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| Marty's Melody Room, version #1 |
ABC
October 23, 1984
Sitcom
DVD
C+
This is the first of I think eleven WtB stories by Prudence Fraser and Robert Sternin, who co-wrote one episode of Three's Company. While I do like the glimpses of Brooklyn, including more for Mrs. Rossini (Rhoda Gemignani) to do, I do have some issues with the basic premise here, including the handling of violence. Sam gets in a fight, with Jonathan helping, and Angela strongly disapproves. Tony, in his role as mediator, tries to see both her perspective and his daughter's. Sam, who says, "She's not my mother. You are," runs away, back to the old neighborhood. Tony and Angela go to Brooklyn and he takes her to his old hang-out, Marty's Melody Room, where his old girlfriend, Teresa, baits them. Angela loses her temper and a cat-fight soon breaks out. Although Angela does have a tendency to really let go when she loses her inhibitions, it's a bit much here. Furthermore, I'm bugged by the tag scene. At first, it's another adults-bonding moment (like on the previous episode, where Mona implausibly says that the three of them are the only ones who know about Angela's mole), but then Tony says that Angela should use her black eye in her perfume campaign and claim she had to literally fight off a bunch of guys. She thinks this is brilliant, rather than offensive.
Greg Lewis, who played a nameless Man on The Bob Newhart Show, is the Bartender here. Tony calls out to his friend Philly Fingers, but we won't actually meet him just yet. This is the first of five WtB episodes Jim Drake would direct.
Note that WtB had been taken off the schedule for almost a month and then when it came back it was on Tuesdays at 8:30, after Three's a Crowd. I would've moved them to 9 and 9:30, away from the A-Team and into less of a "family hour." (CBS's 8:00 block was The Jeffersons and Alice, both of which I had watched in past years but I was still mostly an ABC loyalist and I was curious about both Crowd and Boss.)
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