AMA - Get Off the Line?

Elaine picks up the phone and the AMA are on the line.

Then they are like, get off the phone - we're trying to make another call?

Geez, what the hell is that? This is a serious error.

I never really understood that. All they have to do is hang up to make another call.

"Coolboarder" wrote in message news:OQn68.1392$[email]...

Bingo.

"Dane" wrote in message news:[email]...

call?

But that's not funny. :-)

And in one of the most far-fetched Seinfeld episodes ever (e.g. Secret conspiracy of doctors and the AMA? Ability to track Elaine anywhere? Doctors not treating ill patients merely because they're difficult?) you decide to nitpick the *phone* thing?

Of course, every time I see that episode (including just a few hours ago) I think the same thing about that phone call. :-)

i contend that phone systems did behave that way and that it's hilarious because this scenario has happened in real life. it's a real little thing, like when Elaine didn't get the door in time and had to be buzzed again to enter.

if both parties hung up, the line would be available immediately. if the other party did not hang up, the line would be engaged until you hung up for a deliberate amount of time (on the order of seconds). it was on this principle that one could hang up a phone and run to an "extension" to pick it up with the other party still on the line. in other words, there was some grace period for which the connection would be held by the request of only one party.

the AMA did hang up the phone but he did not get a dial-tone because Elaine did not hang up immediately and he was in a rush to make the next call. if Elaine had hung up quickly he would have gotten a dial-tone. if the AMA had hung up for a longer period of time he would have gotten a dial-tone.

No, I think you've missed the point. While the recipient of a call can hang up and then run to an extension before it disconnects, when the *caller* hangs up the disconnect is immediate. Since the AMA was the caller, all they had to do was hang up.

Or at least, that's the way it used to work, back when I was a teenager trying to run to an extension for a little privacy from the 'rents. :-) Back in those days, I think we still had dial phones; a hold button was only a pipe dream...

In article , "Coolboarder" wrote:

No, it's comedy.

-verbila

In article , [email] says...

Maybe when Elaine hang up the phone went to suspend mode. That way if the calling party didn't hang up and tryied to make another call they couldn't. And when Elaine picked up again the call was resumed and AMA was still on the line. Still they could've just hang up on the AMA end, but obviously didn't.

In article , [email] says... > Elaine picks up the phone and the AMA are on the line.

The *real* question about that phone call: Was the AMA guy an uncredited cameo by Phil Hartman?

^^^^^^ "Art is often hailed as the grandest expression of human spirit, but we know now ... that the grandest expression of human spirit is whatever it takes for a man or woman to rush back into a burning building to save more people."