Season 5 Episode 2: Al … with Kelly

A trip to Peg’s mother is scheduled, and Al and Kelly independently arrive at the same solution, which is to be too unwell to travel. It works. Peg and Bud leave, and father and daughter have the house to themselves for a week, an arrangement Al sets out ground rules for immediately and which involves the two of them barely interacting.

Then Kelly genuinely falls ill, and the episode becomes something the show rarely attempted: Al looking after one of his children. He is bad at it and she exploits it relentlessly, chiefly with a small bell that Peg bought as an April Fool’s joke, which she had rung to make Al think dinner was ready. Kelly rings it. Al’s face when he explains that he had been starving is the best thing in the episode and Kelly cannot keep a straight face through it.

Two pieces of series furniture arrive here. Psycho Dad, Al’s favourite television programme, is mentioned for the first time, and this is the first episode in which he specifies four touchdowns in a single game. Before this he had talked about the big game and the winning touchdown without ever putting a number on it. From here the four touchdowns became the single most repeated fact about him.

Pamela Anderson plays one of two women in Al’s fantasy, early in her career and some time before Baywatch. It is also one of the few episodes that gives Al and Kelly a two-hander. The show usually paired her with Bud or with Peg, and putting her alone with her father for a week produces something closer to affection than either of them would admit to. She tortures him with a bell and he takes it, which from Al is practically a declaration.

Episode Facts

• Original air date: September 30, 1990
• Season 5, Episode 2, and the 82nd episode of the series
• The first episode filmed for season 5, though aired second
• First mention of Psycho Dad, and the first time Al specifies four touchdowns
• Teleplay by Stacie Lipp, story by Gabrielle Topping
• Directed by Gerry Cohen

Guest Cast

• Pamela Anderson as Yvette
• Becky Mullen as Yvonne
• Jay Anthony Franke as the pizza boy
• Teresa Frost as the nurse

Where the Four Touchdowns Start

Amanda Bearse is credited but does not appear in this episode.

Al tells Kelly that he carried her home from the hospital as a baby, left her on the roof of the Dodge, and nearly drove off without Peggy as well.

He also supplies an account of Peg’s mother eating a dog that involves bacon, toothpicks and a microwave, which is the kind of detail the show attached to that character for eleven seasons without ever showing her face.

Famous Quotes

• Al: “We’re going to be spending a whole week together. And you might hear a Yippy or a Yow from me. That doesn’t mean…” Al, setting house rules.
• Pizza Boy: “You owe me $7.50, plus a tip.” Al: “I’ll give you a tip. Doors are hard. Keep the change!” The delivery, concluded.
• Kelly: “She’d ring it and you’d think dinner’s ready.” Al: “But I was starving!” The bell, explained.
• Kelly: “Please stop, daddy! If I laugh, I’m gonna cough!” Kelly, losing it.

Notes

• Goof: Kelly says she has not worn pantyhose since she was seven, while wearing them in the opening credits.
• Goof: the wallpaper in Al’s bedroom changes pattern in the fantasy shot.