Based on your viewing of our screening of Thirtysomething as well as Feuer's analysis of the program--what role do you think yuppie guilt plays on the show and how is it represented?
Yuppie guilt is presented in Thirtysomething by portraying Michael as a struggling business man. The Steadman family is a very good portrayal of the yuppy stereotype or an upper middle class family dealing with the upper middle class problems that they face. None of the problems that are played out to be extremely stressful and hard, are actually huge issues in the world. They are all smaller things that concern ideas such as social status, leisure money, and business. The guilt can be seen in the end when Michael decides, that it doesn't matter, and he shouldn't be worrying about such insignificant things such as his home renovations. Conclusively, he just has the party with the house in a not so great condition, and all of the things happen that he thought would happen (ie a lady gets her coat stuck on a nail) but in the end it works out and is ok, because these things aren't all that important in the larger scheme of things.
After watching this episode of Thirtysomething, we can see how this idea of yuppie guilt is represented as a force that has a large effect on the character’s personality and continuous search for himself in the world. As Michael encounters new decisions and problems in his life, he considers them in two different lights: the ideal and the real versions of his life. To Michael, his ideal life is ground in the idea of a hippie culture in which he can continuously fight the “establishment” or not become some corporate sellout like he had dreamt he would in his youth. His real life, however, is that of a small advertising business owner; an image particularly dissatisfying to him because these are the kinds of people he and his friends hated when they were young and rebellious. We can very clearly see this in the scene where he is put on “trial” by representations of hippie culture and proclaimed guilty of being a yuppie. This scene shows us the issue he has been grappling with the rest of the episode, which is that he is not only no longer a youthful rebel like he once was, but he has now become a part of the establishment that he wanted to fight. Although Michael’s life is a good and successful one (as Hope points out before smothering him with a blanket), he feels like he has sold his values, which creates the guilt he has trouble getting over.
Although I agree with certain aspects of your response, I am not totally in agreement with your interpretation of Michael's character and this embodiment of yuppie guilt. I definitely think that there are multiple facets of his character's life that influence his overall person, but I would identify them differently. I think there is the person that he wants to be: someone who can afford to invest in lavish decisions both in his domestic life and his employment, someone who through these decisions will impress the hotshots in his industry that are ranked above him, and someone who most likely will quickly rise to be just as if not more successful than those who he is attempting to impress. This part of Michael's personality is ambitious but also dangerously never satisfied, which eats away at the part of him that acknowledges his past. Unlike some of his friends, he does not do this willingly or consciously, as seen by the bizarre dream sequences throughout that show this yuppie guilt. He wishes he didn't have this guilt; part of him is well aware that he was invested in the counterculture and it was extremely important to him at the time, but he knows that to be as successful as he'd like and to be the true "man" that his grandfather lectured him about as an adolescent, he must abandon these idealist values. Then there exists the actual Michael, who's success and values lie somewhere in between these two projected facets of himself. Throughout the episode we see his being dissatisfied with this situation, but I think that the ending with all his friends, who all have more or less left counterculture life to venture to extremely varied paths, shows him that growing up is okay, and that there will always be ups and downs, people who are less or more successful than him, and a myriad of other cliches that help him accept his life situation and cope, for now, with this yuppie guilt.
With the “young urban professionals” of the 1980s came their subsequent guilt, their reliance on status and privilege to keep them afloat. In Thirtysomething, yuppies are portrayed to have problems that are seemingly insignificant and petty compared to things that are going on in the real world (i.e. the AIDS epidemic, violence, starvation, what have you). In a way, watching this whole “yuppie” concept play out is definitely a form of escapism in that it takes you away from more depressing topics and weaves you into the kinda-sorta-important worries of a successful white “thirty-something.” If some of the most pressing issues in your lives are how and when to remodel your house, things may really not be so bad. Michael, the protagonist, so to speak, is concerned with such issues, but by the end of the program, comes to realize that they are not as significant as they may seem. Feuer’s Yuppie Envy discusses how, by the early 1990s, “yuppie culture” was no longer glorified as much as it was satirized. It became a trendy plotline for yuppies to overcome some kind of intense spiritual journey, bringing them “back to reality,” realigning their moral values. In the episode watched in class, this didn’t really occur, but it shows that America soon grew resentful of the yuppie image.
In the show Thirtysomething, yuppie guilt can be seen throughout the entire episode, especially in the character of Michael. Yuppies are shown as having problems that are not very significant when compared to more serious and larger problems occurring in the actual world. Even though Michael has a stable job as well as a loving wife and child, he continues to have extreme anxiety about the remodeling of his house and whether he should rent out studio space for a commercial shoot. His obsession with status and how his image looks to other important people seems to consume Michael. When put into perspective, these problems should not have such a huge impact on Michael’s life. Although everything worked out at the end of the episode, he realizes that he should not be worrying about petty things. He should enjoy the things he has at the moment, such as his family and current house. The problems also represent everyday worries for an average American family. The yuppy plotline became very popular on various shows. However, people came to resent the yuppie image and Thirtysomething since the episodes were an accurate portrayal of the audience. Viewers did not want to feel guilt about their lifestyle, and so Thirtysomething became “the show you love to hate”. People enjoyed mocking the characters and the plotlines even though they were very similar to what was portrayed.
"Thirtysomething" was the result of the yuppie frenzy that occurred in the late 80s, a time when life wasn't actually that hard and the problems that most middle-class suburban families faced weren't really even problems by a lot of peoples' standards. The episode we watched in class showed the protagonist, Michael, as he struggled to have the perfect life and find something to fix (in this case, that thing to fix was his home before he could throw a party). However the reality was that Michael had a loving wife, a good job with a good income, a healthy baby, and new home. For most people, there's nothing that could be wrong with that, but a yuppie would find something to be upset about anyways, as Michael did. His wife Hope serves as the voice of reason to his yuppie complaints, covering his head with a towel and reminding him of the good things he has in life. At the time, this could also be served as a reminder to the viewers at home that could potentially be yuppies themselves, but as Feuer points out the yuppie movement faded by the 90s, and this show was no longer relevant to viewers.
According to Feuer’s article, yuppie guilt “is the yuppie’s material and financial success, their compromised ideals, and, for the women, their lost opportunities for love and children.“ (Feuer, 61). Yuppie guilt first emerged in television shows such as Thirtysomething (1987-1991). Thirtysomething depicts the lives of many yuppies, also known as young urban professionals or people in their 20s or 30s who are part of the upper class. Throughout the episode of Thirtysomething portrayed in class, Michael faces a lot of dilemmas, much of which are in fact are very trivial. Examples of some of these problems include his decision to fire his clumsy secretary, to fix his house before throwing a house party, etc. Really, none of these problems are even that significant or life changing. It’s not like as if any of the issues could result in life or death or anything in that manner. At most, these problems could lower his social status or simply make him feel bad. His life is better than average since he has a wife and child and has a well paying job. I would consider majority of these dilemmas as being “first world problems.” None of his problems would affect anyone outside of the upper class. Eventually, the heavy portrayal of yuppie guilt made Thirtysomething the show in which viewers love to hate. The issues in the show were so trivial to the point that viewers simply became annoyed.
The concept of “young urban professions” really stuck in my mind while I was watching Thirtysomething, but did not throw off my viewing experience; in fact, it made me enjoy it more as this show is very similar to the plot lines of the shows we see on TV today. To begin, Michael’s seemingly insignificant problems on the show illustrate the “yuppie” culture and guilt that Feuer’s alludes to in his article. The issues that Michael struggles with are important in his life, such as whether to redo the sunroom of their new home or if he should fire his secretary or not, but in the large scheme of social and political issues of the 1980’s mean nothing. Through Michael’s portrayal the “yuppie” nature of materialism, concern for social status, and overall importance of appearance, viewers can begin to understand the way of life for the average American working class family.
These images and ideals that Michael and all the “yuppie” characters illustrate on Thirtysomething are not stuck in time; however, these notions of consumerism, image and integrated social relationships are concepts that we see repeated over and over again on TV today. For example, the show Entourage illustrates the highlife of L.A celebrities and Hollywood, with meaningless plot lines of who is getting a divorce, which celebrity is signing with which agency, etc. While these issues are crucial for life in Hollywood, they represent nothing to the larger American population and act as mere entertainment in the same way Thirtysomething did in 1980.
Yuppie guilt is presented in Thirtysomething by portraying Michael as a struggling business man. The Steadman family is a very good portrayal of the yuppy stereotype or an upper middle class family dealing with the upper middle class problems that they face. None of the problems that are played out to be extremely stressful and hard, are actually huge issues in the world. They are all smaller things that concern ideas such as social status, leisure money, and business. The guilt can be seen in the end when Michael decides, that it doesn't matter, and he shouldn't be worrying about such insignificant things such as his home renovations. Conclusively, he just has the party with the house in a not so great condition, and all of the things happen that he thought would happen (ie a lady gets her coat stuck on a nail) but in the end it works out and is ok, because these things aren't all that important in the larger scheme of things.
ReplyDeleteAfter watching this episode of Thirtysomething, we can see how this idea of yuppie guilt is represented as a force that has a large effect on the character’s personality and continuous search for himself in the world. As Michael encounters new decisions and problems in his life, he considers them in two different lights: the ideal and the real versions of his life. To Michael, his ideal life is ground in the idea of a hippie culture in which he can continuously fight the “establishment” or not become some corporate sellout like he had dreamt he would in his youth. His real life, however, is that of a small advertising business owner; an image particularly dissatisfying to him because these are the kinds of people he and his friends hated when they were young and rebellious. We can very clearly see this in the scene where he is put on “trial” by representations of hippie culture and proclaimed guilty of being a yuppie. This scene shows us the issue he has been grappling with the rest of the episode, which is that he is not only no longer a youthful rebel like he once was, but he has now become a part of the establishment that he wanted to fight. Although Michael’s life is a good and successful one (as Hope points out before smothering him with a blanket), he feels like he has sold his values, which creates the guilt he has trouble getting over.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I agree with certain aspects of your response, I am not totally in agreement with your interpretation of Michael's character and this embodiment of yuppie guilt. I definitely think that there are multiple facets of his character's life that influence his overall person, but I would identify them differently. I think there is the person that he wants to be: someone who can afford to invest in lavish decisions both in his domestic life and his employment, someone who through these decisions will impress the hotshots in his industry that are ranked above him, and someone who most likely will quickly rise to be just as if not more successful than those who he is attempting to impress. This part of Michael's personality is ambitious but also dangerously never satisfied, which eats away at the part of him that acknowledges his past. Unlike some of his friends, he does not do this willingly or consciously, as seen by the bizarre dream sequences throughout that show this yuppie guilt. He wishes he didn't have this guilt; part of him is well aware that he was invested in the counterculture and it was extremely important to him at the time, but he knows that to be as successful as he'd like and to be the true "man" that his grandfather lectured him about as an adolescent, he must abandon these idealist values. Then there exists the actual Michael, who's success and values lie somewhere in between these two projected facets of himself. Throughout the episode we see his being dissatisfied with this situation, but I think that the ending with all his friends, who all have more or less left counterculture life to venture to extremely varied paths, shows him that growing up is okay, and that there will always be ups and downs, people who are less or more successful than him, and a myriad of other cliches that help him accept his life situation and cope, for now, with this yuppie guilt.
DeleteWith the “young urban professionals” of the 1980s came their subsequent guilt, their reliance on status and privilege to keep them afloat. In Thirtysomething, yuppies are portrayed to have problems that are seemingly insignificant and petty compared to things that are going on in the real world (i.e. the AIDS epidemic, violence, starvation, what have you). In a way, watching this whole “yuppie” concept play out is definitely a form of escapism in that it takes you away from more depressing topics and weaves you into the kinda-sorta-important worries of a successful white “thirty-something.” If some of the most pressing issues in your lives are how and when to remodel your house, things may really not be so bad. Michael, the protagonist, so to speak, is concerned with such issues, but by the end of the program, comes to realize that they are not as significant as they may seem. Feuer’s Yuppie Envy discusses how, by the early 1990s, “yuppie culture” was no longer glorified as much as it was satirized. It became a trendy plotline for yuppies to overcome some kind of intense spiritual journey, bringing them “back to reality,” realigning their moral values. In the episode watched in class, this didn’t really occur, but it shows that America soon grew resentful of the yuppie image.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIn the show Thirtysomething, yuppie guilt can be seen throughout the entire episode, especially in the character of Michael. Yuppies are shown as having problems that are not very significant when compared to more serious and larger problems occurring in the actual world. Even though Michael has a stable job as well as a loving wife and child, he continues to have extreme anxiety about the remodeling of his house and whether he should rent out studio space for a commercial shoot. His obsession with status and how his image looks to other important people seems to consume Michael. When put into perspective, these problems should not have such a huge impact on Michael’s life. Although everything worked out at the end of the episode, he realizes that he should not be worrying about petty things. He should enjoy the things he has at the moment, such as his family and current house. The problems also represent everyday worries for an average American family. The yuppy plotline became very popular on various shows. However, people came to resent the yuppie image and Thirtysomething since the episodes were an accurate portrayal of the audience. Viewers did not want to feel guilt about their lifestyle, and so Thirtysomething became “the show you love to hate”. People enjoyed mocking the characters and the plotlines even though they were very similar to what was portrayed.
ReplyDelete"Thirtysomething" was the result of the yuppie frenzy that occurred in the late 80s, a time when life wasn't actually that hard and the problems that most middle-class suburban families faced weren't really even problems by a lot of peoples' standards. The episode we watched in class showed the protagonist, Michael, as he struggled to have the perfect life and find something to fix (in this case, that thing to fix was his home before he could throw a party). However the reality was that Michael had a loving wife, a good job with a good income, a healthy baby, and new home. For most people, there's nothing that could be wrong with that, but a yuppie would find something to be upset about anyways, as Michael did. His wife Hope serves as the voice of reason to his yuppie complaints, covering his head with a towel and reminding him of the good things he has in life. At the time, this could also be served as a reminder to the viewers at home that could potentially be yuppies themselves, but as Feuer points out the yuppie movement faded by the 90s, and this show was no longer relevant to viewers.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Feuer’s article, yuppie guilt “is the yuppie’s material and financial success, their compromised ideals, and, for the women, their lost opportunities for love and children.“ (Feuer, 61). Yuppie guilt first emerged in television shows such as Thirtysomething (1987-1991). Thirtysomething depicts the lives of many yuppies, also known as young urban professionals or people in their 20s or 30s who are part of the upper class. Throughout the episode of Thirtysomething portrayed in class, Michael faces a lot of dilemmas, much of which are in fact are very trivial. Examples of some of these problems include his decision to fire his clumsy secretary, to fix his house before throwing a house party, etc. Really, none of these problems are even that significant or life changing. It’s not like as if any of the issues could result in life or death or anything in that manner. At most, these problems could lower his social status or simply make him feel bad. His life is better than average since he has a wife and child and has a well paying job. I would consider majority of these dilemmas as being “first world problems.” None of his problems would affect anyone outside of the upper class. Eventually, the heavy portrayal of yuppie guilt made Thirtysomething the show in which viewers love to hate. The issues in the show were so trivial to the point that viewers simply became annoyed.
ReplyDeleteThe concept of “young urban professions” really stuck in my mind while I was watching Thirtysomething, but did not throw off my viewing experience; in fact, it made me enjoy it more as this show is very similar to the plot lines of the shows we see on TV today. To begin, Michael’s seemingly insignificant problems on the show illustrate the “yuppie” culture and guilt that Feuer’s alludes to in his article. The issues that Michael struggles with are important in his life, such as whether to redo the sunroom of their new home or if he should fire his secretary or not, but in the large scheme of social and political issues of the 1980’s mean nothing. Through Michael’s portrayal the “yuppie” nature of materialism, concern for social status, and overall importance of appearance, viewers can begin to understand the way of life for the average American working class family.
ReplyDeleteThese images and ideals that Michael and all the “yuppie” characters illustrate on Thirtysomething are not stuck in time; however, these notions of consumerism, image and integrated social relationships are concepts that we see repeated over and over again on TV today. For example, the show Entourage illustrates the highlife of L.A celebrities and Hollywood, with meaningless plot lines of who is getting a divorce, which celebrity is signing with which agency, etc. While these issues are crucial for life in Hollywood, they represent nothing to the larger American population and act as mere entertainment in the same way Thirtysomething did in 1980.