TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Telegram in TV Show 1984; Payphone in TV Show 2006

Telegram in TV Show 1984; Payphone in TV Show 2006

hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com
5 Jun 2006 10:36:59 -0700

TV Land has been running old episodes of the show "Benson". In one
episode, they received a telegram announcing an award winner.

I was surprised they'd still use mention of a telegram that late; by
then telegrams were virtually obsolete. For the scene's dramatic
effect, it was necessary to have the message in a sealed envelope and
be something special as opposed to the regular mail.

As an aside, in an I Love Lucy episode, Lucy received a telegram from
a fancy women's group she sought to join. That was interesting since
it was a local group and I'd think a plain letter or phone call would
do. I wouldn't think telegrams would be used for local in-city
messages after the war, but maybe they were.)

In a current TV show, The Suite Life comedy, a sci-fi machine was
built that looked like a British payphone booth. The stars of the
show (13 y/o boys) remarked that "no uses pay phones anymore".
(Actually the machine shifted to parallel universes and the subsequent
plot was similar to the old Star Trek episode "MIrror Mirror".)

I just realized that this show's scenes makes use of today's instant
communication that would be unheard of in past TV. They had one scene
where they put together a commercial for the owner of the hotel where
they live. The owner, in a very distant overseas city, saw the
commercial instantly and phoned at once to voice his opinion; the call
was instantly received on his daughter's cell phone. However, some
scenes still rely on relayed messages or even newspaper headlines (an
old movie trick) to convey information for dramatic effect.

In I Love Lucy there were no cell phones, of course, but Lucy seemed
to be always near a phone when she needed it; she often used her apt
phone and called Ricky at work. I do believe there were plots where
she couldn't reach Ricky and concocted a scheme as a result. That's
all doable today, they just have to make the excuse a cell phone was
turned off.

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