Motley's Crew was an American newspaper comic strip by Ben Templeton and Tom Forman with satirical social commentary.

[1][2] With readership spread among 250 newspapers in the United States alone, the comic strip acquired a highly devoted but relatively small group of fans during its 23 years of operation.

[2] Truman Motley (Mike and Mabel's son) eventually fell in love and married a woman named Tacoma.

[6] On the first day of the year 2000, the final comic strip ever to be printed presented long-time fans and casual readers with a sign with the words "This space for rent.

[7] However, not all issues of the Motley's Crew comic strip are available to view on the Google News because they stopped scanning old newspapers in May 2011.

[10] Gardening to an extremely strict daily routine was also a part of her life; even to the point of doing it in a terrible rainstorm and worrying her adult son Truman.

[13] Unlike his wife, Mike would have wide eyes; depicted by a large hollow ellipse surrounding a simple black dot.

His drinking habits eventually got him in trouble with his doctor; causing Mabel to hide his beer until he returned to a healthy weight.

[15] When his son Truman hit hard times at his workplace, Mike was there to lend him a hand and help him recuperate from his losses.

[16] During Abel and Buffy's visit, Mabel had to have a formal outfit in reserve for Mike in order to give off an illusion of expensive taste in apparel.

[1][17] This one-time gag appeared on the August 28, 1997 episode of the comic strip; the visit took place on a leisurely Thursday afternoon.

The fact remained that any good intentions that Abel and Buffy had were quickly repulsed by Mike Motley at first glance.

Mike always realized his hatred for Abel and Buffy when they arrived at a time when he wanted to be with his wife and not have to deal with her relatives on a social trip.

[17] Mike Motley would end up seeing his wife's sister and brother-in-law come into the living room in order to create an elegant experience to their visit.

He shares the same blonde hair as his mother Mabel while his physical appearance resembled a younger version of his father Mike.

Despite enduring economic troubles in the mid-1990s and temporarily losing his job, Truman had a secure marriage and a happy life.

[16] Truman sometimes worries about his mother doing things that she shouldn't do; like the time where she got the crazy idea to do her daily gardening in a heavy rainstorm.

[11] Like his parents, Truman is not a fan of his Aunt Buffy's obsessive habits in the kitchen and questioned her for alphabetizing the pantry.

[1] Earl usually had a cigar in his mouth and was the most incompetent person in the comic strip; once confusing a microwave for a television set.

[23] Humor was added when Earl talked about the things that suburban people had (swimming pools, shade trees, lawns) and complained about not being able to afford to move out of an inner city environment to enjoy them.

When Cronin gets drunk, Earl usually has to drive his friend Mike home and faces the consequences for the various stunts that he fulfills while he is inebriated.

Cronin became the laughing stock of the entire workplace when God claimed that "only people who wear their underwear on the outside can go to Heaven."

Unlike his friend Mike Motley, Cronin was the swinging bachelor who desperately looked for girlfriends of ill repute.

[27]" Yuri Litnov was Mike Motley's friend from Russia (which was part of the Soviet Union during most of the comic strip's production).

[30] Ben Templeton has a strong interest in the former Soviet Union and has made a novel about the country called The Last Decathlon; which is a thriller novel that takes place in the 1980s.

Therefore, any changes to the main characters were seen as temporary and made to look as foolish as possible in order to create a laughter effect.

In addition to factories, houses, and office buildings, the neighborhood also had a bar, a health clinic, a church, a beach, and other fine places where Mike, his friends and family all worked and played at.

Middle aged people and the elderly were considered to be the target demographic for this comic strip throughout its entire run.

Home computers and microprocessors were dealt with as processors of bills and income (as opposed to electronic video games) in a comic strip back in 1982.

[32] Political issues (such as the mistakes made by the Department of Defense in the late 1980s) were dealt with in a conservative but humorous manner.