Malcom in the middle is probably one of the really few great representations of middle to working class (people love it in México because of how much it represents our reality)

This was sooo fun to do! thank you for having me

Back when I was trying to start a life and career in Chicago, I was disappointed that it didn’t come with a vibrant friend group and nightlife like in television.

I'd love to see a sitcom about 20 or 30 somethings living with their parents

The conversation about rich people being obsessed with poor people buying things reminds me of when I bought a house. A trustocrat who grew up around the block from me couldn't believe I bought a house. He even asked how I did it, and when I said that I had a veterans loan he thought that that was somehow unfair

When she explained how poverty damages you in ways you cannot even comprehend, even if you escape is the biggest takeaway from this talk. That is the absolute biggest piece missing in so many of these conversations. Poverty is a mindset created by damage caused by dysfunction homes.

Growing up, there were a lot of messages in kids show that “your parents only do xyz because they love and care about you” “your parents always know best” “you can have open and honest conversations with your parents and they will be understanding”, and that was just not the case for me… watching this made me feel more sad and disappointed about my childhood for a long time… I had to do a lot of reflecting and healing to move past this.

Rosanne was so unique and spot on in my youth. That was what our life was like. I loved how from time to time someone sort of financial disaster would befall the family. That was so real.

Part of the problem of Emily Gilmore is the beautiful acting by Kelly bishop. The flashback episode where you see her heart breaking when lorelei ran away, gets me every time. She is rich and out of touch, but she does love her family.

Amy Sherman-Palladino based her idea of Connecticut and "Gilmore Girls" on her stay at a *luxury hotel*, the Mayflower Inn and Spa. That informed the show both directly and indirectly - it's a total fantasy. In the first episode or two, someone tells Chad Michael Murray, "go back to Hartford, city boy!" That would never happen, at the time, Hartford was the second poorest city in America. It was immediately apparent that the whole show was a Hollywood fantasy version of small town New England.

I love that you talked about how we have to aspire to go to these ivy league schools and how they mainly just put us in debt. I went to a community college and then worked at that college for many years. The amount of shame I felt in high school saying that I was going to community college as opposed to a university kills me to think about today. I'm almost done with my masters degree with no debt because I went to a community college and paid significantly less for my first 2 years of generals. I tell every high schooler I meet that wants to go to college to do a transfer program at a community college first. It will save them money and honestly, the experience has been so much better for me than if I went right to a 4 year.

I remember telling my mom I needed a “whole new wardrobe” for the new school year (I know I picked that up from TV, maybe it was Full House or something.) Boy, did she have a good laugh at that one! Such a great topic and conversation.

I didn't even grow up working class by any means but what we never did as a child was go on vacation, like "proper" vacation with flights, hotel stays etc... Every family vacation for me growing up was a roadtrip in a rented car to an extended family members home. We never stayed at resorts or anything like that. Nothing like the vacations I saw on TV.

I saw this yesterday for the 1st time, and came back today to comment that the french president just said "those on minimum wage would rather spend it on VOD than on a healthy nutrition" and it just annoyed me SO MUCH and reminded me of what you said about how we judge the poor so much more and more harshly than the rich! Gladfully a few people in the comments of the news post showing this commented relevant clap backs such as "the ultra rich would rather cumulate 51% of national ressources than help save the planet and the general population of the country" and "try living on Paris' outskirts and comming in every day for a mininum wage paying job and see if you dont need any distractions" and my favourite one yet: "oh right dont forget the 'good poor' only eat fiber while staring at a wall" ... I just really needed to rant lmao thx 4 reading to anyone who does

The early seasons of Supernatural (1-3) whether consciously or not explore poverty because Dean and Sam were homeless for most of their youth and the big difference is that Sam was able to get a full ride to Stanford. Also, growing up in NYC I found that animated shows were much better about showing life in the city than the shows actually filmed here. Hey Arnold still holds up.

Beyond Malcolm, another good example is everybody hates Chris more recent The Middle both have working parents without a lot of money. Today an interesting show with working parents and multiple generations is Derry Girls, I like how they want to go on the school trip and a classmates says just use their trust fund and the girls do, the parents laugh at them.

Gilmore girls definitely ruined my relationship with money and food. They ate so much on that show and I thought I could do the same and have the same slim figure!!

"You just go outside and run around" LMFAO truth!

The point that female characters never talk really about money, that was a good point. Even in social media, where there are people who teach money management they are usually male. And if they are women it’s like girl boss be a content creator. Anyone know any good realistic financial teachers to look to?

Damn, she made it to season four of True Blood.... Also, thank you for freaking understanding Cuties. Like that movie was extremely uncomfortable to watch for me because of how realistic the existence of the main character was for me. Like i always look back to when i was that age and how lucky I was that i managed to avoid that very real part of my environment.

This is SUPER important. It really hit home what was said about depictions of childhood in the media and how that's so different from the average experience of kids in the US. I think it's important from the other end of the spectrum as well. I grew up upper middle class in Canada (and most of my friends were also either upper middle class or middle class, except for a couple), and that depiction of middle class life was true for Canada...it's how my friends and I grew up and I never knew that life was different for people with less money or for a majority of people south of the border. We went to day camp every summer (sub for school and daycare while our parents worked), usually focused on an activity (one year it was horseback riding, another year it was golf, another year it as dance. One year I went to an overnight camp (and a few of my friends went several years in a row). We always had clothes and food, our parents sometimes talked about bills (my parents a bit more because they wanted to teach me about finances so they let me in on the discussion more often as I got older, and they got me to make a budget when I was older and I had to stick to it, and they gave me a loan with interest when I was 16 to buy a guitar...I wasn't raised so normally though, which is a shame haha), but mostly the stress of it was left off the table for most of my friends. We went on summer vacations (sometimes camping, sometimes something bigger like Disneyland). We got nice things for Christmas and birthdays and got to have big parties with our friends (which back then was still pretty DIY, but our parents could still afford to buy hot dogs, cake, and decorations for 10 kids). Even my lower-middle class friends had a lot of that...maybe not the camps and as much clothes, but most of them went on at least one 'big' vacation during their childhood or teen years (one went to Disney, another went on a Caribbean cruise during spring break, etc). We went to university (government-funded ones in-province, because back then it only cost $2,000-3,000 per year thanks to a tuition freeze that existed until 2002, which is the year we started uni). While I think things have gotten harder for a lot of families in Canada, I see that most of my friends are able to give their kids fairly similar childhoods now (although most of my friends that I'm close with are better off than most people, and I think lower middle class people can no longer afford that kind of life). I live in Germany now and it's also true for people here. My husband was raised by a single mother from 8 onwards...they always had what they needed (and unfortunately, they never talked about money like I did with my parents...it was still considered 'taboo' back then), he and each of his brothers went to England for a summer to do a 'language' camp, many of our friends did exchanges in the US or Canada during high school (something that costs a fair bit of money for a family), etc. From our experience now and seeing friends raise children, we're probably a bit better off than our parents. Why I think it's important for the media to include accurate depictions of middle class life in the US (and more working class stories abroad, since the middle class depictions in the US are more in line with middle class life in other countries) is that we grew up having more or less no idea of how life was for other people. I knew that there were people worse off than us and my friends' families because our parents told us, but I had no idea how that looked like for them until I was an adult. My husband wasn't as well off as I was and his family considered themselves socialists, plus he's from the East and still remembers a bit of what life was like there ...which wasn't nearly as poor as people in the capitalist world think it was, but it was still very different in terms of what people bought and had and did...sometimes it was actually more (they went to camp every summer, courtesy of the state, and everyone went to daycare), sometimes it was less (people just had less 'stuff' and didn't have access to as much 'stuff'). So, he had a better idea of what life was like for different people than I did growing up. But still. You get an entire class of people with little to no awareness of what life is like for other people, or even what 'normal' is for a lot of people (in the US). And I think that deepens those divisions, because those people are going to grow up and not do anything to make life better for those people. When they become politicians and advisors to politicians, they're going to promote policies that do more for their own class, and their voters from that class will support those policies and reject a lot of the policies that help the working class (and even middle class in the US). Seeing (or reading) depictions of people who live different experiences from your own helps you empathize with them, so it's important that those stories are represented, ESPECIALLY if that's the experience of the average person in a country, but even if it's not.

This was SO RELATABLE, especially the parts about not seeing lived experience reflected on TV. I also had a weird complex around going to camp. The closest I got was becoming "the help" by getting a job as a counselor and realizing I really did not fit in with all the rich-kid former campers, now-counselors. Those places are scary and weird from the inside. I appreciated the discussion on expectations around college and the social impact of being the person in your family who does. My husband still won't watch Roseanne because the set for the living room was just too accurate.

Best episode ever. I remember being a teenager when Roseanne came out and thinking wow an actually family that looks like mine, where things are messy and there are fights about money and families actually have to make difficult choices about where to spend the money and their house, furniture, clothing and dinners actually resembled my life.

“All the people I stan are either fictional or dead” loved that, related to that, I want that on a T-shirt. 💕

The last time I saw something from a primary network about an average family that realistically struggled was The Middle, and it's been off the air for 5 years.

As someone from Orlando, thank you for bringing up The Florida Project. It truly is the most honest representation of childhood under the shadow of the mouse.

The Connors being “poor” was hilarious and simultaneously a slap in the face. Poor with that house?! Bye😂

Early in the video still but I feel the bit about summer camp feeling like everyone else did it and I never could. I also felt this when we got the American girl catalog in the mail and just knowing to not even ask for anything from it

💗💗💗 So happy to see this episode! This was so wonderful 🥳 Thank you Princess, Chelsea, and TFC 🤓

Such a great convo - you two play off each other so well. Loved this 💜

Your guests are always awesome and I love how you give them plenty of space but still stay engaged and follow up with great questions. This is one of my favorite, if not just my favorite, TFD format.

Excellent episode! One of the things that bothered (and continues to bother) me most in the Obama to post-Obama era of pop culture that Chelsea mentioned is the complete invisibility of household labor, with Modern Family as a prime offender. Back in the day, the Bradys had a live-in servant (which explained the immaculateness of a house with six children in it); this apparently is unthinkable to depict now, so we are left to assume that Cameron, Claire, and especially Gloria (or their spouses) clean and maintain the giant houses they all live in (on one income BTW, at least for the first several seasons). The show creators opted to pat themselves on the back for the "modern-ness" of one or two types of diversity while being egregiously class-deaf.

Absolutely fantastic episode! Thanks for introducing me to Princess, she's brilliant!

Jess Mariano felt like the only real character on Gilmore Girls. He clearly came from a poor background and his "attitude" was a result of his abusive upbringing and financial circumstances, and becoming aware of the reality he lives in. It still upsets me the way he still got treated by everyone else even when he found a form of emotional and financial stability. I found it laughable that Lorelai tried to relate to him and boasted about ~doing it in heels~. Lady, you were spoon fed. Sit down 😂

Love Princess! Always love seeing her talk and really looking forward to this conversation!!

I can't imagine being this well spoken off the cuff! Love these two

I absolutely LOVE how you have had so many of my favorite KZfaqrs on your channel! I’ve been a fan of Princess Weeks since discovering her on the PBS channel. Her storytelling analysis is incredible. I hope someday you have the Truth Doctor and Cinema Therapy on your show

Emily the Criminal is a great independent movie that deals with class and the educational financial bind. 👏 Can't get enough of this kind of content!

OMG PRINCESS! So excited to see her here! Put Princess on everything 🙌

Loved this! Also yes to Shaun’s video in Harry Potter! it was honestly what I needed to end my teenage love for the franchise. You should link it in the description bc I think a lot of people would really get a lot out of it! That video + the one titled “JK Rowling’s best friends”

Great guest and conversation! Yes I hate when people say we shouldn't care because the companies are causing most the pollution. There is still alot we can do to minimize are impact and caring is what creates change. Thank you TFD for these videos keep up the treat work!

Such an interesting conversation! And side note, you both look amazing. Chelsea girl, I don't know what you do but it's working, really glowing on this one!

Thank you for this episode! I love having something thought provoking on playing while I do chores, etc. Today I was pre-chopping my vegetables for easy snacks and dinners so we eat out less. I do think the representation of "middle class" is a bizarre in media, especially when so, so, so many people are living paycheque to paycheque and are seriously in debt. My aunt works at a law firm that deals with foreclosures and she always remarks on how you never would be able to tell from the outside. To me, it has always boiled down to wanting more and more and more. I swear, in a hyper-consumerist world, no one is winning.

Oh man I love both of your channels so I guess I shouldn't be surprised this is my favorite interview so far... this was fantastic thank you!

Excellent épisode. Thanks for this discussion. I’ve just subscribed to Princess Weekes!

OMG 2 of my favorite creators!! So excited for this.

Chelsea, read the books... Harry thinks he would happily share all his money with the Weasleys but he knows they wouldn't accept it.

When I heard Princess’ voice after I saw the title, I nearly shouted “I NEED A GIMLET” I was so excited. Thank you both for a wonderful episode!

Was so excited to see this. I’m a huge fan of Princess and her channel. The two of you together is a major win! 🙌 I also love this topic!!!

Based on the sitcoms i saw growing up I thought everyone in America had a big house with a great kitchen. And on a single income too

Re: Harry Potter, that's not true. In Book 4 Harry literally gave Fred and George 1000 gold coins from his winnings and he told them not to tell anyone where the money came from and to buy Ron more robes. And even in the first book, Harry buys and shares all his treats on the train with Ron. Also he's literally a child for most of the book, he's not sure how to share wealth.

I could have listened to you guys talk all day. It felt so genuine and comfortable while still being intriguing. 11/10 would watch a part 2, 3, 4…

39:07 side note: Harry gave the Weasley twins all his earnings from the Triwizard tournament to start their joke shop, which seemed pretty successful. I'm not even sure what access he would have had to his own money as a minor, and maybe the Weasleys were too proud to ask for help.

So deeply agree about the boycott comment. People act like they have no choice but to shop from Shein, or Amazon. No one wants to even try to build a better world / community / future.

So good to see these two together having a chat!

I am so excited you are interviewing Princess!

So happy to see you on here, Princess! 💖💖💖

Hands down one of my favourite conversations had on this channel.

Great discussion ladies. Very much enjoyed this as it helped me get some inspiration for my own financial journey.

Princess Weekes sounds like such a fun guest. Also, I remember them from a recommendation video on BeKindRewind.

Yay, Princess Weekes! Love her videos!

Omg Princess and TFD. Never anticipated this collab but so overjoyed!

I am on the part about internships; I wanted to highlight there are colleges that require students to have co-ops in order to graduate. Typically those schools have more resources to help students find internships since it is required to finish and these are paid opportunities. Co-ops are done during the quarter/semester while you aren’t taking classes. Because of this you will graduate in 5 years vs 4 years. You are not paying tuition during the co-ops unless you are choosing to take classes.

Excellent episode, thank you both very much!

This is a really great topic. Didnt Harry give the twins his winnings so they could open their shop?

I’m going to the point where I don’t really want or need relatability in my television. I really just want to escape and enjoy watching people that are unlike me. Yes I would like to relate to some of the stuff I see on TV, but it’s not that much of a thing for me. Reality is depressing if we’re going to be honest. I want to be entertained.

Thanks for this video, would you make a list of the movies and series that you liked? It would be great to have some advice for stuff to watch.

Yay collab! Love Princess Weekes and TFD

omg yessss princesss!!! the recent guests have been amazing! ugh these crossovers! :')

Patiently waiting for a Shameless video essay, please miss Weekes I'm so hungry

Loved this-thank you for taking about the environment. This country is so miserably anti-doing anything that it’s depressing. We need to be strong and positive and motivated. ❤

Love this! Keep being awesome!

Princess Weekes and TFD, I know I will love this!

Media’s idea of things is my favourite topic. THIS should be such fun 👏🏽 #WeAreEatingToday

I’m very much a silent follower, I watch everything but never comment, however this episode was SO good AND you are about to hit a million subs!!! Think this is my fav ep of TFD ever. Also, another show that was ruined by a reboot, The L Word. You should look into the show, all female cast (lots of straight women watch it as it’s all about women), & there is such representation of women, some of which are almost 60 y old & they are all super rich & sleeping together… kind of like a lesbian SATC… the original L Word anyway, idk what the reboot is doing. Thanks so much & congrats on (almost) one million!

I LOOOOOOVE PRINCESS'S CHANNEL THANK YOU FOR THIS COLLAB

Great content! 🙏🏻

Loved the interview style and the "just two friends chatting" aspects of this video. A "Princess and Chelsea" series may need to be considered.

Princess weekes!!! I cannot wait to watch this! I love her!

Omggggg 8 was wondering when will you do an interview with her!!!!! 💖

Ugh this is amazing, I love Princess I'm glad you had her back!

This was great. I'm excited to check out her channel!

I may be misremembering, but at the time it seemed to me that the issue with Cuties wasn't the text itself, rather how the interpretation of the text was done. To acknowledge the hypersexualization of children by hypersexualizing your very, very young child actors is what seemed to sit poorly with a lot of people.

I lived in a similar manner to the Florida Project (in FL of course) for a while with one parent really struggling. --BUT-- Kennedy Space Center began a program to allow 5th grade classes across the county to attend Space Camp for free!! Growing up in poverty AND experiencing luxuries made Florida feel like an alternate reality.

Funnily enough, I stopped watching Shameless at some point for this exact reason, it was such an endless downer. Through self-sabotage too, like Fiona and her cavalcade of men, I understand her storyline is saying something about arrested development, seeking love and approval, yadda yadda, but eventually it became exhausting.

Yooo, in-person?! I'm even more excited

omg. I used to watch her channel WAY back in the day. like YEARS. Still subscribed!

My pet peeve is constant jokes about poverty and then blowing off serious expenses like they're nothing. Bob's burgers. One day he needs a second job for Christmas presents. The next week he refuses to work on Thanksgiving even though it means 6 months off his rent for his residence AND business. Like that is something I could afford and would never pass up. An extra $1000 would be crippling and it keeps coming up. I love the show. But it is really blasé about how big of a deal a $500 bill is for paycheck to paycheck people.

I know these shows aren’t realistic but it doesn’t stop me from trying to live a life like them. Lol

1 Month ago I had never heard of Princess Weekes, and now in a 2 week period she has been on TFC AND LoadingReadyRun's PPR? Talk about worlds collide!

Thank you for acknowledging the privilege of being able to live at home to pay off debt. No one ever acknowledges that. What's worse, some people act like they're a financial genius for doing it and a lot of people in personal finance forum say "why don't you just move home for a bit". The ability to live at home while going to college or to return when you are in financial trouble is a huge privilege that a lot of people don't have because their parents are also poor, are living in tiny apartments, are abusive or live inn the literal middle of nowhere.

this is a fabulous conversation :)

Unfortunately, both Chelsea and Princess do not understand the hard business aspects of TV/Filim development. Everything they're saying has truth "in their mind" as outsiders, but really have nothing to do with the reality of how TV/Films are actually developed and made. I worked as a development producer for major networks for years.

Great video. Ty.

Excellent guest!! I think we are in a time where we don’t want to see failure reflected in our media. Like the 30’s where people were not just losing homes and jobs, but families were dispersed, seeing happy endings and gloriously lived lives was an escape. Long gone today are shows like The Honeymooners (a perpetual failure of a bus driver and his garbage man neighbor. Or Sanford and Son or even westerns like the Rifleman (widowed modest rancher). These shows thrived in strong financial good times of the 50’s and 60’s and 70’s. Now everyone has a happy ending. Unless you are the murder victim on the myriad of procedurals. Maybe sad endings are so brutal because we live in brutal times. And for mo good reason.

Love her! By the way … when are you interviewing Alyson Stoner? She bought a house last year… I want to know how is going! 😊

Love your analysis om SATC, Rosanne and gilmore girls.

YESSSS Chelsea & Princess Weekes ❤❤ what an episode 😍

What a treat to see Princess Weekes!

Dude! 41:00 when the new sex and the city reboot came out, everyone was talking about how unrealistic it is but then people are watching SUCCESSION!