Thursday, February 16, 2017

MaY Cellphone Watch: "Just My Dog"

Recently, Lynda and I have been watching Mad About You reruns. This is one of our favorite shows. But . . . looking back on it, you see how the plot of this show (as with many others) would have been utterly destroyed had they only had a cellphone.

[Season 3, Episode 15] "Just My Dog"
Paul has gotten an opportunity to direct a chewing gum commercial in New York City. As Jamie comes to visit him (with Murray) during the filming, the corporate observers decide that they love Murray's "look" and demand that Paul put the dog into the commercial. This leads to Murray becoming an animal actor (featuring Brent Spiner as his agent).

How a cellphone would have helped: Surprisingly, the impact of a cellphone would have played very little role in this episode. Maybe the Buchmans would have emailed videos of Murray to an animal talent agent rather than take him in person to an agency?
The only other spot where new technology could have played a role was in the B plot where Paul and Jamie are trying to read through a large backlog stack of magazines. Perhaps they would have been subscribing to digital magazines on their tablet device and would not have cluttered up their apartment with physical magazines?

BUT . . . if we are going to go there, then we need to address the shelves of analog/tape video equipment that film maker Paul uses in his career. All of that would have been obsolete in a digital world of cell phones. And THAT makes you realize that the Buchmans did not own a computer at all.


No comments: