A Brief History Of 555 Telephone Numbers In Film & TV - Warped Factor - Words in the Key of Geek.

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A Brief History Of 555 Telephone Numbers In Film & TV

What number you gonna call?


It's highly likely, even if you've not picked up on it, you have seen a film where the telephone number given begins in 555. This prefix is a central office code in the North American Numbering Plan which was traditionally used only for the provision of directory assistance, when dialing (area code)-555-1212. The reason for using 555 for this service isn't exactly clear, but it may have been due to the fact that the number 5 represents "J K L" on the old-fashioned dial phones and those three letters don't appear very often at the beginning of American place names.


In the early 1960s, to avoid use of valid telephone numbers in works of fiction or entertainment, telephone companies began encouraging the producers of television shows and movies to use the 555 prefix for fictional telephone numbers. An early example of this is heard in the 1961 Western comedy film The Second Time Around...
"The number is 555 - 3485. ...
That's right. The number is 555 - 3485."
The following year's Panic in Year Zero! used 555-2106, and from then on the prefix was commonplace, although one particular extension appears more often than others...


The number "555-2368" (or 311-555-2368) is a carryover from the "EXchange 2368" number common in telephone advertisements as early as the 1940s...


A decade before the Ghostbusters were ready to believe you if you called "555-2368", it was used by Jim Rockford as the phone number in the TV series The Rockford Files, and seeen during the opening credits...


Like those phones with letters, sometimes the first two 5s are replaced and you end up with things like "KLondike 5"...


Other films and television shows where you may have heard or seen 555 numbers include; Billy Madison where you can dial 555-0840 for Danny McGraf, call 555-MMMM for Screech's Spaghetti Sauce on Saved By The Bell, Kramer from Seinfeld's number is 555-FILK, you can contact Hannibal from The A-Team on 555-6162, and master of disguise & Arrested Development P.I. Gene Parmesan can be reached on 555-0113.

555 numbers are mentioned directly in the 1993 action film Last Action Hero, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. "Danny Madigan" (played by Austin O'Brien) tries to convince Schwarzenegger's character that he is inside a movie by pointing out everyone they encounter has a 555 number yet the 555 exchange provides at most 9,999 available telephone numbers, insufficient for all the phone users in Los Angeles. Schwarzenegger's character replies that area codes would solve that problem and O'Brien's character drops the subject...


Since 1994, only 555-0100 through 555-0199 are now specifically reserved for fictional use; the other numbers have been reserved for actual assignment. One of these reserved numbers, 555-0123, could be used to call God in Bruce Almighty. Although only in the home video release.


In the theatrical release of Bruce Almighty, God contacts Bruce via his pager, using the number 776-2323. The movie was set in Buffalo, so the producers checked to make sure that 716-776-2323 was not in use. It wasn't. But no area code was given in the film, and this led to hundreds of people calling 776-2323 in whatever area code they happened to be in, to see if God would answer. (Spoiler alert - he didn't)...


...However, among the many people who ended up receiving calls from people wanting to talk to God was a pastor from Wisconsin who would respond to the question "are you God" by replying "No, but I can take a message." Nice touch, eh?

So, for the DVD and TV versions of the movie, the number was changed to 555-0123, to keep the poor 776-2323s of the world from periodic harassment.


So next time you want to call God, Jim Rockford, the hotel room in Memento, anyone in Last Action Hero, the Chippettes manager in Alvin & the Chipmunks, Jaime Sommers aka The Bionic Woman, the payphone in Die Hard With A Vengence, Dutin Hoffman in Outbreak, Mel Gibson in Payback, Marty McFly's girlfriend in Back To The Future, or the Ghostbusters, you know what prefix to use.


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