Things you see on TV but never IRL

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I know that people who write for fictional TV shows and movies have to make their programming more interesting and linear than real life, or else it wouldn't be entertaining. But it still might be fun to point out events and behaviors we regularly see on the tube that don't really happen anywhere else.

One thing I want to focus on in this first post is the "sage." This is a character with great patience and deep wisdom, usually an older male, who always knows exactly what to say and is available to give valuable advice to the regular characters that always works and helps them to sort out their POTD (problem of the day, or week). This role is prevalent everywhere but especially in sitcoms: Wilson from Home Improvement, Mr. Feeny from Boy Meets World, Frasier in Frasier (when he's not acting like a regular character himself--Frasier at least was flexible, even if his character made little sense).

Does someone like this really exist in your life? In anybody's life? Do you have a sage of your own who is always right and knows all the answers? I know I didn't. In fact, most of the advice I get from people is next to useless--either because it's generic, or because it's coming from NT's who can't exactly relate to my problems. I stopped turning to other people for guidance regularly a long time ago, on moral issues or much else. The only exception is my therapist, but naturally he's not infallible. I had a few positive male figures in my life, but they didn't hang around with me and recite platitudes.

What are some things you see only on TV?

So many TV shows have good, fun, friendly, BFF neighbors. In my experience, that almost never happens, IRL.

' Course, they have some pretty rotten neighbors, as well, but.....

Very rarely have older people offered advice to me, even though I used to go to my grandparents house every week as a kid. When they have offered advice it has been irrelevant or a political opinion.

I was watching a little bit of an oldish movie called 'my girl'
Dan Akroyd is defending his girlfriend from her ex-husband who wants to take away a camper van.

Dan punches him in the stomach and that solves the problem the neighbour doesnt seem to want it anymore and everyone sees him as a hero,
IRL a hefty lawsuit would follow.

In kids shows, the kids seem to get involved in a totally dishonest and wretched scheme, get caught and punished, learn their lesson, then they do something just as bad the next week!

Evil seems to be punished regularly, the bad guys lose most of the time on the TV.

When kids are not involved in treacherous schemes they are extremely mature, rational,articulate and not attention seeking or bratty.

Siblings seem to get on really well for the most part. IRL they bully each other, quite often have personality clashes.

People on TV or in movies don't seem to be glued to their iPhones.

I dont think youll hardly ever see anyone reading a book. Some people still do read those things.

i know i never had much of a "sage" character in my life. i don't really talk to my parents about my problems (last ended in a shouting match, but i was whining a lot). i recently started going to a shrink, with a dog that bathes me in kisses, but i just seem to shrivel up in his presence and i look everywhere around the room in confusion, when presented with questions like that i just can't form coherent sentences fast enough, there seems to be chaos in my brain when i get asked those open-ended personal questions that i have trouble even thinking about the subject at hand. i don't have anything against the TV sage characters, it would be great to have a guy like that in the neighborhood. but for the most part the internet is my sage

agreed, pretty much this (not just in TV, but most everything else)

i can't recall "quiet" characters in TV that are more than one or two-time appearances. then again, i stopped watching tv two or three years ago.

People don't get fantastical superpowers in real life, conveniently or otherwise.

In cartoons, the characters rarely age.

Random laugh tracks popping in between conversations.

Most things that appear on computer screens on TV/films never appear in real life. My favourite was a quick 1-second shot in "Dexter" of a computerized marriage certificate that, upon pausing it, not only existed in a fake operating system, but was issued in a non-existent county, and the bride's birthdate was 3yrs before the marriage date.

Whoever's making computer screen images for the TV/film industry should consult reality.

On that note, how about the computer screens that flash red and have giant block capital fonts saying ACCESS DENIED when somebody tries to use a password that is incorrect.



My personal favorite film/TV trope that I am tempted to one day try in real life is when somebody walks away after a serious conversation or serious goodbye and then the person left standing yells their name.

Joe walks away

Fred yells "Joe!! !!"

Joe turns around

Fred says, "I just wanted to say, 'stay safe out there'"


I generally tell people all the things I want to tell them before they turn to walk away but just once I should try holding something back so I can tell them after yelling their name at their receding back.

The blankets in soap operas and sitcoms must all be shaped like the letter L, because they're long enough on one side to cover a woman's chest, but only come up to a guy's waist on the other side.

yeah there are some silly computer things.
Like when they get the right password or hack into a system it will also flash up a big congratulations message. ^_^

probably because if they used the 'legit' error message they'd have to zoom in real close for it to be legible.

also see sometimes, especially in crime dramas, when the people are zooming in on a photograph all the detail seems to focus perfectly as zoomed, and not pixelated.


that too, and the pause taken to wait for them to stop laughing...

LOL

The crazy beeping sounds that computers make whenever someone clicks on something or view a text file or whatever. Which would be incredibly annoying if computers did that in real life.

Life has no narrator or commercial breaks.

hmmmmm..... let's see...
oh yes, there is-
*bleeps/pixelizations of the naughty words/images don't happen in real life
*black blood [less gory than red blood] doesn't show in real life
*long-haired American military members [u.s. military is fanatical about butch-short hair]
*people generally don't lip-sync in real life, unlike in most movies. there is no "looping" in real life. when somebody says something naughty, the real naughty stuff comes out of his or her mouth and not a dubbed minced version.

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