Joseph DeMartino
Senior HTF Member
Not to mention that the dog wrangler probably wouldn't want his very expensive rented dog shaved, and the fact that it is a heck of a lot harder to get an animal to stay still, breathe through a mask and just generally pretend to be under anaesthesia than it is to get a human actor to do so. (Or to literally "play dead")
You've got 42 minutes of screen time to tell your story, and a limited budget for actors, sets, props, etc. So, do you write in another speaking role ($) for a military veterinarian to come in for one scene to perform an accurate-looking operation on a dog ($), allocating several precious minutes to introducing the character and giving him/her a dramatic reason to be there or do you use your regulars, fudge the details and concentrate on the emotional and dramatic interplay between Abby, Ducky and Mr. Palmer?
If you look at regular medical procedures on non-medical shows they are scarcely better than this one. I guess we all get a bit ticked off when we see something outrageously false about our own areas of expertise but - seriously - especially on a TV budget/schedule there are going to be shortcuts and liberties taken. Is a lot of the computer and network stuff you see on TV total crap? You're damned right it is. Do I want to "hurl" everytime a show lets a computer do something magical or somebody instantly link two incompatible systems or crack a security system in 10 minutes when it should take two weeks and a roomful of machines to do it? Nope. I know doctors, cops and lawyers who spot similar flaws in every show they watch, and I don't doubt that plumbers, jockeys and UPS guys do the same. But the fact is we all know that the reality of our jobs is frequently boring and nobody would ever make a TV series out of it.
Regards,
Joe