This is it?

October 31, 2018 6:58 AM

Is this a clue to the infamous 'missing paintroller scene'?

1975-76 promo for 'One Day at a Time' includes a bit where Schneider is painting a door. Is there a more extended version where someone opens the door?

posted by ian1977 to Society & Culture (17 answers total)

Context
posted by supercres at 7:03 AM on October 31, 2018

Although I didn't post in the original post, I am 100% sure that it was a paint roller, not a brush. And it was white paint.
posted by Elly Vortex at 7:06 AM on October 31, 2018

No, it's not it.
posted by bondcliff at 7:07 AM on October 31, 2018 [2 favorites]

Oh no, not this again. I wasted hours, days, of my life trying to track this down! I still think it's an episode from either Facts of Life or Three's Company.

And, now I'm back in the rabbit hole....
posted by vivzan at 7:33 AM on October 31, 2018 [11 favorites]

The details of the nonexistent scene are clearly a composite of all the other versions of the trope that the OP of that post has seen over the years.
posted by tobascodagama at 7:35 AM on October 31, 2018 [2 favorites]

That's the opening/theme song to the first or second season of One Day at a Time (I know because Richard Masur is in it, and he left after the second season). None of the scenes in the opening appeared in the show. So no, that's not it.
posted by FencingGal at 7:40 AM on October 31, 2018 [1 favorite]

And besides, everyone knows the paint roller scene is from Too Close For Comfort.
posted by mochapickle at 8:00 AM on October 31, 2018 [5 favorites]

mochapickle, OMG YES. I swear to all that is good and holy that it's from Too Close For Comfort.
posted by cooker girl at 8:11 AM on October 31, 2018 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Counterpoint for 'one day at a time' being the source.

The apartment had these weird windows inside the apartment. So, in my memory the paintee was in the kitchen and the painter was in the living room.
posted by ian1977 at 8:13 AM on October 31, 2018

The only show I remember that has anything like this gag in the title sequence is Adult Swim's "Too Many Cooks", which but for being published a month after the original question was asked would have been a really good candidate for back construction of false memories.
posted by flabdablet at 8:34 AM on October 31, 2018 [3 favorites]

It is absolutely not One Day at a Time. (I posted the original MeFi question; I know it wasn't ODAAT because I was only 2-3 years old when that promo came out, and also because my family never watched the show.)
posted by sarcasticah at 8:43 AM on October 31, 2018 [2 favorites]

There is also this reddit discussion (it links to the old AskMe but doesn't seem to have a definitive answer either). Also, "paintroller"? I came here expecting an agonizing version of a comptroller.
posted by exogenous at 9:07 AM on October 31, 2018 [10 favorites]

Not the one people are remembering (paint brushes not rollers), but here are two more to add to the collective memory/research:

Walt Disney, 1952: Donald Duck - Trick Or Treat

Monty Python's Flying Circus S1 E2 - Sex and Violence, 1969: The Wacky Queen
posted by Orange Dinosaur Slide at 2:27 PM on October 31, 2018 [3 favorites]

Maybe this is a Mandela Effect thing! (nb: it is not, in that the Mandela Effect is patently absurd, but sort of fun to read about if you feel like googling it.)

I think more likely, given that nobody has turned it up and tv is not infinite, it's more of a Lost at the Mall thing, i.e. it is easy to add things to a memory and become absolutely convinced of an original version that isn't the case.
posted by Smearcase at 3:48 PM on October 31, 2018

I just wanted to make sure you got some credit for the title of your post. Well played.
posted by themanwho at 3:58 PM on October 31, 2018 [5 favorites]

Are we sure it's not from Gimme a Break - after the chief dies I think they redo his room and I want to say Sam gets her face painted.
posted by macadamiaranch at 10:14 PM on October 31, 2018 [1 favorite]

I am also absolutely sure that it isn't from Gimme a Break. I never watched that when I was a kid, and this is definitely something I saw on a weekly basis, meaning it was in the opening credits of a show I watched a lot.
posted by sarcasticah at 8:22 AM on November 1, 2018