555 telephone number
In
North America,
telephone numbers with the prefix
555 are widely used for fictitious phone numbers in
television shows,
films and other types of fictional media.
Not all numbers that begin with
555 are fictional—for example,
+1-areacode-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 interact with the many uses of 555-2368 (long the "standard" fake number) by AT&T and other telephone companies, is no clearer than the reason for the choice of "2368".
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. 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.
The Simpsons used a variation of this in some of their earlier seasons by having the phone number start out with KL5 (for example,
Homer Simpson's
Mr. Plow business used both KL5-3223 as the home number and KL5-3226 as the business number.
Barney Gumble's Plow King phone number was KL5-4796 in the commercial sung by
Linda Ronstadt). On American telephone dial pads, K and L are found on the number-5 button. In
The Simpsons episode,
Burns, Baby Burns,
Chief Wiggum traces a phone number from the police station and reads it saying, "5-5-5... Aw, geez, that's gotta be phony."
One of the main reasons the prefix exists is to avoid accidentally using real phone numbers in movies and television programmes - as there are many cases of people trying to call the numbers used. Unfortunately, in cases where the prefix isn't used, people with the same numbers receive many calls from people who have seen the movies or television programmes. A perfect 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." Another widespread example was the fiasco caused by
Tommy Tutone's hit
1982 song "
867-5309/Jenny," which actually is a valid number in many area codes and commonly receives calls asking for "Jenny".
The use of fictional 555 numbers is spoofed in the film
Last Action Hero. Danny Madigan, knowing that he is in a movie, tries to convince Jack Slater of this; among other things he asks how the ten thousand numbers of the form 555-xxxx could serve the city of
Los Angeles. Jack replies, "That's why we have area codes."
Some movies have gone to creating fictional telephone numbers starting with
1, giving someone a "telephone number" of 167-1402 in the film, for example. 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.
In other countries, where different numbering schemes are used, different conventions for fictional numbers are used. In the
United Kingdom, the telephone regulator, the Office of Communications (
Ofcom) has recommended
here that the area code 01632 be used (for detail see
UK telephone numbering plan); for specific area codes a special range of numbers (usually, but not always beginning 4960) has been reserved.
The producers of the
television series 24 began using the real telephone number belonging to a member of the show's production staff. The cell phone the number belongs to is answered by the show's staff whenever anyone actually calls it. This approach was also taken by the producers of the show
Scrubs, who used the phone number (916) CALL-TUR(k) as the notional number of the cell phone of Dr.
Chris Turk. The number goes to a voicemail box on which the outgoing message is recorded in rotation by various members of the cast, in character.
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-TACO, and the owners of that number could connect the call to the taco vendor nearest to the consumer. However, according to a
2003 New York Times article, the desired functionality requires the cooperation of local phone authorities, and most phone vendors have been reluctant to cooperate, perhaps wary of undermining the lucrative business of selling
toll-free telephone numbers. Despite the fact that the service is virtually unavailable so far, most of the available 555 numbers have already been reserved. [
1]
The service
TellMe uses the number
1-800-555-TELL (8355) to provide news, weather, and other free information. TellMe is also the company that handles calls to 800-
555-1212 and provides
directory assistance for
toll-free telephone numbers. Also, financing corporation Lending Tree uses 800 555-TREE.
*The
Strowger switch*
North American Numbering Plan*
2GAT123*
Fictitious domain name*
Personal 555 Number Is Still Mostly Fiction (New York Times - registration required)
*
An extensive list of 555 numbers given in movies and TV shows*
North American Number Plan - page on 555 Numbers*
CNAC list of Canadian 555-xxxx information providers
