Moebius Neighborhood

The neighbours. Sometimes, they're annoying, sometimes they're helpful, sometimes they just drop by way too often. Whether good or bad, however, one thing is fairly certain: If you're living in TV-land, you've only got one set of 'em. Almost as if the rules of space-time somehow didn't apply to this neighbourhood, resulting in a house that's actually only got one side... or a block with only two lots on it, so only two houses border each other. However, in that case there would still be other nearby houses across the streets, so if it seems like there is only one other named family in the entire neighborhood then this trope is in full force.

The reasoning behind this trope is fairly simple: Keeping down the number of characters that the audience has to remember, and thus the number of actors you have to hire, and even the number of sets you have to maintain, in the case of a live-action TV-series.

Sometimes, the "other" neighbours may make a brief, single-episode appearance, only to be promptly forgotten again. And no, this trope has nothing to do with President Moebius. And given the large cast of the Sonic the Hedgehog games, the neighborhoods in Moebius are probably not Moebius Neighborhoods.

Examples of Moebius Neighborhood include:

Comic Books

• Donald Duck in comics has two neighbors, one named Jones and one named Smith. They are, however, functionally identical, as they are both sworn enemies of Donald. In fact, most recent comics ignore Smith.
  • Often Donald's other neighbor will just be whoever happens to fit the story (though kind old ladies seem popular). Or it could be someone new who moves in and forces an Enemy Mine situation between Donald and Mr. Jones by annoying both. These things get pretty formulaic after one reads many of the comics.

Film

• In Clerks (and Clerks the Animated Series), the convenience store, as far as we know, has only the video store next to it—thus making it an interesting case of a Moebius Strip Mall.
  • One of the many Clerks comic book stories involves the clerks finally noticing a small store set in between the locations. Turns out an old, bearded guy named Claus runs it.
    • There is in fact a door between the Quick Stop and the video store at the actual location where the films were shot, but it doesn't lead to a shop of any sort. And there are two more stores on the other side of the video store from the Quick Stop.

Live-Action TV

• Small Wonder never showed us the Lawsons' other neighbors, as if they and the Brindles were the only families on their block.
• The early seasons of Married... with Children had the Rhodes as the Bundys' neighbors... and nobody else. Later seasons introduced Bob Rooney, another man from the neighborhood, as a recurring character, though it's unclear whether he lives on the other side of the Bundys, or somewhere else nearby.
• Played with in the PBS show Square One TV. During the "Mathnet" sketches, George Frankly would often speak of his "right-side neighbor, Mr. Beasley," without ever mentioning who was on the left side. However, in later seasons, the "Math Brigade" sketches detailed the adventures of Dirk Niblick and his "left-side neighbor, Mr. Beasley," which gives Beasley two sets of neighbors.
• On Home Improvement, Tim Taylor lives next to Wilson and apparently no one else.
  • Somewhat justified in that Tim almost only sees Wilson over the garden fence, and seems to have a semi-detached house with no other communal fences.
  • He regularly has problems with another neighbor, who lives three or four houses down the street. This guy tends to be on the receiving end of things Tim accidentally blasts out of his yard.
  • There's also an old guy that Tim competes with in Christmas lighting competitions every year.
• iCarly: Well, Moebius apartment building.
• In That '70s Show, this trope is followed, and it's even strongly implied that the Foremans and the Pinciottis each have only each other for next door neighbors (where a lecherous character says he drives by Donna's house a lot because his mother lives next door and Eric protests that he lives next door).
• The title character of Everybody Loves Raymond lives across the street from his annoying parents, but neither house seems to have one beside it.
• Lampshaded on The Drew Carey Show when one of Drew's wacky neighbors from the early episodes drops by. Drew, not being too happy about them always showing up, asks her, "Don't you have neighbours on the other side?"

Webcomics

• Bitmap World averts this: Both the Smileys and the Ks are plot-relevant.
• Andy Weir talks about his attempts to avert this trope in this Casey and Andy newspost (scroll down to the Trivia Tidbit).

Western Animation

• Living next door to The Simpsons are, of course, the Flanders. But on the other side? Ruth Powers and her teenage daughter Laura. Never heard of them? Don't feel bad; they've appeared in a grand total of maybe two episodes.
  • And before them there were the Winfields, who appeared in four episodes, including the one where they moved out to be replaced by the Powers. In fact, Ruth's most recent appearance ("Strong Arm of the Ma") suggests they're not living there anymore, either...
  • A few episodes seem to forget that the house next door exists at all in any way, shape or form.
  • Similarly, the house across the street from the Simpsons, alternates quite rapidly, some episodes it's a huge mansion as in the episode where George Bush moves in, other times it's a vacant lot, most of the time it's just another regular house with nondescript occupants, but once it was shown that Carl lived there which was never mentioned again.
  • Of course, there is a Separate Simpsons Geography Thing anyway. And the first time 742 Evergreen Terrace was mentioned, it was a generic house being burgled by Snake rather than the Simpsons' house, adding to the confusion.
• Darkwing Duck has only one set of neighbors, the Muddlefoots.
• Eventually abandoned in The Flintstones, in which a group of Addams Family knockoffs moved next to the other side of Fred and Wilma from the Rubbles.
  • In the 1980s they got a similar cast of neighbours, the Frankenstones, who seemed to be based more around the Munsters. The head of the family is a typical Frankenstein's Monster knockoff, and he and Fred really hate each other's guts, even when everyone else gets along fine.
• Up until around the sixth season of The Fairly OddParents, it seemed as if the Dinkleburgs (relationship's pretty much ripped off Homer and Ned) were the only neighbors to the Turners. It turned out their other neighbors included a black family and a extremely stereotypical British family. Naturally, they only existed for the sake of the plot of one particular episode and have yet to be seen again.
  • The Pfifers [the black neighbors] did reappear as one of the childless couples outshining the Turners in "The Masked Magician".
• Averted in The Backyardigans. There are three houses behind the titular (and pretty big) backyard, but its residents are never shown.
• Carl is the only neighbor of the Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and they are his only neighbors (except for the half season or so when they were kidnapped/evicted and their landlord rented the place out to even worse people to live near). Probably makes sense considering how the Aqua Teens seem to demolish property values.
• Averted in Family Guy. A number of the Griffin family neighbours have been seen on the show: Cleveland and Loretta Brown, Mort and Muriel Goldman, Glenn Quagmire, Joe and Bonnie Swanson, and Herbert.
• Subverted greatly in King of the Hill. The Hills' family home in Rainy Street is near four sets of neighbors who regularly appear in the show. Also occasionally, there somebody moving in the house in front of the Hills' home.

Real Life

• Chances are, if you live in a big city, you know maybe one or two set of neighbors, if any at all. This is especially true if you live in a high rise, which can realistically house hundreds of apartments in a single building. The only people one tends to run into are people on a similar schedule to them, and at those times nobody's in the mood to stop and chat. Most city dwellers simply don't bother making neighbors' acquaintances.