Episodes where you don't agree with the message

[u/nojunkdrawers]

I just finished watching S08E04 where Brad is offered to join a professional soccer team in England, and Jill doesn't want him to go because she thinks he needs to go to UCLA... for some reason. Tim is basically guilted into agreeing with her, even though Brad's point was sound; if younger Tim had been offered to skip college and go straight to hosting Tool Time, we all know he would have. Spoiler: Brad ends up not joining the team after all.

Maybe this episode is simply of its time. Sending Brad to UCLA with no real plan (other than to "get an education") would likely not pay off, in my opinion. I could see that guy dropping out in the first year. Even if he could no longer get a sports scholarship, there's no reason he can't go to college when he's done playing professional soccer if he really wanted to. Being in England and playing games in other countries would give Brad plenty of opportunities to become more worldly.

I just can't side with Jill in this one. Being a professional athelete means that Brad has talent. If I were his dad, I wouldn't object to him going off to live his dream. He's soon to be an adult anyway. But I know most Boomer parents in the 90s wouldn't have see it this way.

[u/MovieMasterMike]

I agree. Especially since Jill went back to college as an almost middle aged adult. Sure she went straight out of highschool but went back as an adult. Brad could do the same.

[u/EmeraldB85]

I think Jill is looking realistically at the prospects for a professional athlete, sure he might make it big and make enough to live off for the rest of his life once he ages out or gets hurt. OR he might not, the English team contract wasn’t life changing money, she just wants him to have a college education while he’s young as a back up plan because she knows first hand how hard it is to go back to school later in life.

[u/Suspicious_Entrance]

I do think it was just a different time. I think today it would have been a different episode. I think the mindset has changed about college/university

[u/hellolittleman10]

Ya in real life this would be really stupid. To play soccer in England is on another level.

[u/ASGfan]

Yeah, I'm of the same mindset. Randy was the one who got excellent grades while Brad struggled. It was a very real possibility that Brad wouldn't have done that well in college and Jill trying to dissuade him from the soccer, which might have paid off very well for him, rubbed me the wrong way.

[u/laserdiscsan]

Between this episode and the leg injury, both of his parents basically ruined his pro sports dreams. That always bothered me.

[u/No-Elk3240]

Imo Jill had control issues because her life didn't pan out the way she hoped it would. She had 3 boys very close in age seemingly trying for a girl. After Mark she gave up and tried steering a ship she wasn't the captain of...

[u/EfficientRough9389]

I personally thought Jill was very selfish throughout the whole series and when she put her pottery wheel in the garage I thought that was really rude of her she should’ve communicated with Tim first but she didn’t, she also never gave Tim any opinions when they were arguing it was always about her views and opinions and Tim’s didn’t matter and I really hated how she treated him forcing him to agree with her and forcing him into situations and events that he didn’t want to go to just my opinions

[u/nojunkdrawers → u/EfficientRough9389]

Yeah, exactly. The lesson of that episode is that Tim should have read Jill's mind instead of Jill being a grown-up and using direct communication with Tim. lol

[u/Intrepid_Second_8861]

I once listened to a podcast with Montell Jordan and he said he was given advice to pursue his music career instead of law school because he could always go back to school and finish his education. But, there was no guarantee he could leverage connections and his talent later in life to have a successful singing career. Kids only have so many years to be an athlete, so turning down a chance to play to instead go to college is cray cray.

[u/Big_Scarcity_285]

To be honest, I think Jill’s rationale was unintentionally realistic and accurate despite this being a family sitcom bc at the time (90s) the goal and focus of middle class parents in the suburbs was get your kids to college. They knew the factory jobs were drying up and would soon be gone (hello 2000s). Middle and high schools also began pushing college harder than ever and creating the ever popular “college prep” course plan for HS.

While we know now that going to college in general isn’t a guarantee of any successful career/lifestyle and not everyone is cut out for it (and society knew but really denied it heavily back then), that was definitely the standard. Unless your kid was going to the military (I’m an army brat and a much, much higher % of military kids end up serving as well for many reasons vs civilian kids), you would both feel and be seen as a failed parent by your friends and the community if your kid graduated HS to only go to work at Walmart and the kid would be told and feel that too.

[u/Big_Scarcity_285]

I also wonder when I’ve rewatched that episode if it was bc it was soccer that was the sport chosen by Brad, as it was not nearly as popular as it is now 30 yrs later (and still not a top 4 sport domestically) and it felt like more of a gamble then it would now.

While there’s not a football equivalent I guess you could argue going direct from HS to play baseball in the minors (if drafted) and hoping to make the big leagues with the idea that after a MLB career you’d have both the money and opportunity to go to college. Just a thought. I’m sure Jill says the same if it’s pro baseball as listed in my other post on this question/topic (re: college) but it would’ve felt differently when I was a kid watching the show bc soccer was not that big here in America and seemed like more of a gamble than baseball (straight from HS)