She was always arguing with her ex about his late alimony payments.... how long had she been collecting it? I didn't think you could collect alimony for ever... I thought it was just to help the non-working spouse get on their feet.

Back in the 60s it went on for years. My uncle lived in California, and his 2nd wife was always complaining about payments to the first.

There were no hard and fast rules each State develops its own laws. One thing that was always factored in was the length of the marriage. In Illinois for example a marriage lasting less than five years assuming alimony was to be paid would be around 20% of the length of the marriage. The longer the marriage the higher the percentage. A marriage lasting 19 years again sticking with Illinois could leave someone paying alimony for a decade and a half! Viv seemed a little old to have a child Sherman's age (wasn't he about 10), so either she got married late in life and rushed to have a child or she was married a long time with Sherman being an unexpected surprise.

There were no hard and fast rules each State develops its own laws. One thing that was always factored in was the length of the marriage. In Illinois for example a marriage lasting less than five years assuming alimony was to be paid would be around 20% of the length of the marriage. The longer the marriage the higher the percentage. A marriage lasting 19 years again sticking with Illinois could leave someone paying alimony for a decade and a half! Viv seemed a little old to have a child Sherman's age (wasn't he about 10), so either she got married late in life and rushed to have a child or she was married a long time with Sherman being an unexpected surprise.


I always thought we were supposed to assume Viv the character was younger than Viv the actress. Viv sure seemed younger than Ethel Mertz lol

I always thought we were supposed to assume Viv the character was younger than Viv the actress. Viv sure seemed younger than Ethel Mertz lol
I think we're supposed to assume Ethel Mertz the character was older than Viv the actress.