On Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 2:57 PM, Ed Dravecky <[email protected]> wrote:
> PGage <[email protected]> wrote: > > 1996: Cordless Phones (based on a non-representative sample of films > > using corded films around 1994, but not in 1996 and after. I probably > don't > > have enough real evidence to give different dates for the routine use of > > cell phones and cordless phones). > > This feels wrong. I remember quite a lot of cordless (landline, not > cellular) phones from TV and movies from the mid-to-late 1980s. I know > the technology had spread to my decidedly middle-class neighborhood by > the mid-'80s. Indeed, I found a 1986 article that says the "fad" of > cordless phones was "on the ropes". > > > http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=z1spAAAAIBAJ&sjid=k6UEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6723%2C2642658 > > > This is far from exhaustive, but there are mentions of "cordless > phones" in reviews for 1986's 'Down and Out in Beverly Hills' ("...at > home among hot tubs, cordless phones and animal psychologists."), > 1991's 'Julia Has Two Lovers' ('Not even the mobility provided by > cordless phones can prevent tedium from setting in."), 1992's 'Patriot > Games' ("...a smashing kitchen and squadrons of cordless phones and > computer terminals."), and 1993's 'The Beverly Hillbillies' ("Erika > Eleniak is fun as Elly May, especially when she tries to acclimate > herself to Beverly Hills High, where all the girls pack cordless > phones.") > Right - a little more searching today (another batch of exams on my desk that I am trying not to grade) turned up some similar mentions from mid 80s to early 90s, like this one ( http://thisisntthe90s.com/2010/06/14/watched-she-devil/) in which a reviewer in 2010 is saying how much she loved the 80s touches in 1989's "She Devil": I love her Zenith Laptop, the shiny V12 Jag convertible, the computer systems, the monstrous Satellite dish, the massive cordless phones". and this one (http://actionmoviez.com/reviews-darkman-1990) noting a "good" in the orientation of the position of a cordless phone in 1990's Darkman. Based on Ed's report, and my search today, I am going to revise my timeline, thusly: 1955: Rotary Phones 1984: Push Button Phones 1990: Cordless Phones* (now putting the routine appearance of cordless phones in between push buttons and cells, which seems more intuitively accurate) 1994: Cell Phones Still not a lot of data points to support this, but at least a working hypothesis. One nuance is distinguishing between when a new technology routinely appears, and when it routinely and completely replaces an old technology. For example it seems that cordless phones appear in movies in the late 80s and early 90s, but during this period there were also a lot of films that only showed corded phones, and this probably reflected an overlap in real life of both technologies in many US homes. Bu the 21st C though, probably most US homes had given up corded phones, and this is probably reflected in the media. Similarly, while cell phones appear in TV shows in the mid 90s, for most of that decade there probably was no depiction of any home relying exclusive on cell phones, or even primarily on them when at home. I remember laughing less than 10 years ago at my sister who had given up her land line to rely exclusively on her cell, only to see that become a standard practice for many (at least many young adults). So I guess I should also be asking "when did specific telephone technologies stop being routinely represented in popular media?" in addition to when they started. Still, it seems that if all you knew about America was from films and TV shows before 1955 you would think that most people made calls by connecting with an operator; if only from 1955 to 1984 that all Americans did direct dial with a rotary phone; if only between 1984 and 1990 that most Americans used push button corded phones. Starting in the early 1990s you would see a diversity of telephony, with corded phones, cordless phones and cell phones being used; I suspect somewhere by the end of the 1990s you would have not seen many corded phones, and somewhere in the late 00s you might have seen very little cordless phones, with more and more characters using cell phones exclusively. -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
