In American movies (and I think TV also) WHY does the phone number always start with 555?
I'm dead certain and for as long as I can remember, whenever a character quotes a phone number it ALWAYS begins with 555 - has anyone else noticed or do scriptwriters think we're stupid ?
2012-01-05T13:27:53Z
Thanks all - thats pretty much what I thought except that its so darn predictable !! @ Angziety - got that song in my head now....
2012-01-05T13:27:54Z
Thanks all - thats pretty much what I thought except that its so darn predictable !! @ Angziety - got that song in my head now....
2012-01-05T13:29:34Z
Teminator - good call (pardon pun)
2012-01-05T13:29:37Z
Teminator - good call (pardon pun)
?2012-01-05T13:17:33Z
Favorite Answer
Back in the 1950's, hollywood came up with an agreement with Bell Telephone to use 555 in all tv and movie phone numbers so no one could actually CALL those numbers. If you were a home owner and your phone number appeared on tv or a movie; you would be flooded with calls.
Remember 8-7-6-5-3-2-9? The song? The song was a hit; and the girlfriend got about 1,000 calls a day.
There are no numbers in the US that starts with a 555 exchange. So they don't have to worry about someone calling people's houses because of a number they heard in a movie or tv show.
There was an article about this in a recent mental_floss magazine, but I can't find the issue. I already knew about the number being used in movies, etc. but I didn't know the history behind it until I read this article.
They did it because they found that Americans like to call numbers that they hear on TV or the radio. (Have you heard the song "867-5309"? That person had to change their number and I guess it is now no longer used.) The numbers 555-0100 through 555-0199 are designated for this purpose. Wikipedia has a page on it, but it is pretty sloppy (needs editing).
There is a good reason for that. It's because there is no area code that is 555 - that way they're not stating a number that actually belongs to someone - in order to avoid having movie watchers phone that number which used to happen before they began this practice of using 555.