Sunday, August 14, 2005

tv babies

so how many babies HAVE been born in elevators on tv shows, anyway? it apparently happened on night court (or so i seemed to be hearing in the background as i sliced tofu for dinner tonight) and i swear i remember it happening on law and order once (or some show like that--two guys in an elevator, a cleaning lady who doesn't speak english goes into labor, older guy/father of several is ineffectual, younger guy delivers baby) but i can find no evidence that it actually was law and order. i know i've seen it on other shows, too, although i can't remember which ones.

i mean, does this ever happen in real life? does it happen often enough to warrant such a tired tv cliche? it seems to me that there'd be plenty of other ways to instill tension and drama into a birth scene, without trapping the poor mother with some incompetent person in an elevator.

___

where's all the book talk, you may ask? well, as noted, i'm currently broke and out of books and tired of the selection at the chapel hill public library. also i'm reading calvin trillin's tummy trilogy, which is on the long side and makes me hungry so i can't read too much of it in one sitting before i have to go get a snack. probably i will get to davis library for books this week and new comics will be purchased as soon as my student loans come in. so, in summary, the book talk will return shortly.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

the most common place for patients to code in a hospital is in the elevator. (or at least that's what my instructors told me.)

so the stuck-in-an-elevator thing has a bit of merit. (;

Alicia K. said...

really! did they say why that happens?

do elevators in hospitals get stuck as often as the ones on tv? :)

pinky pinkerson said...

I saw an elevator-birth on Doogie Howser. And I can't believe I just admitted that.

Alicia K. said...

hey, what's wrong w/ doogie howser? that was like the awesomest show ever when i was ten.

i admit to being secretly excited for the upcoming sitcom starring neil patrick harris, alyson hannigan, and jason segal (nick from freaks and geeks).

Elizabeth said...

I was always shocked by the amount of TV people that got locked in the building's laundry room with their lover/enemy. It instilled a large fear of common laundry rooms in me.

Alicia K. said...

you know, i'm not sure i've ever seen people locked in a laundry room on tv. how does THAT happen? does the washing machine bounce in front of the door? once that happened to me in my apartment in durham, and the machine blocked the door so all my laundry was locked inside, and it took a long time for the maintenance guy to get the door off. so although i've never seen it on tv, i know that it actually can happen.

< /long pointless story>

David said...

Everything on tv is true. Proof:

My senior year of college I lived in a three person room with our own bathroom. I went in to shower one day before class (which didn't often happen). I was only in my boxer shorts. The guys next door to us were playing Dave Matthews really loudly, I could hear it perfectly well through the vent. I forgot something, and tried to leave--and yes, I was locked in. The handle had broken. So I was trapped, in a perfectly white bathroom, with no clothes on, and nothing to read, forced to listen to Dave Matthews. I tied yelling at the guys for help, but I think they were gone. I often left the music going while they went to class. Or they could have been ignoring me. I often would stand on the toilet late at night and make up fake Churchill-esque speaches and shout them into the air duct while they were trying to sleep. THis was called "rousing the troops" and was a great amusement to my roommates. Hours went by and I learned the meaning of HELL. Finally, my roommate--the ever Deus Ex Mechanic Matt Kalb--came back from class or lunch or something and let me out. He also laughed at me.

People do get trapped in rooms.

Also, my cousin was born in the back seat of a car on the way to the hospital. My uncle delivered him on the shoulder of I75 in front of Renfro Valley.

Alicia K. said...

i will never make fun of tv again.