Season 9 Episode 24: Radio Free Trumaine

This episode is a backdoor pilot. It takes place almost entirely at W-HIP, the campus radio station at Trumaine University, and it belongs to two student DJs, Oliver Cole and Mark Campbell, who programme the kind of unconventional material nobody is listening to. The new dean of students is Steve Rhoades, and the DJs put him on air for an interview that goes through his past in rather more detail than he had budgeted for, including an account of how a former chauffeur came to run a university. Both of them are thrown off the air and expelled by the end of it. Bud is in the building too, competing with a Chechen exchange student named Nikolai for the attention of a student called April, and the two of them conduct that negotiation in a studio while unaware that the microphone is live and the lounge is full of students listening. Bud’s contributions include a figure for his own experience that the series had established two episodes earlier, and his attempt to correct the worst of what he has said is the funniest moment in the episode. The proposed series never happened, which is a shame, because the cast assembled for it is remarkable in hindsight: Eric Dane and Keri Russell were both at the very start of their careers.

Because it was built as a pilot, the episode largely steps out of the Bundy house, and the regulars appear mostly in support. Eric Dane, Andrew Kavovit, Keri Russell and David Garrison were all set to carry their characters into the spin-off, which FOX ultimately passed on. It is also David Garrison’s last appearance as Steve Rhoades, his fourth guest turn since leaving the show in season four, and the script takes the trouble to explain how a man last seen chauffeuring in “Get the Dodge Outta Hell” ended up running a university’s student affairs.

Episode Facts

• Original air date: May 7, 1995
• Season and episode: Season 9, Episode 24
• Overall episode number: 209
• Written by: Richard Gurman and Stacie Lipp
• Directed by: Gerry Cohen
• Taped: April 7, 1995
• Production note: A backdoor pilot for a proposed spinoff that was to star Eric Dane, Andrew Kavovit, Keri Russell and David Garrison in these roles. It was not picked up.
• Production note: David Garrison’s final appearance as Steve Rhoades, his fourth guest return after leaving the regular cast midway through season 4.
• Production note: Juliet Tablak said in a 2017 interview that Amber was originally to have featured in the spinoff and that she had signed on, before the character was dropped and April Adams created in her place.
• Title note: After the Radio Free broadcasting services.

Guest Cast

• David Garrison as Steve Rhoades
• Eric Dane as Oliver Cole
• Keri Russell as April Adams
• Andrew Kavovit as Mark Campbell
• Timothy Elwell as Nikolai Pushkin
• Joseph D. Reitman as the stoner

W-HIP

The casting is the most interesting thing about this episode now. Eric Dane was a year out of high school and would spend a decade in supporting roles before Grey’s Anatomy. Keri Russell was three years from Felicity, a series that also employed Ian Gomez, who had appeared on this show a few episodes earlier as a car wash employee. Neither of them is doing anything remarkable here, but both are unmistakably present.

Steve Rhoades getting a final appearance is the real value for long-term viewers, and the episode treats him properly. His route to a deanship is explained through the events of “Get the Dodge Outta Hell,” in which he had been chauffeuring the university president, and what he did with that information. His exchange with Marcy at the studio door is the sharpest thing either of them says, and she wins it.

Bud’s half of the episode is a well-built disaster. He and Nikolai state their respective cases to April, the dialogue escalates into an exchange about what each of them has had to make do with, Bud makes a remark about Russian women and is immediately confronted with the physical reality of his opponent, and his climbdown takes five words.

The live microphone is the payoff. Bud volunteers a number he should not have volunteered, is caught in a lie about hundreds of women, attempts a save that does not work, and Nikolai is the one who notices the on-air light.

The studio set is worth a look for the music posters alone, which include real 1994 and 1995 releases from TLC, R. Kelly, Boyz II Men and Pantera.

Famous Quotes

• Peg, after dinner: “Now, Al, don’t go to sleep. You know your deal. When you get beef, I get beef.” Al: “Honey, when you get beef, I get the heebie-jeebies.”
• Marcy, catching her ex-husband at the door: “Steven Bartholomew Rhoades! I can’t believe you’re pushing 18 year olds around. What will you do for an encore?” Steve: “I think I’ll look at our wedding photos and try to find your breasts.”
• Marcy, in reply: “You’re gonna have to look really hard, because they’re hidden under your gorgeous cousins’ hands!”
• Bud, making his case: “April, before I met you, a hot date was when my rubber woman got her thigh stuck on the radiator.” Nikolai: “In Chechnya, we cannot afford rubber woman. We have to draw happy face on inner tube.”
• Bud, on live radio: “April, I’m 21 years old and I’ve only had sex four times.” April: “You told me you’ve been involved with hundreds of women.” Bud: “But they weren’t real… lly important to me, like you are.”

Notes

• Bud’s figure of four matches what the research study established two episodes earlier in “User Friendly.”
• It is also revealed that Bud cannot handle beer, passing out after one bottle.
• Joseph D. Reitman, who plays the stoner with the legalization placard, had played Kelly’s boyfriend Genghis earlier in the season.
• Keri Russell had appeared in Honey I Blew Up the Kid with Rick Moranis, who played Ed O’Neill’s brother in Little Giants.

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 24 from the list, or use the complete series DVD release.