Bad job done in a movie
 

I recently saw a movie on TV with Tom Hanks called "The Wonders" , it was set sometime around 1964/65. I was amazed at how wrong they got the TV pieces used in this film. The cameras ( color cameras ) used in the TV studio scenes were not RCA TK-41s as one might expect, but rather some type of camera from the 70's. There are scenes in which they show a family watching a color broadcast of the musical presentations - instead of watching in a round tube set ( as would be the only possible way in 65 ), they are shown watching it in a TV that clearly was a 50's b&w console converted to work in color ( possible a Harry Poster job ). I really "wondered" if people in Hollywood are so dumb they couldn't find the right equipment. As I remember, in Back to the Future they had the correct televisions used in 1955. So why this Tom Hanks movie got it all messed up?

I guess they think no one will notice or care. Another example is period pieces like Westerns when they have battery operated wall clocks or quartz pocket watches with step motor sweep second hands. That stuff drives me crazy! :thumbsdn:

The best explanation for these time warps is from a Calvin & Hobbes comic strip:

CALVIN: Dad, how come old photographs are always black and white? Didn't they have color film back then?

CALVIN'S DAD: Sure they did. In fact, those old photographs are in color. It's just the world was black and white then.

CALVIN: Really?

CALVIN'S DAD: Yep. The world didn't turn color until sometime in the 1930s, and it was pretty grainy color for a while, too.

CALVIN: That's really weird.

CALVIN'S DAD: Well, truth is stranger than fiction.

CALVIN: But then why are old paintings in color?! If the world was black and white, wouldn't artists have painted it that way?

CALVIN'S DAD: Not necessarily, a lot of great artists were insane.

CALVIN: But ... but how could they have painted in color anyway? Wouldn't their paints have been shades of gray back then?

CALVIN'S DAD: Of course, but they turned colors like everything else in the '30s.

CALVIN: So why didn't old black and white photos turn color too?

CALVIN'S DAD: Because they were color pictures of black and white, remember?

(CUT TO: EXT. Tree limb, Calvin talking with Hobbes)

CALVIN: The world is a complicated place, Hobbes.

HOBBES: Whenever it seems that way, I take a nap in a tree and wait for dinner.

Written by Bill Watterson, © Universal Press Syndicate.

the one I like is that all the cars in a lot of these movies look like they're brand-spankin' NEW-and they're ALL 1960 models if the movie was set that year. How many of us have bright, shiny 2005 models? Didn't think so. I have a 2000 Excursion, it don't look TOO bad if I spend about a day on it, but yeah, it's got a ding or 2. Movie cars generally look like they picked 'em up the day before. Or, OK, arsewholes, I'll bite-EVERYBODY did drive all-brand new cars in 1960-lets see where y'all cut corners on 'em makin' a bunch of clunkers LOOK new...Overspray on the wheelwells? Crumbly weatherstripping ? Opaque plating on bumpers? Come on, Mr No-attention-to-detail Assistant Director,Gimme a break..you ARE dealing w/an anal-retentive type here who can date 1960s Lincolns by the curvature of their side-windows...-Sandy G.

There is a book out about this subject. I believe the title is "Roman Soldiers do not wear Wrist Watches" This title is based on a movie mistake made by the Italians in a 1930s movie.

Speaking of cars, I saw the cars from the Clint Eastwood movie "A Perfect World" which was filmed near Austin, Texas. The closer the shot, the better the car was restored. The main car used in the film looked very good, while others had overspray, etc. Also, in a small town near here, a fake brick building was built as the movie producers felt the town looked "to empty". It has long been torn down-definitely not built to last.

...an' th' cars are all Easter-egg colors, too. Back in 1960, you had yer basic black, or you had yer basic white. A few tan/beige, maybe a Navy blue,that "insane-asylum" shade of green, & that was about it. Even in the 2-tone Fifties, sedate colors were more the rule. Seems like most cars, too, were 2 or 4 door sedans, and generally the low-level models at that. Chevrolet Biscaynes or Ford Lunchline 500s. A fancy car, like a Caddy or a Lincoln, was a once-a-month occurence.A foreign car was a Volkswagen or possibly a Renault Dauphine.They were about maybe once every other week. Japanese cars? Do those guys even MAKE cars?!? Hmmmmmm....-Sandy G.

I work in the TV/Film industry and am always amazed at some of the lack of attention
to vintage details. The current movies Ray and Beyond the Sea are loaded with
wrong items for the dates. Continuity problems abound also. One that used to
bother me was Driving Miss Daisy, reasonably authentic overall, but they must have
used two different '56 Cadillacs because in some scenes the car has Air Conditioning
and in others it doesn't which can be seen by the presence and then absence of those
little vent scoops on the upper rear quarter panel.

On alot of items such as Tvs, radios, appliances etc, it all comes down to what
the studios prop house has in stock. I swear I have seen the same TV, Washing Machine and gas range in at least ten differant movies.

I actually got to work with Tom Hanks on the From Earth to the Moon series and
he is a perfectionist on some details like having the tiles in the restroom hand
painted for the proper color for the period. Those control consoles in mission control
(also used in the Movie Apollo 13) were the actual original units. it was fun to
look behind and inside them, all those little monitor faces had modern computer
monitors stuck behind them.

I think another factor these days is that many of the producers and their staff
are very young and just don't know because they weren't around back then.

Someone mentioned Back to the Future, that 1946 Wurlitzer in the soda shop
was way too old for 1955.

Anyone seen the movie "Frequency"? It involves a ham radio operator, using a radio to communicate through time. The set he's using, however, is a HeathKit SB301. Not only is it not rated for temporal communications, but it's not even a transmitter. It's a reciever. You need the matching SB401 to transmit. I'm not a ham operator, but I do know a little bit about radio. Things like the fact that an antenna is generally necessary to pick up anything, and that when sending on a transmitter, you're going to need to press the key on the microphone, it's not voice activated...

-Ian

My pet peeve is the TV series "American Dreams". The dad (Jack) on the show, owns a TV sales/repair shop. The series is now set in 1964/1965 yet most of the sets in his shop are ALL wrong. The sales floor has Predicta's, early 50's RCA portables, I've seen 1 roundie, some late 60's combo units, and I swear I saw a 1970's Chromacolor 2. Last week the Predicta's still had the hang tags on them. Sales must be slow for him. Oh!! and another thing... the family STILL has an old B&W console in their living room. You can't tell me a tv shop owner in 1965 would still a 1950's eras B&W set in his home.

RE: back to the Future...that jukebox would have only been 9 years old. There are some Pizza Huts and bars using Rowe AMI CD-100 jukeboxes now which are at least 15 years old! Lou's diner does not strike me as the place that would get the latest technology...if a jukebox keeps working and making money I don't think they would just replace it at 9 yrs old.
Also in the DVD director's commentary on Back to the Future they mentioned how not all the cars in the movie are '55 models, because of course not everyone would drive brand new cars (such as Biff's car, a 48? Ford).

Yeah, I remember Biff's car-the '46-48 Ford Convert they dumped that load of manure into? Still looked like it was brand new. But you're right-most of the prop men & set designers are young kids who weren't around in the period in question, know little, & care less. I watched about 5 minutes of "American Dreams" when it first came out, got thru laughing at the Predictas for sale in '64-'65, & decided I didn't want to be scolded about How Racist America Was in the early '60s for the 3 zillionth time. These are supposed to be creative people, and the best they can do is a improbable, hackneyed tale...I know, I'm getting "political" here, I'll hush....Wish I had those Predictas, though....<grin>-Sandy G.

I hate "American Dreams" for all the same reasons listed above. :thumbsdn: Although, I might watch the episode with Eric the Midget (Stern fans will get this).

I meant to mention this a while back.... :banana: :banana: :banana:

Caught an episode of CBS's NICIS (or whatever it's called) about some murderer who was "stuck" in the 50s. When they showed his house, there was a '65 Zenith Roundie, of course wrong for the 50s, but to the show's credit, when they played an Ozzie & Harriet DVD, the set appeared to be playing with it's own CRT. (The shot was so close, you could practically see the dot-pitch.)

I agree that TV shows and movies are full of incorrect props when it comes to furniture, appliances, cars, etc. I find "American Dreams" to be a joke. Just watched it for the first time last week since the series started. Yeah, what TV store owner wouldn't have the best color set around in his own house? I grew up down the street from the local Chrysler dealer and they always had new cars on their driveway. But also, what TV store owner was rich enough to buy his kid a brand new Mustang? As a car fan, I see mistakes all the time. Too many cars that are brand new for the time, as are the hand-me-down type cars that kids would be driving. My sister works in film and one of the movies she worked on was "The Long Walk Home" and she sent me polaroids of the cars they were using (this was well before digital cameras) and they did a nice job. Had to take the polaroids so they could position the cars exactly the same way for the next day of shooting. I don't know who the film makers get these days to provide them with their props, but it's obvious that nobody takes the time to check their work, or they just don't know any better.
Also thought I'd mention that at the Petersen Automotive Museum in L.A. there's a vignette of a suburban garage with a 60's car in it, and up on the shelf at the back of the garage sits a table top bakelite Admiral TV. I think that's pretty insightful of them to have duplicated the situation that likely existed (and lucky for us TV guys still often does) for many obsolete or non-working sets from the late 40's & early 50's.

On "Frequency" yes, the ham radio equipment is really not the right equipment and is sometimes not used correctly, but there is a Zenith round color set that is really working, plus some other black and white sets that seem to be real.
There is a TV in the corrupt police officers apartment that is inappropriate for the era, though.

Back to the Future does cheap out on the color set in Doc's garage that Marty plays the video on...it was made out of a modern chassis/crt put inside an Admiral b/w cabinet. As rich as the Doc was he would have had a Ct-100 or 21Ct55.

Was watching Valley of the Dolls and they show several fairly detailed shots of a Zenith remote control rectangular color set...this is I guess a different case because this movie was made in 1967.

...

I LOVED the big Packard that was Doc's car...the younger guys are all going, "What's a "Packard" ?"......-Sandy G.

Another example of wrong period TV is in the Wonder Years, remember the TV in the kitchen? Some 1984 portable b/w TV and the show is supposed to be 1968-1970? That show has many errors for TVs.

If I remember correct, in apollo 13, Tom hanks is watching an RCA CTC38 console in his living room, or something similar to that, I might be wrong. Regardless, it was a correct period peice and was glad to see that.

Speaking of apollo 13, if you study what's written on Tom Hanks's worksheet, he is doing addition and subtraction to calculate the spacecraft's orientation angles. The engineers are asked to check his arithmetic, and one uses a slide rule (a hemmi/post 1447). Anyone handy with a slide rule will tell you it is not used for addition and subtraction. Besides, any NASA engineer from that era would have had a slide rule alot more advanced than that thing, like a Post Versalog or a K+E Deci-Lon. Another movie error, but that may have gone unnoticed alot more than props would I guess :rolleyes:

There's a movie that was out a few years ago called "One Hit Wonders", about a band forming in the 60s. The main character's dad owns an applicance shop, so there are a lot of shots of old TVs and radios at the beginning of the movie, the kid even "demonstrates" one for a customer and can't get the horizontal to lock in. Don't know how accurate it was, I saw it a while back.

That movie was called "That Thing You Do" and the appliances and TVs in the store
ran the gamut from late '50's to mid '60's, but at least they were vintage.

I thought the signs on the wall in "That thing you do" looked a little too modern, sort of like the wall at Sears, with too many brand names. In "Apollo 13" the set could have been a CTC-40? Would have been "state of the art" but then he could afford it; not sure if it dates right, though. (close, anyway)

What model roundie was in "Grumpy Old Men"? I haven't seen that movie for years (and then only once).

It pains me to watch that movie, there's a nice 50s Zenith console turned into a [cough] fishtank. :cry:

(Sorry for missing the title of "That thing you do", I saw it a long while back...)

I don't know what model roundie was used, but I know they made a big deal about "Zenith" being the best TV, and space command, etc. (And the car was a '68, either Monaco or Polara :) .)

Yeah...i remember one of 'em was a 4-dr post sedan, & another was a 4-dr hardtop...kinda like in "Hawaii 5-0" when they'd start off in the big, black, sinister '68 Mercury, & get to the crime scene in the big, black, sinister '74 Merc..How many 1000x of times did THAT happen ?!? I think I counted 5 times in one episode once...<grin>-Sandy G.

my best explination........wasnt that a "made for tv" movie? I E = LOW BUDGET..?

As some of you know and even less care, I too have worked in the movie and TV racket supplying vehicles......I was always at odds with some of the powers that be about using a correct vehicle, or at least one in appropriate condition. I recall being watching The Sting way back when it first came out and being absolutely floored by the use of crusty and worn out looking cars.....after all, that was set during the Depression and only made sense.

Regarding Driving Miss Daisy, one of her cars was a step down Hudson which was supposed to be new but suffered from window delamination, especially in the vent windows. This only occurs from age (appears as a white cloudy edge), of course only a handful of nuts like me would notice this or even care, but it bugged me just the same.

Anthony
PS Next time you watch a scene with a car in it, look for either reflections in the paint or glass of the camera/lights/or crew......sometimes you may notice a lack of shine or even some black gaffer's tape, this is done to kill the shine. Also, very often the headlights are given a coat of black paint to reduce lens flare (glare).

Yes...I remember that too- modern looking yellow TV in the Wonder Years kitchen...however they do have a 50's or early 60's RCA remote controlled black and white set in their living room which would be correct...there is a show with an out of sync picture on the crt and Jack pulling out tubes from the back. This may be the show where Kevin and Wayne want a color TV like Paul? just got (a Motorola if I remember correctly). The beginning of this show, shows age-appropriate color TV's on display at a store.

re:american dreams,i had to laugh at the comment about the owner of a tv store not owning the latest model.i watch the show from time to time and i have to agree.i belong to this phil spector website and they were talking about how wrong they were about the whole american bandstand thing,by 65 bandstand was in los angeles and not in philly where the show takes place.goes to show people are watching!

c sheen

Charlie, what Phil Spector website would that be? What's the general consensus about whether he's guilty or not? From watching his demeanor at news conferences I can believe the stories about his "unique" behavior overall.....if you know what I mean.

Anthony

On the good side, I've watched on the other night an episode of "Star Trek Enterprise". In this episode, the Vulcan officer tells the captain the story of her ancestor, who, with three other Vulcans were on a mission on the Earth's orbit in 1957 when their ship fails and they crash near a small american town called Carbon Creek. They were monitoring the lounch of the Sputinik. Because of the crash, they have to live three months in the town. The historical reconstruction didn't left nothing to be critized ( at least that I could tell ). Everything from the cars to the two nice TV sets that appear on the episode seemed correct for 1957. Hey, one of the Vulcans even enjoyed 50's TV shows like "I Love Lucy"! That was a job well done. Wish that every producer could follow that good example.

I remeber that episode, I thought it was pretty well-done too. :thmbsp: