Who's the Boss?: Keeping up with the Marcis

Who's the Boss?: Keeping up with the Marcis
ABC
April 9, 1985
Sitcom
DVD
B-

This first of two WtB stories by Michael Poryes finally introduces Sam's best friend Marci (Nicole Eggert in her first of seven appearances in the role) and her father Dr. Doyle Ferguson (Jim Jansen in the first of four).  Sam wants to join the class ski trip, but Tony can't afford the $250 cost.  Then, having seen Mary Poppins three times (he mentioned liking it on the pilot), he decides to earn the $200 that Angela plans to pay the chimneysweep.  He makes a mess, much of it on poor Mona.  (This is one of the episodes where Helmond does some of the physical humor she did more often on Soap.)  Then he sells his father's baseball with the signatures of the '62 Mets, which was featured in "Requiem."  Sam finds the ball at Marci's house, since Dr. Ferguson bought it, and she buys it back with a loan from Jonathan.  The class differences are important here and will continue to be for sometime, including that Tony is too proud to borrow money from Angela.

Note that Mona jokes she's ready for Ash Wednesday, which was February 20th that year, and this episode is mostly set before Easter, April 7th, while Nick visited about a month before Easter.  Also, it's implied that Dr. Ferguson and Marci live with his mother, although we won't learn until later that he has no wife (either widowed or divorced).  Furthermore, we find out that Mrs. Wilmington is fooling around with her gardener Gus. And I think this is the second episode to mention Tony's Uncle Vinnie.  On top of all that, Tony says he "likes" Sam's teacher, so presumably they're still dating, or he'd like to.