Classic TV series Cliches (1 Viewer)

[Lucia Duran]

Okay this topic of couch placement is driving me insane! I've been sitting here thinking about all the shows I've watched trying to come up with one, just one where the couch is against a wall! I think I have found it....... drum roll please.......


THE BRADY BUNCH! Granted it was a half wall, but it was still a wall!

 

[MarkHastings]

They also had a couch in the middle of the room, so it cancels the other one out.

 

[Yee-Ming]

Likewise. Our living room is a relatively long rectangle, with the TV at one end, so the sofa sort of splits the room in half, with the dining table placed behind the sofa in the dining area. (Most apartments here have a combo living-dining area, although it's more common to have a large "L" shape so the two areas are somewhat distinct, rather than one large rectangular area.) It also means that when I'm sitting at the dining table, I can still watch TV quite easily (since it's a 50")...

 

[MatthewA]

Some of these are not so much clichés as logistical production limitations


They didn't have a studio audience. Speaking of the Bunch, is anyone fooled by that sliding glass door with no glass in it?

 

[MishaLauenstein]

One character lends another money, "to pay the rent" but then the next day the borrower has purchased a fur coat, leading to the lender complaining about using 'their' money incorrectly.

I was reminded of this cliche by Monday's Big Bang Theory which pulled a fast one on us by flipping it to Sheldon not caring about what she did with the money and Penny feeling like she was forced to explain that her purchases had been ordered online months ago. (truth value uncertain)

 

[Kevin Hewell]

My sofa is up against the wall.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Here's two more, inspired by recent TV-viewing:

1) You could call this one "Kidnapped!" or "Lost". As in "Vanishing Act" the lead or another regular is separated from the rest of the group for most of the episode by a car/plane crash, or being kidnapped (and often left alone or with only one guard in an isolated area.) But unlike in the "Vanishing Act" cliche, where we never see the missing character until the end of the episode, in "Kidnapped/Lost" we follow two threads: The team's efforts to find the missing member, and the victim's efforts to escape or reach safety.

2) "The Haunting" or perhaps "The Trip". In this cliche the affected character is often isolated for one reason or another (which is why it is often combined with "Kidnapped/Lost", above.) He/She is sick, injured or drugged and must get help. Despite being alone, the character gets help in this endeavor from a hallucination. The imaginary character is often the ghost of a dead friend or loved one, but is sometimes a living person from the character's past who appears as he/she was last seen. (So a grade school playmate will appear as a child, an ex-girlfriend from college as a 20 year old.) In rare cases the imaginary friend will ge genuinely ficticious - a character from a favorite book or movie, or a classic "imaginary friend" from childhood. The imaginary friend not only helps the character escape from peril, it also imparts some life lesson. In the case of ghosts, the writers will usually have something happens that suggests the ghost might have been real - but without coming right out and saying so. (Exceptions: Shows that explicitly embrace the supernatural and Christmas episodes where the imaginary helper is Santa or an elf. )

There is a variant on "The Haunting" that only applies to characters who are unconcious, even comatose. They have to escape back into conciousness itself, ratherr than from physical peril, and often spend the episode in an imaginary dreamspace where they encounter both the living and the dead, and, again, learn important life lessons. They may have one dream guide or several. This is another situation which some writers like to make ambiguou, by having the character wake up clutching some small object that was received in the dream.

This week Bones combined "Kdnapped" and "The Haunting" by having agent Booth drugged and kidnapped, and then being helped out of his jam by his former sniper team scout, who died in Booth's arms decades ago. Oddly, they made it pretty clear that the ghost was real, both because he helped Booth do things that one man couldn't have done, and because he interacts briedly with Bones herself in the tag.

Regards,

Joe

 

[MarkHastings]

I was just watching a rerun of My Name is Earl and it reminded me of a cliche that always annoyed me.

It always bugged me when someone takes an old rusted out vehicle (i.e. a car, a motorcycle, or a boat), puts some elbow grease into fixing it up and it ends up looking amazing. For some reason, without buying all brand new parts, they manage to get the vehicle looking as if it were brand new again.

I'm always amazed at how they get the chrome to go from completely rusted out to looking spotless...or how they get the paint job to look like it just came off the showroom floor.

 

[Steve Schaffer]

A recently emerging cliche in many action-adventure or cop shows:

Episode starts with climactic scene in which a major ongoing character is in extreme physical jeopardy or being arrested, said snippet lasting typically 30 seconds or so, then the words "(fill in relatively short time period here) earlier!" are superimposed on the screen and the episode starts all over again, the circumstances leading to the openning scene are built up until the scene replays shortly before the inevitable happy ending.

These don't even need to be written this way originally, just edited from a normal linear story line. It's logical to want to hook the audience in the first few seconds but this is getting to be an annoyingly common trick.

 

[Steve Schaffer]

Another sitcom standard pioneered by I Love Lucy. Ricky got a deal to appear in a Hollywood movie and an entire season was devoted to the trip to Hollywood--starting with the decision to drive instead of take the train or plane, the buying of a car for the trip (a new Pontiac-pioneering product placement) their stay in Hollywood with Lucy's constant celebrity-mania providing ample opportunity for big-name guest stars from Charles Boyer to William Holden.

 

[MarkHastings]

How about the sitcom friend who is only placed in one episode for a plot point. Then, after the episode is over, we never see or hear from them again even though, while they are on screen, they're act as if they are such good friends with one of the main characters.

 

[Brian Timmermeister]

How about "The Most Dangerous Game." The hunter who wants the challenge of hunting a human, which is supposed to be more entertaining than hunting animals.

This story has been used over and over. It was on The Twilight Zone, Gilligan's Island, Fantasy Island(I think) and most recently on Dollhouse.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Also a staple of drama shows - typically a "best friend" or "one of my oldest friends" who is introduced several years into the series run and about whom we have never heard one syllable up until he makes his or her appearance.

A variant of this is the incredibly serious romance/near marriage from the past that nobody, including the other characters who have been friends with the lead for years, knows anything about.

Burn Notice recently did this one, introducing Michael's ex-finacee. But I give them points for not quite doing the closely-related, "kid I never knew I had" cliche. Yes, the ex-fiancee does have a son who is about the right age to be Michael's, and Fiona, Sam and Mike's mom all seriously wonder if he is, but the issue is settled pretty quickly (in the negative) and is used to make a point about the ex-fiancee's character - she was willing to let Mike think the kid might be his to get what she wanted.

Regards,

Joe