"Desperate Housewives" vs The Newsboys Of America
Cliff Ennico
www.creators.com
We all have our guilty pleasures. Watching #147;Desperate Housewives#148; on Sunday evenings is one of mine.
Now, I realize that the show is not meant to reflect the real world. It#146;s a tongue-in-cheek satire of certain suburban lifestyles. But there was a scene in last week#146;s #147;Desperate Housewives#148; that caught my attention -- as a sign, if nothing else, of how those overpaid TV writers and producers in Hollywood view us poor, struggling entrepreneurs.
The scene in question was a confrontation between one of the #147;Desperate Housewives#148;, a sexy, somewhat ditzy single mother named Susan, and her newspaper delivery boy, a bratty kid named Danny. The voiceover at the beginning of the show says #147;all of the women on Wisteria Lane viewed Danny as the enemy . . . #147; Mainly because his aim when throwing the newspaper isn#146;t that good #150; he destroys people#146;s rose bushes, leaves newspapers in rain puddles, that sort of thing #150; and it doesn#146;t seem to bother him very much (Danny has no issues with self-esteem).
Danny confronts Susan over the fact that she hasn#146;t paid for her newspaper delivery in some time. Susan admits that she owes Danny money, and says she will pay Danny soon. But Danny refuses to take #147;no#148; for an answer, reminding Susan he has asked her to catch up on her payments several times before. When Susan apologizes again, Danny refuses to let go and starts berating Susan, saying things like #147;listen, lady, I#146;m providing a service here . . . I don#146;t work for nothing#148;. I should mention at this point that all the neighbors are in their front yards watching Susan and Danny argue. Finally, Danny breaks off the conversation by riding off on his bicycle, calling Susan a #147;deadbeat#148; over his shoulder in a voice loud enough for the entire neighborhood to hear.
Susan#146;s response? She hurls her newspaper after the fleeing Danny. The camera follows the newspaper in slow-motion (Susan#146;s aim with the newspaper is far better than Danny#146;s ever was), as it flies through the air, end over end, and lands in the spokes of Danny#146;s bicycle wheel, bringing it to a sudden stop, flinging Danny face-first onto the pavement in the middle of the street, and knocking him out cold.
And what do Susan#146;s neighbors think of that? Far from being horrified by what any civilized legal system would call a #147;criminal assault on a minor,#148; they all smile and give Susan an enthusiastic #147;thumbs up.#148;
Now, it#146;s silly to get hung up on something you see on TV, especially a show like #147;Desperate Housewives#148; that is supposed to push the envelope. Clearly, if Danny were a nicer kid and provided better service, we (and the neighbors) would side with him against Susan. But there are two sides to every argument, and I think Danny#146;s got one heck of a case here. Let#146;s forget how obnoxious Danny is, and review the facts:
Susan admits she owes Danny money for his services, and has ignored repeated demands for payment, yet Danny does not cut off her service as he clearly is entitled to do;
Susan is herself self-employed (she works out of her home doing illustrations for children#146;s books), and should know what it feels like to have to wait to get paid;
Danny is obviously frustrated that his efforts to collect from Susan haven#146;t succeeded, and probably feels that resorting to #147;hardball tactics#148; is the only way to get through Susan#146;s thick head and make her cough up the money he is rightfully owed;
Sure, Danny#146;s service is not great, and his attitude doesn#146;t help matters, but he#146;s only engaging in effective #147;time management#148; -- it doesn#146;t make economic sense for him to spend three hours or more every day (cutting into homework and soccer practice) walking each newspaper up to the front door of every house when he#146;s only netting $20 or $30 a week from his paper route (if that sounds harsh, ask yourself #150; would you provide that level of service for $1 to $2 an hour?);
Even if Susan is right to withhold payment because of Danny#146;s poor service, Danny doesn#146;t deserve to be assaulted physically for what was after all only mild verbal abuse on his part #150; he is, after all, only a kid.
So what message do we take away from the Susan-Danny episode? Answer: that it#146;s okay, even commendable, to blow off your creditors and occasionally resort to physical violence when they demand payment, as long as they#146;re not cute, cuddly, and 100% politically correct in the way they do business.
Let#146;s hope the people that owe you money don#146;t watch #147;Desperate Housewives#148;.
Cliff Ennico (
cennico@legalcareer.com
) is a syndicated columnist, author and host of the PBS television series 'Money Hunt'. His latest book is #145;Small Business Survival Guide#146; (Adams Media, $12.95). This column is no substitute for legal, tax or financial advice, which can be furnished only by a qualified professional licensed in your state. To find out more about Cliff Ennico and other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit our Web page at
www.creators.com
. COPYRIGHT 2005 CLIFFORD R. ENNICO. DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC. Permission granted for use on DrLaura.com
