Season 8 Episode 2: Hood ‘n the Boyz

Al and Peg take a second honeymoon, which means a motel in the city, and the episode splits its attention between what Peg wants from the trip and what Al ends up doing instead. Peg’s objective is straightforward and she pursues it three separate times over the course of the episode, with Al’s reactions between rounds supplying some of the broadest comedy the series ever attempted, cutting away to rams colliding and a dummy next to a drill press. What interrupts it is a call for help from Mary Ellen Litchfield, a girl Al knew growing up, whose neighbourhood is being run by a young man called Ray-Ray and his crew. Al, being the man who scored four touchdowns in a single game, agrees to deal with it. He assembles a group of surviving Polk High Panthers, marches them down to confront the gang, and the show scores the approach to an instrumental “Beat It.” Ray-Ray whistles. More of his people arrive. Al turns around to find that his teammates have driven off and left an inhaler behind. What he says next, after a brief internal pep talk about what a king would say in this situation, is the funniest line in the episode and he says it twice, once to Ray-Ray and once, later that night, to his wife. It is one of the better Al episodes of season 8, and the final speech is the sort of thing the show earned the right to deliver after seven years of setup.

Episode Facts

• Original air date: September 12, 1993
• Season and episode: Season 8, Episode 2
• Overall episode number: 159
• Written by: Michael G. Moye
• Directed by: Tony Singletary
• Title note: A play on John Singleton’s Boyz n the Hood, which Columbia produced, as it did this series.

Guest Cast

• Matthew Borlenghi as Ray-Ray (credited as Matt Borlenghi)
• Debra Engle as Mary Ellen Litchfield
• Kimberly Paige as Jackie
• Chuck Le Fever as Skippy
• Skye Bassett as Ray-Ray’s girl
• Alex Zonn as the bum
• Nicholas Brendon as one of Ray-Ray’s crew (uncredited)

The King and His Court

Al’s speech to Ray-Ray in the final confrontation is one of the best things Michael G. Moye ever wrote for the character and it is not a joke. Al concedes that he is a moron and that all men are, explains that this is simply what being a man consists of, and works through the evidence: the first worm somebody dared them to eat, the last shovel of snow they moved, the skiing they will do because a girl asked them to, the tree at the bottom of the hill, the weight room and the bench press attempted for an audience. His summary, that men are nothing more to women than an amusement park ride with life insurance, is the thesis of the entire series delivered straight to camera by a man who has just been beaten up twice.

The build to the street confrontation is the episode’s best sight gag. The Panthers arrive, the odds improve, Ray-Ray whistles, the odds collapse, and Al turns to find an empty street and a dropped inhaler. The internal monologue that follows, in which he instructs himself to say what a king would say, is Ed O’Neill at his best.

Nicholas Brendon appears uncredited as one of Ray-Ray’s crew, five years before Buffy. That makes two future Buffy leads passing through this series in consecutive seasons, after David Boreanaz in “Movie Show.”

Chuck Le Fever’s Skippy returns in season 9’s “Dud Bowl,” where the character has died and the actor appears instead as a different Panther at his funeral. Matt Borlenghi came back in season 10’s “Enemies” as Tom.

Famous Quotes

• Al, as the odds turn: “What, are we supposed to be scared?! Well, let me tell you something about the king and his court!”
• Al, in voiceover, after discovering his team has left: “Well, this certainly sucks! This is no time to panic. If you’re still king, just say what a king would say.” Then, aloud: “C-c-can’t we all just get along?”
• Al, later that night, hearing his name from the other side of the motel bed: “Aww, Peg… C-c-can’t we all just g-get along?”
• Al, to Ray-Ray: “We are nothing more to women than an amusement park ride with life insurance. Why else would we do the idiotic things that we do?”

Notes

• Peg compares Al’s level of excitement to Ginger Week on Gilligan’s Island. Tina Louise, who played Ginger, had appeared on this show in season 5’s “Kelly Bounces Back.”
• Al proposes settling matters with Ray-Ray out in the street like Ren and Stimpy.
• Goofs: Peg complains that she cannot remember the last time Al took her to the beach, despite two previous beach episodes, and the suitcases Al hauls into the motel room are clearly empty.