A bit out of the ordinary for Hollywood

Hickory n steel

Hickory n steel

Gold Member
Joined
Feb 11, 2016
Messages
20,221
A big surprise came as I was watching the latest episode of Seal team this evening , the main character pulled the knife from his pocket and used it to open a package then put it away and that's it.
It was a completely realistic depiction of boring everyday knife use for the average person and that seems like a rare occurrence in Hollywood.
Besides kitchen use I can't think of any time a TV show has featured a knife being used in any other capacity besides as a weapon or being used in some completely unrealistic extreme situation.
 
Hickory n steel said:
A big surprise came as I was watching the latest episode of Seal team this evening , the main character pulled the knife from his pocket and used it to open a package then put it away and that's it.
It was a completely realistic depiction of boring everyday knife use for the average person and that seems like a rare occurrence in Hollywood.
Besides kitchen use I can't think of any time a TV show has featured a knife being used in any other capacity besides as a weapon or being used in some completely unrealistic extreme situation.
Click to expand...
Well, Jed Clampett was always whittling in "The Beverly Hillbillies".
 
Forgot about the bevery hillbillies, but of course this was before the general stigmatism against knives became widespread.
 
Last edited:
I was watching the second to last episode of season 5 of Major Crimes on Amazon lastnight and the guy pulled out some kinda Spyderco to cut off a chunk of C4. Lol (jjust helping make your point)
 
mrfields said:
i remember gibs on ncis using his big a$$ zt to cut up a steak a while back.
Click to expand...
I don't watch the show, but I think I heard about that in the knives in TV thread or something.

I find it interesting though that these days it seems most people in a TV show who are seen using a folding knife are always some kind of badass , You probably won't see the dad on a sitcom using a small folder open mail or clean under his fingernails or something.
 
Last edited:
Hickory n steel said:
I don't watch the show, but I think I heard about that in the knives in TV thread or something.

I find it interesting though that these days it seems most people in a TV show who are seen using a folding knife are always some kind of badass , You probably won't see the dad on a sitcom using a small folder open mail or clean under his fingernails or something.
Click to expand...
Well, today's shows kinda suck. I recommend the following: "The Honeymooners"; "The Jack Benny Program"; "The Lone Ranger"; "Leave it to Beaver"; "My Three Sons"; "The Beverly Hillbillies"; "Green Acres"; "Petticoat Junction"; "Gilligan's Island"; "Batman"; "Tarzan"; "Bonanza"; "Gunsmoke"; "The High Chaparral"; "Star Trek"; "I Dream of Jeannie"; "Bewitched"; "The Prisoner"; "Mannix"; "The Avengers" (only the Diana Rigg episodes); "The Rockford Files". Yeah, that's right: only 1950s and 1960s. A little 1970s. "Seinfeld" was often funny, but a little too "PC".
 
Last edited:
IIRC, the very first couple(?) of episodes of Chicago Fire showed firefighters opening their knives for mundane things like package opening. I think one episode had that happen more than once, with different people.

I seem to remember on Married With Children, Al Bundy, while standing on his front porch, pulled out a pocketknife (possibly a stockman?) and tried something stupid, like use it to mess with his doorbell, and electrocuted himself.

In That '70s Show, the Red Forman character hands his pocketknife to his son Eric, when the latter is leaving to work in Africa. It looked like a stockman. He then tells him, "If you lose it, don't bother coming back."

Jim
 
I also recall on the X-Files, Fox Mulder using a Kershaw Liner Action for mundane evidence gathering. Probably in more than one episode.

Jim
 
Hickory n steel said:
Forgot about that, but of course this was before the general stigmatism against knives became widespread.
Click to expand...
It isn't always about stigma - it's about entertainment. Movies, tv, books, comics are all entertainment and at best show "heightened reality".
A crime drama doesn't show all the boring parts of an investigation. The boring questioning, tracking down mundane things like cell phone locations that nail down a case.
Relationships and sex don't work nearly the way entertainment (PG) tells me. There is a lot of boring compromise, trying to get schedules working together, dealing with SO's friends and family, etc.
Computers are only vaguely similar.
And most people get by fine in their day to day lives without knife use, excepting kitchen knives.
Everything is over dramatic because we are already living real lives and they sell escape. Besides - Chekov's Gun. Why bother showing a knife if the knife isn't going to be used in a dramatic, plot changing way? Waste of time and time is more valuable to be sold to an advertiser.
 
Ourorboros said:
It isn't always about stigma - it's about entertainment. Movies, tv, books, comics are all entertainment and at best show "heightened reality".
A crime drama doesn't show all the boring parts of an investigation. The boring questioning, tracking down mundane things like cell phone locations that nail down a case.
Relationships and sex don't work nearly the way entertainment (PG) tells me. There is a lot of boring compromise, trying to get schedules working together, dealing with SO's friends and family, etc.
Computers are only vaguely similar.
And most people get by fine in their day to day lives without knife use, excepting kitchen knives.
Everything is over dramatic because we are already living real lives and they sell escape.
Click to expand...
This is very true. For the most part, in a sitcom (for example), it wouldn't really be served to show someone using a pocketknife for something mundane without there being a reason for it in the story in some way. There isn't a lot of time for extraneous actions, especially on TV, where shooting schedules are tight.

Jim
 
Prester John said:
Well, today's shows kinda suck. I recommend the following: "The Honeymooners"; "The Jack Benny Program"; "The Lone Ranger"; "Leave it to Beaver"; "My Three Sons"; "The Beverly Hillbillies"; "Green Acres"; "Petticoat Junction"; "Gilligan's Island"; "Batman"; "Tarzan"; "Bonanza"; "Gunsmoke"; "The High Chaparral"; "Star Trek"; "I Dream of Jeannie"; "Bewitched"; "The Prisoner"; "Mannix"; "The Avengers" (only the Diana Rigg episodes); "The Rockford Files". Yeah, that's right: only 1950s and 1960s. A little 1970s. "Seinfeld" was often funny, but a little too "PC".
Click to expand...
First off, any list of 50s/60s TV without the Twilight Zone is automatically irrelevant. Second, there are tons of great modern day shows. Tons of good sitcoms from the 80's and 90's, and animation has been killer the past 20 years.
 
Benchmade makes a couple appearances in westworld on hbo. Also 95% confident i just saw a millie make a cameo in blair witch 3 which is definitely not worth watching.
 
People also very rarely eat, go to the toilet or sleep in TV and Film, unless it suits the story. I can't think of too many guys I've ever worked with that carried more and expensive knives than riggers, grips, electricians and techs. Hollywood isn't a knife free zone.
 
James Y said:
This is very true. For the most part, in a sitcom (for example), it wouldn't really be served to show someone using a pocketknife for something mundane without there being a reason for it in the story in some way. There isn't a lot of time for extraneous actions, especially on TV, where shooting schedules are tight.

Jim
Click to expand...

I'm not saying they should go out of their way or anything , but Amazon is becoming a common thread for jokes in sitcoms these days and a pocket knife could easily be the tool of choice when someone forgot what they ordered.
 
"Seal Team" is the stupidest TV show I have seen in a long time. My wife watches it all the time.
 
Prester John said:
Well, today's shows kinda suck. I recommend the following: "The Honeymooners"; "The Jack Benny Program"; "The Lone Ranger"; "Leave it to Beaver"; "My Three Sons"; "The Beverly Hillbillies"; "Green Acres"; "Petticoat Junction"; "Gilligan's Island"; "Batman"; "Tarzan"; "Bonanza"; "Gunsmoke"; "The High Chaparral"; "Star Trek"; "I Dream of Jeannie"; "Bewitched"; "The Prisoner"; "Mannix"; "The Avengers" (only the Diana Rigg episodes); "The Rockford Files". Yeah, that's right: only 1950s and 1960s. A little 1970s. "Seinfeld" was often funny, but a little too "PC".
Click to expand...
My 3 favorite older shows to watch in syndication are gunsmoke, the Rockford files, and Bonanza.
The Rockford files especially ( used to be my ringtone ) because James Garner was one of my favorite actors.

I also liked wild wild west, leave it to beaver, Andy Griffith, and Hogan's heroes.


There are a lot of shows these days I find good and enjoy, but there are definitely way more that I can't stand.
If I was around back then theres probably not too many i wouldn't have watched.
 
drail said:
"Seal Team" is the stupidest TV show I have seen in a long time. My wife watches it all the time.
Click to expand...

The stu
Ourorboros said:
It isn't always about stigma - it's about entertainment. Movies, tv, books, comics are all entertainment and at best show "heightened reality".
A crime drama doesn't show all the boring parts of an investigation. The boring questioning, tracking down mundane things like cell phone locations that nail down a case.
Relationships and sex don't work nearly the way entertainment (PG) tells me. There is a lot of boring compromise, trying to get schedules working together, dealing with SO's friends and family, etc.
Computers are only vaguely similar.
And most people get by fine in their day to day lives without knife use, excepting kitchen knives.
Everything is over dramatic because we are already living real lives and they sell escape. Besides - Chekov's Gun. Why bother showing a knife if the knife isn't going to be used in a dramatic, plot changing way? Waste of time and time is more valuable to be sold to an advertiser.
Click to expand...

All I'm saying is when a character is actually shown opening a package which does happen, a pocket knife should be used once in a while instead of the box being unrealistically easy to open effortlessly with bare hands .

All the Hollywood theatrics are key to entertainment and I definitely get that, but it seems that directors and writers always choose to see anything but a kitchen knife as a weapon unless the person is LEO...ect.
 
In Longmire, Walt uses his trusty 110 for all nanner of sherrifey things, but I guess that's a bit sensational. In season 1 of Bosch, he uses what looks like a ZT to simply unstick a drawer. That was kinda mundane I guess.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top