It must have been mentioned, but the mechanism is even used in the excellent "Yellowstone"; use a dumb character who doesn't know anything to explain something to the audience. "Why are we doing this Zeke?" "Why you *******, don't you know cows are scared easily by low-flying helicopters?" (I couldn't think of a better example, sorry). I love it when this plot-device is left out and the viewer has to map out who's doing what and why. I'm re-watching "Line of Duty" at the moment and guessing about who is the real'bad guy' is part of the tension!
O One exception - The Fleischer studios were brutal for post voiceover - mostly in their early days. You can see it so obviously in the early Popeye shorts. It's why they resorted to Bluto just mumbling and Olive Oyl shrieking. Flesicher is nostalgically thought of as being as good technically and aesthetically as Disney on the whole but this just isn't true.
"555" wasn't used as an area code - they'd usually have the correct area code. It was always the prefix, so you'd have something like "213-555-2323" or whatever. I believe they allow now "555" numbers now because people got wise to "555" as a movie convention. It started to take people out of the story because they knew it was a fake number!
This may have been mentioned in the past 34 pages, but someone will run into a room filled with people and say, "They're talking about _______!" (some event or person that deals with the plot. "Turn on the TV!" They will turn on the TV and it will be on the correct channel, and will see a reporter talk about something that pertains to them (and not miss anything they said). Then the second the reporter stops talking, someone says "Turn it off!" (or just turns it off). No one ever waits to see if the person on TV has anything else to say about it before turning it off. I see this a lot on Law and Order: SVU.
I'm not sure if it's still the case but for a long time 555-anything would get you directory assistance. Officially it was 555-1212, but you could dial 555 anything, or just mash all the buttons with your palm if you didn't have your dialing wand.
Watching the 1950s tv show “Highway Patrol” when you have a pair of criminals, one of them is always wanting to quit now (the woman if it’s a husband and wife team). The other overrules them, they commit a crime and Dan Mathews catches them. 21-50, bye
Or how about the cliche where the cop/agent talks down the antagonist (or someone about to commit suicide) by calmly saying, "Now, give me the gun..." Has that ever worked in real life?
And firing a handgun held sideways and level with one's chest - no aiming or thought at all - gets you a kill shot if you're the good guy, and misses by a mile if you're not. Hartford - yes, the Connecticut city that "Judging Amy" made look like Stepford - was overrun with gang-related gun violence in the early to mid-nineties, but the number of gun-related deaths in the city remained stagnant. Too many gang-bangers had adopted the shooting-sideways stance for their weapons to be truly effective. (The murder rate went through the roof for a few years, but stabbings proved far deadlier than shootings.)
This was certainly true of the time number, which was usualy POP-CORN, but you can simply dial 767-1111 and it will still give you the time as well.
Some things that are not really done that much anymore, but used to be common: Guns that have an infinite supply of bullets. Whenever someone was injured and blood was coming out of the side of their mouth (just a little dribble), you knew they weren't going to make it. Women woke up in the morning with full makeup and perfect hair. People sit down at a bar, quickly shoot down a drink and walk out without paying or know the exact amount they owe and happen to have it in their hand to slap down. Driving while spending the whole time talking and looking at the passenger. A bomb goes off next to the hero. Not only does he/she survive they have no loss of hearing and are clear headed. The villain trains their gun on the hero and make some threatening comments and then cock the hammer. The hero never knocks the un-cocked gun from his hand while he is talking. Mom cooks a full three course breakfast every morning for their kids, though the kids take only a few bites and run out the door. Characters can kill someone 25 feet away without aiming, but someone with a machine gun always misses.
Also: people walking away from nearby explosions without ever getting dinged by shrapnel or knocked over by the shock wave.
Yeah. Now, bombs always explode behind the main character who's walking towards the camera and it pushed them a few forward on the ground. Unless they set it, in which case they keep walking, never looking back despite the sudden commotion is causes.
