Family Ties: Alex Doesn't Live Here Anymore

Family Ties: Alex Doesn't Live Here Anymore [fragment]
NBC
May 14, 1989
Sitcom
VHS
C+

Shrug.  I liked Family Ties the first couple seasons, when it was a more balanced "generation gap with a twist" series.  Gradually the '80s and Michael J. Fox's star power took over and made this the Alex Keaton Show.  I still watched sometimes but I don't remember getting choked up about the finale even at the time.  I think I taped these last few minutes of the hour-long episode for "historical purposes," in the same way I taped part of Election Night six months earlier.  There's a moment or two that made me smile now, like when Tina Yothers as Jennifer tells Alex, "It was nice working with you," and you can see Fox break character a little.

Director Sam Weisman did a couple of the early episodes of Who's the Boss?, as well as fifty-six previous Family Ties.   And, yes, that's Courtney Cox as Alex's ex Lauren.

Who's the Boss?: Dinner for Two

Who's the Boss?: Dinner for Two
ABC
November 20, 1984
Sitcom
DVD
B+

Now we're talkin'!  The Tony/Angela ship officially sets sail here, in the first of eight WtB stories by the memorably named Bud Wiser.  With Mona taking the kids on a camping trip (to free Wilbur the snake, whom we met in the pilot), Tony has a date with the unseen Tanya (possibly the Tanya we'd meet in Season Three), while Angela will be entertaining Mitchell (John Reilly, who was Dr. Kenderson on Three's Company), who's flying in from Boston.  However, Boston gets fogged in and Mitchell has to cancel.  Tony is about to leave when Angela gets the call, so Tony hesitates.  And then Robaire the caterer shows up, Angela having taken Mona's advice to entertain Mitchell at home.  Robaire, played by Robert Costanzo, who was Sal Petrone on The Bob Newhart Show and a Carny on Soap, is a scene-stealing role, both funny and catalytic, as he assumes that Tony and Angela are a couple and encourages them to have dinner together.  Then he finds out that Tony has a date and is offended, so Tony sends him home.

Then it gets really interesting.  Tony and Angela feel awkward, like they're on a date, until they start sharing embarrassing stories.  The ice is broken, but Tony looks uncertain about where this is heading.  Then, while they're still dressed up but shooting hoops, Mitchell arrives.  And Angela asks Tony to serve dinner.  He remembers that he's Angela's servant.  But he goes along with it, having lost the chance to see Tanya and not wanting to ruin Angela's evening.  Then later, while cleaning up after Mitchell has departed, Tony pours two glasses of wine or champagne and prepares to take them out to Angela in the living room.  He stops himself and pours them down the sink.  Angela comes in and apologizes.  He says it's OK and he fondly calls her boss.

It's interesting to watch Tony in this episode, the first one where Danza is really called upon to act, rather than to just be funny.  He's got to say a lot with his facial expressions and hold back a lot of words.  Angela seems less aware of what's happening between them.  She's attracted to Tony, but I think this episode is more about his attraction to her, as when he says that Mitchell doesn't know what he's missing, and Angela thinks he means the food.  Note that Angela's dress is typical of what she'd wear in the early seasons: mid-'80s sparkly and modest in front but back-revealing.  Also, this episode begins the tradition of anecdotes, sometimes Mona's, about Angela's awkward adolescence, here with her fat, acned, and clumsy in college.

Note that Samantha is 11 at this point and Jonathan 7.

Who's the Boss?: Briefless Encounter

Before the encounter

Who's the Boss?: Briefless Encounter
ABC
September 27, 1984
Sitcom
DVD
B

Cohan and Hunter wrote what may well be the most famous episode of the series.  (Family Guy would reference it later and it was the main inspiration for the porn parody, http://reviewingeverymovieiown.blogspot.com/2015/10/whos-boss-xxx-parody.html.)  Tony walks in on Angela as she's stepping out of the tub, and the nudity is well implied without showing anything except for like her stomach.  (Light actually flashed Danza, to get a genuine reaction out of him.)

Things that would carry over to the rest of the series:

• A heightening of the sexual tension;
• The nudity, which would be referenced on at least one other episode, with surprising results;
• Mona's interest in psychology;
• Her continuing interference in Angela and Tony's lives;
• Tony's date, in this case an Italian-American college professor, picking him up at the house;
• People thinking more is going on with Angela and Tony than there is, not unlike on Three's Company;
• A misunderstanding, although one that would probably never have happened on Three's Company;
• Tony standing up for Angela and choosing her over someone he likes;
• Sam's indifference to school;
• Mona enjoyment of college;
• Jonathan being beat up or at least threatened, this time by a girl;
• Angela's conflict between work and motherhood, this time heightened by Jonathan's manipulation;
• and someone, in this case Mona, referring to them as a "family."

The kids aren't in this episode much, although Jonathan does set up some of the situation.  Sam Weisman, who acted on Welcome Back, Kotter and M*A*S*H, directed this and a later episode.

M*A*S*H: Your Retention Please

M*A*S*H: Your Retention Please
CBS
January 5, 1981
Dramedy
DVD
B-

Erik Tarloff wrote this story with the ironic twist that Klinger, after receiving a "Dear Maxie" letter from his ex-wife Laverne, saying that she's leaving her second husband for Klinger's best friend, decides to reenlist in the Army, for six years!  Hawkeye tries to fix things, but it's career Army man Potter who knows how to handle it.  Meanwhile, a male nurse faces what no one calls reverse discrimination (but that's what it essentially is), since he started as a Private, while female nurses are automatically made officers.

Sam Weisman, who was Peter Charnoff on Welcome Back, Kotter, plays Sgt. Barney Hutchinson here; he would become a director, including of two very early Who's the Boss? episodes.  Jeff Maxwell (Straminsky) and Frank Pettinger (who was an Anesthetist earlier but will be a Corpsman from here on out) return.

Welcome Back, Kotter: There's No Business, Part 2

Welcome Back, Kotter: There's No Business, Part 2
ABC
February 2, 1978
Sitcom
DVD
C+

In some ways, this teleplay by Bloom & Bloomberg, based on Kaplan's story, is better than Part 1, but it's also more frustrating.  There are a whole bunch of scenes, including Gabe deliberately bombing so he can go back to teaching, that are told rather than shown.  It's as if they didn't want to have to make this into a three-parter.  Still, it's cool to see the guys dressed up when they wish Mr. Kotter luck.

(Angie has almost nothing to do in this episode.  I can't even remember if she has a line, yet her name is still in the opening credits.  I really think they should've thought this "female Sweathog" thing through more, especially since Strassman was unhappy about having little to do compared to the predominantly male cast.)

Sam Weisman (Peter Charnoff) and David Daniel (Male Student) return.

Welcome Back, Kotter: There's No Business, Part 1

Welcome Back, Kotter: There's No Business, Part 1
ABC
January 26, 1978
Sitcom
DVD
C+

Kaplan wrote the teleplay based on a story by a writer who didn't write much else (an episode each for three other sitcoms).  The irony here is that it's about Gabe becoming a stand-up comic, whose act bombs and then succeeds when he starts telling jokes about his students, and yet the episode itself isn't that funny.  (The line about Epstein's walk made me smile.)  Also, Haller's name is in the opening credits (something that never happened for Vernee Watson or Debralee Scott) and yet she seems like an afterthought in the scenes she appears in, as if she has no distinct personality in the way that the four male Sweathogs do.  There's a certain lethargy to Season Three, not consistent but recurring.  The final season is remembered as the sharkbait, but it does feel like things aren't as fresh as they once were.  (And, yes, we're not quite through obviously, but I'll be curious to see what Season Three averages out to.)

David Daniel plays a Male Student in this and Part 2, while Sam Weisman would return as Peter Charnoff.  (And Weisman would later become a director, including of Who's the Boss?)

This is the 700th program from the '70s, and the final couple years of the decade are going to be pretty busy.