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"I've fallen, and I can't get up!" is a catchphrase of the late 1980s and early 1990s popular culture based upon a line from a United States-based television commercial.
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(January 2016) |
"I've fallen, and I can't get up!" is a catchphrase of the late 1980s and early 1990s popular culture based upon a line from a United States-based television commercial.
This line was spoken by actress Dorothy McHugh in a television commercial for a medical alarm and protection company called LifeCall. [1] The motivation behind the systems is that subscribers, mostly seniors as well as disabled people, would receive a pendant which, when activated, would allow the user to speak into an audio receiving device and talk directly with a dispatch service, without the need to reach a telephone. The service was designed to appeal particularly to seniors who lived alone and who might experience a medical emergency, such as a fall, which would leave them alert but immobile and unable to reach the telephone.
In 1989, [2] LifeCall began running commercials that contained a scene wherein an elderly woman, identified by a dispatcher as "Mrs. Fletcher", uses the medical alert pendant after having fallen in the bathroom. After falling, Mrs. Fletcher speaks the phrase "I've fallen, and I can't get up!", after which the dispatcher informs her that he is sending help.
Edith Fore (née Edith Americus DeVirgilis; 1916–1997) portrayed Mrs. Fletcher. [3] [4] Although a stuntperson performed the fall itself, Fore said that she created the "I've fallen" line while discussing the accident with LifeCall. [3]
By 1990, the Phoenix New Times reported that "From coast to coast, from playground to barroom, an enfeebled whine rings out across the land. All together now: 'I've fallen . . . and I can't get up!'" The catchphrase appeared on t-shirts, novelty records, and in standup comedy. [3] A sample was also used in "Silent Inferno" by the Flower Kings on the 2002 album Unfold the Future . The phrase was parodied in several television shows including The Golden Girls , Family Matters , Roseanne , Married... with Children , Blossom , The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air , and movie Suburban Commando . [5]
According to the United States Patent and Trademark Office, after first applying in October 1990, LifeCall registered the phrase "I've fallen, and I can't get up" as a trademark in September 1992 until its status was cancelled in 1999 (LifeCall went out of business in 1993). [6] In October 2002, the similar phrase "Help! I've fallen, and I can't get up!" became a registered trademark of Life Alert Emergency Response, Inc. The registration was cancelled in May 2013. [7] A new registration was granted in May 2014. [8] Life Alert had filed for the phrase "Help, I've fallen & can't get up!" in March 2001, but the application was abandoned in November 2001. [9] In June 2007, the phrase "I've fallen, and I can't get up!" also became a registered trademark of Life Alert. [10] Both phrases are currently used on their website as well as in their commercials. [11]
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