via Amadeus
*Paul and Jamie arrive home to find Murray standing on all four legs on the dining room table*
"This is new."
-- This was a good batch of episodes for getting reacquainted with Mad About You. I liked that it allowed me to think a little about how the show handled varying types of comedy.
-- My crown goes to "The Last Scampi," written by Billy Grundfest and directed by Tom Moore. Paul and Jamie end up sharing a meal with the Buchmans and Stemples. They're wearing accessories they don't like and have to go to a place with singing waiters. Both Sylvia and Theresa wanted the scampi, but there was only one serving left. In the end, neither got it. Sylvia feels affronted and starts accusing Paul of taking to her with a tone, while Theresa is passive aggressively bubbly, doing things like pulling Jamie aside and saying she doesn't blame her. Sylvia then uses Ira and both she and Theresa use Lisa and Fran* to manipulate and/or continue inflicting guilt on Paul and Jamie.
*Fran is especially funny when she ends up digging her own grave while talking to Sylvia, who doesn't like that the Stemples hosted a barbecue without having the Buchmans over.
-- What I like about "Scampi" is that it comes from the pre-cringe comedy era. A decade later, we'd have to watch the awkward restaurant scene play out. The moment is still important, but it's not important because of itself, it's important because of how Paul and Jamie react to the fallout. They're doing a poor job, with Jamie upset that Paul always has to recommend food and Paul's upset at Jamie's fixation with whether or not people like their parents are trying to reach them on the phone. "'Oh, what if someone's trying to get us? What if they want to get us? They're trying to get us!' Well, they got us, baby! You happy now?"
-- Murray, upset by the fighting, first runs to the closet, then gets especially low on the floor. There's no physical reason for his condition. He's just moody, particularly about his mom. An episode about psychological torture is interrupted by Murray's origin story. Paul had just broken up with a girl named Leslie when he found Murray in the park seven years ago. Mr. Urbont (Allan Arbus) reunites Murray (formerly known as "Swifty") with his mother, Mona (played by Maui's actual mother). The torture story resumes. Mona gives her son a meatloaf, which he doesn't want. She's not thrilled about their estrangement and also detects a tone. Urbont says that 14 of Mona's children ended up leaving home.
-- Let's go with "Disorientation" next. It's another one directed by Moore and written by Jack Burditt & Jeffrey Lane. Jamie's having back to school anxiety. What will she wear? Who will she eat lunch with? "(being woken up by Paul) My throat hurts and I'm too old." Paul, who keeps insisting he does want Jamie to further her education, discovers that he didn't mail her registration. The situation can be fixed, but it's a matter of doing so before Jamie finds out. Paul and Ira are off to the college, while Fran and Lisa are directed to stall Jamie. Pretending the elevator's out -- including Lisa faking her failure to pick up an imaginary maintenance man -- only buys so much time. Ditto taking Jamie on a long drive. She ends up faking sick and fleeing to the nearest subway station.
-- "Disorientation" isn't quite a farce, but it does have some elements. At the college, Paul has paid for Jamie's classes, but he's gotta get her course cards signed. She's taking ethics, psychology, logic and intermediate French. Fran and Lisa arrive. So does Jamie, who Paul just avoids running into. She's in a long line, while Paul and company each meet with a professor. Paul's got the French teacher (Julia Sweeney), who insists he converse with her en Francais. Lisa has the logic teacher (Jim Piddock), who attempts to demonstrate the concept when she's not grasping why the class is full. Fran has the psychology teacher (Mary Portser), who ends up thinking Jamie has dissociative identity disorder. Ira has the ethics professor (Stephen Pearlman, who also appeared on Seinfeld's "The Raincoats" that same night), who ends up accepting a bribe. All four succeed and get ID photos taken as "Jamie Buchman," the real Jamie's registration goes off without a hitch and she shares lunch with Paul, who she thinks is being thoughtful but really is just in the right place at the right time.
-- Richard Kind returns in "Storms We Cannot Weather," a fine episode for himself and Leila Kenzle. It's directed by David Steinberg and written by Danny Jacobson. Jamie is setting up Fran with her classmate, Nick (David Berón). He's 25, has family money, is handsome ... and he's also rather bland and touches Jamie too often. Jamie protests an awful lot about how young Nick is, but considering what happens two years later ... Anyway, before that, Paul wants to profile the fastest short order cook in New York City**. He works at a place where Mark, under the alias "Antonio," is a busboy. Mark's been living a life of excitement since he left Fran, full of temporary jobs, meeting plenty of people and having casual hookups. Fran, who's a 33-year-old single mother, is wearing jeans her date because she's having a good ass day. Paul reveals that Mark's back to Jamie and she's not sure she can keep quiet.
**They really should have had Paul be employed by a Good Day New York type of program. I'm just having a hard time buying that his work would sustain longer than a three-minute human interest piece.
-- Mark ends up at Riff's, where he gets slapped by Fran. Ursula: "You guys having fun?" Actually, things do improve. Mark, Fran and occasionally Nick do have a pleasant conversation, to Paul and Jamie's discomfort. They're having a hard time believing Fran and Mark are in a good place, that Mark loves Nick and that Fran's willing to forgive. Even Paul's reveal of Fran sleeping with Ira doesn't faze Mark. The day after, Paul learns more about Mark's new lifestyle (he slept with a 23 year old) and Jamie learns about how Fran likes dating again ("I forgot I was funny."). Jamie decides she doesn't want to live vicariously through Fran.
-- Now, again, I know that Paul and Jamie will have a marital crisis at the end of Season Four and also divorce before reuniting in the last episode (assuming that's still canon). It actually enriches the ending of "Storms," where Paul vows that he'd follow Jamie if she left, and he's not going, anyway. Jamie's not thrilled that Paul refers to it as a matter of having everything in the world or her. They're never going to experience a first kiss again, like they did at her Christmas party (points for continuity). Paul pretends to once again meet Jamie. It turns out she was right. The kiss just wasn't as good.
-- I particularly liked that "Storms" didn't go with the out-and-out sentimental ending, because that's what we got in "Love Letters." Directed by Moore (who was Emmy-nominated), it's the first episode written by Jeffrey Klarik. It's also the first episode for Jerry Adler as Mr. Wicker, the Buchmans' building superintendent. Arriving to fix an overflowing toilet, he finds a collection of letters. Jamie, who's been having trouble finding inspiration for a creative writing assignment, reads them with Paul. They were written by Millie and Leo, a 1940s couple who lived in the apartment before he went off to war. Millie and Leo are similar to Jamie and Paul. Leo's last letter included his proposing to Millie.
-- Jamie thinks Millie and Leo did get together. Paul thinks Leo left Millie for a French girl (since he keeps talking about buying fruit from her). The couple discover Millie lives with her husband in Patchogue. Jamie, who asks Paul if he wants to see how it ends, insists Leo would go. The Buchmans meet Millie (Kim Hunter) and her husband (Dick O'Neill). The husband thinks Paul and Jamie are con artists and Millie denies the letters are hers.
-- At home, Jamie listens to 1940s music. Millie arrives. She lived in the apartment for close to 30 years and sees that they never fixed the slanting floor. Yes, the letters are hers. She's married to Manny. Leo died in the war. Manny was Leo's cousin. "Oh my God, I marry Ira?!" Paul ends up giving Millie the dance she never got to share with Leo -- to "I'll Be Seeing You," natch. Don't get me wrong. "Letters" is a good episode, but I feel like it'd have more oomph if the action was taking place before Jamie and Paul were married. I also briefly wondered if the slant gag would have worked as a punchline when Paul and Millie were dancing. For what it's worth, Hunter did a fine job as Millie.
-- Last and least is "Up All Night," directed by Michael Lembeck and written by Klarik. Paul's mad because his documentary on the Iraqi-born janitor at the Pentagon lost the Silver Sprocket to "The Trouble With Barnacles." Jamie's got a test in the morning. Paul makes her some tea. Later, she can't sleep and tries to play with both Murray and Paul. An attempt at soothing her into sleep with a story from Paul's career ("A Day in the Life of a Button" also lost the Silver Sprocket) fails. Paul and Jamie discover he gave her multiple cups of caffeine-full "Atomic Zinger" tea. Dispatched to keep Jamie company until she falls asleep, Paul tells her that John Astin lives in their building.
-- There are things to recommend "Night" for. Helen Hunt gives a good performance as Jamie gets increasingly punchy. At one point, Paul wonders if she's carnival people. "Yes, I'm the amazing awake lady. Look at me, I'm up." Jamie and Paul end up locked out of their apartment, riding to the basement with fill-in elevator operator Mr. Wicker. While Wicker's gone, the elevator is paged to the penthouse, resulting in the Buchmans picking up John Astin, who invites them to dinner. Jamie's still skeptical. Back in the basement, Paul and Jamie can't find Wicker, wander and get stuck in a stairwell.
-- Jamie's still punchy. She liked the barnacle movie. Later, she says her chances of passing the test are about as good as Paul winning a Silver Sprocket. Soon after that, she tries to entice Paul into joining the 10 stories up club. Back in the apartment, Wicker eats with Murray (which may or may not be a subtle callback to Adler's initial role as the dog loving cop in "Murray's Tale"). Anyway, Paul and Jamie end up on the roof with Astin and his Morticiaesque wife. Despite all evidence that this is indeed John Astin (and that Gomez was an apparently autobiographical role), now Paul's skeptical. Asked to do the flips, Astin obliges, ending up falling off the building!
-- Words to Live By: "The grass on other people's mothers is always greener" ("Scampi").
-- Great Moments in Not Shilling: Note the modified Budweiser and Coca Cola cans in "Storms."
-- The Total Waitress: By "Storms," Lisa Kudrow had appeared in 11 out of 22 episodes in Season Two. In "Letters," Ursula wants to know if Paul and Jamie will have the usual, then has to be reminded that it's a burger and a chef's salad, and that it's the burger, not the salad, that's been ordered medium rare. In "Storms," she thinks they're just waving to her rather than trying to set up a drink order, later telling Paul not to think when handing it, or else he'll end up spilling like he did.
-- Censor-baiting: Ira, allowed to pee in the Buchman's sink, does so in the kitchen sink ("Letters"). Lisa likes to put reinforcements on her nipples and she's fond of dry cleaner bags ("Disorientation"). Falling asleep is like getting an erection, it doesn't work if you try too hard at it ("Night").
-- Continuity Corner: Wicker (or possibly his father) started working in the Buchmans' building in the 40s ("Letters"), yet Wicker says he's been on the job for 33 years ("Night"-- and, remember, both episodes were written by Klarik). "Letters" also introduces the idea that Mrs. Wicker is an actress and that a gay couple lived in the apartment directly before Paul and Jamie, who live on 12th Street. In "Night," they mention living in Apt. 11D. Also, their neighbors include the Hamiltons, who steal their newspaper and have a smiley face on their front door. Jamie steals the smiley face, but it's recovered by Mr. Hamilton. Elsewhere, Sylvia was in labor with Paul for 26 hours ("Scampi").
-- Today in Classic TV: In addition to Astin's presence, Paul makes the standard "Either Timmy is in the well" joke when Murray alerts the Buchmans to their toilet ("Letters"). Theresa lied and claimed they were going to see a Match Game taping when it was time to have Lisa's adenoids out. ("Scampi").
-- The Buchmans Go Broadway: Theresa is seeing Carousel with Lisa, when she was going to see it with Jamie ("Scampi"). Jamie mentions a news story she and Paul caught, about a man who saw Miss Saigon 116 times. Later, she's annoyed by Lisa and Fran's "Anything You Can Do" singalong ("Disorientation"). Mark says he followed the Buchmans and Fran when they saw Damn Yankees ("Storms"). One of the tea options is "Kiss Today Goodbye Mint" ("Night").
-- Before the Credits: Jamie's thinking about how much she loves Paul, even when he's slurping his food ("Letters"), Paul hypothetically wonders if the lemon in a muffin can go bad ("Scampi"), Murray's atop the table ("Disorientation"), Jamie demonstrates what to do when the toilet paper runs out ("Storms") and Paul asks about who's singing a song playing at Riff's. It's Garth Brooks, says the man himself ("Night").
-- Under the Credits: Paul, Jamie and Mr. Wicker watch his wife's commercial ("Letters"), Paul Reiser's mother wants to speak to him ("Scampi"), Jamie shows Paul "her" IDs ("Disorientation"), Paul and Jamie try to figure out a place to runaway to ("Storms") and Astin catches himself on the Buchmans' ledge, telling Wicker he loves living in the building ("Night").
-- Ratings Roundup: A range of 11.1 and sixth place (for "Night," which aired opposite the conclusion of The Stand and a David Copperfield special) to 12.7 and fifth place (for both "Letters" and "Scampi"). During this run, CBS regularly aired Christy, while ABC aired The Byrds of Paradise. FOX, of course, still had The Simpsons.
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