Wednesday, April 15, 2020

Thoughts on Mad About You, episodes 36-40

via IMDB

"We can see that thing we didn't see."
"Nah. Why don't we wait and then we could not rent it?"

-- My biggest takeaway from this batch is that neither Paul and Jamie are good at lying, but they're passable when they team up at it. Today's crown is shared by the two episodes where the Buchmans find themselves in increasingly complicated situations.
-- Fran and Ira join Jamie and Paul in "The Late Show," directed by Thomas Schlamme and written by Gordon & Carr. Ira's surprised that Fran hasn't had her period. "It was one time. I mean, it wasn't even in town." They've kept and will keep their promise not to tell the Buchmans about their hookup. They do, however, admit to thinking they may be pregnant and might have gotten a girl pregnant. Ira, who first claims he met the girl on a bus, is forced to elaborate she's a waitress. Paul assumes it's Ursula, which results in Ira's tall tale about a last call hookup in Riff's kitchen. Fran claims she had sex with her building's morning doorman, Sergio. "... well, you know me and uniforms." Jamie promises not to tell Paul. Paul promises not to tell Jamie.
-- That's one detailed lie each for Ira and Fran. Now it's Paul and Jamie's turns. Jamie claims she advised Fran to make oatmeal cookies first thing in the morning. "They rise better." Paul claims the her that Ira is seeing tomorrow is a bookie. "It was her father's business and now she's running the operation basically." The right thing to do, Paul tells Jamie, is for Ira to bet against the Patriots. The next day, Jamie is looking for an activity they can do with Fran while Paul goes out of his way to be supportive and helpful to Ursula. She's doing good, except she can't remember who she lent her mittens to. Paul claims that Ursula has to have thumb surgery, something her boss doesn't know. "That's why the mittens are so important." That's one lie each for Ira, Fran and Jamie, three for Paul.
-- Ira visits Fran, who hasn't yet taken the pregnancy test, at her recently painted rent-controlled apartment. He answers the door to Paul and Jamie, claiming he's there because Fran asked him to help paint. Fran goes along with this, telling Jamie that she initially loved how the paint job came out, but now she notices streaks. Jamie offers to help, saying it will be fun. "What are you, Amish?" Privately, Fran doesn't like the lie either. She still hasn't taken the test yet. Jamie observes her behavior is like when she was pregnant with Ryan. Fran attempts to use her mood swings as a reason not to get the apartment painted. 
-- Ira, meanwhile, tells Paul that he told Fran about possibly needing extra money. He might, after all, be the father of twins. Ira finds out the Buchmans saw Ursula, but no, they didn't say anything. When Ira's left to get sheets, Paul tells Jamie that he's racked up a big gambling debt and could be the victim of "a guy in a trench coat carrying a chisel." Jamie tells Paul that Fran has to get the place fixed up because she's going to sell it. She's going to buy it, then sell it, because she's strapped for cash.
-- Fran tries one more time to stop the painting, but Jamie and then Paul won't be deterred. "You're treating me to paint." Paul's also generous enough to lend Ira money and explains that Fran wasn't just being nice to him, she does need the apartment painted. Paul elaborates on the lie Jamie told, saying Mark spent every time and left Fran with nothing. Back at the apartment, Jamie offers to tell off Sergio, which Fran says would be too awkward. Fran tries one more time to stop the painting, only to learn from Jamie about Ira's supposed gambling debts. 
-- That night, Fran and Jamie are suspicious of a man outside the building and Jamie ends up chasing Ira away from the window. Paul and Jamie are suspicious of each other, as are Fran and Ira. Fran, who wants to pay Ira, turns down his offer of money. She's getting cramps ... "Yes!" Paul and Jamie realize at exactly the same time ... "Forget Sergio. I gave Ira $200." "For what?" "Apparently for shtupping Fran." Agreeing they're stupid, Paul and Jamie nevertheless resolve to finish painting.
-- I'm no prude, but I'm still surprised NBC was okay with an episode about a sex tape airing at 8 p.m. in 1994. MAY's envelope-pushing was acknowledged in the MAD parody. Jamie points out that things like having kitchen sex don't occur at 9 p.m. Paul asks her to consider who's on at 9, saying people don't want to see Roseanne and John Goodman doing that. Anyway, onto "The Tape," directed by Moore and written by Reiser.
-- Paul's upset that his brilliant documentary on animal behavior is being titled "A Day at the Zoo." It is for The Family Network, finally watching the film and on a Saturday, no less. Jamie wants to get rid of junk in their closets. If she doesn't get Paul's help, she'll do something regretful, like get rid of his Allan Sherman albums. Naturally, Jamie's doing the work while Paul watches RoboCop 2, which he rented. He does refuse Jamie getting rid of a piece of wood which he could potentially build something with. "You want a summer home or not?" In the bedroom, Jamie's got a save pile, a storage pile, a Goodwill pile and a paisley pile, which she doesn't even want to discuss. Paul doesn't want Jamie to throw out his Bullworker exercise equipment. Jamie doesn't want to get rid of her pompoms. Continuing in the closet, she finds her and Paul's sex tape, never directly called that. It's just referred to as something they did once when they were young and foolish.
-- Directed to throw the tape in the incinerator, Paul comes back to Jamie, who had second thoughts. He didn't burn the tape, which is a good thing for two reasons. Jamie wants to see it for the first and only time. Not only that, but the Buchmans have A Day at the Zoo. Paul nearly watched the sex tape last weekend, which was when he apparently gave it to The Family Network. The moment when Paul and Jamie realize what happened and are extremely upset by it has to be seen to be believed.
-- Arriving at The Family Network, Paul and Jamie think Mr. Lark (Kenneth Tigar) saw the sex tape. What he saw was RoboCop 2. Off to the video store, where the boss (Ryan Stiles) is still antagonizing Dutch (Steve Paymer). He reveals RoboCop 2 is rented and won't let the Buchmans see his computer screen. While Paul considers bribing the boss (he needs $237 for snow tires), Jamie's found out that the tape's with Roy (Perry Anzilotti), a friendly man. He's ultimately duped by the claim that they've with the FCC and come to recall the tape in question as it is a chloride-based tape. Paul and Jamie end the episode by first watching the tape ("Oh, good, Jamie, just lie there." "Would you stop being so hard on yourself?"), then trying to get him to make his pre-climax face. Then and now, the sexcapades result in a broken lamp.
-- The dishonesty continues in "Instant Karma," the last episode directed by Lee Shallat Chemel. It's a one-and-done for writers Dana Reston & Frank Lombardi, credited for the story with similarly brief MAY writer Beth Fieger Falkenstein. All but BFF worked on The Nanny and "Karma" is an episode that wouldn't have felt too out of place on that show. Just before the Buchmans, Fran and Ira leave for factory outlet shopping in Secaucus, Paul continues to brag about a fan letter from Yoko Ono. During the quartet's Chinese dinner, he and Jamie bicker over whether or not it's stealing for her to keep a third shirt when she was only charged for two. I mean, if Yoko Ono considers you a "lifter of spirits," you can't have a wife who's a "lifter of shirts." Time for the fortune cookies. Jamie's says that bad luck follows the guilty. "Look at this. This is mine. 'Your wife is guilty and you're right all the time.'"
-- Paul and Jamie come home to find Lisa using their phone. "They have this thing. After 120 days, they shut it off. Like, what, I'm not gonna pay them?" In addition to their mothers, "Yoyo" called. "Do you mean Yoko?" "Whatever, she's your friend." It appears that she really did call. Paul's not particularly likable in this episode and it's not helped by his claim that before him, Jamie didn't even like The Beatles. "I don't have to love everything you love." "Yeah, well, it wouldn't kill you if you did." We're back onto whether or not Jamie stole the shirt, the ethics of eating grapes in the supermarket and honestly, I'm kinda glad Paul got hit when their window shade fell. For whatever reason, he ends up with the bad luck supposedly due to Jamie, including almost getting hit by a fallen can, running out of his cereal and finding a pit in the orange juice. As Jamie points out, if he can say that he needs the Heimlich maneuver, he doesn't actually need it. To humor Paul, Jamie tosses the cursed shirt out the window. Yoko immediately calls with an invitation to a cocktail party at her place. Paul's excited. Maybe she wants to do a film. Maybe she has rare Beatles footage that she'd only trust him with. Lisa brings the shirt back. Paul goes to toss it out and pinches his back.
-- A few words about the Widow Lennon before I go further. A, she actually did appear on MAY, but not in this episode. B, Paul's reverence for Yoko (or, I guess, what she represents), not to mention Jamie talking about she emulates her by being a strong, supportive wife thing is what's reminding me of a Nanny episode. I know that at least once, they did an episode where Fran could meet Streisand (who really should have appeared, but that's a rant for another time). And they certainly weren't shy about blowing smoke up her ass as an enticement. C, I'm trying to think if there are other famous widows that sitcom characters would go nuts for. The only others that are coming to mind are Jackie O, who would die a few months after "Karma," and Courtney Love, who would become a widow a few weeks prior to that. There's also Priscilla Presley, but she and Elvis weren't married when he died. I'm not meaning this to be tacky, I swear.
-- Jamie sets out to prove a point by wearing the cursed blouse, which she claimed to Paul that she returned. He ends up ripping his lucky suit jacket and they take a ride in a Checker cab that has seen better days. So has the driver, Rita (Susan Blommaert), a smoker who argues with her dispatcher husband. "We never cuddle anymore. ... You don't care if I'm out here in bad weather driving with bald tires, no brakes ..." Told that she's not working hard enough in the marriage, Rita picks up a second fare, Martin (Simon Templeman). He's a smoker who's fed up with America. Oh, and Rita's driving without her glasses. After Martin burns Paul when he unsuccessfully tosses the cigarette out, Jamie comes clean about the blouse. One trip to Macy's later and the Buchmans arrive two hours late at Yoko's. Turns out the party is tomorrow night. Allowed to make themselves comfortable, Paul and Jamie look at John Lennon's piano. Paul wants to play just one note, which Jamie encourages. Immediately after, the bench collapses, sending the Buchmans to the floor.
-- Christie Brinkley, another rock 'n' roll wife (for a while longer), is one of the two marquee guests in "Virtual Reality." One of two in this batch directed by Schlamme and written by Jacobson & Lane, it also features Andre Agassi. For $10,000, Ira and Paul could each have 500 shares in a v.r. company. Ira asks if he's ever led Paul down a wrong path. "You have never led me down any type of path whatsoever." With v.r., Paul can experience the shower scene in Psycho, getting close enough to feel Janet Leigh's breasts. For 10 minutes at a time, you create your own cyberspace, with fully digital picture and sound, plus more than 1,000 pre-planned images to interact with. It's by adolescent Edward Wagner (J.D. Daniels). Once the headgear's secure ("What am I, Shemp?"), Paul chooses the Christie scenario.
-- "Hi, can you help me? I've got an itch. Must be this damn garter belt I'm wearing." Christie needs Paul to scratch her inner thigh. He asks if she wants to go to the beach. She'll go anywhere he'd like, to do anything he'd like, for as long as he'd like. At the beach, Christie asks Paul to oil her. Every way he does it is just right and she's interested in his work. "I want you to rub my back while talking about you." "(to Edward) This is really very, very good, what you've done here." The fantasy also includes Paul explaining to Christie that "Honesty," not "Honestly," is such a lonely word, before deciding to let it go and make out with her on a rug. Paul's ready to invest, doing so without telling Jamie first.
-- Jamie's not happy, saying she would never do that. She's also not thrilled with what Paul's interactive experience was. Again, you have to see it to believe it. Jamie's slow burn as Paul's digging his hole deeper and deeper is well acted by Helen Hunt. "You're a little, little man." Paul is wrong all over the place, but he doesn't get that. "I'm saying, this is not the most right I've ever been." (What is he, Fonzie?) Jamie, who cancelled the Buchmans' check, is persuaded to try out the v.r. She doesn't know what to experience. Lisa's suggestion is being the Pope, what with the free rent, ample loose fitting clothing and popemobile. Double standard time, as Paul's worried Jamie will choose an experience involving a better man. She appears to chose the Agassi experience, beginning with getting a bus token out of his jeans pocket, but it's really one where Paul repeatedly admits he's wrong. "Honey, give 'em a check."
-- Finally, we have "Cold Feet," also directed by Schlamme and written by Jacobson & Lane. The Buchmans' Valentine's Day tradition is skating at Rockefeller Center. This year, it's very cold and Jamie's caught a cold. "Crazy" and the sight of a skating couple inspires a flashback to February 1991. Paul and Jamie, who already had Murray, moved into their apartment that month. It's not perfect. The floor slants in the living room and the kitchen, there's still the smell of the previous tenants and Jamie's not used to a gas stove. Murray likes it there, and they sign the lease.
-- Tricking Jamie out of her new office, Fran gives Paul the engagement ring. She got it through Mark's uncle at under cost. It's practically like stealing, something Paul doesn't seem to mind. What does land with him is when Jamie asks, "Honey, what time will you be home?" Jamie's also got misgivings, worried about her and Paul's future, not to mention Fran and Mark's. Fran assures Jamie that Paul loves her by revealing he's going to propose. She's touched ... and even more concerned. Over at Buchman's Sporting Goods, Paul considers the loss of his bachelorhood. He's also had a dream where he's floating and shivering while "Crazy" plays and colorful globs float past him. All he can feel is that he lost something. Paul decides not to propose.
-- Dinner in the new apartment doesn't go so well. Jamie is this close to being overwhelmed by her excitement. They can't find the silverware. Lisa comes by and receives an especially quick tour from Jamie. The rosemary chicken isn't ready. Paul and Jamie end up at Riff's, where we get an Ursula origin story gag. It's her first night working and she doesn't know the soup, nor is she familiar with the idea of two people having the same order. Paul's surprising Jamie as Ursula returns. "Yeah, what kind of dressing did you want on that salad?" "Go away." "Yeah, okay." It's not the wedding ring, but ice skates.
-- On the rink, Jamie says she feels like a big fat glob. "Crazy" is playing. Paul and Jamie are briefly separated. He thought he lost her. He tries to propose, but can't quite verbalize it. Another skater crashes into Paul, separating the couple again. Paul proposes, Jamie says yes. They skate to each other, ending up skating past each other. Back in 1994, the happy couple inspires the Buchmans to skate after all.
-- Blooper: Paul proposed on Valentine's Day 1991. Earlier that day, he claims to Ira that the night before, the light hit Jamie and made her look like Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs. While the movie had its New York premiere a few weeks prior and could have seen a commercial or read the book, I don't think Paul would have been that familiar with how Hannibal Lecter looked or his cannibalism until it was widely released, so either on Feb. 14 or after. If I really wanted to be a jerk, I could also wonder where Selby is. Anyway, note the return of the "Sprit" can.
-- Censor-baiting: Paul sees Murray licking himself ("Late"). "Gee, if I could do that, why would I be going out tonight?" One of the reasons why Jamie considers the tape wrong is "because my hair was between legs" ("Tape"). Not naughty, but kinda gross, is Paul saying he's so full he could puke ("Karma").
-- Great Moments in Shilling: A League of Their Own and Mr. Saturday Night are prominent in the video store ("Tape"). Not only did MAY cast members appear in these movies (Ramsay and Hunt, respectively), but both were Columbia Pictures releases. Also visible are boxes for Bram Stoker's DraculaGroundhog Day and Hook, three other Columbia/TriStar releases. The Gods Must Be Crazy II, yet another Columbia release, is under westerns, which is next to "comedy comedy" ("Tape"). In "Virtual," Ira tries to sell Paul on the company by saying it could become the next Sony. 
-- Didja Notice?: Ramsay voiced the documentary narrator ("Tape") and Steve Paymer voiced the Mark Russell-esque satirist who nobody really wants to see ("Late"). "(to the tune of "Harrigan") R-o-double s-P/e-r-o-t spells 'Ross Perot'" "(to the Flipper theme) They call it NAFTA, NAFTA/south of the border ..."
-- Today in Classic TV: Paul never knew Spielberg was a director on Columbo (Really? That feels like something he would absolutely know.) and says that wearing the black v.r. glove makes him an electric Kitty Carlisle. The experiences include "Amos N' Andy" and "Brinkley, David" ("Virtual").
-- The Total Waitress: Before I get started, I have a question about Ursula. She's appeared in half of Season Two's episodes so far. Were the powers that be considering adding Lisa Kudrow to the regular cast? Obviously Friends was in development and we all know how that turned out, but I can't shake a hunch. Anyway, Ursula tells an already at the table Paul and Jamie to have a seat and she'll be with them, doesn't recommend the clam chowder because they're out of it ("Late"), ignores Jamie's mention that Paul is coming and asks if she's expecting someone else before later ignoring that Paul's there while providing drinks for when he comes ("Virtual"), responds to spilled wine with "Eww!" ("Feet"), already brought the check, charged for pancakes they didn't order but didn't charge for their oatmeal, ends up slapping Paul's forehead while trying to swat a fly and thinks Lisa is Gary, who had sex reassignment surgery ("Tape").
-- Continuity Corner: Fran lives at Apt. 1925 and isn't working ("Late"). One of the Harriets is a lesbian ("Karma"). I could be wrong, but it looks like the love seat bought in "Sofa's Choice" is among the existing furniture ("Feet"). The Buchmans' bedroom closet includes a clarinet, but if you remember "Riding Backwards," Jamie played the cello. In addition to being a cheerleader, she was also the type to stay in and make lunch while her college friends went skinny dipping in Nantucket. Getting Murray out of the living room, Jamie tricks him into looking for the mouse and, of course, running into the wall ("Tape").
-- Before the Credits: Paul's Scrabble word "hing" is just as valid as Jamie's "quizjax" ("Late"). Paul doesn't like waking up to see Jamie right above him ("Virtual"). Jamie's got extra chunky peanut butter in her mouth and can't immediately get a real kiss from Paul ("Karma").
-- Under the Credits: The cast lied to Lisa/Ramsay, saying they weren't doing the show this week. "We're not, we're just painting the set." They're selling it because they need the money, specifically Paul, who owes money to the mob. Lisa/Ramsay would help, but she just had thumb surgery ("Late"). Hunt briefly interrupts Christie's scene as Jamie ("Virtual"). Jamie makes sure her ring is real ("Feet"). Paul and Jamie read cookie fortunes ("Life with no 'f' is a lie." "Confucius say, but who will listen?" "Hats are wasted on a man with no head."), including one that advises, "When in doubt, cut to the skyline." ("Karma"). Jamie cheers on Paul as he tries to open the Bullworker box ("Tape").
-- Ratings Roundup: The show's now a solid second tier performer, regularly beating The Simpsons and scoring fourth or fifth place for its evening. Of note: "Karma" aired on Monday, Feb. 14, as part of a block of sitcoms going against the Winter Olympics.

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