Tran Harry – The Economy Needs A Fix

You see when I grew up back in the late 80’s and early 90’s television was not the same as it is today. I was brought up watching television shows such as ”Married with Children” a TV sitcom that ran from 1987 to 1997 starring:

Al Bundy – Ed O’Neill
Peggy Bundy – Katey Sagal
Kelly Bundy – Christina Applegate
Bud Bundy – David Faustino

To me the show was a representation of the times, hard working families living in realistic conditions. The family was not rich, the father of the household had to take on a crappy job in order to bring home the bacon, even though according to the show it wasn’t much. The show focused on key qualities in everyday lives of many families and it was a very good representation of the times, such as the high unemployment levels of the early 80s.

But heading into the end of the shows life around the late 90s I noticed a flock of new television shows showing up with much more money, and if you look at the handful of shows that were coming out in the new millennium such as Sex in the City, or Prison Break, these shows started showing off a wealth of a new generation. No longer were we trying to make light of the struggling American, but we were on a shopping binge of never before seen heights. Take Prison Break for example, he is a professional Structural Engineer with a nice loft condo before his demise into the world of our prison system. The shopping fueled dramas that gave birth such as Sex and the City or Confessions of a Shopaholic, which to an extent were marketing vehicles for the best gadgets and gizmos and purses and designer clothing that we have never seen before.

Where are the shows like Married with Children? The shows where I don’t have to see the newest Blackberry in the hands of every character but rather maybe someone with an old fashion dinky flip phone with a black and white screen? If you don’t believe that there are people who still live this way than ask around, because not everyone owns the latest gadgets or jeans that came out this season. I am not saying that these shows are not enjoyable, frankly they are very enjoyable which shows their survivability rate as they keep coming out with new episodes each season. But with the current economic downturn, maybe just maybe we will begin seeing some of the old show flavor resurface. It would do people good to know that not everyone on TV owns new gadgets, and flat screen TVs, because television is such a strong reference group that when we see what the actors on the shows have and we don’t have it than it does depress our days to an extent. So maybe if we can see some more lives like the Bundy’s back on TV than we will all be able to realize that not everyone is walking around with a fancy $500 iPhone in their pocket.