History Main / OnePhoneCall

* {{Parodied}} in ''Series/{{Farscape}}''. "Won't Get Fooled Again" has a LotusEaterMachine-induced [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQo9_VI6TnA hallucination of Captain Crais as a police officer]] tell Crichton he can make one phone call as part of a hilariously mangled version of the [[MirandaRights Miranda warning]], and recommends a phone sex line.
-->'''Officer Muldoon (hallucinated Crais):''' FREEZE! You're under arrest! You have the right to the remains of a silent attorney! If you cannot afford one - TOUGH NOOGIES! You can make ONE phone call! I recommend Trixie - 976-Triple 5-LOVE. Do you understand these rights as I have explained them to you? Well do you, PUNK?\\
'''Crichton:''' ''(confused as all hell)'' No.\\

** In "A Little Slice of Kevin", several people are abducted by the demon Crowley. One of them is WrongGenreSavvy and demands his right to a phone call. Crowley makes him vomit blood and die.

-->'''Van Neikerk:''' Nine three oh, double four, double eight.
-->'''Bodie:''' What's that--your hat size?
-->'''Van Neikerk:''' The South African Embassy. I'd like to talk to them. ''(Bodie shakes his head)'' What's wrong, man?
-->'''Bodie:''' No phone.

* ''Series/TheProfessionals''. In "Fall Girl", Bodie has been framed for a political assassination, and is hauled into the local nick by Special Branch. A three-way argument over this trope breaks out, with Bodie demanding his phone call (so he can tell Cowley where he is), Special Branch refusing until they have his fingerprints (which they intend to plant on the crime scene) and the desk sergeant refusing to hold Bodie incommunicado without authorization. Eventually they allow Bodie to make the call in exchange for his prints.

* The ''Series/CriminalMinds'' episode "The Performer" doesn't invoke this by name, but it does demonstrate the RealityEnsues. They have a suspect in custody who repeatedly asks to call his manager. The police ignore his requests until he specifically invokes his right to an attorney, at which point he's allowed to use a phone, in the middle of the squad room surrounded by police, in order to call his manager so his manager can get him an attorney. It turns out it only took one phone call, but that's never suggested as his limit.

** However, given that the next time they meet Robocop is absolutely through with fucking around, Clarence might have been better off staying in jail.

* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'': In the episode ''[[Recap/DuckTalesS1E19DuckToTheFuture Duck To The Future]]'', Scrooge is sent to the future, where Magica rules and ends up getting arrested. Scrooge demands a phone call, which the police robot lets him have. However, he has to pay to contact Webby, who works for Magica in this timeline (it's stated that calls from jail are usually free, but you must pay when speaking to anyone who works for Magica).

* This tropes originates in Hollywood, because in California there is a law requiring the cops to let a prisoner have a phone call (in fact 3 different phone calls in the current version of the law).

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddparents'' episode "The Big Problem", of the ''WesternAnimation/OhYeahCartoons'' era, Timmy Turner wished to be an adult. He eventually got himself arrested and used his phone call to ask for his parents' help but they wouldn't believe it was him, because they thought Vicky took him to school.

* ''Film/BernardAndTheGenie'' has a variant where Bernard is arrested, and rather than calling a lawyer, he tries to call his genie friend Josephus, since he can hopefully fix things with his magic. Unfortunately Josephus has been trapped in a bottle for two millennia and doesn't know how phones work; first he doesn't notice the phone, then he watches it in fear, and when he finally realizes it stops making noise if you lift and drop the receiver, he starts doing that instead. (Bernard is allowed to make calls until he actually reaches someone, apparently.) Meanwhile the police think that the whole thing is an elaborate code designed to stop them from listening in.

* ''Film/TheMatrix'': "How about I give you the finger (proceeds to [[FlippingTheBird flip the bird]] at Agent Smith) and you give me my phone call?" [[WipeThatSmileOffYourFace Smith makes it so Neo doesn't need it]]; after all, what good is a phone call... if you're unable to speak?

* In the ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitchTheSeries'' episode "[[Recap/LiloAndStitchTheSeriesS1E5Holio Holio]]", Lilo pretends to have been arrested:

* The page image is taken from the Website/CollegeHumor video "Realistic Sobriety Tests" where two police officers use all sorts of inventive ways to trip up suspects involved in drunk driving incidents. One of the drunk drivers is later seen in the station and is handed a phone by one of the officers, only to call up his girlfriend and talk a bunch of nonsense.

* The page image is taken from the Website/CollegeHumor video "Original Sobriety Tests" where two police officers use all sorts of inventive ways to trip up suspects involved in drunk driving incidents. One of the drunk drivers is later seen in the station and is handed a phone by one of the officers, only to call up his girlfriend and talk a bunch of nonsense.