# Things that are extremely common in TV shows/movies that you've rarely seen in real life **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 29, 2009, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161 "2009-08-29T16:20:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![mecaenas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/91b2a8/32.png) [@mecaenas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mecaenas)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161/181 "2009-08-31T13:37:33Z")
In movies and TV shows when people park their cars they rarely lock the doors, hell most of the time they don’t even wind up their windows. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161/182 "2009-08-31T18:21:04Z")
> [@kittenblue](#): > > We’ve had whole threads on this subject! You need to meet more men. I remember the thread from several years ago…IIRC it seemed to correlate with how one was originally potty trained, and whether it was the mom or dad that did the teaching. Myself, I was taught by my grandfather standing up, out in the woods, under the stars, and that a real man will find a spider web and try to knock the spider out of the middle. ---
**Author:** ![Beadalin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161/183 "2009-08-31T18:50:45Z")
A makeover. I have never seen one in real life, ever. ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161/184 "2009-08-31T19:03:42Z")
I find standing up easier (and generally neater) than sitting down, but I also find it amusing that this topic tends to arouse such emotion. I look forward to the day when we fully accept alternative peestyles. > [@Yookeroo](#): > > I think the point is that it’s very unnatural that the sheet always has the man’s chest completely bare and the woman’s is always completely covered. Couples who have been married for years and years have the wife primly keep her tits covered whenever she’s in bed with he husband. Of course we know why it’s this way for the camera, and maybe it is ridiculous for old married couples, but I don’t think it’s so very ridiculous in general that many women are a little more modest than their menfolk - and yes, that extends to after (sometimes during!) sex. It also seems women are (in general, please, I know there are exceptions) more likely to complain of feeling chilly. Of course in the old days men also had their chest hair to keep them warm. ---
**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, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161/185 "2009-08-31T19:07:15Z")
> [@TWDuke](#): > > Of course we know why it’s this way for the camera, and maybe it is ridiculous for old married couples, but I don’t think it’s so very ridiculous in general that many women are a little more modest than their menfolk - and yes, that extends to after (sometimes during!) sex. It also seems women are (in general, please, I know there are exceptions) more likely to complain of feeling chilly. > > Of course in the old days men also had their chest hair to keep them warm. I think it’s also ridiculous that people are just lying there. My first thought is to go wash out my goopy vagina. Though I guess an aftershot of the happy couple scrubbing genitals isn’t as sexy as lying there smoking asking if it was good for the other person (or if they should try again in five). ---
**Author:** ![Bootis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e8c25b/32.png) [@Bootis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootis)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161/186 "2009-08-31T20:23:00Z")
It’s amazing how little trust supposedly happily married people on TV have in each other. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161/187 "2009-08-31T20:26:40Z")
Somebody acting hysterical (usually a woman) who gets calmed down by a slap. Try this with a member of my family and you’ll have a hysterical woman who’s now either pummeling your head against the floor or has you at gunpoint. This is definitely a “me personally” thing since I know others have, but the super nice public high schools used in TV and movies (THE BREAKFAST CLUB for example). Mine was a Depression era CCC construct where the library had mostly torn paperbacks and multimedia was a few donated Jim Nabors album and an 1812 overture, and the walls/state of repair looked more like the set of _Barney Miller_ or \*Sanford & Son \*than a pristine model school. And while I hope John Hughes RIP and I know like most filmmakers he had some autobiographical elements in his work, did anybody else ever long to see a similar quality movie that _wasn’t_ set in a gorgeous upper-middle mansionette neighborhood with good looking trim parents and teens driving new cars? (I did a thread on _Roseanne_ not too long ago and IIRC this was one thing that many accredited to its success.) ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161/188 "2009-08-31T20:33:01Z")
> [@Bootis](#): > > It’s amazing how little trust supposedly happily married people on TV have in each other. Or how frequently they have sex. I’m aware of course that most long term marriages the spouses still have sex, but there have been shows where the wife or husband assumes an affair because their spouse didn’t want to do it twice in the past week; isn’t that relatively common in most marriages? Especially when there are kids and two careers and all I’d think that “I’d rather sleep/I’m not in the mood” is a pretty acceptable and common occurrence and one that (unless it went on for weeks or months) wouldn’t make most people assume affair. ---
**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, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161/189 "2009-08-31T20:44:17Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Somebody acting hysterical (usually a woman) who gets calmed down by a slap. Try this with a member of my family and you’ll have a hysterical woman who’s now either pummeling your head against the floor or has you at gunpoint. Or try throwing a glass of water at them. “I’m hysterical and I’m WET!” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161/190 "2009-08-31T21:11:12Z")
[QUOTE=enomaj] People who start out hating each other ending up in the sack. [/QUOTE] This. And women making the first move to start an affair. Most men I know swear they’ve never had a woman ask them out. ---
**Author:** ![Speak\_to\_me\_Maddie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Speak\_to\_me\_Maddie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speak_to_me_Maddie)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161/191 "2009-08-31T23:30:47Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > This is definitely a “me personally” thing since I know others have, but the super nice public high schools used in TV and movies (THE BREAKFAST CLUB for example). Mine was a Depression era CCC construct where the library had mostly torn paperbacks and multimedia was a few donated Jim Nabors album and an 1812 overture, and the walls/state of repair looked more like the set of _Barney Miller_ or \*Sanford & Son \*than a pristine model school. > > And while I hope John Hughes RIP and I know like most filmmakers he had some autobiographical elements in his work, did anybody else ever long to see a similar quality movie that _wasn’t_ set in a gorgeous upper-middle mansionette neighborhood with good looking trim parents and teens driving new cars? (I did a thread on _Roseanne_ not too long ago and IIRC this was one thing that many accredited to its success.) I came to mention this. TV high schools always look like Napa Valley hacienda mansions with beautifully manicured and landscaped courtyards. The students seem to have free reign in these paradises, with teachers only appearing when necessary for plot. IRL, every high school and middle school I’ve experienced is much more like a prison. Covered in concrete and steel, few windows, trash and filth everywhere, no outdoor space available to students, and every single move under constant surveillance, with schedules deliberately designed to eliminate any lingering or loafing whatsoever. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161/192 "2009-08-31T23:39:01Z")
I think someone posted on this already, but how often are murders a true convoluted double-bluff mystery? And how often does someone murder a second and third person to hide the fact that they murdered the first person? Because it seems to be a primary motive on TV. ---
**Author:** ![Speak\_to\_me\_Maddie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Speak\_to\_me\_Maddie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speak_to_me_Maddie)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161/193 "2009-08-31T23:43:37Z")
_Proposals_. If TV were any guide to how things are done in the everyday business world, it would all be _proposals_. Whenever a generic office worker is trying to get something done it is always an unspecified _proposal_. Commercials targeting business types always have generic office worker trying to get to work/send over the computer/transfer with Blackberry/use software to “get this _proposal_ to the boss”. Any conversation by generic office worker will end up with a mention of “finishing up a _proposal_”. I know some people in the business world work with proposals on a regular basis, but TV likes to think 99% of office work is mucking about with proposals. I’ve worked in business for more than 15 years now, at different levels of management in several different industries. I have yet to have worked with a proposal in any way whatsoever. Every time I hear it I think of the Mitchell and Webb skits with the lazy TV writers who don’t bother to any research, not even for key words and throwaway lines. ---
**Author:** ![Noelq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noelq/32/16438_2.png) [@Noelq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noelq)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161/194 "2009-08-31T23:48:34Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > How about how, on _The Big Bang Theory_, it takes **two** research scientists with PhD’s to afford the rent on a smallish apartment, but it only takes **one** Cheesecake Factory waitress to afford the rent on the apartment across the hall? > > And how many engineers with master’s degrees still live with their mothers? > > I do see a lot of wardrobe repeats on that show, though. Heh. 1. Can you imagine the conniption fit that Sheldon would throw if anyone even BROACHED the subject of moving? I mean, it would totally throw off his ENTIRE schedule irreparably! 2. Even if they have scads of cash lying around, would you want to try and apartment-hunt with Sheldon? His pad-thai order ALONE would make me try to strangle him, let alone trying to find an apartment with a 35 degree arc of sunshine with wind vectors between 15-17 mph in the summer and low snowfall on the windows in winter, and the correct astronomical alignment to see the stars in their positions in his various searches for new planetary information and… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161/195 "2009-08-31T23:52:33Z")
> [@Frostillicus](#): > > A group of people has to explore a cave or an old castle or something, and they all carry these awesome torches that burn brightly forever – torches that I have never remotely witnessed in real life. ARghhh Hollywood’s torch usage is one of my irrational things that pisses me off royally. As kids we used to make torches out of sticks cloth and Naphtha, something that no one in Movies has apparently ever done. Walking along in a dark cave holding a torch out in front of you, you can’t see a goddamn thing!!! You have a huge bright light source about two feet away that is 20 times brighter than anything will reflect it back. It would be like trying to walk in a dark cave with one flashlight pointed ahead, and one flashlight pointed directly in your eyes, Your pupils are so small you might as well just close your eyes. You have to hold it out of your field of vision, or even better give it to the guy in back and let him follow your lead. And when they hold the mega torch close to the wall to read something on it, it makes me stabby, it just doesn’t work. I saw a movie once where the guy needed to read something on a tomb wall. He actually grabbed the torch and held behind and above his shoulder, like you really have to do. I almost wept with glory that someone actually thought it out. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161/196 "2009-09-01T00:06:50Z")
TV caves are also amazingly free of bats and their droppings. And also amazingly clean. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161/197 "2009-09-01T00:54:33Z")
Working-class families who throw monster Halloween parties with thousands (or tens of thousands) of dollars worth of decorations and all the guests show up in elaborate and very expensive costumes. No one else bothered by all the CEOs hiring hit men?? (see post #142.) Never seen it happen in real life… ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161/198 "2009-09-01T00:57:38Z")
> [@TWDuke](#): > > I don’t think it’s so very ridiculous in general that many women are a little more modest than their menfolk - and yes, that extends to after (sometimes during!) sex. It also seems women are (in general, please, I know there are exceptions) more likely to complain of feeling chilly. > > Of course in the old days men also had their chest hair to keep them warm. Yeah, but you’re not going to slip that _underwire bra_ back on to spend the night in somebody’s bed. You’re going to put your shirt back on if you’re feeling cold or modest. Or you’ll ask if you can borrow one of his. Especially if the bra is the sexy lacy one you wore for the occasion. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161/199 "2009-09-01T01:11:08Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > I think someone posted on this already, but how often are murders a true convoluted double-bluff mystery? And how often does someone murder a second and third person to hide the fact that they murdered the first person? > > Because it seems to be a primary motive on TV. I suspect there are a lot more like Judah’s murder of his mistress in [CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimes_and_Misdemeanors). In that movie Judah (Martin Landau), a married and wealthy dentist, has a high-strung mistress who is blackmailing him. He has his brother [Jerry Orbach], who has mob connections, hire somebody to kill her and have it look like a burglary. The cops never even come close to arresting or even seriously suspecting him. Much of the movie is how he reacts to having literally gotten away with murder (and it’s not by breaking down and confessing). ---
**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:** [September 1, 2009, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161/200 "2009-09-01T01:55:35Z")
> [@](#): > > And while I hope John Hughes RIP and I know like most filmmakers he had some autobiographical elements in his work, did anybody else ever long to see a similar quality movie that wasn’t set in a gorgeous upper-middle mansionette neighborhood with good looking trim parents and teens driving new cars? (I did a thread on Roseanne not too long ago and IIRC this was one thing that many accredited to its success.) I think this goes in waves: You’ll have about a decade of sitcoms about upper-class folks, then the pendulum swings the other way and you’ll have a decade of sitcoms about lower-class folks, then it swings back. I don’t have enough data to say for sure, but I’d bet that it’s inversely correlated to the economy in the real world: When times are tough, people want fantasies about how they’d like to live, and when times are good, they want to laugh at the poor proles. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-extremely-common-in-tv-shows-movies-that-youve-rarely-seen-in-real-life/508161.md?page=11)