I found this very amusing 🙄 4

[thephonelady]

Hi all- as a NY Telephone Company, Pacific Telephone, ATT, Lucent and Avaya technician, and now a contractor, I tend to notice phone systems and phone types when watching movies or television shows.
I recently watched Zero Day on Netflix starring Robert De Niro. There was a cyber attack and De Niro's character was asked to lead an investigation. In one scene there was a pile of J series phones to be installed in the commission headquarters. I commented to myself that I have installed many of those. Unboxing, assembling and installing. In 3 scenes while the phones were being used I noticed that the handset cords were installed backwards with the straight part connected to the handset. Maybe a little OCD on my part but really!!! Whoever put those phones together for the show needs to have some better training.

 

[Shaun E]

I'll have to check it out! But yes, the cord being installed backwards or worse - a phone being used that's clearly powered off are a few things that grind my gears

I'm slowly building out a little "Phones on Screen" database which I should publish one of these days, eg:

 

[jmbailey]

LOL. I thought I was the only one that noticed that type stuff!! I saw that too. I always notice and comment (which really irritates the family) especially about hotel rooms. Did a ton of work in hotels installing Teledex and Telematrix phones in guest rooms back in the day.

 

[ACSscott]

Oh my goodness I'm not the only one. My family is always rolling their eyes at me when I point out the phone models in shows/movies.

 

[brucertek]

My pet peeve is wrong ring tones , usually use an old Nortel ring tone whether its a Panasonic, Mitel, Nec, Polycom .....

 

[Trilinkcomm]

It always seems to be something I look at when watching TV shows. I caught it several times and now I’m constantly drawn to it especially when watching Law and Order SVU. I’ve seen Merlin phones, Nortel Norstar phones, Meridian phones and some other models that look to be VOIP phones. The worst part of it is they’ll all be mixed in the same scene. One desk might have a Merlin and other desk has something completely different.
Are they just digging through the box of props and throwing in whatever they find laying around. Come on guys. Spend a few bucks and buy a full system.

 

[IPOriface]

Not that I'm one of you weirdos who obsess about phones in movies/TV or anything... But I've noticed more Yealink & Grandstream handsets showing up lately on shows lately. Sometimes they're not powered on, which is just lazy.

 

[thephonelady]

IPOriface- I resemble that remark!! When I was an Avaya tech that is what we called IPOffice when it first came out. IPOriface. The product sure has come a long way from R1.

 

[ZeroZeroOne]

If I recall correctly, the first Mission Impossible movie had the CIA headquarters running Partner 18D sets.

 

[hebegb41]

Let's just face it guys.....we're a bunch of phone geeks.......I do the same thing and it drives my GF nuts. She even tells me before the show starts not to tell her what kind of phones they use.....I do it anyway

 

[thephonelady]

Hi everyone. I enjoyed all of your responses. Keep on doing what you do!!

 

[Shaun E]

Another one that I just remembered for the West Wing fans out there. They used mainly Norstar sets in the show (M7310 from memory) but instead of the LCD BLFs they had LED lights. I guess the LCDs weren't visible enough on screen to show they're on the phone

My pet peeve is wrong ring tones , usually use an old Nortel ring tone whether its a Panasonic, Mitel, Nec, Polycom .....

The Avaya ringtone is also way too common and frequently has me glancing at the J179 that's on the table next to the couch in the living room.

I spent 2 weeks in hospital recently which had J100 series sets and whenever the phone in the nurses station rang I'd reach for my bedside J179 before realising where I was

IPOriface- I resemble that remark!! When I was an Avaya tech that is what we called IPOffice when it first came out. IPOriface. The product sure has come a long way from R1.

I never had the pleasure of R1 but I've been using it since R4 (~2007) and it has definitely come a long way.