# 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:** 74
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2021, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1461 "2021-07-04T07:25:49Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Kitchens with doors. How many people have doors on their kitchen doorways – I’ve never seen that. Our home in Bangkok had a regular door for the kitchen, with a small window in it. We just always kept it open, never saw any sense in closing it. ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Finn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@Mark\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mark_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2021, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1462 "2021-07-04T11:24:05Z")
Our two kitchen doors (one to the hallway; one to the dining room) were always kept open - unless we had “special” visitors (usually for dinner), to whom we didn’t want to expose a (possibly) messy kitchen. If we had a group of neighbors (that we knew well) for dinner - the kitchen was almost always a gathering place for conversation. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2021, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1463 "2021-07-04T11:29:43Z")
The house we lived in when I was a kid had swinging doors between the kitchen and dining room. I watched my dad adjust the spring tension in the closing mechanism and figured out how it worked. One day I adjusted the tension as tight as I could. My little sister pushed through, and the doors swung back hard and knocked my little brother on his ass. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2021, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1464 "2021-07-04T14:12:49Z")
My parents’ house had a pocket door between the kitchen and the dining room. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2021, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1465 "2021-07-06T01:54:33Z")
That really must be a US thing. In the UK kitchens only don’t have doors if they’re part of a combined kitchen-diner or kitchen-living room. And that combined room will have a door. Actually for a lot of properties (not all, but in practice an awful lot of homes) it’s part of home safety regulations that kitchens, or rooms that include a kitchen area, must have fully closable fire doors - heavy, solid doors with no glass - because fires are so much more likely to start in kitchens than elsewhere. (Not everyone complies, obvs). ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2021, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1466 "2021-07-10T05:53:07Z")
> [@NetTrekker](#): > > That’s pretty sad. The war was almost over by then so he probably would not have seen combat yet he still lost a leg. Harold Russell, who played a sailor with no hands in _The Best Years of Our Lives_, was a veteran but army and he lost them in a training accident on D-Day (!). ---
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2021, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1467 "2021-07-10T19:09:03Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Other examples – the Sudden Chasm of death during the Egyptian truck chase in **Raiders of the Lost Ark** At the start of the chase, you’d swear they were in flat country. After the pursuing jeep falls off the edge, they seem to be in country with some moderate hills. But when Steven Spielberg needed a deep chasm for a jeepful of Nazis to plunge into, we were in Mountain Country (at 4:11 in the clip here) Never noticed that before for some reason, but you’re absolutely right! It’s almost as believable as the Illinois Nazis and their jump through the sky in the Blues Brothers. ---
**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:** [July 25, 2021, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1468 "2021-07-25T18:15:38Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Yeah, it is hard to tell, but at least in the bubbles. They used bubble bath in the old west? ---
**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:** [July 25, 2021, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1469 "2021-07-25T18:42:17Z")
Any movie or TV show in which someone has surgery, they spend some time in their hospital bed, then fast forward to back to life as normal. No weeks or months of pain pills and limited mobility. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2021, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1470 "2021-07-25T18:54:08Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > They used bubble bath in the old west? Beans. I’ve seen _Blazing Saddles_. ---
**Author:** ![Tzigone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Tzigone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tzigone)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2021, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1471 "2021-07-26T13:05:25Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > That really must be a US thing. In the UK kitchens only don’t have doors if they’re part of a combined kitchen-diner or kitchen-living room. And that combined room will have a door. Well, the US doesn’t have doors if they are part of a combined kitchen-living room. Simply having a door means it’s not a combined space. Historically, separate rooms for each function more more common (well, among those that could afford it). As I understand it, post WWII, open floorplans became more common (partially because there were a lot of small houses being build then, and that made them seem less small). Open floor plans are just everywhere now. My grandma had a separate kitchen (home built in the fifties, too), but all the ones I’ve lived in were combined/open floorplan. It is pretty, but I’ve been reading some articles about the downsides in the last few years. Including the very strange idea (to me) of separate show and work kitchens. But if people can afford it, and want it, good for them. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2021, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1472 "2021-07-26T14:33:49Z")
> [@Tzigone](#): > > Open floor plans are just everywhere now. My grandma had a separate kitchen (home built in the fifties, too), but all the ones I’ve lived in were combined/open floorplan. “Knocking through” to make an open-plan living space is all the go in the UK too (and you’ll increasingly see property adverts in France including “cuisine à l’américaine”). More recently, there’s a trend towards bifold doors to open the living space to the back garden. My guess is that until relatively recently, it was much harder to keep everywhere sufficiently tidy for visitors and warm for family and visitors alike: so a lot of daily life went on in the warm and cluttered kitchen, with a parlour/living-room kept for visitors and special days (but all with doors to keep the warmth in, till central heating and TV came along). > [@Tzigone](#): > > It is pretty, but I’ve been reading some articles about the downsides in the last few years. Including the very strange idea (to me) of separate show and work kitchens. But if people can afford it, and want it, good for them. What would you show in the one and not in the other (unless you’re Delia or Nigella)? Is this a modern variant of “front parlour for visitors only”? ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2021, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1473 "2021-07-26T15:13:13Z")
> [@Tzigone](#): > > Well, the US doesn’t have doors if they are part of a combined kitchen-living room. Simply having a door means it’s not a combined space. Yes, I am aware of that, thank you. The post I was responding to said that US kitchens don’t have doors, only doorways. It wasn’t talking about combined kitchen-diners. ---
**Author:** ![Tzigone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Tzigone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tzigone)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2021, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1474 "2021-07-26T17:44:52Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > What would you show in the one and not in the other (unless you’re Delia or Nigella)? Is this a modern variant of “front parlour for visitors only”? I’m out the loop and don’t know the Delia and Nigella reference. When I read an article, it was all about hiding the “work” part. Have a dinner party and you can have the pots and pans still in the “work kitchen” while you serve and the “show kitchen” looks all nice and clean. Same for taking up dirty dishes for courses during the meal. Also for keeping smellier cooking smells contained. Of course, I’ve since seen some that just recommend a sort of scullery/storage area. Have the icemaker and wine fridge there, keep the stand mixer on the counter, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2021, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1475 "2021-07-26T17:48:19Z")
I’ve _heard_ of ritzy Manhattan apartments or fancy houses with a small, normal kitchen for the residents to use, perhaps for breakfast, and a larger, commercial kitchen for the catering staff for large events. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2021, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1476 "2021-07-26T18:16:57Z")
> [@Tzigone](#): > > Same for taking up dirty dishes for courses during the meal. Also for keeping smellier cooking smells contained. Which is another reason for kitchens to have doors (which is where we came in). And I was referring to [Delia Smith](https://youtu.be/AJ2uBYCVHik) and [Nigella Lawson](https://youtu.be/ze2KzMm7xE0). Sorry for presuming they were common knowledge. ---
**Author:** ![ZosterSandstorm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e0b2c6/32.png) [@ZosterSandstorm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZosterSandstorm)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2021, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1477 "2021-07-26T18:30:50Z")
Floor plan trends swing back and forth between points of absurdity - to people in the WW2 generation the number of rooms in a house is a major marker of class/wealth status, and houses built to their preferences ended up with all sorts of tiny, single-purpose enclosed rooms. In recent decades, the “open floor plan” has gotten to the point where people are buying literal mansions (Mc or otherwise) where a 2000 square foot or more first floor has no doors or room divisions at all except for the bathroom. It’s all just one big room divided by furniture at best. Like living in a Costco. I have lived in apartments and houses of all sorts of sizes, built at all sorts of times, in various regions of the US, all but one of which had a separate (non open floor plan) kitchen room, and I have never had a door to the kitchen in any of them. It’s always been a doorway with nothing in it. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2021, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1478 "2021-07-26T19:41:43Z")
On a general note, I recently watched the 1960s movie “Blow-up” and was stunned at how much difference good (or bad) pacing makes–the movie had so much irrelevant stuff in it that bogged down the plot, but was more like real life. So I’m all for having tons of things in movies that don’t happen in real life–without those often-unnoticed nuances movies would be full of distractions, confusing and tedious. Indeed, that was my assessment of “Blow-up”. Apparently this was the style of director Michelangelo Antonioni. I won’t seek his other works. > [@half-elf](#): > > I am just catching up with this thread, so apologies for addressing this point several months later, but I have to point out that people most definitely do swim underwater with their eyes open. > Cite: my childhood, mostly. That’s my go-to method for determining if the pool chemistry is off. When everything is absolutely spot-on, opening eyes underwater is blurry but painless. However, if the water is getting a bit acidic after a month of rain, it is less pleasant on the eyes. ---
**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:** [July 26, 2021, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1479 "2021-07-26T20:39:01Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I’ve _heard_ of ritzy Manhattan apartments or fancy houses with a small, normal kitchen for the residents to use, perhaps for breakfast, and a larger, commercial kitchen for the catering staff for large events. A breakfast nook! I like those. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2021, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-extremely-common-in-tv-or-movies-but-almost-never-happens-in-real-life/932311/1480 "2021-07-27T03:16:21Z")
Heh, the house I just sold had a floor plan where the kitchen had two doorways between it and the dining room, and only one had a (casement) door in it by the time I owned it. I don’t know if that was the only door originally in the 50s, because the house had been added onto where the other doorway was sometime in the 60s. We removed that whole confusing arrangement eventually. [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=73) [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=75)