It was a Saturday night and my partner had decided to not watch one of those Hallmark romance movies.
Armed with sole possession of the remote, Yours Truly searched for something worth watching.
A CTV show called Children Ruin Everything came up, sounded interesting so I stopped channel hopping.
The comedy centres on a young family, parents and two children, and the issues of parenting and maintaining a household.
All the while the mother, played by Meagan Rath, tries to regain her free pre-marital career lifestyle. Of course her sister, who climbed the executive ladder and fires employees for fun, reminds her of what a career might have been like.
Hubby, played by Aaron Abram, works in advertising for a boss who is all business and no play, has no use for kids, and poor people skills – in other words a bag.
The episode Yours Truly saw featured the wife trying to get into her pre-marriage physical shape and hubby bullied by co-worker into 'dressing' for a grand opening.
The juggling of bills to pay for unexpected items and the whining of two children gave viewers plenty of humorous moments.
Considering that repeated surveys find half of Canadian families are one pay cheque away from insolvency while coping with the issues of parenting, this show’s theme seems timely.
If the writers can continue the humour, viewers should have many enjoyable episodes.
The theme lends itself to a range of plots from all angles of parenting and schooling to privacy to budgeting on limited income in an inflationary/pandemic environment.
Will the writers have the couple adopt the jar allocation of the pay cheque? The jar method, a long practised method of making ends meet, fell into disuse when plastic dominated financial life.
Under this system. the pay cheque is allocated into jars for rent/mortgage, utilities groceries, gasoline, clothes, savings and so on.
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Once Children Ruin Everything was over more channel hopping occurred until I settled on a CNN documentary about the real Marilyn Monroe.
My knowledge of the blond sexpot actress is limited.
This documentary chronicled the orphan who was obsessed with movies and movie stars to her pursuit of acting, including an arranged marriage to avoid a new foster home.
Her image as the sexy blonde bombshell was just that. She was a practical business woman.
While many of her fans likely thought she slept her way to the top, there is no evidence of that in this documentary.
She was one of many starlets contracted for six months and fired when the movie executives tired of dating them.
The famous executive Darryl F. Zanuck invited her onto his yacht for the weekend. She accepted, asking if his wife would join them.
He threw her out of his office and refused to renew her six month studio contract.
She persevered, cultivating the sexy image and was the first woman in Hollywood to form her own production company in the all male-dominated movie industry.
Ron Walter can be reached at ronjoy@sasktel.net
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
