Questions about anything

[fuzzygobo]

The boring part is when you’re in the big public room with five hundred others
Also, bring something to eat with you. They might serve coffee, but that’s it.

And when you’re in the courtroom, you have to be on your best behavior. You don’t need to wear a suit, but don’t go looking like you just rolled out of bed.
And DON’T FALL ASLEEP!!!!

 

[Any Del]

If I fall asleep, do I get kicked out or fined?

 

[fuzzygobo]

No, the worst the judge will do is smack your head and tell you to pay attention.

 

[minor muppetz]

Has something happened with the actor who plays Pop on The Goldbergs? Seems like he’s hardly on the show anymore (I won’t be surprised if TV Tropes soon lists him as “demoted to extra”).

in the season premier, he only had one brief scene. Then he was in a bit of the next two episodes (I actually can’t remember how big his role was in those, I should rewatch them), then he was absent from the fourth episode of the season. I didn’t catch the last episode so I have no idea if he was in that or how much.

I looked at the actors Wikipedia page and asked Google, and got no results (so I guess I won’t get an answer here yet?). I wonder if it’s Covid concerns (his one scene in the season premier had him by himself) or if he’s wanting to retire/reduce his acting time or if he’s been working in something else or what.

it’s also interesting, this season he has gotten a mustache, and it’s never brought up. Normally if somebody on television grows facial hair or gets really long hair or gets a significant hair cut or dye job they take some time out to acknowledge it the first time they’re shown that way, but here there’s no on-screen acknowledgment. I applaud them a little for just treating him as if nothing new happened, in real life people do comment on such things but it’s also just as common for these things to seem ignored.

More episodes this season have been broadcast, he's shown up a little more often, though it seems like only one scene per episode. And maybe it's just me, but it seems like whenever he appears now, he's always sitting on the couch. I wonder if he has problems walking now.

Today I tried looking up whether there are any known issues, and I found a few articles about the episode where the other grandfather takes the family on a cruise, pointing out his absence there. I think my question came before that one, but I noticed him missing in a few episodes, other fans seemed to only notice him missing from that episode. Though one of the articles said it might be for budget reasons, citing many celebrity guests in the episode.

 

[D'Snowth]

Why does stainless steel get stains?

Why do products labeled as "fragrance-free" or "unscented" smell weird?

 

[minor muppetz]

Back in the days of video rentals, were there limits on how many videos and video games could be rented at a time (like, if a person had enough money, could they rent 40 videos in one weekend)?

 

[LittleJerry92]

I.... don’t believe so?

 

[minor muppetz]

Okay. I started wondering if that was likely. I don’t think many would rent so many at once (especially not if it’s more runtime than the return date).

 

[fuzzygobo]

Back in the bygone days of Blockbuster, I think the limit was five. If you wanted to rent more, it might cost an extra dollar a day or so.
The idea was to rent a movie or two for the weekend, and that was your big outing.

Some would charge a little extra if you didn’t rewind.

 

[minor muppetz]

For a long time, it seems like the title for the first episode of a television series is "Pilot", the main exception being if the title appears on-screen (though the first episode of The Muppets 2015 series was Pig Girls Don't Cry).

But in the old days of television, it seems like the pilots/first episodes often did have a more proper title than just "pilot".

Anybody know when it became the standard for "Pilot" to be the title of the shows pilot?

Reminds me of when I was in school, I decided if I did a television series, I wanted the first episode to be titled "The First Episode".

Of course back in the old days of television, most episodes of shows were self-contained, and the first episodes often did not have to be the first episode (and could easily air as, say, the fifth episode without continuity issues). I guess giving the first episode a more proper title back then made it less confusing for if somebody read the broadcast order titles later (though back then they didn't expect many to see the titles). Of course The Bob Newhart Show pilot was titled "P-I-L-O-T" and ended up airing as the ninth episode (and most episode listings - on DVD and Nick at Nite's Classic TV Companion and website - still list it as the ninth, Nick at Nite's ordering for episodes seems different than most DVDs and wikipedia guides list).

Can anybody determine when it became a lot more common for first episodes to properly set up the series, or when it became more common for planned series finales to clearly be the last episode?

Recently, I've been watching video recordings of things I taped off television, as recent as 1997, and in so many of those, I actually don't see the channel logo in the corner (same with a lot of uploads of 1990s programming I see on YouTube). Anybody know when stations began showing their logo in the corner of the screen during the programs?