Meaningless Details That Bug You

[G. Boney]

Maybe the child went to live with the father.

Not sure how that would explain away Dorothy forgetting she had a third child, lol.

Yeah, or an estranged child to both parents, w. issues about being the bastard child.

So estranged that both parents are pretending the kid doesn't exist? Not impossible I suppose, but not probable for an 80s sitcom.

[Osiris-Rex]

It’s funny how Parsons’ character as a child is so dang short.

When I was in junior high there was this twerpy little kid. Skinny and kind of short. The kind other kids would tend to bully. Then he must have hit puberty during the summer because when we came back
he was huge. Not just tall but muscular, like it was a whole different kid. The rest of us were like WTF? Needless to say no one picked on him after that.

Not sure how that would explain away Dorothy forgetting she had a third child, lol.
So estranged that both parents are pretending the kid doesn't exist? Not impossible I suppose, but not probable for an 80s sitcom.

Richie Cunningham forgot all about having an older brother on Happy Days. Donna Pinciotti forgot all about having a younger sister on That 70's Show. And only a year or so had passed
in those cases. Never even mentioned either in later seasons. So I guess it would be easy to forgot having a child years before in Dorothy's case.

[caj]

I hate when people are talking to someone on the phone and you don't hear what the person on the other end is saying so the actor just repeats it.

"You say you had a flat tire? You say you're going to be late getting here?"

[Frobisher]

It still bothers me when there’s a shockwave from an explosion in space. The clue is in the word space.

[Jim Kelly]

Why British actors have such bad teeth. It's one thing if they're playing a character that would have bad teeth, but in a normal leading role, I never understand why a good British actor, making a good living, can't afford to have better teeth.

Conversely, I suppose, it's just as bad in period movies when people have such good teeth, when they would never have had those teeth back in those times.

[G. Boney]

Richie Cunningham forgot all about having an older brother on Happy Days. Donna Pinciotti forgot all about having a younger sister on That 70's Show. And only a year or so had passed
in those cases. Never even mentioned either in later seasons. So I guess it would be easy to forgot having a child years before in Dorothy's case.

And don't forget the youngest daughter on Family Matters, heh. The difference being that all those characters actually made on-screen appearance(s). This "third child of Dorothy" has been made up in this thread. Clearly the writers on Golden Girls screwed up when it came to the ages of Dorothy's kids, since she only ever had two.

[Jim Kelly]

When ALL MY CHILDREN debuted in 1970, Dr. Joe Martin had another son named Bobby. One day Bobby went up into the attic to get some skis and was never heard from again. Years later, Opal was locked in the attic and there was a skeleton there wearing a ski cap that said "Bobby."

Speaking of kid actors that went through amazing transformations as they grew up, Anthony Michael Hall started out as the little nerd in VACATION, THE BREAKFAST CLUB, SIXTEEN CANDLES and WEIRD SCIENCE and then became the big, tough kid in JOHNNY BE GOOD and EDWARD SCISSORHANDS. Then there's Jerry O'Connell who was the fat kid in STAND BY ME, but grew up to become a leading man and to marry a super-model.

[Riv86672]

Not sure how that would explain away Dorothy forgetting she had a third child, lol.



So estranged that both parents are pretending the kid doesn't exist? Not impossible I suppose, but not probable for an 80s sitcom.

Ha, true. That’s more 90s!

[Jim Kelly]

I don't smoke, so I don't know if smokers can hear their cigarettes crackle when they light up. But even if they do, I've hung around a lot of smoker and never heard a crackle when they light their cigarettes, so it's not that audible. Yet in movies and TV shows, it's become fashionable to have the cigarette crackle when it's lit. This bugs me. And now it's so ubiquitous that people just accept it. Is this supposed to make cigarette smoking sexy? And that's another thing--why do we still get a lot of imagery of smoking as if it's attractive--is there a big smoking lobby in Hollywood that's trying to get people hooked on smokes?

[DanMad1977]

I don't smoke, so I don't know if smokers can hear their cigarettes crackle when they light up. But even if they do, I've hung around a lot of smoker and never heard a crackle when they light their cigarettes, so it's not that audible. Yet in movies and TV shows, it's become fashionable to have the cigarette crackle when it's lit. This bugs me. And now it's so ubiquitous that people just accept it. Is this supposed to make cigarette smoking sexy? And that's another thing--why do we still get a lot of imagery of smoking as if it's attractive--is there a big smoking lobby in Hollywood that's trying to get people hooked on smokes?

They do crackle sometimes. Most of the times they do not, I don't know why that is...

I think they don't smoke enough in movies. In reality there are always smokers, and in modern movies you just don't see them anymore, that's unrealistic. Everyone drinks alcohol but no one smokes anymore, come on! Maybe its an American thing, because smoking is kind of a thing you just don't do in public anymore...? In Europe its pretty common to smoke a cigarette everywhere (not inside anymore)

I dont want to defend smoking, just saying that I don't see smokers in movies anymore...

[Riv86672]

Yeah, I agree w. the lack of smoking being unrealistic.
It shouldn’t be glamorized or anything, but, it IS something that happens.

[Joker]

Smoking is awful, but it does look cool!

[Osiris-Rex]

They do crackle sometimes. Most of the times they do not, I don't know why that is...

I think they don't smoke enough in movies. In reality there are always smokers, and in modern movies you just don't see them anymore, that's unrealistic. Everyone drinks alcohol but no one smokes anymore, come on! Maybe its an American thing, because smoking is kind of a thing you just don't do in public anymore...? In Europe its pretty common to smoke a cigarette everywhere (not inside anymore)

I dont want to defend smoking, just saying that I don't see smokers in movies anymore...

Smoking is discouraged in the US. Smoking has been banned in many places, government buildings, hospitals, businesses. Even bars and restaurants. In some places you aren't even allowed to smoke outside in public
or in at the least within a certain amount of feet in front of a business. So for movies and TV shows taking place in the modern United States it is realistic to show people not smoking because it isn't allowed in real life here.
People are still allowed to smoke in their homes, but as the trend is to not show people smoking, even that is avoided.

[Captain Smith]

Operating without a face mask. Saw Dr. Strange doing that in the beginning of the movie, IIRC.

[G. Boney]

I don't smoke, so I don't know if smokers can hear their cigarettes crackle when they light up. But even if they do, I've hung around a lot of smoker and never heard a crackle when they light their cigarettes, so it's not that audible. Yet in movies and TV shows, it's become fashionable to have the cigarette crackle when it's lit. This bugs me. And now it's so ubiquitous that people just accept it. Is this supposed to make cigarette smoking sexy? And that's another thing--why do we still get a lot of imagery of smoking as if it's attractive--is there a big smoking lobby in Hollywood that's trying to get people hooked on smokes?

Showing people smoking doesn't necessarily mean the filmmakers are saying it's attractive. It's something people do. And films show things people...y'know...do.