[QUOTE=sinjin]
Dead people can’t read, either.
[/QUOTE]
Sorry for not contributing to the thread again, but that made me laugh out loud.
Kudos to you.
[QUOTE=Miss Mapp]
One of the things I liked about I Love Lucy was that Ethel would be seen in the same dresses over and over (I especially remember that one with the broad rick-rack trim around the top), like a woman in her situation would wear, rather than a new outfit every week.
[/QUOTE]
Eve Arden did the same thing in Our Miss Brooks. I read that she figured out what kind of clothes someone on a schoolteacher’s salary could afford, then went out and got them off the rack.
[QUOTE=gallows fodder]
The brothers in Supernatural wear the same things over and over, too. Some wonderfully crazed fan (bless her heart) has devised pie charts calculating the frequency and probability of each of their garments being worn, and she’s calculated how much it must cost them to do their laundry and how often they need to do it. Yeah, yikes.
But they live out of their car, and they pay for all their cheap motels, gas, meals, and occasional clothing purchase (for disguises, not wardrobe additions) by hustling pool and perpetrating credit card scams. Surely, somewhere, some other crazed fan has calculated how much they need to rake in via fraudulent means to be able to afford their lifestyle…
[/QUOTE]
We’re not crazed! We’re… um… devoted…
I’ve always wondered how Ned Flanders could afford his house on what he made at the Leftorium.
Dr. Gregory House seems to be living well below his means. He is in South Jersey, with relatively cheap housing, and must have a good income as a clinic doctor. Yet he is living in a two room apartment with kitchen and bath that is remarkably similar to mine, and drives a motorcycle. His only indulgence is the piano.
On Roseanne, Mark & Becky moved into a trailer and later had to move in with the Conners. Darlene had a dumpy one room studio when she was a student. On the other hand, Jackie bought a house, despite her lack of job stability and income.
Yes, I meant that I (who is still alive) recently read an interview given by Lucille Ball. The interview was given a long time ago, before she passed away!
My mom is a huge Lucy fanatic, so this summer we watched all the episodes again, and I read through a couple of her Lucy books. Very fun.
You have to assume that either Lieutenant Columbo lived within his means, or else the raincoat and car (and later, the dog) were all affectations. I don’t think you ever did see his house.
As for outrageously expensive – whoever was keeping The Prisoner cooped up clearly had a budget bigger than the one they used for The Man Without a Country.
[QUOTE=HeyHomie]
3) Charlie Harper (Two and a Half Men): This I can believe without any reservations. The premise is that he’s rolling in royalties from all of the commercial jingles he’s written
[/QUOTE]
Gawd but I hate that show, but I must cite that he also claimed to be broke because of financial mismanagement in one episode.
Star Trek, in the future they have replicators and no money, so everyone lives within their means! (Except the Klingons, who are broke…)
[QUOTE=Der Trihs]
Captain Picard and the Enterprise crew. They live on a government provided starship, with replicators that can make most anything they want and holodecks that can simulate just about anything. If anything, they live much more spartanly than they need too.
[/QUOTE]
I should have read more of the thread, I get into a terrible panic when it looks like I may be the first to post a Trek reference in a thread 
You’ve just made me imagine the crew wantonly abusing the replicator, replicating room fulls of candy floss then getting bored before they’ve eaten any and making motorbikes to ride around the corridors on. Maybe the threat of being blown to smithereens by the ever jealous Klingons keeps them on their toes 
Curtis, the agoraphobic landlord of Twitch City lived within his meager means depending on his tenant/girlfriend to buy all the food.
[QUOTE=Shagnasty]
Six kids shared one bathroom.
[/QUOTE]
They shared a bathroom without a toilet.
[QUOTE=gonzomax]
Both spouses died. Life insurance was probably it.
[/QUOTE]
It was never stated what had happened to Carol’s first husband. In the planning for the series, the intent was that she was divorced, but the producers decided not to make that explicit.
[QUOTE=Shoshana]
I’ve always wondered how Ned Flanders could afford his house on what he made at the Leftorium.
[/QUOTE]
If I’m remembering correctly, Ned was a pharmacist before he decided to start the Leftorium. He may have gotten his house paid off by that time.
Last night on Without A Trace, Jack and Anne were looking for an apartment and ended up with a small fixer upper because that was what they could afford. She wanted something bigger at first, but then decided the little place wasn’t so bad.
[QUOTE=CalMeacham]
You have to assume that either Lieutenant Columbo lived within his means, or else the raincoat and car (and later, the dog) were all affectations.
[/QUOTE]
I think they were to some extent affectations. I remember one episode in which Mrs. Columbo (unseen) gave him a nice new coat and he kept “forgetting” it and leaving it behind everywhere he went, obviously trying to ditch the thing so he could get back into his shabby old trenchcoat.
But I believe the Columbos were on a rather limited budget. He mentions his income in another episode–I think the one in which John Cassavetes played an orchestra conductor–and it sounds pretty small even by early 1970s standards. 17 thousand or thereabouts, IIRC.
[QUOTE=FordPrefect]
Curtis, the agoraphobic landlord of Twitch City lived within his meager means depending on his tenant/girlfriend to buy all the food.
[/QUOTE]
That’s the Twitch City that ran in the USA on Bravo cable? Shown on a weird, unreliable schedule? With commercial breaks inserted at odd places? And so much of the dialog bleeped out?
The *Twitch City * that will finally be issued on DVD–as soon as tomorrow?
www.amazon.ca/Twitch-City-The-Complete-Series/dp/B000H5VACA/sr=8-1/qid=1162842711/ref=pd_ka_1/701-2302303-5863525?ie=UTF8&s=dvd
Since Due South first interested me in Things Canadian, I’ll mention the lifestyle of Benton Fraser. He first came to Chicago & moved into a hideously grim slum dwelling; by the end of the first seasons, he’d furnished it to appear liveable, though still spartan.
When the show came back with The Second Lt Vecchio (AKA Newbie)–Benton just lived in his office in the Canadian Consulate.
Jack Bauer seems to live within his means on 24. I assume the CTU is paying for his wheels and his cellphone bill.
Homer and Marge seem to live within their means on The Simpsons. They certainly save a lot on clothing, since they and their kids wear the same thing all the time.
The lead on SpongeBob SquarePants is definitely living above his means, especially given Mr. Krabs’s penny-pinching ways. Do you have any idea what an infinitely-internally-expandable pineapple will set you back in Bikini Bottom these days?
The characters on MASH** had all the luxe amenities that the Korean War-era U.S. Army would typically provide. Charles had some extras like a tape recorder to send “letters” to his sister, but then, he was loaded.
I presume that Earl and/or Randy will have to get a real job someday in My Name is Earl, as they’re still spending down Earl’s lottery winnings while living at a fleabag motel. Joy and Darnell are living in a mobile home and raising two intermittently-seen boys on Darnell’s Crab Shack salary. Doesn’t seem out of line to me.
[QUOTE=RachelChristine]
Yes, I meant that I (who is still alive) recently read an interview given by Lucille Ball. The interview was given a long time ago, before she passed away!
My mom is a huge Lucy fanatic, so this summer we watched all the episodes again, and I read through a couple of her Lucy books. Very fun.
[/QUOTE]
I knew exactly what you meant. Was just throwing a woosh atcha.
[QUOTE=Max Torque]
If I’m remembering correctly, Ned was a pharmacist before he decided to start the Leftorium. He may have gotten his house paid off by that time.
[/QUOTE]
Well, considering when he first opened The Leftorium, and business was bad, the bank forclosed, I’m guessing that no, he didn’t. But at theend of the episode it was revealed that most of the supporting cast in Springfield are lefties (cause Matt Groening is as well,) so they obvioiusly keep him with a steady supply of business (at least until The Leftopolis moved in next door.)
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir]
I presume that Earl and/or Randy will have to get a real job someday in My Name is Earl, as they’re still spending down Earl’s lottery winnings while living at a fleabag motel. Joy and Darnell are living in a mobile home and raising two intermittently-seen boys on Darnell’s Crab Shack salary. Doesn’t seem out of line to me.
[/QUOTE]
Joy does manicure work, remember.
[QUOTE=CalMeacham]
As for outrageously expensive – whoever was keeping The Prisoner cooped up clearly had a budget bigger than the one they used for The Man Without a Country.
[/QUOTE]
On the unreleased episode after the final one we find that the Village is actually run by Halliburton. 