More unrealistic money matter in movies

[thyme4change]

2 others I can think of were "Malcolm in the Middle" and "The Middle", which is still on now.

I only watched "The Middle" once, and I just couldn't get onboard for Patricia Heaton being lower-middle class. She looks too well taken care of. Maybe I'm stuck with her "Everyone Love Raymond" persona. Jane Kaczmarek is Malcolm in the Middle was awesome - totally believable. But she is really funny and she played that so well.

[dcmetrocrab]

It's harder trying to name realistic tv shows. People watch TV to escape from reality.

Modern Family is another show I find hard to swallow, mainly Phil and Claire's situation. Claire is a SAHM, 3 kids, Phil is a realtor. They live in a gorgeous home, everyone has Apple paraphernalia (major product placement!), Phil is always buying the latest gadgets. In one episode, Phil lists their neighbor's home for $1.4M, so I assume theirs would be around the same.

The show seems to have downgraded everyone else's situations though. The grandfather Jay in all appearances, not just upper income but fabulously wealthy, and initially I thought he was a retired ex-NFL coach from the indirect references. That seemed to make more sense than when later they reveal he's still working as owner of an unnamed business. The gay couple, they show them in front of a beautiful large home, but later reveal they're renting one unit and it's an apt complex...

[Urban Chicago]

Yeah, modern family is bad about that. I especially love the one episode where they promise the oldest daughter a car if she wins a bet, but later complain that they can't afford it. They complain while surrounded by designer furniture, expensive gadgets, etc... Even the kids have $500 cell phones and such.


OOPS, I'm revealing too much about how much TV I watch!

[thyme4change]

If he did well during the boom years, I could see an LA Realtor being able to swing it. Especially if they got a substantial down-payment from the wealthy FIL. The gay couple, the one guy was a private litigator - big money. I think he was a partner. And their unit is 2 bedroom because Lilly has her own room - but it clearly is a multi-family house. Dad being a business man and having a lot of money isn't a given, but isn't a stretch either. I know a lot of successful businessmen. But yes, Phil & Claire's situation is slightly unrealistic.

[illinicheme]

Modern Family is so hysterical that I'm willing to overlook the excesses.

For traditional multi-camera sitcoms, I think the digs are required to be huge due to the technical limitations of the way the shows are shot. If you mentally fold the rooms back up, maybe the characters aren't living in quite as much space as it looks like.

[robbase]

king of queens- yeah a UPS driver and a receptionist could afford a house like they had in queens---sure (....NOT)

[Cookies Galore]

Feb 21, 2011 16:35:04 GMT -5 Urban Chicago said:

Yeah, modern family is bad about that. I especially love the one episode where they promise the oldest daughter a car if she wins a bet, but later complain that they can't afford it. They complain while surrounded by designer furniture, expensive gadgets, etc... Even the kids have $500 cell phones and such.


OOPS, I'm revealing too much about how much TV I watch!

Well, yeah, they complained because they didn't think she would actually win the bet and had no intention of buying her a car!

[illinicheme]

I find CSI and the other "science-based" crime shows that have popped up in its wake unwatchable. If you're an actual scientist, it's difficult to get around the inaccuracies and the ridiculous dialogue. Not to mention the run-the-sample-then-grab-my-gun-to-go-make-the-arrest insanity.

Is it NCIS that has the chick who is always eating/drinking in the lab?

[Sum Dum Gai]

Would you say Big Bang Theory is a better portrayal of actual scientists, oh and the one engineer?

[illinicheme]

Feb 21, 2011 17:38:54 GMT -5 Sum Dum Gai said:

Would you say Big Bang Theory is a better portrayal of actual scientists, oh and the one engineer?

Hmm...."better"? Not necessarily. More forgivable, perhaps, since it's a comedy and therefore it seems more acceptable to have the characters be stylized and greatly exaggerated for comedic effect. Plus, the BBT doesn't spend much time passing off fake science as real. It's a totally different focus. At the end of the day, they're still a pretty narrow subset of the types of folks who end up in science/engineering. (Leonard seems essentially "normal", Raj somewhat too. I've never met a Howard or a Sheldon.)

[illinicheme]

Feb 21, 2011 18:40:54 GMT -5 @toughtimes said:

Actually a lot of engineers have terrific personalities,

I'd certainly like to think so!

[thyme4change]

as far as brady bunch - i thought they were slumming it! 6 kids in 2 brm?

ummm - count again. There were 4 bedrooms, a den, a family room, a living room - and later, an extra bedroom in the attic. Although we never discussed Alice & her "business" I'm guessing there was a 3rd bathroom in her room. And, don't most 2 story houses have a powder room of some sort on the first floor? Especially if the ones upstairs have no hall access, as the jack-and-jill kid's bathroom was.

[simser]

Feb 21, 2011 17:38:54 GMT -5 Sum Dum Gai said:

Would you say Big Bang Theory is a better portrayal of actual scientists, oh and the one engineer?

I've certainly met people very similar to the BBT people. I am a chemist, one of my best friends is a physicst and he's constantly teasing me about being "dumb". (We're both getting our PhDs). And if you're very careful you will find we are funny like the show.

But speaking of shows with odd money issues- let's talk about BBT. A Physics professor doesn't get to not teach without paying money for that. And you never see them writing grants! Plus being a professor (or in Howard's case a tech) isn't exactly a great money occupation- especially for LA. So how do they afford all the eating out and comic books?

[Plain Old Petunia]

My ex-h could not stand any cop show besides "Cops". He would spend the entire episode pointing out what was wrong with their procedures. Things that were illegal, things that were unsafe, things that were absolutely-not-the-way-that-works, etc.

I have to admit though, I feel frustrated when I see glaring errors too. Like once in a Bruce Willis movie, (I guess one of the Die Hards?), the BW character is a cop and terrorists steal his 401k money, even though cops don't have 401k plans, they have 457 plans. And yes, it irritated me, lol.

[Sum Dum Gai]

Are they actually professors in BBT? I thought they were all grant funded research types, not necessarily faculty. They do have decent apartments and seemingly a fair amount of disposable income for fairly low paying jobs in LA though.

[Loopdilou]

They're faculty, honey.

[Sum Dum Gai]

That's right. I forgot they showed Sheldon giving a lecture in a fairly recent episode.

[thyme4change]

My ex-h could not stand any cop show besides "Cops".

Law school was an expensive 3 year process that destroyed half of television.

Now we just watch Big Love - we don't know squat about plural marriage or Utah or even LDS so we can just go with it.

[illinicheme]

If they're faculty, then BBT is totally unrealistic. I always assumed they were staff scientists, which according to glassdoor.com, means they make an average of $72k at CalTech. Not a phenomenal salary in California, but probably enough to afford their apartments and their hobbies, assuming none of them are particularly forward-thinking in terms of retirement, etc.

[ummboutthat]

thyme4change - we're in the same boat.
I'm now looking at commercials and how they are set up!
the size of these kitchens! they're huge.
this one chick in a commercial has 2 FN ovens!! in her big ass kitchen!
WHY DO PEOPLE NEED OR WANT 2 OVENS.
the commercial also leads to think the woman is the cook! no maid, no chief - thinking it's a single family!

[ummboutthat]

OH but thanks to the boards here I have opened my narrow minded mind.
because most movies people live in big ass apartments and I'm only used to living in the big city. Until I opened my mouth on MSN and people were posting mortgage payments for like an acre of land hundreds of dollars less than what I pay for rent! because they live out west or some neighbor-less out in the field country somewhere USA based.
But I need the hustle of the city life
I can't live where my neighbor is like a mile away and no stores are open past 7PM!

[Sum Dum Gai]

WHY DO PEOPLE NEED OR WANT 2 OVENS.

Because it's really handy sometimes. You can have a roast in one and a pie in the other. You know, if you're a chick and you can cook. For us dudes, it's like a frozen pizza in the top one and two hungry man dinners in the bottom. It's the same reason I have two fridges. Sure, I could put my beer in the main fridge, but I can fit so much more in the beer fridge and still have room for food in the main one.

[Sum Dum Gai]

You can't put something in a 250 degree oven to warm, and something else in a 450 oven to cook at the same time if you only have one oven.

Granted we only have two ovens because the house we bought already had them. The only time they've really been that useful was at Thanksgiving. Otherwise, they're neat sometimes but we mostly just use one.

[Deleted]

Yeah, cooking two turkeys and a leg of lamb last Thanksgiving, i was kinda dreaming of two ovens... not worth it just for that... but if a house came with two, i wouldn't pull one out...

[cronewitch]

My grandmother had two ovens her last 50 years of life, the free standing range had an oven above the burners and below the burners. She keep that old stove until she died, don't know how often she used both. My boyfriend's mom had two ovens also, small farmhouse but the range had two ovens. Nice for two different temperature cooking or to bake in one and broil in the other. When they each got the ranges they didn't have microwaves yet so may have had more needed for two. DBF's mom couldn't afford a microwave so we got her one for Christmas one year. Her youngest used it but don't know if she ever got used to microwaves. Grandma was an early adopter and used hers pretty often so probably used the range less and less in old age.

[thyme4change]

But I need the hustle of the city life
I can't live where my neighbor is like a mile away and no stores are open past 7PM!

There are a whole bunch of stops in between the two - but I understand. I couldn't go any smaller than where I am.

[lurkyloo]

For those who like to cook at two temperatures simultaneously: buy a toaster oven. Seriously. I actually have two toaster ovens (long story); they're large enough that I can do at least a 12lb turkey in either one, no problem. We've never used the oven that came with the house in the 2 years we've lived here. We plan to replace it eventually (it's pretty ghetto looking), but it's hard to justify $600+ to replace something that we never use!

[The Home 6]

My dream house is either going to have double ovens or a big ol' VIking range. I fully qualify as a "Chick who Cooks".

Back to the TV shows...I don't notice the money so much, but when there's a military thing, I am all over the errors! I think it was the last season of "Bones" when Booth went back into the Army to go to Afghanistan and I just kept snapping at the TV. "Get a haircut!" "Fix that collar!"

[thyme4change]

For those who like to cook at two temperatures simultaneously: buy a toaster oven.

I've been thinking about getting the Breville (?) counter top oven. It has a toaster setting. I roast a lot and I'm thinking it won't heat the house up quite as much. And on Christmas, we will have 2 ovens.

[Deleted]

Nancy Meyers totally directs house porn. Anyone watch "It's Complicated"?