[kidyankee764]

We have not only one, but two sitcoms showing what “life” is like along the Gold Coast.

Anytime I’ve told someone I’m from Connecticut in the past, they immediately brought up Gilmore Girls. As of late, when I was in Portland OR and DC, it’s “I’ve seen the Mick, is that what it’s really like there?” or “is Westport really that house-wifey? I kinda wanna visit there”.

I’m sure most of you have heard of The Mick and American Housewife. Both portray Fairfield County as being a bastion of wealth, immorality and materialism. They also speak disparagingly about the county’s “working class” cities.

Having spent most of my life in Fairfield County, if you asked me this question 15 years ago, I’d say it’s mostly inaccurate. Now, when leaving Fairfield County, I was quite surprised at how more grounded people are in other areas (except for Los Angeles and south Florida). Not many in the communities I lived in frequented church and yes, there was quite a lot of parents (men and women) who regularly received Botox treatments. They also, in real life, don’t have many nice things to say about Bridgeport, Danbury, Norwalk and Stamford. So today? Somewhat on point, but not totally. Funny thing - nobody in Fairfield County cares to watch these shows, it seems.

How accurate do you think Hollywood is at portraying Fairfield County?

[Stylo]

Gilmore Girls and Stars Hollow was inspired by Washington and is not a very FFC-ish setting. It’s a very idealized, romantic New England setting.

And of course Westport was a location for the Lucy series.

There’s also Mystic River, Ice Storm, and a whole bunch of others. The depiction is usually quite good and idyllic.

I would not consider TV “Hollywood” necessarily, but haven’t seen those shows yet.

[kidyankee764]

Forgot about The Ice Storm, which portrayed FFC (New Canaan, I think?) as being immoral [behind the scenes]. The shows of today are more of an in-your-face immorality, particularly The Mick.

I’ve admittedly only seen a few episodes of each.

[Stylo]

Originally Posted by kidyankee764

Forgot about The Ice Storm, which portrayed FFC (New Canaan, I think?) as being immoral [behind the scenes]. The shows of today are more of an in-your-face immorality, particularly The Mick.

I’ve admittedly only seen a few episodes of each.

Swingers and mid century homes

[DigitalMilford]

I think looking for realism in sitcoms (or reality shows, or television) is probably futile.

The answer is these shows reflect a reality-- but certainly not everyone's reality. There are people who the caricature accurately depicts. And there are many that it doesn't.

I am actually writing this while sitting in Starbucks in Westport-- Here right now are many kids studying on a school vacation, a ridiculous woman in a fur coat and knee high boots whose makeup was applied with a palette knife and lots of folks that you could drop in to any Starbucks in the United States and they'd fit right in.

It's dangerous to judge a community by the most outlandishly visible. I saw just as much materialism in Texas during the first and second dot com era...

People are people.

[NewJeffCT]

My daughter is obsessed with the show Supernatural - or at least used to be. So, in order to discuss the show with her, I binged watched at least 10-11 seasons of the show 2 or 3 years back.

The show is about 2 brothers that travel all over the country to kill various types of monsters - demons, ghosts, vampires, werewolves, etc. So, they've had shows "set" in just about every state of the country. The two episodes I remember set in Connecticut both involved people living in gigantic estate like mansions that would be more at home on Mansion Row in Newport or sitting in as stately Wayne Manor from the old Batman shows than most places in FFC. yes, I know there are some homes in Greenwich and elsewhere like that, but if you had only seen this show, you'd think everybody in CT lives in estates like that.

And yes, I think at least one family of the two had a rather decadent lifestyle.

Places like this:
https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/...YLsvr81lQ.jpeg

[ryanthegoldengod]

According to Hollywood, does Connecticut exist outside of Fairfield County? I can't really think of a show or movie that doesn't take place there. Kind of fuels the misperception that everyone here is rich.

I did love The Ice Storm though.

"You're like a brother to me". "Really? Want to take a bath?".

"If you liked Notes From The Underground you will love The Idiot!".

[7 Wishes]

One thing I find weird about American Housewife is that they go to a made-up K-12 school called "Westport Unified School"....I guess they would've been sued if they had them going to Staples High (is there even such a thing as a K-12 school anywhere in the US? I know of some K-8s with a HS next door (though not in FFC) but.....)

Funny thing is that when I was growing up in Westchester in the 1980s, while Stamford was not perceived in the exact same light as Greenwich or Westport or Scarsdale, I remember it was viewed as much closer to them culturally back then than to say Norwalk, Danbury, Yonkers or Bridgeport. Between the sudden growth of highrises and a lot of companies (and people) going there back then (before CT put in a state income tax) it was kind of viewed if I remember as an even higher-end version of White Plains (which the decade before was also putting up a lot of office buildings/condos and gentrifying).

For example, my parents owned a chain of convenience stores in poorer parts of southern Westchester and in the early 80s partnered with an old friend to open one in one of the lower end parts of Stamford (I don't remember exactly where but it was off exit 6 on I-95). When my dad first went to the store, he never realized there was a more "modest" part of Stamford like that.

As another example, I remember when I started my "career change into teaching program" a few years ago, there was this ex-Wall Streeter who also worked for awhile at the vast UBS trading floor in downtown Stamford who had been in this program a year before us and came back to talk to us about her first year of teaching. She got her first job teaching middle school in Stamford in one of their "rougher" schools and she had no idea what it was like there. She had lived in Darien at the time and thought it would be only a little less similar to the schools her kids went to and found it to be a shock.

[SeaDoo342]

Originally Posted by Stylo

I would not consider TV “Hollywood” necessarily, but haven’t seen those shows yet.

Huh?? its definitely Hollywood. Thats where they are taped...

[SeaDoo342]

My take... it's the Gold Coast...wealthiest metro in the country... of course you're going to have materialism, housewives and botox. But there are some middle class people living in that area who shouldn't be ignored. There are also some lower class in Bridgeport and Norwalk who are probably overlooked because of the wealth in the area.

I have only seen one episode of American Housewife... they made fun of Norwalk. It was kind of messed up, but I do see suburbanites in CT make fun of the cities like this, so is it accurate? You betcha.