Self-effacing dialogue

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foleycat
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Posted Feb 03, 2006 - 8:58 PM:

I noticed in a few episodes that there is some self-effacing dialogue...

The one that stands out for me is in '12 to 5' when Ernest Chappell mentions 'Chappell's Apples'

What are some others ?
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Posted Feb 03, 2006 - 9:58 PM:

Well, wait a second. "Self-effacement" means being modest or keeping yourself in the background, minimizing your contributions. Do you mean "self-referential" or "reflexive" dialogue?

I don't have a comprehensive list but here's what I remember off the top of my head and a search of the scripts on this site:

In "The Man Who Knew Everything," Charles W. Afternoon is rattling off a list of things he knows and he mentions that "Mr. Wyllis Cooper's telephone number in Chicago in 1922 was Buckingham one-five-seven-oh. Interesting. ... Ernest Chappell went to North High School in Syracuse." In the sequel, "The Venetian Blind Man," Afternoon refers to organist Albert "Bert" Buhrmann several times.

At the end of "And Jeannie Dreams of Me," the airplane pilot has the same name as sound effects man William J. McClintock. In "A Night to Forget," the fictional sound effects man has the same name as the real sound effects man, Al April.

Cooper's wife's maiden name was "Beveridge" and that name turns up at least twice that I can remember: as a scientist in "If I Should Wake Before I Die" and as the funeral home in "Three."

But one of my faves is this exchange from "The Evening and the Morning":

DEAN: You know Francis was a writer?

THORPE: Yes.

DEAN: A writer of supernatural stories.

THORPE: I didn't know that.

DEAN: He had a very fair understanding of superstitions, beliefs of all kind.
He had a large library of source material on that subject.

THORPE: Did he believe in ghosts?

DEAN: (DEFENSIVE) He was a rational man, Mr. Thorpe. And my very good friend.

foleycat
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Posted Feb 08, 2006 - 1:48 AM:

Yes, I meant self-referential....oops.
Paul
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Posted Feb 17, 2006 - 5:54 AM:

In "Is This Murder?" Ernest Chappell plays Ernest, Joyce Gordon plays Joyce and Dan O'Herlihy plays Dan.
fooziex
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Posted May 28, 2006 - 1:54 PM:

This one is a bit of a stretch, but in "Rain on New Year's Eve", the film for which the main character is writing ends shooting on New Year's Eve. The IMDb business data for "Son of Frankenstein" (which Cooper wrote) shows Filming Dates spanning 9 November 1938 - December 1938 and production ending on 4 January 1939.
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