# 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:** 48
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/941 "2021-03-19T00:02:35Z")
Your mention of manual transmissions is interesting too. Because lot of my young relatives have no idea how to drive one. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/942 "2021-03-19T00:12:14Z")
> [@digs](#): > > ta: Don’t know what it was in, an old TV show, but just remembered seeing the light go off and suddenly someone switches on the white grid pattern being projected across the bed (supposedly bright moonlight through mullions of a window). If this was just a day or two ago, I saw that too. Can’t remember what channel/movie it was (I wasn’t watching, just glanced up at the right moment) and it jarred me. The light from outside the bedroom was conspicuously switched ON a heartbeat after the interior room lights had supposedly been turned off. TCM, maybe? ---
**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:** [March 19, 2021, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/943 "2021-03-19T00:31:25Z")
Wish I could help you ID the show, but it all went too quickly: 1. Actor switches off bedside light; room goes dark… [beat] 2. Gaffer switches on 900 Watt Kleig Light (with bluish “moonlight” gel and a grid pattern scrim)… [beat] 3. I switch channel. I have a lot of great “all-manual car” stories (sure kept my kids’ friends from asking to drive it). But not sure it’s really a “common on TV” thing anymore… ---
**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:** [March 19, 2021, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/944 "2021-03-19T01:42:17Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Oh, now that’s just privilege, because I bought a no-frills Chevy Spark (that was nonetheless an automatic-- I could NOT find a new manual, and I _looked_ ) in 2016, with roll-down windows. We just bought a 2021, and we found a stick! I think there were two in the entire Phoenix metro area. Manual windows, manual door locks. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/945 "2021-03-19T02:00:54Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Has anyone ever done a time travel bit where people go only about 25 years in the past, but can’t operate anything? It’s not that far-fetched-- about 10 years ago, a 20-year-old preschool aide I worked with couldn’t figure out how to turn off a record player. In Back to the Future, Marty couldn’t open a bottle (if I recall correctly, he tried to unscrew the top, which would have cut his hand if he had really tried it, depending on how hard he gripped the bottle cap and how flared the edges of the cap were). ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/946 "2021-03-19T02:02:28Z")
I’ve done that (and seen it done). It’s common in “leadership”/“management training”. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/947 "2021-03-19T02:25:54Z")
What was the time gap there? 1955-1985? the technology gap widens every year. The technology gap from 1955-1985 is not as great as 1985-2015. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/948 "2021-03-19T02:50:04Z")
> [@Catamount](#): > > A friend of mine did this when he was driving me somewhere. Made me _very_ nervous the whole trip. Fortunately we didn’t hit anything. I rode to work with a co-worker once who apparently did not believe in oncoming traffic. If there was a car in front of him, he would pass it - even if he was driving over a hill or around a corner where he couldn’t see any distance down the road. It was the most terrifying car ride I’ve ever been in (this was forty years ago and I still remember that ride). I survived the trip. I asked another co-worker for a ride home and I never got into a car with the first guy again. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/949 "2021-03-19T02:54:58Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Has anyone ever done a time travel bit where people go only about 25 years in the past, but can’t operate anything? It’s not that far-fetched-- about 10 years ago, a 20-year-old preschool aide I worked with couldn’t figure out how to turn off a record player. I was in a recent conversation with a younger friend and she was joking about how she would be confused by technology in fifty years. I told her she didn’t realize how true this would be. I pointed out that the only technological media skill from my childhood that was still relevant in 2021 was how to turn the pages in a book. ---
**Author:** ![SurrenderDorothy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/surrenderdorothy/32/1221_2.png) [@SurrenderDorothy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SurrenderDorothy)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/950 "2021-03-19T03:14:51Z")
Apart from the high body counts, certain towns tend to have an absurdly high concentration of really sordid and kind of freaky scandals, elaborate plots, and murders reflecting them. First episode, they’re all “This is a small town and nothing ever happens here.” and a month later, they’re on their third cult/posed body/stolen baby/masked kidnapper who holds people in a bunker/Munchausen by proxy/witness protection thing/murder with an ice knife in a room locked from the inside/hypnotized trained assassin who accidentally heard their trigger word and murdered someone. It’s obviously good for drama. There would be no show if it were like “Yep, no murder again this week. Remember how we said it was rare?” But still a bit ridiculous. Also, people standing menacingly in the middle distance. Like, not doing anything or trying to contact anyone or go anywhere, but just… standing still in a field or on a hill or across the street being intimidating. I would think you’d get tired and bored after doing that for a while. I guess there’s some kind of stalker zen going on. > [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > This was used to great dramatic effect in the _Doctor Who_ episode “Silence in the Library”. The Doctor and his party, some wearing spacesuits and helmets, are fleeing a race of sentient, flesh-eating microbes. To protect the pilot, who’s been infected, the Doctor seals him into his suit and turns off the helmet light, leaving a black visor. When the light comes back on, the pilot’s head has been replaced with a grinning skull. I thought of this exact thing when the conversation turned to lights in space suits. Only, the part I was thinking of was that the lights and shadows in the space suits in this episode and a few others made the regular living people’s faces look kind of skull-like, too, which was very spooky. I can’t find a good example on a quick Google. I’ll keep looking. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/951 "2021-03-19T04:45:10Z")
> [@SurrenderDorothy](#): > > certain towns tend to have an absurdly high concentration of really sordid and kind of freaky scandals, elaborate plots, and murders reflecting them _The Good Wife_ made me crazy with a stupid plot device. Because there is no death penalty in Illinois, the writers kept sending the Good Wife to Indiana to consult on final appeals of executions. This happened like, three different times. There are two things really wrong with it. There was only one execution in Indiana during the run of the show, that one just about a month after its premier, in 2009, well before the first death penalty case on the show. In fact, only 20 people have been executed in Indiana since the national moratorium was lifted in 1977, and one of those was a federal execution (Timothy McVeigh) in Terre Haute, where the federal execution chamber is. So, 19 people executed _by_ Indiana (and nine of those under one governor). The second thing is no one would bring in a consultant in a death penalty case from another state, unless the person was one of the US’s top experts in the death penalty-- you want someone who knows your particular state’s laws. A top US expert would never live and practice in a non-DP state. The show usually used a bit of hand-waving by saying that one of the named partners had been the convict’s attorney of record when he was originally arrested, and wanted to see the case through. If that were true, though, there’s an obvious problem with sending a junior associate to handle the case instead. ---
**Author:** ![SurrenderDorothy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/surrenderdorothy/32/1221_2.png) [@SurrenderDorothy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SurrenderDorothy)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/952 "2021-03-19T05:22:39Z")
> [@SurrenderDorothy](#): > > I thought of this exact thing when the conversation turned to lights in space suits. Only, the part I was thinking of was that the lights and shadows in the space suits in this episode and a few others made the regular living people’s faces look kind of skull-like, too, which was very spooky. I can’t find a good example on a quick Google. I’ll keep looking. I couldn’t find it because I had the wrong episode. It was The Waters of Mars- [here’s](https://i.imgur.com/7bYVlS2.png) a screenshot [and another](https://i.imgur.com/tiOfEg6.png) … both sort of blurry, but you get the idea. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/953 "2021-03-19T07:21:16Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > but once calls were automated, as soon as one person hung up, the call was disconnected-- which was pretty much my whole life, European call systems were manufactured by a different company than American call systems, so perhaps this was true – if you are young enough. But in Australia, until it was specifically changed, the call was controlled by the originating handset, and was not disconnected until the originating handset was hung up. ---
**Author:** ![JacobSwan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@JacobSwan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JacobSwan)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/954 "2021-03-19T08:39:00Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > European call systems were manufactured by a different company than American call systems, so perhaps this was true – if you are young enough. But in Australia, until it was specifically changed, the call was controlled by the originating handset, and was not disconnected until the originating handset was hung up. UK here. I can remember my Gran calling us and not replacing the receiver correctly. An hour or so later we went to make a call and there was no dial tone, just the sound of my gran singing to herself while doing her chores. We tried shouting down the phone but couldn’t attract her attention so I had to drive over there and get her to hang up properly! This would have been late 80’s ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/955 "2021-03-19T09:42:00Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > But perhaps disinterested English and philosophy majors are more polite There was an emeritus professor at my school who came out to teach a 100-level physics (P105, “the physics of sound,” designed for students in the very prestigious School of Music) class when they didn’t have anyone else to teach it. All he did was give the lectures, though. The grading was done by his assistants, who were all seniors-- if they’d had a grad student assistant, he would be teaching the class. If you stopped by office hours, the professor might be there, or not. He very cheerfully helped you if he were there, but more likely, you got a senior physics major. Of course, one of those physics majors taught me “unit analysis,” which is a great trick for people who don’t have a knack for science to get through science classes and pass. Because the class was intended for non-majors, and wasn’t even accepted as a class toward the major for Physics majors, it was 3 hrs, no labs, instead of 4 hrs, lab section required. So, no grad students leading lab classes. > [@terentii](#): > > Neither do they ever notice the plainclothes officers parked on stakeout across the street, not even when the detectives are watching them through binoculars or snapping photos with the car windows wide open. When you are a family of foreigners in Soviet Russia, but they do not actually consider you a threat, they put trainees on you to tail you. We got followed all over Moscow by The Bowery Boys, Abbot and Costello, the Three Stooges, Lucy and Ethel, and possibly Beavis and Butthead. We’d be walking, and turn our heads suddenly, and the guy would duck around a corner, practically holding up a sign that said “Not KGB.” There was one guy who was standing under a tree when we turned around, and he reached up and pulled the small branches over his face. They all had the same shoes, and they were rubber-soled, or something, and looked obviously different from men’s shoes that other people wore. My father was so disappointed not to be treated like a serious threat. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/956 "2021-03-19T10:37:27Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > It is almost universally the case that space suit helmets in movies and TV shows have interior lights that illuminate the astronaut’s face. Real space suits of course do not have such a feature, which would make it difficult for the astronaut to see. One bit of worldbuilding in Larry Niven’s “Known Space” stories is that Belters tend to customize their suits with prominent artwork in order to individualize them. I suppose sports-jersey big numbers would work too, though that would be more likely in a big organization than for a bunch of independent operators. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/957 "2021-03-19T10:43:58Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Very perceptive child, my daughter was. She also wanted to know how the wheels on a car can rotate backward. [The Master explains](https://www.straightdope.com/21341907/how-come-the-wheels-of-a-moving-car-appear-to-rotate-backward-sometimes) why car wheels sometimes _appear_ to be rotating backward. ---
**Author:** ![Bonum\_Legatum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bonum_legatum/32/6183_2.png) [@Bonum\_Legatum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bonum_Legatum)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/958 "2021-03-19T11:42:07Z")
The hero’s partner is tied to a chair with mouth taped over. The hero finds the partner and immediately starts untying them, leaving the tape on. The hero is completely focused on this and all the while the partner is trying to shout “THE VILLAIN IS CREEPING UP BEHIND YOU” or “DON"T DO _this_, OR YOU’LL SET OFF THE BOOBY TRAP” ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/959 "2021-03-19T11:48:19Z")
Forensic pathologists acting like detectives, running around talking to witnesses and suspects. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/960 "2021-03-19T11:59:38Z")
In 30 years time, a 20yo will boggle at the idea of using a tank full of potentially explosive hydrocarbons to power a car. Hell, their car won’t even have a steering wheel. [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=47) [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=49)