Telephone first?

[Nebusj]

Of course, using six digits as standard would make it impossible for a TV viewer to decipher the number and dial it. TV and movies could get in trouble if the owner of a number gets harassed because his number was used in a fictional setting.

Not necessarily. Six-digit phone numbers were in use in the United States into the 1960s, although I can't find a source that says clearly when they were discontinued.

Likely enough the TV show skipped a digit because how many hours of boring screen time have rotary phones added to movies and TV shows? And after a couple digits are dialed who's even counting?

 

[Maurice]

In the early 70s in a small town I grew up in you only had to dial 5 digits. You only had to dial the last digit of the exchange, then the rest. So, instead of dialing 945-1234 you'd just dial 5-1234.

 

[The Old Mixer]

The episode where they got the number from listening to the tape, it was a seven-digit number (555, of course), so it wasn't because six digits were in use in TGH's city.

Of course, using six digits as standard would make it impossible for a TV viewer to decipher the number and dial it. TV and movies could get in trouble if the owner of a number gets harassed because his number was used in a fictional setting.

But would that matter if they were dialing a 555 number in the first place?

 

[Drone]

But it's not surprising that this show was the first, since they had a guy who was specifically out there looking for things on the market that didn't look like what you'd find in the typical suburban American home.

The whole point of Gary 7's office was to blend in and look like a typical 1968 office. Plot wise it does not make sense to outfit him with a "futuristic" telephone as part of his 1968 camouflage.

When the prop people and set dressing people were looking for "futuristic" salt shakers and objects for the show, they were doing it with the intent of making the scene look "futuristic."

To scour for a "futuristic" telephone prop that would serve no purpose in-story, and would run contrary to the entire point of looking like a typical 1968 office would be a waste of time and, to quote Spock, "Illogical."

Where's the inconsistency? He had a typical multitronic console that swiveled out from the wall, a design trick one saw in many other contemporary programs, hell even the WWW. Plus he had a room where some fog or mist enveloped one as they entered. Hell, didn't even some pedestrian rock groups use that kind of accoutrement in their concerts at the time? No, I think it was all good, including the phone.

 

[Maurice]

The inconsistency is that presumably Gary Seven would have a typical phone in the office since, presumably, he would have visitors. As he seemed to communicate via his pen gizmo (at least as I recall it), there would be no reason to have a futuristic Ma Bell phone in the hidden compartments.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Jesus. To reiterate what I already explained two months ago, with added emphasis:

My point was that they had a guy who had his eye out for stuff that did look unusual or futuristic, and as a piece of cutting-edge tech that wasn't yet terribly commonplace, the phone might have come to his attention somewhere in the midst of his general searching for such items. I was never suggesting that anyone went out of their way to find a "futuristic" phone specifically for that episode.

Let the madness of this faux controversy return to the grave.

 

[Drone]

Jesus. To reiterate what I already explained two months ago, with added emphasis:

My point was that they had a guy who had his eye out for stuff that did look unusual or futuristic, and as a piece of cutting-edge tech that wasn't yet terribly commonplace, the phone might have come to his attention somewhere in the midst of his general searching for such items. I was never suggesting that anyone went out of their way to find a "futuristic" phone specifically for that episode.

Let the madness of this faux controversy return to the grave.

No need to inject a deity into the conversation. While perhaps this specific point of contention is a bit of a detour, we still have yet to definitively peg when the first appearance of a touch tone occurred in a broadcast series, which I think has become the real raison d'etre of the thread anyway, heartwarming memories of life in olden days aside.

 

[Maurice]

March 17, 1968. Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea episode "Edge of Doom". Multi-line touch tone phone on Admiral Nelson's desk at the Nelson Institute.

Can anyone confirm one earlier than that?