Talk:555 (telephone number)

Klondike 5
Can someone explain this? I'm assuming KL5 is a reference to the letters on the number 5, but where does "klondike" come from? Klondike 5 redirects here, so it should be explained on this page. 68.68.88.36 (talk) 17:45, 26 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Just a convenient name which came to be adopted for the fictitious numbers. With the 2L-5N scheme, the 55x prefixes had little use simply because it was hard to come up with any usable names to match any of the possible two-letter permutations - JJ, JK, JL, KJ, KK, KL, LJ, LK, LL.  Only the KL combination stands much chance of being usable (at least with English-based names), but even then was limited.  KLamath comes to mind, but not too many others.  KLondike just happened to be one of the few names which fit.  91.125.207.231 (talk) 16:52, 10 May 2014 (UTC)

article trashed
the article's first section, the summary, looks horrid...

I'm thinking that this page should be merged into 555, then made into a redirect. I think the dashes will just make this page harder to find. Hardly anyone (to be generous) writes phone numbers with dashes between the digits. You might write 555-1234, or (555) 123-4567, or 555.1234, or whatever, but not 5-5-5 1-2-3-4 etc. -Rholton (aka Anthropos) 05:23, 22 Feb 2004 (UTC)


 * Convention appears to be to use pure numbers to refer to dates eg 911 is the year Nine-hundred and eleven AD; this then has a link to Number 911 which notes the usage as the North American emergency number linking to 9-1-1. It isn't pretty but is the convention. Maybe 555 (telephone) would be better. MrWeeble 23:22, 22 May 2004 (UTC)


 * According to folklore, "9-1-1" is written that way because too many people read it as "nine-eleven" and then, under stress, got stuck looking for the "eleven" button. &mdash;Tamfang 16:11, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

Requested move
5-5-5 → 555 telephone number – the original title is bad, but the move must be done by admin because I already started a duplicate article at the logical destination (because I didn't find the original article. because the original title is bad...). — Chinasaur 03:13, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)


 * Support moving the page. Jonathunder 17:27, 2005 Apr 15 (UTC)
 * Oppose. The move would not make it easier to find the page. Most people would search for "555" / "number 555" (which link/redirect to a disambiguation page) and "555 phone number" / "555 telephone number" (both redirect to 5-5-5). No need to redirect from "555 number" as well, cause a disambiguation page appears right on the page 1 of search results (but the NNN number pattern is a potential candidate for bot-created redirects to NNN (number)). DmitryKo 19:09, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * That Chinasaur created a new article under a different name demonstrates that the page is not easily found. Writing 5-5-5 with dashes between the numbers is probably the least intuitive of the alternatives named. Jonathunder 01:18, 2005 Apr 16 (UTC)
 * The argument to rename has more to do with the title being unintuitive and unnatural than with the page being hard to find. Any page becomes easy to find once the proper links and redirects are made, even if the redirects are from a more intuitive name to a less.  --Chinasaur 07:30, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC)


 * Support My apologies - it seem so simple that I did the move without thinking first. I moved it back, but anyone can now move it forward again. --Henrygb 00:05, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I have performed this move. - UtherSRG 12:18, Apr 20, 2005 (UTC)

Question
whats the purpose of numbers? The article seems to imply that the most commonly used fictional number, namely, 555-5555, is actually available for use. Is this true? Also, does the (555) area code exist anywhere? Fieari 07:14, July 24, 2005 (UTC)


 * According to Dan, 555 is not an area code in the US or Canada. http://www.danstheman.com/Jenny.htm--Atlastawake 18:29, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

entity unclear
The first words under the Fictitious Phone Numbers section are "The phone company began encouraging..." Who is the "phone company? The old AT&T monopoly? Sammo 21:15, 10 December 2005 (UTC)

IP address
The question as to whether that IP range is really similar or not prompted a bit of research by me, and it happens it is indeed: Private Internets

Ain't that a hang of a thing. Search 4  Lancer  02:33, 26 December 2005 (UTC)

Actual numbers

 * Others, such as the producers of HBO's Sex and the City have acquired actual telephone numbers solely for the purpose of using them in the movie or on TV.

What happens when someone calls them? Do they hear recorded promotional messages about the shows? Seahen 19:47, 3 February 2006 (UTC)


 * The number shown on Fox's 24 is a fan insider line. It has been answered on-set in between takes by crew members. --68.35.127.124 (talk) 00:07, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

Reserved for what

 * In fact, only 555-0100 through 555-0199 are now specifically reserved for fictional use; the other numbers have been reserved for actual assignment, with the notable exception of the 800 area code where only 800-555-0199 is reserved. The entire 555 exchange is reserved in all overlay North American toll-free area codes (844, 855, 866, 877, 888)

In one case, the numbers are reserved for fictional use. In another, they are reserved for actual assignment. In the two remaining cases they are reserved. Reserved for what?? 76.188.146.163 (talk) 19:16, 15 December 2015 (UTC)

"Fictitious domain names" should be a separate entry
Certainly it's a related concept, but internet addresses are not the same thing as phone numbers.

Also, maybe some Aqua Teen Hunger Force fan could recall all the names of fictitious websites mentioned on that show and add to the list (and find out if any of them actually exist); I think there's probably about half a dozen of them.

B7T 09:19, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

Senor Cartgage
The list of fictitious numbers includes a very long one for "Señor Mortgage." His name is Senor Cardgage (no tilde on Senor), and the number is for Senor Cardgage Mort-gage. Also, the link (cite) is wrong. It should be http://www.hrwiki.org/index.php/Senor_Cardgage_Mort-gage, not http://www.hrwiki.org/index.php/Senor_Mortgage. Will fix. 71.154.213.191 22:16, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Let's delete all the examples
I'm ready to delete the list of examples, which is now at 45 (if I counted correctly), all of which are incredibly unenlightening. Fake 555 exchanges have been used on a zillion shows and movies - that's the whole point, after all - and the list could extend almost indefinitely. I see no reason to keep any of them. Any thoughts? - DavidWBrooks 16:07, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
 * The lack of response has been deafening. I may kill them all in another day or two if nobody objects. - DavidWBrooks 11:29, 19 June 2006 (UTC)
 * OK, I've removed them. See if anybody reacts. - DavidWBrooks 14:43, 21 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Brute! Fiend! To callously wipe out a whole tribe of harmless &mdash; er, what were they again? &mdash;Tamfang 02:41, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

I actually moved onto the discussion page specifically to suggest that such a list be created. How disappointing to be shot down before I even began. 62.172.143.199 19:44, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

167-1402
The article says that some movies use fictional phone numbers beginning with 1, for example 167-1402. What is the source for this? I find it difficult to believe. I will delete that sentence unless someone can cite a reliable source.--Mathew5000 10:35, 13 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Just curious but why do you find it hard to believe? I-baLL 18:30, 22 September 2006 (UTC)


 * Because I’ve seen lots of movies and don’t recall ever hearing someone use a seven-digit phone number beginning with the digit 1. --Mathew5000 12:31, 19 October 2006 (UTC)


 * I've seen it, but I don't remember where. It was some sort of action or spy movie and someone viewed a list of phone numbers on a computer screen, and they were all like that.  It might have been Fair Game (1995 film), which I certainly don't expect to ever see again.  --208.76.104.133 (talk) 07:11, 4 September 2009 (UTC)


 * Ditto. I couldn't give a movie or TV show title, but have certainly seen a few examples.  97.84.107.236 (talk) 21:20, 26 October 2015 (UTC)

Sneakers
Sneakers (film) is an example of a film using a non-555 number. . At the end of the film, one of the characters asks an attractive NSA agent for her phone number, and she gives a real number with a 415 area code. A rumour circulated that this was the San Francisco office of the IRS (which the filmmakers wanted to disrupt), but that is untrue; it was actually the office number of somebody working at Universal Pictures (the film's production company). --Mathew5000 10:46, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

PEnnsylvania 6-5000
This seems like as good a place as any to try and settle something I've wondered about for years - back in the 30s, were the phone companies deluged with calls to Pennsylvania 65000?--82.36.128.184 02:13, 18 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Technically, you mean PEnnsylvania 6-5000. 216.179.123.109 (talk) 15:48, 25 March 2008 (UTC)


 * PEnnsylvania 6-5000 was then, and still is today (although perhaps not for much longer), the number of the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York. The hotel is next to Pennsylvania Station (and before that, to the original Pennsylvania Station), and must have considered the song to be free advertising.  Today, of course, the hotel's number is dialed with the area code 212.


 * In those days different cities did not all use the same telephone exchange names for the same two digits -- 73 might be named PEnnsylvania in one city, PErshing in another, REpublic in a third, SEaside in a fourth. (Presumably either New York used PEnnsylvania because of the train station, or else maybe they used another name and the hotel people realized PEnnsylvania was equivalent and used it instead in their advertising.)  If people heard an exchange name they did not recognize, they would likely realize it must be in another city and would not try to just dial the number.  And if they asked the operator for it, they would have to name the city; and if they knew it was New York, they'd get the hotel. --208.76.104.133 (talk) 07:17, 4 September 2009 (UTC)
 * "Presumably either New York used PEnnsylvania because of the train station, or else maybe they used another name and the hotel people realized PEnnsylvania was equivalent and used it instead in their advertising." - PEnnsylvania 6 was an official central office prefix in New York.  Prior to circa 1930, New York was one of the few American cities to use 3L-4N numbering, and thus PEnnsylvania 6-5000 had started out as PENnsylvania 5000.  97.84.107.236 (talk) 04:56, 29 June 2015 (UTC)

555-2368
Is there a citation for 555-2368 being a commonly-used "fake" number, as stated in the opening spiel? The only places I can think of are the movie Ghostbusters and some TV show I can't remember, but it may have been Kojak (I think I heard it in a Trivial Pursuit question). Also, would anyone like me to stick in a framegrab of the number when it's shown in Ghostbusters, to give the article a bit of colour (and some basis for the regular use of the number)? Dave-ros 17:43, 2 March 2007 (UTC)
 * It was Jim Rockford's number in The Rockford Files years before it was used in Ghostbusters. NossB (talk) 17:14, 14 April 2008 (UTC)


 * http://home.earthlink.net/~mthyen/2000.html lists 11 uses for that specific number.--Father Goose (talk) 18:19, 14 April 2008 (UTC)


 * Where I live, it used to be the number shown on any phone in phone company (Bell Canada) advertisements or illustrations. --208.76.104.133 (talk) 07:11, 4 September 2009 (UTC)


 * 555-LIST lists only 11 for this number, but has 24 for 555-0199 so I've removed the mention from the lead. -- Jeandré, 2011-01-15t11:36z


 * The 555-2368 number was extensively in Bell System advertising throughout both Canada and the United States. Where an area code was required, they also often displayed the fictitious area code 311.  91.125.207.231 (talk) 16:56, 10 May 2014 (UTC)

Worldwide View
Why exactly is there a "worldwide view" tag on an article that is obviously about something North American? Of course it isn't going to represent a worldwide view -- it's an article about a fictional, North American telephone number. Shouldn't the tag be removed, considering that, you know, there most likely isn't any actual way to conform it to a "worldwide view"? --Serph 20:19, 20 August 2007 (UTC)
 * The 555 prefix does represent a world wide view of America, actually. I'm Australian, and untill I saw this page today, I actually thought all phone numbers in the US started with "555". Of course, this is incredibly naive of me, and I obviously never actually thought this through, but I'm sure I'm not the only one with this misconception.--Murgie 02:41, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

Beechwood 4-5789
How about the song Beechwood 4-5789 "you can call me up and have a date, any old time," A minor hit in 1962, written by Marvin Gaye, and performed by the Marvelettes.151.204.233.138 13:00, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

Fictional tie-in website
The Geocomtex website has a 555 "toll free number". T.Neo (talk) 13:31, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Push, Nevada
As long as we're listing examples, I think the TV show, "Push Nevada," deserves some mention. It was an interactive mystery series, in which the phone numbers used in the show were owned by the producers of the show. Astute viewers would call the number and get clues to solve the mystery.

Ultimately, the final call led to a viewer winning a million dollars. 207.59.211.146 (talk) 15:40, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Remove
I removed a ton of irrelevant or non-notable material from this article. Please note that not every 555- listing ever in a mediaoutlet is not significant, this is an encyclopedia. Removed material that didn't have anything to do with the 555 listing (Example scrubs), that stuff relates to how the media uses phone numbers not 555. Also removed foreign listings of the 555- prefix as the restrictions on the number (as far as I can tell) relate to North America. This article still needs a lot of cleanup to bring all the remaining pieces of the puzzle together. I realize this was a lot of info to remove, but I hope you agree with me in thinking that the article is much better and less cumbersome for it.D-rew (talk) 20:41, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

The 555 numbers can be activated in a number of carriers (See www.telecom555.com) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.234.198.44 (talk) 02:16, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

New article fictitious telephone number
I just created fictitious telephone number and moved the stuff from this article that wasn't 555-specific there. That article covers fictitious phone numbers internationally. Well, so far the US and UK ;-) Working on more material ... - David Gerard (talk) 22:46, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

What is "Nations' Tell"?
In the "Real uses" section, one part reads "1-800-555-1234, a commonly used fictional number, is Nations' Tell in the Pacific Northwest..." I've never heard of Nations' Tell - what is it? I tried a Google and nothing sensible came up. 86.167.120.113 (talk) 19:06, 4 May 2010 (UTC)

updating references...
ABC recently redid their website, invalidating the "Laughter and Litigation" link. I've tracked down the new official page for that episode of the program "Law Report", but it doesn't include a transcript like the original version did (and archive.org doesn't seem to have a copy of the original page).

On the other hand, the Comic Book Legends column at Comic Book Resources explored this issue in 2009, and included a copy of the relevant transcript... taken from the then-current "Law Report" site.

So which of these should we use as our source? DS (talk) 14:19, 15 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Cancel that -- the transcript is visible if you click the 'show' link. DS (talk) 00:39, 28 June 2014 (UTC)

Far Side
I have changed the bit on The Far Side, as I believe it is erroneous. It's difficult to be sure, because every web site out there now paraphrases Wikipedia's version, but I don't believe there was any cartoon about prank-calling Satan. I believe this is the actual cartoon. If anyone can show otherwise, please do. 67.142.167.22 (talk) 20:04, 30 April 2014 (UTC)
 * There definitely was. I saw it myself (although it's difficult to find based on a text descriptor, and on Larson's explicit wishes that his strips not be online), but more to the point the Australian news program talked about it being Satan and prank calls. That was the entire point of the defamation lawsuit. Larson did panels with 555 phone numbers multiple times; that was the only one that connected a phone number to Satan. DS (talk) 01:07, 1 May 2014 (UTC)
 * Ah, and here it is - "Graffiti in Hell" is the caption, and in case this URL becomes invalid, the panel's publication date was April 20 1994. In addition to the "warm and tender guy" graffito, there are also butterflies, flowers, a duck, and "you call this hot?". I am therefore restoring the full description of the panel; thank you for having tried to fix the article. DS (talk) 01:16, 1 May 2014 (UTC)

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Other National Film and Television Industries
It strikes me that any nation-state with a film and television industry would have prefixes

analogous to North America's 555. Undoubtedly worth an article! kencf0618 (talk) 14:14, 22 October 2021 (UTC)

"555 (telephone number" listed at Redirects for discussion
The redirect [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=555_(telephone_number&redirect=no 555 (telephone number] has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at  until a consensus is reached. Utopes (talk / cont) 01:01, 8 April 2024 (UTC)