Friends - Cost of Living

I realise that this may fall under the category of "it's just a TV show", but has there ever been a discussion about whether it would be possible for the Friends characters to live the way that they do, with the income that would be generated from the jobs they have?

Let's review: Early in the series, Rachael was a waitress at central perk, (before Joey and Chandler inspired her to get "The Fear" and seek her dream job, and after a few short term stopovers, she wound up at Ralph Lauren).

Monica was bouncing around, working in diners, she at one point considered a catering business with Phoebe, (even to the extent where they bought a van), before becoming the head chef at a restaurant.

Joey was often without a steady job, (discounting his "Days Of Our Lives" stints), and Phoebe has always been pretty much busking, giving people massages, etc.

Chandler and Ross are the only ones who have seemed to have held down jobs consistently. (Although I still don't really understand what Chandler does!).

Now with all of this in mind, would these guys really have been able to stay in what to me, (as an Aussie) appears to be a fairly decent pair of apartments in "the village" in new york, all the while not sacrificing their daily coffee in Central Perk, and with the boys not seeming to miss too many Ranger's (or Knick's) games, without any problems at all? We are kind of led to believe that Chandler shells out for the difference, to cover Joey whenever his acting mate's income is not what it should be, and we know that Monica is illegally subletting her Grandmother's apartment, (404 - TOW The Ballroom Dancing"); but to me, apart from this the whole thing is pretty much avoided by the storyline, and we accept it as a given. The only time I can remember money coming up as a topic was in Episode 204, "TOW 5 Steaks And An Eggplant".

What I'm wondering is, has anyone ever thought about this, or are there any New Yorkers who read this and can tell us whether it is at all possible for these guys to live as they do, or if it has been romanticised at all?

I realise that this may fall under the category of "it's just a TV show", but has there ever been a discussion about whether it would be possible for the Friends characters to live the way that they do, with the income that would be generated from the jobs they have?

Let's review: Early in the series, Rachael was a waitress at central perk, (before Joey and Chandler inspired her to get "The Fear" and seek her dream job, and after a few short term stopovers, she wound up at Ralph Lauren).

Monica was bouncing around, working in diners, she at one point considered a catering business with Phoebe, (even to the extent where they bought a van), before becoming the head chef at a restaurant.

Joey was often without a steady job, (discounting his "Days Of Our Lives" stints), and Phoebe has always been pretty much busking, giving people massages, etc.

Chandler and Ross are the only ones who have seemed to have held down jobs consistently. (Although I still don't really understand what Chandler does!).

Now with all of this in mind, would these guys really have been able to stay in what to me, (as an Aussie) appears to be a fairly decent pair of apartments in "the village" in new york, all the while not sacrificing their daily coffee in Central Perk, and with the boys not seeming to miss too many Ranger's (or Knick's) games, without any problems at all? We are kind of led to believe that Chandler shells out for the difference, to cover Joey whenever his acting mate's income is not what it should be, and we know that Monica is illegally subletting her Grandmother's apartment, (404 - TOW The Ballroom Dancing"); but to me, apart from this the whole thing is pretty much avoided by the storyline, and we accept it as a given. The only time I can remember money coming up as a topic was in Episode 204, "TOW 5 Steaks And An Eggplant".

What I'm wondering is, has anyone ever thought about this, or are there any New Yorkers who read this and can tell us whether it is at all possible for these guys to live as they do, or if it has been romanticised at all?

I realise that this may fall under the category of "it's just a TV show", but has there ever been a discussion about whether it would be possible for the Friends characters to live the way that they do, with the income that would be generated from the jobs they have?

Let's review: Early in the series, Rachael was a waitress at central perk, (before Joey and Chandler inspired her to get "The Fear" and seek her dream job, and after a few short term stopovers, she wound up at Ralph Lauren).

Monica was bouncing around, working in diners, she at one point considered a catering business with Phoebe, (even to the extent where they bought a van), before becoming the head chef at a restaurant.

Joey was often without a steady job, (discounting his "Days Of Our Lives" stints), and Phoebe has always been pretty much busking, giving people massages, etc.

Chandler and Ross are the only ones who have seemed to have held down jobs consistently. (Although I still don't really understand what Chandler does!).

Now with all of this in mind, would these guys really have been able to stay in what to me, (as an Aussie) appears to be a fairly decent pair of apartments in "the village" in new york, all the while not sacrificing their daily coffee in Central Perk, and with the boys not seeming to miss too many Ranger's (or Knick's) games, without any problems at all? We are kind of led to believe that Chandler shells out for the difference, to cover Joey whenever his acting mate's income is not what it should be, and we know that Monica is illegally subletting her Grandmother's apartment, (404 - TOW The Ballroom Dancing"); but to me, apart from this the whole thing is pretty much avoided by the storyline, and we accept it as a given. The only time I can remember money coming up as a topic was in Episode 204, "TOW 5 Steaks And An Eggplant".

What I'm wondering is, has anyone ever thought about this, or are there any New Yorkers who read this and can tell us whether it is at all possible for these guys to live as they do, or if it has been romanticised at all?

I realise that this may fall under the category of "it's just a TV show", but has there ever been a discussion about whether it would be possible for the Friends characters to live the way that they do, with the income that would be generated from the jobs they have?

Let's review: Early in the series, Rachael was a waitress at central perk, (before Joey and Chandler inspired her to get "The Fear" and seek her dream job, and after a few short term stopovers, she wound up at Ralph Lauren).

Monica was bouncing around, working in diners, she at one point considered a catering business with Phoebe, (even to the extent where they bought a van), before becoming the head chef at a restaurant.

Joey was often without a steady job, (discounting his "Days Of Our Lives" stints), and Phoebe has always been pretty much busking, giving people massages, etc.

Chandler and Ross are the only ones who have seemed to have held down jobs consistently. (Although I still don't really understand what Chandler does!).

Now with all of this in mind, would these guys really have been able to stay in what to me, (as an Aussie) appears to be a fairly decent pair of apartments in "the village" in new york, all the while not sacrificing their daily coffee in Central Perk, and with the boys not seeming to miss too many Ranger's (or Knick's) games, without any problems at all? We are kind of led to believe that Chandler shells out for the difference, to cover Joey whenever his acting mate's income is not what it should be, and we know that Monica is illegally subletting her Grandmother's apartment, (404 - TOW The Ballroom Dancing"); but to me, apart from this the whole thing is pretty much avoided by the storyline, and we accept it as a given. The only time I can remember money coming up as a topic was in Episode 204, "TOW 5 Steaks And An Eggplant".

What I'm wondering is, has anyone ever thought about this, or are there any New Yorkers who read this and can tell us whether it is at all possible for these guys to live as they do, or if it has been romanticised at all?

I realise that this may fall under the category of "it's just a TV show", but has there ever been a discussion about whether it would be possible for the Friends characters to live the way that they do, with the income that would be generated from the jobs they have?

Let's review: Early in the series, Rachael was a waitress at central perk, (before Joey and Chandler inspired her to get "The Fear" and seek her dream job, and after a few short term stopovers, she wound up at Ralph Lauren).

Monica was bouncing around, working in diners, she at one point considered a catering business with Phoebe, (even to the extent where they bought a van), before becoming the head chef at a restaurant.

Joey was often without a steady job, (discounting his "Days Of Our Lives" stints), and Phoebe has always been pretty much busking, giving people massages, etc.

Chandler and Ross are the only ones who have seemed to have held down jobs consistently. (Although I still don't really understand what Chandler does!).

Now with all of this in mind, would these guys really have been able to stay in what to me, (as an Aussie) appears to be a fairly decent pair of apartments in "the village" in new york, all the while not sacrificing their daily coffee in Central Perk, and with the boys not seeming to miss too many Ranger's (or Knick's) games, without any problems at all? We are kind of led to believe that Chandler shells out for the difference, to cover Joey whenever his acting mate's income is not what it should be, and we know that Monica is illegally subletting her Grandmother's apartment, (404 - TOW The Ballroom Dancing"); but to me, apart from this the whole thing is pretty much avoided by the storyline, and we accept it as a given. The only time I can remember money coming up as a topic was in Episode 204, "TOW 5 Steaks And An Eggplant".

What I'm wondering is, has anyone ever thought about this, or are there any New Yorkers who read this and can tell us whether it is at all possible for these guys to live as they do, or if it has been romanticised at all?

"Matt" wrote in message news:...

Why are you repeatedly doing this, although some very good points put forward

In article , [email] (Matt) wrote:

There's this thing called a Google search that you might want to look into.

wg

"Matt" wrote in message news:U9Pv9.17412$[email]...

for

[clipped supporting points]

I don't want to quell your enthusiasm for the topic, but it has been discussed here at great length for those of us who have been around a while. I think the basic conclusion is that the apartments are bigger than your average NY apartments, but that they are probably also under rent controls--something Monica and Chandler would lose if anyone ever blew the whistle on their illegal sublet situation.

One of the video sets (season 1 or season 2, North American release) has an extra commentary that briefly makes note of the issue, but it pretty much blows it off.

The bottom line IMO is that "it's just a TV show" as you so aptly noted. :-)

are you related to mark buehrle?

"number 29" wrote in message news:[email]...

I don't know for sure, but he lives in St. Charles, MO, and my dad was born in St. Louis, only a hop across the county line. If we are related it would probably be something like fifth cousins.

His first cousin and I have been corresponding. She has picked up genealogy as a hobby just as I have over the past couple of years. Another relative got me started, and he had already traced the family back 10 generations (1600's). That's five generations in the US and five in Germany.

One thing I like about having someone like Mark in the spotlight is that people I don't know often pronounce my last name correctly now. :-)

*David Buehrle* :

Let me guess, your family's origin is Swabia (South-West Germany).

I've never heard a native English speaker pronounce a ��/�ue� correctly. Well, I've never heard of a Mark Buehrle neither.

Christoph

"Christoph P�per" wrote in message news:apu2tr$211h$[email]...

Baden Am Rhein. :-) How is it you can tell the region?

Ah, yes, I meant the English version. Even *I* don't do the German version quite correctly. It's the 3-5 seconds of stammering before they give the name a try that makes me laugh. There's no more hesitation these days

He is a baseball pitcher with the Chicago White Sox organization.

*David Buehrle* :

The �le� suffix is typical for that region and a couple hundred years ago the population wasn't as shuffled as today. Though, you can still tell that some Maier or Mayr (or Huber) is from Bavaria while some Meyer or Meier most likely isn't. In Northern Germany there are also many Scandinavian -sens and -sons. During/after WWII many regions were filled with -owskis.

Christoph

"Christoph P�per" wrote in message news:apu9fb$27mi$[email]...

Cool. Thanks for the information.

Btw, from where would P�per come?

*David Buehrle* :

I have absolutely no idea.

Christoph

"Christoph P�per" wrote in message news:aq46sb$1uqp$[email]...

I could just imagine someone like Chandler replying, "trees."

In article , [email] (Christoph =?ISO-8859-1?Q?P=E4per?=) wrote:

Call me.

wg

Matt wrote:

Accepting the premise that TV apartments are always unreasonably sized, I think RRMC could all live comfortably in the equivalemt "room size" apartment (e.g. 2 BR for MC and 1 BR (?) for RR (we assume they don't sleep together, but nobody would but/rent a 2BR if they didn't ned both rooms). Joey's situation is unrealistic, in that any struggling actor seems to hold down any number of side jobs while waiting for the big break, while he rarely dows. phoebe's situation of no setttled employment makes her apartment space much more unrealistic; far more likely that she'd room with someone else who could cover the rent.

The bigger question to me has always been whether their job situations could ever allow them to spend time together. While RR and C all hold down relatively "9-5" jobs, Monica's hours as head chef would require to be at work almost all evening, weekends included. Not clear when they'd all get together.

*Chris Bastian* :

I still wonder how Al-ways-broke Bundy could affort a house on his own, whenever I zap into reruns of MwC. The thing is that Monica's living-room / kitchen is quite big, everything else is quite normal in my eyes. The bedrooms across the hall are indeed very tiny.

If we hadn't seen the hide-game already with season 5 C&M, I'd assume exactly that. ;)

Monica wants children.

Wasn't DOOL his big break? We don't know how big a part he played in that WW2 movie and how successful that one was. Yet I wonder that we've still not seen a new Kip / Eddie / Chandler / Rachel / female, good looking. Neither did we see the interior of Joey's apartment in season 9 so far.

There's nothing unrealistic about Phoebe, just covered in fog o'mystery.

There's only one bedroom left in her appartment. In which she lived with three different people we know of: her grandma, the one whose name I forgot and the other five didn't know, and Rachel. Her brother was just a guest.

We seldomly see all of them together for more than a coffe break or birth.

Christoph

I read an article about this very thing I believe it was in People...It was interesting mostly because there is hardly anyone on these shows that could afford what they live in, however if they lived in what they could afford, would we watch?? Check out People or the web like someone suggested.

Peace...Me...

"Christoph P�per" wrote in message news:apov9g$2qce$[email]...

rent.

any

for

There's the great George Castanza line from Seinfeld about Kramer that could also apply to the folks from Friends with little changes.

"A fantasy life! Hah! Their whole lives are fantasies! Living in a killer apartment in the Village [I understand even the tiniest studio apartment will cost you over $1,000 a month in Manhattan], having sex with beautiful people, often without dating, fall ass-backwards into Knicks and Rangers tickets, and sit around all day sipping coffee without working, THAT'S a fantasy life!"

John

"Matt" wrote in message news:U9Pv9.17412$[email]...>

any

for

I live in NYC and I can say that this situation is very impossible. My friends who are looking at apartments in Manhattan gave me this ballpark figure: 1 bedroom apt--$2000/month, and it also depends on what area. That isn't even in the best area of Manhattan. The Village numbers are astronomical. Monica and Chandler have a two bedroom with a spacious living room in the Village---i'm guessing minimum $3500/month and I think i'm still a little off. The point is...you either have to have a bunch of roommates or be quite well off in the money area to live in an apt. like Monica and Chandler's (Monica and Rachel's) and Chandler and Joey's.

Sofya