Think of some clichés from TV shows and movies...

  Dream Sequence...
  Mugged in Alley...
  Time Travel (usually to the past...)

Do flashback sequences count?

  Flashback is good because the Time Travel I'm talking about was used heavily in the old Star Trek series, literal time travel...

Here's one, no matter the type of movie or TV show, if theres a car chase they always manage to crash through a pile of carefully stacked (but thankfully empty) boxes.
If not that its some type of fruit stand that gets knocked/run over... ::)

Law & Order.
Law & Order, CI
Law & Order, SVU
Law & Order, SUV
Law & Order, GI JOE
Law & Order, EIEIO
Law & Order, M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

 I'm still a fan, but I don't have to watch 'em with the sound on.  You can just sorta fill it in.

For instance, you've got the opening banter, maybe goes something like:

"Boy, the was the lamest office party ever!"
"Next time we should rent a hot air balloon!"
"You said it!"
"And how!"
"Aaaieeee....a dead body!"

Or you've got the interview with the punk kid you're supposed to think did it but he didn't really do it, something like:

Det. Fedora: Hey, hey, drop that socket wrench!
Joey Jerkoff: Hey man, I gotta get this thingamajigit fixed by noon!
Det. Fedora: Santa Claus and the Elves will hafta wait their turn, we wanna talk to you about Suzy Creamcheese.
Joey Jerkoff: Whoah! I didn't kill her...I...I...
Det. Trenchcoat: Who said she was dead?
Joey Jerkoff: I mean, I mean, with the crowd she was running with and all....
Det. Trenchcoat: What? Like you and your friends?
Det. Fedora: C'mon Joey, your pal Tommy Kaputnik says you used to smack her around like a two-bit salami!
Joey Jerkoff: Hey, Tommy's full of it, you oughta know that by now..
Det. Trenchcoat: Oh, so you DIDN'T do this to her before she took out the restraining order? (shows pictured of bruised chick)
Joey Jerkoff: Alright, alright, you get crazy broad like Suzy you gotta smack her around some to keep her in line...but I'm no killer!
Det. Fedora: That's real nice, Joey, save the rest for us downtown!
Joey Jerkoff: I want my lawyer.
(BTW, on Law and Order, every corner drug dealer already has a lawyer on retainer when the fuzz comes around)

Then you've got the confessional.  Who killed Suzy Creamcheeze?  Suzy's sweet little old mama with the nice apartment in midtown, who woulda thunk it!

Asst. D.A. Hotblonde: Is there something else you're trying to tell us, Mrs. Creamcheese?
Mrs. Creamcheese: I....I...I...didn't mean to hit my Suzy over the head fifty times with a crowbar...but she kept going out with those boys and smoking funny cigarettes....and....and...Howard's been working so much and we just haven't had time to....and we'd tell her no, but she wouldn't listen, and....why Suzy, why didn't you listen? Why, why, why, why! (trails off into inconsolable wailing and fist-pounding while the large-breasted assistant D.A. props her up.)
Attorney Bignose: So what are you prepared to offer?
Asst. D.A. Tieclip: She pleas out now, Man. 1, 10 to 25 at Pebble Creek.
Attorney Bignose: Are you kidding....

Then there's the conviction, usually:

"On the single count of manslaughter in the first degree, how do you find?"
"We the people find the defendant guilty!"

And then there's the last line, I call it the stinger:

D.A. Fatherfigure: Looks like the cat and the fiddle got away with the spoon!
Asst. D.A. Tieclip: And how...and how...

8)

Whenever someone is running away from something or someone, they always trip and fall

On TV shows, whenever people sit at a table, no one sits at the front of the table (because their back would be to the camera)

On sitcoms, whenever the "popular" star of the show would come on camera, the audience would scream and clap like crazy.  You don't see this anymore

Bad guys always give away too much information and always end up getting caught (They spoofed this in 'Last Action Hero')



Here's one, no matter the type of movie or TV show, if theres a car chase they always manage to crash through a pile of carefully stacked (but thankfully empty) boxes.
If not that its some type of fruit stand that gets knocked/run over... ::)


LOL so true

The fruit stand.  (Any chase scene ultimately results in somebody smashing through a street vendor's fruit stand)
The chatty assassin.  (A would-be assassin has the drop on his prey.  But he then starts to blather on about whatever, giving the victim enuf time to escape or be rescued)
The Mace.  Any time you see a perp in a movie pick up a Mace in combat (one of those balls-with-the-spikes thingies), it always, ALWAYS will end up being taken from him and used to beat his head in)
The great parking spot.  On TV and the movies, there is always an empty parking spot right in front of wherever they are going.
The Auto Parts Thief.  In the movies, nobody's car has a rear-view mirror in it.

In mystery stories it used to be "the butler did it"  now it is "the preppie did it"

In mystery stories it used to be "the butler did it"  now it is "the preppie did it"
The murder classic writer Agatha Christie said that she never use the butler to do the deadly deed.

The villain is the foreigner

The fruit stand.  (Any chase scene ultimately results in somebody smashing through a street vendor's fruit stand)
The chatty assassin.  (A would-be assassin has the drop on his prey.  But he then starts to blather on about whatever, giving the victim enuf time to escape or be rescued)
The Mace.  Any time you see a perp in a movie pick up a Mace in combat (one of those balls-with-the-spikes thingies), it always, ALWAYS will end up being taken from him and used to beat his head in)
The great parking spot.  On TV and the movies, there is always an empty parking spot right in front of wherever they are going.
The Auto Parts Thief.  In the movies, nobody's car has a rear-view mirror in it.



Good ones.  Yeah, they always get good parking spots in movies.

Horror movies - when someone is being chased, they run UPSTAIRS instead of OUTSIDE.

The Parade...usually crime shows; when being chased on foot the person always seems to blend into a parade.

In a movie, just when the guy is going for the kill .. the gun is out of bullets

Gangsters (who have fired guns for years) will kill everyone they encounter, except for the hero of the film, whom they fire at close range about 20 times and always miss.

Whenever you gossip about someone, that person just happens to be behind the door and overhears
OR just got home and at the precise moment before they put their key in the lock, they overhear the gossip.

The villain is the foreigner



  ...and must be British (at least used to be)...

  Wow, so many clichés I hadn't thought of...

  I'll add the Wilhelm Scream and Spielberg's "dolly zoom" on faces...

   ...and must be British (at least used to be)...

   Wow, so many clichés I hadn't thought of...

   I'll add the Wilhelm Scream and Spielberg's "dolly zoom" on faces...
The "dolly zoom" was originally Alfred Hitchcock

The "dolly zoom" was originally Alfred Hitchcock


  You're right.  I'm thinking of "the Birds" and "Vertigo"...

   You're right.  I'm thinking of "the Birds" and "Vertigo"...
Especially Vertigo, James Stewart looking down the staircase.

In the original Star Trek, the guy in the red shirt ALWAYS got it before the first commercial. 

Whenever there is a shootout and someone runs out of bullets, they throw the gun at the person they were shooting at.


Cat

Whenever there is a "family show" and the kids start to get older, there is always a distant cousin or an adopted kid (with the required bowl haircut) who comes to live with the family.

Villians always shoot through the drywall waist high and above even though they know our hero is lying the floor.

Henchmen have terrible aim and one or two will fall from a balcony or roof after being shot.

Henchmen will give up key information just before they die and our hero will always slip away, no matter how many police are in the area.

Bombs cannot be diffused with more than 5 seconds on the timer.

A cop's partner will be shot and thought to be killed only to get up after the gun battle to reveal a bullet resistant vest.

No one ever shoots somebody in the head, always in the chest and hits the aforementioned vest.

^ In the same theme, the hero has a gigantic chemical firebomb explode ten feet away from him and walks away unsingend.  In reality, he'd be carbonized on the spot!

There's a skinny blonde with a big chest who can fire a submachine gun with deadly accuracy first time out. 
:D

In movies about plain clothed policemen (undercover cops), said cop almost always lives alone in a small apartment

Whenever the girl gets confronted by the bad guy or gets kidnapped, she ALWAYS slaps her captor

In horror movies, whenever there is suspense coming up, queue the violin music ;D




^ In the same theme, the hero has a gigantic chemical firebomb explode ten feet away from him and walks away unsingend.  In reality, he'd be carbonized on the spot!


They always escape just before it explodes.  Just once, can't someone lose a limb or something lol

Lines always used in the UK soap Eastenders

"What's goin' on?"

"Leave it owt!"

"Shut it!"

The bad guys are ALWAYS lousy shots.



Cat

And the good guys always run out of bullets....

Another thing I learned from the tube is when you're in a truck barreling down the highway at 90 mph, you can crawl out on top of it and do stuff, like shoot guns at the bad guys!
:D

Another thing I learned from the tube is when you're in a truck barreling down the highway at 90 mph, you can crawl out on top of it and do stuff, like shoot guns at the bad guys!
:D


Or jump into or onto another vehicle going the same speed.

On crime shows; the first and most likely suspect is not guilty of the crime, it is always the least likely person that is.

DNA results come back in ten minutes.

Or jump into or onto another vehicle going the same speed.

On crime shows; the first and most likely suspect is not guilty of the crime, it is always the least likely person that is.

DNA results come back in ten minutes.


See my rant on "Law & Order."

Yeah, the Instamatic DNA machine is a good one!

Oh, and another thing, I told my brother and sister-in-law, look, why you living in that dive in Park Slope?  You guys make pretty good money and I see college bums living in the Upper West Side all the time!
8)

All sitcoms usually have someone who is an oddball or a complete moron

Cheers had Cliff
Empy Nest had Charlie
Too Close For Comfort had Munroe
Coach had Luther


I could go on ... ;D

All sitcoms usually have someone who is an oddball or a complete moron

Cheers had Cliff
Empy Nest had Charlie
Too Close For Comfort had Munroe
Coach had Luther


I could go on ... ;D


Married with Children had....the whole cast!
:D

In the original Star Trek, the guy in the red shirt ALWAYS got it before the first commercial. 




Cat

Ah yes, the expendable crew member syndrome.

So many movies or TV shows where a wedding is stopped at the last possible second.

Back in the 1970's, you never wanted to be the black guy who was in the movie or TV show at the beginning.  That guy always got killed off in the first reel.  :-\\

You don't see it much nowadays, but tv detectives always loved to pick a lock with either a credit card or a hair pin. Was that even possible back then?

You don't see it much nowadays, but tv detectives always loved to pick a lock with either a credit card or a hair pin. Was that even possible back then?


*warning: geek content ahead*

A hairpin would make a decent combination of pick and wrench for many of those who dabble in locksport.  The rest would be dependent upon the skill of the picker and the type of lock.  For old-school locks, most would be pickable by this method.  More modern locks would be difficult to pick without proper tools.

(Aside:  At least once in their lives, everyone should buy the cheapest pin tumbler lock they can find, or better yet, remove the most-worn lock from their oldest filing cabinet, and pick it, just for the fun of it.)

For non-deadbolted locks on doors, the credit card trick is plausible.  Next time you're in a house or apartment from the 50s/60s, check the lock on the bathroom door - it's probably not deadbolted.  Observe that you can push the button or flick the lever from the inside to "lock" yourself in, but someone on the outside with something like a credit card (which is flexible enough to get around the door jamb, yet firm enough to push the bolt into the door when forward pressure/vibration is applied) could conceivably push the bolt in from the outside, thereby unlocking the door. 

The deadbolt was designed to defeat this technique, and has succeeded; almost all outside-facing doors have been upgraded to deadbolts by now.  Most interior doors haven't been upgraded (you don't really need to be locked into the bathroom; you're only trying to protect yourself against a fellow partygoer's accidental opening of the door), to deadbolts, so if your bathroom door (or your friend's, and you have permission) isn't deadbolted, you can try it yourself.  It's tricky, but easily doable once you've got the knack.

Locks - even deadbolted ones - just keep the honest people out.  Any lock can be picked.  Not every lock is worth taking the time to pick.  Cops and home invaders will just bash the door down without bothering to pick it.  The reason you use deadbolts is because your small-time burglar will try the door handle, maybe poke at it a bit (that's where the deadbolt comes in), and quickly move on to the next house. 

*warning: geek content ahead*


As a non-geek I read the whole of that and found it rather interesting. I can now watch my 80s tv shows with full conviction!

And another movie / tv cliche is finding names and telephone numbers on a matchbox - or simply using a hotel matchbox to find the whereabouts of the suspect.

The suspect always has the right to ONE telephone call.

One time I got in a jam and had to get bailed out.  I called home.  No answer.  I looked anxiously at the cop behind the counter.
"I didn't get through...can I...can I...make another?"
"Sure," he said, "make as many calls as you want.  It's not like on TV!"
http://www.inthe00s.com/smile/07/phone.gif

"Sure," he said, "make as many calls as you want.  It's not like on TV!"
http://www.inthe00s.com/smile/07/phone.gif


Ha ha - too funny!

Back in the 1970's, you never wanted to be the black guy who was in the movie or TV show at the beginning.  That guy always got killed off in the first reel.   :-\\


That was about the time the hardass black sergeant and the hardass black judge started showing up everywhere!
8)

In any sit-come, the last character to "get it" is Dad.  Even on sit-coms where Dad is an even-handed guy, like Cosby or Leave it to Beaver, Dad is still the last one to get the heart of the lesson.

Married with Children had....the whole cast!
:D


Not quite in the beginning .. Steve and Marcy were the normal ones.  Exit Steve, enter Jefferson and suddenly Marcy is brought down to the Bundy's level.  It was great!

The woman being chased who drops her car keys.

The fake scream. They use that same recorded scream on every TV show.

Women's Careers. They always have glamorous careers. Even the SAHMs had glamorous careers they sometimes miss. Doesn't anybody work in a store or as a waitress?

Car chases. Everybody drives like they are a race car driver.

Guns. Everybody shoots like a pro, even if it's their first time.

The fake scream. They use that same recorded scream on every TV show.
Is that the Wilheim Scream you speak of?

Is that the Wilheim Scream you speak of?


What is that?

What is that?
Wilhelm Scream

Guns. Everybody shoots like a pro, even if it's their first time.




Except for members of the A-Team.  Those guys couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with an atom bomb.

;D ;D

Except for members of the A-Team.  Those guys couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with an atom bomb.

;D ;D
...and the A-Team never drew blood.

Wilhelm Scream


The one I'm talking about is a lady's scream. It's been used in many 70s TV shows and movies.

The one I'm talking about is a lady's scream. It's been used in many 70s TV shows and movies.
There could be another stock scream for tv use?

Here's a great one - when people used to put a handkerchief over the telephone receiver to somehow mask their voice! What was that all about?

Here's a great one - when people used to put a handkerchief over the telephone receiver to somehow mask their voice! What was that all about?
The thicker the handkerchief the better?

Here's a great one - when people used to put a handkerchief over the telephone receiver to somehow mask their voice! What was that all about?


They always did that when the kidnappers made the ransom call.

They always did that when the kidnappers made the ransom call.
...and afterwards to wipe the fingerprints of the phone receiver.

Phone numbers ALWAYS begin with 5-5-5 - American shows that is!

Phone numbers ALWAYS begin with 5-5-5 - American shows that is!


Because there aren't any phone numbers that begin with 555.

Because there aren't any phone numbers that begin with 555.



Actually, there is. 555-1212.  That is the number for information-you can add whatever area you wish.




Cat

Sometimes in place of a 555 number, they would use KL5, which is the same thing :P



Phone numbers ALWAYS begin with 5-5-5 - American shows that is!


But if every number began with 555, wouldn't they run out of numbers?


"That's why we have area codes"

http://missspooky.free.fr/mswacteur/Arnold/Last_Action_Hero.jpg

  When pursued by the bad guys...

  "We've got company..."

Whenever anyone needs a quick getaway they can hop into any car because there are always two wires hanging
down under the steering wheel, conveniently stripped, and ready for the hot wire of said vehicle.

After the initial investigation of a crime scene and a suspect has been found, there will not be a way to connect the suspect
to the crime scene. That is until the final 15 minutes of the show when investigators return to the crime scene and find that
one, rather small, out in the open, piece of evidence that will link the suspect.

Whenever anyone needs a quick getaway they can hop into any car because there are always two wires hanging
down under the steering wheel, conveniently stripped, and ready for the hot wire of said vehicle.

After the initial investigation of a crime scene and a suspect has been found, there will not be a way to connect the suspect
to the crime scene. That is until the final 15 minutes of the show when investigators return to the crime scene and find that
one, rather small, out in the open, piece of evidence that will link the suspect.



And it is usually the least likely person suspected who did it.




Cat

Here's ones I can think of:

- Good guy wins and bad guy gets killed or changed for the better
- The main character gets the love interest, despite how out of his league she is
- The jealous and insecure boyfriend who is a football player (popular with teen movies, especially in the 80's)
- Scary music in a horror film to make you anticipate something scary happening
- Explosions and other special effects shown in slow-motion
- An explosive device being defused with 1 second remaining until detonation

- An explosive device being defused with 1 second remaining until detonation


That's a good one! Always a case of "do I cut the blue wire or the red wire... hmmm"?

In scary movies when people walk backwards and don't look where they are walking.



Cat

- The jealous and insecure boyfriend who is a football player (popular with teen movies, especially in the 80's)


"Don't, Chuck, you're gonna hurt him!"
"Just shut up, man, nobody's talkin' to you!"
:P

And it is usually the least likely person suspected who did it.


Again, see my Law & Order rant on the first page.

Every family has a kitchen island.