Howard Wolowitz on Big Bang Theory is a mechanical engineer who has worked on space probes, but apparently lives with his mother. Roommates Sheldon and Leonard are physicists who apparently need roommates to afford the rent. They also don’t have very good vehicles. Howard has a scooter, Leonard has a crappy old sedan and Sheldon either mooches rides or has to take the bus. Granted, he doesn’t drive very well, but I guess he has never heard of a taxi.
The cast of *Friends *spend their days lounging around a coffee shop yet live in expansive New York apartments.
I suppose *Lost *and *Survivor *are also examples, but I don’t like those because one is situational and the other is a reality show.
I never understood how the employees of Angel Investigations stayed off the bread lines. My only fanwank is that Angel had a ton of money put away that he’d acquired when he was evil and was very ambivalent about ever touching and tried to access only in emergencies. (Plus, as he wasn’t getting older, he couldn’t afford to snack on the principal.) At first only he knew about it; then, when he grew to trust Cordelia more (I mean, she was obviously in charge of the money), he let her in on it, and probably transferred a good bit of it into her name. Eventually Wes knew about it too (it’s how he was able to afford renting the boat he used to retrieve Angel from the briney deep). Gun & Fred never heard about it.
Speaking of BBT, I’m not sure Penny can afford her apartment without a roommate on her Cheesecake Factory salary and tips. In fact, they covered it in the newest episode. Certainly Sheldon and Leonard make more than she does. I think they live together because they’re friends…or, at least, Sheldon can tolerate Leonard the most.
I think Raj lives alone.
Dr. House lives way below his means…I think he’s lived in the same apartment for 10 years or so? And from what I saw of Dr. Cuddy’s house (the episode where her handyman fell off her roof) it doesn’t look overly ostentatious for a dean of medicine.
I’m not sure those characters are living below their means. I know plenty of PhDs in similar situations. Plus, there are plenty of examples in the show of them spending large amounts of discretionary income.
House lives in a very nice multi-room townhouse in a nice neighborhood. And he probably owns it. Same goes for Cuddy.
I also think he and Niles both had money from their mother (or perhaps their maternal grandparents). They weren’t rich rich, but they could both live quite nicely without working.
How is Lost an example? On the island they have extra inputs from the Dharma food drops, off the island any excessive housage is explained by a)Hurley’s lottery win b)Penny’s dad’s money c)Sun’s dad’s money d)massive Oceanic Airlines payouts to the Oceanic six
Married With Children mentioned Al’s lousy job and miniscule income pretty much every episode. Yet even with Peg’s spending habits, they always managed to make the mortgage payment on their crappy yet livable house.
Carrie Bradshaw lives well above her means on Sex and the City, and that fact plays a part in several episodes. She has a rent-controlled apartment in a nice building on the Upper East Side (which she eventually buys through the help of Charlotte), but blows all the money she makes through her column, books, and job at Vogue on expensive clothes and shoes.
The other girls on SaTC live within their means. Samantha is a successful PR exec with a nice apartment in the then-trendy Meat Packing district. Miranda is a partner at her firm with a nice apartment and later a house in Brooklyn. Charlotte hits the jackpot with her divorce, acquiring a gorgeous apartment on the Upper West Side and some considerable sum of money, since she doesn’t go back to work afteward.
In most British sitcoms nearly all the characters have large houses with living rooms the size of some family homes.
The recent ‘Outnumbered’ is supposed to be a more realistic sitcom, yet it has a secondary school (just a teacher, not head of department) in his thirties (not old enough to have bought years ago, before the housing boom) with a wife who only recently went back to work, all living in a four bedroom town house with a garden and huge living room and kitchen in North London - but not the suburbs. That house would cost at least £650,000 and his salary is maximum £35,000.
Ugly Betty. Betty had to give up her apartment in Manhattan (Hope Amanda can keep up the payments, though a wacky new roommate seems inevitable). But even with her salary, her papi’s and her sister’s, how do they afford the place in Queens? None of them makes more than $12/hour!
House’s street number is 221B (I know, I know). In these parts, “B” usually means a garage apartment or add-on, at best a duplex. His apartment/condo is not spacious or lavishly decorated.
