| A different episode, but an example of Evie stopping time, as she does here. |
Syndicated
November 28, 1987
Fantasy, Sitcom
VHS
C+
The basic premise of this series is that Evie Garland (Maureen Flannigan) finds out on her 13th birthday that she's half-alien. (Her absent father is voiced by Burt Reynolds, but not on this episode.) As with Bewitched, she's not supposed to use her powers, but she can't help giving in sometimes. She lives with her mother Donna (Danza-ly named for Donna Pescow), whose brother Beano Froelich (Joe Alaskey) also lives in their small Californian coastal town. Both are in on Evie's secret, but no one else is.
John Boni, who wrote three Three's Company episodes, here contributes his third of four for OoTW. Although Beano is overweight, he's studied dieting and is about to open the Waist-a-Weigh Clinic. Meanwhile, at Evie's small private school (where Donna is the principal or something), her classmate Alex (Scott Nemes, probably wearing a fatsuit, since he looks significantly heavier than on It's Garry Shandling's Show) is being teased about his weight. The episode is conflicted about fat people, objecting to them being mocked but also insisting that they lose weight. Note that the string of "clever" insults Beano demonstrates is inspired or ripped off from the "nose" insults Steve Martin does in the movie Roxanne, which had come out about five months earlier.
Both Alaskey (who was a voice-actor) and Nemes do celebrity impressions here, and this episode features Mayor Kyle Applegate (Doug McClure), who's never gotten over playing Mosquitoman on TV for three years. (I was thinking this was a gentle jab at Palm Springs mayor Sonny Bono, but he wasn't elected till '88. However, Clint Eastwood was mayor of Carmel from '86 to '88, so I guess that's what the reference is to.)
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