Season 2 Episode 4: Buck Can Do It

Buck’s nocturnal activities have produced a run of complaints from the neighbours, whose own dogs keep delivering litters that nobody wants, and the lawsuits are accumulating. The pressure is on Al to have him neutered, and Al will not do it, not out of sentiment for the dog so much as a flat refusal to be the man who signs that paperwork. The episode is the first in the series built around Buck, who had spent the first season as a scene-stealer rather than a subject.

It is a telling choice for an early Buck episode. The show could have made it about affection, and instead makes it about Al identifying with the dog, which is both funnier and more revealing. Buck is getting something Al is not, and the household’s willingness to put a stop to it on the neighbours’ behalf lands on Al as a personal matter. He also states plainly here that Buck is Bud’s dog, a point of ownership the series contradicted regularly thereafter.

The episode contains one of the earliest and most reused scenes in the show’s history: Peggy announces she has made ribs for dinner and that Al will owe her something in return, and Al immediately develops a headache. The exchange was later lifted for an appearance by Ed O’Neill and Katey Sagal on The New Hollywood Squares. Kelly does not appear, though Mr. Pittman mentions her in connection with his son. By production code this was the first episode made for the season, despite airing fourth.

Episode Facts

• Original air date: October 11, 1987
• Season 2, Episode 4, and the 17th episode of the series
• Written by Ron Leavitt and Michael G. Moye
• Directed by Linda Day

Guest Cast

• Mitchell Greenberg as Mr. Pittman
• Derek McGrath as Buck Bundy in the dream sequence
• Dick Durock as the chainsaw killer

The Neutering Question

The episode’s best move is the dream sequence, in which Buck stands upright and talks, played by Derek McGrath. Giving the dog a voice to argue his own case is the kind of swing the show took early and often, and it is the first real sign that Buck would become a character rather than a prop.

Underneath it is the argument Al and Peg actually keep having, about who in that house gets to decide anything, with the dog standing in for the part neither of them will say out loud.

Famous Quotes

• Al: “I’m not neutering my dog! That’s the way God made him and that’s the way he’ll stay!” Al’s position, which is not really about Buck.
• Al: “How does he know? The man spells sex 9-7-6.” Al on Mr. Pittman’s expertise.
• Mr. Pittman: “Looking around, it doesn’t look like I could get much. Looks like you’ve already been sued by life.” The lawyer, assessing damages.
• Al: “Bud will grow up and get a job that will slowly kill him.” Al, on being an example to his children.

Notes

• The title plays on lines from “Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall in Love).”
• Derek McGrath voices and plays the upright Buck in the dream. Kevin Curran later became Buck’s regular uncredited voice.
• The production code shows this was actually the first episode produced for season 2, though it aired fourth.