Quick: name a TV character who belongs to a union.

[JHB]

And I'll spot you Homer Simpson. Any others? (That's a real question: I don't watch much TV anymore.)

And of those, who is active in the union, so that it comes up regularly and not just for one or two random episodes?




Just something that came up in a "liberal media" argument I wound up in over the weekend. Feel free to use.

[Sanity Claws]

1. The King of Queens

I don't know whether the show ever talked about it but the lead character is a driver for UPS. (I surmise that from his uniform.) UPS drivers are unionized.

[Obamanaut]

13. IIRC, his company was IPS. nt

[Critters2]

33. Yeah. A fictional company pretty obviously based on UPS. nt

[Obamanaut]

65. Can a fictional company be unionized?

[Critters2]

66. Apparently. The fictional employees went out on strike.

A fictional strike, but still. :)

[Robert DAH Bruce]

72. Hey, most companies are lying to us!

Isn't that fiction?

[DrDan]

18. there was a show about them going on strike - no doubt about his union membership

[DrDan]

2. Doug Heffernan

[Skinner]

3. All the Stevedores on season 2 of the Wire. (nt)

[Starbucks Anarchist]

67. Beat me to it.

[miscsoc]

4. clicked to post homer :( what about the sopranos

Actually there are a few Sopranos characters who are members of or at any rate involved in a union, but that's all I've got - it's telling that the only labor unionist characters on tv are murderous goons.

[SidDithers]

5. Any cop, firefighter or teacher ...nt

Sid

[CBGLuthier]

6. every cop on just about every cop show is in a union

Archie Bunker was a union man. Don't watch a lot of new stuff.

[miscsoc]

7. got a clip with archie bunker talking about that?

Alf Garnett, the character from the British show which Bunker was based on, talked about unions a lot but always to denounce them as a bunch of lazy commies iirc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPgm69pMRUU

"curse of mankind they are the bloody trade unions!"

Weird that they made Bunker a union guy, although you had all those Nixonite hard hats so I suppose it makes some sense.

[htuttle]

19. Archie's union went on strike in 1974

IIRC, one of the story lines involved Edith getting a job to help make ends meet while Archie was out on the picket line.

[CBGLuthier]

They did a four part storyline where Archie's union went on strike

First four episodes of season five, The Bunkers and Inflation. Most of it is on youtube. Here is a clip from the second episode.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjtrM7tJCDk

[miscsoc]

23. that's really strange and interesting considering the origins of the char. i mentioned

[CBGLuthier]

27. not so strange when you factor in Norman Lear

Few forces in television have been as left wing and liberal as Norman Lear. His 1971 satire Cold Turkey was a fairly stinging satire that denounces american militarism, consumerism, religion, and big tobacco.


Cold Turkey just finally came out on DVD and Amazon on demand viewing. It's a great film with a great cast (Dick van Dyke, Bob Newhart, Jean Stapleton, Vincent Guardinia, Bob and Ray,and many more) and it gave the world its first great Randy Newman movie song.


Here is the trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEcNjQSF0fI

Better clip than the trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML9ZPDFC1TI&NR=1

[Bluenorthwest]

35. Big Juicy Points for 'Cold Turkey'!!!

One of my favorite films, largely unknown, just saw it the other day for Mother's Day, saw it as a kid with Mom and we laughed so hard together. It is still wildly funny.

[Javaman]

37. Love that movie! nt

[ellenfl]

53. kick for later. eom

[TrogL]

25. Which means everybody on all the CSI: derivatives

[stray cat]

8. Nurses, police, teachers etc I don't watch a show because its about a union

[JHB]

17. The point isn't about watching because of a union...

The point is the invisibility: even characters who are almost by definition in a union rarely if ever deal with union stuff on anything approaching a regular basis. It's just not part of their lives (so to speak, since we're talking about fictional characters). And for the audience, out of site, out of mind. They may as well not exist at all.

This isn't a complaint about the shows. (Well, not specifically...)

It's just another something to point out to people who complain about the "liberal media" and "Hollywood liberals". The one of the big justifications for things like Rush and Fox is that they counter the supposed pervasive liberalness of mainstream news and entertainment. So how come you have to reach so far to find a union member? and even then you'd hardly know he was in one!

[WinkyDink]

21. So you want shows about union negotiations? BORING.

[JHB]

42. Thank you, come again!

That wasn't what I was talking about. If you can point to me what was unclear about my post above, I'd appreciate it.

Of course, as a counterpoint to your comment, who'd want to watch a show about crime scene investigators? A bunch of nerds staring into microscopes comparing blood and fiber samples? BORING.

[Hannah Bell]

73. not at all. conflict, power, betrayal, solidarity, triumph are all interesting themes.

[zipplewrath]

34. You are right of course

It is hardly ever mentioned. The exceptions are when a cop is supposedly in trouble and some union representative shows up to fend for him.

Which gets right to your larger point. The number of people who have ever been in a union is going down. And as such they have little idea what unions do, and how they are involved in peoples lives. The fact that all of these union characters hardly ever mention the union is as absurd as that huge Manhattan apartment that all those marginally employed characters on Friends owned. A union member would discuss elections, contract negotiations, politics in general, as well as "shop gossip" about who was doing whom and what the union should be concerned about. Heck, there should be griping about how such and so a problem was because the union screwed up the last negotiations.

But quite honestly, this is really a comment more about the absolutely absurd depiction of life on television. People never seem to work. They have jobs, but they rarely seem to actually do them. They come and go at all times of the day and night. When they are on jobs, they are usually dealing far more with personal issues than with job related issues. The leave them for hours because "a friend showed up". And they almost never lose them, much less work 2 jobs.

But they always seem to have money to go to that last minute wedding in Florence, Italy, and get there flying first class.

[demwing]

9. Most any teacher, police officer, nurse, post office employee

screen actor, film crew, stage actor, stage crew, fire fighter, and trucker. Also electricians, plumbers, carpenters, machinists, and steel workers.

[Ian David]

10. I think Ralph and Norton were both Union. n/t

[NNN0LHI]

16. They both belonged to the Raccoon Lodge too

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_N-h4D-wSak

[jp11]

11. Unions as a part of the story, regularly doesn't happen I don't see how it could

unless the characters were union leaders or the people involved would have to be in trouble all the time.

My first thoughts were of police in shows, and then I recalled Ralph Kramden and Edward Norton, I'm pretty sure both were in unions I recall Ed mentioning the sanitation workers union as the reason for his better hours/benefits etc than Ralph or at least I think I do, haven't seen that show in probably 2 decades.

[YOY]

12. Rescue M.E., Law and Order (every kind), and all other FF and police shows.

All them thar firefighters and cops.

[Arkana]

24. Yeah, Rescue Me (Denis Leary's show) they mention the union every other episode.

[liberal N proud]

14. Archie Bunker; Lavern & Shirley

[the other one]

22. Bunker was a racist conservative

So he is okay despite union membership.

[Gaedel]

39. and Archie Bunker and his type of lower middle class.........

blue collar workers make up a large part of the Democratic base. When we piss them off, we get 1972 and 1984. I grew up in that blue collar atmosphere.. The guys were staunch union members, but the union was not a major part of their life. Most of them went to work and did their jobs and never needed union intervention. The only times they got involved were in the pre-contract negotiation briefings and the post-contract negotiations "here is what we got" briefing. Most union shops didn't have constant strikes. Many union members never had to walk a picket line.

[Populist_Prole]

51. Well Put n/t

[Hannah Bell]

74. the 70s were one of the historical high points of strike action, & all in the family was a 70s show.

[Jamastiene]

15. Good luck finding the answers. I came up empty.

I did find this list of movies about union workers:

http://www.shmoop.com/history-labor-unions/movies-tv.html

And I found this study assignment with this question:

"7. Representations of labor union actions and issues are scarce in the news media and practically nonexistent in entertainment shows. Given that the majority of Americans are working class, why do you think
this is the case?"

http://74.6.239.67/search/cache?ei=UTF-8&p=list+of+tv+characters+labor+union+scarce&u=www.mediaed.org/assets/products/411/studyguide_411.pdf&w=list+tv+television+characters+labor+union+unions+scarce&d=LzgZFu8_U-Wb&icp=1&.intl=us&sig=R.30eEouLyFhoolMu7Id5A--

[WinkyDink]

20. See above posts.

[cbdo2007]

26. Dexter

[limit18]

28. Yosemite Sam

Yosemite Sam: As I stand on this platform, I stand for union - Union suits and Union stations! For the little people. There's enough fresh air and sunshine in this great country of ours for everybody, and I'll see to it that you'll get your share!


Yosemite Sam: No one will vote for a flattened-out rabbit skin, I always say.

[Freddie Stubbs]

29. Junior Soprano

[h9socialist]

30. Believe it or not, Archie Bunker was a union man!

[CBGLuthier]

31. Not a television show but must mention Matewan

John Sayle's film Matewan is possibly the single greatest american dramatic film about unions ever made. It is based upon true events.

This clip begins with some very racist language but ends with one of the finest pro union speeches you will find in film.

NSFW due to language

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwEMIvDEFy4

[Bluenorthwest]

32. All the teachers on Glee. Cliff and Reba, Mail Carriers

Laverne. Shirley. Dough Heffernan. Roseanne Connor. The entire 'Law' side of all 'Law and Order' shows. Every character who is a cop or a teacher. Nurse Jackie, and all the nurses on TV.
But what is really of interest is that every character you see on TV is played by a Union member, written by a Union member. Nurse Jackie and Edi Falco are both Union. The right wing Kelsey Grammer, Union. Arnie the Govenator, Union.
So not every character is Union, but every last actor playing them is. They are in that way, all Union, the shows are Union made.
Homer Simpson is my Union Brother. Bart Simpson is my Union sister, and even Mr Burns is a Union member.

[Javaman]

36. Herman Munster - Undertakers Union. I'm not kidding. nt

[blondeatlast]

68. That's right, I remember that. He even went to a couple of meetings. nt

[Liberal In Texas]

38. There's a Mary Tyler Moore episode where the newsroom goes on strike.

Not current, and it was just one episode.

The first time I met Ed Asner I related to him how ironic it was that the day the newsroom I was working in had gone on strike was the day the station was airing a rerun of the MTM strike episode.

[KharmaTrain]

40. Everyone On The Lot Has A Union Card...

AFTRA, SAG, IBEW...everyone involved with major studio television production is a member of one or several unions.

[geardaddy]

64. WGA...

[sufrommich]

41. I believe Fred and Barney were both union quarry workers. nt

[Speck Tater]

43. Everybody. In the 1950's sitcoms, that is. Remember "Life of Riley"? nt

[Gidney N Cloyd]

44. "Skag" (Karl Malden as a steel mill foreman)

"Skag" (1980)

Pete "Skag" Skagska is a 56-year-old union foreman of a Pittsburgh steel mill until a crippling stroke forced him to stay at home and try to put his life back together and deal with family problems which included his younger second wife Jo, and his three children whom were David (age 24) who worked at the steel mill, the shy and insecure Patricia (age 18) and the rebellious Barbara (age 15) as well as Skag's father Petar living with them as an invalid due to a major stroke of his own.

Ironically, it lasted just 6 episodes in 1980, meaning it would have been canceled just about the time Reagan was elected.

[KansDem]

45. Joseph "Rocky" Rockford

Father of James Rockford of "The Rockford Files."

Several episodes had him talking about the truckers' union of which he was a member.

Here's a few:
Season 2
GEARJAMMERS, (parts 1 & 2)
Rockford knows that thugs are out to harm his father, but what he
doesn't know is the reason: Rocky unwittingly viewed the prelude to a
truck hijacking.
Rocky sells tickets to the "OOTA Ball" ("Owners/Operators' Trucking Association"). Union wants to use proceeds to hire a lobbyist for DC.

Season 5
HEARTACHES OF A FOOL
Rocky gets in yet another jam, sending his son the private eye sniffing
around a crooked sausage-making operation that's endorsed by a singing
cowboy.
Rocky unwittingly transfers counterfeit sausages in non-union delivery. Gets kicked out of union and loses medical benefits, however both are restated after Rockford solves the case.

Several mentions of unions throughout series...

[cbdo2007]

46. Kramer on Seinfeld was in a union at the Bagel place and he went on strike for higher wages.

From Wikipedia:

The only steady job Kramer is known to have had was in "The Strike", when he went back to work at H&H Bagels after being on strike for over a decade. His union finally settled the strike when the minimum wage of New York was raised to the hourly rate Kramer had been demanding from his employer (Kramer still felt the strike was a success), and he was re-employed. He only worked there during that one episode before he was fired. During the time he was working at the bagel shop, he went on strike again because of having to work during Festivus, a holiday invented by Frank Costanza.

[Initech]

47. Homer Simpson

Dental Plan!
Lisa needs braces!
Dental plan!
Lisa needs braces!
Dental plan!
Lisa needs braces!

[closeupready]

48. Tina Fey's character would belong to the Screen Actors Guild, correct?

??

[SidDithers]

54. Joey Tribbiani...

and I hate myself that I even know that last name :)

Same boat as Tina Fey, a working actor character on a TV show would be a member of SAG.

Sid

[MadBadger]

49. Galen Tyrol of Battlestar Galactica

President of the Workers Union

[old mark]

50. All cops that I have ever seen on TV belong to unions-PBA or similar...nt

[bikebloke]

52. Ralph Kramden (?)

As a bus driver, I reckon he'd be in a union.

[Bucky]

55. Does Homer Simpson belong to a union?

My encyclopedic knowledge of TV shows is not what it used to be. It used to be encyclopedic.

The first character I thought of was Archie Bunker, who went off the air 30 years ago.

[JHB]

56. Yep.

Google "homer simpson union" if you're interested in specifics.

[miscsoc]

69. homer was, like, a shop steward or something in one episode

[Javaman]

75. "Lisa needs braces". best line ever. LOL nt

[asdjrocky]

57. One of the doctors on ER used to wear an SEIU shirt all the time.

It was my understanding his mother was an organizer in his real life.

[avaistheone1]

58. Barney Miller

[backscatter712]

59. Quark's brother Rom started a union on DS9.

Got the Ferengi authorities quite upset, IIRC.

[Raschel]

60. Ralph Kramden

[BlueIris]

61. The nurses on "ER" often discussed their union in the first few seasons.

Don't recall their names, though.

[KittyWampus]

62. Doug from 'King of Queens' would have been a Teamster as a UPS Delivery Man.

[robdogbucky]

63. Another quick question

Where is the labor section in the newspaper? Any newpaper.

Next to the business section? No

Next to the sports? No

Next to the want ads? No

Next to the news? No

Next to the weather? No

Next to the radio/tv listings? No


Does anyone think this is a level playing field with all the attention on business, sports, want ads, news, weather, radio/tv?

Where are labor issues even discussed with laborers?


Think about it



Just another example of the subtle psy ops this culture thrives on.



rdb

[Populist_Prole]

70. Very cogent point

Labor has been so marginalized over time, and unions so vilified by the corporate media, that now a huge part of the actual wage earning class ( as opposed to the ownership/investor class ) actually try to distance themselves from the definition and not consider themselves as "labor".

It's like everybody nowadays has to be considered some kind of "manager" regardless of how rediculously broadly the term is applied...as if they're but one short step away from being in the investor class themselves.

[Omaha Steve]

71. Lou Grant show reporters were union

One episode dealt with their strike against the fictional LA Tribune.