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LOL: The Recurring Prop Newspaper

Posted on Friday, June 4th, 2010 by Peter Sciretta

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If you watch enough television shows and movies, then you might even start to notice that a bunch of the same props are used over and over again. I first noticed this with a magazine prop in various television shows including Married With Children, which featured a gum advertisement on the back cover. Someone on Reddit recently put together a compilation of photos from various television shows, commercials and movies, showing how one newspaper prop gets around and is reused, and reused again.

I don’t know the story behind this prop newspaper, but I assume it was created as a royalty free prop for television shows. Somewhere along the line, the prop became a recurring gag between propmasters. Something like how sound designers reuse the Wilhem Scream in every movie. Check out some examples after the jump.

And here is more:

zz10158e21 Power Rangers Zeo

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A Murder of Crows

A texasi láncf?részes

No Country For Old Men

Angel 3×04

Lucky Louie - 1×06

Everybody hates Chris 2×05

Desperate Housewives - 2×13

Scrubs 6×16

Modern Family 1×16

Travelers Insurance - Prized Possession (Dog Commercial)

more photos via: Katus

Comments

Eric the rexman

"I don't read the paper anymore. It's the same stuff over and over."

Campmotha

Crazy , I was watching Huge and noticed the newspaper for a different reason, I thought the lady looked like Amanda Tapping, but clearly its not her, as I have just been schooled on this craziness. How cool.

guest,

there's also in the first episode of the first season of Huge when the man is in the cafe.

tvgirl102

yeah, HUGE last night!!! im watching it now and i was like, "the prop newspaper!!!"
haha i had to google this to tell someone but the comment above me beat me oh well :)

Songwevr

I just saw the same newspaper show up again! I was watching a new show on ABC Family called "Huge". My kids thought I was crazy when I yelled, "It the newspaper!"

Media Blog

Csórjátok a magyar oldalakról. :D
A texasi láncfűrészes (Hungarian title) az nem más, mint a The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (US title).
De csak mert nem jönnétek rá. :D

Not

that newspaper is faimos !!!

bobby

toy story 3 uses the wilhelm scream within the first ten minutes. listen closely.

Banditking16

must be a really interesting article in there

Drtrousers

I presume you are all American, or a bit dim. Photoshop is a wonderful tool...

Joey Shabadu

There's also this weird lamp I have seen in a number of TV shows, its body is a wooden rectangle that looks like a waffle

Riffler

The same thing happens with sound effects. I've heard the same hospital tannoy announcement on Queensryche's Operation Mindcrime album, Sesame Street and an episode of Taggart.

mae

cool!

Miclog

The paper is in Will & Grace to

joshuajameson

Great now I'm going to see that damn newspaper all the time and be that asshole that has to point it out... hheheheheh yeah!!!. Has anyone pointed out the prop standard-issue police dispatch ? it goes something like "seven eight point night code six, one oh five .... " ?

A Square Chi

I haven't noticed the newspaper, but I have noticed that an ad for wintergreen chewing gum appeared on almost every magazine in late 60's to early 80's tv shows.

Enthea

There is another picture of a woman which is around a lot. I first recognized her as a prop at the Gilmore's House at the Gilmore Girls. She is around whenever there is an apartment of richer people to be proped and I even found her in some 1930s movies. Should've collected them all!

Erin

Actually, it's a company that makes and sells props. They sell a "newspaper" which is obviously a popular item. It's not the same paper, it's the same printing of a prop newspaper.

Sirjackum

I remember hearing this recurring hospital theme, over the intercom, something like "Dr. Davis telephone ,please. Dr. Blair, Dr, J. Hamilton...". I first heard o it on the Queensryche-Operation Mindcrime album. then I heard it on noticed on a few tv shows.

Warren Benedetto

Yes! I hear that all the time too, and I too first heard it on Operation Mindcrime. It's also on a Naughty By Nature song ("Ghetto Bastard", I think), and on a ton of TV shows.

Nowyouknow

The paper was created by a graphic artist specifically as a movie/tv prop. No royalties, no dealing with anyone who's "likeness" would be subject to fees of any sort. The woman who picture is on the page shown the most is an amalgamation of 5 different pictures, if I recall correctly.

It was conceived and produced on set in Toronto and I don't recall the name of the original production, it was that long ago. Why are there so many of them? Well that's easy, do you know how much it costs to print 1 newspaper? We ran a few thousand of them. The text is just gibberish...

--Now you know

the lady's sister

It looks exactly like my sister, who has lived in Australia all her life...spooky!! Are you sure its a composite?

Jfalleyjr

Check out the Harpies Bizarre Bewitched website for an interesting look at the same prop magazine in loads of different shows (The Prop Is Familiar/Crossover Props)

Logo1366

So a friend invented a new work "Dillahunt" - when you use the same actor to play two roles in the same series (aka the "Morgan" ala M*A*S*H*) hoping that no one notices. Lo and behold there he is Garrett Dillahunt in the No Country For Old Men screen shot. Its a small small world

Mathwiz

Thanks, now i'm going to see that paper everywhere.

PansRevenge

Yea i work on movie sets, im a huge star, coke on dick, all that good stuff. (password to the after after party is matt lauer sucks) FTW lmao! Not sure why he sucks or even who he is but hey, if it gets me closa to tha bitches than partttyyy on wayne. Anyhoo, they use my dick as a recurring prop, should keep an eye out for it, or i might poke your eye out with it! haha! always thought that was a good joke, drives tha bitches mad wild ammright! I'm right.

Soeasytopostonthissite4tehwin

God i love you

Snoogans122

I think there's a whole line of 'prop papers'. As in, I saw a movie with a character reading 'tempo' magazine, with the same colors/typeface as 'Time' magazine. Obviously they didn't want to to pay to use the name.

But then, a few days ago, a car insurance commercial came on TV, and in the background is a news stand with, you guessed it, a bunch of 'temo' magazines with the same color and type face. Obviously every famous mag has a generic prop version for movies/TV only.

So there's a whole bunch of knock off magazines/papers sitting in some prop warehouse somewhere, and that's awesome to think about...

Bombaley

i have that newspaper! i keep it, cuz i saw it on T.V.

how much u will pay for it????

Anson Burtch

Even if it is a special durable, no-noise prop, you'd think they'd have made a new one by now!

Lou

The prop paper I've always seen is the one where the back page has the word "Sports" at the top, but all of the print looks more like classified ads than articles.

Awesomedaverules

If you've ever played Godleneye for N64 the scream the girl makes if you keep shooting her in multilayer has been re-used numerous times. I've herd it in movies and TV shows. i can't think of which ones off the top of my head but if you hear it you'll know. it kinda sounds like a high-pitched shock-screech. I know for sure the chick in the blue shirt makes the sound every time shes shot.

Rionelly

I wonder if the lady in the picture gets royalties....?

Kd

My husband and I have noticed that the same house is used in a lot of shows.

Kazoo42

Everybody hates Chris 2×05

lol its on it 2ce...

Will Burns

Did anyone else notice that it's the same girl in all those newspapers?

bluebulge

really? no way!

Moogaloonie

Are you sure?!

Louis vuitton

thank you share

Ross Bennett Brown

Neat-o.

Angie

Very cool insight on prop-world, that I really should have noticed. What have HAVE noticed is that the fake newspapers you see on TV and movies now really don't resemble actual newspapers anymore. For one thing, most newspapers have switched to narrower printing presses, and a very much noticeable narrower page width. Virtually all newspapers now use color, if only in ads, and the layouts in the stock version are totally 20-years-ago.

It would make an excellent grad-student project to design a new stock fake paper.

Ozzy P

I think the fact that people never noticed it before is that the design and layout are very simple and inconspicuous. An over-designed paper would probably be more noticeable.

Chuckowsky

I wonder who wrote the articles featured in that paper and are they any interesting :D

So cool, that something like that was discovered. It's been around for like twenty, thirty years or so and it still doesn't have a Wilhelm-esque name of its own.

Thekingoftown111

shoop?

Mike

As an ex-newspaper editor, I'd say there are two things in play here:

1) The mock newspaper content is known to be safe and uncontroversial. Nobody will be suing about it later.
2) Somebody has had these printed these up on newsprint paper with news ink on a newspaper press, to make them look authentic. You can't just print a few copies that way; press the button and before you know it you have many thousands. Which are now all no doubt sitting in some prop house, waiting to be used anytime anyone wants a newspaper.

KieranMullen

Now find a online version of the newspaper!

jimcarrsavannah

I'ts not the same newspaper, that chick just gets in trouble a lot.

No est bueno!

I think you'll find it's 'recurring'!

Smith

photoshop

RosieMuffysticks

I think that is Patty Hearst.

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