Posts Tagged ‘Rich People’
TV Shows about Poor People
The other day I was stimulating the economy (watching television), when I realized that I haven’t seen a (new) show about broke-ass people in a long time.
If you study any of the retro cable stations, you’ll notice that there was a period of time (roughly corresponding to the mid-to-late 70s and very early 80s) where nearly every show was about poor people, or poor people that—through a stroke of implausibly good luck–were suddenly not poor anymore. The characters had “real” problems, and their socio-economic status was accurately reflected in their living situations.
Some examples off the top of my head:
| Show | Socio-Economic Status | Example of Their Status |
| Sanford and Son | Poor-ass garbage collectors (salvagers) | Their house looked like absolute shit; Lamont (the son) always threatening to get a “real job” |
| Roseanne | Poor, small-town trailer types | Failed to pay the “light bill” (what poor people call the electric bill) on time; house goes dark; family always arguing about money |
| Good Times | Especially poor project residents | JJ gets mugged in his own apartment building; everyone always dreaming of “leaving the ghetto” |
| The Jeffersons | Once-poor people, but “moved on up” | Despite their “deluxe apartment in the sky,” George always works his ass off in his dry cleaning business |
| Diff’rent Strokes | Two kids win the adoption lottery, and also move on up | The intro sequence (at least in the early seasons) depicted the kids getting picked up from some ghetto playground |
Then, all of sudden, everyone on TV was automatically rich. I don’t mean start-off-poor-and-then-get-rich, I mean just unrealistically comfortable from the start. People that worked regular jobs had ridiculously nice homes, and stuff that they never would have been able to afford in real life. Take Family Ties. Even though the guy worked at a non-profit radio station, and the wife (if I remember correctly) didn’t even work, they lived in a beautiful, wood-paneled house with (eventually) four kids.
I know what you’re going to say: “That was Columbus, Ohio. You can probably buy a nice house there with a handful of paperclips.”
Even if that’s true, there are tons of examples throughout the 80s and 90s. Take Married with Children—set in Chicago. Al Bundy worked a fucking retail job (shoe store), but still had a decent two-story house–in a nice neighborhood–with three kids, a dog, and a lazy, spendy wife. Impossible. In real life, these assholes would have been foreclosed on by the second episode.
But even more common than the unrealistic income-to-status gap was the unexplainably-upper-middle-class lifestyle. Kramer from Seinfeld. Most of the characters on Friends. The list goes on.
I’m all for suspending disbelief. But I want some truth-in-entertainment. Give us a stack of credit card bills on the kitchen table, a rejected ATM transaction, or the occasional collection agency phone call.
Now don’t get me wrong. I don’t like poor people either. In fact, fuck ‘em. But they (and their plight) do tend to be hilarious.
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