555 telephone number

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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 choice of "2368", which seems lost in the mists of antiquity.

1 Fictitious phone numbers
- 1.1 Examples
2 Real uses of 555 numbers
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

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Fictitious phone numbers

The phone company began encouraging the producers of television shows and movies to use the 555 prefix for fictional telephone numbers. 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's Mr. Plow business used both KL5-3223 as the home number and KL5-3226 as the business number. Barney'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.

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. 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 the hit 1982 song "867-5309/Jenny", which actually is a valid number in many area codes and commonly receives calls asking for "Jenny" (a few of which do oddly enough belong to people named "Jenny").

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#Drama numbers); 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 intern 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.

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Examples

555 0000 — In an episode of The Chipmunks, this was the number they called when they wanted to call the Ghostbusters.
555 0001 — Simon Gruber's actual number in Die Hard with a Vengeance, which John McClane and "The Samaritan" discovered just in time.
555 0123 — Bruce's pager shows this number in Bruce Almighty (home edition), he dials it a minute later and goes to the address that it says to go to, "or else we'll just keep beeping you!" and talks to God. In Final Destination 2 this number is left on Evan Lewis' answering machine by a girl hoping to hook up with him.
555 0134 — Marla Singer's phone number in Fight Club
555 0137 — Keith Mars' office number in Veronica Mars
555 0143 — Glenn Quagmire's phone number in Family Guy; possibly a reference to 143 being shorthand for "I love you" given Quagmire's sexually active nature.
555 0183 — Edward Norton's boss's (Zach Grenier) number in Fight Club
555 0199 — Lester Burnham's (Kevin Spacey) office number in American Beauty / Mulder's cell phone number in the third season of The X Files / Lowell Bergman's (Al Pacino) phone number in The Insider / Dr. John Becker's private number
555 1271 — Hart Industries in Hart to Hart
555 2312 — SanDeE's telephone number in "LA Story"
555 2368 — Ghostbuster's telephone number: 555-BUST.
555 2390 — Jerry Seinfeld's telephone number, as seen in season 6 episode 2.
555 2401 — A game called "Simon Says" was the key to this phone number in Die Hard with a Vengeance. 555-2401 was a wrong phone number, because at first John McClane (Bruce Willis) and "The Samaritan" (Samuel L. Jackson) interpreted Simon's question wrong.
555 2424 — Danny Tanner's phone number in Full House
555 2467 — the telephone number of cadet Karen Thompson (Kim Cattrall) in Police Academy
555 3226 — Homer Simpson's telephone number from the Simpsons episode "Mr. Plow".
555 3455 — Kramer's new phone number in Seinfeld. In the "The Pool Guy" he got calls from people who mistyped the number of the "Movie Phone", 555 3456 (555-FILM).
555 4329 — Jim Carrey's phone number in The Cable Guy
555 4796 — Barney Gumble's Plow King telephone number from the Simpsons episode "Mr. Plow".
555 5225 (555-KACL) — Frasier's call-in number at KACL Radio
555 5555 — Used by the Beagle Boys in a commercial seen by Scrooge McDuck, who orders their product in DuckTales
555-55-55855-55-5-SENOR-MORT-GAGE-TODAY — The phone number for Senor Mortgage.
555 5647 (555 LOGS) — Arthur's cell phone number in The King of Queens
555 5782 — The Simpsons' telephone number of Professor Frink's laboratory.
555 6644 — Joe Mannix' phone number
555 6702 — Waitress's number in White Ninja Comics strip #115*
555 6792 — The phone number of Nanny G, the ex-wife of Frasier in an episode of Cheers. Nanny G, trying to rekindle her long-dead romance with Frasier, gave Frasier a stuffed "Nanny G" doll. The doll was programmed with a jingle reminding Frasier to call her at "555-6792."
555 6792 — The phone number at which Eric Cartman's mother could be reached in an episode of South Park. This was undoubledly a reference to the Cheers episode above.
555 8307 — Pom Pom's cell phone number.
555 8383 — Jerry Seinfeld's car phone/home phone number in Seinfeld.
555 8383 — Eddie's boiler repairs in the videogame Grand Theft Auto III
555 8643 — Kramer's old phone number as mentioned in Seinfeld's "Male Unbonding" episode.
555 8722 — D.J. Tanner's phone number in Full House
555 9292 — Fernando's New Beginnings also in the videogame Grand Theft Auto III
555 9626 — Charlie Townsend's number in Charlie's Angels (TV show)

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Real uses of 555 numbers

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. Furthermore, a theatrical box office in Pittsburgh uses the phone number 555-1212. 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.

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