#berrymen

[poetzproblem]

I'm re-watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S during quarantine and Jeff Goldblum aka HIRAM is some big movie star/producer and it made me wonder what Rachel's dads do? Was that ever mentioned in the show? What do you imagine? It was fun to think of Hiram being so involved in the industry Rachel wants to go into

I don’t think the show ever mentioned it–but then I stopped watching after season 3. 

I’ve imagined them in a few different careers through several of my own universes; teacher, accountant, lawyer, doctor, anthropologist. I’ve never explicitly named a profession for either of them in DB, but I mostly imagine Hiram was a lawyer and Leroy an investment banker (and a big reason Rachel makes some good investments with her own money).    

[bakedberry]

texts sent to quinn post mini-prank on hiram.

[poetzproblem]

How did the Berrymen react when Rachel officially introduced Quinn as her girlfriend? By any chance, did they ever have an inkling about their future daughter-in-law's feelings about their daughter?

There’s a quick ficlet of their initial reaction in this old post here. 

She told them over the phone, and they were understandably surprised, seeing that Rachel had never mentioned any inclinations towards women before. But once they got over the shock of their daughter coming out to them via phone call, they both realized that the Quinn part of it had really been a long time coming. Of course, they were on the first thing smoking to New York to interrogate (re)meet Quinn as their daughter’s romantic partner.  

[poetzproblem]

Rachel's dads relationship with Quinn is pretty much parental right? How would you describe Judy's with Rachel? Civil? Friendly?

The Berrymen do think of Quinn as a daughter and treat her as such. 

In those early years, it was mostly grudging acceptance on Judy’s side and cautious respect on Rachel’s. But Judy and Rachel eventually get to a place where their civil relationship leans more toward friendly. I wouldn’t say it ever gets close to a true mother/daughter relationship but it certainly gets comfortably familial by the time the second fababy comes to be. 

[poetzproblem]

Judy and one of the Berrymen would be hilarious. The occasional clashes in personalities alone would is quite entertaining to imagine. But I can just picture them talking to their neighbors about "their daughters" and the neighbors would think they're married and the daughters are just siblings. Then Q&R would come to visit being obviously couple-y. The neighbors would be horrified before things get cleared up.

Lol. I can absolutely see them bragging about their beautiful, successful daughters and the perfect granddaughters they have. The neighbors would get a little confused from time to to time trying to figure out which grandaughter belonged to which daughter, but since Judy and Hiram/Leroy would constantly be interrupting one another when relaying details about their family, the neighbors would just nod along, thinking that’s why they were getting things confused. 

And then Quinn and Rachel show up with Callie and Celeste/Rena/Melody, and the neighbors completely freak out that the nice elderly couple is apparently down with the incest. But then they realize that their daughters are Rachel Berry and Quinn Fabray, aka Lucy Quinn, and they freak out for an entirely different reason. 

[poetzproblem]

Is Leroy giving Quinn a 'hard' time about caring for his daughter tied to the fact that Quinn used to be awful to her? I personally find it a cute thing, but before I make that my head canon I'd rather get clarification on where that quirk of his is coming from.

Leroy would give any partner Rachel chose a hard time about his baby girl--and in fact did. He’s very much a mother hen with her, as Hiram pointed out. 

I’m sure he did initially have some concerns about Quinn thanks to their past, but they’d been friends for years before they became more, so he had the benefit of hearing from Rachel about how wonderful Quinn was during those friendship years to kind of get over that before Rachel eventually announced that she was in love with Quinn. And once he saw for himself how loving Quinn was with Rachel, he felt fairly confident his daughter would be taken care of. So he feels perfectly within his rights to keep checking to make sure his assessment was correct. 

[poetzproblem]

I could see the Leroy thing being one of those inside family jokes, until Quinn's in a bad mood and she's just like I'm taking care of Rach, which is more than can be said for you, leaving her unattended to and unsupervised when she needed you in her teen years :O lol. I'm kidding. I don't think she'd ever be so rude or have the balls to snap at him in such a rude fashion. Thinking about it is funny though, just imagining the shock that would capture everyone's expression. Now that we're on this

though, is there ever a time Q steps out of line with Rachel's dads, or that Rachel snips at Judy? Awkward!

There are times when Quinn bites her tongue to keep from saying those things because she knows Rachel would be so pissed at her. It’s one thing for Rachel to admit to Quinn that her dads failed her on some levels, but she would never tell them that in a hurtful way, and she expects Quinn to keep her confidence and never call them out on it at all.

It’s similar with Judy, though Quinn is more likely to snap at her mother herself. She’d be okay with Rachel taking her side in those instances, but I think she’d rather Rachel not go off on Judy otherwise since their relationship isn’t ideal to begin with. 

That being said, there are certainly going to be times when the inlaws overstep and it causes some friction. Quinn would absolutely go head to head with Leroy or Hiram if she felt strongly about something that concerns Rachel and her family, and the same goes with Rachel and Judy. 

[poetzproblem]

Judy and Hiram as roommates! I'm picturing a Will & Grace type more than The Odd Couple--who would be the Felix and who'd be the Oscar? Lol.

Will & Grace probably would be a more apt comparison. But I’m thinking Hiram would have to be Oscar. Judy would obviously be conditioned to be a neat freak after life with Russell, and Leroy strikes me as the fastidious one in the Berry marriage. We know Rachel had to get her sloppy bathroom habits from someone. ;)