Tyler Naughten
Nov 3 · 3 min read

It’s all about that money

As I grew up, media portrays business men as people who will do anything to make a quick buck. The character Teddy Preston reinforces this stereotype in God Friended Me.

Teddy is a business man who has made a lot of money in his lifetime. He is a motivational speaker who teaches people how to have a successful and happy life. He talks about how people can lean how to grab a hold of life and make a lot of money. Teddy portrays himself as being professional, smart, intelligent, and like he has made his mark in life. Then, in the matter of seconds all this changes when Teddy’s kid comes in claiming that Teddy is his dad. Teddy repeatedly denies having a kid which makes Jacob (Teddy’s son) feel rejected by his own father. Teddy becomes flustered after this and asks to have a break from motivational speaking.

The main characters (Miles and Kira) decide to dig into his life and end up finding where Jacob live. They end up finding out that Jacob was raised by his grandpa when his mom died. When Jacob was born, the grandpa gave Teddy $50,000 to never talk to his kid again and he took the deal. Teddy is separated from everyone else in the show because he is shown doing something that is sleazy and immoral. CBS decides to make a business man do this in the show because what Teddy did perfectly fits the stereotype of business men doing whatever they can to make a quick buck.

Miles and Kira bring Teddy to Jacob’s house to try to reunite him with his son. Teddy’s grandpa gives him an ultimatum that if he decides to talk to Jacob then his motivational speaking will be shut down but, if he leaves then his motivational speaking can continue to happen. Teddy decides to walk away despite the persistent effort of what Miles and Kira are doing so that Teddy can stay to talk to his son. Teddy says, “I won’t reach my full potential if I have to take care of Jacob”. Teddy goes back to his speaking and continues. Teddy doesn’t care about his son and just cares about the well being of his business. He puts himself first and just wants to make as much money as possible. Teddy likes the stuff he can control and since he doesn’t know how his relationship with his son will go, he doesn’t want to attempt being a part of his son’s life. He just wants to pour all he has into his work because he knows how his work will turn out.

In conclusion, Teddy is the classic stereotype of a business man. The consequence of this is that when someone meets someone who is in the business field, seeing this show may make someone think that the person they met did bad things to become successful. When in reality, most business men aren’t sleazy and self-centered like Teddy is. Another consequence people may have from this show is that self centered people won’t be open to other people’s advice and will be extremely stubborn.

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