Phone numbers for use in TV shows, films and creative works

https://www.acma.gov.au/phone-numbers-use-tv-shows-films-and-creative-works

by nomilk • 9 months ago

287 133 9 months ago

acma.gov.au

ChrisArchitect• 9 months ago

https://www.nanpa.com/numbering/555-line-numbers

benjojo12• 9 months ago

The UK also has something similar https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/phone-numbers/...

Theodores3• 9 months ago

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.

ZeWaka• 9 months ago

My fictional British phone number is: 0118 999 88199 9119 725 3

dcminter2• 9 months ago

Growing up my home phone number was 4 digits for a local call, or at least so I was required to memorise it as a small child.

In the very late 90s I briefly had a rotary dial phone - very anachronistic even then - and discovered that dialling an eleven digit number that way is a huge ballache - it's so sloooow! Especially if the number has a bunch of 9s in it.

A little after that I was in the US but kept using my British mobile for a month or two as my contact - giving my number to people was even worse ... rattling off a 15 digit (international prefix plus country code) always confused people.

I too remember the Swap Shop number with some fondness. I certainly called it at least once or twice.

Last note - I realised recently that I still know the X29 address for nsfnet relay from Janet to the Internet (basically a Janet-to-telnet relay). That's a 14 digit number that I last used over 30 years ago. My memory's pretty average, but man, once stuff goes in it does not come out again!

redjet• 9 months ago

To be pedantic, both 0171 and 0181 became 020, but with the 7 or the 8 moved to the front of the number, so 0171 222 1234 [1] became 020 7222 1234, with 7222 1234 being dialable in London without the area code.

There are also now London numbers that start with a 3 or a 4 as well as 7 and 8 so it's important to properly describe the dialling code for London as 020.

Misconceptions about telephone dialling in the UK are so commonplace that they merit their own Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_telephone_code_misconceptio...

[1] a real number that will get you through to Transport for London enquiries

ghaff6• 9 months ago

In the US, there was a period when phone numbers were getting scarce in some locales as faxes/modems/etc. were coming in. Additional area codes were added, as was lampooned in a Seinfeld episode at one point; some people got rather hot and bothered when they got migrated from the "main" metro area code to essentially a suburban area code.

jrmg• 9 months ago

I suspect my ability to sing ‘0181 811 81 81’ might mark be out as a Briton of a certain age…

Marsymars• 9 months ago

For any website registration that asks for a phone number I put in one of these for my area.

L-four• 9 months ago

Always use theses in testing don't ask me how I know.

PlunderBunny• 9 months ago

I don’t see Beachwood 4-5789 on that list.

paranoidrobot2• 9 months ago

I don't think Marvin Gaye was using ACMA's list.

jolt42• 9 months ago

If Jenny's number was 555-5309 I don't think it would have worked in a song.

aidenn0• 9 months ago

KLondike 5-5309 kind of works though.

riffic2• 9 months ago

Pennsylvania 6-5000 was a real phone number too

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PEnnsylvania_6-5000

drob518• 9 months ago

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.

davidgh• 9 months ago

Rumor also has it that in virtually any major grocery store in the USA you can put in any (valid) area code and 867-5309 and it will work as a rewards member number to get you the discounts. I have done it when traveling and have had success.

user3939382• 9 months ago

I heard of a business trying to sell it but couldn’t for licensing so sold the business and the number was incidental.

hn_acc1• 9 months ago

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.

macintux• 9 months ago

There was a fairly large local grocery chain who just required the last 4 digits of the phone number to get a discount. I’m not sure who thought that was a good idea, but they’ve since gone out of business (I’m reasonably certain there’s no direct correlation between those facts).

madcaptenor• 9 months ago

Generally 867-5309 in the local area code works for most rewards programs.

jrockway• 9 months ago

Something burned into my brain is "call 836-7000 or visit transitchicago.com" which was an announcement that played seemingly every 30 seconds on CTA buses back when I lived there. I was in California once and tried 312-836-7000 as the loyalty card phone number at Safeway and it worked. So I guess I'm not the only one. (847- 773- etc. would probably also work. That's why I thought the message was so cool... they got the number in every Chicagoland area code!)

I have shared this story on Reddit before and I got banned from r/AskReddit for "doxing". That phone number is super secret and must not be publicized! Whoops!

neilv• 9 months ago

One time I used 867-5309 at a chain store, the young male checkout clerk had an instant of a look of recognition, and promptly sang the number, really well.

devilbunny2• 9 months ago

(xxx)555-1212 works surprisingly often. I've used it more than a few times while traveling.

About ten years ago or so, Kroger finally integrated the loyalty programs across all their brands of stores (City Market, Harris Teeter, Kroger, King Soopers, Ralphs, Fred Meyer, and others, but those are the ones I have been in), so you can use pretty much any older area code you like to try it out.

bebb• 9 months ago

It's funny to see where that number ends up. Even on government websites, e.g. https://staging.housingbayarea.mtc.ca.gov/listing/ext/40d6d4...

saghm2• 9 months ago

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.

raw_anon_1111• 9 months ago

For the old RNB crowd it was 777-9311…

MinimalAction• 9 months ago

Wow! Had no idea. I wonder how do they monitor if they use these for setting up an account for some offers.

paranoidrobot2• 9 months ago

The only people who would give one of these numbers out in real life are people who otherwise don't want to give you a real number.

Anyone who needs a number for a legitimate reason should do their own validation anyway.

You can try calling them but they return "number disconnected" messages.

zeta0134• 9 months ago

I have one of these that I use when dealing with retailers for which the phrase "I don't have a smartphone" does not compute. Saves the hassle of having to explain it every time, and so far I'm the only one using my made up number, so they "remember me" or whatever. But they can't actually call, and that's the point.

01HNNWZ0MV43FF• 9 months ago

For a good time call (303) 499-7111

SoftTalker• 9 months ago

For dirty deeds ring 3-6 2-4 3-6.

lisbbb• 9 months ago

Man, I miss the days when telephones were just telephones. The world just seems less mysterious now.

rererereferred• 9 months ago

Does this mean 634-5789 is a real number?

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

snthd• 9 months ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictitious_telephone_number

extraduder_ire2• 9 months ago

I expected more than 8 countries + NANP to have drama numbers.

waltbosz4• 9 months ago

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

nomilk• 9 months ago

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)

fletchowns• 9 months ago

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

If you want to let somebody know you can't talk right now but you will call them back in 10 minutes, this makes it possible without having them use another quarter (coin currency in US) to call you back in 10 minutes, or requiring them to feed quarters in while you wait on hold for 10 minutes.

Also plenty of other reasons that we've all seen in spy movies :)

dan_linder• 9 months ago

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

Mostly for the humor value for an on-air radio show. I’m sure were pre-arranged just to make sure they got something usable, but I can see the occasion where a random person walking by and hearing the pay phone RINGING would cause them to pause. As a teenager I would have picked it up in a heartbeat (even not having heard the radio shows).

As for other “purposes” I’ve seen some crime/drama shows where the bad guy tells someone to go to the corner pay phone and answer it when it rings at a specific time. Horrible idea now as the phone systems would easily record the number that called it, but up until the early 2000’s it would be one option. Today I would guess dropping a burner phone in an envelope for the “victim” would be a more likely movie trope…

(Source: I’m from the US and remember a few radio stations doing this in the 1980’s and 1990’s.)

ncruces• 9 months ago

I don't have any more money, if it runs out, call me back at this number.

roygbiv2• 9 months ago

There was once an application, long gone and probably short lived, that let you ring payphones for free over the internet. Me and my mates had a great time phoning up times square, a pub in Australia and other places chatting to randoms.

ChipopLeMoral• 9 months ago

As a kid on school trips I would call my parents with one token (in my country that's what was used) and asked them to call me back. Sometimes at the end of the call your friend might ask your parents to call their parents and asked them to call the pay phone, and so on.

waltbosz4• 9 months ago

I'm not sure how it came to be. My guess is typo. The restaurant in question was down the street from me and it did have a payphone outside of it. I can't recall if I ever went to check the phone number of the payphone.

They actually just demolished the building that formally housed the restaurant (a Friendly's if anyone is familiar). The building sat empty for years.

3eb7988a1663• 9 months ago

Did you get any swag?

waltbosz4• 9 months ago

I did win a Lord of the Rings prize pack from MoreFM, but it never arrived at my house. Either it got lost in transit or they just never shipped it.

The call with them was right around the time of the theatrical release of the first film, and the people on t radio show were excited because the movie was filmed in New Zealand. To win the prize I had to name two people from New Zealand. I couldn't think of anyone, and earlier in the call I had already looked up the stations website, so they told me to go to the staff page and name two people.

This was back in the days of dial up Internet, but we were one of the first houses to get DSL. I remember one of the people at the radio station was amazed that I could be online and on the phone at the same time.

jimmydddd• 9 months ago

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.

nullhole• 9 months ago

Futurama used the alien alphabet to get around this because, as the commentary said, they didn't want to use another 555- number.

khy• 9 months ago

The Simpsons went more meta: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qh1JlNaOxo

lapcat• 9 months ago

"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

iambateman• 9 months ago

Seeing 770-555-5555 on screen has always been a huge pet peeve for me. It really kills the suspension of disbelief for me.

kevincox• 9 months ago

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.

ianburrell• 9 months ago

I think the goal with 555 numbers is people know not to call it.

But it would be possible to register a number and put a promotion or easter egg on it. These days with virtual phone numbers it would be pretty cheap. The main problem is it lasting when rest of promotion disappears.

reaperducer• 9 months ago

Back in Bell of Pennsylvania days, 555 was a legitimate prefix. It was used to reach BoPA offices.

b112• 9 months ago

It still is, for every area code I believe. It's the same as calling 411 where I am. (Information)

pbhjpbhj2• 9 months ago

When I was a kid '555' was my whole [UK local] phone number.

kid642• 9 months ago

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.

lwhi• 9 months ago

I thought 1 is the country prefix for the USA?

dhosek2• 9 months ago

I think that’s at least in part because some 555 prefix numbers have been assigned for non-directory information uses (I have a vague notion of seeing this for some toll-free numbers).

bitwize2• 9 months ago

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.

ThePowerOfFuet• 9 months ago

rapidly pressing the prison phone's switchhook ten times (effectively pulse-dialing 0)

Eleven times; 1 was two clicks.

dhosek2• 9 months ago

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.

degamad• 9 months ago

* in Australia

averageRoyalty2• 9 months ago

I would imagine the .au on the Australian Communications and Media Authority's domain gives that away.

ThaFresh• 9 months ago

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.

saghm2• 9 months ago

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)

riffic2• 9 months ago

this only applies in country code 61. most folks here would be in another numbering plan:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_telephone_country_code...

ram_rattle• 9 months ago

This is dope, will be nice to see how many robo crawlers are crawling these numbers.

edoceo• 9 months ago

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.

ainiriand• 9 months ago

Excuse me, but what is an OGM?

mithcs• 9 months ago

Probably Out-Going Message.

billpg• 9 months ago

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.

afandian• 9 months ago

The test prefix for test or example DOIs is 10.5555, following the American phone number convention. I have 10.5555/12345678 seared in my muscle memory.

alberth• 9 months ago

Phone systems use to be high tech back-in-the-day and the original "hacker news" was https://www.2600.com (in print).

Fokamul• 9 months ago

Phone bombers are still a thing ;-)

alexpotato• 9 months ago

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

Beijinger• 9 months ago

+49-89-32 16 8

neoCrimeLabs• 9 months ago

If only Tommy Tutone had this list when they wrote 867-5309.

cortesoft• 9 months ago

The number has to be singable, though.

amelius• 9 months ago

Do they also have this for IP addresses?

Strilanc• 9 months ago

I saw a commercial once where the joke was a guy asking a girl for her IP address instead of her phone number. They went with 127.0.0.1; the loopback address. So (at least in my eyes) there was the extra unspoken joke of her essentially telling the guy to go f*#$ himself.

Phone numbers for use in TV shows, films and creative works

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