# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliched-problems-in-sitcoms-that-wouldnt-bother-you/809073/41 "2018-02-20T14:40:31Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > according to wiki it was on their wedding night so it would be after the ceremony. This was the pilot episode. ---
**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, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliched-problems-in-sitcoms-that-wouldnt-bother-you/809073/42 "2018-02-20T14:41:27Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > 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. I am pretty sure that after Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball got divorced, their two children would often request they borrow a copy of “The Parent Trap” film from the studio (in those old pre vcr/dvd days). Eventually Desi and Lucille caught on to the fact their kids wanted their parents to re unite (then again Desi was a more likeable parent than Lucille although he was a major philanderer and the two had some physical fights. I assume Lucille got custody which was quite common back then). ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliched-problems-in-sitcoms-that-wouldnt-bother-you/809073/43 "2018-02-20T14:49:56Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > I am pretty sure that after Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball got divorced, their two children would often request they borrow a copy of “The Parent Trap” film from the studio (in those old pre vcr/dvd days). Interesting. The Parent Trap came out a year or so after Lucy and Desi divorced, but the kids still could have been interested in the film for the reason you suggest. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliched-problems-in-sitcoms-that-wouldnt-bother-you/809073/44 "2018-02-20T17:55:23Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > I am pretty sure that after Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball got divorced, their two children would often request they borrow a copy of “The Parent Trap” film from the studio (in those old pre vcr/dvd days). > [@Andy\_L](#): > > Interesting. The Parent Trap came out a year or so after Lucy and Desi divorced, but the kids still could have been interested in the film for the reason you suggest. Oh, come on. They had to have been divorced for 25 years before Lindsay Lohan was even _born_… ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliched-problems-in-sitcoms-that-wouldnt-bother-you/809073/45 "2018-02-20T18:46:10Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Oh, come on. They had to have been divorced for 25 years before Lindsay Lohan was even _born_… Hayley Mills forever! ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliched-problems-in-sitcoms-that-wouldnt-bother-you/809073/46 "2018-02-20T18:52:48Z")
> [@digs](#): > > You can stop right there. Did that EVER happen in real life? It’s such a staple of shows like Bewitched, that I started to think maybe it was based on reality. My parents would sometimes go out with Dad’s two closest minions and their wives; occasionally, they’d eat at one of the households (people in that area often have a kitchen/dining room separate from the house used to hold parties or big family meals; we didn’t, but both minions did). With one of them the friendship eventually spread to include the rest of both families; Dad’s former mentee was eventually my own mentor, his nephew was my housesitter for several years… With the other one, the relationship was always kind of strained. I think this second minion was almost offended by the impropriety of The Boss cracking the occasional joke or having a glass of wine in the presence of underlings; dude’s got one of the worst cases of Stickus Ut Colonus I’ve ever seen. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliched-problems-in-sitcoms-that-wouldnt-bother-you/809073/47 "2018-02-20T21:28:51Z")
> [@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. This STILL comes up in some Hallmark movies – the CEO prefers men who settle down so the interloper proposes to the heroine as she is meeting her twoo wuv. Or the American guy has to impress a foreign businessman who wants to deal only with a “family man”. (Then the businessman turns out to be Santa Claus, but I digress.) ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliched-problems-in-sitcoms-that-wouldnt-bother-you/809073/48 "2018-02-20T21:51:42Z")
> [@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? Wonder no more: we had an entire thread about this exact question a few years ago: **[How (un)realistic a premise was _Three’s Company_’s?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=622272)** ---
**Author:** ![Cayuga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Cayuga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cayuga)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliched-problems-in-sitcoms-that-wouldnt-bother-you/809073/49 "2018-02-20T22:51:46Z")
A staple in the early to mid-60s was the couple find out their marriage license was invalid for some obscure technical reason, so they’d unknowingly been living in sin all these years. Back then, they were completely mortified and humiliated (until the third act, when they found out it had been valid after all). Today, they’d just say, “Oh well” and get the paperwork redone. Or not. I saw promos a couple of weeks ago indicating that this was, in fact, the plot of that week’s episode of Matt LeBlanc’s new sitcom, _Man with a Plan_. Yet another reason I’ve never watched it. ---
**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:** [February 20, 2018, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliched-problems-in-sitcoms-that-wouldnt-bother-you/809073/50 "2018-02-20T22:59:46Z")
> [@installLSC](#): > > 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. Not in our school. It was something of a political drama: Someone deciding to change the school rules so he could run\* and running a campaign against some of the poor decisions of the administrators.\*\* When we won (I was the campaign manager), the anointed one was stunned. \*The post was only open to those who were on the student council, and he wasn’t. \*\* One point was that they turned off a water fountain as some soft of punishment, but never told any of the students why it had been turned off. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliched-problems-in-sitcoms-that-wouldnt-bother-you/809073/51 "2018-02-20T23:16:00Z")
> [@susan](#): > > Anything involving a zit. However, the Roseanne episode where Becky farted at school is dead on. No one at my school would ever forget that. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2018, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliched-problems-in-sitcoms-that-wouldnt-bother-you/809073/52 "2018-02-21T06:47:43Z")
Mixing up the Launch command at a space facility with Lunch and hitting the Launch button. Why would I press a button to get lunch? ---
**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 21, 2018, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliched-problems-in-sitcoms-that-wouldnt-bother-you/809073/53 "2018-02-21T07:42:45Z")
> [@Cayuga](#): > > A staple in the early to mid-60s was the couple find out their marriage license was invalid for some obscure technical reason, so they’d unknowingly been living in sin all these years. > > Back then, they were completely mortified and humiliated (until the third act, when they found out it had been valid after all). Today, they’d just say, “Oh well” and get the paperwork redone. Or not. > > I saw promos a couple of weeks ago indicating that this was, in fact, the plot of that week’s episode of Matt LeBlanc’s new sitcom, _Man with a Plan_. Yet another reason I’ve never watched it. Corollary to this, a clerical error lists one of the characters as recently deceased. That happened to my grandfather when my grandmother died. He was extremely amused by it. Once the bank informed him. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2018, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliched-problems-in-sitcoms-that-wouldnt-bother-you/809073/54 "2018-02-21T07:44:59Z")
> [@installLSC](#): > > 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. Believe it or not, I graduated high school in 1996, and you weren’t allowed to go stag to the prom. Granted most people would just find a friend to go as a “date”, but it was still fucking stupid. ---
**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:** [February 21, 2018, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliched-problems-in-sitcoms-that-wouldnt-bother-you/809073/55 "2018-02-21T14:22:15Z")
> [@Cayuga](#): > > I saw promos a couple of weeks ago indicating that this was, in fact, the plot of that week’s episode of Matt LeBlanc’s new sitcom, _Man with a Plan_. Yet another reason I’ve never watched it. Egad. I have no idea why people watch all these shows that just recycle bits from decades ago. ---
**Author:** ![Heracles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heracles/32/487_2.png) [@Heracles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heracles)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2018, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliched-problems-in-sitcoms-that-wouldnt-bother-you/809073/56 "2018-02-21T18:12:36Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > In real life, you just say “No thanks, I’m just staying home and chilling this weekend”. Do NOT [mention Netflix](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=846180), though. 🙂 ---
**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 21, 2018, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliched-problems-in-sitcoms-that-wouldnt-bother-you/809073/57 "2018-02-21T18:25:59Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Asuka** : > > Mixing up the Launch command at a space facility with Lunch and hitting the Launch button. > > Why would I press a button to get lunch? Although, one of my friends once had a hard time getting the rocket to launch when he did push the launch button, to which the (successful) response was to kick the control panel. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2018, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliched-problems-in-sitcoms-that-wouldnt-bother-you/809073/58 "2018-02-25T08:30:17Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > Mixing up the Launch command at a space facility with Lunch and hitting the Launch button. > > Why would I press a button to get lunch? What’s the point of living in the future if you can’t get lunch at the press of a single button? ---
**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 25, 2018, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliched-problems-in-sitcoms-that-wouldnt-bother-you/809073/59 "2018-02-25T13:01:34Z")
But that’s, like, science fiction! We live on a spaceship, dear. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2018, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliched-problems-in-sitcoms-that-wouldnt-bother-you/809073/60 "2018-02-25T13:31:21Z")
I don’t recall if this ever happened on a sitcom, but in the mid-to-late 70s, there seemed to be a lot of shows where the pilot of plane got sick or died at the controls and the star of the show had to land the plane, never having sat in a cockpit before. The only one I remember for certain was an episode of The Incredible Hulk and the only reason I saw it was because the 6-y/o I was babysitting absolutely \*lurved \*that show, so I had to watch it with him. And I couldn’t even snark about it! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliched-problems-in-sitcoms-that-wouldnt-bother-you/809073.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cliched-problems-in-sitcoms-that-wouldnt-bother-you/809073.md?page=4)