Comic Strips

I once had a manager tell me "If you're late, but you haven't had breakfast, be later"

If you work a taxing job (mentally or physically) you gotta have a calorie store

The fact that it's daytime outside always bothered me too. My parents were always rushing us out the door before the sun was up. Maybe in the spring but even then it wasn't full daylight outside like in these scenes.

The multi-colored stuff is probably cereal.

The yellow could be homefries (cubed potato's), corn flakes, or a big bowl of butter. (I like you egg theory)

The orange goop is probably oatmeal or one of these cereal that's supposed to turn chocolate, but failed.

It's outdated shorthand for "look! she's a good mom!"

That one gets me too. Everybody in movies just hang up on each other all day.

How hard is it to say goodbye? What the actual fuck?

I remember seeing somewhere that they would actually eat on All In The Family to make it more realistic, and if you watch scenes of them doing it, it definitely worked.

Ew! Drinking orange juice while eating cereal is gross.

See, the neat part was it was a complete breakfast without the cereal too!

Yay, marketing. The nutritional value of the cereal is probably next to nothing, but if you ate everything else, you'd get all the nutrients you'd need. 1% of the total is still "a part" of the complete breakfast. Technically not false advertising.

Basically, the more food you see, the less nutritional value in the actual cereal.

Or... Should I finish the box? I ate the five of them, seems weird to just let the sixth one sit here.

Well......start video taping your family meals. Then it'll be on camera.

I had them.

On Saturdays.

I'm on the older end of millenial. Breakfast was a bowl of corn flakes, and arguing over who gets which part of the newspaper, then everyone munches in silence in different rooms while reading.
As the youngest brother I usually didn't get any part of the newspaper, so I read the back of the corn flakes package for the hundredth time.

My two best friends always had breakfast like you see on TV because both of their moms were homemakers. Another friend's grandparents were like that too. I always loved staying at their houses.

This is the most fitting:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodSandwich

With these being adjacent:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LateForSchool
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ToastOfTardiness

One explanation is that food spoils very quickly in studio lighting (especially after multiple takes), so the food shown are fake inedible props.
The trope's purpose is to show an intact family preparing a hearty breakfast, then giving an excuse for why the actors aren't actually eating it.
Additionally, characters can't drive the story forward through conversation while chewing. Eating isn't relevant to the plot.

make it blindingly obvious to the viewer that Breakfast Is Happening™

In others words "assume the viewer is too stupid to understand up cereal + day light + kitchen + after night time scene = breakfast."

That's one issue I have with a lot of newer shows and movies. Yes the older ones were guilty of it too, but now it feels like we're being spoonfed every detail. "Did you catch the foreshadowing?? Here lets play it 3 times in slow motion, zoom in on it, and have a character say "oh look, that might be important later""

Could just as easily do like I do for my family:

"You wanted bagel with cream cheese, right?"

"I only have time for half."

"Then take the other half with you, it's hand-held food. The whole point is you can take it to go."

"They don't allow food on the bus."

"Whatever, I'll eat the other half. Have a good day. BOY! DID YOU FINISH YOUR WAFFLE WITH PEANUT BUTTER? I NEED YOU TO SIT ON THE POTTY SO FINISH YOUR BREAKFAST! Oh, hey, did you want toast or english muffin or something, Hon?"

"Nnnnnnhghh.... just coffee..."

"It's already out to cool down, there on the stove. I WILL THROW OUT THAT WAFFLE IF YOU DON'T FINISH IT WE HAVE TO GOOOO!"

I feel like that would get the "breakfast is happening" vibe out there.

to make it blindingly obvious to the viewer that Breakfast Is Happening™?

True, its often used to signal that we have jumped to the next day in the same way they might use a rooster call in a rural setting.