Why don't people say goodbye on telephone on tv?

Answer 1

Why include words like ''goodbye'' when those precious milliseconds could be filled with an exploding semi, or helicopter chase or Scuba-diving cats ?

''Goodbye'' is a waste. Americans don't want ''goodbye''. We want action! And '''Carmen Electra'''! And animals! ''Goodbye'' is just one of those words that has been deemed inefficient by filmmakers. ''Hello'' is pretty rare, too, although, annoyingly, ''Lost'' is keeping the word ''hey'' alive and well. (''Do not'' take a shot of tequila every time you hear '''Evangeline Lilly''' say hey on ''Lost,'' or you. Will. Die.) Why such a lack of civility on TV and in the movies? Like I said: We want action!

Don't take my word for it. Here's input from '''Josh Olson''', a real, live, '''honest-to-baby-Jesus''' working screenwriter who even got an Oscar nomination for his work on the '''Viggo Mortensen''' movie ''A History of Violence''. He says, "It's possible that some filmmakers think it slows down the action if characters say things like, hello, goodbye and 'Sorry, I have to commandeer your car for the sake of homeland security'." Besides, he adds, how come movie and TV characters never close the door when they enter the room? Story flow, child, '''story flow'''. Goodbye sounds natural in real life, but on celluloid, to our sophisticated moviegoing ears, it sounds awkward and unnecessary. "And amateurish," adds '''Michele Alexander''', a screenwriter and coauthor of the book, ''How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days'', which later became a movie with '''Kate Hudson''' and '''Matthew McConaughey.''' (Alexander and cowriter '''Jeannie Long''' have two more ''10 Days'' books coming out in the next week or so.

Hudson may wither and die before she can film all these.) "Every word in your script should mean something and move the story along," Alexander explains. Right. Plus, if Jack Bauer slowed down long enough to say goodbye to someone on the phone, he would get shot by the Chinese or blown up by the CIA. Every rogue agent worth his cyanide knows that.