A couple of days ago, I found myself lounging on my couch, watching old episode of The Cosby Show on TV Land. I practically grew up on The Cosby Show. My parents were kind of overprotective of my brother and me, especially when it came to the television shows and movies we watched. The Cosby Show was on the list of guaranteed appropriate and allowable shows and so I never had to “ask permission” to watch it.
This particular episode was one of my childhood favorites, though as I watched it again, I realized I probably didn’t fully understand the humor back then. In this episode, Theo tells his father that he is going to make lots of money as a supermodel and as a result, wouldn’t need to attend college. Cliff and Clair decide to simulate the “real world” for Theo to help him learn the truth about being an adult. They do this by having themselves and their other children role play characters such as a landlord, loan officer, restaurant owner, etc.
Clif and Clair were extra nice in the beginning; they give Theo $2,000 in “real world” money to start out with. Theo is pretty ecstatic about this until he starts his hunt for an apartment. He is astounded that the apartment he has found (i.e. his bare room that Clair and Clif have moved his furniture out of) will cost him $600 a month to rent. Not only that, but he’s even more astounded that he will have to pay the landlord first and last month’s rent AND a security deposit, all adding up to a whopping $1800.
He becomes more incredulous as he realizes the difficulty that comes in renting an apartment without proof of employment. He has his friend Cockroach act as his “boss” to vouch for him on the job front, but he then runs into obstacles in purchasing furniture and trying to get a loan from a bank without any credit or employment history.
I couldn’t help but nod throughout the whole episode. Don’t get me wrong…I laughed a lot. But having gone through many of those things…signing a lease for the first time, shopping for loans, finding a job…I really could relate. I never knew many of the truths of the real world until I found myself at the brink of adulthood. No one really tells you some of this stuff…you just have to live it.
Poor Theo Huxtable. It’s a rough world out there. He didn’t have a chance.
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1 comment:
Loved the Cosby Show, we used to watch it as a family at night.
After renting for the last 10 years, I've gotten kind of used to it, but I cringe to tally up what I'm paying my landlord from year to year. We're trying to make the move to home ownership but, in a way, I'm kinda scared--it's so adult!
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