Season 9 Episode 23: Pump Fiction

Kelly’s assignment at the Larry Storch School of Acting is to make a film, and she enlists her father. What they produce is a short called Shoes, which the show plays straight as an avant-garde work and which gets a festival screening, where the emcee introduces it as a taut and gripping piece in the Warhol tradition. Marcy heckles from the third row and is told to sit down, at which point she announces that the heckler has upset her husband, and the cut to Jefferson explains why that threat carries no weight. Then the film wins ten thousand dollars of public arts funding to make another one, and Al’s sequel is titled A Day in the Life of a Shoe Salesman and is cast entirely with bikini models and attractive men. Marcy’s response is to bring an alderman to the shoe store to stop the production, and the alderman’s reaction to one of the cast members ends that intervention immediately. Al’s justification, that the grant was for a film about his own life and that Marcy is welcome to rent something more suited to hers, is the line of the episode. Jeremy Piven is in the audience at the premiere, uncredited.

The money is what turns the half-hour. Ten thousand dollars of funding arrives for a follow-up, and Al’s artistic instincts reveal themselves immediately: the sequel is bikini models and leading men in a shoe store, made over Marcy’s objections and with no visible interest in whatever the first film was supposed to be about. The episode also checks in on Luke Ventura, Al’s co-worker from the first season, now Salesman of the Month at a major Chicago department store and on the cover of Shoe News, which is about as pointed a comparison as the series ever drew.

Episode Facts

• Original air date: April 30, 1995
• Season and episode: Season 9, Episode 23
• Overall episode number: 207
• Written by: Kim Weiskopf and David Castro
• Directed by: Gerry Cohen
• Production note: Jeremy Piven appears uncredited as one of the audience members at the premiere, in glasses and a turtleneck, seated behind Jefferson.
• Production note: Luke Ventura, Al’s co-worker from season 1, is mentioned as now working at a major Chicago department store and making the front page of Shoe News as Salesman of the Month. The photograph used is a real season 1 publicity still of Ritch Shydner.
• Title note: A play on Pulp Fiction, which had come out the previous autumn, crossed with a style of women’s shoe.

Guest Cast

• Tom Henschel as Marshall
• Shae Marks as Colleen
• Jennifer Echols as Gwen
• Mark Voland as Alderman Kuczxynski
• Vene L. Arcoraci as Eileen
• Miles Arreola as Devin
• Wanda Acuna as Babette
• Dawn Radenbaugh as Darlene
• Elisha Choice as Justine
• Jeremy Piven as a movie watcher (uncredited)
• Edd Hall as the TV announcer (uncredited)

Shoes, a Film

The premiere scene is the funniest thing in the episode and Marcy carries it. She boos before the film starts, objects to the introduction, is singled out by the emcee as the gentleman in the third row, and sits down immediately. Her attempt to threaten him with her husband’s displeasure is then undercut by a cut to Jefferson, who is busy and has not noticed any of it.

Al’s defence of his funding is the best line he gets. The grant was awarded for a film about his life, and his recommendation for what Marcy should watch if she wants a film about hers is a John Wayne picture from 1975.

The Luke Ventura detail is a nice piece of continuity for long-term viewers, and it comes with a revision. Peg describes him here as a courteous, competent employee, which is not how she treated him in season 1, where she regarded him with open contempt. The series had him outperform Al in two of his four episodes.

Shae Marks, one of the shoe store cast, had been Playboy’s Playmate of the Month in May 1994 and returns in season 10’s “The Two That Got Away.” Jennifer Echols makes the first of several appearances here, playing two other characters in season 10 before returning to this one in season 11.

“Also sprach Zarathustra” scores the screening of Shoes, which is exactly the right choice for a short film about footwear presented as high art.

Famous Quotes

• Marshall, introducing the film: “Shoes is a taut and gripping short film in the Warhol tradition.” Marcy: “Oh, please!” Marshall: “Will the gentleman in the third row please SIT DOWN and stop heckling?!”
• Marcy, sitting down: “Now you’ve done it! Now you’ve gone and ticked off my husband!” Jefferson, mid-flirtation with a stranger: “Hmm?”
• Kelly: “The name of our new movie is A Day in the Life of a Shoe Salesman.” Peg: “Yes, but aren’t you gonna start with the short cartoon, A Day in the Sex Life of a Shoe Salesman?” Al: “Oh, I’m really gonna miss you, Peg… Well, not if I buy a scope.”
• Marcy, arriving with the alderman: “This is exactly where our tax money is going, to finance stupid films like this made by idiotic filmmakers like him and… Steven Seagal.”
• Al, on the grant: “The N.E.A. gave me money for me to make a movie of my life. If you want to see a movie of your life, I suggest you go rent Rooster Cogburn.”

Notes

• Bud’s suggestions for what Kelly might be doing at acting school, and then for what her film might be called, are two of his better one-liners.
• The photograph of Peg seen floating in the water during the film is a season 3 publicity still.
• Edd Hall, the Tonight Show announcer and a frequent uncredited voice on this series, reads the news report near the end.

Watching It

Amazon’s Prime Video catalog has this episode cross-filed with another entry, so a direct link here would open the wrong episode. To watch it, open the Married with Children season 9 page on Prime Video and choose episode 23 from the list, or use the complete series DVD release.