And Phoebe was living in a rent-controlled apartment that used to be her grandmother’s, so yeah *Friends *is another bad example that people like to always bring up about people living way above their means in Manhattan that isn’t actually true.
Grimes is not surprised that Homer has a nice house in a town that smells. He’s outraged that he’s had to work so incredibly hard to achieve almost nothing while Homer reaps big rewards for his laziness and ineptitude. The Simpson house is far from palatial, but Grimes lives - you can’t not quote this line - “above a bowling alley and below another bowling alley.” He’s lead an absurdly hard life and understandably he is very bitter about it.
But we later find out that’s only because he likes hookers.
Well duh. They’re so much more convenient than free girls.
Not quite true both according to my memory and Wikipedia:
Becky left to elope with Mark. At one point Roseanne fills out a form that asks about her kid’s education. She admits the two eldest have not graduated from high school.
Lower middle class and working class are probably used interchangeably in America. I married someone who would probably considered from either a middle class or upper middle class background. I am sometimes highly conscious of the difference in our backgrounds. He grew up in a large house in a prosperous suburbs and I did not. His parents have retired comfortably on the proceeds from the sale of that house while my parents have managed retirement but it is a bit of a financial struggle for them. He and I happen to have the same values and a happy marriage but his parents are very different in outlook and education than mine are.
I imagine that this is not featured for storytelling purposes. They want the show to be about being single and fabulous, not about the drudgery required to “make it”. Showing a harried overworked Carrie who has to spend all her time at the keyboard just isn’t as interesting to watch. And referring to her other jobs without showing them would be confusing to the viewer.
I think of this as how we don’t see tv characters go to the bathroom regularly, or eating alone. It happens, it’s just not the focus of the hour a week we spend on their lives.
Glee did a decent job portraying poverty when they showed the blonde kid living with his entire family in a hotel room after his parents lost their jobs.
Lily’s incredibly cramped single apartment in HIMYM was awesome. The bed takes up like 80% of the floor space when it’s down, and there’s a toilet in the living room.
nod I’d say “working class” = “blue collar” = “lower middle class” here. “Poor” to me would mean struggling to feed and clothe the family, to keep the rent paid, to keep the lights on, to find work, relying on public assistance, and such.
Roseanne: That’s brand name. We buy generic, only second best for my family.
Darlene: No, I eat the brand name cereal.
Roseanne: No, actually it’s the brand name box, I’ve just been buying the generic cereal and refilling the box since 1985.
Darlene: You mean I’ve been eating generic Frankenberries?
Roseanne: I’m sorry you had to find out this way.
That made me LOL.
I remember that episode! My mother didn’t even try to hide it. But now I can just put the generic cereal into the cereal keeper.
My mom usually got away with that, but we busted her on trying to put reconstituted powdered milk in the empty plastic milk jug. I think the negotiated settlement involved half powdered milk/half “real” milk. We also knew when she was trying to pass off budget Oreos. (Other generic cookies were fine, but accept no Oreo substitutes.)
I disagree entirely. It would have been very easy for her to occasionally mention a deadline on a freelance assignment or complaining that the freelance market is experiencing a dry spell.
That ws Monica’s apartment, and she had to have a roommate to afford the rent. How Chandler and Joey made their rent, particularly in the beginning of the seasons when Joey was a starving actor and Chandler was just starting out, is a mystery.
I loved this exchange. When I buy generic, I often say that line (“nothing but second…”) in my head. I chuckle every time.
Monica lived in her aunt’s Greenwich Village apartment.
Wiki:
Phoebe moved out and lived in her grandmother’s apartment.
Still trying to figure out how Rachael the bad barista made half that rent.
The same way Joey did - by not paying half the rent.
How do the Simpsons “blow through money”? They manage to get by with USDA Utility grade beef (seriously, can people “buy” cuts of beef, or even ground beef, graded lower than Select?). Besides, every now and then they make a boatload of cash that mysteriously disappears the following week - for example, Marge must have made a fortune with the Shapes fitness centers, and Bart and Lisa got 50% of the T-shirt revenues (“That’s the sweetest plum!”) from Krusty’s Komeback special.
In the early Family Guy episodes, Lois makes money giving piano lessons. Besides, Stewie must have an “outside source of income” if he can afford to build a time machine.
Also, both families have won a lottery - Peter did it twice in the same episode.
The Simpsons seem to have a very low clothes budget as well.
Except for those musical extravaganza sequences where they have costumes and stuff…
“This place is a mansion! I live in a single room over a bowling alley! AND BELOW ANOTHER BOWLING ALLEY!
-Frank Grimes”
Zack and Miri Make a Porno - They lived in a dilapadated shithole in Pittsburg and could barely afford rent, let alone utilities. IIRC they had to create a hobo fire with a steel drum in their living room. And obviously, they start making porn to make ends meet.
8 Mile - Eminem’s family looked pretty freakin poor.
Most audiences wouldn’t “turn on them and blame them for their poverty”. That sounds like left-wing rhetoric. The reason they don’t show people as being utterly destitute is that unless it’s part of a plot device, it’s not relatable to the vast majority of audience members who aren’t poor. And, in fact, it can be a limiting factor in a story as a family that poor is unable to afford to do anything.
This may also come as a shock, but plenty of 20-somethings manage to live in Manhattan appartments. And they all aren’t vice presidents at Goldman Sachs.
Bart also has a coin worth $10,000,000. Of course, when he gets it, Homer, acknowledging the show’s deliberate lack of continuity when it comes to the family’s finances, tells Bart to keep it somewhere where it will be forgotten.