If you were to make a list of most desirable sitcom abodes, it is highly unlikely that the Pasadena apartment shared by Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) and Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki) in “The Big Bang Theory” would be anywhere near the top 10 — not when you consider how many sitcoms were set in mansions, like “Benson,” “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” and the dream home of every kid in the 1980s: Edward Stratton III’s video game-laden estate in “Silver Spoons” (which had a miniature train that traveled in and around the house). But if you were looking for comfortable accommodations in that area of Southern California and didn’t have the coin to buy a house, a unit in Los Robles Apartments would likely treat you right (aside from the broken elevator).
Some sitcom apartments are notoriously beyond the reach of their fictional tenants’ means (we’re looking squarely at you, “Friends”), but Pasadena isn’t the West Village of Manhattan. You can find one- and two-bedrooms with decent square-footage that won’t make you feel the squeeze at the first of every month. But Sheldon and Leonard’s two-bedroom flat is pretty spacious as far as these things go, so you’d need to have a steady, well-paying job to afford to live there. How much exactly? And did Sheldon and Leonard’s combined income cover the rent with enough cash left over to provide them a little financial breathing room?
Sheldon and Leonard could easily afford to live in Los Robles Apartments
According to the website of the actual Los Robles Apartments in Pasadena, a two-bedroom unit with 1,048 square feet would rent for somewhere in the $3,500 range. I’m not sure that’s a 1:1 comparison space-wise with Sheldon and Leonard’s spot, which, according to the specs listed in a 2013 Huffington Post piece, includes a kitchen with a breakfast bar, but let’s say it’s close enough to their idiosyncratically decorated apartment. That would put it a few thousand dollars over the median monthly Pasadena rent of $3,167.
That’s not an eye-popping number, especially for a couple of gainfully employed theoretical physicists. The median salary for folks in this field is somewhere between $62,534 and $82,000. Of course, as the series went on, they locked down high-paying gigs at the California Institute of Technology and Caltech that would’ve bumped their yearly income over the $100,000 threshold. In other words, they could’ve easily afforded to live on their own in much more spacious accommodations. They would still be priced out of Edward Stratton III’s mansion, and even Monica’s apartment on “Friends,” but the Los Robles Apartments were ultimately rinky-dink for these guys. Perhaps they could’ve moved in next to Joey Tribbiani on Beechwood Avenue in Hollywood.
