Last week, Mouse_Spouse and I were watching StarGate: Atlantis. During a scene that was supposed to be in an abandoned area, I saw two couch cushions are part of the “rumble”! They were regular, light brown, L shaped cushions.
For crime dramas and science fiction, I’m notorious for announcing what research-related products a character is using. My comments can range from “Why the hell are they using that?” to “The lab can’t afford to buy one of those and here it is being used as a prop!”
Have you guys ever spotted an object being used outside of its character?
In the X-Files. Somerandomscientist shows Mulder a very noisy [sup]1[/sup]H NMR spectrum. Mulder replies, “but that’s only theoretical”. Then they show the structure of a molecule that could only possibly have one peak in the [sup]1[/sup]H NMR spectrum.
Not to mention how absolutely rediculous it is to identify a molecule by breifly glancing at an NMR spectrum.
Oh Oh! In Medicine Man, they have a fully equipped Mass Spectrometer in the middle the jungle plugged into what? a tree? And they use a chemical library to identify a previously undiscovered compound.
Porbably well known by all trek fan dopers, but in the orginal series, the medical thingies that Bones waved over the patients were actually novelty salt shakers. (The little things with the rotating heads)…
Not prop so much as set dressing. Ages ago on thirtysomething I remember a scene where Elliot (the artist) is in his office talking to someone. On a wall rack behind him are a big bunch of Pantone Matching Systemmarkers – they are very distinctive looking. It made perfect sense that the graphics guy in an advertising agency would have them handy for knocking out a sketch in standard PMS colors, but those markers were like $4 a pop. I remember thinking, “My God, they’ve got about a thousand bucks worth of prop behind him!”
You’d never know it, so I don’t know if it counts, but on “I Dream of Jeannie”, her genie bottle was actually a painted novelty Jim Beam bottle. My mom bought one off of ebay a few years ago and had my wife paint it for her. It looks like the real thing, because it pretty much is.
