14 January 2006

The Rich Will Always Be With Us

James in Silver Spring, Maryland asked: Why did the Howells take along all that clothing if it was only a three hour tour?

Thank you for the question, James. There are really two answers to this question: the prosaic one; and the real one.

The prosaic one is a trick writers do for what I like to call "the convenience of the plot." This element helps along the plot, whether it is illogical, implausible, unlikely -- or even, in some cases, actually impossible.

Into this category fall such television show staples as: the child a character never knew s/he had, an action hero running through a hail of bullets without as much as a scratch, an entire season being labeled "a dream" -- even a group of people surviving on an island for three long seasons. (This is why, on soap operas, it takes 15 months for a character to have a premature baby.)

The real reason, of course, is because they are rich; and the rich, as we all know, are different from you and me.

Studies have shown that the rich routinely travel with about 3.78 times more articles of clothing and jewelry than they will likely need, about 1.3 more "assistants" than there really is work for, and pay about 7.5 times more for the same services than the average person -- simply because they can.

Thurston and Lovey Howell III
are no different, whether on "Gilligan's Island," or Manhattan island.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

More TV silliness: Why was Beaver Cleaver called "Beaver" or (my favorite) "The Beav"?
He didn't have buck teeth, was never that into dams, and as far as I can tell, was not furry.
Please advise.