Episode Report Card Cate: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Family Secrets
By Cate | Season 1 | Episode 2 | Aired on 09.22.1996
We come back to a cloying little domestic scene in which Annie is teaching Ruthie the alphabet. The only thing notable about this scene is that Annie is sporting a sailor top. I don't think it's the same one that she uses to torment Gwen in later seasons, though; this one's only a prototype. When she stands up, we see that she has paired the ugly top with bicycle shorts. She's got nice legs, but the outfit sure does blow. RevCam is looking for his shoes but can't find them, so he decides to wear his good shoes. Hey, do y'all think that might be the basis of a wacky subplot sometime later in the show? The CamRents share some chemistry-free kisses, and RevCam makes a joke about looking forward to the time when Ruthie is in school so he and Annie "can walk around naked again." Aaurrghh! My brain! Annie says she thinks there's more to Matt staying out overnight than he's telling them. You'd think RevCam would get all turned on by that busybody train of thought, but he just accuses Annie of ruining the romantic moment. RevCam asks if Annie thinks Dopey is having sex. SuperMom answers, "No, no, I really don't," while trying valiantly not to laugh. RevCam says he wants "to lay down the law" by not letting Dopey drive the car for a month. I guess RevCam's had a lot of practice laying down the law, since, as we all know, the Glenoak legal system is built on any idle whims he might have, and carried out by his evil minions, by which I mean pretty much anyone in any position of authority in town. The CamRents negotiate Dopey's punishment, and Eric leaves.
At the high school, Dopey is trying to talk his friend Jeff out of dating Mary. Jeff claims he wants to go out with Mary because she can talk about sports, but Dopey is already displaying an unseemly interest in his sister's sex life when he claims that he thinks Mary will make a move on Jeff. Ooh, scary! Who knows -- maybe they'll even "make out all night long," like Dopey allegedly did.
Next, we see a bunch of supposedly humorous scenes in which Eric is talking to various patients at the hospital, but it's obvious he's limping because his shoes hurt. Then he's phoning Annie to let her know that he's going to come home early and work from there. I don't think he's looking particularly sexy at the moment -- he's all hunched over and rubbing his feet -- but evidently a nurse finds him attractive. She sidles up and, with some very poorly acted seductiveness, comes on to him. He tells her he's a minister who's been married eighteen years, but she has a hard time believing that, because he's not wearing a clerical collar and because he claims he left his wedding ring by the sink. She does, however, offer to bring his shoes to the repair shop across the street to be fixed. I hope it's some sort of elaborate prank, where she ends up putting itching powder into them, but that's probably too much to wish for. I suppose the earlier part of the scene, when Eric was limping in uncomfortable shoes while the usual crappy, lighthearted music trundled along in the background, is all the "comedy" we'll be getting today.