Following on from your answer to anonâs âthese dudes donât pay rent anymore yâallâ ask, do you know if thereâs a reason why theyâre portrayed as coming across as more working class?
I think, to a lot of people who arenât familiar with how the pay structure works, they can appear quite modest and down-to-earth rather than like people who are earning a lot of money. So Iâm wondering whether thatâs a deliberate 'aesthetic' choice from the showrunners (maybe an aesthetic or characterisation choice isnât quite the right word), or if thereâs another reason behind it. Iâm curious whether itâs intentional or just part of how theyâre presented.
Personally, I think Robby and Jack come from a more working class background and that's why they give off that vibe in the show. Even though they're making a lot of money now, they've managed to stay grounded due to how they grew up. I think it's a deliberate choice from the EPs in order to make these guys likeable, people we want to watch and root for. It's also a more interesting story than 'rich kid becomes a doctor, is still rich.' (A story they already did with Carter.)
That said, we don't have a ton on this from canon, so it really is just a vibe. It's possible they're rich kids who became doctors and are just real good at rolling with the common man. I don't think so, though, and now I shall discuss why.
In S1, Noah was asked an actually interesting question: would Robby and Carter like each other? In his answer, he said that it'd take Robby a minute because Carter is rich and Robby comes from a more working class world. Now, as I've gone on about at length, this is not canon...but much like how Shawn was running around talking about Jack's dead wife for a long time before we got that on screen, I tend to think this is the backstory the creatives have given Robby.
Direct from canon, we have a few things: Robby never knew his father, was abandoned by his mother at 8, and lived with his grandparents when he was little. It's possible that Robby had super rich grandparents, but it seems more likely that that's the story of someone who didn't have a lot of money growing up.
Finally, a business thing: WB is duking it out in court with the Crichton estate, who sued them because they allege that The Pitt is actually a continuation of ER. In ER, Carter came from a very wealthy family. Even if the show wanted to give Robby a wealthy background, I actually don't think WB's lawyers would let them because of the lawsuit. That would be giving your opponents ammunition; it's just dumb.
As for Jack, we really know nothing. Shawn plays him as a 'roll up your sleeves and do the work' kinda guy, but that's just a vibe. I landed on a more modest background for Jack purely because Shawn called him a combat medic (an enlisted job). If Jack enlisted, that means it was before college, so it seemed likely that he used the military as a way to pay for school. These days I'm pretty convinced that Shawn just doesn't know that a combat medic is a different thing than an Army doctor, so I tend to hold any ideas about his backstory very lightly. Hell, Jack could be a senator's kid who scored a sweet West Point appointment and rode it all the way on up, we just don't know.
Obviously, people's backgrounds inform who they are in the present. If the guys came from little, you can see how they'd be a bit more grounded in the present, even though the reality is that they're in the top 5% of earners in the US. That said, even in the show we see that they're dropping $300 on a backpack and $4K on a butterfly iq3 ultrasound. Whatever vibe they give, they have a lot of money and can buy what they like.
