>>> Whenever I hear it in a drama it somehow breaks the spell of the suspension of belief and you acutely realize that it’s all fakery before your eyes.
True but they really have no choice. Put in an actual number and thousands of idiots call it. Ask the people who had Jenny’s number. 867-5309
Before there was Jenny’s 867-5309 there was Lonesome 7-7203. Tony Booth did a remake of this song around 1973 but the original was recorded around 1950.
Re your post 24, oh, I know why they do it. It still is a spell-breaker for me. I’ve often wondered why the Hollywood bigwigs cannot arrange to have a totally unused number for their use. True, that would not solve the problem entirely since it would be repeated and repeated, but it sure would sound better than 555-2222.