Have you ever noticed this trend on popular TV programs?

[Jara sang]

During the first season of the show all the characters have full names but as the show becomes more popular, the writers come up with cutesy little nicknames that the characters start to call each other. Par example, on 'The Sopranos', Meadow has become "Med", Tony has become "Tone" or "T", Carmella is now "Carm", "Silvio is now "Sil" and so on and so on. It isn't just 'The Sopranos' either, I've seen it on other shows as well. So what is this? Some kind of tactic to "lure" you in to the show? It's like the writers are saying "Come on, you know these guys. You've sat in front of your TV watching their kids grow up and their lives unfold, these people are your family. Now shut the fuck up and buy the products we're trying to shove down your throat!" Anyway, I thought it a bit strange.

[Swede]

1. Really Jar, you think it's familiarity and commercialism?

:)

[Jara sang]

4. Well, the reason for programming is to get people to buy products.

So the more familiar you are with a TV show the more likely you are to return and the advertisers can target you more efficiently.

[MissB]

2. I haven't noticed

but then again, I don't watch much regular tv. I do watch shows where the nicknames are already in place - nicks like "starbuck" and "apollo".

[gmoney]

3. I think it's for realism

During the early season, you need the full names more often to figure out who's who. But you're right, as the series progresses, it's more realistic for nicknames to slip in. I think if every conversation was "Carmella this" and "Meadow that" and "Anthony Junior this" it would sound as phony and stilted as soap opera dialogue.

[Jara sang]

5. yeah but they are going over the top with the nicks.

I mean at the beginning they had "AJ" for Antony Jr. which is acceptable but now they all have them. It is so much so that it is noticeable.

[skygazer]

8. What do you call your friends and family?

I read this and started thinking about it (because I never really noticed anything odd about the nickname thing) and realized that virtually everyone I know, I refer to with some sort of nickname or shortening of their given name. I think it would be odder to always refer to everyone by their full name. Shit, in my family, we have such wierd nicknames that any audience for a show about us would be hopelessly confused. I have one sister who I call Frank, my brother calls Q and another sister calls Emma. That's three different names for one person!

edited because I've lost my ability to spell.

[MsUnderstood]

6. What I've noticed more is the hideous fashion that comes up

the first season, the actors want the job so they conform to whatever. The next seasons, the job wants the actor so they can sport whatever silly hairstyle and clothing they want.

For example in the haircut category, look at Brady Bunch boys, the monkees (except for hat guy), Some of Chandler Bings cuts on friends.

[Wickerman]

7. The mob only exits for guys to give each other nicknames

You get a nickname and you are made. Logical extension that a tv show would do so.

It might be insidious enough that I don't notice it, but I can't think of other examples in the shows I regularly watch. Simpsons, er, hmm, what else do I watch?

[youspeakmylanguage]

9. With the Sopranos, it's more of a NY/NJ thing then a mob thing...

Everyone I know from that area gives each other nicknames, usually an abbreviation of their real name. So on "The Sopranos", it's just a touch of local realism.

[Reverend_Smitty]

11. we don't like syllables in NJ

and our manner of speech tends to run words together so honestly when I watched the Sopranos, I never really noticed that they shortened the names probably because I do the same thing in my life

[Hugin]

10. I'm thinking it's laziness...

How else to cram in more crap than abbreviating the existing
crap.