Season 10 Episode 22: Enemies

This one was built to leave. “Enemies” is a backdoor pilot for a proposed spin-off that FOX did not pick up, which would have been the third attempted offshoot of the series, and it shows in the structure: the half-hour belongs to a set of young characters orbiting a diner, with the Bundy house reduced to bookends. Tom, a deliveryman, turns up with a package, is on the outs with his girlfriend Shannon, and asks Kelly out for the evening. Shannon’s counter-move is to produce a wealthy older man named Henry, and the four of them converge on George’s Diner to conduct the rest of the evening in front of an audience.

The jealousy contest escalates exactly as designed, scored to a parody of “Tainted Love,” and the diner setting gives the episode its best scene, one that has nothing to do with the main plot. Marcy and Jefferson arrive determined to have an authentic neighbourhood experience and proceed to address the cook, George, in a register neither of them has any business attempting. George’s response is to repeat, with increasing finality, that the establishment serves hamburgers. Phill Lewis plays the whole exchange on a slow burn and wins it without raising his voice.

Tom and Shannon reconcile, which leaves Henry free to take Kelly out, and the episode’s closing joke belongs to Al. He has become a devoted viewer of Friends, the show the title is parodying, on the strength of watching it muted through binoculars, and by the time the credits roll Henry has joined him at the window. The credits roll over that scene rather than the usual freeze frame, and the DVD release preserves the original closing music, which it rarely does.

Episode Facts

• Original air date: Sunday, April 14, 1996 on FOX
• Season 10, Episode 22
• Overall episode 234 of the series
• Production code 10.23
• Written by Richard Gurman, Stacie Lipp and Russell Marcus
• Directed by Gerry Cohen
• The title parodies NBC’s Friends
• A backdoor pilot for a proposed spin-off that was not picked up, the third such attempt from this series
• Katey Sagal does not appear; she was on maternity leave

Guest Cast

• Alan Thicke as Henry
• Nicole Eggert as Shannon
• Matthew Borlenghi as Tom
• Phill Lewis as George
• Chris Young as Jackson
• Terri Ivens as Maria
• Melissa Chan as Keiko
• Jean Speegle Howard as Claire
• Rance Howard as Edwin

Hamburgers at George’s Diner

As a pilot the episode has the problem every backdoor pilot has: the new characters have to carry it while the people the audience tuned in for stand aside. Tom, Shannon, Henry and the diner regulars get the plot, and the jealousy contest is competent without ever being especially funny. What the half-hour does have is a setting the spin-off could have lived in, and a strong comic performance from Phill Lewis as the man who owns it.

The D’Arcys’ scene is the episode’s clear highlight and it has nothing to do with the pilot at all. Marcy announces that she is down with the people, Jefferson turns his cap backwards, and the two of them request collard greens, ox-tails and moon pies from a man whose menu is hamburgers. The joke works because George refuses to play along: he simply keeps answering the question that was not asked, and because Marcy’s eventual retreat into “Your mama!” is the sound of a person who has run out of material.

The Howard family connection is worth noting. The elderly couple in the diner are Jean Speegle Howard and Rance Howard, married in life and the parents of Ron and Clint Howard. Jean had appeared the previous season in “And Bingo Was Her Game-O” alongside Clint, which makes this her second of two roles on the series.

Famous Quotes

• Marcy: “Wow, Jefferson, this is a real soul experience. Not some fake yuppie hangout. We are down with the people.” / Marcy: “You’re not wearing that Rolex I gave you, are you?” / Jefferson: “Oh, no, no. I sold that long ago. I mean, it’s too precious to ever wear.”
• Marcy: “We’re new to the ‘hood. What can you recommend?” / George: “…The hamburgers.”
• Marcy: “You know, like collard greens, ox-tails, moon pies.” / George: “I’m glad you’ve seen Martin. But here, we serve… hamburgers!”
• Marcy: “If you insist on dissing your customers in that manner, then we are just going to have to ease on down that road.” / Jefferson: “Wooooooord!” / George: “Well, then, I guess you want your order to go.”
• Kelly: “Friends? I thought you hated that show.” / Al: “I do. But if you mute the sound and watch with binoculars…” The episode’s closing position.

Notes

• The credits roll over a continuation of the final scene rather than the usual still frame of Al and Peg, with Henry still at the window. The DVD release keeps the original credits and the “Love and Marriage” cue intact, which is unusual for the set.
• Alan Thicke returns to the series in season eleven as Bruce, who dates Peggy during the Bundys’ separation in “Breaking Up Is Easy to Do.”
• Matthew Borlenghi had appeared in season eight’s “Hood ‘n the Boyz” as Ray-Ray; Melissa Chan had been one of the reporters in season nine’s “Ship Happens (Part 2).”
• Former series guest Matt LeBlanc was by then a lead on Friends, giving the title’s parody an extra edge.
• A parody of Soft Cell’s “Tainted Love” scores the diner standoff.
• Goof: Tom arrives with both a box and a tubular package, and the tube has vanished by the time Al reopens the door.