Three's Company: The Odd Couples

Three's Company: The Odd Couples
ABC
December 6, 1983
Sitcom
DVD
B-

Marlen, Ryder, and Staretski, all presumably male (well, I suppose C.C. Ryder could be either and, yes, it sounds like a pen name), wrote the story and Guylas and Zellman, both female, wrote the teleplay to this episode that has some delightful farce and some unfortunate consent issues.  Terri is up for a promotion but she doesn't like the way Dr. Malcolm Kenderson looks at her.  Jack suggests she tell the doctor that she's married, but this snowballs into a lie where she's married to Jack and they have two houseguests who don't speak English.  Malcolm and his wife Gail come over for dinner, and things get pretty crazy, especially since she can speak French and "Pierre and Fifi" (Larry and Janet) can't.  And of course Jack's date shows up, too.

Both Kendersons feel like they're out of a soap-opera parody, and indeed John Reilly would be the similarly unreal Mitchell on Who's the Boss? the next Fall, while Judith-Marie Bergan memorably played Marilyn McCallam, the alcoholic wife of Eunice's Congressman lover on Soap.  Here, they bring out the best in the regular cast.

However, in a story about Terri fearing sexual harassment, with justification it turns out, it feels really off to have Larry happily going into Jack's bedroom with Janet, despite her faux-French protests, and even worse is Jack forcing kisses on not only his "love-depriving wife" Terri but Janet.  It's played for laughs and isn't as creepy as it sounds, but, yeah, it's a little creepy.

Bosom Buddies: Beauty and the Beasts

Swinging singles

Bosom Buddies: Beauty and the Beasts
ABC
January 15, 1981
Sitcom
DVD
B-

This first of four Buddies stories by Howard Gewirtz and Ian Praiser, who had co-written one for Three's Company, is a bit meta in that Amy tells Henry to try not to force chemistry, while the episode itself feels a bit forced.  The agency hires a gorgeous but untalented actress for the "Mouse Motel" commercial.  Then when Sonny and Isabelle take Buffy and Hildy to a singles bar, Henry gets upset that no men ask them to dance.  I have to say that much as I adore Some Like It Hot, I find the parts that are closest to the movie (like all the residents dropping in B & H's first night in the hotel) to be among the weakest in the series.  When Jerry gets upset about how men treat them (although in Daphne and Josephine's case it's that men are getting fresh), we're not meant to see it as a feminist awakening but just as farce, while here it feels a bit heavy-handed.  I mean, to some extent a lot of this series is about Kip and Henry learning things about themselves and about women by being in drag, but I feel like sometimes it's just too a Very Special Episodic and the right tone hasn't been found, especially this early on.  Well, Ruth's throwaway line about the ERA quickly makes its point, since it's not very feminist of her to hire the actress the "boys" were drooling over.

Anyway, Kip encourages Henry to rethink how he treats Amy, whom he sees as just a friend.  So Henry asks her out (on the phone from the downstairs bar & grill, even though he could wait till they're at work or he's back upstairs), and they have an awkward time.  A spacy woman flirts with Henry, but he'd rather be with Amy, because it feels comfortable, he says.  The thing is, neither of them seem to be having a good time.  I think the script needed a rewrite, although there are individual good moments and scenes, like Kip's "interview" of Sonny, and Ruth showing up at the singles bar in search of a meaningless "gothic" relationship.  Note that Isabelle previously told Kip she'd go out with him (because of his butt), and she in this episode tells Henry she'd go out with him if he were taller.

Judith-Marie Bergan plays Sally of the auras, a very different character from her Marilyn McCallam, and different again from her future Three's Company character, Gail Kenderson.  Robin G. Eisenmann, who plays Miss Graham, was Penny on Mork & Mindy and would soon be Veronica Furley on Three's Company.  And, yes, that's the Will Mackenzie who played Larry Bondurant on The Bob Newhart Show; he would direct seven more Buddies episodes.

Soap: Episode 23

Soap: Episode 23
ABC
March 14, 1978
Dramedy
DVD
B+

This episode is better than usual, helped along by the guest cast and some resolution for some plot threads, as well as two laugh-out-loud moments: Bob moving his lips when he reads, and Jessica defending herself for stepping on ants.

Mrs. McCallam threatens to ruin her husband's career if he doesn't end things with Eunice, so he ends things with Eunice.  Burt confesses to Mary about murdering Johnny.  Ingrid sleeps with the Judge to sway Jessica's trial, and Corinne realizes that her birth mother hates the Tates more than she loves her, so she leaves.  Father Tim tells his mother, Flo Flotsky (Doris Roberts, then 52 and of course playing this sort of role for the next thirty-some years), that he's in love with a woman and leaving the priesthood.  And Franklin's surprise witness turns out to be Mrs. Fine (Nita Talbot, as marvelous as ever).  Note that she had already left Peter's apartment when Jessica made her threat to Peter, but perhaps she was listening at the door.

Luis Avalos plays the Doctor and would return as Gen. Sandia.  Note that it's more plausible that Eunice and Walter are meeting at Nino's, Ann Marie and Donald Hollinger's favorite restaurant in New York, than that Greg Brady and Phil Packer took their dates there.

Soap: Episode 19

Soap: Episode 19
ABC
February 7, 1978
Dramedy
DVD
B

Mallu tries to find a character witness among the Tates and Campbells.  (Note, here and in other places, like the opening credits, "The Campbells" includes Danny and Jodie Dallas.)  Mary takes Burt back to Dr. Medlow because he thinks he can make himself invisible.  (I guess Dr. Medlow doesn't just deal with sexual dysfunction, or maybe Mary wanted to take Burt to a doctor he trusts.)  Walter accidentally gives a messenger (Martin Braverman, who would return next episode) copies of the blackmail photos, while Eunice is out on the ledge in the pouring rain, hiding from Marilyn.  And Jessica gives a moving speech to Corinne about how much she loves her, but after Jessica leaves, Ingrid tells Corinne that Jessica just doesn't want Corinne to testify against her.  (You can hear the audience react to Ingrid's manipulation.)

Billy is absent.

Soap: Episode 14

Soap: Episode 14
ABC
December 27, 1977
Dramedy
DVD
B

This episode includes the introduction of Eunice's lover, Congressman Walter McCallam (40-year-old Edward Winter, perhaps best known as M*A*S*H's Colonel Flagg), and his alcoholic wife, Marilyn (29-year-old Judith-Marie Bergan in her first of three Soap appearances).  Ironically, when Tinkler chokes on his food (having invited himself to dinner), he asks for water and the Tates think the murderer is named Walter.  (Eunice isn't present, but she and Benson have been cleared by this point.)

Earlier in the episode, the two families speculate on whom they suspect.  Interestingly, no one suspects Mary.  It would be out of character for her to kill someone, and yet she sort of has a motive in that she might've resented Peter causing unhappiness between her sister and niece.  On the other hand, she'd be very unlikely to kill Burt's son, especially the same night that Burt has finally made love with her.

The first scene is set shortly after Tinkler and the non-Tates have gone home from the post-funeral gathering, with Chester very jealous now that he knows who Jessica's lover was.  He finally realizes how she's felt all these years.  (That she was in denial about his adultery is clearer now.)  He apologizes and they promise to never make each other suffer like this again.

At the very end of the episode, Tinkler says Corinne is the suspect.  She says, "Ma!" in her shock and disbelief, suggesting that, despite their recent falling out, she still loves her mother.