30 Rock: Flu Shot

30 Rock: Flu Shot
NBC
January 15, 2009
Sitcom
DVD
B-

Jon Pollack wrote this story where Liz initially refuses a flu shot when she finds out that there are only five available and thus the crew won't be able to receive any.  However, when, as Cerie puts it in text, "UR VAC8SH1 IS BAGON," Liz sells out and gets a shot, even dancing for Dr. Spaceman.  Meanwhile, in the weakest thread, Tracy and Jenna want to do something nice for the crew but have absolutely no idea how.  And Jack, having learned from his experience with C.C., decides to make time for Elisa, even if it means they have to take a feeble old man along on their dates, with Michael Bublé providing the "Mr. Templeton" song as background music.

Scott Bryce, who was Steve Barton on Who's the Boss?, is Michael Templeton here and would later be a character named Dave.  The Dave in this episode is played by Joseph D'Onofrio, who would later be a nameless Crew Guy.  Intoxicated Star Michel E. Bell had recently played an Audience Member.  Jimmy Palumbo, playing Matt Dowd here, would later be Enzo.  Staff writer Jack Burditt makes an uncredited appearance as Man in Donut Shop and in 2013 would twice play the Colonel.  Seventy-five-year-old George Bartenieff didn't work on any of my other shows, but he was Nitro in the campy movie Hercules in New York almost forty years earlier.  This time "30 Rock regulars" really only covers Lutz and Cerie, as much of the supporting cast is absent.

30 Rock: Gavin Volure

30 Rock: Gavin Volure
NBC
November 20, 2008
Sitcom
DVD
B+

This is a very funny episode, where Jack introduces Liz to his friend the title character, played by Steve Martin.  Gavin is quite taken with Liz, and she thinks he's perfect for her because he's agoraphobic and germaphobic, so he just wants to stay in and watch TV and not have sex.  He's also extremely wealthy, which doesn't hurt.  However, it all turns out to be a sham, as he's under house arrest and trying to escape.  Meanwhile, Tracy thinks his two sons want to kill him, and this is one of the best Tracy plots, even affecting the main plot with a life-size, realistic Japanese Tracy Jordan sex doll.

Adam Smith, Jr. would shortly return in the uncredited role of Prop Master.  Bobb'e J. Thompson makes his first of three appearances as Tracy, Jr.  And John McEnroe doesn't get a lot to do in his second appearance on the show, but he did make me laugh with his one line.

Ellen: Joe's Kept Secret

Ellen: Joe's Kept Secret

ABC

January 15, 1997

Sitcom

DVD
B

Ellen's realtor Margaret (Nancy Lenehan again) talks her into getting a nook for her house.  So Joe has his friend Madeline (Florence Henderson) pulls some strings for Ellen to get a building permit.  But it turns out that Joe, who's been secretly seeing Madeline for four months, is a kept man.  Ellen talks him into giving back Madeline's gifts, but soon finds herself under Madeline's spell, and we see Ellen transformed into a well-dressed shopaholic.  There are some lines here that play off not only Ellen's closeted state but also Henderson's Brady past, and overall Dava Savel's writing is good.  Even the Spence subplot, where he considers getting a tattoo to apologize to Paige for ruining her kitchen, isn't bad.

Rick Hall makes his second appearance as Contractor #1.  Paige is absent, presumably still in Canada on the Bob Saget project.  John Tracy, whose TV directing career goes back to the '70s, including two Bosom Buddies episodes and one Who's the Boss? episode, here does his only Ellen episode.

Growing Pains: The Seavers vs. the Cleavers

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Growing Pains: The Seavers vs. the Cleavers
ABC
January 28, 1986
Sitcom
Download
B-

This is another '80s series I watched in its early seasons but mostly gave up on sometime when Bush, Sr. was President, in this case because both Kirk Cameron and his character Mike became increasingly obnoxious.  Here in the sixteenth episode of the first season, they're not too bad, Cameron not yet having become born again in an aggressive, judgmental way, and Mike not yet having been Flanderized from mischievous underachiever to asshole.  (That Tracey Gold became anorexic in part because of Mike's lines about Carol's nonexistent obesity is another of the shames of the later seasons.)  Furthermore, this is a textbook example of a show that is inferior to its spin-off, in this case Just the Ten of Us, which we will be looking at later in the '80s.

I got this episode off Amazon because I was curious about how the Annette Funicello cameo as a, well, aggressively judgmental mom came across thirty or so years later.  It plays off of her wholesome image, although Annette on and off screen was always "nice."  Of the regular cast, Kerns is of course the best performer, although I have to say that she's not as well served by the mid '80s fashions and hairstyles as she was by those of a few years earlier on Three's Company.

William or Bill Cort also had a couple roles on Three's Company and here plays Annette's husband.  Fifteen- or sixteen-year-old Keith Coogan, who plays Carol's potential boyfriend Scottie, oddly enough was Scotti (that spelling) on Mork & Mindy about four years earlier.  His most notable role though I think is as the slacker brother Kenny in the 1991 movie Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead.  Director John Tracy worked on a couple Bosom Buddies episodes as well as one for Who's the Boss? the previous season.

And speaking of WtB, this series aired on Tuesdays after that other East-Coast-set sitcom, placing #18 for the season on Boss's then #10 coat-tails, admirable for a new series.  And the once mighty A-Team was now at #30.

This is both the 1700th show I've reviewed and the 700th to receive a B-.

Who's the Boss?: Sorority Sister

Who's the Boss?: Sorority Sister
ABC
November 27, 1984
Sitcom
DVD
B

Dawn Aldredge, who'd written a What's Happening!! episode and part of the first Love Boat TV-movie, contributes her first of seven WtB stories, collaborating with Judith Bustany, whose first of four it is.  Angela's college roommate, Trish Baldwin, shows up in town for their sorority reunion and soon manipulates Angela into letting her stay in the house and having Tony show her around town.  Tony doesn't mind and in fact, despite Angela's warning, he spends part of a night with Trish at the Fairfield Inn.  Trish invites him to be her escort at the reunion but dumps him for her old boyfriend, and Angela's old crush, Robert Holmby III, leaving Angela to tell Tony.  He's hurt but he encourages Angela to go to the reunion to show everyone she turned out "more than OK," and he gives her the corsage he bought for Trish.  She ends up hitting if off with the unseen Holmby.

Notable things about this episode:

• There's lots of eye candy, from Tony shirtless in two scenes to him and the two women dressing up for the reunion (Angela again reveals her back, in a black dress this time).
• This is one of the times we know for a fact that Tony had sex.
• It's also another episode where a career woman (Trish is on the board of directors of her company) expresses interest in Tony, although she's just slumming, unlike Professor Morrell (I assume).
• Continuing the theme of Angela's awkward adolescence, we see a photo of her in college and even Jonathan remarks on how heavy she was, although when Trish calls Angela a "little butterball," Tony gallantly remarks that she "melted in all the right places."
• We learn how Angela reacts to someone making her feel insecure, including stress-eating.
• We also see that she puts her hair in girlish ponytails when she's feeling uncertain.   
• Mona again spends time with the kids, playing Trivial Pursuit.
• Sam and Jonathan team up, not just with the board game but in their reactions to the healthy snacks Tony provides.
• This is an early glimpse of catty!Mona, which I particularly like when, as here, it's in defense of her daughter.
• Had this aired a year or two later, Tony would've gone to the reunion with Angela.  But, as with pouring drinks down the drain in the previous episode, he doesn't seem to think it's appropriate.
• In an earlier episode, Tony had a to-do list with "take out Trish" on it, but this must've been a different Trish.  And Ms. Baldwin is definitely a different college friend than the Trish who would later run a modeling agency.

Bosom Buddies: Amy's Career

Bosom Buddies: Amy's Career
ABC
January 29, 1981
Sitcom
DVD
B

Jack Carrerow's first of seven  and David Chambers's first of eight Buddies stories is a solid one, although I may be biased since it's one I recorded on audiocassette at the time.  (So I know that Kip singing "sidewalks, busy sidewalks" from "Silver Bells" has been omitted from DVD.)  Amy at 20 feels that her life has no meaning, until she impresses new client Mr. Shaw (played by the always welcome Russell Johnson, who among other things asks, re Kip and Henry, "Are they on drugs?").  Her attempt to use real people from off the street backfires and she again feels depressed.  Then she has to cheer up everyone else when they get depressed trying to cheer her up.  Kip sees through her and we get some insights into their relationship.

It's a bright, funny episode (with one of my favorite ad-libs, referencing Tenspeed and Brown Shoe, the short-lived 1980 Vereen & Goldblum ABC detective series), and, yes, there's some irony to Kip telling Amy that if he was to bet on any of them "making it big," he'd bet on her.  It might be my favorite Lilly episode, from her story about her Uncle Burt being hit by lightning in the zipper to her remark, "You cheer people up better than Mr. Microphone."  Not quite a B+ but closer than we've seen in the series so far.  Oh, and note the Arab without any lines in the boardroom scene, very early-'80s-ish.

Robert Casper, who plays Mr. Cullen, had performed Carol's wedding on The Bob Newhart Show, a much less quirky role.

Bosom Buddies: Revenge

Bosom Buddies: Revenge
ABC
January 22, 1981
Sitcom
DVD
B-

Leonard Ripps wrote this story where the gang gets revenge on Amy's date, Walter Hardy (Philip Charles Mackenzie, who was Roger on Three's Company), after he insults and abandons her for another woman at a costume party.  (Amy was dressed as Bo-Peep.)  I feel like this one takes awhile to get going (Kip's line "Lilly, you dated a comic strip?" is the first that's funny), but the teamwork is good and Scolari does a fine Columbo imitation.

This is the first of two Buddies episodes directed by John Tracy, who would do one for Who's the Boss?