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TV Show Homes don't match character incomes


MickinMD

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Channel surfing this AM, I stumbled on Mike and Molly where Molly is complaining about Mike's piece of junk car with a hole in the floor and tape holding things together.

Mike was a police officer and Molly a public school teacher, both with 10-15 years service. I looked it up and, in today's dollars, their combined income would be around $180,000!

They lived, rent free, in Molly's mother's house.

Yes, Molly had run up big credit card debts, but she was handling it on her salary before she added no-debt Mike's $100,000 salary!

They weren't big spenders and could save enough in 3 months to pay cash for a new car!

Similarly, on That 70's Show, when Hyde is discovered by his rich father, Kitty Forman says to him, "Why would you think we need money when we have this?" and points to her living room and it gets a big laugh as if the Formans had nothing - but it's a well-furnished living room big enough to throw a party for 20 (the first episode opens and last episode closes with such parties there), a side room, a swinging door into a kitchen/dining room, and finished second floor and basement, each with multiple rooms, plus a 2-car garage!

The Bundys house from the '70's Married with Children is a typical example of the opposite.  They live on Al's shoe salesman salary alone, something resembling minimum wage, but they own a home with a big living room, garage, furnished second floor, etc.  That tends to be the case with a lot of the shows about down-and-out people.

On The Big Bang Theory, Leonard, a university physics professor, moved in with Sheldon in the first episode because, he says, he couldn't afford an apartment by himself. But then Penny moves in across the hall into a similar apartment, by herself, and she's a waitress at the Cheesecake Factory.

Thank God our brains undergo a process called "Suspension of Disbelief" to enjoy fiction, cartoon, etc. shows.  But sometimes my Suspension of Disbelief gets strained, maybe because I grew up in a poor but single-home owning family where old furniture, etc. was the rule. We would have been thrilled to have furnishings like the Bundys, Formans, etc.

Etc. Etc. Etc.  I just needed to rant about something this morning. Thanks for reading!

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2 hours ago, MickinMD said:

On The Big Bang Theory, Leonard, a university physics professor, moved in with Sheldon in the first episode because, he says, he couldn't afford an apartment by himself. But then Penny moves in across the hall into a similar apartment, by herself, and she's a waitress at the Cheesecake Factory.

Leonard had a PhD so he probably student loans from 8 years of college.

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Um...I don't really expect tv is reflect so well on reality....although some series are better than others...in terms of furnishings.  Now, let's not get into some extreme characterization of people on TV shows.  Even Sheldon is a real nerd... did I know people like that? ....1-2 in high school in my class.  I recently discovered this same guy...is a professor now, in the U.S. :)    Did I know a girl that was a real nerd....yes in high school same class too.  She did her MA in computer science and then law degree....is a patent and intellectual property lawyer ..in the U.S. now.

And we all  never went to a private school. Public.

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14 hours ago, Dirtyhip said:

The Brady family.  6 kids, giant home, a live in maid, and a wife that didn't work.

Architects make pretty good money.  He probably could have afforded Alice before he married Carol.  Carol could have received insurance money from when her husband died which allowed her to stay at home to watch the kids.

10 hours ago, Rattlecan said:

I think Ralph and allice Kramden's digs were about right for a transit bus driver's salary in the 50s.

Archie and Edith Bunker's home was probably about right for a dock worker.

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7 minutes ago, team scooter said:

The actual Bundy house you see in Married With Children is really located in Deerfield Illinois. Probably one of the most overpriced suburbs of Chicago. That fairly basic house on it's smallish lot is easily worth $500,000ish today. I used to work in the area.

Excellent trivia. :)

 

 

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9 hours ago, team scooter said:

The actual Bundy house you see in Married With Children is really located in Deerfield Illinois. Probably one of the most overpriced suburbs of Chicago. That fairly basic house on it's smallish lot is easily worth $500,000ish today. I used to work in the area.

Didn't it get a renovation to look more like the TV house?

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10 hours ago, Mr. Silly said:

Architects make pretty good money.  He probably could have afforded Alice before he married Carol.  Carol could have received insurance money from when her husband died which allowed her to stay at home

Right. Forgot she was a widow. 

(edit)

wait a sec, his wife died. There was no mention of Carols ex. 

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7 minutes ago, Mr. Silly said:

In the second "Very Brady" movie, someone impersonated her dead husband to steal a statue from her.

Are the "Very Brady" movies canonical?

It wasn't really discussed.  It was her "long lost husband" and not her dead husband.  How does a dead person come back?

Or maybe she killed him?  In the series it was never really discussed.  Funny trivia

https://www.aol.com/article/2015/05/11/florence-henderson-reveals-what-happened-to-carol-bradys-first/21181871/

 

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17 minutes ago, Dirtyhip said:

It wasn't really discussed.  It was her "long lost husband" and not her dead husband.  How does a dead person come back?

Or maybe she killed him?  In the series it was never really discussed.  Funny trivia

https://www.aol.com/article/2015/05/11/florence-henderson-reveals-what-happened-to-carol-bradys-first/21181871/

 

Carol would not have remarried if she thought he was alive.  She seemed very devoted.  My thoughts on Carol's husband's demise might be conjecture.

I am not willing to go to the mat with you on this.  I picked a fight with @roadsue yesterday and I still don't feel right about it.  But DAMN IT the subject said "No bookshelf" and there was a bookshelf in the picture.

The Florence Henderson link was funny.

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1 minute ago, Mr. Silly said:

Carol would not have remarried if she thought he was alive.  She seemed very devoted.  My thoughts on Carol's husband's demise might be conjecture.

Devoted to Mike.  Divorce is a possibility though for Carol.  Maybe the previous husband was a womanizer?  Or a Cad.  

I need to watch some Brady Bunch to be sure.   

This needs further investigation.

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9 minutes ago, Dirtyhip said:

Devoted to Mike.  Divorce is a possibility though for Carol.  Maybe the previous husband was a womanizer?  Or a Cad.  

I need to watch some Brady Bunch to be sure.   

This needs further investigation.

The "Very Brady" movies are hecking hilarious.

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