Season 4 Episode 10: At the Zoo

This is the episode that deals with the wreckage of 976-SHOE, and it does not pretend the damage was temporary. Steve has lost his job and has not told anyone how little he is doing about it. He has been spending his days taking Peg, Bud and Kelly to the zoo, then coming home and manufacturing evidence of a day spent looking for work, including rummaging through a gym bag for something that will cover the smell of having enjoyed himself.

Marcy, meanwhile, is carrying the household on a job several rungs below the one she had. She spells out the terms: drive-up teller, fifty hours a week, a six minute lunch break, and customers who spit at her. When she finds out what Steve has actually been doing with his days, she knocks him out.

What makes this one worth going out of your way for is what happens next. Al takes Marcy to a bar and is kind to her. Not sarcastic, not scoring points, genuinely kind, telling her to ignore the people around her and hold her horns up high, which is still an insult but is offered as comfort. There are maybe three moments in the entire run where Al treats Marcy as a friend rather than a target, and this is the best of them. She also talks, soberly, about why she and Steve never had children, and the episode lets that sit. For anyone tracking the Rhoades arc, this is the floor. Steve never recovers his footing after it, and within two seasons David Garrison had left the regular cast. Watched in order, the run from the loan through to this bar scene is the show quietly writing its own neighbours out.

Episode Facts

• Original air date: November 26, 1989
• Season 4, Episode 10, and the 67th episode of the series
• Written by Katherine Green
• Directed by Gerry Cohen

Guest Cast

• Dan Tullis Jr. as Sonny
• Jennifer Banko as Courtney
• Matt McKenzie as the reporter
• Frank Lloyd as Norris
• Michael Francis Clarke as the bartender
• Lisa Moss as the television announcer
• Trudy Adams as Chelsea

The One Where Al Is Nice to Marcy

Dan Tullis Jr. is here again, two episodes after his first appearance, this time as a construction worker in the bar rather than a sheriff. He kept turning up in different parts until the show settled him as Officer Dan in season 8.

Michael Francis Clarke, the bartender, came back in season 9 as the stage manager on the beer commercial shoot in “Kelly Breaks Out.”

The title plays on the Marx Brothers film At the Circus.

Famous Quotes

• Courtney: “You can’t tell me you’re not hungry. My daddy says you eat bugs and dirt.” Al: “You go home and tell your daddy you have the mailman’s eyes.” A girl scout, repelled.
• Steve: “I was supposed to be out looking for a job today. If she smells fun on me I’m a dead man!” Steve, covering his tracks.
• Peg: “I don’t think Steve has what it takes not to work. He almost seems ashamed of it.” Peg, who does have what it takes.
• Peg: “If I ever get like that…” Al: “In case I’m not here when that happens, can I just wing you now?” Al, planning ahead.

Notes

• Goof: the turtle Steve is said to have killed by releasing it into Lake Michigan is described as a salt water species, and Lake Michigan is fresh water.