Let's Retire These Tv/Movie Clichés!

[Steve67]

How many times must we endure the one about the thief/safecracker/heist guy who comes out of retirement to pull "one last job" for either revenge or so he can quit for good?

Or the sitcom with the birth of a child in an "unusual" place to be delivered by the obviously "unqualified" sitcom star?

Let's also retire the "spinoff within an established TV series" plot. Star Trek's "Assignment: Earth" comes to mind, it dispenses with Kirk and crew almost entirely and they only emerge at the end with that sickening bit when Kirk and Spock wish Gary Seven and Roberta Lincoln "luck." Magnum, P.I. also pulled the spinoff trick, with the episode, "Two Birds of a Feather" with William Lucking as some pilot and Magnum nowhere to be found except at the end when he phones Lucking about the case or whatever.

Another tired premise is the "letting the audience know that their beloved main character will not be in this episode" routine. There was a Quincy episode, "Has Anyone Seen Quincy?" that had the Klug-Man absent from the entire episode and replaced with "Dr. Hiro." The regular characters are either not seen, except for maybe one token scene and it's usually via a phone call or a hurried explanation by a supporting character, like that tried and untrue bit when Redd Foxx held out for more dough: "Oh, Fred Sanford? Why he's in St. Louis, but I'm Grady and I'll be here this week", or some such nonsense.

Any others?

 

[Bad Bishop]

How about purely visual clichés? Like when movie characters are lined up, shoulder to shoulder, and walk in slow motion toward the camera.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

A portion of a conversation is overheard out of context and leads to wackiness.
And yes, I know that kills almost every sitcom ever. Good. It should make them come up with something new.

 

[Augustus]

A portion of a conversation is overheard out of context and leads to wackiness.
And yes, I know that kills almost every sitcom ever. Good. It should make them come up with something new.

Yeah, being a communications major and now studying it after school as a hobby, this really irritates me.

A version of this trite scenario is why I can't like the last third of Hitch too much.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

A portion of a conversation is overheard out of context and leads to wackiness.
And yes, I know that kills almost every sitcom ever. Good. It should make them come up with something new.

I believe Douglas Adams took this concept to its logical extreme in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (the Vl'hurg-G'gugvuntt War segment).

 

[gblews]

Someone, usually a young male, rides on something that is going fast or flying and can't help but yell. Its usually something like "woo hoo", "ya hoo", "wooo, woooo", or just plain old "yippie".

Whatever he or she yells, I'm sick of this cliche.

 

[Sephiroth]

how about killing the fat, balding, husband who is never right paired with the beautiful, allways right wife, I.E: "wife goes out, husband does something he's not "supposed" to, tries to fix it but makes it worse, kids have no respect for dumbass father, wife comes home, berates him, then it's all allright" it's been done, it's really stupid

 

[Kegek]

I don't think any cliches should be retired; if only because I acknowledge that there's probably a way to do any of them well. I'd like to see less lazy and incompetent use of cliches as crutches though. I'd just generally like films to be bolder and more creative. Take Ratatouille. Lots of cliches in that film, down to the reluctant-hero-needs-to-believe-in-himself stuff, or the standoffish girl who falls for the nervy guy stuff. But I applaud Pixar's audacity in making a big budget mainstream film aimed at kids which is predominantly about a rat with a passion for fine cooking, of all things.

Also, though the misheard or misunderstood information is, though totally implausible, a classic comedic scenario and can be hilarious; so I wouldn't want to see it dispensed with entirely.

 

[Michael]

Also, though the misheard or misunderstood information is, though totally implausible, a classic comedic scenario and can be hilarious; so I wouldn't want to see it dispensed with entirely.

Come to think about it, Frasier wouldn't exist without this device!

 

[A beaker full of death]

Also, though the misheard or misunderstood information is, though totally implausible, a classic comedic scenario and can be hilarious; so I wouldn't want to see it dispensed with entirely.

Come to think about it, Frasier wouldn't exist without this device!

Sure you don't mean Three's Company?

 

[nx1701g]

How about we retire the geek that has no life? Show that there are geeks that go out, have friends, and don't spend their evenings in their parent's basements.

 

[Kegek]

Also, though the misheard or misunderstood information is, though totally implausible, a classic comedic scenario and can be hilarious; so I wouldn't want to see it dispensed with entirely.

Come to think about it, Frasier wouldn't exist without this device!

Sure you don't mean Three's Company?

Never seen that show. But NCC-1701 is correct. Frasier depends on this conceit for almost every other episode. Quite frequently, the results are hilarious. I particularly loved one episode where all the characters (sans Roz) and some guest characters are at a Ski Lodge for the weekend and all get their romantic signals crossed due to a series of happenstance misunderstandings. The result is an outrageously funny bedroom farce.

 

[Michael]

Come to think about it, Frasier wouldn't exist without this device!

Sure you don't mean Three's Company?

Never seen that show. But NCC-1701 is correct. Frasier depends on this conceit for almost every other episode. Quite frequently, the results are hilarious. I particularly loved one episode where all the characters (sans Roz) and some guest characters are at a Ski Lodge for the weekend and all get their romantic signals crossed due to a series of happenstance misunderstandings. The result is an outrageously funny bedroom farce.

Yeah, that's a classic episode. Still a shame they haven't released Frasier on DVD in Germany. Beaker is correct, Three's Company seemed to use it even more frequently than Frasier. Reminds me of how much I miss John Ritter.