I’ve been a big fan of television for as long as I could remember. For 30-60 minutes at a time, you get to experience a whole other world that you generally don’t see in your regular life. Those brief escapes from reality were, and still are, a great incentive to keep me watching.
Even though I knew that television shows were created for my entertainment and that not everything I saw was real, there were times when I had a hard time distinguishing which TV facts were rooted in truths and which were spiced up. It didn’t help that I was still a confused, middle school kid when I had these ideas of how the world should be. Some of my biggest gaffes came from shows such as…
#3. Popeye the Sailor Man
Why does the spinach look like drugs? Wait a minute…
On the Show: Whenever it look like Popeye is in trouble, he just pops a can of spinach down his throat and TADA! He’s kicking ass!
My Expectation: Spinach will give me MOAR POWER!
The Reality: While healthy, it didn’t quite give me the boost I was looking for when I challenged my neighbor, who was at least a foot taller and 2 times my weight, to a wrestling match. Ouch.
#2. Dawson’s Creek
The bed: where all the cool kids are
On the Show: When Joey visits Dawson, she doesn’t ring the doorbell and walk through the front door. Nope, she just climbs right through his window. Dawson does not get phased by this, so it is assumed that this is normal behavior.
My Expectation: My pretty neighborhood friend will also start climbing through my window at night to hang out!
The Reality: Apparently girls, like the one that lived across the street from me, will be turned off if asked to climb up my ladderless house to lay in bed with me at night. Whodathunk?
#1. The Fresh Prince of Bel Air (Or Basically Any Show with a Father Figure)
On the Show: Whenever the son is sad about something, the father character (or in Will’s case, the uncle) would sit down with him and give some words of wisdom and/or comfort. It’s not unusual for them to hug it out at the end.
My Expectation: Dad will comfort me (with great empathy) whenever I am feeling down!
The Reality: My dad, being the typical Asian dad, never did anything close to what I saw of fathers on TV. I think I started harboring resentment towards him in my youth, wondering why he didn’t love me. It was only later on that I realized he does cares for me, but he shows it in indirect ways. Nonetheless, I made it a point that I will behave more like the typical TV dad than the typical Asian dad in the future towards my children. I want my kids to never doubt that they can count on me to be there for them in their times of need.
So now that I mentioned some of my past naive beliefs, I’m curious about some of yours. What was the silliest expectation you had thanks to something you saw on a TV show?
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