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  • Hacker News
  • Futurama used the alien alphabet to get around this because, as the commentary said, they didn't want to use another 555- number.
    by nullhole
  • The Simpsons went more meta: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qh1JlNaOxo
    by khy
  • Does this mean 634-5789 is a real number?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuC0T-_ONIA

    by rererereferred
  • In the "cool stuff about making movies" vein:

    HIGHLY recommend this YouTube channel from a movie/TV propmaker: https://www.youtube.com/@ScottPropandRoll

    Covers everything from: - making fake food for eating

    - how to make potato chip bags that don't crinkle

    - breakaway props e.g. for hitting people with baseball bats etc

    by alexpotato
  • "The song's title, "777-9311", was Prince guitarist Dez Dickerson's actual telephone number at the time the song was written. Once the song became a hit, the phone calls started coming in, and Dickerson ended up having to change his phone number." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/777-9311
    by lapcat
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictitious_telephone_number
    by snthd
  • I expected more than 8 countries + NANP to have drama numbers.
    by extraduder_ire
  • I was once on a bus and I could hear some teenagers talking. One asked a girl for her phone number and she told him a number starting with 07709, the UK's "555". I only knew that because a Doctor Who episode had recently used the same prefix.
    by billpg
  • If Jenny's number was 555-5309 I don't think it would have worked in a song.
    by jolt42
  • For the old RNB crowd it was 777-9311…
    by raw_anon_1111
  • KLondike 5-5309 kind of works though.
    by aidenn0
  • Seven is an important digit for the cadence because its the only one with two syllables. I guess you could double-up the last two fives and say "zero" instead of "0" to make it fit.
    by saghm
  • Rumor was that everyone who had 867-5309 changed it shortly after it released. Except for Jenny. She had a fantastic dating life long before Tinder.
    by drob518
  • If you shop at Safeway (Albertsons?) and need a member's discount, but don't have a membership/number, 510-867-5309 works. Staff members have specifically mentioned it.
    by hn_acc1
  • If youre watching an Australian show and see a mobile phone ring and it shows the callers number, ring it. You'll likely annoy someone who works on the show.
    by ThaFresh
  • Why Australian shows? Do they happen to show real numbers more often, or get annoyed more often, or do you have some odd specific reason to want Australians who work on TV shows annoyed?

    (edit: I see now the domain is .gov.au specifically)

    by saghm
  • The UK also has something similar https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/phone-numbers/...
    by benjojo12
  • My fictional British phone number is:

    01 811 8055

    This used to be the BBC number for call ins, particularly the kids TV show 'Swap Shop', but also for so much else during the 1970s and 1980s.

    This number was retired in 1990 when the London ran out of phone numbers and switched to two different prefixes, 071 and 081. The former was advertised on TV as 'Inner London' and the latter as 'Greater London'. This bit of marketing kept everyone happy.

    There was still a problem with numbers and the need to go for eleven digits. Hence, in 1995, the codes for London changed again, to 0171 and 0181. This was PHONEDAY.

    But still, more numbers were needed, plus the tech behind the scenes was ever-evolving. Hence, in 2000, the numbers changed again for London, for everything to start with 020, so 0171 became 0207 and 0181 became 0208.

    But then everyone got mobile phones and we no longer heard about how the economy was growing so quickly that we had this apparent incessant need for even more phone numbers. Furthermore, mobile phones had contacts built into them, so there was no need to remember phone numbers, which was just as well as eleven digits were not so easy to memorise, particularly when the prefixes had changed around so much.

    Hence, my personal choice of fictional number. Apart from anything else, it enables me to see how well forms are validated, plus 01 811 8055 is only going to ever be recognised as a 'famous' number by Brits over a certain age.

    by Theodores
  • Seeing 770-555-5555 on screen has always been a huge pet peeve for me. It really kills the suspension of disbelief for me.
    by iambateman
  • Back in Bell of Pennsylvania days, 555 was a legitimate prefix. It was used to reach BoPA offices.
    by reaperducer
  • Recently I've noticed the 555 prefix being used less, in favor of prefixes starting with 1, which are also invalid in the real world.
    by kid64
  • Yeah, it would be nice if the reserved numbers were random so that they didn't stand out. Sure, some nerds will still memorize the list but even with 20 numbers it would be basically indistinguishable to the average person compared to the xxx-555-xxxx for NANP.
    by kevincox
  • Accordingly for a movie that showed aspects of phone phreaking techniques and culture, Hackers (1995) mentions at least three 555 numbers:

    212-555-4240: The number of the modem at OTV that Dade social-engineers out of the security flunkie, allowing him to dial into the cable channel's systems

    555-4817: Lisa Blair's phone number, which Lord Nikon recalls out of his photographic memory at the party.

    555-4202: Kate's number, which Phreak connects to by rapidly pressing the prison phone's switchhook ten times (effectively pulse-dialing 0) and then asking the operator for help dialing

    Given how stylized the movie is as a whole, the prominence of several obviously-fake phone numbers is the least of the things that break realism.

    by bitwize
  • There’s a fun scene in The Last Action Hero which plays on this convention: A kid who’s gotten transported into a movie and is trying to convince Arnold Scharzenegger’s character that they’re in a movie by asking a bunch of people what their phone number is and pointing out that all the numbers begin with 555.
    by dhosek
  • Ages ago I did work for VFX house. We got a few numbers for the film and maintained an OGM on those lines for like 12 years.

    I love when film has a real world tie in

    Edit: more media should do this. Fun Easter eggs on IP or numbers from the film.

    by edoceo
  • Excuse me, but what is an OGM?
    by ainiriand
  • In the early days of the Internet, there was this website with a list of payphone numbers from all over the United States. In my state, there were only three entries, and my home phone number was one of them. It was listed as being outside a publicly traded chain restaurant.

    On occasion, radio stations would do bits where they would call a random payphone from the website. My house was called 3 times for the same bit by different radio stations. Within a month apart, I spoke to two different stations from New Zealand. MoreFM was one of them, but I don't remember the other. I do remember that that were very disappointed when I told them I had just spoken to MoreFM a month prior. Also MoreFM was the only station that didn't end the bit when I explained it was not a pay phone

    by waltbosz
  • Did you get any swag?
    by 3eb7988a1663
  • In the 1980's IBM had some marketing promotion in the US and distributed brochures and posters at different computer seller chains. The prominently displayed phone number had a typo and it was instead my parents' land line.

    Surprisingly, they didn't get that many calls, and IBM corrected the number in the next round of marketing. So they never had to change their number.

    by jimmydddd
  • > website with a list of payphone numbers ... my home phone number was one of them

    Did you find out how this came to be, or just random typo?

    Curious what the purpose of calling a pay phone is? (wasn't possible in my country)

    by nomilk