We are currently binging Scandal, and I was stricken by how often phones ring to signal transitions, or phones ringing unanswered explain the state of relationships. I haven’t counted, but I bet a phone rings or you see a screenshot at least 30 times in an hour-long episode. Some of the characters seem to ALWAYS have their phones in their hands, or be tossing them down on desks.
My second nomination is Elementary. I would bet that more conversations on that show get interrupted by phone calls than don’t.
The one thing I haven’t been able to appreciate is when shows try to incorporate texts. Haven’t seen a show do that i a way that doesn’t seem contrived.
What show do you think relies on phones the most to move plot along, develop relationships, and such.?
The Bob Newhart Show made sure that Bob had a phone conversation in every episode. He made his reputation in standup with phone bits, and they always gave him a shot to do another.
The Rockford Files comes to mind. It gets special points from us phone geeks for having the right kind of phone (Automatic Electric, used mainly by GTE) for that area of LA.
Well, it’s a movie, but there’s Sorry, Wrong Number, which takes place entirely through a series of telephone conversations and flashbacks, and flashbacks within flashbacks, and flashbacks within flashbacks within flashbacks.
YouTube fisherman,** Senko Skipper**, has a chime sound at the beginning of each episode. It just so happens to be the same sound I use as my text message notification sound.
Nine times out of ten I check my phone, even though I am wearing headphones.
The 100 Code. Weirdly fascinating detective series about a NYC cop (Domenic Monahan) working with Swedish police to solve a series of serial murders. The constant cell phone interruptions seems to be part of the story, sending characters running and driving all over Sweden.
A little rant about texting in tv shows: my vision is bad, but not that bad. I cannot for the life of me read texts on phones on my tv screen. When they put the text in an overlay graphic on the screen, most of the time I can read it. But when we’re basically supposed to be looking over someone’s shoulder and reading their texts, forget it. Maybe I don’t have the biggest tv screen (a *mere *42") but, you know, everyone is now pushing watching tv on one’s tablet or phone so screen size isn’t always trending up, yaknow.
This happened on the most recent episode of *Elementary *(mentioned above). I have no idea what was said in Joan’s text. Maybe not a huge plot point but I’ll never know.
The X-files was notorious for cell phone usage, with lots of montages of the changing cellular technology throughout the show’s run, which I can’t seem to find any of on youtube right now…
Bob became well known for this routine from his first movie appearance in Hell is for Heroes. He played a soldier who had to carry on a fake conversation on a field phone, IIRC to convince the Germans that his squad was in communication with non-existent reinforcements.
