IMHO a good thing. There are other sublingual dissolvables - I have seen people being given them in hospital. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2022, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378/100 "2022-02-15T17:38:26Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > There aren’t alleyways in NYC, not in Manhattan, anyway Odd, when in Greenwich Village we accidentally drove down an alley [actually three times - we couldn’t believe that we saw a guy giving another guy a blowjob, then went back around to check it out, then again for the person who didn’t see it the first or second time.] Little 9th as I vaguely remember it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-always-empty/959378.md?page=6)