555 telephone number

The oft-used fictional phone number 555-2368, as seen in the movie Ghostbusters

Not all numbers that begin with 555 are fictional—for example, 555-1212 is one of the standard numbers for directory assistance throughout the United States and Canada. In fact, only 555-0100 through 555-0199 are now specifically reserved for fictional use, with the other numbers having been released for actual assignment. How exactly this will intersect with the many uses of 555-2368 (one of the more commonly used fake numbers)¹ by AT&T and other telephone companies, remains unknown.

In Media

The phone companies started encouraging the producers of television shows and movies to use the 555 prefix for fictional telephone numbers, roughly during the 1970s. One of the earliest uses of a 555 number can be seen in Panic in Year Zero! (1962), with 555-2106. In older television shows from the 1950s or 1960s, "KLondike 5" or "KLamath 5" was used, as at the time the telephone exchanges used letters and numbers in phone numbers. More recent works set in this period typically use this convention as well. For example, Dr. Emmett Brown's 1955 phone number in Back to the Future is "KLondike 5-4385".

The number "2368" is a carryover from "EXchange 2368", which was common in old telephone advertisements.² This represents "Exchange Central", with 2368 being the numeric version of "CENTral" in alphabetic dialing.

One of the main reasons the prefix exists is to avoid accidentally using real phone numbers in movies and television programs because viewers frequently call the numbers used. An example of this situation is with the 2003 film Bruce Almighty. The makers of the movie opted not to use the prefix, and several people whose phone numbers matched one mentioned in the film were inundated with callers asking for "God", and the number was edited out for television airings of the movie and on most copies of the DVD.^{citation needed} Another widespread example is Tommy Tutone's hit 1982 song "867-5309/Jenny", which is a valid number in many area codes. Some of these numbers reportedly still receive prank calls asking for "Jenny".³ In 1992, filmmaker Michael Moore unthinkingly included footage of himself reciting his telephone number in the documentary Pets or Meat: The Return to Flint. He received 314 phone calls in just the first day following its broadcast on PBS.⁴

Before "555" or "KLondike-5" gained broad usage, and before touchtone phones became standard, scriptwriters would sometimes invent fake exchanges starting with words like "QUincy" or "Zebra". The letters "Q" and "Z" were not used on the old dial phones.

Some movie or television producers, such as those of HBO's Sex and the City, Scrubs, and The Wire have acquired actual telephone numbers solely for the purpose of using them in the movie or on TV. For example, in the film Sneakers, a character is given anything he asks for; he asks for a lady's phone number. The director wanted to have a real phone number so that the two characters would seem actually interested in each other.

Alternatively, a show's producer might choose to use an actual phone number from the place they are portraying. During The West Wing Season 2 episode "In This White House", a character receives a call from phone number 202-456-1414. This is the actual switchboard number for The White House.⁵ The phone number was also used in the 1976 film All the President's Men and in 1994's The American President.

In some fictional works, the characters are aware of "555" numbers being fake. For instance, in an episode of NewsRadio, a woman gives lead character Jimmy James, who is interested in dating her, a 555 number. After a moment, he realizes "that's one of those made-up TV numbers!" In the movie Last Action Hero the character Danny tries to convince Jack Slater that his world is not real by telling him that since all phone numbers use 555 there would only be 10,000 possible numbers. Slater remains unconvinced, citing the use of area codes as a solution. In the novel Crooked Little Vein, the White House Chief of Staff tells the protagonist to call the number (555) 555-5555 after completing a job. When the character points out the number seems to be fake, the Chief of Staff cryptically tells him "It works for us."

In other countries, where different numbering schemes are used, different conventions for fictional numbers are used. For example, the United Kingdom telephone regulator, the Office of Communications (Ofcom) has reserved⁶ blocks of numbers in most major areas for use in TV and radio dramas, with the generic area code 01632 available for all other areas (for detail see UK telephone numbering plan). Fictitious numbers mostly end with the digits 4960xxx. Ofcom also reserves blocks of cellphone (07700 900xxx), toll-free (08081 570xxx), and pay-per-call numbers (0909 8790xxx) for drama use.

Real uses of 555 numbers

Throughout North America, 1-XXX-555-1212 will connect to directory assistance for the specified area code and 1-800-555-1111 is the number used across North America to reach a Bell Canada operator.

In 1994, the North American Numbering Plan Administration began accepting applications for nationwide 555 numbers (outside the fictitious 555-01XX range). This would mean that a consumer from any area code could dial a seven-digit number such as 555-TAXI, and the owners of that number could connect the call to a local car service. However, according to a 2003 New York Times article, the desired functionality requires the cooperation of local phone authorities, and most phone companies have been reluctant to cooperate.⁷ Despite the fact that the service is virtually unavailable so far, most of the available 555 numbers have already been reserved.⁸

Contents

In Media

Real uses of 555 numbers

See also

References

External links