Before the mid-2000s or so, people used to joke about bribing the cable guy to hook up the premium channels (movies, adult channels, etc). Was that always just a misconception? Today's technology prevents the installer from doing it without the cable company knowing.
General questions about movies, TV and more since 17 Oct '20, 04:24
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I know companies pay a lot of money to advertise during events such as the Superbowl, but what about "regular" TV? Did they choose to have their ads run during particular shows? I am mostly thinking of broadcast TV, before streaming was popular.
Answer: Companies typically pay to run their ads during times when their target audience will be watching TV, such as toy companies running ads during Saturday morning cartoons, and in particular, a popular company like McDonald's would run their Happy Meal commercials during that time as well.
Answer: To add to the other fine answer, TV advertising costs are determined by how many viewers watch a particular program. TV networks set advertising rates based on different programs' ratings. Those with the highest viewership are the most expensive to advertise on. TV ratings were (and still are) determined by the Nielsen Media Research Company, who measure who and how many people watch each TV show. Companies naturally want to advertise their products and services when the largest number of viewers are watching and also to their target market.
I watched this movie recently, but I think it was a miniseries first. A woman reads an erotic novel. The author is mysterious and has never revealed his appearance. Some fans speculate that "he" is actually a woman. After a book club meeting, a man introduces himself to the woman. He is the author. Later, it turns out that he is lying - he is actually an editor employed by the author. The roommate meets with the real author, but only his or her shoulder area is shown.
Answer: "Submission" (2016). It was a mini-series, but is now showing as a movie on the Tubi app.
I am looking for a documentary about prehistoric sharks. The signoff has the line (against a backdrop of such), "sharks so bizarre/strange, if they had never been, would we have dreamed them?"
I am looking for a documentary from the '80s or '90s about a stranded baby beluga left by the tide. What is its name and how did it end?
I participated in an online survey about a possible new TV show. In the "pilot" episode, a woman's boyfriend proposed to her, but he and another girlfriend/wife were actually scheming to steal her money. However, he sent her a German Shepherd puppy, which she had always wanted. The ending implied that he had mixed feelings and really cared about her. I think I watched this sometime between 2016 and 2021 (I know I didn't see it in the past two years).
Answer: I want to add: I think I remember the main character woman having red or reddish-brown hair. Her fiancé's "real" girlfriend (the other scammer) was blonde. Of course, if this show continued after the pilot, there might have been changes to the cast.
When I was a kid in the 60's, I saw a movie I swear starred Peter Falk as an American impersonating a German officer in WW2. At the end of the movie, Falk is sitting in an opera house next to a beautiful actress in a box seat. German soldiers enter the opera house and Falk knows he is about to be arrested, and gently puts his hand over the actress' hand. Was this a Peter Falk movie? And what the heck is the name of this movie?
Did any anthology series have a story about an old man in a nursing home, who wants his roommate's bed by the window? This story is in the "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" book series, but the version I saw was not the show from 2018-2019. It seemed to be from the 90s or early 2000s.
What is the name of a movie about a teenage girl having a "crush" on a writing/English teacher, and he claims to have had books published? Eventually, after they have sex, she finds rejection letters and discovers that none of his writing was published. I think the movie ended with her leaving town.
Answer: "Blue Car" (2002). Agnes Bruckner plays the student, and David Strathairn plays the teacher.
I watched this movie on TV in 2006-ish. A woman was pregnant, and the father was one of three or four guys. Somehow, none of them really knew which one had slept with her; only she knew.
Answer: After some searching, I think this is the 1999 movie "Kimberly", also called "Daddy Who?"
Answer: You saw it in 2006, did you mean it was set in 2006? Because I know two movies with that plot but made in the 1960s. "Doctor, You've got to be Kidding?" Sandra Dee plays a young woman who is pregnant, and three different men want to marry her. "Buona Sera, Mr. Campbell," an Italian woman, Gina Lollabridga, who had an affair with three different men during World War II. She had a daughter but doesn't know which one is the father. She solicits support money from each of them. Then all three men return to Italy for a G.I. reunion.
I watched it on TV in about 2006. It was probably made before then, or it was a new TV movie. It was not set in the '60s, probably in the '80s or after. The setting was "modern" (not necessarily what we call modern in 2023 but more modern than the '60s). I appreciate your suggestions, though.
Looking for a late 2000s, early 2010s show involving humans and alien species living together. I don't remember if it was a new city on Earth or a different planet. One family of aliens was human-like, but with white-blonde hair. The husband openly visited prostitutes because it was the norm for males of their species. His wife had a brief affair with one of his regular prostitutes. The couple had an adult son, who married a human woman.
Answer: Submitter here. It's "Defiance" from 2013-2015. I found clips on YouTube.
Answer: It sounds like Alien Nation.
What show had a joke about a male character going through a gay phase, and he was shown watching "Caroline in the City" (the joke being that only a gay man would watch)?
Answer: There's a cutaway gag in "Family Guy" (S01E06, "The Son Also Draws") where Peter tells Lois he's tricked people before. Then he says, "Remember that time I pretended to be gay?" and it cuts to him watching TV with the "Caroline in the City" title card showing.
I remember seeing a film in theatres in the 90s when I was a kid. I think it was a children's sports film. I seem to recall there being a scene where a boy spots another boy through a gap in a shelf at the store and remarks something like, "What a hunk!" At least I think it was two boys... one may have been a tomboyish girl, though. And I think it had something to do with football. Ring anyone's bell? Trying to rewatch childhood movies and it just popped into my head.
Answer: Sounds like the movie Little Giants.
Looked it up and that is 100% it. Thanks.
It seems to me that older shows, for the most part, had more "stand-alone" episodes: you could easily watch them if you missed the previous episode or two. If I am correct, this is why characters often had new love interests for just one episode. Nowadays, a show is often called a "series" and all episodes must be watched, even a "Previously on..." recap doesn't cover everything. Any thoughts on why this is?
Answer: Well, in the old days, people couldn't really watch whenever they wanted or even record what they wanted to see. So trying to follow a continuing show was a lot harder. That's why there were way more shows where every episode was standalone, as you didn't have to bother watching every single one to be able to follow it. You could skip a few without a problem. These days, watching all episodes is a lot easier because of recording and digital releases. You can watch whenever you want, in the right order.
Answer: There's a lot of factors that go into this. I think the biggest one is that seasons in general have gotten shorter, meaning there is less room for stand-alone episodes. It used to be the norm for shows to have 20+ episodes per season, whereas now, seasons with 13 or fewer episodes are more common. (This is for many reasons, including higher production costs, viewership fluctuations, streaming making shorter seasons more in vogue, etc.) And as a result, many shows now just basically feel like one big movie that's split up into chapters/episodes since there's less time for side-stories or stand-alone episodes. There's good and bad to this. On one hand, it means shows need to be more efficient and concise, and there's likely to be fewer dull moments. But on the other hand, it also means that there's slightly less time for side-characters, sub-plots, world-building, etc. So it's a double-edged sword. Also, "show" and "series" have always been used interchangeably. That's nothing new.
I don't remember what year it was, but if I understand correctly, one of the results of one of the writers' strikes a while back was reduced episodes to make a complete season or a half season (with some exceptions, like daily shows).
Yeah, from what I recall, during the 2007 writers' strike, a lot of seasons had to be produced with fewer episodes due to lost time from the several months the strike lasted. And that did help set a certain precedent that many shows could be successful with fewer episodes per season. Although, I think it wasn't really until about five years later that you started to see shorter seasons becoming more widespread.
Answer: I also think another point is, there's just so many more shows being produced today, so we see more examples of these types of series shows. And, if more shows are being produced, there's more competition to get viewers to watch live (as opposed to recording to a DVR or streaming). Companies that buy ad time during a show know if viewers are recording, they can skip their ads (which is why we see more countermeasures to this).
Answer: Adding to the other answers: In TV's earliest days (from the 1950s), shows had more episodes per season, over 30. During the summer hiatus, fewer reruns were shown until the new Fall season. That resulted in self-contained episodes and one-time characters or situations that were rarely mentioned again. Episodes could be shown in any order, without losing continuity. The half-hour sitcoms were like extended skits. Many early TV shows were written by radio-era writers when maintaining a consistent, non-visual storyline was more challenging. It was just a different way of doing things. As TV evolved, plots became extended throughout a season with fewer episodes. Keeping viewers involved and guessing what happens in the next episode helps ratings.
Can different episodes of a show "belong" to different companies? I ask because streaming services will sometimes have a show, but a few episodes are missing throughout. I know that a streaming service may not have the rights to the newest episodes of a current show, but why are random episodes missing from older shows? (As examples, I have noticed this with "ALF" and "Alfred Hitchcock Presents".)
Answer: In some ways, yes. For example, in "AHP", some of the episodes were stories written by other authors. S0401 was a Roald Dahl story. For whatever reason, the streaming services didn't get the rights to show that episode (too costly, wasn't given permission, or didn't try). Sometimes an episode contains a copyrighted song that they didn't get the rights to stream (sometimes they'll cut that scene or dub over the music with something else). Sometimes episodes are pulled for being too offensive or controversial. For example, Hulu pulled 5 episodes of "Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia" for using black or brown face. For "Alf", I didn't see any missing episodes. But sometimes a 2-part episode will be combined into 1 episode, so IMDB says there's 26 episodes, but only 25 episodes are listed, with 1 episode being about twice as long.
Thank you. I've been watching "Alf" on the Roku Channel. I think there is an episode missing from Season 1. "Border Song" is listed as 1x18, then "Going Out of My Head" is 1x20.
That's strange. It may have something to do with where Roku got the content from, and the content was already missing. Before answering, I looked up the shows you mentioned on Tubi, and all episodes of "Alf" are there, including "Wild Thing" (episode 19). Tubi is a free streaming app I use on my TV.
A guy in a sitcom episode was describing his dream woman. A fantasy woman appeared while he described what he wanted. At one point he said, "I want her to be sporty...but not too sporty." The fantasy woman bounced a ping pong ball on a paddle about twice, then she said, "This is boring. Let's have sex!" Pretty sure I saw it before the late 2000s.
Answer: I think it's from the TV series "Unhappily Ever After".
There was a movie that had Bette Davis and Burgess Meredith. In the movie, they portray a brother and sister who are renting their house for nine hundred pounds a month to a married couple. The siblings also have their elderly mom living in the house and ask the couple to leave three meals a day outside of her door.
Answer: You're right, it is "Burnt Offerings." Bette Davis is the aunt, not the sibling.
Answer: Maybe Burnt Offerings (1976)? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnt_Offerings_(film). They aren't brother and sister - the sister is played by Eileen Heckart. Bette Davis played Aunt Elizabeth.
You're both right. Thanks.
Why do people in some movies/TV put a blob of sunscreen on their nose? In real life, I typically see people rub sunscreen into their skin, all over themselves.
Answer: The sunscreen you are asking about is likely zinc oxide. It sits on the surface of the skin and scatters the sun's rays. The sunscreen rubbed into the skin, as you describe, doesn't contain zinc oxide, but rather contains chemicals that absorb the solar radiation and converts that energy to heat, which is then released from the body.
Answer: From what I recall, older sunscreens were much weaker than what we have now. And it was common to apply extra to certain areas of the body, like the nose since it sticks out from your face and is more likely to get sun damage. And the extra sunscreen created the white "blob" around the nose. So it just sort-of became a visual shorthand in films and TV for showing that someone is wearing sunscreen. And since people became used to it, it stuck around. It's currently also a good way to show that a character is rigid, set in their ways or old-fashioned, since it's not something you see too much anymore.
What is the origin of characters saying "all right / OK, now it's personal"?
Answer: "All right," is what David Woder (Matthew McConaughey) says. It became a catchphrase. In Jaws: The Revenge, the tagline on the movie poster was "Now it's personal."
I remember seeing a TV show episode (possibly a movie, but I think it was a show) in the early-to-mid 90's that started with a man's wife and kid borrowing his car to go somewhere in the morning. He's inside eating breakfast or talking on the phone or something and his car explodes with his wife and kid inside. He runs out and screams and the show (or movie) cut to credits. I almost want to say it was an "X-Files" episode, but I could be 100% wrong. Does this ring anyone's bell?
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Answer: It was possible to do that. Even earlier, when cable boxes were far more "primitive", it was possible to merely use a screwdriver to turn a button on the bottom of the box, which gave full access to movie channels like HBO. Later boxes became tamper proof.
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