Are there any poor people on TV?

[last1standing]

I don't watch much television anymore and I haven't watched prime time in about five years, so I really don't know the answer to this question. When I say poor, I mean hard to pay the bills, can't take trips on the spur of the moment, no cash for starting up businesses poor.

I'm thinking back to when I did watch TV and I just remember everyone who was supposed to be poor somehow having the cash to throw parties, fly to Vegas, or quit their job and start a business. I don't think most honestly poor families have the money to do this.

So does anyone know of a truly poor family on TV?

[madrchsod]

1. jerry springer

not many rich people on jerry....

[last1standing]

4. Thats the show where they make fun of the "poor trash", right?

I'm thinking more of sitcoms and dramas but that does fit in with my point. It seems the poor are worthy of nothing more than ridicule.

[tcfrogs]

2. Good Times! The Evans family!

Oh, wait, it's 2005, not 1977, sorry...

[WMliberal]

3. kenny on south park.

[philosophie_en_rose]

5. Malcom in the Middle

Their financial situations seem pretty realistic for a sitcom

[JohnnyRingo]

6. Hahahaha...I'll say

I remember the one where at dinner time, one kid got meat loaf, one got turkey sandwich, and the other got something else.

Or the time they went on a vacation and left one kid at home with a babysitter.

I love that show.

[last1standing]

8. How does it show poverty?

Is poverty something that is a premise of the show but somehow they still have the ability to get the "extras" somehow, or is it something that they have to live with and the show doesn't end with the new toy or trip?

edited to correct the product of faultly brain synapses popping.

[Erika]

7. I work within 6 blocks circumference

of a bus depot, a rescue mission, and a shelter for homeless women and children.

What I see is sadness and desperation; mental illness; substance abuse and many others who have no place to go. A young homeless woman died in the YMCA downtown area last year. They had not chased her out at closing time because it was so cold. She was found dead the next morning by staff. An autopsy revealed a massive brain tumor.

It is so sad that we live in a country where there are so many rich and filthy rich but we ignore the least amongst us in their needs.

Bush is not a Christian. Simply put.

[last1standing]

9. Not the kind of escapism most are looking for, I guess.

But it would be good to show this kind of thing on TV in a way that doesn't change a life in 22 minutes. Then maybe people would realize what makes up the rest of the world outside their comfy neighborhoods.

[Erika]

11. Maybe there should be a new reality show

The battered homeless woman with sick and scared kids gets to pick a home in suburbia complete with insurance and a monthly income?

The mentally ill or those with substance abuse behaviors gets to pick a healthcare institution where he/she will be helped and cared for?

No, that's too close to reality.

[last1standing]

14. I wish it was close to reality.

Instead we'll just see more battered women and children turned out on the streets and more mentally ill dying in abandoned buildings.

But did you hear that the Palm in Las Vegas created a "supersuite" for some pretty young rich kids to play in? That's reality.

[devilgrrl]

10. Cops

A lot of poor people on Cops

[SKKY]

12. King of Queens, or King from Queens is pretty Blue Collar I think...

[Lorien]

13. "Roseanne" is the last one I can think of

non beautiful people living in a blue collar neighborhood with constant money problems...well, until they won the lottery.

[last1standing]

15. They won the lottery?

Talk about jumping the shark. That must have taken the shark along for the ride.

[grasswire]

16. If you look at the old

"All In the Family" shows, you'll notice that the house was really pretty worn. Is there anything like that now?