Why is the prefix 555 used for phone numbers on TV programs and in movies?

Answer 1

In North America, telephone numbers with the prefix 555 are widely used for fictitious phone numbers in television shows, films, computer games, and other media.

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.

The phone companies asked the television and movie directors to stop using real phone numbers because people kept calling them and irritating the people with those numbers and clogging up switchboards with nuissance calls.

Answer 2

What everyone else says about the 555 prefix is true... It is a reserved prefix by the Telephone Companies that has no operating numbers with the exception of 555-1212, which is directory assistance. (Note that you can call 1-xxx-555-1212, where xxx is any area code, and get local directory assistance in that area code.) It's essentially the same thing as 411, before 411 existed. Have you ever noticed that on the Simpsons, their numbers are Klondike 5 - xxxx? Or KL5-xxxx. K and L are 5 on the keypad (and even the old rotary phones.) In the days before a fully interconnected telephone system, you could dial people in your own telephone exchange, but if you wanted to talk to someone in another exchange there would be a name. In Kansas City, there is this commercial for Standard Improvement Company. They still show their old cartoon where their phone number is "Westport One, seventy one hundred." And three guys hold up three signs that show WE1, 71, 00. I should YouTube it! Man, I'm such a geek!

Answer 3

When actors first started dialing numbers in TV and the movies, they soon learned that if they used real numbers, many people would call the numbers and cause a nuisance. (This problem resurfaced many years later with the song, "867-5309".) Back when they first realized they had this problem, AT&T had a monopoly on all phone service in the US. They pretty much decided what numbers would be used for what.

At that time, the 555 prefix was an AT&T internal prefix; it was used for numbers at the various phone company offices around the country. For example, 555-1212 used to be the general phone infomation number; you'd call (Area Code) 555-1212 to find a phone number in a distant city. (This was long before the internet existed.)

It was an easy decision to just tell Hollywood to start all movie and TV phone numbers with "555"...if anyone could deal with a phone-related nuisance, it would be the phone company.

Answer 4

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Answer 5

Because people were actually dumb enough to try the numbers. As a result people complained at all the wrong number calls because of TV shows. So the networks changed everything to 555.

Answer 6

Because there isn't an existing prefix like that in the US, in case anyone watching decides to try to dial them up. Otherwise someone could be getting a lot of phone calls from people who forget that fiction is fiction!

Answer 7

Because the 555 extension does not exist and they don't want people to call real people if they try to call the number.

Answer 8

They do it because it is easy to remember - 555. It is easier to remember, so they think it will make you buy the product if you can remember the number. When little kids see something on tv, and they go tell their parents, they can tell their parents about it, and remember the number easier. Did it help? I hope it did.

Answer 9

because (555) doesnt exist in the real world, and if the tv people use like 323-1145 or something like that (random #), the viewers might call that number, just because they want to, or whatever peoples reasons might be, and it could be someone elses real number, and the real person would get really ticked off because random people are calling their phone number just because they want to.

Answer 10

the 555 prefix doesn't exist in real life. they aren't actually aren't making a call.