# What is extremely common in TV or movies but almost never happens in real life? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 6, 2021, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311 "2021-02-06T04:16:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 30
**Author:** ![TimothyNewsome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7ba0ec/32.png) [@TimothyNewsome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimothyNewsome)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2021, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/581 "2021-02-16T21:05:38Z")
There are several European cities that do not allow skyscrapers in the historic “Old Town” districts of the city, I assume at least in part to preserve the ambience and charm of the historic skyline, Prague, Dresden and Krakow included. ---
**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 16, 2021, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/582 "2021-02-16T21:22:46Z")
Moscow and Kiev have gone in the opposite direction. Large parts of the cities’ historic districts have been ruined by ugly modern office buildings.and shopping malls. Toronto is not, of course, European. But it does have some of the ugliest architecture I’ve ever seen. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2021, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/583 "2021-02-16T21:31:44Z")
> [@Bonum\_Legatum](#): > > Professors who are recognized as leaders in their fields will happily teach entry-level courses - because they like to meet “bright young minds”. Teaching assistants are never seen. I think that’s totally dependent on the professor. Maybe not freshman level courses, but I had some world-class professors teaching upper level undergrad courses because they liked it, not because they HAD to. Otherwise, what you say is mostly true; we did have an inordinate amount of free time as undergraduates, but there were always a couple of people in the group who would opt out of whatever shenanigans were going on because they had some kind of assignment, project or test to work on. The only guy I ever knew who literally did not study except right before finals is now a professor of radiology at UT-Southwestern medical school, so I guess it worked for him. The rest of us mere mortals did have to study regularly though. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2021, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/584 "2021-02-16T21:43:01Z")
Someone going bonkers and needing to be restrained, until someone comes up and jabs him with a needleful of happy-juice - at which point the berserker immediately goes limp. I’ve had IV sedation hit me pretty nearly that fast. Pretty sure something intramuscular ain’t gonna have that effect. ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2021, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/585 "2021-02-16T21:56:24Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > I’ve had IV sedation hit me pretty nearly that fast. Pretty sure something intramuscular ain’t gonna have that effect. I had this too. I went in for surgery once, and they gave me a general anesthesia (“Doc, I don’t wanna hear-it-taste-it-see-it-touch-it-or-feel-it, knock me the hell out!” . . . so they did). I asked the attending RN to help me out, and I started counting down from 99. After the surgery, she told me I got to “96.” Tripler I don’t remember a thing after “98” though. . . ---
**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 16, 2021, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/586 "2021-02-16T22:08:18Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I suspect every apartment in Seattle has a view of the Space Needle, too. 😉 We were driving in the neighborhood, so thought we’d try to find where Frasier’s apartment would be, based on his view. We decided it’d be floating maybe fifty feet in the air above an ordinary street with two-story brick houses on Queen Anne Hill. … > [@Colibri](#): > > Right. It is often said that there is a law that no building could be taller than the Capitol I believe that’s the rule in Madison, WI. But the Capitol’s on a hill, so head a half mile away and you can get some ten-story buildings. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@salinqmind1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind1)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2021, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/587 "2021-02-16T22:26:10Z")
Funny, I just discovered re-runs of ER on cable tv today! and yes, there was a madman on top of a trailer railing and shrieking, and one of the doctors snuck up on him and jabbed him with a hypo. Where I guess he went down like a bag o’ hammers. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2021, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/588 "2021-02-16T22:37:29Z")
> [@Tripler](#): > > I had this too. I went in for surgery once, and they gave me a general anesthesia (“Doc, I don’t wanna hear-it-taste-it-see-it-touch-it-or-feel-it, knock me the hell out!” . . . so they did). I asked the attending RN to help me out, and I started counting down from 99. After the surgery, she told me I got to “96.” I’m surprised you remember the 96 also. Supposedly you’re “awake” rather longer than you think you are. For my wrist surgery, I just remember them wheeling me to a different bay where they were going to do the regional block, and the world tilting sideways. Those initial sedatives / amnestics are good shit. Of course I have no idea whether even THAT would have stopped me had I been combative. I know my son managed to burn through his pre-op sedative when he broke his arm at age 4. ---
**Author:** ![blabbermeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e9a140/32.png) [@blabbermeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blabbermeister)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2021, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/589 "2021-02-16T23:23:25Z")
> [@Tripler](#): > > I started counting down from 99. After the surgery, she told me I got to “96.” In one episode of The Honeymooners a doctor injects Ed Norton with pentathol and asks him to count down from 100. Ed says: “One hundred … ninety-nine … ninety-eight … ninety-seven … ninety-six … THREEEEEE…” So I guess that episode _was_ realistic! I always wondered. ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2021, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/590 "2021-02-16T23:23:53Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > I’m surprised you remember the 96 also. Oh that was _after_ the surgery, where they un-did the anesthesia with whatever antidote they give you. I sure as hell don’t remember anything between “98” and " . . . now, get off the gurney. You made it to “96.” Tripler “. . . and here, eat some ice chips.” ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2021, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/591 "2021-02-16T23:31:14Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > Someone going bonkers and needing to be restrained, until someone comes up and jabs him with a needleful of happy-juice - at which point the berserker immediately goes limp. On the opposite side, people not being able to be restrained by 4 or more skilled workers – of _any_ size or strength – that are determined to restrain them. My mother, who is farthest from a buff fighter, used to work in a psychiatric ward and says that it’s very workmanlike to restrain someone if you have four people, one for each appendage. That might not be the case for the very strongest versus the very weakest members of the human race, but it should hold true most of the time. ---
**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 16, 2021, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/592 "2021-02-16T23:51:12Z")
> [@Tripler](#): > > I sure as hell don’t remember anything between “98” and " . . . now, get off the gurney. You made it to “96.” Don’t forget, a lot of anesthetics have a “roofie” component. I was under ‘conscious sedation’ for a colonoscopy, and still have big gaps in my memory… like how did I get from my hospital room to the passenger seat of my wife’s car halfway home? I’m sure there was a wheelchair involved… ---
**Author:** ![blabbermeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e9a140/32.png) [@blabbermeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blabbermeister)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2021, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/593 "2021-02-17T03:36:47Z")
When playing poker and losing (in TV shows), it’s common to toss one’s car keys on the table, and there’s no need for anyone to discuss it because it’s obvious to everyone that you’re betting your car, and also your car is always worth exactly the amount you owe, and no one needs to inspect it to assess its value. Also, being good at poker means getting a really good hand like four of a kind, and re-raising 5 times until you win the other person’s car/all of their money. Like any beginner wouldn’t also have re-raised 5 times with that hand. But apparently the skill is _getting_ that hand, which only expert poker players know how to do. Luckily the other person never folds when you get that hand either. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2021, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/594 "2021-02-17T03:56:22Z")
> [@digs](#): > > Don’t forget, a lot of anesthetics have a “roofie” component. I was under ‘conscious sedation’ for a colonoscopy, and still have big gaps in my memory… like how did I get from my hospital room to the passenger seat of my wife’s car halfway home? I’m sure there was a wheelchair involved… Now I’m paranoid that when I went in for surgery I was really conscious and screaming in agony and I just don’t remember it. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2021, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/595 "2021-02-17T03:59:38Z")
Here’s another one. “Marcus Welby MD” episodes always started with a person going about their day, la la la, and then they suddenly keeled over and things went from there. That, too rarely happens exactly that way. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2021, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/596 "2021-02-17T04:00:44Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > The metal of the car is bent in a manner that almost makes it looks like draped cloth to me. It was originally a hardshell limosine but the roof (and the young lady) was smashed down level with dash/lower edge of the window. > > She really does look like she’s napping in a bizarre way. It’s a little off, of course - for one thing, she’s missing one of her shoes, her clothes are rumpled, and, oh yeah, she’s nestled in bent steel rather than a bedsheet or blanket - but given what had just happened she looks, well, still beautiful. I guess the best way to say it is that she doesn’t look dead, more like posed… but of course, the body is no longer occupied. > > Oh, and the year was 1947. Now it occurs to me that must have been a VERY awkward insurance claim to file. ---
**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 17, 2021, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/597 "2021-02-17T04:08:05Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > > [@digs](#): > > > > Don’t forget, a lot of anesthetics have a “roofie” component… > > Now I’m paranoid that when I went in for surgery I was really conscious and screaming in agony and I just don’t remember it. Oh, don’t worry. You were witty and charming, just like I _know_ I was… ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2021, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/598 "2021-02-17T04:08:44Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > > [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > > > Someone going bonkers and needing to be restrained, until someone comes up and jabs him with a needleful of happy-juice - at which point the berserker immediately goes limp. > > On the opposite side, people not being able to be restrained by 4 or more skilled workers – of _any_ size or strength – that are determined to restrain them. My mother, who is farthest from a buff fighter, used to work in a psychiatric ward and says that it’s very workmanlike to restrain someone if you have four people, one for each appendage. That might not be the case for the very strongest versus the very weakest members of the human race, but it should hold true most of the time. But in TV no matter how small the detective is they will be able to handcuff the bad guy with a quick twist of the wrist. I may be old and fat now but I guarantee 110lbs Det Beckett would never get me in a pair of handcuffs and I wouldn’t even have to resort to violence just active resistance. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2021, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/599 "2021-02-17T04:39:07Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Naked breasts are going to get you an R, guaranteed. Apparently you can get away with them in certain artistic brief shots or of natives. But only as long as they are not there to titillate. Which is a very appropriate word. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2021, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/600 "2021-02-17T04:41:10Z")
> [@HelenABucket](#): > > In Paris, every apartment, restaurant and most streets have a view of the Eiffel Tower. Yeah, they had that on _God Friended me_- which has one of the most cop out endings of all time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311.md?page=29) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311.md?page=31)