Hi. I thought someone already asked this, but I couldn’t find the answer.
My question:
Why do people on tv always hang up the phone without saying “Bye?”
d.
For the same reason that they talk with the mouthpiece in front of their chin.
It saves time for another more useful line.
TV employs enormous economy in story telling. Watch closely and you will find in well written shows ther is no “dead air” - while people walk to answer the door they deliver a line, people often never get food into their mouths at the table, people converse while brushing their teeth, it is very rarely that a script has space for pointless actions or words. Anything that doesn’t advance the plot, reveal a character or provide a laugh is soon cut. A typical half hour TV show is less than 23 minutes long and if you can find scripts you will discover how finely they are honed.
And in both drama and comedy the person talking on the phone can better express their character’s reaction without a “goodbye” to the person not in the scene. It may be mugging to the camera in a comedy, or a baleful look in a drama. They can’t offer anything in “signing off” to the disembodied person on the phone.
Welcome to the SDMB, ddown. Since your quetion is about television, I’ll move this thread to our arts forum, Cafe Society.
bibliophage
moderator GQ
Same reason that when someone places a phone call, the conversation always starts with them saying, “Hi, is this Joe’s Pizza?” In real life the other party would answer with “Joe’s Pizza” or whatever and the caller wouldn’t have to ask. But they’re identifying for the viewer who’s on the other end, since we can’t hear it. Dramatic license and all that.
I’d like to point out that they very often say goodbye. False assumption.
I don’t say goodbye when I’m at work.
I don’t when I’m at home, either, now that I think about it.
Am I in a sitcom?
Help me.
>>Am I in a sitcom?
…
OK, hang up (without saying anything-- it’s fine) and look around…
are you on a couch facing a wall? Is there a set of stairs behind you? Does it lead up to the bedrooms (of precocious children and a quick-witted-yet-incredibly-patient wife)?
Is there a quirky, lovable neighbor walking in without knocking?
…
Sorry – yes, you are.
One of the occupants of this house almost never says it. It’s really annoying, because I never know if the conversation is over – he just hangs up. Arrrrgh!
When somebody is driving on TV they always look at their passenger WAAAAY more than they should – an occasional quick glance, maybe, but I’ve seen upwards of five seconds of the driver apparently not looking at the road. Eek.
TV is not real life.
They also seem to turn the steering wheel more than what is necessary for a straight road. They never have to stop for red lights or change lanes or go through construction zones (unless any of these serve as plot devices). Any long driving scene (more than one minute) is otherwise completely uninterrupted.
A few years ago, there was a “Handsome Actor” sketch on SNL. Alec Baldwin demonstrated the proper techniques, including not facing the camera at the beginning of a scene (letting you handsomely spin around in your swivel chair to face the camera), handsomely whipping off your glasses for dramatic effect, handsomely never looking at documents as you sign them, and handsomely picking up a telephone and starting to talk into it without dialing first (or, presumably, saying 'goodbye" afterward).
I’m a little more annoyed by what I call “magic” phone calls. These typically appear in the last two minutes on episodes of Law & Order. As the lawyers commiserate in the DA’s office about their latest victory or defeat, the phone will ring, one will answer, squint for about five seconds, hang up (without saying goodbye, natch), and then tell the others: “We won’t have to worry about an appeal. After bail was continued, the defendant checked into a motel room in Chelsea. He ate his gun. Briscoe said a maid found him.”
Now, even if the person making the call was John Romita jr. on speed, there’s no way this much information could be coherently imparted in so short an interval.
I would say that on soaps, people almost NEVER say goodbye. I think it depends on what type of show it is, but I have wondered the same thing frequently.
Maybe they learned it from my grandma. She never says goodbye on the phone.
On a related note, my boss says goodbye, but does it as he begins to hang up the phone. I think that’s kind of weird too.
When shooting, they are being towed and the street has been closed by cops and/or it’s got sort of a motorcade happening like a funeral. So they can do an uninterrupted take for however long they need the car to be moving.
The result? Well, Sniffs_Markers and I watched Angel clealry drive through a red light without a second thought, and the funniest was an episode of Third Watch where Bosco and his new partner were having a long conversation about something. They drove for blocks and blocks and blocks without ever stopping or even slowing down. Yup, in the heart of New York City and they’re driving like it was endless open highway. It was quite the howler! The longer the scene went on, the more hysterical we became with laughter.
Secretly I’m jealous. Driving in Toronto, I probably have to come to a full stop every thirty feet.
I always wonder about the shows when, sometimes, a person will answer the phone by simply picking it up and listening to whoever is one the other end. No ‘hello?’, no ‘yes, this is so-and-so,’ just listening and then answering. I cannot understand how this could possibly work, and it’s very jarring. Oh well.
John… Romita… Jr.? The comic book artist?
oh
wait
You must mean John Moschitta Jr.
That really threw me.
Everyone, thanks for the info.
I remember reading the “real” answer somewhere (I thought it was the Straight Dope, but I guess not).
I do understand, of course, that sometimes they do say “Bye,” but more often than not, they just hang up (or at least often enough to be conspicuous).
The “time efficiency” explanation makes sense, but every tv program I’ve seen has some equally wasteful line, scene, skip, etc. that wouldn’t be hurt by shaving off 0.2 seconds to say “Bye.” This phenomenon also happens in movies which can most definitely spare a fraction of a second here and there by shortening something else.
I have friends who are screenwriters and they don’t know why this happens either. Also, they said that when they write, and when producers (or more likely the script coverage underlings) read scripts, they approximate the expected length of the final production by the page count of the script and not by the length of the lines of dialogue.
Anyone have more info on this?
Thanks, again!
d.
One page of script equals one minute, approximately.
Well, if it’s a drama, one reason may be to emphasize time constraints in the story situation, ie it’s so tense that they don’t ahve time to, or even think of, saying 'bye.