maid: immigration? fbi: revenue. moira: [screams] i ve been gutted! alexis: it s crazy people are just like taking our stuff jacqueline: but the american dream is not the reality for most americans. hal: i ll tell you boys, life is crazy. all these doors open up for you, except they are not doors, they re trap doors. emily vanderwerff: the american sitcom is how we tell stories about class. hal: you re thinking is this all i have to my life? not you kids, i love you kids, but c mon the house. it s crap! emily vanderwerff: so, when the sitcom makes its way to television you already see that with the honeymooners. annoucer: the honeymooners! alice: what re we gonna do? what re we gonna live on until this layoff is over. suppose it does last a month? ralph: well, we just gotta face it. we gotta cutdown and cut out this high living. dan levy: the honeymooners is an example of the idea of class and
what re we gonna live on until this layoff is over. suppose it does last a month? ralph: well, we just gotta face it. we gotta cutdown and cut out this high living. dan levy: the honeymooners is an example of the idea of class and struggle and what it was like to be a family who didn t have a lot. ralph: you don t know how to handle money. alice: of course, i don t, i never had any practice. peter scolari: these were people born with blue collars. drew carey: lower middle-class people that could do regular things but didn t have a lot of money. patrick gomez: in the 1950s, you had a major push to move out to suburbia. lorraine ali: and consumerism. you have all these perfect family sitcoms with these housewives in it. and new nice gadgets in the kitchen, [explosion] jimmie walker: but the honeymooners lived in a two room little cold water flat. loni: people were so worried that they couldn t afford curtains, they kept sending curtains to the soundstage
before me made 50 dollars a week more than i do? lou: oh, because he was a man. diana depasquale: so i think the 70s is a reality check on whether or not the american dream is available for women. alice: you re going to be late for school. son: wait, i haven t figured out your tip yet. alice: well, figure this, 15% of nothing is nothing. goodbye, i love you. linda lavin: until alice, there hadn t been a single mother, in a low-income job. alice: mel, i know this is asking a lot, but i need $10 a week extra to pay for tommy s braces. mel: you know the refrigerators on the blink, i ve gotta come up with $800 just to replace it. linda lavin: fighting for health care. fighting for benefits. mel: the refrigerator comes first. because if i close down, you re going to be out of work. if you re out of work, you can t buy food. in which case, tommy doesn t need teeth anyways.
and it s it s great bed for comedy and conflict. uncle phil: we promised your mother that you are here to work hard, straighten out, and learn some good old fashioned american values. hilary: dad, i need $300 dollars. alice leppert: so, the 80s were really associated with excess and with wealth. but roseanne would, upend this, fantasy vision of upper middle class life. darlene: wait a minute, my cereal at home is the name brand. roseanne: no, it s just the name brand box, and i ve been refilling it with the cheap stuff. since 1985. tom werner: one of the things that is extraordinary about roseanne, is that in many ways it mirrors the honeymooners. it s a very simple show. main set is the kitchen. it s somewhat gritty and somewhat dark and it has extraordinary acting. dan: bull, bull, bull! roseanne: you are always picking at me and making little cracks!
alice: you re going to be late for school. son: wait, i haven t figured out your tip yet. alice: well, figure this, 15% of nothing is nothing. goodbye, i love you. linda lavin: until alice, there hadn t been a single mother, in a low-income job. alice: mel, i know this is asking a lot, but i need $10 a week extra to pay for tommy s braces. mel: you know the refrigerators on the blink, i ve gotta come up with $800 just to replace it. linda lavin: fighting for health care. fighting for benefits. mel: the refrigerator comes first. because if i close down, you re going to be out of work. if you re out of work, you can t buy food. in which case, tommy doesn t need teeth anyways. linda lavin: there s a particular episode where mel decides he wants to hire a guy to be a waiter. alice: mel is paying him 2.60 an hour. vera: we only get 2.35, don t we?