A Reddit user was baffled as to how American TV characters never seem to say ‘goodbye’ when ending a phone call
TV characters never say bye on US TV shows(Image: Getty)
If you’ve ever watched an American film or TV programme, you may have clocked that characters rarely utter ‘goodbye’ before ending a phone conversation.
Instead, they simply cut the call short without a second’s hesitation, seemingly unbothered by what might elsewhere be deemed discourteous.
Yet there’s actually a proper filmmaking explanation behind why characters skip the pleasantries when ringing off – and it boils down to pure practicality.
Baffled by this phenomenon, one Reddit user asked: “Why do most characters just hang up the phone without saying goodbye? Over the past few years, I have seen people just hanging up.
“Sometimes mid-conversation, but mostly not. It’s like saying bye on the phone isn’t the norm anymore. Is this just to save time during the show or is it a cultural thing in the US?”.
Addressing the mystery head-on, screenwriter and producer Michael Jamin clarified matters in a TikTok clip that’s since racked up over 206,000 likes.
On his account @michaeljaminwriter, Michael – whose credits include King of the Hill, Wilfred and Maron – revealed how the television business labels phrases like ‘goodbye’ as ‘shoe leather’.
He explained: “Shoe leather might make a scene feel more realistic – but it doesn’t necessarily make the scene more entertaining.
“In TV, we also have running times. We have to turn in a cut to the network for like 22 minutes. They won’t accept 22 minutes and 30 seconds. Knowing this, we always shoot long maybe 25 minutes knowing that not every scene is going to be great.
“We want to have a liberty to trim and pace up a bit – but we don’t know where.”
Michael explains that whilst trimming the opening couple of minutes proves straightforward, deciding what to axe beyond that becomes increasingly difficult.
He added: “You’re like, if I cut the guy saying goodbye then maybe I get to keep my favourite joke. Eventually, you get to the point where you’re not even writing the bye into the script knowing you’ll just cut it later.”
The admission sparked plenty of reaction online, with one viewer admitting: “Oh I thought it was for dramatic effect like they are too cool to say goodbye.”
Another added: “From now on, I will quit saying goodbye and use that time to maybe go on vacation when I’m old.”
A third wrote: “I’m from Europe and when I was younger I thought that’s the way people in the US end their phone calls…” Whilst another said: “So glad you weighed in on this. I’m a firm believer that it’s more distracting to say goodbye in a film or tv show. Big fan Michael!”