There are very few television shows that accurately — or even adequately — depict the realities of running a restaurant, a bar, a catering company, even a grocery store. If you were to take It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia as your only example of bar management, you’d be knee-deep in sewage-covered bills that are three months overdue and smoking even more crack cocaine after the bank takes Paddy’s and leaves you on welfare, for real this time.
But that doesn’t mean we don’t love these shows, regardless of how unrealistic their depiction of a pizza parlor or a diner. We love them because they take the more dumbfounding aspects of these jobs and turn them in for laughs, and the best laughs are often had at our own past experiences. We love them because so many of us have suffered the indignities of having to wear a bright pink bowtie to work or begging vendors for extensions during tough times.