# Cliched "problems" in sitcoms that wouldn't bother you? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 18, 2018, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliched-problems-in-sitcoms-that-wouldnt-bother-you/809073 "2018-02-18T19:58:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliched-problems-in-sitcoms-that-wouldnt-bother-you/809073/21 "2018-02-19T18:42:01Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Colibri** : > > Or enlisting someone to play your (non-existent) spouse or boyfriend/girlfriend when relatives visit. One of my grad school classmates actually did this. ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliched-problems-in-sitcoms-that-wouldnt-bother-you/809073/22 "2018-02-19T19:56:51Z")
I was a total misanthrope in school, so I’ve always wondered if anybody really ever agonized about going to the prom. My sister insists there is nothing wrong with living with your parents well into your late 40’s. I remain sceptical. ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliched-problems-in-sitcoms-that-wouldnt-bother-you/809073/23 "2018-02-19T21:58:50Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > [He did that because his landlord wouldn’t have let him stay otherwise](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three%27s_Company). I’ve always known the story why Jack was “gay,” but I always wondered: In the mid-70s, was being openly gay that much more accepted than having an opposite sex roommate? I was born in 1980 and I’ve always known gay people, unmarried cohabitating couples, interracial couples. I’ve always been aware of judgment/non-acceptance of some of those things from some people. When I was 3 or 4 years old my mom and I were thrown out of our house because a co-worker gave her a ride to work. However, I would have perceived male/female roommate situation as pretty far down the list of “lifestyle” taboos. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliched-problems-in-sitcoms-that-wouldnt-bother-you/809073/24 "2018-02-19T22:24:34Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > You’re invited to some social event, but don’t want to go. In a sitcom, you’d make up some hairbrained excuse, and then your story would fall apart, and you’d end up having to layer ever-increasingly absurd stories to cover up your previous absurd stories. In real life, you just say “No thanks, I’m just staying home and chilling this weekend”. When I find myself in situations like that, I fall back on a line I learned from Hyde in _That Seventies Show_: “No thanks. I figure I’ll do plenty of that when I die and go to hell.” As for the question in the OP, I’m always amused by the “problems” that crop up in Britcom shows like _Fawlty Towers_. They generally seem to be about just being too embarrassed to admit some trivial little mistake. Fer cryin’ out loud, just tell them already and move on with your life! ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliched-problems-in-sitcoms-that-wouldnt-bother-you/809073/25 "2018-02-19T22:31:52Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > saw this on 3 different shows in 1 year : Boss is kicked out of house by his wife and has to spend the night with the employee who is not real fond of him. You see, they don’t have hotels for hundreds of miles from any of these towns. Amazing coincidence. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliched-problems-in-sitcoms-that-wouldnt-bother-you/809073/26 "2018-02-19T22:38:53Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > saw this on 3 different shows in 1 year : Boss is kicked out of house by his wife and has to spend the night with the employee who is not real fond of him. My former boss actually started dropping hints about trying that, when he was going through a rough patch with his wife and stormed out for a couple of days. He didn’t want to stay with his best friend because she’d guess where he was :rolleyes: Because staying with a single female employee 5 years younger than the wife is just the _best_ plan when you want said wife to stop being angry at you. Thankfully they patched it up before I had to tell him nope, no way in hell. He could sleep at work, get a damn hotel or (my preferred version) just stop being an eejit, apologise, and admit he was wrong for once. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliched-problems-in-sitcoms-that-wouldnt-bother-you/809073/27 "2018-02-19T22:40:34Z")
> [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](#): > > I’ve always known the story why Jack was “gay,” but I always wondered: In the mid-70s, was being openly gay that much more accepted than having an opposite sex roommate? > > I was born in 1980 and I’ve always known gay people, unmarried cohabitating couples, interracial couples. I’ve always been aware of judgment/non-acceptance of some of those things from some people. When I was 3 or 4 years old my mom and I were thrown out of our house because a co-worker gave her a ride to work. However, I would have perceived male/female roommate situation as pretty far down the list of “lifestyle” taboos. YEE-OWCH! Man, that’s a rough story from childhood, mate. I agree with you, too. In retrospect, if a landlord was too conservative to allow a man to room with two women, he would probably be more upset about renting to open homosexuals, I’d think. Then again, I’m from Nebraska. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliched-problems-in-sitcoms-that-wouldnt-bother-you/809073/28 "2018-02-19T23:00:01Z")
> [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](#): > > I’ve always known the story why Jack was “gay,” but I always wondered: In the mid-70s, was being openly gay that much more accepted than having an opposite sex roommate? The Ropers were the original landlords, right? As I recall, Mrs Roper knew Jack wasn’t gay and just didn’t care. The “gay” cover story was for the benefit of Mr Roper who could be swayed by his wife to let “gay” Jack stay there but likely would have put his foot down at heterosexual cohabitation. After The Ropers was spun off and Mr Furley took over the building, the whole “Jack pretends to be gay” thing was already established so why change the concept now? Easier to just have Mr Furley be okay with it. By the (admittedly low) standards of the day, both men were pretty accepting of Jack. Some “sissy” jokes and Stanley’s comedic backpedaling when Jack would “act gay” towards him but they weren’t calling him sick or perverted or anything. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliched-problems-in-sitcoms-that-wouldnt-bother-you/809073/29 "2018-02-19T23:09:39Z")
knew a guy who worked in Saudi Arabia for a few years. They actually showed three’s company there but he said it was so heavily censored you could not follow the plot. ---
**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:** [February 20, 2018, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliched-problems-in-sitcoms-that-wouldnt-bother-you/809073/30 "2018-02-20T02:41:56Z")
> [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](#): > > I’ve always known the story why Jack was “gay,” but I always wondered: In the mid-70s, was being openly gay that much more accepted than having an opposite sex roommate? > > I was born in 1980 and I’ve always known gay people, unmarried cohabitating couples, interracial couples. I’ve always been aware of judgment/non-acceptance of some of those things from some people. When I was 3 or 4 years old my mom and I were thrown out of our house because a co-worker gave her a ride to work. However, I would have perceived male/female roommate situation as pretty far down the list of “lifestyle” taboos. I remember Bing Crosby interviewed by Barbara Walters in the mid 1970s. At one point he talked about how horrible it was for an unmarried man and woman to live together. Real disdain in his voice. Don’t know how Bing felt about homosexuals.Ronald Reagan in 1980 repeated the old witticism that he didn’t care what homosexuals do in private, just as long as it wasn’t in the streets because that would frighten the horses. ---
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliched-problems-in-sitcoms-that-wouldnt-bother-you/809073/31 "2018-02-20T04:24:45Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Or enlisting someone to play your (non-existent) spouse or boyfriend/girlfriend when relatives visit. There was an entire show based on this premise called “Occasional Wife” in the late 60s. The owner of a company would only promote married men, so an aspiring employee “hired” a woman to play his wife. Even then critics slammed the premise as ridiculously outdated; of course today it’s illegal. > [@](#): > > I was a total misanthrope in school, so I’ve always wondered if anybody really ever agonized about going to the prom. Maybe that was a throwback to the 60s, when a lot of high schools only allowed couples to attend prom. I remember going to high school in the 90s, and it was perfectly socially acceptable to go “stag” with friends to the prom. ---
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliched-problems-in-sitcoms-that-wouldnt-bother-you/809073/32 "2018-02-20T04:27:03Z")
Now that I think about it, what about the “character will do anything to win school presidency”? All the school elections I remember were halfhearted efforts, with the losers not losing any sleep over their fate. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliched-problems-in-sitcoms-that-wouldnt-bother-you/809073/33 "2018-02-20T04:44:31Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > One of my grad school classmates actually did this. Did it work? That is, were the intended dupes fooled, and never found out about the ruse? ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliched-problems-in-sitcoms-that-wouldnt-bother-you/809073/34 "2018-02-20T04:49:12Z")
> [@furryman](#): > > I was a total misanthrope in school, so I’ve always wondered if anybody really ever agonized about going to the prom. Likewise, I guess every class reunion plot is solved by me happily staying home. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliched-problems-in-sitcoms-that-wouldnt-bother-you/809073/35 "2018-02-20T04:59:20Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > One of my grad school classmates actually did this. I’ve actually BEEN the pretend partner for a friend ---
**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:** [February 20, 2018, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliched-problems-in-sitcoms-that-wouldnt-bother-you/809073/36 "2018-02-20T12:03:38Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Or enlisting someone to play your (non-existent) spouse or boyfriend/girlfriend when relatives visit. Raymond Burr (Perry Mason) invented a couple of wives and a son that died young. No doubt as a beard to cover up his homosexuality. But even when he was in his 70s and a tv legend, he was still telling reporters about taking his dying son on a year long trip. ---
**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:** [February 20, 2018, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliched-problems-in-sitcoms-that-wouldnt-bother-you/809073/37 "2018-02-20T12:29:29Z")
> [@installLSC](#): > > There was an entire show based on this premise called “Occasional Wife” in the late 60s. The owner of a company would only promote married men, so an aspiring employee “hired” a woman to play his wife. Even then critics slammed the premise as ridiculously outdated; of course today it’s illegal. I remember that. He took a secretary and set her up in an apartment two stories above his so she could come down the fire escape if the boss or co workers stopped by. Naturally the renter in the middle would always see them on the fire escape and wonder why. The actors, Michael Callan and Patricia Harty, ended up getting married but later divorced. It was a reverse of an earlier show “The Cara Williams Show” where a married couple had to pretend they weren’t because they worked for the same company which didn’t allow co-workers to be married to each other. Which may have had some basis in reality. I read a book on the women’s baseball league in the 1940s and 1950s which stated many states in the Great Depression passed laws forbidding married women from working if their husbands had a job. Not sure if “Occasional Wife” was ridiculously outdated (leaving out the sitcom elements). Jim Bouton in his book “I’m Glad You Didn’t Take it Personally” says when he was interviewed for a sports tv news job by WABC-TV in New York City in 1970, the station manager asked if he was happily married. He thought divorced people were essentially quitters and he didn’t like quitters. Maybe there is a difference in hiring divorced people and the owner of a baby food company wanting married people (single parents without ever being married were as rare as whales in the Sahara desert on 1960s tv). ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliched-problems-in-sitcoms-that-wouldnt-bother-you/809073/38 "2018-02-20T13:49:36Z")
> [@Push\_You\_Down](#): > > The sympathetic male lead being upset and put out by his wife making more money…Yes this happens in real life, but dudes who feel that way are not sympathetic and aren’t people you’d want to watch a show about. In a similar vein, Darrin (either of them) forbidding Samantha to use her powers after they were married. Besides forgoing any advantages, he’d be lucky if she only divorced him rather than turn him into a frog or something. I don’t remember. Did she disclose the fact she had powers to him only after they were married? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliched-problems-in-sitcoms-that-wouldnt-bother-you/809073/39 "2018-02-20T13:56:08Z")
I’ve felt utterly indifferent to any notion of comically sabotaging the efforts of my mother and father, after their divorce, to date other people. I suppose not harboring a hope they’d reunite helped in this regard. ---
**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:** [February 20, 2018, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliched-problems-in-sitcoms-that-wouldnt-bother-you/809073/40 "2018-02-20T14:31:07Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > In a similar vein, Darrin (either of them) forbidding Samantha to use her powers after they were married. Besides forgoing any advantages, he’d be lucky if she only divorced him rather than turn him into a frog or something. > > I don’t remember. Did she disclose the fact she had powers to him only after they were married? according to wiki it was on their wedding night so it would be after the ceremony. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliched-problems-in-sitcoms-that-wouldnt-bother-you/809073.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliched-problems-in-sitcoms-that-wouldnt-bother-you/809073.md?page=3)