Those bloody 555s

[vilakins]

While I'm on the subject of TV: OK, I know why US TV uses those damned 555 phone numbers, but is there some law that they have to show them to us? It's pretty easy to not tell us what a number is. Characters can write them down and give them to other characters, or look at a screen we can't see and say they have the number. How hard is that? But no, they always focus on the piece of paper, or the screen listing a person's details, or the phone records etc etc. It's like a bucket of cold water in the face, like telling us, "It's not real, stupid." Way to throw me right out of a show. NCIS is a particularly bad offender.

So I wondered: is there a law requiring them not only to use the 555s, but also to show us each and every phone number just to prove they all have 555 in them?

It makes me shout at the screen about the sloppy writing.

Comments

[zoefruitcake]

I don't know why they do it but it did spark an odd hobby of mine when I was about 12-13. I used to collect all numbers I saw in programmes. I still have a couple of exercise books filled with them, phone numbers, car registration numbers, house number etc.
Yes, I was a strange child

[vilakins]

So you collected heaps of 555s? The 555 code is used in Australia and idiots trying to ring numbers used on US TV shows shown there have annoyed people. I know they use them to prevent just that, but why show them to us?

[zoefruitcake]

yep, loads of them. I remember one was 5556789. Not very inventive

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

I can't imagine there's a law requiring them to show phone numbers.

I glanced at Wikipedia & they say the US usage of 555 for fictional phone numbers was pushed by the phone companies starting in the 50's/60's, but that doesn't explain why, except in a rare few cases when the phone number itself is important to the plot (maybe in a murder mystery?) they show the numbers so often. It always broke the illusion of reality for everyone in my family, too.

I think they will eventually stop doing it. Only 555-0100 through 555-0199 are now specifically reserved for fictional use in the US. Since 1994 the US phone companies have been trying to set up nationwide 555 numbers (outside the 100-199 range), but not surprisingly local phone companies have not wanted to cooperate with this even though nearly all the numbers have already been claimed by businesses that wanted to use them.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I know it's because idiots will dial numbers they see on screen*, but why even show or tell us them in the first place? Just show part of the written note or driver's licence or monitor screen without the number if the other details are important, but they shove the damned things in my face. The more it happens, the angrier and more frustrated I get. There's just no need for it which is why I wondered if they had to show every phone number mentioned to prove it was fake.

When the Simpsons ep with Satan's number was shown in Australia, the poor sod with that number was harassed dreadfully.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

*nods* It really is very very rare that there's any sensible reason for showing the phone number. About all I can think would be if it was a clue to a mystery (like maybe a vanity number where the numbers make up a name) and even then they could just have the detective pocket the number and later say 'AHA' no wonder that phone number made no sense! The numbers spelled out 'Dan killd me'!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Ah, but only if the first three letters were J, K, or L or people would spell them out and dial the number. I say just keep them off screen and audio and make it easier on everyone.

One mystery solved anyway about people in old films always being on Klondike. :-P

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

I think people are generally too lazy to reverse-engineer things. *grin* Hey, I know what would serve them right- use numbers that go to pay things, like fortune telling, and if you dial it, you wind up paying for your prank, and pleasing the owner of the phone number.

[luinielle.livejournal.com]

I've noticed it on NCIS but not that often on most other shows. I don't know why they show the number or say the whole thing out loud - maybe for realism? I know when I'm copying a number from something, I always repeat it aloud just so I know I'm copying it correctly. It does get annoying, though.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

It can't be for realism because it cuts the suspension of disbelief right off. I wondered if they have to prove it's a fake number, but why bother if the thing isn't shown or said or used? In NCIS you get it several times an episode. Even when someone gets called on a mobile, they shove the calling number in the viewers' faces. You get stuff like:

GIBBS: You got the wrong number.
CALLER: Is this 555-
(Gibbs hangs up the phone.) And why not just a bit earlier so we missed that?

They're not the only offender though by any means, so I wondered if there was some law that they had to show it was fake.

[elmey.livejournal.com]

about the sloppy writing.

You've hit the nail on the head, that's all it is; that and the assumption that the audience is so dumb you have to spell everything out for them. This. is. a. telephone. number. It. is. 555. 1234.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I don't think it really can be that. It's like "This is a phone number; here, we'll show it to you so you know it's not a real one." It's so easy to avoid, I wondered if they had to do it.

[maegquare.livejournal.com]

We've always thought it was silly, too. No law, as far as I know. We really watch very little TV any more and stopped watching NCIS years ago. Not for that little oddity, but just tired of TV in general.

It's annoying that TV executives apparently think most of their audience is too dumb to understand anything not spelled out for them. But they continue to quickly cancel witty and interesting shows to make room for more reality shows and soaps. Yawn.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I can't stand reality shows either. I'm encouraged that The Big Bang Theory has been renewed. They assume their audience is intelligent (and probably rather nerdy too; yay).

[maegquare.livejournal.com]

That was the only comedy show we were still watching. But I haven't thought it was as funny this season as it used to be, and I haven't seen the last few episodes. It's been a little too much of the crude and immature and less of the smart and funny. I hope those bad episodes were a fluke and that it will get better again.

There was one earlier this season where Howard made a Star Wars joke and got it wrong. Badly wrong. No actual geek would have said such a thing, and I think even non-geeks would have known better. Or maybe it was just me, because I would have known better and I'm just an ordinary fan. But I live with a Star Wars fanboy who is a walking encyclopedia of SW details and still writes fanfic occasionally. He seethed and ranted and vowed to quit watching that show, but he was already getting tired of it. Now, if I still watch it, I watch alone. ;)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I don't really know their comic fandoms, but I totally don't get what Sheldon has against Babylon 5 which was a brilliant SF series: much better than a lot of the stuff he does like. He calls it "derivative" - so what does that make cowboys in space (much as I love Wash and Zoe)? What was the the Star Wars joke> Maybe it was one of the things I correct out loud? :-) I still love it anyway.

I've heard Community is also good so I'm going to give that a go.

[maegquare.livejournal.com]

I don't get it either. We loved Babylon 5. We liked Firefly, too, but no more or less than a lot of the other things we've enjoyed over the years. It did have some funny lines my family still uses once in awhile, and we think it's fun when there's a reference to it in Castle or Chuck.

I forget the SW joke exactly and if I ask the fanboy, he'll just start ranting again. ;D I think it was something about Darth Vader building the Death Star. That's the sort of thing a SW fanboy can't abide, and you'd think a nitpicker like Sheldon would have been all over it. I guess that's not one of his big fandoms. But no one on the show even blinked, and the writers probably still don't know it was wrong.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Huh. I'm usually impressed with the writers' knowledge of things geeky, but then I don't know most of the guys' fandoms. I do wish they had a female character who's fannish though.

[redstarrobot.livejournal.com]

NCIS goes out of its way to put in things that aren't real; Llama cigarettes instead of Camel, a non-Starbucks coffee logo instead of Starbucks. They do that intentionally.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I don't mind that because I can regard those as a brand I just don't happen to know. The 555 numbers really throw me out though because they're so in my face.

[theyarnproject.livejournal.com]

Good question?

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

I mentioned this to OH, who said "I bet if you dial it you hear a message from the sponsor."

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

They're all different random numbers and 555 isn't used in the US. It's to prevent people doing just that, but why shoe or tell us them in the first place?