Episode Report Card Couch Baron: B+ | 2 USERS: B+ YOU GRADE IT The Grass Is Always Greener
By Couch Baron | Season 6 | Episode 4 | Aired on 04.21.2013
Joan's staring into space when Kate points out that she's not listening, so Joan explains that she needs a drink (and how), "and this place is a soda fountain." Not literally, but it's populated by a rather younger crowd; the females are the era's equivalent of the "Woo Girls" from How I Met Your Mother. There's a phone on every table, so I guess the idea is that men in the place can call over to the table of the women they find attractive, an idea that's punctuated by the fact that every time a phone rings, a bunch of girls giggle like morons, which seems both quaint and offensive at the same time. Joan wonders what they're doing there, but Kate, dropping her voice, informs Joan that there are many young men there who go for "a certain type," and Joan, always good at math, gets it in about half a second. Kate begs Joan not to judge her, essentially giving her the "what happens in NYC stays in NYC" argument, but Joan only gets the hint of a mischievous smile on her face, and when the fetal manager "Leo" comes over and flirts with Kate, Joan does her a solid by telling him she thinks their phone is broken. "Could you test it?" Hee.
He agrees and heads off, whereupon Kate remarks that he's cute and that he reminds her of a "Scotty," but Joan cautions her not to marry him. "That was the worst six months of my life." Wait, Joan had an ill-advised marriage to an immature man? Her relationship with Roger is making more sense, at least. Kate laughs that Joan always did everything first, but Joan regretfully replies that Kate did everything smart, and I wonder if Joan became a working girl because her ruined marriage made her an undesirable commodity. (You know, socially, GOD.) Of course, Joan must be lumping more recent events into her list of things she might change if she could, but Kate enthusiastically responds that for tonight, they're just a couple of young secretaries. Joan starts to smile even before the phone rings, causing Kate to jump, and when she answers to find Leo, Joan disclaims credit, saying he likes Kate. With coaching from Joan, Kate accepts Leo's invitation for the two of them to go out with him after his shift. When she's off, she excitedly says that now she needs a drink, and Joan's face is clearly wondering what this place has in bottles.
So it's time for the dinner Don's been dreading, and we're meeting Mel, who as I mentioned in the recap is being played by Ted McGinley, and as ubiquitous as he seems, I was rather surprised in checking his credits to realize I personally haven't seen him on TV since Married With Children. That could, of course, be indicative of the fact that he has a reputation of cursing shows, but this program at least has a set end date already. Mel talks a bit about the war in relation to the television business, speculating that "the sponsors" are for the war, and they don't want to have any dissent, which he sees as censorship. He asks for Don's opinion as a writer, but Don tells him that while he's also against the war personally, "when you buy a commercial, you're hoping that the consumer is in a good mood when they hear your message." I'll spare you a hacky joke about antidepressant ads in favor of letting Don go on that when an advertiser pays for a spot on an ostensibly wholesome program only to have it turn into satire -- "the most threatening humor there is" -- they become worried that people will hate what they're selling. In response, Mel looks at Don like he's a particularly succulent piece of beef -- again, make your own fun here -- before wondering aloud how Megan found him and adding that he could cast him right now.