This show was watched by a lot of working class people, and maybe things were going good for them, but in the lead up to the 1992 election, The Bike Shop closes down. It gave the sense that maybe things really aren't that good out there (when in reality, the economic recovery was already underway.)
shareI doubt very much that it had any impact on the election back then. Dan made a bad decision plain and simple. He might have survived had he not started doing restorations and so forth but the Lanford area economy would not support Dan's version of Orange County Choppers. I think most viewers could see it was a bad decision by Dan. Now if Dan had done something more basic such as supplying parts and fix lawnmowers which quite a few people in Lanford would have a need for then I could see viewing it differently. Further, Lanford degraded economically due to the ineptitude of the local business leaders as they would not or could not adapt to the changing economy. Lanford no doubt had a bunch of industry relative to the first half of the 20th Century and before such as making agricultural tools that were either no longer relavent or did not compete economically against their rivals. Most of those limped along until the 1970's or 1980's when the owners locked the doors for good as they were finished.
shareI will never believe Dan made a bad decision. Roseanne's slop shop was way worse and less researched and she did well? That was unbelievable. Clearly, Roseanne (the actress) had an agenda at that point.
shareShe did use the show to address some things which were on her agenda, such as putting gay issues into the lounge rooms across america. She even wanted to write D.J. as a gay teen, but the network didn't want it. She did however have the first gay kiss (herself at a bar), had her mother come out as a closet lesbian (or at least bi-sexual) and strangely ended the show saying that she was a writer, and her sister was in fact a lesbian but always wanted to see her with a man, so she wrote Jackie as straight (such a wierd episode).
shareRoseanne's "slop shop" was actually Jackie's idea
shareI liked Jackie, but how was she a qualified or researched business woman? They would have failed irl. Imagine, hearing they put fake teeth in the meat. Something Roseanne herself said. I know she didn't, but why joke like that? If that was your livelihood, you wouldn't find it funny.
shareHonestly, I think it's easier to run a successful low-end eatery in rural America than it is a custom bike repair shop.
There's always a market for sandwiches and back-sass from waitstaff (trust me, I've worked in enough restaurants to know that a lot of customers enjoy that sort of thing), whereas there isn't quite a need for a motorcycle repair shop in the midwest, especially in an area where it snows 3-4 months out of the year.
Anyone here mentions Hotel California dies before the first line clears his lips.
I get the point but would add that 3-4 months of snow might be considered a mild winter for quite a few areas of the North. Dan might have been further ahead to tinker with snowmobiles.
shareEh. I hope you didn't put much time and thought into that theory.
BTW: Roseanne was on the air when Bush the first won in 1988...
This show wasn't that big in 1988. And the economy was fine. So.... point?
shareNot true. The Show was very big when it first went on The Air in 1988. It was a instant Hit and Popular from the start. It finish the season at Number 2 with over 20 Million Viewers a week. It finish season 2 at Number 1.
shareNot true. The Show was very big when it first went on The Air in 1988. It was a instant Hit and Popular from the start. It finish the season at Number 2 with over 20 Million Viewers a week. It finish season 2 at Number 1.
Not to be that guy, but: although this show was an instant hit, it literally debuted less than a month before the 1988 election lol: October 18, I believe. So even if it was an instant hit, it didn't have enough momentum before the election in a strictly chronological context.
Okay you right there but I was just saying that it was big in The ratings right fomr the start
shareSome reports even note that Roseanne tied for first at the end of its debut season. It was watched by 20 million households - way more in terms of overall viewership. I think at its height it averaged around 36 million viewers a week. That's was quite a large portion of the country. No TV show today comes close to those numbers (mostly thanks to cable and DVR), but even then I don't think there's an equally popular sitcom and hasn't been for some time.
I don't think it ever had much election sway, though. At least I hope not. "Dan Connor's bike shop folded on TV so maybe I should vote for a Democrat now" would be very stupid logic. Small businesses fold every day, in every administration.
For me, I didn't think it was a terrible idea, though. I've said it on another thread, but Dan didn't start the bike shop - he purchased it. It was an existing successful business he bought from someone looking to retire. That's not a terrible idea, inherently. He never did the extra work it takes to be successful. Just flipping the sign to "OPEN" doesn't bring people in. No press. No trade shows. No events. There are a lot of aspects to running a business he forgot about when he gave up the drywall business. The reason he got a lot of work sometimes was because of personal connections. He needed to establish and maintain those in the motorcycle market as well. He didn't.
Retirement in a small business is often a euphemism for the business has gone into a gradual decline and the owner can not put his/ her finger on why that is. I had two businesses offered to me and when I asked to look at the books I was denied both times which told me everything I needed to know which was walk away now.
shareThe banker (played by Brad Garrett) says that the business' numbers had dropped, but that could be because the owner was trying to get out. I always assumed it was a bike shop that had been around for a while. It didn't look newer. I relate Lanford to the town I grew up in, which had about 50,000 people. There were shops similar to that. The owners weren't rich, of course, but they got by.
I agree that the restaurant was the dumber of the two ideas. Mainly because the profits were split four ways. There's no way a small town like Lanford could sustain a diner enough for those owners to all make a living.
We will have to agree to disagree then. I have Lanford pegged at about 7500 people give or take depending on the episode. There is just not enough income there in terms of motorcycles to do much other than sell parts unless you have a HD, Yamaha, Kawasaki, etc. franchise. Even with a franchise it is not a license to print money in terms of profit. I've been around small businesses and one of the golden rules is not to load up on unsold inventory. It is a battle of wills between the owner and the manufacturer sales rep in terms of what inventory is taken on unsold. Life of a dealership is further complicated by the fact people will shop prices around to find the best deal so it is a race to the bottom in terms of margin on whole goods. This favors a dealer in a larger market who can survive on more units sold but at a lesser price than suggested list price. Even the custom shop in Rockford, IL could undercut Dan as it would have more volume potential which would allow its owners to make a decent living. The best days of the rank and file of Lanford had already come and gone in terms of income potential. There just was not a viable customer base for Dan and if Dan spread his wings over to the nearest neighboring county or large city he would have found a competitor. People need to cut their lawn so Dan would have been better off serving that market in some capacity either as a parts distributor, wholesale, or repair or some combination of the three.
The restaurant was providing a basic service/ product which opens up a wider customer base. There really is not an issue with the profits as I see it as it is pretty much their salary. In a business of that type in a town such as Lanford there is not going to be the type of profit to pay a salary plus a profit on the business. There is hopefully enough profit after expenses and anticipated expenses such as a new roof, refrigeration, appliances, etc. to pay a profit that exceeds what could be made in basic service industry type jobs. Lanford at 7500 people would be big enough to support such a restaurant and no doubt it was on the main highway to get interstate traffic.
I have Lanford pegged at about 7500 people give or take depending on the episode.
I have to argue this point regarding the population. Lanford clearly had their own Middle School and High school—that means they certainly had more than 7500 people in town. I know this cuz I grew up near rural Midwestern towns that were probably around that population of 7500 more or less, and they wouldn't have their own middle or high schools. Their population would be too low for that; they'd commute to other cities to combine with other student bodies.
Lots of school districts where I come from in the East had their own elementary, middle school, and high school with populations similar to my Lanford projection and this was in the same era. Consolidation did not start happening until 15 years ago give or take a few years. Even into today there has been very little consolidation as people let their home pride get in the way of economic prudence.
shareI still think your assessment is far too low, based on everything presented in the show. Small populations like that certainly can't support shopping malls. The town where my parents live is 7700 and they couldn't even support an Arco. It's a single-strip town with no stoplights. They can't even sustain the local burger stand year-round and have a tiny little weekly newspaper. It's on a popular highway too, on the way to a much larger population. That low of a population is considered rural.
shareThere must be a regional difference as to where you come from and where I come from. A 7700 population town would have at least a half dozen traffic lights on the main street. A 7700 person town would have a Chevy dealer, Ford dealer, and Chrysler dealer at that time although it would be a good bet that two of the three would be gone in 2016. A 7700 person town would have a McDonalds and a Burger King with one probably performing poorly. A town such as Lanford would have a few outlying townships/ hamlets that would add another 3000-5000 persons to its economic base. Then we need to define what an indoor shopping mall is for you and me. For me it can be one low end anchor (Rodbell's) with a bunch of small shops. The common area would be fairly small but enough space for the local car dealer to bring a single car in for a display. Go to the wealthy suburb of the nearest big city then the mall has a Sears, JC Penny, Macy's, and a couple others plus well over a hundred other shops when including parking takes up several city blocks. K Mart goes across the road from all this as it is too down scale. A town that was 7700 persons around 1990 may have been 10,000 to 12,000 persons back in 1960 or 1970. Most of the population hit would have been seen in apartment buildings or trailer parks as those people would have had the poorest jobs in the community. The trailer parks would have a lot more unused space and the crappiest apartment building would have been bulldozed because it had no chance of meeting city code. The people that own homes are usually connected enough to the local economy that a plant closing is not going to drive them out. But that is not to say that in the poorest section of town that you do not see for sale signs on a perpetual basis.
shareYeah, I think it would depend on just where the town was and what was near it. I live in a town with a population of just over 19,000. We have 5 traffic lights, one Burger King, one hotel, a Subway, a handful of Mom and Pop restaurants and small businesses, a Dollar General, Winn Dixie, and a brand new Walmart Neighborhood Mart. No major car dealerships, but a small & reputable family owned one. We have an elementary school, but no middle or high schools. Middle and high school students go to the town just east of us.
However, another town on our northern border has almost every fast food/fast casual restaurant from Applebee's to Zaxbys, several big stores (Lowe's Home Depot, Walmart Supercenter, Target), a hospital, a high school, a Publix, and so on. They also have a high school and elementary school, but no middle school. The middle school kids all go to the city just north of them.
All four of these towns/small cities are very close. It's actually closer for me to shop in the other town than to shop in my own. None of them have indoor mall, though. But there's one in the next county (15 minutes away.)
Contrary to that, my hometown sounds more like what you're talking about in terms of businesses. There were somewhere between 10-20,000 when I was growing up, but we did have a good handful of fast food joints, car dealers, a Winn Dixie, a Publix, a Pic-N-Save, several elementary schools, a middle school, and a high school. No indoor malls, but there was one just 5 miles away in the next town.
The indoor mall I am referring to is pretty darn small and I have yet to encounter another one as small. Strip malls are very common regionally with a grocery store anchor and 6-15 other shops or stores in towns with 5000 plus. Sears did the strip mall in a few locations but the one nearest me has been closed for several years now. They were big on appliances and basic clothing. Mom and Pop restaurants are struggling and I know of a couple that have closed that were long time features in the area. The economy is strangling a lot of businesses as the older generation that had spending money is fading away and the younger one gets paid to only have the basics in life.
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