That is likely true for some shows, but the figures they give on that site are ridiculous. (the numbers they give are from Jan 06)
Christian Troy, “Nip/Tuck:” Plastic surgeon
Real-life median salary: $156,500, according to Payscale.com.
I ran a report on that site based on 5 years experience and got $250,000 as being the median. Not to mention he’s not an employee.
Grace Adler, “Will and Grace:” Interior designer
Real-life median salary: About $40,700, according to the BLS
Payscale.com says $52,000 for an interior designer with 5 years experience. And again, that is as an employee versus Grace owning her own business.
I didn’t run the others, but the life lived by many TV characters doesn’t seem that far off to me.
Laziness might also be a factor. For example if you’d state the price of a property you’d not only have to a) research property prices and b) take the risk that the number may badly date the script but also c) make up your mind how large the off-screen part of the house is and d) where exactly the property is (the kind of unstated backstory detail that a writer might not bother to determine in their own mind).
Jim Rockford’s rate was $200/day plus expenses. Aside from not working much, he was a good-hearted guy who often took on hard-luck cases who couldn’t pay his full fee.
So was “No Country For Old Men”. So was “The Big Lebowski”.
I don’t know if I buy the “inflation” excuse. Who is watching a 20 year old movie who doesn’t know that the movie was 20 years old, and that the numbers mentioned have to be adjusted for the time period.
It’s not necessarily a question of knowledge, it’s that it pulls you out of the movie and makes you aware of where you are, and how old the movie is. You become aware of your “suspension of disbelief.”
I’ve even seen what were supposed to be a dramatic scene, and the mention of buying a beer for 25c (say) causes the audience to chuckle. Instead of being caught up in the drama, they were shot into a “wow, imagine a beer only cost 25c” mode.
Is the same thing at work in novels? I can think of a few off the top of my head in which characters go on at length and in great detail about money:
A couple of Faulkner’s, especially The Mansion where Mink has to budget down to the penny after he gets out of jail so he has enough to buy a gun and bullets with which to shoot Flem.
Updike’s Rabbit novels where Rabbit spends a whole lot of time worrying about money and explaining investments to his wife.
One memorable stretch in Arrowsmith in which Martin is wondering how much his new employers are going to pay him.
As a rule, are novelists less worried about whatever it is that movie and TV writers are trying to avoid?[ul]
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I think Fargo played with this effect intentionally. The few hundred thousand dollars that Jerry stands to gain from the kidnapping scheme seems like a lot of money at first, but looks increasingly chintzy compared to all of the murder and mayhem that eventually results. As the movie ages it’ll just seem even more grimly ironic.
Rockford Files! I should have thought of that one, I’m a big fan. I agree that the amount was mentioned specifically to add to Rockford’s characterisation.
The inability to get in touch with someone quickly by phone dates movies a lot quicker than amounts of money, especially since it’s a key part of the plot in so many older movies.
A specific instance that didn’t seem dated until a few days ago:
Pretty Woman (1990) - Richard Gere’s character offers Julia Roberts’ hooker character $3000 for a week. No coyness about the amount; in fact the original title was “$3000”. Now we hear former New York Governor Spitzer dropped $4300 for an hour.
One reference that made me chuckle back in the early 80s occurs toward the start of “Double Indemnity”. In the voice over, Fred MacMurray indicates just how wealthy Barbara Stanwick’s husband is by telling us their house must have been worth “at least 30 grand”. Even in the early 80s, there was nothing in Southern California even remotely that cheap.
I like how this was handled in Ghostbusters. Egon signals Peter as to what they should charge for the encarceration of the first ghost. Apparently, the boys hadn’t discussed prices prior to their first job. But it would cost $5,000 in 1984 to have a ghost removed from your hotel in New York City. Of course, that last $1,000 was because of a “special” that week to account for the cost of “proton charging and storage of the beast.” So, maybe the regular price is only $4,000. I wonder what that would be in 2008 dollars.
In Indecent Proposal Robert Redford’s character offers Demi Moore’s and Woody Harrelson’s characters one mill-ion dollars for a night with Demi’s character.
Even at the time the movie was made, there was no hope in hell that Harrelson’s character could have finished building his dream house for a mere million dollars. Makes you wonder what the writer was thinking.
Interestingly enough, one of the BMW “The Hire” short films played with this a bit. The kidnapper asks the Driver if he brought the ransom money, and asks him if he counted it. The Driver answers in the affirmative, and begins to say the dollar amount when he’s cut off and told to write it down on his hand instead.
This actually becomes important later in the film (well, like, a good 30 seconds to a minute later; it was a short film afterall)
In that example a chuckle is more than appropriate but there comes a point in time when the import of financial values is negated or, in some cases, turned upside down.
In For A Few Dollars More, wherein monetary amounts are literally plastered all over the place (normally beneath someone’s picture and accompanied by the legend Wanted: Dead Or Alive) I considered the bounty of $10K on the head of El Indio to be an enormous sum for the antebellum period. Furthermore, when The Man With No Name counted his raft of bodies into the wagon at the end of the film I recall thinking he would have enough cash to buy most of El Paso if such was his desire.
This is one of my favorite sites on the internet. It lets you discover, for example, that when Mr. Potter offers George Bailey $25,000/year in the 1940’s, that’s about $300,000 today.
But note that in the episode in which Jerry buys his dad a Cadillac and Elaine and Kramer are blown away by the amount of money Jerry is making, the avoid mentioning any specific amounts.
That was for keeping a street walker for a week. There’s no comparison between that and the “Emperor’s Club.”