I hate when they do this!
Also, someone will get a call from a friend, “Quick, turn on channel 12!”, and they turn it on and lo and behold, the thing they need to see is JUST starting! They never miss the beginning of it.
As stolichnaya said, I hate when they all crowd around one side of a table. No one ever sits on that “other” side. On “NewsRadio”, the long staff table was actually slimmer at the end where Dave sat and got wider at the bottom, so we could see all the characters.
Whenever someone has a bag of groceries, there is ALWAYS a french baguette and green leafy carrot tops sticking out of the top. ALWAYS!!
I must be living in a soap opera! When I ask my wife anything, she hears me but takes forever to get around to responding. I tease her that we don’t have conversations, we have verbal e-mail.
And I talk to myself all the time (and I do need help)
The worst example of this to me came not on TV, but in the movie “Secrets and Lies”. Brenda Blethyn’s character and the daughter she just met sit on the same side of a diner booth, so you can see their reactions at the same time. It looked so artificial.
Until recently, people who were obviously post-coital would get out of bed with at least underpants on. Also in soap operas, gifts are always in easy-open boxes rather than producing that wrapping paper mess. People say “can I get a rain check” when they have to break a plan; I have yet to hear or use that in real life.
Not only are apartments huge but so are the bathrooms. Paul and Jamie’s on “Mad About You” was the size of a real NYC apartment. And then when they are having the baby they say, where will put her, maybe we’ll have to give up the spare room (which is filled with junk). SPARE ROOM?? You’re paying like an extra $1000 a month for a junk room??
And no matter the weather, the streets are always wet! Seriously, start watching for it. I assume it photographs better that way, but after a while, I can’t ignore it. Aargh.
And dear God, does anyone really just fall asleep for the night right after sex? Am I the only one who actually washes up afterwards? Please, say it ain’t so.
Keeve, I have been a housewife in a tiny apartment, no tv, and it was exhausting. Ever try to do all your laundry by hand, all the time, including the towels? When i kept house I scrubbed the tile floors once a week and then damp mopped with clear water that took an hour each for the kitchen and bath. I used to make our meals from scratch, no campbell’s soup short cuts. That means making stock from scratch. I used to wash the walls regularly and the windows that I could reach. Before perma-press ironing could take all day. Ironing sheets sucks. Generally it was something like Baking day, laundry day, ironing day, general thorough cleaning day (including windows), mending and sewing day.
If you need a “smart person” or a “geek” or “the character to whom nobody is ever romantically attracted” just put glasses on 'em. Start with a conventionally pretty actor or actress, add eyeglasses, and BOOM! Ugly! Let’s try that again: No glasses = pretty. Glasses = BOOM! Ugly!
And much more intelligent, all of a sudden.
hi-ho, hi-ho, to IMHO we go…(the sound of dwarves whistling)…?
People (thieves/bad guy) can always break into a house, silently, completely undetected or without raising suspicions of neighbors, regardless of locked doors/windows, etc., but manage to always forget to close the window they came in/left from.
1 Almost universally, haggling over a price takes place on paper. No one says out loud how much they’re willing to pay for a car. They write down a figure and slide it across the desk. The salesman counters by sliding another slip of paper across the desk.
The Simpsons did a great play on this when Mr Burns tries to settle a lawsuit.“I’m going to write down a figure that I think you’ll find more than fair.”. The paper he slides over to Homer is covered by a large zero.
2 Unpopular people wear ugly clothes and glasses. When they get a make over, it’s revealed that they have model physiques. The best example of this is Love Potion #9. Sandra Bullock starts the film as a shy scientist in frumpy clothes, large glasses and her hair in a bun. This is supposed to convince us that men find her unnattractive?
Everyone in soap opera in perfectly fine living in a world that has no artificial lighting of any king. They NEVER turn on any lights in their houses even though the rooms have all of the ambience of a dungeon. It really depresses me and spooks me out.
When a guy is at home planning a fishing trip, he will don his fishing hat, waders, and fishing vest and carry a pole around with him, even though the actual trip isn’t for another month and a half.
Never fails. The husband is just a dope. Thanks to the wife, everybody learns their lesson.
Where did this start? Was it with the Cosby Show? That’s my first recollection of the dad being a total ass and the wife being portrayed as the genius.
When TV was just getting rolling, Dad was a source of knowledge; now he is an idiot. Mom was smart too.
Everbody Loves Raymond. Why? He is an ass (according to every episode).
King of Queens. I don’t think so. Should be renamed: “I’m a Fat Dope, My Bitch Wife Knows Everything”
Tim Taylor, Home Improvement, was/is a dope. The wife set his butt straight every show.
It goes on and on. I believe it started with that jack-ass Bill Cosby who really was afraid of that Rashad bitch that played his wife.
Yes, as recently as 1990. Recently, I was appalled that hubby did not iron the sheets when he made the bed in the spare room when were expecting a house guest. I did not have time left to do it myself when I noticed.
On tv either the character has one outfit and wears it all the time, or they never wear the same clothes twice. If they do wear the same items, it is always in the same outfit. No mix and match.
You know, I’ve been thinking about this and I honestly cannot come up with an example of a TV husband with 1/10th of a brain. That trend bugs me too.
Also, sitcom characters could crack the funniest joke in the world and all of the other characters will just sit there stone-faced or maybe, just maybe, crack a little smile. Nobody ever busts out laughing unless it’s the last line spoken in a show and it’s a really crappy pun that nobody should be laughing at in the first place. Bizarre…
