# Would you choose to live in a classic era sitcom world? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 12, 2017, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-to-live-in-a-classic-era-sitcom-world/786462 "2017-05-12T16:55:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2017, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-to-live-in-a-classic-era-sitcom-world/786462/61 "2017-05-27T02:11:35Z")
> [@Princess\_Perfume](#): > > If i were transported to an old fifties sitcom, would i really be able to cope with my sister(s) Peggy Sue and Mary Lou saying things like “Uh-uh-uh! Mom said no one can touch those brownies till after dinner!” I’d like to be able to say such things as “Hey, do you want a hunk of milk?” to Eddie Haskell. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2017, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-to-live-in-a-classic-era-sitcom-world/786462/62 "2017-05-27T02:27:26Z")
…is this where Gillian Anderson asks me if I want to see Lucy’s tits…? ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2017, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-to-live-in-a-classic-era-sitcom-world/786462/63 "2017-05-27T05:17:05Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > I pretty much did. My first 11 years were spent in a small (official population: 200) farming community 50 miles (as the crow flies) south of Chicago. Post office, volunteer fire department, lumber company, barber, gas station, grocer, diner, limestone quarry turned swimming hole\*. No stop lights and no minorities other than one Puerto Rican family. > [@Princess\_Perfume](#): > > if you were to be transported to the universe of a sitcom as _you_. > > take a fifties sitcom: /snip/ being expected to get their “MRS” instead of an actual education. LOL, as a minority woman with a postgraduate degree I simply wouldn’t exist in the 50s sitcom era–so if I were to go back then as the current “me” I’d be invisible or a real oddity. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2017, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-to-live-in-a-classic-era-sitcom-world/786462/64 "2017-05-27T05:43:15Z")
I wouldn’t mind living in Bob Newhart’s bed and breakfast. ---
**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:** [May 27, 2017, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-to-live-in-a-classic-era-sitcom-world/786462/65 "2017-05-27T05:47:21Z")
I’ll take the world of “Mad About You,” especially if I get Jamie Buchman with it. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2017, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-to-live-in-a-classic-era-sitcom-world/786462/66 "2017-05-27T08:30:52Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > I’ll take the world of “Mad About You,” especially if I get Jamie Buchman with it. Been watching reruns lately. Jamie Buchman may be cute and all, but she is VERY high maintenance and a major flake. I think before long you would grab Murray and sneak out in the middle of the night. ---
**Author:** ![LH75](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lh75/32/4438_2.png) [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2017, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-to-live-in-a-classic-era-sitcom-world/786462/67 "2017-05-27T13:29:48Z")
The blue collar world portrayed in Roseanne was more like my neighborhood than other sitcoms. I would be comfortable there. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2017, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-to-live-in-a-classic-era-sitcom-world/786462/68 "2017-05-27T14:34:20Z")
I would happily assume Floyd the Barber’s role in Mayberry. Give the occasional butch cut, spend the rest of the time sitting on the bench outside debating whether to go to the fillin’ station for a root beer or to the diner for lunch. That, that’s right Andy, yeahhhhh mmm ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2017, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-to-live-in-a-classic-era-sitcom-world/786462/69 "2017-05-27T15:27:43Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > I grew up in one of those worlds. But bear in mind that behind the picket fences and perfect lawns, life was not like it appeared on tv. There were things in my childhood that I’d never want to return to. In some respects, the American Dream was a nightmare. This is true. I grew up in the 50’s and 60’s, the whole roaming-the-neighborhood-on-my-bike-all-day. Ice cream truck, no A/C, peanut butter and jelly for lunch every day, Leave It To Beaver, Father Knows Best, Marcus Welby. It was, of course, a simpler time, but that doesn’t mean it was a good time. I was raised in a tense, dysfunctional family and most every day was a misery. We got by, just barely middle class, not much money… I spent as much time as I could with a single aunt, my cousins up the street, and my grandma (and never a day goes by that I don’t think about her). I wouldn’t want to suffer through those days ever again… Mayberry N.C. with Andy, Opie, and Aunt Bea looked as warm and comforting as a basket of muffins right out of the oven! Later in my life, I yearned to be a mail-order bride on Here Come the Brides (the bluest skies you’ve ever seen are in Se-attle!) Grown and away, Away, AWAY from ‘home’. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2017, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-to-live-in-a-classic-era-sitcom-world/786462/70 "2017-05-27T16:14:12Z")
I think this question needs more clarification. Is it asking: (a) Would you like to live in archetypal 1950s America with friendly neighbors and picket fences and so forth? (b) Pick a situation comedy, and insert yourself into its situation, with its cast of characters. Would you be happy? (c1) Do (b), but with the added restriction that you’re continuing to live by the trope of sitcoms, so every time you buy groceries you end up with a baguette sticking out of your bag, etc. (c2) Same as (c1) but with the qualification that you’re not necessarily one of the main characters of the sitcom. ---
**Author:** ![Princess\_Perfume](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/princess_perfume/32/16518_2.png) [@Princess\_Perfume](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princess_Perfume)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2017, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-to-live-in-a-classic-era-sitcom-world/786462/71 "2017-05-28T01:57:48Z")
I think the episode with Frank Grimes showed that a real person from our universe couldn’t survive in the Simpsons world. Also wouldn’t fare too well in Duckman’s universe. ---
**Author:** ![purplehearingaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@purplehearingaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehearingaid)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2017, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-to-live-in-a-classic-era-sitcom-world/786462/72 "2017-05-28T02:10:00Z")
Topper would be fun , I could a have ghost dog for a pet and bring it everywhere. The Rifleman looks cool with all that open land wild horses. Most of the ‘older’ sitcom are too ‘White’ for me ,if Mayberry had some Black people living there I pick it for a short visit . ---
**Author:** ![DrForrester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8edcca/32.png) [@DrForrester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrForrester)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2017, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-to-live-in-a-classic-era-sitcom-world/786462/73 "2017-05-28T02:29:01Z")
There was once a show called [Life On Mars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_on_Mars_(UK_TV_series)) in the UK in which… oh, dear, this might be a spoiler. Sorry. In the last episode, the main character learns that all of his experiences in the series have been a hallucination. He chooses to stay within that world rather than return to the real world. There was also a different show called [Life On Mars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_on_Mars_(U.S._TV_series)) in the US in which there was also a plot twist at the end, but it was completely different. (probably worse IMHO) ---
**Author:** ![Princess\_Perfume](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/princess_perfume/32/16518_2.png) [@Princess\_Perfume](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princess_Perfume)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2017, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-to-live-in-a-classic-era-sitcom-world/786462/74 "2017-05-28T03:08:41Z")
I wouldn’t last five minutes in the Brady Bunch without wanting to introduce Marcia to being a face on a milk carton. She’s quite a jerkish hyper-sexualized snobby and rude human being. ---
**Author:** ![Mudshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2017, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-to-live-in-a-classic-era-sitcom-world/786462/75 "2017-05-28T04:42:27Z")
The Golden Girls version of the 1980s. I mean Blanche only works 12 hours a week and look at all the clothes and sex she had. We could go to The Rusty Anchor and hit on the guys. Mary Tyler Moore had it pretty good too. So did Murphy Brown. ---
**Author:** ![Princess\_Perfume](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/princess_perfume/32/16518_2.png) [@Princess\_Perfume](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princess_Perfume)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2017, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-to-live-in-a-classic-era-sitcom-world/786462/76 "2017-05-28T04:47:00Z")
If we include movies, I’m surprised some women elsewhere would like to be the woman in Sleepless in Seattle. You can be anything in any movie or tv show and instead you want to experience life as a woman who listens to the radio?!? ---
**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:** [May 28, 2017, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-to-live-in-a-classic-era-sitcom-world/786462/77 "2017-05-28T05:05:08Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Been watching reruns lately. Jamie Buchman may be cute and all, but she is VERY high maintenance and a major flake. I think before long you would grab Murray and sneak out in the middle of the night. Perhaps, but exponentially better grounded than her sister. ---
**Author:** ![Reluctant\_A](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@Reluctant\_A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reluctant_A)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2017, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-to-live-in-a-classic-era-sitcom-world/786462/78 "2017-05-28T05:53:25Z")
I don’t recall many “classic” sitcoms having many black people. So, hard pass. ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2017, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-to-live-in-a-classic-era-sitcom-world/786462/79 "2017-05-28T05:59:54Z")
I’ve said for years I basically grew up in the world of\* Leave it to Beaver\* just with a healthy dose of Baptist mixed in. Mostly a very pleasant experience. If I could choose a classic sitcom world my choice would be _The Dick Van Dyke Show_. Duh. Though _The Andy Griffith Show_ would be a pleasant place to spend time too. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2017, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-to-live-in-a-classic-era-sitcom-world/786462/80 "2017-05-28T07:12:35Z")
> [@DrForrester](#): > > There was once a show called [Life On Mars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_on_Mars_(UK_TV_series)) in the UK in which… oh, dear, this might be a spoiler. Sorry. > > In the last episode, the main character learns that all of his experiences in the series have been a hallucination. He chooses to stay within that world rather than return to the real world. And then …the Test Card Girl switches him off. ☹ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-to-live-in-a-classic-era-sitcom-world/786462.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-to-live-in-a-classic-era-sitcom-world/786462.md?page=5)