Hollywood Inaccuracies

[Karen]

What things bug you about TV and Hollywood's portrayal of life?

It annoys me, for example, when a show is theoretically set in Boston, but then they show "Harvard" university, and it's a yellow/grey stone building - it's red brick, folks, and pretty well known for that!

I am sure those of you who live in other places have similar examples.

Another thing that bugs me is when they have a character wear glasses that the actor obviously does not need. Do they think no one notices the distortion that happens with either near-sighted, or far-sighted glasses? Yes, it's subtle, but it exists! And I'm guessing with the frequency it happens, some of the actors may be wearing contacts, then plain "window glass" glasses. Why bother?

And how many shows cast extremely attractive actors to play the "plain" girl or guy, and just put "glasses" and drab clothing on them. Are there no plain-looking people who would like the role? Hello?

[cassiesmom]

Hospital shows! The patient is in bed but the side rails are down; or the patient is this close to death but has no tubes or lines; or they cardiac arrest and are awake and responsive moments later after a successful resuscitation attempt. And nurses are always portrayed as either ditzy and scatter-brained, in relationships with the doctors, or Nurse Ratched. We're really not like that! We're not mean, or dumb, or looking to pair up with the nearest doc. And the way the interns overlap with the attendings on Grey's Anatomy -- doesn't happen that way in a real teaching hospital. They're not on obstetrics service one day and neurosurgery the next. I liked Grey's Anatomy when it first came on and the patient situations were interesting (remember the "pregnant" man?) but now I don't watch it because the portrayal is so inaccurate.

Edited to add: And they can get DNA and pathology reports back in a matter of minutes. Doesn't happen that way! Path reports take a couple of days.

[Karen]

Oh, yes - and where someone is almost dead, given CPR, and walking around a short time later - like CPR is the magic bullet that cures everything - just pound on his chest a few times - notice no one ever establishes a proper airway first? - and tada! All better!

Even I, not a medical professional, know that's just wrong.

And why does every "good guy" lately who gets shot get shot in the same upper right quadrant of the chest, it's not like that's the only "safe" place on the body that's survivable if you get shot there!

[RICHARD]

I laugh at the scenes filmed here in Lost Angeles.

They start with a car chase in the city, race into the wash and come out on the high desert about 20 miles away.

In the last Die Hard movie, set in New York?

Bruce Willis takes a semi truck to follow the terrorists back to some lair....he makes a turn, then rides down a street for a few seconds.

I had to stop the movie and rewind it because the street looked so familiar.

The scene edited in is right up the street from my house, the street runs under the Ronald Reagan freeway, next to the Golden State freeway.

So, BW travels from New York to the San Fernando Valley, back to NY in about 30 seconds?

[wombat2u2004]

It's a lot better now tho, than it used to be.
I can remember laughing my head off when watching Tony Curtis in Spartacus years ago......"The Roymans are comein"...hee hee

[catnapper]

Whats been bothering me lately is the extent of blue screen usage. They don't go on location AT ALL anymore (or so it seems.) Its SO obvious the actors are not in front of a building, at the shore, etc.

Speaking of TV and being on location, I made my TV debut on Telemundo last week. I was walking Callie and walked past the announcer doing a show. All I understood was "Reading, Pennsylvania" and "Telemundo!" The woman hostess was GORGEOUS (the man not so bad either )

[kokopup]

There are many that bug me but the one that I hate the worst is when the one writer they have between Hollywood and New York, will not let old southern Sterotypes die. I have lived from one end of this great nation to another and I find there is less difference in all America than you will find in a 100 mile radius in Europe.

Weall are even allowed to wear shoes and live in regular houses now.

[Karen]

I had to stop the movie and rewind it because the street looked so familiar.

The scene edited in is right up the street from my house, the street runs under the Ronald Reagan freeway, next to the Golden State freeway.

So, BW travels from New York to the San Fernando Valley, back to NY in about 30 seconds?

I bet you see a lot of that, living in California. Living near Boston, it's always a mystery where they are shooting some of the footage, but we KNOW where it isn't!

It also amuses me how many times the desert and hills outside of LA are supposed to stand in for other places all over the world. If we can recognize the particular set of hill, I'm pretty sure it's not in Serbia, folks ...

This is a long tradition, of course, as in the old days, many of the different "planets" Dr. Who visited looked suspiciously like yet another English quarry!

[Catherinedana]

Wrong instrument to fit the picture. . .the sound is an oboe and they are playing a clarinet - that kind of thing.

And fake NY accents. . .you CANNOT fake a NY accent. Believe me. I have never heard a fake NY accent that sounded authentic.

[Karen]

Wrong instrument to fit the picture. . .the sound is an oboe and they are playing a clarinet - that kind of thing.

And fake NY accents. . .you CANNOT fake a NY accent. Believe me. I have never heard a fake NY accent that sounded authentic.

The same for Boston accents - horrible things happen when people try. Only people who grew up here - Matt Damon and Ben Affleck and siblings - do it plausibly, and everyone else seems to think that either everyone in Massachusetts sounds like a Kennedy, or like a combination of New York City and Downeast Maine ... yuck!

[cassiesmom]

I laugh at the scenes filmed here in Lost Angeles.

They start with a car chase in the city, race into the wash and come out on the high desert about 20 miles away.

In the last Die Hard movie, set in New York?

Bruce Willis takes a semi truck to follow the terrorists back to some lair....he makes a turn, then rides down a street for a few seconds.

I had to stop the movie and rewind it because the street looked so familiar.

The scene edited in is right up the street from my house, the street runs under the Ronald Reagan freeway, next to the Golden State freeway.

So, BW travels from New York to the San Fernando Valley, back to NY in about 30 seconds?

In the movie "About Last Night", some of which was filmed in Chicago - the characters are up in Wrigleyville, and then a short bike ride later they're at Grant Park for a softball game. You can't get from Wrigleyville to Grant Park by bicycle in five minutes! In "Ferris Bueller's Day Off", on the other hand, the kids drive the Ferrari from the North Shore to the Loop via Lake Shore Drive, which is totally plausible.

[JuniorxMyxLove]

yeah...it kind of bothers me the way that Detroit always gets portrayed. -_- not in a very flattering way.

[Cataholic]

Clothing disparities. 99 of the people are in winter wear, and then there is someone in summer clothes. Different scenes that show the exact same time on the clock.