# Things that make you wonder what planet writers live on? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 11, 2012, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-wonder-what-planet-writers-live-on/609115 "2012-01-11T01:45:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-wonder-what-planet-writers-live-on/609115/41 "2012-01-14T09:34:28Z")
> [@astro](#): > > Drew and his buddies tamed and rode a fucking _Monkapotamus_, and this is the best you can do? And that was clearly intended to be fantasy, then you had portions of the show where the humor came from Drew’s boring middle class life and all too realistic life. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-wonder-what-planet-writers-live-on/609115/42 "2012-01-14T15:54:22Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > I’ll never forget the 21 Jump Street episode where the character said “I grew up in Mun-arch-ee, New Jersey.” > > How did he grow up there and not learn how to pronounce it correctly? It’s MOON-ark-ee, dumb asses. All it would take is a call to the Borough Hall. How is this the writer’s fault? ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-wonder-what-planet-writers-live-on/609115/43 "2012-01-14T23:48:54Z")
> [@grude](#): > > And that was clearly intended to be fantasy, then you had portions of the show where the humor came from Drew’s boring middle class life and all too realistic life. I’m puzzled by the distinction you are making. The entire show was intended to be fantasy. There was no demarcation line for “_This will be a fact checked scenario, and this_ will be where we’re doing lines of coke”. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-wonder-what-planet-writers-live-on/609115/44 "2012-01-14T23:57:39Z")
> [@astro](#): > > I’m puzzled by the distinction you are making. The entire show was intended to be fantasy. There was no demarcation line for “_This will be a fact checked scenario, and this_ will be where we’re doing lines of coke”. Well shit thats like saying Roseanne was all fantasy because of some dream sequences and out of continuity Halloween episodes, but the reason most liked the show was how real it felt, how it really captured the feeling of a barely keeping the lights on lower class family. ---
**Author:** ![Uncle\_Jocko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uncle_jocko/32/2932_2.png) [@Uncle\_Jocko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncle_Jocko)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-wonder-what-planet-writers-live-on/609115/45 "2012-01-15T00:14:39Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > There are a couple of even more obvious problems with this episode. First, there isn’t anyplace in Wisconsin that’s particularly close to the Canadian border. _That '70s Show_ was set in a fictional town that usually seemed to be located somewhere in southeastern Wisconsin (near Kenosha). In the very same episode the girls go back and forth to Sheboygan (central eastern Wisconsin) twice in one day. So the guys were driving a long way to buy beer, which is not in and of itself implausible… Someone should have told the writers about this wondrous invention called a map, which can actually depict locations and their spatial relationships. Seriously, take a look at a Wisconsin map. Nobody in need of a beer would think of driving to Canada, for Pete’s sake. To the east, there’s a big lake and then a whole ‘nother state in the way. To the north, it’s that other state again. It’s a long freakin’ way to get to Canada from Wisconsin - but I suppose TV screenwriters in Cali just think, “cold, northern state … gotta be next to Canada, right?” No to mention Lamia’s point that beer is readily available about anywhere you go in Wisconsin already. I think they serve it instead of iced tea at the state’s McDonalds. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-wonder-what-planet-writers-live-on/609115/46 "2012-01-15T01:13:14Z")
From the Simpsons to King of the Hill to That '70s Show, the location and geography of fictional towns often varies as the plot demands. > [@Uncle\_Jocko](#): > > Nobody in need of a beer would think of driving to Canada, for Pete’s sake. I think the plot was that they were going to Canada because they could legally drink there- not because Canada was the most convenient place to go on a beer run. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-wonder-what-planet-writers-live-on/609115/47 "2012-01-15T02:56:41Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > From the Simpsons to King of the Hill to That '70s Show, the location and geography of fictional towns often varies as the plot demands. Point Place was explicitly located in Wisconsin though, and there isn’t anyplace in Wisconsin that’s just a short drive from Canada. Wisconsin doesn’t share a border with Canada. I don’t think it would be possible to make the trip in less than 4-5 hours (one way) even if you started from the state line. > [@](#): > > I think the plot was that they were going to Canada because they could legally drink there- not because Canada was the most convenient place to go on a beer run. As I said earlier, the legal drinking age in Wisconsin was 18 at the time. As far as I can tell from searching online it was 18-19 in Canada, depending on the province. If they were old enough to drink in Canada they were old enough to drink at home. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-wonder-what-planet-writers-live-on/609115/48 "2012-01-15T03:01:19Z")
I didn’t see your earlier post, but those are good points. OK, the plot of that episode doesn’t work. I’m picky about the realism of TV shows myself, but I have to admit I am not all that surprised that the writers didn’t read up about the drinking laws in Wisconsin in the '70s (or that a writer or actor didn’t call a town in NJ to find out how the name of the town is pronounced). That’s not really their first concern. As far as the location of Point Place goes… they don’t care and they don’t keep track. They’re much more concerned about getting their show on the air. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-wonder-what-planet-writers-live-on/609115/49 "2012-01-15T03:14:35Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I didn’t see your earlier post, but those are good points. OK, the plot of that episode doesn’t work. I’m picky about the realism of TV shows myself, but I have to admit I am not all that surprised that the writers didn’t read up about the drinking laws in Wisconsin in the '70s It wasn’t just Wisconsin, though – the drinking age was 18 in much of the US from the early '70s to the early '80s. I don’t think this is obscure information. I wasn’t even born until the '80s and I knew when I was a teenager that the drinking age used to be 18. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-wonder-what-planet-writers-live-on/609115/50 "2012-01-15T09:49:22Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > As I said earlier, the legal drinking age in Wisconsin was 18 at the time. As far as I can tell from searching online it was 18-19 in Canada, depending on the province. If they were old enough to drink in Canada they were old enough to drink at home. The province would have been Ontario, where, as I said, the age jumped from 18 to 19 on January 1, 1979. Another fact I realized: The Mounties have no regular policing jurisdiction in Ontario, that being handled by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP). So, the Mounties in the episode were acting well outside their jurisdiction. (The same error occurred in the film _Canadian Bacon_.) Though they may not realize it, Beatles fans all know the of OPP: Paul McCartney wears an OPP shoulder patch on his uniform on the _Sgt. Pepper_ album. That same patch appears on the uniforms of the OPP to this day. ---
**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:** [January 15, 2012, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-wonder-what-planet-writers-live-on/609115/51 "2012-01-15T10:44:55Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > It wasn’t just Wisconsin, though – the drinking age was 18 in much of the US from the early '70s to the early '80s. I don’t think this is obscure information. I wasn’t even born until the '80s and I knew when I was a teenager that the drinking age used to be 18. I know in NY that the drinking age turned to 19 in 1982, and then to 21 in 1984. I know that I was grandfathered in the 82 change [it changed before October, I can’t recall exactly but I think it was in the summer, like July perhaps and because I had already been legally drinking since the previous October, all of us got grandfathered in. When it changed to 21 I was already 21.] Those screenwriters, unless they were seriously underage and oblivious, should have known that. Heck, don’t they have some person checking legality for production companies? It isn’t like they couldn’t fact check drinking age, just like they should look at a freaking map :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harvey_The_Heavy)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-wonder-what-planet-writers-live-on/609115/52 "2012-01-15T12:53:22Z")
On _Who Wants To Be A Millionaire_ the question was “What U.S. body of water used to be called the Sea of Cortés?”. One of the choices was the Gulf of California, which I was pretty sure used to be called the Sea of Cortés, but I thought, no, can’t be it, since the Gulf of California is in Mexico. The contestant must have thought the same thing, because he looked pretty confused, picked another answer which was wrong, and looked pretty miffed when they revealed the “correct” answer: the Gulf of California. I guess some idiot writer thought the Gulf of California must be in Santa Barbara or something and didn’t bother to check a map. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-wonder-what-planet-writers-live-on/609115/53 "2012-01-15T16:14:23Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > The province would have been Ontario, where, as I said, the age jumped from 18 to 19 on January 1, 1979. > > Another fact I realized: The Mounties have no regular policing jurisdiction in Ontario, that being handled by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP). So, the Mounties in the episode were acting well outside their jurisdiction. (The same error occurred in the film _Canadian Bacon_.) It probably would have been Ontario, but a group from Wisconsin _might_ have driven to Manitoba. They’d either have to go through Michigan or Minnesota to reach Canada and Minnesota borders on both Ontario and Manitoba. From most parts of WI it would be a considerably longer drive to Manitoba, but looking at the map it appears that if the group were starting from west of Eau Claire (the other end of the state from where the show usually seemed to be set, but still WI) then it would take about six hours to reach the border whether they went towards Winnipeg or Thunder Bay. I have no idea what the role of the Mounties is in Manitoba, though. ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-wonder-what-planet-writers-live-on/609115/54 "2012-01-15T16:31:00Z")
Perhaps the speed by which forensics is accomplished might be a valid response. I know that in your usual crime drama, everything has to happen in 48 minutes, but surely they could have the time delay of what really happens figured into at least of these shows. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-wonder-what-planet-writers-live-on/609115/55 "2012-01-15T16:58:33Z")
> [@TPWombat](#): > > Not only is that completely brilliant, but so are the comments 😃 I’ll clean out my toaster with a magnet, see if I can track Bigfoot on Jupiter. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-wonder-what-planet-writers-live-on/609115/56 "2012-01-15T17:44:14Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > It wasn’t just Wisconsin, though – the drinking age was 18 in much of the US from the early '70s to the early '80s. I don’t think this is obscure information. I wasn’t even born until the '80s and I knew when I was a teenager that the drinking age used to be 18. IRCC there was another episode where Kelso & the gang found out that his mother had been lying about his age for years (he was actually a year older) to make him seem [del]smart[/del] less stupid. Hyde is furious, because this means Kelso could’ve been buying booze for them for a year. So it’s not like they didn’t the drinking age used to be 18 in Wisconsin. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-wonder-what-planet-writers-live-on/609115/57 "2012-01-15T18:30:20Z")
> [@Gagundathar](#): > > Perhaps the speed by which forensics is accomplished might be a valid response. > I know that in your usual crime drama, everything has to happen in 48 minutes, but surely they could have the time delay of what really happens figured into at least of these shows. I saw a _Law & Order: SVU_ rerun recently where they were investigating a serial rapist who’d struck in multiple states. There were some issues with the statute of limitations and the quality of their DNA samples in NYC, so the detectives were hoping that other states would have the suspect’s DNA on file. They were surprised and disappointed to learn that (realistically) the other states had a large backlog of untested samples. Detective Benson said something like “At OUR lab, things always get tested right away!” I kind of wanted the other detective to respond “Well, if our unit had its own TV show then our samples would have been tested right away too!” ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-wonder-what-planet-writers-live-on/609115/58 "2012-01-15T19:21:32Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > These are only a few examples, but as **silenus** mentioned, the Rule of Funny trumps all. The laughs came out of the extreme situations. Rule of Funny totally applied in this situation, because the “Drew and Wick Get Married” storyline gave us this: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/ilYn6M90UbQ/hqdefault.jpg "Craig Ferguson - Drew Carey Show - Windy") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilYn6M90UbQ) ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-wonder-what-planet-writers-live-on/609115/59 "2012-01-15T19:33:04Z")
So, I decided to bring up that episode of That 70’s Show on Netflix. They never say they’re going to Canada to get beer because it’s legal there. In fact, they have Leo with them anyone, so he could just buy beer in the U.S. They’re going to Canada to buy beer **because it’s stronger there.** Nor do they ever saying it’s a quick trip over the border. It’s supposed to be a long road trip. They leave in the morning and they get back to the Canada border at night. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-wonder-what-planet-writers-live-on/609115/60 "2012-01-15T19:40:35Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > They never say they’re going to Canada to get beer because it’s legal there. Then I got that wrong. > [@](#): > > They’re going to Canada to buy beer **because it’s stronger there.** Nor do they ever saying it’s a quick trip over the border. It’s supposed to be a long road trip. They leave in the morning and they get back to the Canada border at night. In which case it doesn’t sound like the show made a geography mistake. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-wonder-what-planet-writers-live-on/609115.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-make-you-wonder-what-planet-writers-live-on/609115.md?page=4)