Who's The Boss? - General Discussion

[ljenkins782]

22 hours ago, JAYJAY1979 said:

Oddly Judith Light was of the few actresses, Mary Frann on Newhart is another, where the 80s hair worked on them.  Now some of her outfits...on the otherhand..and the huge glasses not so much.

Mona didn't seem to vibe with the 80s look..but by the early 90s, the show found a nice ensemble and hair style that worked great on her (at the expense of her warm moments sadly).

Yeah, the big hair kind of balanced out Judith Light's long-ish face. The straight middle parted hair she had by the end was a bit less flattering.

As for Mona, she dressed in a more classic style, which made sense for a WASP-y Connecticut woman over 50. I liked a lot of her clothes, and she definitely wore her sweaters well. The one thing I always notice about either the character (or perhaps it was just Katherine Helmond's style) is that her nails were always beautifully manicured. Not those tacky, overly pointy or fake looking, but very natural, perfectly painted nails.

[Bastet]

I know this is random, but it's driving me nuts -- which episode has the scene where Samantha is in one of her you're not my mother snits about Angela, Angela tells her to go to her room, Tony walks in and wants to know what's going on, Samantha says, appalled, "Angela just told me to go to my room," and Tony says, with perfect delivery, "Then go to your room"?

[GHScorpiosRule]

5 minutes ago, Bastet said:

I know this is random, but it's driving me nuts -- which episode has the scene where Samantha is in one of her you're not my mother snits about Angela, Angela tells her to go to her room, Tony walks in and wants to know what's going on, Samantha says, appalled, "Angela just told me to go to my room," and Tony says, with perfect delivery, "Then go to your room"?

It's the Ray Charles episode; where Samantha agreed to use the red headed demon Chad's song "Always A Friend", but then caught him macking on another girl and asked Angela not to use it.

"Hit The Road, Chad"

Edited November 15, 2022 by GHScorpiosRule

[Bastet]

5 minutes ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

It's the Ray Charles episode; where Samantha agreed to use the red headed demon Chas's (?) song "Always A Friend", but then caught him macking on another girl and asked Angela not to use it.

Thank you!  I knew Samantha was in trouble about Jonathan when it happened, so I thought maybe it was the one where she babysits, but that wasn't it.  You're right -- it's that she, angry with Angela for saying she couldn't refuse to use the song, took it out on Jonathan.

I love how quickly they became a family.  That very first Christmas, with everyone in their pajamas by the fire, having opened presents, and then Tony and Angela are dancing and Samantha thinks they're dorks, but then Mona starts dancing with her and little Jonathan is adorable trying and utterly failing to do anything like that with his own feet -- if you just looked in on them without knowing the context, you would think they'd all been together forever.

By the end of season two, when Tony has to have an emergency appendectomy, he asks Angela to raise Samantha if anything happens to him, and she readily agrees.

The reasons not to get together got ridiculous in the later years, but I like that when the kids were little Tony and Angela acknowledged that if they'd got to know each other under different circumstances, they'd be dating, but with things how they are, the family is more important and they can't risk it.  Samantha needs Angela, Jonathan needs Tony, and Tony and Angela need each other to raise them, so anything beyond friendship and co-parenting isn't even a possibility right now.

[Bastet]

It's weird that this show has come up in conversation twice - with two different people - in the past month, but it indeed happened again earlier today and this particular chat made me realize that after all these years, I can still pull up in my mind the exact inflection with which Samantha said "Oh, my god" when she realized the Jag wound up in the lake because Tony and Angela were making out in it, and Mona's pitch perfect "Well, get back in that car until it does!" when Tony said nothing happened.

[JAYJAY1979]

Streaming on Hulu now :) :) :) :) 

 

[GHScorpiosRule]

5 minutes ago, JAYJAY1979 said:

Streaming on Hulu now :) :) :) :) 

 

WAHOOOO!!!! Here’s hoping they’re unedited!

[Bastet]

3 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

WAHOOOO!!!! Here’s hoping they’re unedited!

Indeed; I remember distress in the Designing Women thread when Hulu picked up that series that it was showing syndicated versions (and then Prime pulled the same shit), so I hope this doesn't follow suit.

[GHScorpiosRule]

6 hours ago, Bastet said:

Indeed; I remember distress in the Designing Women thread when Hulu picked up that series that it was showing syndicated versions (and then Prime pulled the same shit), so I hope this doesn't follow suit.

Yup. They did the same with The Cosby Show (before all that shit with Cosby came to light and i remember how we talked about what a quotable show it was), and some of the key lines from the episode where Vanessa went to Baltimore and Claire's famous rant-were cut. I think that's when I stopped watching Hulu--until it came bundled with Disney+ a few years ago.

And just to cleanse the palate, here's something of an earworm:

"We got the fever, we're hot, we can't be stopped!"

[ljenkins782]

17 hours ago, JAYJAY1979 said:

Streaming on Hulu now :) :) :) :) 

 

I came across it searching for something to fall asleep to, made my night. I think I'm 4 seasons deep in 3 day's time. 

I love when they stage snowy scenes, the house is so cozy with the stone fireplace and neutral tones with the snow drifting past the windows. 

[Bastet]

18 minutes ago, ljenkins782 said:

I came across it searching for something to fall asleep to, made my night. I think I'm 4 seasons deep in 3 day's time. 

Are they the original episodes, not syndicated cuts?  I added it to my list last night and started in on it when I got in bed, but I fell asleep very quickly so didn't get to find out.

 

[ljenkins782]

12 minutes ago, Bastet said:

Are they the original episodes, not syndicated cuts?  I added it to my list last night and started in on it when I got in bed, but I fell asleep very quickly so didn't get to find out.

 

I'm pretty sure they're original, in fact there are lines in some of the episodes that I didn't remember from my many previous watchings. But I can't be 100% sure.

[GHScorpiosRule]

I just finished watching the pilot and it’s definitely unedited/original episodes! Off to a good start! 

Fingers crossed they’re all the original airings!

Got through to episode three--and it seems we are getting the original episodes.

One thing I've never understood, and the time line is wonky/contradicts itself considering we are told that Tony and Marie were childhood sweethearts in not only the pilot (which certain things change when shows are picked up later), but in regular episodes over the seasons. Yet, we have twats like Teresa, in "Angela's First Fight" who seems to think Tony was her property, and acting like a jealous shrew. We even are shown that Sam didn't like her. And of course, over the seasons, Tony mentions these twins, or sisters or other women or girls (when he was a teen maybe?) he's been with. And I absolutely love that line by Sam when she says to Tony: "Angela's not my mother! YOU are!"

Then there's that stupid episode in season...six? A stupid flashback, that we're now supposed to believe that Tony was a nerdy/geek who couldn't get a date or wasn't popular?

But darned if Alyssa wasn't just the cutest in the pilot and first season. Such talent.

Watching this again makes me miss Katherine Helmond so much.

Edited December 8, 2023 by GHScorpiosRule

[Bastet]

17 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

Got through to episode three--and it seems we are getting the original episodes.

I'm most of the way through season one, and haven't noticed any significant edits, just several times where the first few seconds of a scene are missing, coming out of an ad break.  And one episode with periodic drop-outs, a couple of seconds missing here and there.  But no excising of entire lines or scenes in between ad breaks.

I love "Eye on Angela", when Betty White plays the local reporter who catches Tony and Angela coming out of the same bedroom.  For the humor of them waking up together, of course, but really for all the family stuff the night before.  That this cast quickly came to regard themselves as a found family really helps sell the characters developing a familial relationship quickly.  And the kids are so natural every time they're on the laps of their respective parents.  So the bed-changing shenanigans feel 100% believable:

They all watch a scary movie, but little analytical Jonathan can't get into it because it's dumb, so he goes to bed.  Mona wants to spend the night so she can be there for the filming in the morning, so Tony takes a sleeping Jonathan to bed with him so Mona can have that bedroom.  When Samantha wakes up from a bad dream, she goes to crawl in with her dad, but when Jonathan is already there she has no hesitation going to ask Angela if she can sleep with her.  When Angela wakes up to discover Samantha has stolen the covers, she logically figures since the kid is no longer scared, she might as well go sleep in her empty bed.  When Jonathan can't get back to sleep because of Tony's snoring, he wakes up him to say Sam had a nightmare and wants her to sleep with him; it's true, and it also gets him the bed to himself.  So off Tony goes to Sam's room.  He's still half asleep and Angela is buried under the covers, so - even though "Didn't you think my lump is different from her lump?" - it makes sense he just goes right back to sleep and they don't realize until morning.

18 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

And I absolutely love that line by Sam when she says to Tony: "Angela's not my mother! YOU are!"

I love her accent in the first season -- similar to the one she'd worked to lose -- and never more than on that line.

18 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

Watching this again makes me miss Katherine Helmond so much.

Same here.

[GHScorpiosRule]

3 minutes ago, Bastet said:

I'm most of the way through season one, and haven't noticed any significant edits, just several times where the first few seconds of a scene are missing, coming out of an ad break.  And one episode with periodic drop-outs, a couple of seconds missing here and there.  But no excising of entire lines or scenes in between ad breaks.

I have it ad-free, so I didn't notice any of that. But I'll keep an eye out going forward to see if I notice any...blips or anything.

[GHScorpiosRule]

40 minutes ago, Bastet said:

I love "Eye on Angela", when Betty White plays the local reporter who catches Tony and Angela coming out of the same bedroom.  For the humor of them waking up together, of course, but really for all the family stuff the night before.  That this cast quickly came to regard themselves as a found family really helps sell the characters developing a familial relationship quickly.  And the kids are so natural every time they're on the laps of their respective parents. 

Oh absolutely. I also love that while Mona and Angela have a ... prickly relationship, how Mona blackmails Betty White's character-how she used to be a "snow bunny" and pretty much slept her way to where she was.

Another thing I found realistic was how some of the characters wore the same outfits-like Mona's sweater here--she would wear it a few more times. 

[Snow Apple]

On 12/7/2023 at 9:34 PM, GHScorpiosRule said:

One thing I've never understood, and the time line is wonky/contradicts itself considering we are told that Tony and Marie were childhood sweethearts in not only the pilot (which certain things change when shows are picked up later), but in regular episodes over the seasons. Yet, we have twats like Teresa, in "Angela's First Fight" who seems to think Tony was her property, and acting like a jealous shrew. We even are shown that Sam didn't like her. And of course, over the seasons, Tony mentions these twins, or sisters or other women or girls (when he was a teen maybe?) he's been with. And I absolutely love that line by Sam when she says to Tony: "Angela's not my mother! YOU are!"

That last line reminds me of a later season episode when Sam thought Angela liked Bonnie better. Angela said that she likes Bonnie but loves Sam and thought Sam didn't want to be around her. Then Sam said something like how everybody fights with their mother sometimes, and Angela said "Tony, did you hear that? She called me mother." And of course Tony cried.

But yeah, the time line and Tony's past is strange. It's been established that Tony was 18-19 when Sam was born (he was 30 when Sam had her 12th birthday), so what's with all those old girlfriends? I'm not sure when Marie passed away though.

Edited December 9, 2023 by Snow Apple

[JAYJAY1979]

I was watching Ad Man Micelli, which was the first episode where Sam fully changed from her rough around the edges character of season 1 into a typical teen girl going forward.

From watching the episode, we're introduced to a whole friend group from Sam, outside of Marci.  If I had watched that episode back when it first aired in 1985 and asked which of the girls would have lasted to become Samantha's sidekick... I wouldn't have picked Bonnie.

In that episode, Bonnie had the least amount of lines and had no personality whatsoever.   However, by season 5, she had officially become Sam's sidekick and she had a delightful whimsical aura.   She played a character that wasn't smart, but wasn't dumb either.  She just looked at things from a different perspective.

The other aspects of the episode really highlighted the found family aspect that had been built quite naturally throughout the first season and also highlighted how Sam had taken to Angela/Mona as the mother figures in her life and regarded Jonathan as the annoying kid brother.

And her mother played a part in the episode because the picture of her in the locket is what made Sam finally decide to admit to her new friends who she really was.

 

[Bastet]

On 12/9/2023 at 10:16 AM, JAYJAY1979 said:

I was watching Ad Man Micelli, which was the first episode where Sam fully changed from her rough around the edges character of season 1 into a typical teen girl going forward.

From watching the episode, we're introduced to a whole friend group from Sam, outside of Marci.  If I had watched that episode back when it first aired in 1985 and asked which of the girls would have lasted to become Samantha's sidekick... I wouldn't have picked Bonnie.

In that episode, Bonnie had the least amount of lines and had no personality whatsoever.   However, by season 5, she had officially become Sam's sidekick and she had a delightful whimsical aura.   She played a character that wasn't smart, but wasn't dumb either.  She just looked at things from a different perspective.

I just watched that one last night, and it's process of elimination, really -- "Marci" got cast on Charles in Charge and "Robin" got used more extensively in her Knots Landing role.  That left Julia (who's too stupid to live, so you just want her around for occasional comic relief), fleshing out Bonnie, or introducing a new character.  Bonnie and Sam had the right combination of similarities and differences so she's the typical TV sidekick but you believe they're friends.  And because she's genuine and, while not the brightest bulb not Julia-style dumb either, it's believable the family likes her as Sam's best friend.

They really changed Sam's wardrobe between seasons one and two, so I like that they address it in that episode, with Tony having boned up on what junior high girls wear and treated her to some new clothes.

[GHScorpiosRule]

5 hours ago, Bastet said:

That left Julia (who's too stupid to live,

WORD! I couldn’t stand that stupid dimwit.

[Bastet]

In this show, as in life, I am repeatedly annoyed how Angela pointing out something is sexist gets turned into a laugh at her expense, because she's just supposed to lighten up.  So I was relieved to see an episode I'd forgotten all about, when Tony's cousin gets sent over to meet the man her father has arranged for her to marry and Angela being appalled throughout is actually vindicated in the end this time.  It's a nice expansion on the Thanksgiving episode at Mrs. Rossini's, when Angela points out how disgusting it is the women waited on the men hand and foot.  Tony starts out with the typical well, that's just how we do things attitude, but by the end he acknowledges he no longer wants to be in a relationship like that.

The writers can go back to missing me with their nonsense in "Educating Tony", though -- Tony flunks Angela's Intro to Advertising adult ed class because his commercial is sexist, and the product (laundry detergent) is overwhelmingly purchased by women, so he forgot one of the fundamental rules of advertising, which is to remember your target audience.  He gets pissed at her, so calls her names and pulls pranks in the classroom.  Yet, in the final scene, she changes his grade to a B.  WHY?!

[JAYJAY1979]

4 hours ago, Bastet said:

In this show, as in life, I am repeatedly annoyed how Angela pointing out something is sexist gets turned into a laugh at her expense, because she's just supposed to lighten up.  So I was relieved to see an episode I'd forgotten all about, when Tony's cousin gets sent over to meet the man her father has arranged for her to marry and Angela being appalled throughout is actually vindicated in the end this time.  It's a nice expansion on the Thanksgiving episode at Mrs. Rossini's, when Angela points out how disgusting it is the women waited on the men hand and foot.  Tony starts out with the typical well, that's just how we do things attitude, but by the end he acknowledges he no longer wants to be in a relationship like that.

The writers can go back to missing me with their nonsense in "Educating Tony", though -- Tony flunks Angela's Intro to Advertising adult ed class because his commercial is sexist, and the product (laundry detergent) is overwhelmingly purchased by women, so he forgot one of the fundamental rules of advertising, which is to remember your target audience.  He gets pissed at her, so calls her names and pulls pranks in the classroom.  Yet, in the final scene, she changes his grade to a B.  WHY?!

The 80s was a transition time where Angela/Tony were raised with the old fashion rigid gender roles that were hard to shake.

Case in point was the intro to advertising class episode where Angela second guessed herself instead of giving him a C or a D as a grade.

[Bastet]

5 hours ago, JAYJAY1979 said:

The 80s was a transition time where Angela/Tony were raised with the old fashion rigid gender roles that were hard to shake.

Yes, but we weren't all so thoroughly indoctrinated we couldn't see reality -- yet, on the flip side, even the most evolved of us weren't completely consistent given the pervasive nature of sexism.  So there were contradictions to be found everywhere, and a show like this should probably get more credit than the rest for its effort, and I do give it that, but there's still a lopsided presentation that bothered me as a teen and really bothers me now.

5 hours ago, JAYJAY1979 said:

Case in point was the intro to advertising class episode where Angela second guessed herself instead of giving him a C or a D as a grade.

She bumped his F to a C since his concept was attention grabbing, so had it been for a different product it could have been a winner.  That's undeservedly generous enough, but then for her to make it a B instead is just another propping up of Tony, not anything rooted in reality.

[GHScorpiosRule]

7 hours ago, Bastet said:

Yes, but we weren't all so thoroughly indoctrinated we couldn't see reality -- yet, on the flip side, even the most evolved of us weren't completely consistent given the pervasive nature of sexism. 

Tell me about it! My head just exploded when watching the end of "Angela Gets Fired" because as THE PRESIDENT, one would think she could take vacations any time she wanted--it's the non-executive, support staff, who always almost never get or take vacations-but the executives DO! And to portray the opposite with Angela? Yes, yes, plot point to have her start her own agency. But considering the corporate culture back then and even now? Her firing is stupid and not believable.

So that prune faced director of the board saying how he "never" takes vacations and is "happy" just made me roll my eyes.

I loathe "Educating Tony" so so much.

[JAYJAY1979]

11 hours ago, Bastet said:

Yes, but we weren't all so thoroughly indoctrinated we couldn't see reality -- yet, on the flip side, even the most evolved of us weren't completely consistent given the pervasive nature of sexism.  So there were contradictions to be found everywhere, and a show like this should probably get more credit than the rest for its effort, and I do give it that, but there's still a lopsided presentation that bothered me as a teen and really bothers me now.

She bumped his F to a C since his concept was attention grabbing, so had it been for a different product it could have been a winner.  That's undeservedly generous enough, but then for her to make it a B instead is just another propping up of Tony, not anything rooted in reality.

Tony did do the purchasing of the household products...so I think a grade of C would have been acceptable.  Had he presented the commercial as a niche ad for the growing number of divorced/widowed dads.  An untapped growing market.

I think Tony was wrong to push Angela for a grade when she said she needed time to cool down so she could think critically.

Both Tony and Angela were wrong in this situation.

[Bastet]

On 12/12/2023 at 12:14 PM, JAYJAY1979 said:

Both Tony and Angela were wrong in this situation.

Even if I squint, I can't find anything Angela did wrong there, but now I'm onto this one ...

On 12/12/2023 at 8:34 AM, GHScorpiosRule said:

My head just exploded when watching the end of "Angela Gets Fired" because as THE PRESIDENT, one would think she could take vacations any time she wanted--it's the non-executive, support staff, who always almost never get or take vacations-but the executives DO! And to portray the opposite with Angela? Yes, yes, plot point to have her start her own agency. But considering the corporate culture back then and even now? Her firing is stupid and not believable.

... and I think her being fired is sadly believable.  A woman's devotion to the job would already be in question because she has a child (while men with children do not face the same stereotype), so when she left on a family vacation with the promise she'd be reachable if there were any problems with the presentation but then didn't return Howie's call when he said they lost the account (because he said they "lost the toilet paper" instead and Tony ridiculously thought that meant actual TP so didn't give her the message), she's going to get raked over the coals.  She stood up for herself, saying people need breaks, and that's how she's running this company and if they don't like it they can put a wimp like Jim Peterson in charge, and that was what did it (like Mona said) -- the fuddy duddy Chairman of the Board picked his little suck-up over someone who'd dare challenge his I never take vacations attitude.

She told Tony it was the wrong time to go on vacation, and he was right when he pointed out she always thinks it's the wrong time -- but it really was the wrong time this time.  She should have gone on vacation when there were no big new clients to be wooed; there's plenty of downtime where they're only serving existing clients, or pitching smaller accounts.  That was rather foolish, but she was reachable, so it wouldn't have come to a head like that if she hadn't "ignored" (which is what it seemed to them) the message.  Of course, assuming she just couldn't be bothered was really stupid; she's a workaholic, and had been taking all of Howie's other calls, so there's no way she's not going to respond to bombshell news like that.  He of all people would have realized she must not have been given the message and called her again.

But then, like you said, we wouldn't have had the plot where she opens her own agency.

I watched through "The Hickey", where we meet Todd Phillips.  Sam calls him the coolest boy in school, Tony says he thought that was Chad McCann, and Sam says no, Chad is the cutest, Todd is the coolest.  First, if Chad McCann is the cutest boy in school, that is one ugly-ass student body.  But, fundamentally, no, Chad got described before as the coolest, causing Jonathan's incredulous "This is the coolest guy in junior high?" question when that little dork came over while she was babysitting.

On the subject of Sam's love life, I greatly look forward to Angela calling Chad "that pubescent little philanderer" when Sam tells her she caught him kissing another girl.

Edited December 18, 2023 by Bastet

[GHScorpiosRule]

40 minutes ago, Bastet said:

She told Tony it was the wrong time to go on vacation, and he was right when he pointed out she always thinks it's the wrong time -- but it really was the wrong time this time.  She should have gone on vacation when there were no big new clients to be wooed; there's plenty of downtime where they're only serving existing clients, or pitching smaller accounts. 

This right here. But then, as we've stated, had she done that, she wouldn't have been fired and we wouldn't get the plot for her to open her own agency.

41 minutes ago, Bastet said:

I watched through "The Hickey", where we meet Todd Phillips.  Sam calls him the coolest boy in school, Angela says she thought that was Chad McCann, and Sam says no, Chad is the cutest, Todd is the coolest.  First, if Chad McCann is the cutest boy in school, that is one ugly-ass student body.  But, fundamentally, no, Chad always got described before as the coolest, causing Jonathan's incredulous "This is the coolest guy in junior high?" question when that little dork came over while she was babysitting.

I'm sooo glad I'm not the only one who thought that about Chad. Fugly ass is what he was. Weren't there better looking tween actors around? And Todd? Blech? Another LOSER. Couldn't handle Sam wiping the floor with him in the one-on-one basketball; and the way he tossed his head, disparaging the girls basketball team. I will say that also peeved me, because both my junior high and high school? The Girls' team got RESPECT. But, sitcom, so there you go.

43 minutes ago, Bastet said:

On the subject of Sam's love life, I greatly look forward to Angela calling Chad "that pubescent little philanderer" when Sam tells her she caught him kissing another girl.

Saw that the other day, Monday? And it was HILARIOUS!

But it also reminded me how not good Alyssa was crying at the end, when the following season, after Nick dies (as James Coco had passed away), she does a much better job with her grief and that episode never fails to make me tear up. 

When watching the season three post-Christmas episode with the flashbacks of how Tony was hired, I wonder why they didn't use cut up footage that surely they must have had, so that Sam looked more like the 10 year old she was? Or maybe give Danny a bowl cut wig in his flashbacks? Or, I don't know, iintercut, the ACTUAL scene of Tony knocking on Angela's door and her opening it from the pilot?

[Bastet]

On 12/13/2023 at 3:59 PM, GHScorpiosRule said:

When watching the season three post-Christmas episode with the flashbacks of how Tony was hired, I wonder why they didn't use cut up footage that surely they must have had, so that Sam looked more like the 10 year old she was? Or maybe give Danny a bowl cut wig in his flashbacks? Or, I don't know, iintercut, the ACTUAL scene of Tony knocking on Angela's door and her opening it from the pilot?

They wouldn't have any footage to show the expanded backstory they wanted to tell, so they have the inherent problem of the kids looking very obviously their current age in the flashbacks.  They could have worked around the kids, showing clips of them from the pilot but confining the new scenes set around that time to the adults -- Angela and Mona with the housekeeper discussing Jonathan, Tony and Mrs. Rossini discussing Samantha, and then the scene with Tony and Mona meeting -- but I get why they wouldn't want to do that, since the same people who'd be distracted by the kids not being the right age would be distracted by the obvious avoidance of them, and the overwhelming majority of viewers are not distracted (and many of them don't even take notice).

But, yeah, it's odd they used a new shot of Tony and Angela at the door.  The pilot version of that introduction is from Angela's POV, so we him from her side of the door, and the flashback is from his POV, so we see her from his side of the door, but even on a typical three-camera sitcom shooting set-up, her coverage must have been shot back at the time of the pilot.  I guess it was just easier by the time of "The Way We Was" to keep rolling and shoot that little bit anew than dig through the old footage.

I'm most of the way through the Geoffrey arc (I just have the proposal - "Geoffrey, the answer is ON" - left to go) and it's so refreshing that Geoffrey is never jealous of or threatened by Angela's relationship with Tony.  (It's also an indication he's a bit oblivious, but still, it's different from at least the initial reactions of every other man in her life - including Michael - that it's nice to see him simply believe and accept the extended family situation for what it is.)

 

[GHScorpiosRule]

Was this a continuity gaffe?

At the start of season 4, we have Sam stating she's "now a Freshman in high school" when she's explaining why she's dressed up and wanting to go to the college library or whatever excuse she said. Then, in "The Matriculator" Tony says to Sam how college is important and that she's now a "sophomore" which gave me whiplash. Huh?

Then there are Tony's hairstyles-it's short; not it's longish like the first season, no it's short again! GAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!

And then there's Tony's romantic teen history again--just WHEN did he meet, date, fall in love with, and marry Marie? We have "first loves" and "girls he was after but couldn't get" not to mention other references to other girls he dated, coming out the wazoo!

Edited December 15, 2023 by GHScorpiosRule

[JAYJAY1979]

I was watching Working Girls from season 5 today.. and it was one of the episodes I remember watching as a small child.. and seeing it as an adult, I still like this episode except for the very ending of the episode.

I liked that Bonnie was presented as being capable and smart in this episode where she had good ideas during her day at Angela's ad agency and being excited about seeing what Tony would be the next day.  She was a great side kick to Sam, but I liked that in this episode, she was presented in a positive way instead of her usual spacey mode.

While I liked the Angela/Sam close moment close to the end of the episode, I thought Sam was such an entitled brat during both of her stints with Tony/Angela.  Not only was I glad that Tony gave her a lecture about work, but he defended Angela when she said felt guilty for not being fun.

The ending should have had Bonnie leave with Angela while Sam decides to work with Tony at home as was originally agreed upon.. and then Tony decides to have Mona be Sam's helper.   

[ljenkins782]

On 12/13/2023 at 6:59 PM, GHScorpiosRule said:

But it also reminded me how not good Alyssa was crying at the end, when the following season, after Nick dies (as James Coco had passed away), she does a much better job with her grief and that episode never fails to make me tear up. 

Her attempt at tears in the Ray Charles episode is so cringey, that scene is hard to watch. With James Coco's actual death, she had something real to be sad about, I guess fake cheating by an ugly redheaded boy and a fake fight with her fake not-mother wasn't enough to stir her emotions, lol. 

Quote

 

I was watching Working Girls from season 5 today.. and it was one of the episodes I remember watching as a small child.. and seeing it as an adult, I still like this episode except for the very ending of the episode.

I liked that Bonnie was presented as being capable and smart in this episode where she had good ideas during her day at Angela's ad agency and being excited about seeing what Tony would be the next day.  She was a great side kick to Sam, but I liked that in this episode, she was presented in a positive way instead of her usual spacey mode.

While I liked the Angela/Sam close moment close to the end of the episode, I thought Sam was such an entitled brat during both of her stints withTony/Angela.  Not only was I glad that Tony gave her a lecture about work, but he defended Angela when she said felt guilty for not being fun.

 

I love that episode and agree that it was nice to see Bonnie get a positive spin. I so relate to Sam in this episode though, I'm forever doing things because someone else seems to be having a great time and then I don't enjoy it and that same person is having a blast somewhere else. Some people are just better at blooming where they're planted and can make the best of anything.

I also wonder why there just had be a dumb one among Sam's friends. Like Julia, there was some random blonde twit in one episode, and then Bonnie (who had previously been normal) had her IQ removed once she became the main friend. I just don't find that dumbness as funny as the show runners seem to think I should and much prefer the Bonnie moments where she's just being normal. 

Quote

 

... and I think her being fired is sadly believable.  A woman's devotion to the job would already be in question because she has a child (while men with children do not face the same stereotype), so when she left on a family vacation with the promise she'd be reachable if there were any problems with the presentation but then didn't return Howie's call when he said they lost the account (because he said they "lost the toilet paper" instead and Tony ridiculously thought that meant actual TP so didn't give her the message), she's going to get raked over the coals.  She stood up for herself, saying people need breaks, and that's how she's running this company and if they don't like it they can put a wimp like Jim Peterson in charge, and that was what did it (like Mona said) -- the fuddy duddy Chairman of the Board picked his little suck-up over someone who'd dare challenge his I never take vacations attitude.

She told Tony it was the wrong time to go on vacation, and he was right when he pointed out she always thinks it's the wrong time -- but it really was the wrong time this time.  She should have gone on vacation when there were no big new clients to be wooed; there's plenty of downtime where they're only serving existing clients, or pitching smaller accounts.  That was rather foolish, but she was reachable, so it wouldn't have come to a head like that if she hadn't "ignored" (which is what it seemed to them) the message.  Of course, assuming she just couldn't be bothered was really stupid; she's a workaholic, and had been taking all of Howie's other calls, so there's no way she's not going to respond to bombshell news like that.  He of all people would have realized she must not have been given the message and called her again.

 

Agreed. The "it's never a good time" is close enough to being true, but there is such a thing as the wrong time and if Angela is the pitch person and this account was that important, then the day of that presentation really IS the wrong time. Especially since the rest of that team seemed like a bunch of stiff and/or incompetent men and in advertising, the pitch is crucial. No matter how good the concept is, if the wrong person is pitching it, it can flop. 

But for them to accuse her of not caring was ridiculous, given her history. Although I sort of wonder what she was going to do if they already "lost the toilet paper." They'd already blown the pitch, the client bailed, what was Angela going to do at that point? 

Quote

I watched through "The Hickey", where we meet Todd Phillips.  Sam calls him the coolest boy in school, Angela says she thought that was Chad McCann, and Sam says no, Chad is the cutest, Todd is the coolest.  First, if Chad McCann is the cutest boy in school, that is one ugly-ass student body.  But, fundamentally, no, Chad always got described before as the coolest, causing Jonathan's incredulous "This is the coolest guy in junior high?" question when that little dork came over while she was babysitting.

Yeah, that made no sense, the actor who played Todd was far better looking than Chad. If they'd said Chad was the coolest (I mean, still hard to believe given what we saw of Chad, but charisma can override looks) and Todd was the cutest, that would have fit better. 

[Bastet]

2 hours ago, ljenkins782 said:

I also wonder why there just had be a dumb one among Sam's friends.

Maybe they did it as part of their changing Sam from someone who gets all B's and a C to someone who's eligible to graduate a year early -- further highlight she's now smart and studious by contrasting her with someone who's a space cadet?

2 hours ago, ljenkins782 said:

If they'd said Chad was the coolest (I mean, still hard to believe given what we saw of Chad,

Seriously.  Todd wound up doing jackass things, but in the beginning it made sense why Sam - and the girls girls in general - liked him.  Chad, though?  From the moment he opened his mouth, he was a twerpy tool.  And I'm Sam's age, and thought so at the time, so it's not only my adult eyes that roll at him -- I said Jonathan's incredulous "This is the coolest guy in junior high?" in my head before he said it aloud.

[JAYJAY1979]

I actually didn't think Bonnie was dumb, she just had a different way of looking at things that people didn't quite understand.  The show did a good job at making Bonnie a real character with layers even when she had her more spacey moments.  IMHO, the episodes where she had great moments were Life with Father, Boozin Buddies, Working Girls, and Her Father's Daughter.

Contrast that with Julia, who I was surprised could walk and chew gum at the same time.  However, she was made less dumb in her final appearances in season 4, especially in Big Girl on Campus where she seemed like a normal person that lacked a bit common sense.

I think a 'dumb' character can be funny if the performer has good comic timing, and has more layers/depth then just a walking punchline.

 

[Bastet]

On 12/15/2023 at 12:02 PM, GHScorpiosRule said:

Was this a continuity gaffe?

At the start of season 4, we have Sam stating she's "now a Freshman in high school" when she's explaining why she's dressed up and wanting to go to the college library or whatever excuse she said. Then, in "The Matriculator" Tony says to Sam how college is important and that she's now a "sophomore" which gave me whiplash. Huh?

It happens way before that, so it's even worse.  I just finished "New Kid in Town"*, which is only five episodes into season four (at the beginning of which, as you said, she was a freshman [which tracks, as she started junior high at the beginning of season two]), and they have her as a sophomore in that one -- she says she's the only girl in the tenth grade not going to the big dance.  They have her age right, at fifteen (in episode two, she was 14, just about to turn 15), but have her in the wrong grade.  Episode four was about Jonathan skipping from sixth grade to seventh**, and it's like by the next episode the writers had forgotten their own show and thought Sam was the one who skipped a grade.

That episode is a continuity nightmare all around; the final scene has Angela sharing an embarrassing story about her first "real" kiss, which is completely different than the season two story of her first "grown-up" kiss (which, of course, turns out to have been with Tony, when they were at adjoining summer camps).  I don't remember the flashback to the kiss when they were 11/13, so maybe she has some really detailed ranking of types of kisses and means something less than French kissing by "grown-up kiss" so that and the "real kiss" are indeed two different events, but it comes across as sloppy writing to me.

*In which we meet Jesse, who is absolutely insufferable; they must mellow him out a bit as they start dating, because I do not remember him being unbearable.

**And that one has a continuity error, too, when Jonathan says the big pro to staying in seventh grade rather than going back to sixth is he'll get to dissect a frog, when we know he'd already done that, as in an earlier episode (I can't remember which one) everyone was repulsed that he brought home in his lunchbox the heart from the frog he dissected, in case his lizard needs a transplant.

Edited December 17, 2023 by Bastet

[GHScorpiosRule]

16 hours ago, Bastet said:

*In which we meet Jesse, who is absolutely insufferable; they must mellow him out a bit as they start dating, because I do not remember him being unbearable.

I couldn’t STAND Jesse. Snob in the reverse. I hated how he tried to change Sam. And while Sam was a typical teenager-I didn’t like how the show made her so shallow when it came to their relationship. And I had to laugh in the prom episode, how Tony didn’t go crazy with Lucy as he did in the first season with Sam’s first dance.

And the show doesn’t even have the excuse of different or new writers to explain all the continuity gaffes! The worst is changing Tony’s background form a popular jock who dated different girls (contradicting his history with Marie) to being a LOSER and a nerd in the season 7 episode with that new gym/juicebar.

[Bastet]

1 hour ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

I couldn’t STAND Jesse. Snob in the reverse. I hated how he tried to change Sam.

Yes, that he tried to change her was the big problem with him in his debut episode!  It's great that he's informed and boycotts based on his principles (in a capitalist society, that's one of the biggest powers we have), and it's good to share that information with others, but he went about it all wrong.  When he finds out where the dance is being held, instead of asking Sam and her date if they know about the endangered bird whose habitat the country club intends to destroy, he says, "No, you can't go there."  Excuse me?!  Now, okay, that's certainly not unheard of in people, especially teenagers, but he was presented as being in the right.  Even when she makes a good point about him, he - in all seriousness - chalks her insightfulness up to him rubbing off on her.  Then he does that whole I'm a jerk to you because I see your potential bullshit and she kisses him!  Fuck off, show.

[GHScorpiosRule]

I couldn’t have said it better, @Bastet!

I think I keep reward for Tony and his relationship with Sam-it really resonated and still resonates with me, as I was and still am,  closer to my dad.

I know I stated this up thread, but I hated how meaner Mona got from season 5 onwards. And that the friendship between her and Tony just disappeared. And turned into the the stereotypical mother-in-law vs. son-in-law even though Tony and Angela weren’t married!

Anorher gaffe was airing the back door pilot for Leah Remini’s show at the end if season five, and then introducing her character in season six’s “Life’s a Ditch” where she meets Trish and is convinced to move in with her other models.

Edited December 17, 2023 by GHScorpiosRule

[Bastet]

2 minutes ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

I know I stated this up thread, but I hated how meaner Mona got from season 5 onwards.

I was already furious with her near the end of season three, when in "Reconcilable Differences" Angela hired, based on Tony's recommendation, a second assistant at the office -- someone who'd actually, you know, work.  Mona is great with client relations, but she doesn't want to file and stuff like that.  So, okay, this should have been a good thing -- she could have told Angela she volunteered to work as her secretary to get the agency up and running, and now that it's successful, she wants to just handle client relations, and this insanely enthusiastic and efficient person who loves doing all the secretarial work she hates can take over that aspect of the job.  Instead, she gets pissed that Angela enjoys having someone keep the office running so well, demands that Angela fire her or she'll quit, then still quits when Fiona nicely resigns rather than further this mess, and then Tony is on Angela to apologize to Mona.  FOR WHAT?!

13 minutes ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

the back door pilot

This show sure loved its back door pilots, didn't it?  So far I've come across the first modeling-related one, with Fran Drescher (even though she'd already played an interior decorator in an earlier episode) and some blonde who can't act, and the one where Mona decides to help her brother run a hotel (with Joe Regalbuto among the cast, even though he'd already appeared in this universe as the priest Tony hit), and wound up bailing out early on both of them.  And then, yeah, I know there's that weirdness coming up with the two introductions to Charlie and Trish.

Speaking of bailing, thus far I have also cut out early, because they were boring me, on the one where Sam thinks she's the next great ballerina and "Raging Housekeeper".  I should probably go back and see if either one have cute tag scenes, though.

[GHScorpiosRule]

10 minutes ago, Bastet said:

I have also cut out early, because they were boring me, on the one where Sam thinks she's the next great ballerina and "Raging Housekeeper".  I should probably go back and see if either one have cute tag scenes, though.

I think the ballerina one had a funny one-Jonathan, Tony, and Sam have the most painful expressions on their faces as they’re forced to listen to Angela’s “playing” the cello and Mona walks in and cuts the strings!😂😂😂

”Raging Housekeeper” was okay. I think the Tag was that Tony couldn’t move and begged Angela to help him up or something.

[Bastet]

Ugh, "Another Single Parent" is awful.  So awful, instead of skipping ahead like I did with the episodes that were just boring, I had to keep going to see how awful it would get.  It is so incredibly uninformed; the majority of parental abductions are by fathers, not mothers, and when it is a mother, she's often doing so to flee an abuser.  That was not the case here, no, but it just shows how ignorant the writers were that before they talked to Kelly, neither Angela nor Tony raised that as a possibility when first discussing what Melissa had said. 

And, yeah, I know Melissa is a little kid, but she cannot fucking act to save her life, and the actor playing her mom has no excuse for not being much better.  Just a pathetic episode all around, with the "best" parts being the already-tired jokes about Angela's hair color.

I've watched up through "The Matriculator", and this mid-to-late stretch of season four is not really doing it for me. 

[JAYJAY1979]

I was watching the episode 'Mona & Walter & Sam & Eric' from season 6 and it was refreshing to see Mona not being so mean spirited like she tended to be starting in season 6 till the end of the show.

This episode provided some backstory (probably for the upteenth time) of how Mona ended up meeting Angela's father, and it was nice to see Mona put aside her pride/stubborness for Sam.  

I tend to think sitcoms in later seasons will focus on one or two character traits that garnered laughs in the earlier seasons.. not realizing that it wasn't just the punchlines.. but the other layers of the character that make an audience laugh. 

[GHScorpiosRule]

22 hours ago, Bastet said:

Ugh, "Another Single Parent" is awful.  So awful, instead of skipping ahead like I did with the episodes that were just boring, I had to keep going to see how awful it would get.  It is so incredibly uninformed; the majority of parental abductions are by fathers, not mothers, and when it is a mother, she's often doing so to flee an abuser.  That was not the case here, no, but it just shows how ignorant the writers were that before they talked to Kelly, neither Angela nor Tony raised that as a possibility when first discussing what Melissa had said. 

I know! And how things DON'T change--just go to the well of "x has a right to be with/know his/her faaaaather" without knowing of the details; or even if it's known, so what? What about the Faaaaaaaather?

I think they also did another in season six? about a man/father who actually kidnapped his child? Or am I conflating it with another show? We'll see. I'm just skipping episodes at this point. It's very frustrating because I have HULU with Disney+ bundle, and it's ad-free, but every damned episode cuts off after 10 minutes, kicks me out of the app-so I have to go back in, click resume and fast forward a minute because it doesn't resume from when it kicked me out. I've already spoken with HULU-this is the ONLY show it's happening. I'll have to call them again tonight because I tried watching from the main menu instead of under "My Stuff" to see if that would help.

Ahem.

22 hours ago, Bastet said:

And, yeah, I know Melissa is a little kid, but she cannot fucking act to save her life,

I've always thought the same. She was cast to play Blake and Krystal's late baby in Dynasty, and she was awful then, too.

22 hours ago, Bastet said:

I've watched up through "The Matriculator", and this mid-to-late stretch of season four is not really doing it for me. 

Same. I never caught on to how the show couldn't decide if Sam was average, dumb, or super smart. At the end of season five, she got a D in chemistry-which proved she hadn't cheated, but a year later, she's chosen for an accelerated program-where she skips her senior year-because she's so smart? Then they undo all of that in 7, with that stupid plot of her new boyfriend and her staying in...Arizona?

Like I stated above, I'm just skipping and watching episodes I remember liking. But it's tough, because I don't like how mean Mona is at this point.

[Bastet]

Ugh, the Max storyline.  Apparently, they gave him a baby just so Tony Danza could put his new daughter on the air, because by his next episode, Max apparently has no child -- he proposes he and Mona go sail around the world for a year, so he's clearly no longer a custodial father, and when his ex-wife returns, she doesn't have or mention the kid, either.  Good grief; if the star wants a cameo for his new baby, have Samantha be babysitting in a tag.  Don't make the existence of said baby the reason Max breaks up with Mona and then bring him back proposing to her as footloose and fancy free!

I do love Leslie Nielsen, though.

I finished season four, and I still have the most extreme case of second-hand embarrassment for Angela when everyone hears her talking in her sleep.  She's already admitted to her therapist that she loves Tony, and we know Tony is going to dick around for several more years before he finally admits how he feels, so to have her humiliated like that has always been hard for me to watch.

But I do love the tag to the one before that, though, where he recreates her prom in the living room and dances with her.  That is so sweet. 

And the dress Sam wanted is as cute as the one Angela pushed her into getting is ugly.  It really looks nice on her, and doesn't look like everyone else's '80s prom dress.  Observe that Angela apologizes for ignoring what Sam wanted, yet Jesse never even acknowledges that Sam wanted to go in the limo and he just vetoed it without discussing it with her, like he has the final word.  Nobody asked his ass to pay for it, so he would hardly be compromising his principles (whatever the hell they even are in this case) by merely riding in one as Angela's treat.

Edited December 19, 2023 by Bastet

[GHScorpiosRule]

1 hour ago, Bastet said:

She's already admitted to her therapist that she loves Tony, and we know Tony is going to dick around for several more years, so to have her humiliated like that has always been hard for me to watch.

I KNOW! And another gaffe-in that episode she tells the therapist it’s her first time seeing a therapist and then in season 6-“Supermom Burnout” she tells the family therapist (H!I!T!G! Alan Miller (villain on Scarecrow & Mrs. King, judge on original Law & Order)) she’s been in therapy over 20 years.

And Jesse is just an ASS. I was a teen in the 80s and I know what hot clubs were like. Afrika? Was NOT A “hot new club” in “Double Dumped” but a high end restaurant!

 

[Snow Apple]

I love Sam's prom dress. You can wear it today and it won't look dated like other 80's fashion. 

I hated Jesse too and was glad when they broke up. Back when I was young in the 80's, I usually get attached to the person that the main character(s) dated and and didn't like when they break up, but I was glad when this one was gone.

[Bastet]

I've watched so many more episodes while the forums were non-functional I've lost track of what happened when, but they corrected themselves on having started season four with Sam was a freshman (as she should be) but in two later episodes that season referring to her as a sophomore instead -- Sam is still a sophomore in season five.  And then a junior in season six.  I don't know whether they screwed that up in season four, or if they did it on purpose, wanting to hurry up and tell some "older" stories for her, but then decided to pull back and do the whole "I'm eligible to graduate a year early" thing instead as the means to that end.

I had forgotten all about it until just as it started to happen, and I laughed so hard I nearly peed myself at the way Jonathan's voice cracks when he yells "What the hell was that?!" about Angela peppering him with kisses (I don't remember which episode it happens in).  Poor pubescent kid, but that was epic.

"Sam's Novel Romance" is a disturbing look back at what far too many used to shrug off -- 17-year-old Sam gets obsessed with a guy who has to be about 25, and it's presented as something that wouldn't have been a big deal had it not turned out he's married.

In the one where Tony decides he wants to become a teacher, I skipped the classroom scenes because kids bug me, but I love how supportive Angela is of him throughout that one.  She goes with him to get his aptitude test results, and when he fixates on business being one of the things he's suited for and gets all excited about his future, she tells him she always knew he'd do big and important things -- and then when he feels called to teaching instead, she repeats it, with such love and pride.

I'm not quite halfway through season six, and, good lords, I am prepared to be devastated on Angela's behalf when Tony sleeps with Kathleen and wants to keep dating her -- Tony and Angela are so thoroughly acting like a committed couple (just with an unfortunate lack of sex) ever since the Jamaica episode that started the season, it's no wonder she was not at all expecting that (to be fair, neither was he). 

On 12/17/2023 at 10:18 AM, GHScorpiosRule said:

The worst is changing Tony’s background form a popular jock who dated different girls (contradicting his history with Marie) to being a LOSER and a nerd in the season 7 episode with that new gym/juicebar.

So this is something still to come in season 7, you're not referring to the tag in the season 6 episode "Sex, Lies, and Exercise Tape"?  Because that tag - in which the fellow nerd who finally comes and joins Angela at her lonely table is played by Tony - isn't supposed to be reality.

[GHScorpiosRule]

29 minutes ago, Bastet said:

I had forgotten all about it until just as it started to happen, and I laughed so hard I nearly peed myself at the way Jonathan's voice cracks when he yells "What the hell was that?!" about Angela peppering him with kisses (I don't remember which episode it happens in).  Poor pubescent kid, but that was epic.

That’s “Life’s a Ditch” when we first meet Charlie.

30 minutes ago, Bastet said:

Is this is something still to come in season 7, you're not referring to the tag in the season 6 episode "Sex, Lies, and Exercise Tape"?  Because that tag - in which the fellow nerd who finally comes and joins Angela at her lonely table is played by Tony - isn't supposed to be reality.

Yes, something to come. The tag is a flashback where Angela is an overweight brunette and Tony had the taped glasses and plastered hair. Not the one where Tony Danza is playing a different character. I skipped pretty much all of seven except for when we meet Robert, Mona’s husband/Angela’s dad-played my Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.

[Bastet]

1 hour ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

Yes, something to come. The tag is a flashback where Angela is an overweight brunette and Tony had the taped glasses and plastered hair.

That's the tag to "Sex, Lies, and Exercise Tape".  It doesn't play to me as if it's supposed to be something that really happened -- they're not suddenly declaring that Tony and Angela went to high school together, or that he was that dork.  It's more of Angela just using an image of Tony when she pictures the one special guy who thinks she's keen, just like how she's not actually seeing her real young self in the earlier memories -- it's always an amalgamation of now and then, reality and perception, caused by feeling now similar to how she felt then.

1 hour ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

I skipped pretty much all of seven except for when we meet Robert, Mona’s husband/Angela’s dad-played my Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.

That's season six, too -- when Mona is in the hospital.  I haven't gotten to that one yet, but I remember it because I love Angela telling her off in the beginning. 

Next one up for me is "Gambling Jag" in which Mona is completely blasé about losing Angela's car and diamond necklace to a con man (played by the fantastic Robert Culp).  After that is the one in which Sam reveals she's got such good grades and test scores she's eligible for early graduation.  As we've all been saying -- since when?!  She's consistently shown to be reasonably smart but a somewhat lazy student; the two times we've heard specific grades, it was in reference to a report card with all B's except for one C, and later a D she got in Chemistry.  That one was just at the end of her sophomore year, and now halfway through her junior year she's suddenly a star student?  I can't wait to see if they actually even address that this is a big change for her.

Edited December 24, 2023 by Bastet

[GHScorpiosRule]

5 minutes ago, Bastet said:

That's the tag to "Sex, Lies, and Exercise Tape".  It doesn't play to me as if it's supposed to be something that really happened -- they're not suddenly declaring that Tony and Angela went to high school together, or that he was that dork

It is? Huh. For some reason I thought it was supposed to be some flashback because I could have sworn Tony said that they were both losers or geeks in high school.

7 minutes ago, Bastet said:

That's season six, too -- w

Right! I kept forgetting season 7 is the Billy season.  UGH.

8 minutes ago, Bastet said:

which Sam reveals she's got such good grades and test scores she's eligible for early graduation.  As we've all been saying -- since when?!  She's consistently shown to be reasonably smart but a somewhat lazy student; the two times we've heard specific grades, it was in reference to a report card with all B's except for one C, and later a D she got in Chemistry.  That one was just at the end of her sophomore year, and now halfway through her junior year she's suddenly a star student?  I can't wait to see if they actually even address that this is a big change for her.

That’s “Sam Accelerates” and the way they explain how she suddenly qualifies for the scholastic program is that she listened to her dad and “studied really hard” which is bullshit. I know I studied and studied but still couldn’t get a decent grade in chemistry and could never get beyond a B in math/Calculus.

[Bastet]

24 minutes ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

I could have sworn Tony said that they were both losers or geeks in high school.

It's another instance where the first part of the scene is cut off due to Hulu's inability to time ad breaks, but I don't think it's missing enough for him to have said that.  There is something earlier where he tells her now she has him feeling like he's back in high school, but it wasn't about him being a loser/geek back then, too.

24 minutes ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

the way they explain how she suddenly qualifies for the scholastic program is that she listened to her dad and “studied really hard”

Oh, for Pete's sake.  So she's an average student in junior high and her first two years of high school, during which time she doesn't take any advanced courses, and then for one semester applies herself, so suddenly the school decides she's the greatest thing since sliced bread?