Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!netsys!vector!nobody From: David_W_Tamkin@cup.portal.com Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Phones in the movies and on TV Message-ID: Date: 3 Feb 89 03:23:15 GMT Sender: chip@vector.UUCP Lines: 40 Approved: telecom-request@vector.uucp X-Originally-From: portal!cup.portal.com!David_W_Tamkin X-Submissions-To: telecom@bu-cs.bu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.uucp X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 44, message 1 Laura Halliday wrote: H> I saw something interesting in a TV show the other day. A lawyer, H> finding his client dead of a drug overdose didn't pick up the H> phone and dramatically say ``Operator, get me the police'' - he H> dialed 911 instead. This was the first time I've ever noticed a H> movie or TV character do this. Could this be the result of phone H> company pressure? I find it difficult to believe that producers H> would voluntarily give up a few seconds of drama unless they were H> forced to. Some comments: 1. The use of 911 got the attention of Hollywood in large part from Richard Dreyfuss's frantic "Call 911! Call 911!" in "Down and Out in Beverly Hills" when he discovers Nick Nolte attmpeting suicide in their pool. 2. The writers and producers of the show Ms. Halliday saw might be too young to remember days when one asked the operator for the police, even if they are old enough to remember dialing seven digits for them. 3. The lost "few seconds of drama" can be recovered easily by having the character search for the phone or get an uncooperative 911 operator. 4. 911 is so widespread now that asking the operator might seem anachronistic. Moreover, it might be that the particular scene was set in a large city with many viewers who would write in that there is 911 service there and that the character should have known it. 5. Maybe the days of 555-NXXX are going the way of KLondike 5 before it. On a recent episode of a syndicated sitcom (the sort of pap I thrive on), the lead character was trying to get through to a woman he had dated twice but who had been hanging up on him all week. His ex-wife was visting and offered to try calling her for him. The dialogue continued like this: Ex-wife: "What's her number?" Protagonist: "Press `redial'." David_W_Tamkin@cup.portal.com ... sun!portal!cup.portal.com!David_W_Tamkin