Hehe, I saw this earlier today and got a nice laugh. I wonder which prop house provides this newspaper.

And I wonder if Early Edition ever got lazy and used it.

Jobo | June 05, 23:35 CET

It's kind of like the press repeating the same phrase over and over again: "From day one. . . "

Peanut Noir | June 05, 23:50 CET

Ha ha ha

I love that somebody noticed this...and then took the time to find all the various instances of where it was used. Brilliant:)

angeliclestat | June 05, 23:50 CET

Nine years later and Ed O'Neill still hasn't finished that page.

ShortFatGuy | June 05, 23:58 CET

That is wild! Especially since the same prop newspaper has been used for sooooooo long. One would think that variations and updated versions would have been created over time. Maybe about 10,000 of them were printed in the 1990s and they just keep taking more off the stack when needed.

Looking through all the photos is like seeing an alternate universe where the same events keep happening and nothing ever moves forward... like a bizarre Groundhog Day pan dimensional phenomenon...

11thHour | June 06, 00:04 CET

That is awesome.

Polter-Cow | June 06, 00:05 CET

What's weird is that it's the "Daily Chronicle", which is the paper in my hometown... And probably small towns all over the US. That's so great.

Saladbar12 | June 06, 00:12 CET

I wonder what the actual rationale for this is. Because, you have to think: Prop newspaper = mega bucks to prop house. Real newspaper = walk outside and plug .50 in the dispenser.

ChrisB | June 06, 00:18 CET

Fun find! Although, I have to wonder how much longer we're going to see newspapers as props. Then again there are still TV shows and movies today using the incredibly tired cliche of TVs in store windows to provide viewers with news bulletins.

yourlibrarian | June 06, 00:23 CET

I wonder if that model in the newspaper gets residuals?

Peanut Noir | June 06, 00:30 CET

Yeahhh, the tv-sets-in-store-windows thing, I bet it still happens a bit (pretty sure I've seen the odd one in crappy looking stores downtown), but these days it should make everyone not wanna buy a TV at the particular store displaying them that way. Screens that're constantly exposed to direct sunlight can be ruined (or have their shelf life reduced considerably by speeding up the degradation of their picture quality, at least). Even if it's just the disposable floor models, still...

Does anyone else always press pause to read bits like newspaper props in TV shows and film ? Occasionally they're written to be relevant to the plot and may provide a couple or several lines that give you more info (not necessary to know to enjoy the actual plot, but fun). Less impressive is when the print is kinda small and they just print random jjjjjfffffkkkk kinds of patterns because the seconds of screentime for the page fly by so fast that they don't think it worthwhile to type something up quick and fake it convincingly. I do this for graffiti on walls as well (mostly just in cartoons though--they don't usually hide fun or funny stuff in live action material).

Kris | June 06, 00:35 CET

I can't believe in all these years someone didn't make a second prop newspaper!
In an episode commentary for Mr. Show they point out how bad a prop newspaper looked. The new story was basically just a computer print out taped onto a newspaper without even trying to make the papers match or hide the seems. I wonder if it was the same newspaper under that?

I also thought of Early Edition when I saw these. They had to print so many papers they probably didn't use this one. Also they actually need to show the contents of the paper so the probably couldn't get away with it.

Minor Annoyance | June 06, 00:36 CET

oh, that is so weird! especially to see so many examples from desperate housewives, is like they keep reliving the same day.

also, I saw james moran retweet this. that was strange too.

[ edited by okelay on 2010-06-06 00:38 ]

okelay | June 06, 00:37 CET

I always wondered how licensing things works. Like in some cases on The Office I remember they would import potato chip bags from company actually local to Scranton, PA while other times if they show a vending machine they'll put products in upside-down and backwards and place stickers to obscure the logo.

Would it be the name of the newspaper itself or maybe the rights to use the photos in question? I sort of doubt that the text itself would be an issue since it's not like people could read it all even in HD.

That said, I also wonder about how they're printed. Like I noticed sometimes that picture of the woman is sometimes on the back page or how in the animated 10TIHAY version the weather map is on the backpage of the Business section while on other versions it seems to be on the back of the Daily Chronicle. (Then again I guess you can kind of see on one of the Desperate Housewife versions that you can see they seem to maybe have doubled up her picture on both sides.)

How many times have they custom printed newspapers for Whedon shows? I seem to remember news stories being the focus on a couple of episodes but all that's coming to mind is the OMWF gag about the musical numbers. (Oh, and maybe one in Hush too about everyone losing their voices and I suppose print would have been handy exposition then.)

orangewaxlion | June 06, 00:38 CET

That's so funny. Now I'll be looking at every newspaper in every film/episode looking for the same images.

palehorse | June 06, 01:21 CET

Reminds me of "the scream":

Cue the Scream: Meet Hollywood's Go-To Shriek - Wired.com.

jubal lives | June 06, 01:41 CET

Ooops, wrong thread. :)

[ edited by menomegirl on 2010-06-06 02:21 ]

menomegirl | June 06, 01:58 CET

There's a distinctly Twilight Zoneish feel to seeing characters over the years reading the same newspaper. Cute catch.

barboo | June 06, 02:01 CET

Alas! The multiverse in print!

marvelknight616 | June 06, 02:38 CET

So uncanny to see the same print over and over again.. It's almost scary.

cardea | June 06, 03:30 CET

The funny thing is that even when they have more than one page of the broadsheet, it's still just a stack of that one page, and it's printed back to back. Check out the Desperate Housewives 2x13 shot (lazy! You can see the same stories printed on both sides!) and the Desperate Housewives 3x07 (you can see the second page has the same headline).

It's fantastic!

highandrandom | June 06, 04:09 CET

Nine years later and Ed O'Neill still hasn't finished that page.

LO effing L.

The One True b!X | June 06, 06:23 CET

At least it isn't the same mocking mummy hand, over and over and over...

quantumac | June 06, 06:51 CET

I also thought of Early Edition when I saw these... Also they actually need to show the contents of the paper so the probably couldn't get away with it.

'Early Edition' used the Chicago Sun-Times which is a real paper (i.e. they had no need to use a prop because they'd already apparently licenced the real thing, maybe partly for realism and partly to firmly place it in Chicago). I guess they may have used this one for the internal pages that Gary flicks past when he's looking for the plot related story (it'd be easier than either clearing parts of an actual newspaper - presumably part of the reason they use a prop paper is because if they used a real one or made one up each time they might inadvertently feature real people or events with all the legal issues that involves - or producing a complete fake every time).

Cool link (I hope that Housing Bill went through, sounds like a lot of fictional people could really have benefited).

[ edited by Saje on 2010-06-06 07:37 ]

Saje | June 06, 07:36 CET

lol.

Well, now I will be paying more attention to newspapers in movies and television.

goodridd | June 06, 07:58 CET

My personal favorite is Wesley's book on Astral Projection being about Castillian and Gallic kings from 1284 in Latin. I bet the prop department didn't expect me to sit there trying to translate the really archaically-written Latin. LOL.

"Astral Projection
Anno Chriſti milleſimo ducenticſimo octogetimo quarto, indictione duodecimâ, rebus Caſtellæ propemodûm deſperatis ob diffidium inter partem Alfonſum nc San Etium filium; mortuus eſt Alfonſus menſe Apeili anno xtatis ſexazeſimo tertio, Hiſpali, ubi patre defunĉto regium inſigne ſuſceperati condito anteà reſlamento quo Alfonſumnc Ferdinandum Caldus... ſubſtitutos pogni heredes nominauitinc utto que ſine prole defunĉto, Philippum Galliæ Regem ad priores Caſtellæ Reges manerum genus referantem. Inter maximus Reges..."

Marcie's book is also a famous one due to the Beatles lyrics with an extra added dose of random but hilarious gibberish. "...digital skeletons of Swiss cheese." is an example.

The '5 died in van accident' newspaper actually does have something relevant written for it, but it repeats itself over and over again along with several other bits of random and totally unrelated articles. I think one is about recycling. But the same texts just repeat all over the page.

Heroes did a good job as far as props go (though some weirdness with Nathan and Nikki's Vegas date and Linderman's calendar--otherwise, it's actually remarkable how tightly mapped the entire show is regarding plane and car travel--it fails a bit on moving the show out of 2006-2007 to the point of 2009 being a bit of a mindf*ck). Certainly waaaaay more of an effort to have readable props than anything on BtVS/AtS. John Smith's journal in Doctor Who is actually disjointed, but intriguing if you read it (the prop person's handwriting sucks beyond belief, though). Doctor Who slightly failed to keep current when Rose's home timeline jumps forward a year, but there's an excuse with time travel and the Doctor basically being involved in home timeline events with two companions at the same time (IE. Martha is pulled out of her timeline prior to Donna meeting the Doctor, even though that occurred first).

Granted, things used to be made before people looked up every date and paused on every newspaper. A funny one is that Halloween 1993 in Hocus Pocus isn't on a school day like it's shown to be in the movie.

BtVS, in particular, made a whole bunch of insane dating errors regarding Oz's werewolf moon schedule, but they're all fudgeable if you have several episodes overlapping (IE. the necklace teaser + Amy in BB&B comes before Phases and then finishes off the week with Valentine's and goes into the next week). Oz and Veruca has to happen before Halloween with him leaving right after Halloween. Otherwise, Oz's leaving would get mixed up with Pangs, which is completely impossible. Mutant Enemy seem to have had a calendar shortage and never seemed to look up full moon dates. Don't get me started on Buffy's changing birth dates in IRYJ. Clearly made before people were pausing every computer screen to read the epic prop fails.

[ edited by NileQT87 on 2010-06-06 09:10 ]

NileQT87 | June 06, 08:03 CET

Also used on Angel.

http://whedonesque.com/comments/5753

Simon | June 06, 09:08 CET

Actually, the "scream"... the Wilhelm Scream... has been around since 1951, but didn't gain the overdone, endless list of copycats until Ben Burtt's work on Star Wars/Indiana Jones made it really, really famous.

The Wilhelm Scream:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdbYsoEasio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YDpuA90KEY (this one has AtS' entry)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zQjbULMSKA

There's barely been an action movie/show since Star Wars that hasn't used it. George Lucas, in particular, went crazy with it.

Apparently, it was Sheb Wooley, the singer of The Purple People Eater, that did the scream!

[ edited by NileQT87 on 2010-06-06 09:33 ]

NileQT87 | June 06, 09:24 CET

Don't get me started on Buffy's changing birth dates in IRYJ. Clearly made before people were pausing every computer screen to read the epic prop fails.

You'd be amazed ;).

(those guys would pause video - video mind-you - to read the computer displays in the background of shots)

John Smith's journal in Doctor Who is actually disjointed, but intriguing if you read it (the prop person's handwriting sucks beyond belief, though).

His "Journal of Impossible Things" is actually a record of fragments remembered as dreams of his real life, probably written down hurriedly upon waking before he forgets so "disjointed" (and bad handwriting - actually just rushed cursive handwriting) is absolutely in keeping with the episode(s) and, i'd bet, entirely deliberate.

Saje | June 06, 09:26 CET

Well, yeah, duh. And it's clearly intended to be a bit rushed... Still, the journal is one example of a prop that was done with fans in mind (knowing they'd be reading it).

BtVS/AtS rarely had that kind of DVD-pausing foresight and failed about 90% of the time with it.

And... of course Trekkies have been pausing their videos for decades. LOL. I wouldn't expect any less from that community.

You should see Warsies looking for the 1138 on the side of a helmet. The cell block number on the Death Star is the obvious one, of course. As is John Milner's license plate (THX-138).

1138 is the George Lucas equivalent of Hidden Mickeys. The most obvious is probably the Hidden Mickey in the moon on Peter Pan's Flight (I actually looked and spotted this one when I rode the ride 17 times in one day, 15 times consecutively on the day Disneyland was empty due to a terrorist threat). On Pirates of the Caribbean, three canons come together... And I've heard that the one on It's a Small World is with the mermaids... Mr. Toad's Wild Ride's is apparently on a door, but it was a pain to look for (that ride is not conducive to trying to look at doors)...

[ edited by NileQT87 on 2010-06-06 09:52 ]

NileQT87 | June 06, 09:39 CET

Well, yeah, duh.

Careful, that could come across as offensive ;).

(if it's that obvious why did you mention it as if it were noteworthy NileQT87 ? And if it's "clearly intended to be a bit rushed" then why say the handwriting is bad ? Do you mean bad apart from being rushed ? In what way and how can you tell ?)

Saje | June 06, 09:49 CET

No, I mean "bad handwriting" as in, even if you pause it, it's not the easiest prop to read. It's a bit scribbly. Also, phrases repeat over and over again--but that adds to the disjointedness of it.

I've squinted at worse, though. The aforementioned itty-bitty text on Gallic and Castillian kings comes to mind as being hard to transcribe.

Not trying to be rude. Just lighthearted fun at pointing out things I've squinted at.

I like reading props. And I just noted that one as one I found particularly interesting because it actually does sort of explore a few things about a character that not much is ever revealed about.

In the original pilot of Heroes, you can read some of "Paul E. Sylar"'s wall newspapers. Kind of fun, too, as those same wall clippings never left the final cut of the episode, but there was no zoom up on the wall. The 'snow falls in Miami' article is actually lifted right from a real newspaper.

BtVS/AtS never really had a lot of believable detail as far as newspapers, computer screens and books. Close inspection by fans doesn't appear to have been taken into consideration by the prop department. Though the difference between the prop people's neat cursive handwriting and David Boreanaz's huge scrawl always made me giggle.

[ edited by NileQT87 on 2010-06-06 10:14 ]

NileQT87 | June 06, 09:55 CET

Fair enough. I guess I see it more as excellent rushed handwriting (since appearing rushed - and therefore hard to read - is the intent) and likewise "disjointed" isn't a complaint about the prop since that's also the aim but whatever, minor quibble, props (the other kind) for your squintwithitness ;).

(which isn't to say I think they sat and painstakingly reproduced the look of rushed handwriting BTW - the easiest way to reproduce rushed handwriting is just to write something by hand while rushing and I bet that's exactly what they did)

Saje | June 06, 10:06 CET

Eh? How do you figure this?

Matt7325 | June 06, 13:27 CET

Haha. That's great!

One of my favourite Angel written props is the magazine article Cordelia was reading at the end of 'Guise will be Guise'. It was a nice bit of poking fun:

'Everything was perfect - the food, the flowers, the fashions. The weather was perfect - a beautiful balmy evening with so many stars they seemed to overlap. Inside, there were almost as many stars. The casts from Where's Grandma, Sepulveda Place and Shopping for Sophie were all in attendance, as well as the director of photography from Yosemite and the whole writing staff from the hit new reality show Trapped in an Elevator.
Things got really interesting when soap star Tripp von Weisling from Morning Light tried to make off with an ice sculpture of supermodel Lula Gabrielle. We know she's an ice princess, Tripp, but really...'

Shep | June 06, 14:38 CET

Someone has way to much to time on their hands that they spotted this! But hey, I read this article so I guess I am the same ......

twinkle | June 06, 15:56 CET

Omg, that is so funny. I can't believe I've never noticed that. Though, it's probably not something most would pay attention to.

Jossfan_21 | June 06, 16:12 CET

Actually, I got it from my 'Angel: The Casefiles' book which has a copy of the article. I just thought it was kinda funny.

Shep | June 06, 16:23 CET

What I found interesting (besides the stuff other people have pointed out) was all the different ways actors find to read a newspaper. Different postures, different facial expressions.

janef | June 06, 19:49 CET

And while not pictured here, this newspaper was used countless times on Spike's favourite show, Passions.

Riker | June 06, 20:43 CET

I was under the impression for Doctor Who even though they were a little messy consistently dating things to be a year later, since Martha's season took place in something like three or four "real" days that meant they were basically set from that point on.

The only thing now is that the BBC needs to press for David Tennant to be involved with lighting the 2012 London Olympic games.

orangewaxlion | June 07, 09:54 CET

Martha states that she's from 2007... And being that ever since Aliens of London, the show's "home time" has been a year in advance (Rose was missing for a year... which means The Christmas Invasion is Christmas 2006, not 2005). And none of the Christmas episodes are concurrent (Wilf talks about the 3 Christmases). Thus, Martha is probably picked up in a time prior to The Runaway Bride or immediately within the next 6 days left of December 2007. But Aliens of London does shoot the rest of it a year past the air date. And despite Martha's short amount of missing time, Voyage of the Damned is still Christmas 2008, despite being aired for Christmas 2007. And it's definitely solid that Rose meets Nine in 2005 (and Ten last sees her New Year's Day 2005). So, yeah, it's all a year ahead since series 1. The specials would be back on track, though (as The Next Doctor is set in the past, it doesn't fill up the 2009 slot--which is The End of Time). Though, Amy's home time firmly puts it all back on track (Amy's home time is actually on the finale date).

[ edited by NileQT87 on 2010-06-07 11:05 ]

NileQT87 | June 07, 10:54 CET