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"I've fallen, and I can't get up!" is a line spoken intelevision commercials forLifeCall, a now defunctmedical alarm and protection company.[1]
The line was spoken by actressDorothy McHugh in a 1987 LifeCall television commercial.[1] LifeCall subscribers, mostlyseniors anddisabled people, would receive apendant which, when activated, would allow the user to speak into an audio receiving device and talk directly with adispatch service, without the need to reach atelephone. The service was designed to appeal particularly to seniors who lived alone and who might experience amedical emergency, such as afall, which would leave them alert but immobile and unable to reach a 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 thebathroom. 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.[3] Edith Fore(née Edith Americus DeVirgilis; 1916–1997) portrayed Mrs. Fletcher,[4][5] with a stuntperson performing the fall itself. Fore claimed in a 1990 interview to have invented the line herself during a script conference.[4]
Life Alert later used the "I've fallen" dialogue in a 1985 commercial, where a male actor delivers the line.[4]
By 1990, thePhoenix 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.[4] Samples have been used in songs such as "I Can't Watch This" in 1992 by"Weird Al" Yankovic,[6] and "Silent Inferno" bythe Flower Kings on the 2002 albumUnfold the Future. The phrase was parodied in several television shows includingFamily Matters which became one ofSteve Urkel's catchphrases,The Golden Girls,Roseanne andThe Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.[7]
According to theUnited 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 atrademark in September 1992 until its status was cancelled in 1999 (LifeCall went out of business in 1993).[8] In October 2002, the similar phrase "Help! I've fallen, and I can't get up!" became a registered trademark ofLife Alert Emergency Response, Inc. The registration was cancelled in May 2013.[9] A new registration was granted in May 2014.[10] 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.[11] In June 2007, the phrase "I've fallen, and I can't get up!" also became a registered trademark of Life Alert.[12] Both phrases are currently used on their website as well as in their commercials.[13]