Soap: Episode 66

Soap: Episode 66
ABC
March 6, 1980
Dramedy
DVD
B-

In this Harris & Silver episode, Roscoe Lee Browne joins the cast as Saunders, the new butler.  (I'd forgotten that there was such a big gap after Benson.)  Billy makes the mistake of breaking up with Leslie in a fancy restaurant and she threatens suicide for the rest of the episode.  It's not yet stale (the spoon thing is funny), but it is more shark-bait, as is Chester continuing to plead to come home.  Meanwhile, Mary and Burt want Danny to move home with Polly (into Grandma's old room in the attic, presumably Grandma Dallas), because the neighbors keep attacking their new house, but the young couple figure they can change people's minds if they stay.  And no one wants Wendy to move out.  (Bob keeps crying about it.)  The audience aws when they see Crystal with the baby, and I think it was a deliberate move to win over the home audience as well by showing this baby on camera, while we've only seen Timmy once.

I also get the feeling that a month or more passes during this episode because, one, Mary looks more pregnant in the last scene than the first, and two, the last scene is set on Election Night.  Everyone (except Jodie, who's presumably home with the baby) gathers at the Tates' to watch the returns, and then Jessica passes out.

Waiter John Medici would be Len Pudney on Who's the Boss?  Eunice is of course still absent.