Time and the Arts

This file is in the public domain, so clarified as of 2009-05-17 by Arthur David Olson.

Please send corrections to this web page to the time zone mailing list.

See also Sources for Time Zone and Daylight Saving Time Data.

Data on recordings of "Save That Time," Russ Long, Serrob Publishing, BMI:

Also of note:

• An episode of "The Adventures of Superman" entitled "The Mysterious Cube," first aired 1958-02-24, had Superman convincing the controllers of WWV to broadcast time signals five minutes ahead of actual time; doing so got a crook trying to beat the statute of limitations to emerge a bit too early from the titular enclosure.
• The 1960s ITC television series "The Prisoner" included an episode entitled "The Chimes of Big Ben" in which our protagonist tumbled to the fraudulent nature of a Poland-to-England escape upon hearing "Big Ben" chiming on Polish local time.
• The series "Seinfeld" included an episode entitled "The Susie," first broadcast 1997-02-13, in which Kramer decides that daylight saving time isn't coming fast enough, so he sets his watch ahead an hour.
• The syndicated comic strip "Dilbert" featured an all-too-rare example of time zone humor on 1998-03-14.
• Surrealist artist Guy Billout's work "Date Line" appeared on page 103 of the 1999-11 Atlantic Monthly.
• "Gloom, Gloom, Go Away" by Walter Kirn appeared on page 106 of Time Magazine's 2002-11-11 issue; among other things, it proposed year-round DST as a way of lessening wintertime despair.
• The "20 Hours in America" episode of "The West Wing," first aired 2002-09-25, saw White House staffers stranded in Indiana; they thought they had time to catch Air Force One but were done in by intra-Indiana local time changes.
• "In what time zone would you find New York City?" was a $200 question on the 1999-11-13 United States airing of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" "In 1883, what industry led the movement to divide the U.S. into four time zones?" was a $32,000 question on the 2001-05-23 United States airing of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" At this rate, the million-dollar time-zone question should have been asked 2002-06-04.
• A private jet's mid-flight change of time zones distorts Alison Dubois' premonition in the "We Had a Dream" episode of "Medium" (originally aired 2007-02-28).
• In the 1946 "A Matter of Life and Death," there is a reference to British Double Summer Time. The time does not play a large part in the plot; it's just a passing reference to the time when one of the characters was supposed to have died (but didn't). The IMDb page is at http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0038733/ . (Dave Cantor)

• "We're been using the five-cent nickle in this country since 1492. Now that's pretty near 100 years, daylight savings [sic]." (Groucho Marx as Captain Spaulding in "Animal Crackers", 1930, as noted by Will Fitzerald)
• "Good news." "What did they do? Extend Daylight Saving Time year round?" (Professional tanner George Hamilton, in dialog from a May, 1999 episode of the syndicated television series "Baywatch")
• "A fundamental belief held by Americans is that if you are on land, you cannot be killed by a fish...So most Americans remain on land, believing they're safe. Unfortunately, this belief—like so many myths, such as that there's a reason for 'Daylight Saving Time'—is false." (Dave Barry column, 2000-07-02)
• "I once had sex for an hour and five minutes, but that was on the day when you turn the clocks ahead." (Garry Shandling, 52nd Annual Emmys, 2000-09-10)
• "Would it impress you if I told you I invented Daylight Savings Time?" ("Sahjhan" to "Lilah" in dialog from the "Loyalty" episode of "Angel," originally aired 2002-02-25)
• "I thought you said Tulsa was a three hour flight." "Well, you're forgetting about the time difference." ("Chandler" and "Joey" in dialog from the episode of "Friends" first aired 2002-12-05)
• "Is that a pertinent fact, or are you trying to dazzle me with your command of time zones?" (Kelsey Grammer as "Frasier Crane")
• "Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It is already tomorrow in Australia." (Charles M. Schulz, provided by Steve Summit)