How the fuck did Hal and Lois support four eventually five children on their budgets and also manage to maintain a...

How the fuck did Hal and Lois support four eventually five children on their budgets and also manage to maintain a decent house in a nice neighbourhood?

Hollywood has no concept of the real cost of living.

I remember the tv show “United States of Tara” (which was a decent show) and the mom, dad and two kids lived in a nice large suburban house in a lilly white neighborhood on the dad’s income as… a landscaper.

And at the same time, Hollywood continually shills unionized cops and teachers as somehow being poor and struggling to make ends meet.

Not that hard. My mom and dad did the same as they did. It scarily realistic. Dad had a job that got 60-80k and mom had a job that got about ~15-18k (Mom quit to raise baby sister). Dad bought a house around the size as MitM with an even bigger yard around the same time (I think in 2000 or 2001). Dad got it for 70k (worth a lot more now) in a good neighborhood. I even live in a college town (A&M) in Texas which is where they are theorized to be. Same amount of kids and ages. Even had the same junk food they had. We even had better toys. It’s very accurate portrayal of the (maybe lower) middle class

The flashback shows Hal makes decent money at his job, then after the kids there is nothing extra.

>decent house

Their house had fucking asbestos in the ceiling. They were just barely getting by.

They're in California. Jesus, not everything revolves around you. "hurr durr this show is about my famiwee so simiwar waa waa durr poop"

They were barely making it, tons of storyline and episode were about them being broke or were link to their lack of money one way or another.

being in debt
loans
tax deductions for kids

> the boys have to share a room
> the house is usually a mess
> it's often shown as derelict

I've seen worse in term of realism.

It’s definitely Texas. The weather. The fauna. Francis has to take short plane trips to Alabama. The ranch Francis worked in is west of Texas hours away. Reese and Malcom share a Texas Longhorn shirt. Don’t be a clueless idiot.

>decent
Do you live in a slum or something?

They were constantly behind on bills, their house was the shittiest and most unkempt in the neighborhood and their kids shared rooms. There are far worse examples of Sitcom budget stretches.

It's definitely Southern California. Francis drove from Alaska to the ranch, so that's no indication of where the Wilkersons live.

You have evidence, I just always assumed it was bumfuck California.
They get stuck driving through a dry and hot mountain pass and then walk to a military testing area.
But that could be anywhere

You are wrong. Look it up. Malcom calculated the miles to canada and hours to Harvard. Which all lead to Texas.

You incrue massive amounts of debt and then default on your mortgage that's how

Francis once mentioned that he was 2000 miles away from home when he was at military school. Is Texas that far?

It's a fairly accurate portrayal of a lower middle class family to be honest, it's certainly family sitcom kino. I can't think of many better family sitcoms than this, when did that genre start to go bad?

I'm a Britbong, lower middle class (working class here). Many of the jokes and antics were even relatable here despite it being a Burger show.

Nah.
El Paso to the northwest corner of Alabama is only like 1400 miles.
Those are the extremes.

northeast*

Meth sales.

Texas or Oklahoma would be my gusses. As a kid I always assumed it was California though.

I think they intended it to be 'Anywheresville, USA' though.

White privilege.

The fact that nobody has pointed this out yet just shows how blinding white privilege can be.

Also Hal secretly only worked 4 days a week.

I forgot what Hals job even was

This. If you're complaining that Malcom in the Middle of all shows is an unrealistic portrayal of lower middle class living you must not know shit

>my older brothers were exactly like Reese and Francis
>Dad was Hal
>sister was Malcom
>I was Dewey

I did NOT mean to post a picture of Das Boot

they were on food stamps

they're 6 hours by car to somewhere in alabama so probably east texas.