# Any sitcoms in which the protagonists end up in a lower economic class at the end? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 19, 2016, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-sitcoms-in-which-the-protagonists-end-up-in-a-lower-economic-class-at-the-end/755168 "2016-05-19T15:41:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2016, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-sitcoms-in-which-the-protagonists-end-up-in-a-lower-economic-class-at-the-end/755168/21 "2016-05-19T19:51:41Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > I don’t think any of the castaways on _Gilligan’s Island_ improved their lot during the regular run of the show. The Skipper (boatless) and Ginger (several years out of the public eye) would have certainly been worse off at the end. > > I know that there were people trying to claim the Howell’s fortune during the run of the show. Did any of those succeed? > > The Professor would have fallen behind in all the fields he was an expert in. Would have quite a chore re-establishing his career afterwards. > > Mary Ann would be about the same. > > Gilligan, OTOH, might be able to make a killing after rescuing selling all those indestructible hats and shirts he seems to have invented. The talk show circuit and book writing would have made them all some nice bucks. ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2016, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-sitcoms-in-which-the-protagonists-end-up-in-a-lower-economic-class-at-the-end/755168/22 "2016-05-19T20:48:08Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > To being King Edmund III and eventually ruler of the known universe. So no. 😛 Technically, he was also King George IV - remember, the “real” future George IV was killed by the Duke of Wellington. Also, I don’t know if this really counts as a sitcom, but on Nickelodeon’s _As Told by Ginger_, Courtney Gripling’s family went from being millionaires to more or less destitute after her father was arrested for insider trading. (Even if you’re familiar with the show, you may not remember it as it happened during the final “high school” season that Nickelodeon stopped airing after one episode.) ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2016, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-sitcoms-in-which-the-protagonists-end-up-in-a-lower-economic-class-at-the-end/755168/23 "2016-05-19T20:50:04Z")
Is Maron going down the economic scale? I haven’t watched the show but in the ads it looks like he’s pretty destitute. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2016, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-sitcoms-in-which-the-protagonists-end-up-in-a-lower-economic-class-at-the-end/755168/24 "2016-05-19T21:58:35Z")
Didn’t Mike Brady get kicked out by Carol at the end after she caught him with Sam the butcher in Alice’s quarters? He eventually lost his job at the architect firm because of a missed deadline and being on thin ice after Bobby lost those plans that time. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2016, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-sitcoms-in-which-the-protagonists-end-up-in-a-lower-economic-class-at-the-end/755168/25 "2016-05-19T21:58:52Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > Is Maron going down the economic scale? I haven’t watched the show but in the ads it looks like he’s pretty destitute. Yeah, Maron definitely counts. He went from almost having a talk show about him to losing his house and living out of a storage unit. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2016, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-sitcoms-in-which-the-protagonists-end-up-in-a-lower-economic-class-at-the-end/755168/26 "2016-05-19T22:00:16Z")
_Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ - During the course of the show Cordy’s dad gets indicted for insider trading and goes to jail, Buffy goes from supported by Joyce’s gallery work and support payments from father to working at the Doublemeat Palace, Giles loses his pay from the Watcher’s Council and eventually takes over the Magic Shop. Then there is Xander: _Basically, I got as far as Oxnard and the engine fell out of my car — and that was literally. So I ended up washing dishes at the fabulous Ladies Night club for about a month and a half while I tried to pay for the repairs. No one really bothered me or even spoke to me until one night when one of the male strippers called in sick and no power on this earth will make me tell you the rest of that story. Suffice to say I traded my car in for one that wasn’t entirely made out of rust, came trundling back home to the arms of my loving parents where everything was exactly as it was except I sleep in the basement and I have to pay rent. How’s college?_ ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2016, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-sitcoms-in-which-the-protagonists-end-up-in-a-lower-economic-class-at-the-end/755168/27 "2016-05-19T22:16:01Z")
[Duet](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duet_(TV_series)). Alison Le Place lost her job as movie studio executive and had to go to work in her sister’s small catering business. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2016, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-sitcoms-in-which-the-protagonists-end-up-in-a-lower-economic-class-at-the-end/755168/28 "2016-05-20T02:07:52Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > The talk show circuit and book writing would have made them all some nice bucks. Well Ginger was able to afford a shitload of plastic surgery, but in the end they all ended business partners in deserted island theme resort that they had to run themselves. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2016, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-sitcoms-in-which-the-protagonists-end-up-in-a-lower-economic-class-at-the-end/755168/29 "2016-05-20T03:07:20Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > IIRC, Sam originally owned the bar on **Cheers** , and after several seasons sold it, and promptly blew through all the money – and eventually came back to ask for a job pouring drinks and supervising the servers like before, only as a hired hand. > > So they could do the will-they-or-won’t-they stuff again – but without just doing a flat retread of Diane’s storyline, because now he was an employee pursuing his boss; and she was pursuing _her_ boss, who seemed to genuinely enjoy having Sam around. So it opened up storytelling possibilities, after they’d spent years on _yep, he owns a bar._ > > (Granted, that maybe doesn’t technically count for this thread since IIRC he got the bar back years later – but I figure it answers your question; if you eventually need some new ideas for the main character in a sitcom, it seems you can put him in a better financial situation or a worse one as you prefer.) Cheers is a good example for other character too. Norm starts off with a regular job. When he loses that, he starts running a bar tab and using sneaky tricks to get free beers, with the occasional painting gig or unsuccessful attempt at self-employed accounting. He never fixes his marital woes. Frasier does financially well as far as we know, but he loses a fiance at the altar. Then he marries and divorces, losing custody of his son. His mother dies and his father does too (or so he says). Even the billionaire boss ends up broke and on the run, though he’s probably too much of a minor character to count for the OP’s purpose. I think Woody is the only character on the show to improve his situation. Most of the others maintain a status quo that is pretty much at the bottom already. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2016, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-sitcoms-in-which-the-protagonists-end-up-in-a-lower-economic-class-at-the-end/755168/30 "2016-05-20T03:21:13Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > _Ellen_- the Ellen Degeneres sitcom in which she made history by coming out- began with her owning a successful bookstore which at some point she lost and started working temp jobs. She didn’t lose it-- she sold it to a Barnes & Noble-type chain, and still kept working there, until her boss, who worked for the chain, turned out to be a homophobe, so she quit, but she still had the capital from selling the store, some of which she used as a down payment on a house. ---
**Author:** ![Mudshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2016, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-sitcoms-in-which-the-protagonists-end-up-in-a-lower-economic-class-at-the-end/755168/31 "2016-05-20T03:22:34Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > IIRC, Sam originally owned the bar on **Cheers** , and after several seasons sold it, and promptly blew through all the money – and eventually came back to ask for a job pouring drinks and supervising the servers like before, only as a hired hand. > > So they could do the will-they-or-won’t-they stuff again – but without just doing a flat retread of Diane’s storyline, because now he was an employee pursuing his boss; and she was pursuing _her_ boss, who seemed to genuinely enjoy having Sam around. So it opened up storytelling possibilities, after they’d spent years on _yep, he owns a bar._ > > (Granted, that maybe doesn’t technically count for this thread since IIRC he got the bar back years later – but I figure it answers your question; if you eventually need some new ideas for the main character in a sitcom, it seems you can put him in a better financial situation or a worse one as you prefer.) He did end up getting the bar back for a dollar when he helped catching Rebecca’s boss, Robin. Eventually becoming partners with Rebecca, after she burns down the bar, and offers her life savings to help rebuild it. So it could be argued that he ended up no better or worse than he was when he started the show. In the **Mary Tyler Moore Show** , they are all fired (except Ted) in the last episode. It’s implied that they ended up with work elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_John_Marcej)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2016, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-sitcoms-in-which-the-protagonists-end-up-in-a-lower-economic-class-at-the-end/755168/32 "2016-05-20T03:30:08Z")
> [@Mudshark](#): > > In the **Mary Tyler Moore Show** , they are all fired (except Ted) in the last episode. It’s implied that they ended up with work elsewhere. Wel, we know that Lou Grant ended up with a job somewhere. As a newspaper editor on the show, _ **Lou Grant** _. ---
**Author:** ![Mudshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2016, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-sitcoms-in-which-the-protagonists-end-up-in-a-lower-economic-class-at-the-end/755168/33 "2016-05-20T04:22:17Z")
> [@Richard\_John\_Marcej](#): > > Wel, we know that Lou Grant ended up with a job somewhere. As a newspaper editor on the show, _ **Lou Grant** _. And Sue Ann became a nurse/companion to an elderly man, as stated in the final episode. I think Mary got married and had a kid, according to the TV reunion movie. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2016, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-sitcoms-in-which-the-protagonists-end-up-in-a-lower-economic-class-at-the-end/755168/34 "2016-05-20T04:37:51Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > Lucky Louie is a great example and I wish it got more than one season so we could see how far into squalor Louis CK was willing to take it. I wish there was more, but I agree with [this article](http://splitsider.com/2013/04/right-before-the-sainting-of-louis-c-k-there-was-lucky-louie/), that _Lucky Louie_ getting cancelled was a blessing in disguise. Louis CK went on to do his best stand-up work after that, something that he probably would have shelved had the show been renewed for multiple seasons. ---
**Author:** ![GESancMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gesancman/32/2923_2.png) [@GESancMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GESancMan)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2016, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-sitcoms-in-which-the-protagonists-end-up-in-a-lower-economic-class-at-the-end/755168/35 "2016-05-20T13:48:46Z")
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it, but IIRC, in the last episode of _Night Court_, Christine got elected to Congress and was moving to Washington, and Dan upped and quit his job to chase after her. Not exactly a slow economic downfall, but I imagine suddenly quitting would have some negative effects. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2016, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-sitcoms-in-which-the-protagonists-end-up-in-a-lower-economic-class-at-the-end/755168/36 "2016-05-20T19:01:12Z")
> [@GESancMan](#): > > It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it, but IIRC, in the last episode of _Night Court_, Christine got elected to Congress and was moving to Washington, and Dan upped and quit his job to chase after her. Not exactly a slow economic downfall, but I imagine suddenly quitting would have some negative effects. Once there Christine probably told him what to go do with himself whereupon he became a soulless multimillionaire lobbyist. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2016, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-sitcoms-in-which-the-protagonists-end-up-in-a-lower-economic-class-at-the-end/755168/37 "2016-05-20T21:51:19Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > The talk show circuit and book writing would have made them all some nice bucks. You do realize that Gilligan is going to mess that up for them? (Unless they got off the island after finally realizing the best strategy for rescue was to [Just Eat Gilligan](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/JustEatGilligan). If so, then Gilligan ended up in a really crappy situation.) (BTW: My comments on _Gilligan’s Island_ pertained only to the regular run of shows.) ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2016, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-sitcoms-in-which-the-protagonists-end-up-in-a-lower-economic-class-at-the-end/755168/38 "2016-05-20T22:19:42Z")
If you accept that **Roseanne** actually was just a book she had been writing, that Dan had actually died and nobody won the lottery, then I think the Connors count. Of course, that also means accepting that the show had a sort of straight-line progression from beginning to end. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2016, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-sitcoms-in-which-the-protagonists-end-up-in-a-lower-economic-class-at-the-end/755168/39 "2016-05-20T22:49:26Z")
A lot of the shows that follow kids or teenagers kind of count. Boy Meets World and Sister Sister both ended up with the in-focus characters heading to college, and college students are on a “lower rung” that they were with their massive sitcom mansions (even if they do have impossibly large dorms/condos/whatever). ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2016, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-sitcoms-in-which-the-protagonists-end-up-in-a-lower-economic-class-at-the-end/755168/40 "2016-05-21T01:22:00Z")
Would Archie Bunker be in a lower class owning a bar instead of working as a longshoreman…or whatever blue collar job he had? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-sitcoms-in-which-the-protagonists-end-up-in-a-lower-economic-class-at-the-end/755168.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-sitcoms-in-which-the-protagonists-end-up-in-a-lower-economic-class-at-the-end/755168.md?page=3)