TGI - Episode 213 “Cyrano”

00:00:17
Speaker 1: Guys, I want to show you something. Yes, good cure for the common cold. I found them on eBay and I bought them so that I had them. I felt very bad about the fact that I didn't have any and so, like I said, I would, I found them and now I own them. So this is the original and this is the super cool one. Have you given them names yet? No, let's name them now. Who's this one with the no skates? Hmm, no skates, boots socks um boots. They're like boots, boots and socks, boots and striped socks. Yeah, okay, I don't know what we can come on, I'm sure that's like. My brother had a lizard lizard and the lizard's name was Bob, and then Bob died and we got another collared lizard. We asked him what he wanted to name him, and he said Bob Too're like, wow, okay, super clever. All right, so Jeff and Mandy, I want writer to name this one. You name Jeff and Mandy. Jeff, Yeah, all right, Well there you go, got I got my couchlings. Awesome writer. I just noticed you kind of scratching your armpit a little bit, which leads to my pre show chatter. Okay, okay, do you shave your armpits or do any kind of time? Yeah, I'm gonna recommend you start. I know, I can't believe you shave your armpits. It's just extra work for no, like if if if it's it's culturally acceptable for you to have armpit here, just have armpit because but it's, dude, you sweat a lot less, there's less of a smell. You need a way less yodorant. It's but you have to shave your armpits all the time. It takes two seconds you're in the shower, two seconds you're done. Listen, takes me two seconds. You're a pretty hairy guy, aren't you. No, No, no, hay, okay, I'd recommend it. I'm just throwing that out there. It's pretty wonderful. Also, it is probably not very likely that for Will, anybody ever sees your armpits anyway, You don't not like a tank top guy. No. So as far as like anyone knowing that you shave your armpits, nobody really knows. So when you say, writer, well it's culturally acceptable for Will to have hairy armpits, no one even knows me in a tank top, it looks like somebody weirdly pressed a thing of toothpaste, Like it's just this weird shaped thing with the head on the top, and like, oh, that doesn't work. So yeah, so do you just get in the shower and like nare from the neck down? No, I don't nare, but I shave and it's not the neck down. It's like, really, I don't have to worry about the chest area, the man chest. I've never had the vpube, so I've never had to worry about this, but the armpits I started so bodybuilders do it, which clearly I am. Yeah, and I was like, I'm gonna give this a shot and I and it's life changing. It's like you don't yeah, there's like no smell. It's amazing. Writer. I think what you're thinking of is is the first time weird, because yeah, there's a lot of hair there the first time, so you may want to do like a trimming down and then a shave with a razor, so like you would use a beard trimmer or a hair trimmer to like get the length gone. Yeah yeah, and then but then after that as far as like stubble and what regrows if you do it every day or every other day. Yeah, it's it's you don't need more work in my life. I don't, you know, I don't. It's very hard enough for the guas shaw it is. Daniel. I was like, what do you call it the quashawa? Yeah? No, I just like you know, And I also don't mind if women don't shave their armpits or shave their legs, Like that's a thing for me too. Yeah, Like I remember girls like shaving their legs at the age of thirteen. I remember being like why because if anything, then it's like stubbly or like rough, and like it's weird. Um. So yeah, it's never like hair. Body hair is not a problem for me. It's never been one of those things. You're also not a stinky man. No, that's good. That's good. Thanks. No, Daniel's right there. The first time is weird, especially since I did it on video for only fans, But the rest of it was totally normal after that. Keeping it up after that was fine. I do wish I had trimmed my armpit hair a little bit before a key scene in the movie Cabin Fever about this has been this photograph it's like screenshot of me. It's like how a scene opens with me with my armpits like up, and like at that time, I just didn't care, Like I never cared about my body. I never cared about my body hair. I just didn't. I was just like whatever. And in retrospect, like when you're an actor, you kind of gotta care a little bit about your Your appearance actually kind of matters, you know, like that's part of your job. And like, clearly I just didn't give a crap about you do any nanscaping? Do you do any manscaping? Yeah, yeah, a little bit, but like one it's a month or you know, like every once in a while. It's not like a daily routine. Yeah, well, I sent writer. I know this answer because I sent write a writer and I wear natural deodorant. We don't wear anything that has like a luminium in it and whatever, and so writer or no, no don't work. No, it doesn't wear. Some stuff out there. I don't want to like bash brands, but there's some stuff out there that definitely does not work, yes, that I've used. Well, so what do you wear? Then? What can I get? Because of course i'd love to have a deodorant that doesn't have a luminium or something, and it's so, what can I wear? Well, I'll actually send it to you because I sent it to Writer because Writer and I had talked about our natural deodorant wearing and the one we were using, which in my opinion, only works for a short period of time, and then I feel like I need to reapply it, and then I don't really want to have to do that. And then I found one that is a cream that I love and it comes in a glass jar and it has a wood a little wood spoon that you scoop it out and put it on, and it is it's with there's charcoal in it. It is in rereadible. You can go all day, you don't smell, you don't sweat. I really really like it, and so I sent it to Writer and Writer was like, a cream not for me in my armpit hair, not for me? And I was like, okay, never mind, So I'll send it to you well, because thank you for you will get caught my armpit hair. I'm smooth as glass. All right, Well, welcome to pod Mee's world. I'm Danielle Fishel. I'm Harry Rider Strong and I'm smooth as glass for Dill. So welcome to this episode, which is season two episode thirteen, Cyrano, which originally aired January sixth, nineteen ninety five. The synopsis is that Sean and Corey are strong armed into helping Frankie charm Gloria, the girl of his dreams. The problem is Gloria just happens to be Harley Kiner's current girlfriend. Also Alan buys Amy a bad gift. It was directed by David Traynor. It was written by Susan Astell Jansen. It is guest starring Danny McNulty as Harvey Harley kin Blake Soaper is Joseph Joey, the rat Epstein Ethan Supple is Frankie Stacchino, and Mathea Webb as Gloria. And uh, we can jump right into our recap unless either of you have any specific memories you want to talk about off the bat. I don't, I know. No. I did want to say for our for our fans out there who follow our Instagram account, to show that I do hold on to everything. I'm in the exact same Whalers Jersey. There you go. That was just posted, So now here you are and I wanted you to know I remember that jersey so well. It was a favorite of yours back then. I probably still a favorite of yours, Still still love it. Yeah. So um. We are in mister Turner's classroom. Mister Turner is teaching Cyrano de Bergerac, a story of an unattractive yet well spoken man who, added to the Boy Meets World book clubs the literary reference YEMM. He uses his better looking friend as a vessel to profess love to the woman of his dreams. To Anga thinks that is sweet and noble, but the rest of the cast calls Cyrano a loser, or rather a dip, which we said so much. I am so uncomfortable with this word. Were you guys weird to help by it? I was, what does it? What does it mean? I don't know, I've never heard it. I just it's like the second came out of my mouth. I was like, did I just say dick? Like I was right? And then we kept saying it, and I was like, wait, I've heard people being called like a drip, like you call somebody a drip in like nineteen forties insults speak, But I've never heard dip before except this content dippy, like you're like, you're a dip. I guess it's more an amount of poetic than anything else where. It's like, you're just so awkward. In the scene, I kept being like, I'm weirded out by the use of this word. I'm not comfortable with it. I feel like where you're swearing without swearing. I know. I didn't like it either. I didn't like it. It just made my skin crawl. I was like, this was a big mistake, like because they could have gone with any you know what were we calling him? We were calling him a I don't know what, a loser basically, right, there's there's a whole variety of words we could have been using, but we kept going on dip and it's repeated like five times. I was like, ooh, I don't like it. I know. I I felt the same way. And it was like somebody said moist seventy five times in a scene. I was like, wow, that word. But you know about when we were when we were filming this, I know how I I don't remember, but I know invariably what I felt like was that this must be a word that adults use all the time. Because I always felt that way, like everything that we were told to say or that was in the script, you know, we were I always felt disempowered. I was always sort of like, well, smarter people than me, with a lot more knowledge than me, wrote these things, so they know what they're talking about, and so I would take that as sort of truth. So, like, I guarantee you in my mind, saying he's a big dip and they're a dip or whatever over and over was like, Oh, that must be slang that you know, forty year olds use all the time, And now I can look at it and be like, no, no, it's not. I never heard anybody else say that, no ever, not once. Before we move on, I'd just like to say, very quickly, Danielle, I am now to the point of the show or two things. One I don't remember the episodes at all, and two, I'm far more comforted when Tapanga is in the scene. Yeah, so when we open up and there's two there's that three shot and it's Tapanga and then Corey and then Sean, it's like that's the that's a comfort feeling for me. It's like, Okay, we're back. So it was very nice to see you in this episode again, and thank you when we get into it more because it's it's very nice and comforting. Thank you. I agree that three shot. When that happens, there's a there's a like a cool I know where we are, like, I know, I know what's going to I know what's going on. Even though Topanga disappears very early on whatever, I don't even need to stick around through the episode. But there is something like, ah, the show is when ye, well, the three characters in a line are perfectly descriptive. You know, It's like Sean's in the back, yep, Corey's somewhere in the middle, and Topanga's right right everything, and it's like so it's like it describes the entire story and and and this the spectrum of the characters are laid out perfickly and whenever you turn back around to explain something to us, this is a great dynamic. Yeah. Yeah, I still want the classroom to be the other way. I know, still uncomfortable, but you know, but this helps, this helps. Yeah, yeah, I agree. So Tapanga and Sean banter back and forth, and Topanga eventually says boys will never understand passion romance and women men will spend half their life confused and the other half paying alimony and b versus girl episode. Yeah, a lot of a lot of men just don't get these ways. That's all this episode is, and we'll get into that later. I hate what they're doing with Alan in this episode is so just men will never understand women. Women understand everything, and men are just stupid eyes. Do they still be this on sitcoms? I don't know, but it was such a sitcom thing in such a sitcom thing, and it was such a nineties sitcom thing. Yeah, I'm just curious, I mean because I know that it continued into other shows, but I feel like, I mean, Kevin James's entire career exactly based on that premise. It was so funny. I was watching this was Sue last night. She's like, of course, I mean, she goes Everybody Loves Raymond should have been called Everybody Loves Raymond except his wife because she's like, he's just I hate this guy I'm with and he's lucky to be with. It was just it's such a like and it we'll get into it later, but it's so not Alan and Amy. It just wasn't what they were. They were the awesome hip parents, and they just reduced it and and they loved each other and they respected one another with I don't understand my wife of seventeen, You're like, oh yeah, sorry, but Tony's tie in this scene was marvelous. It was marvelous, and they're actually teaching, like the episode is. We've talked about this in a couple of episodes recently, yes, where the story is not integrated at all. They just teach something and then it moves on, whereas this one is like the book is perfect with Cyrano and what the storyline it really well. I do think I think that this is an episode that was clearly created because right like this is this is them seeing a guest cast, seeing a character characters Danny too, and recognizing, oh, we can write something for these people. And while I think it's a great episode and are not a great episode, I do like the episode. It's a little bizarre how much it's focused on the bullies, Like it's you know, it becomes like Harley's character arc is more important than anybody else's, which is just a It just felt a little bizarre. I was like, oh, this feels like a different show suddenly, so here's the question, is it bizarre or god bless my dad? Was he right? And they were going to make the bullies a much bigger part of the show. And I mean, now they're getting girlfriends, they're getting storylines, they're getting backstories. I think they wanted to write to older characters. I think they definitely wanted to write to you know. And I think they saw these actors being amazing, and they were like, how can we give them an episode at least, you know? And I think I don't know. I mean, I think that this is one of the episodes is why so many people love their characters, you know, because they weren't in that many more like and yet developed such a part of the show for people. So I think it's because of this episode. But I definitely felt a little weird, Like I definitely was like, well, now I don't know what what whirld I'm in like, And I wonder if they felt that too, and they were like, all right, well we did that. Now let's go back to the sort of safer ground of you know. But whatever a show can grow, show can change, So it should have kept going in that direction. And maybe your dad was right, Maybe it should have maybe ye who knows, maybe I shouldn't be here at his name, cunninghamed you out of there? Yeah they did. Chucky cunningham me out of there upstairs in my basketball and you never saw me again? Or oh man, Well, mister Turner says men and women see romance differently, and that men have trouble figuring out what women find romantic. And then we're in the Matthew's backyard. Alan is hiding a giant wrap gift for Amy at mister Phoenie's house. Alan, who was wheeling it out of Phoenie these reveals it's a trash compactor for their anniversary. Phoenie, who was slightly disturbed, says diamonds might have been a better way to go for a gift. Alan says Amy has been wanting the compactor for years, so Phoenie wishes him a happy anniversary and hopes they have others. Are either of your wives women who want some kind of romantic, extra thoughtful gift over like, would they find a practical gift fine and happy? Would they be happy with it? Or would your wife want something else? Again? Watching this with my wife last night, she churned me. She's like one of the best gifts you ever got me was that vacuum cleaner I asked you for. Yeah, yeah, she loves it. So she's like very non romantic that said, she does. You know I've given sometimes with both of us, it's like whenever we've given each other, like a very transactional gift, like that thing that you ask for that helps you do whatever, there is something a little like yeah about it. Yeah, we prefer experiences. The most of what we do is like getting rite each other something on our birthdays, like we rte each other a note, you know, a nice card, and that's always more important than whatever we buy. But yeah, Christmas time there's always like a super practical gift of course, and another one. But yeah, no, Sue is very romantic. I mean she likes the regular stuff, you know, she likes jewelry, she likes perfume, she likes shoes, she's but she's also very practical. So it's like we need this and I want it. Oh great, awesome, we got a new washing machine. Huge gift. That's that's amazing. Yeah. Have you guys ever had a trash compactor? Though? Yes? Really growing up? See I had one growing up and it's my parents still have it, and no one can figure out where the garbage goes in their house. It's always a big fact because because the door locks shut when it's compacting, and then it likes so like people can't access it's like this weird cabinet drawer. It's I mean, I always thought it was kind of normal growing up, and now I like, go back to my parents house and I have to explain if anybody's there visiting. I'm like, yeah, yeah, just give me your garbage. I'll figure it out for you because it's so weird. Well, we'll get into a weird garbage thing a little later in the episode that also makes no sense whatsoever. Oh, okay, I love the garbage. Good garbage conversation. We do love a good garbage conversation. It's so Then we are in the Matthew's kitchen and Alan calls up to Amy for their dinner reservations, and Eric and Corey are sitting in a kitchen when they realize it's their parents' anniversary. They hand Alan money to put their names on the card for Amy's gift. Amy comes down wearing a very cool pantsuit. She looks like a magician's assist. Love it. I thought this was so ahead of its time. I was like, oh, yes, for like, this would be like a great like red carpet outfit for someone. It look like she was at a circus. To me, I thought it was keeping a lying it was Sarah Margot. It's killing it. I was just like, yes, she's making even more interesting. Yeah, like she's taking bold choices and yeah, and I literally wrote, that's a magician's assistant. I think it looks great. So I thought it looked really cool. Um so uh ame. Allan is very excited. He's got a cute little jump about him, but Amy seems disappointed. Eric reads the card and says the gift is just from Alan, just Allen, nobody else, and Alan asks if she likes it, and she says. She says a trash compactor would be a lovely gift for say a Tuesday. Alan goes into like Tim Allen home improvement camp by caveman bit why wrong, oog no sleep in cave tonight. He knows he messed up, Phoene was right. Amy walks off disappointed. Also, is she getting him a gift? Apparently not? Yeah, Also, everybody else knows. Even Eric at seventeen knows it's a bad gift. Only Allen, yeah, doesn't get that this is a bad gift. Like really, the only only guy there who doesn't get it is the one who's been married to her for seventeen years on. It's just so lame and lazy. Yeah, it's just it just goes right back into that same sitcom trope. And that was the cool thing about them is they weren't that at all. It's just the easy I mean, this is like we are two stages over from Home Improvement, which is killing the number one show. Everyone loves it. So I just think they just, you know, they're they're they're caving to the lowest common denomena with the caveman voice. It's so bad. It's so I was just like a such a waste of rusty. It's such a waste of rusty to take to take that character that way. You know, Tell you guys a funny story. My parents met when they were fifteen. They are now divorced, but they were married for thirty years. They met when they were fifteen, after they had been dating for like a year maybe two years. For some holiday promise rings were very big back then, which is like the ring you get somebody before an engagement ring. It's like I promise that we're getting. We're going in that direction. And my mom all of her friends had promised rings. They were all in long term relationships. My mom was convinced for whatever the upcoming event was, if it was an anniversary or a Christmas I don't know that she was getting a promise ring. And she was like, I know it, it's coming. And my dad brings her a big box and her thought was, oh my gosh, how cute. He put my ring in a big heavy box. It was a big heavy box and she opened it up and it was a bowling ball because they used to go bowling, and really cute, really sweet gift. And she was absolutely devastated and she burst into tears and he had no idea why. He was like, I don't understand, like you like bowling. Right, So yeah, I think that's a maybe a better storyline for a sixteen year old. Yeah, maybe better than for Alan Matthews married for seventeen years, you know exactly as I also think there's ways to do this same storyline, but just make it more clever, right, I agree, there could have I mean, and I feel like our show has done that before, where it has this sort of oblivion gatory storyline, but the characters are slightly elevated above it. You know, they could have been like her reaction is just to shut down, and then his reaction is to fall into caveman boys. What if they end up laughing about this or finding a way to like, you know, create the take the same situation, like you bought a dumb gift that didn't isn't what I really wanted and then make it funny or add layers to it instead of just making that the entire thing a lesson. Yeah right, Or every year Amy gets him the perfect gift and he keeps trying to strive to do it, and it's like, well, how can you get the how can you one upper? That's what it's about, as opposed to this was just so I wo got wrong gifts, like oh god, really, I know. Yikes. Well, we're in the school hallway. Gloria new character Alert is trying to kiss Harley, but he said he's not in the mood and asked why she kept him waiting outside her house last night, And they are written like West Side Story Kid is so New York fiftiest kind of like, where is this? Where is this coming from? Where is this coming from? So what is happening here? So I know Michael Jacobs and the fellow writer's minds like, this is what adolescence is, which which is because I guess there watching those shows right, Happy Days kind of, I guess, But it's it is Greece, it is Bye Bye Birdie and West Side Story it's it's uh, it's frankly, just to me, that's just the hookiest thing I've ever seen. The great She's awesome, He's awesome. No, as far as the performances and the commitment, you know, Danny is just so good. But he and he, he is able to inhabit this character in I mean, all of them are able to inhabit these characters in such ways that really they shouldn't like Why why these characters are written this way in this tone is just kind of ridiculous to me, Like it's so, I don't know, I don't disagree, it was so it was there's a lot about this episode that just took you out of the kind of the normal show. And I didn't dislike you. I wasn't like this is the worst episode ever, but it was like, oh, that's jarring. Oh that's jarring. The big part of it is just how Harley is clearly twenty five. I mean he just comes across as such a grown up. Yeah, and you know, and then all the other sort of like, oh, they're gonna go beat us up, Like what does it look away? Really like this big guy is walking around the hallways and beating people up, Like, I just want a little more clarity. I want them a little bit more reality, some sense sense that like this actually exists in the world. Instead it's it's so cartoony. Yeah, but you know, yeah, we know it's a sit I mean we keep saying it's a sitcom. We know it's a sitcom. We know it's a sitcom for younger people. But that does not stop you from eventually looking and going, maybe this is a little far with the kind of voices and the way even they're dressed, and I mean they're literally the only thing they're not doing snapping and breaking into song, which they should have. That would have been great. Yeah, I think we're literally I mean, I think part of what we're reacting to is just them being centered to you know, it's like it's fine when they are like, oh, the camera catches them on the side of the hallway and they have there. They're like half a page run, right, But now that we're doing a whole episode around these characters, I find it tonally jarring, Like their lack of reality, their lack of groundedness. Besides Danny's performance when he's with Betsy later, which is great, yeah, I mean, but the character itself, the activities of these characters is just absurd, and so it's hard. It's hard to have that be the center of the entire episode. It was so Gloria says he honked last night and didn't even come to the door, which was rude, and Harley says he didn't go in because her father was hanging by the door. She says that was her mother. Harley says, well, then he definitely doesn't want to meet her father. Joey jumps in to try to stop their fighting, but they brush him off. Harley asks why Frankie's been so quiet and he he says he's just trying to have some quiet time. And then Corey and Sean are making their way down the hall. Is so good in this episode. That moment is just like just yeah, just he's so committed and yeah, he's so believable as exactly this guy. Yeah, yeah, it's really a great moment. And uh, Corey and Sean are walking down the hall and they say that the mac and cheese has more grease than Harley's hair, and then they run into Harley and then we get that big cute gasp from the two of you, that kind of what do you call this? The screech the gap? I trying to remember how it was written in the script. I don't remember. I think it's I would call it a gasp. Yeah. I also love how you're shocked to run into Harley where the place he always is, Like, what are you doing here? Harley tells Corey to touch his hair, and though Corey says it's dry as a bone, he slips and falls trying to lean against the lockers. Harley gives him a quarter to call parents and say goodbye. Corey tries to avoid beating a beating with some jokes, So you guys try to fly out of the hallway like angels. Gloria asks Harley if he's sure he wants to beat Cory up. She thinks he's funny. Sean sweet talks Gloria, and then Glory convinces Harley to go easy on the boys, and then Harley instead just gives Frankie the okay to beat up Corey and Sean like a pinata, and then we are You. Guys are pushed into the school cafeteria. Frankie has moved them into the lunchroom, and Corey and Sean are trying to get out of a beating. Frankie gives them two options. First is that they die, and the second is that they do him a favor. Obviously, the boys pick number two, and Frankie says, I Frankie Stacchino, am in love. Oh, Frankie wants Corey and Sean to help him woo her. She's the most beautiful woman he's ever seen. You are great, So Funny's a great bit. Yes, it was awesome. I love it. I felt like we could have had that same bit that was me in the opening when talking about dip what what what what is this word? Yeah, but loved that with the with the wooing so cute. By the way, I don't know if you see the posters behind but there seems at this school to always be a PEP rally. Oh it's almost every episode. There's a PEP rally on Thursday. Har admit something. I don't know what a PEP rally. I don't need you've never been to Danielle with all your high school pep rallies. I mean, there were things that we did in the school auditorium that were like, um, you know, I don't know what is pep. Yeah, you don't. Like it was you'd go to the gym and the different classes would be there and the cheerleaders would come out and they would rally the school spirit for the big game or the big whatever. But you'd have a couple of year. It wasn't like a PEP rally every week, right, So it was I mean you'd sit there and you'd, you know, the freshman you would yell stuff at the sophomore is a softig and then you do like a school kind of whatever. And now I think you also grew up in West Side story. I did not. I wish that would have been cool. I do remember there being like assemblies, that's what we called them. There would be a school assembly and everyone like a fun get together everybody yelling, and maybe I missed school. I only was in school, you know, on our hiatus weeks and then from March until June. So it's possible they had them and I just wasn't around for its. Yeah, Or maybe I did go to a bunch of them all. Maybe people from high school reach out to me. Have you just seen me at a PEP rally? Maybe I was there and I just don't remember. They were a lot of fun. But when I show up to him now, people look at you weird. Yeah, they're like you in the trench coat. Yeah, exactly. So Frankie knows that Corey is a good talker, and girls seem to dig Sean, who is having trouble understanding what the word WU means. Corey says Harley might be able to help him more with this, more than they can do. So Frankie says, okay, no problem, I'll go ahead and kill you. Sean says he doesn't want to die before he knows what woo means. So cute, I'm telling you the dumb Sean thing. This this episode has this weird dynamic. It's like Corey and Sean in a voice I was I was always confused as to like, why we're treated as one character when we're not really different and we have different skill sets, and it's I thought it was obvious that, like, I can flirt with Gloria in that last scene, and so I'm going to be the one to flirt and like, but then Corey's the one who has the whole serrano lesson at the end. I was just confused. I think I'm just handling you as a unit. It's like, Corey and Sean do this. Now, Corey and Sean do that. Now, You're just I think the truth is they wanted it to just be Ben because it's Corey show and it has to be boy. But it doesn't make any sense that Corey is good at talking to girls. It doesn't make any sense. He's super awkward. He doesn't know how to do this. Yeah, he can't have him be it. He doesn't have a super big purpose in getting Fran together with Gloria, but he is. He is part of the resolution for Harley about his parents. So it's almost like, Sean, help me fall help this girl fall in love with me. Sean and Corey get me out of the problem it's going to cause with Harley, Oh, they're a good talker. So because that is the way it ends up working out, and that's what he says. You're a good talker, and you're you're a good talker and you're really good with girls. Yeah, so maybe that's what it is. It's like, okay, yeah, so he got Cyrano and Syrano's lawyer, right, which is a way better way of phrasing yeah, that would have been you. Yeah, because it's the idea that he because he's not a good talker in the sense that it's it's that he's a good thinker, arguer or yeah, debater maybe yeah, yeah, a good lawyer. That's it is. It's a good lawyer. Yeah. And I think part of the reason they couldn't set it up better is because they wanted it to be a reveal who the girl was, because they could if he came right out and said, listen, I need your help to keep this under wraps, or exactly if he came right out and said, I've got a crush on Harley's girlfriend, I'm going to need your help having her fall in love with me, and I'm going to need your help when Harley finds out, Like that's a great setup for what your each of your roles are, but it isn't as good of a reveal that the girl he's in love with is Gloria. So we're in the matthews living room. Alan peeks down the stairs to see if Amy is in the kitchen. She is. He nervously says he helped Morgan clean her room and he cleaned out the gutters. He's obviously very much trying to save face. Alan asks Amy how she's doing, and she chops the lettuce with a sharp knife. She's not happy, won't even talk about what's bothering her. Apparently didn't talk about it all night. Yeah, I mean that's it's like you. Yeah, there's now all of a sudden between Alan and Amy. There's no communication, right, He's like a little child and out exactly, which is so not them. So yeah, I won't harp on it, but it really bothered me the whole episode. It just was a complete change for me. Yep, it's cheap. Alan says he will take the trash out, and he then bolts, and then we're in the Matthew's backyard mister Finnie's gardening and says the trash bag Alan is holding sure looks like a fluffy, non compacted bag of garbage. Alan says he won't be installing the compactor in this lifetime, admitting she did not like it. He says, the garbage conversation I wanted to have, Oh, okay, who just sits down and takes the bag of garbage that they're holding and puts it on their lap? Who does that? Who just holds a big bag of garbage on their conversation. It's a very tiny bag of garbage. It's enough to where most people would be like, you know what, I'm not gonna do, take the nasty garbage from the kitchen, mind you, with all the slimy stuff, right, and hold it on my lap while I have a conversation. It just it was it was like, what is he doing? It was very strange. Oh, I mean true. Maybe they had a composter, so maybe he didn't have slimy stuff in his trash. Maybe it's just maybe he was composting his food. I don't know, I have no I have no backup for that. Alan says he doesn't understand the trash compactor cost more than her engagement ring, and she asked for it. Phoene says that's not an argument he would recommend using, and mister Phoenie sarcastically says the gift was a no brainer because Amy asked for it and Alan went out and got it. He explains to Alan that it was the easy way out because he didn't have to sit around and think about Amy or the things that he loves about her. Alan says, yeah, he missed that exit for sure. Alan asks if there's a way he can back up, and then Phoenie says, on the husband Highway, there's very little forward traffic, just millions of well intentioned men backing up frantically. I did like having Phoenie given us Oh, I love it. Felt this felt this felt very like one of the better Phoenie moments from season two. Yeah, the set was cheap, but having Bill dispense advice, it's just it's so good. But the next thing he says is pretty amazing, and I'm not sure that I ever heard it, and I don't know if we ever get into it anymore. Yeah, but he alludes to the fact that he was married. Yes, I think we do get into it because I think people have mentioned that he had a wife, Like we developed that later, but this time, well, I think they must come up. It must come up when Phoenie starts dating the Dean. I'm sure there's some sort of history about why he's never been in you know, yeah, why it's been why we've never seen him in a relationship, or you know those kinds of things. Um. Yeah, So Phoene admits he's been on that highway before, and he closes out a really nice scene between Rusty and Belle that felt really good. Yeah. Well, then we're in the Matthews showing with the garbage. That's right. Then we're in the Matthews living room. Eric says high to an entering Corey and Sean, who walk into the house with Frankie. When Eric sees the enforcer in his house, he is terrified. Frankie used to steal his lunch money at school. Actually not as lunch money, as lunch lunch. Yes, so yeah, I actually love this little finding little background out about Eric. That and I love my Charlie Brown sweater. I loved that Charlie Brown sweater. Oh, I wore that forever. Interesting that Ben and I are in like hunting jackets, like we both are wearing like thirties Pennsylvania hunting jackets. It's very bizarre. But you also noticed that the entire episode, my leather Jacket is on Hartley. Yeah, Oh my god, isn't it crazy. It's they're trying to find They're trying to find this jacket at home at this point. Yeah, but I didn't realize it was on him the whole time. Like, and the fact that I inherited it is so bizarre. I mean, it's kind of tells a story of its own. The jacket and I've got a pinky ring on the man jewelry has officially started for me. Yeah, I was gonna say, you said, you've said that many episodes ago. We are deep in man jewelry. Yeah, we're getting there. I would give just about anything to find your leather jacket. To find this leather jacket, the the Eric Harley, whoever Sean, whoever stole it. I mean, I wonder. I wish so badly that we had a picture of the inside of it, that there could be like listen. So the truth is not any version of it because I ended up I had I went out and bought my own version of the jacket, was the same brand from the same store, and it had, but mine was greener because it was more war Stop stop, stop, stopped. Are you telling me right now that the one that was stolen is not the one we see on TV. No, one that was stolen is the one we see on TV because I treated mine. Remember, we had to give them something, right, So in the Disney vault somewhere is the jacket that was mine, which is basically the same. It had laces on the side, had lace up sides. It was kind of cooler in that way, but otherwise it was virtually the same jacket. Was the same brand brand, Yes, because what I did is I went to Sarah or at that point it would have been Julie, I guess, and said, where I know? How do they know? I knew where to get it, at what store in LA that they had this brand of vintage leather jackets. I bought the exact same jacket I had in my personal life for like years, and then when the show ended, I wanted the one from the show, so I traded it in. So it's still sitting in a vault somewhere, that version, which would be the same brand. But no, I was on a plane the other day and I saw somebody wearing a woman wearing a jacket that from behind was this leather jacket. I almost was like, oh my god, I have to ask her what brand it is, But then she turned around and it had like the more traditional biker callers, like the biker jacket callers. And that's what so great about it as a jacket is that it's a biker jacket that doesn't have those weird zipper open collar things. It's more just a regular like, yeah, leather jacket on the front. Sarah might still has a biker jacket quality. Well. We also did have a conversation about going to the vault. We may need to revisit that Disney Vault conversation. We're going to be able to find it. We'll figure it out, okay. And if you if somebody does have it, if they're if they're like, oh my god, I can't believe I stole this thing, just let's just send a picture of it and let us know it's okay with today. By the way, even if you didn't steal it, if it was in a pawn shop, you bought it, you bought in a vintage clothing store, I found it, you know, whatever, We're not gonna We're not gonna accuse you of stealing it, even if you are the thief um. Corey and Sean reassure Eric everything is fine, but Eric quickly goes upstairs after being called tuna, which is so cute, Tuna on wheat. Also, tuna was what he ed Helm's character calls Jim in the office, So even years before that became famous, Eric was tuna. First love it and know that that's huge. I love it. Sean asks if Frankie has ever tried to talk to the girl he likes, and Frankie just stutters, finding this idea very scary. Corey holds up a pillow to his face to pretend he's the girl, and Sean feeds lines to Frankie to say like, I can't take my eyes off you, and Corey responds in a high pitched voice behind the pillow, thank you. That's very nice. He's so funny in the scene. Ethan is so funny in the scene, just how nervous he is and all the when they first say you know, you've got to You've got to talk to me, He's like, nah, I don't have it too much shirts because I tried to record a little bit, but Indy was not into it. But when we watched this episode together and the only real laughs for Andy were Ethan. Everything out of Ethan's mouth, Indy loved. Not only that, he also said out loud, oh, so this is like the book that they were talking about at the beginning. He like, you will it was very good, like very clear, he understood, like this is what that's what you know, that dynamic. The story is reflecting the book that the teacher was talking about. So really did its job. But no, Ethan was Indy's favorite by far. Everything out of his mouth got a law Yeah he is, He's wonderful. So good. Well. Sean says that Frankie is doing great, and Frankie says the guys need to come help him, and Corey jokes, what are you gonna do? Hide us in your locker? Optic optical flip. It was so nice to see. I know, I loved it. Corey and Sean are smushed into Frankie's locker, which is now apparently Frankie's locker. It's been every originally it's been Yeah, it's it's basically the it's the best blocking Let's be honest, it's the best locker location for blocking. It's the locker room of requirement. Yes, exactly, so um it is a rotating locker. Gloria comes up to Frankie and they start talking. Corey, in the darkness of the clothes locker, asks if asks if that voice sounds familiar, without fully knowing who the girl is. Sean starts feeding great lines to Frankie, but Frankie is doing terribly because he can't quite hear them, which is a very funny bit. Yeah, and then Sean yells out I love you, and Frankie's says it, only to then go off script from what Shaun is saying and he woos her perfectly what Yeah, he knows. Frankie and Gloria decide to go get a burger together, and Corey realizes that they just set Frankie up with Harley's girlfriend and that is bad news. And then there's like a great suspenseful music cue just starts with like What's gonna happen music, and then we're in the school hallway. Corey and Shaun are panicking thinking about what Harley will do to them after he finds out what they did. Sean says, no one saw them, there were no witnesses, and without that, it's all just circumcised evidence. Wow, I know this joke felt very right adult. Yeah, I'm glad they slipped it in there. Yeah, it was a good joke. It was a good joke. Sean thinks about getting plastic surgery or dressing up as their female cousins to hide like his uncle Mary does, which is a great joke too. All the richness of Sean's life, We're just starting to really get every end of the uncles. I love the uncles. Harley comes down the hallway and asks, didn't I tell Frankie to kill you? And then asks if they've seen Gloria. Sean says no, they were in the locker the whole time, and Harley asks the whole time of what. This leads them to run away, but Harley grabs them as they enter the boy's bathroom, and then we're in Chubbies, which is the only place anyone who wants to grab a burger would possibly go. Yeah, of course, of course there was no vis in this world. You're right, exactly, There's only Chubbies. So Gloria and Frankie are sitting down and Frankie's reciting lines of poetry to her, and Gloria is loving it. Harley is standing with Corey and Seawan now at the entrance and says he feels betrayed by Gloria and Frankie. He feels vulnerable, so he feels like he may have to kill someone. Harley kicks everyone out of Chubbies except for Frankie, La, Sean and Corey, and Frankie says he can explain, and he then just says exactly what he did. He stole his girl, but he is but a pawn of love Glorias as Frankie made her feel special for a change and said nice things to her. Harley argues that he buys stuff for her three tires because the guy came back, which that was funny. I thought that a funny. There's more, I'm wondering about why and Sean are in the scene. Yeah, yeah, what are we doing here? It's like, what am I here for? Well? But then the worst part about this is we go from here to the Matthews kitchen and Corey shows up like twenty minutes later, and you're like, what, but there were they together? It's now it's bizarre. Yeah, yeah, it's a reach. And I do love Chubby set so much though I know it's interesting because what I think part of my love for it is that I loved acting in Chubbies more than I like watching it. Does that make sense, Like yeah, but I think it's because you always had a place to be, Like we have those boots, the counter, you had like the high set high tables. Yeah, flood in front of you, so there's always kind of raising the beast. The hallway is the hardest thing to act in, right, The hallway was like that's why they had to create lockers and like empty space. It's empty space you got to fill with your whole body and you got to stand there and you know. Yeah, And it's funny because now I think my favorite set as far as watching is the kitchen. I love scenes in the kitchen. Um just it's clean, it's open, like Chubbies is a little too crowded and a little too like too many of the same colors on top of one another, so you don't feel the depth that you actually had in that place. It is very brown. It's very brown and red and red, and yeah, it doesn't feel deep. It's I want the set to be deeper looking at it, but when I was in it, I loved it. I loved food in Chubbies. And we haven't even ever seen the extension of Chubbies where the pool tables, like, we haven't even gotten there yet. But remember there was that whole other room. I didn't remember that until you just said. The other thing that was great about it is there were plenty of places to cross to you could there were there were ways in places for you to go when you needed to leave and then come back. That made sense. That felt good, like you had options as an actor and with what you could be doing there. So yeah, I agree with you. So this was the first time that Indy really understood what multi camera is. He was like, he's like, he's like, Dad, it's just kind of bad. And I said, what do you mean and he said, well, the camera never moves. He's like, it's always like He's like, you know, never, He's like, when somebody looks over here, it doesn't the camera. It couldn't explain it exactly. And I was like, well, this is multi caam versus single cam and he was like, I think I And I was like, okay, So I drew a diagram after this episode and I drew it and didn't tell him what it was. I was like, what is that. He's like, that's the kitchen. I was like, right, I was like, this is where the cameras are. There was an he sitting in bleachers behind, you know, behind the cameras here, and he was like oh. And I think he finally got it because he's never been on a set or he was too young when he was so, yeah, he's never seen like the fact that there's no fourth wall, so his brain still I thought he got this based on our earlier conversations, but he really didn't. Didn't quite get wrap his head around it. It's hard, it's it's different. Yeah, it's a whole different thing. So it makes perfect sense to us, right, Like has he ever had a play? Yeah, he's been to plays, right, So that's basically I should have just been able to say, like, it's like when you're watching a play, right, right, Yeah, Like the camera is where you are when you're watching a play, right right. Okay, So Corey compares their argument the argument between Glory and Harley with his parents current trash compactor fight, and Harley asks how his parents m Harley asks if his parents are going to split up, and Corey says no, they always work it out, even though he doesn't know how. And here's a piece that I'll say. Now, I'm not sure. Maybe I just didn't give it enough thought, but I do not understand what the conclusion is that Harley comes to about his own relationship in this situation. And I wasn't sure whether or not that meant he was Did he feel like he always he has to stick it out with Gloria He obviously doesn't because at the end of the episode she's with Frankie. I do not understand what Harley ends up taking from them from this scene or the whole of it, the horrible episode, the whole thing. I mean, Amy's Yeah, isn't it Isn't it supposed to be like it's about making your partner happy and what makes your partner happy, and this case was her being with someone else, so he let her go knowing that she was going to be happier with Frankie. Yeah. I think the charitable reading is that he needed to have empathy and understanding of her mentality. The less charitable reading is men just don't understand women and they got to put their heads. Whole episode Woman's Mind, and how weird it is that women think differently than me. Yeah, and women always get women always get men. It's just the other way around. Okay, So we're in the Matthews kitchen. Harley knocks on the back door of the house and Amy answers. He says he's a school chum of her little squirmy or squirrelly son. And it's really here where you realize Danny is a contemporary of Amy and Allen and not a contemporary of Koran. I mean, I think you're like getting Phoenie in play makeup and costume jewelry. This was like a big pitch for the episode, right, He's like, how can we get the bullis to the house? And we have right Frankie at the house, and now we have Danny, and I think it's I think it's a noble idea. It's super awkward because he is so clearly Betsy's like contemporary, and they just he just reads because I think he was only twenty five twenty six, but he looks even older than that. Yeah, he feels his stage presence is so much confident. He just feels like a thirty to thirty five year old, and she you know, it's it's super awkward. Yeah, and it plays as a joke when he's with you and Ben, it plays is weird when he's with other adults because it's like, well, that's where you belong. Yeah, so it's yeah, it was very strange. Hell, he kills He's so he's wonderful. Harley asks Amy for advice about his relationship because he has no one else to turn to. It's four o'clock in the afternoon, which means his mom is out cold. Corey told him they have a similar fight going on right now and Harley needs some help. And then Eric, in a killer turtleneck yeah it was a white turtleneck, comes around the bat from the backyard and sees Harley in the kitchen from the backyard and runs into same save Amy. No. Amy says everything is under control and offers Harley more tea just to smidge. He responds, which is so cute. Amy sends Eric up Dares so she can continue privately chatting with Harley. Harley asks Amy what women want, and Amy says just to feel appreciated. He says, well, he's not good with feelings and emotions. And all that Ricky Lake stuff. Harley asks, if she's my girlfriend, then why does Gloria need to feel appreciated all the time? And then, perfectly timed, Alan comes in and says, that's how you show people you care about them, and Harley explains, well, if he needs to find out what she wants, well, Gloria wants Frankie now. So Corey frantically comes in and tells Harley to take him and spare his parents. Harley says, don't worry. Death takes a holiday and he leaves. He almost steals the teacup, which I didn't know if that was a purposeful thing, like I'm going to steal this cup or if he just okay, yeah, because then he turns around and he says, good eyes, eye, good eyes, Yeah you caught me. Yeah, so yeah, okay, I didn't yeah okay. Amy explains to a confused core that Harley just needed to get needed to get a little love advice, and then Alan pulls it out, a pearl necklace with eighteen pearls, one pearl for every year they've been married, and Amy says, that's very sweet, but they've only been married seventeen years and Alan says that it's an X one for the extra year that they weren't married, and she says, yeah, that was a good year. And then they get into a hot and heavy makeout kiss as Corey tries to figure out what that means. And no, she doesn't get him a gift. There's no gift for Alan. This is a scene that could have used a rewrite. Yeah really, I mean yeah, I mean, I feel like this scene reveals all the sort of weaknesses of the episode. But I think they were just too stoked on the idea of having Harley in the kitchen. They just thought that was so funny and there was so but it just doesn't work. It's just awkward. And sometimes the big aspirations of Boy Meats World, which are some of the things that have given us some of our best episodes, are also the things that then give us some of our worst episodes because we have we take on more than we can chow. We have a fantastic idea, like getting the bullies in the house, Well, how are we going to do that? Well, what's the story to that? And then we try to shoehorn stories into the script and we're like, but we still only have twenty two minutes, and so you know, I'm I'm happy that that we have big aspirations for our recombo. Yeah, we're super ambitious. Sometimes sometimes there we end up walking away going like huh hmm, I'm not really sure that made a whole lot of sense. But there are there are still aspects of this episode that are, you know, incredible. Danny's performances, unbelievable, story is awesome. The idea that Frankie comes to Corey and Sean and they have to act, that's a great idea. And then I think the next idea that that Harley needs love advice, yes, and goes to the God. That's a that's like a hat on a hat for me. Maybe maybe that's the problem. It's like they just shouldn't have had that aspect, and I probably would have been like if it had been more about Frankie and Gloria staying together and Hart, I don't know, but something about like I want to throw something weird at you, because it would have been a great scene if essentially the scene between Alan and Bill was between Bill and Harley. Yeah, if it was Phoenie and Harley and somehow Phoenie who's who teaches everybody. Then you would have taken something away from Betsy, who finally did a moment. But it's you know what I mean, it's there would have been something kind of interesting about Hard Phoenie together. Or had this been a spinoff show, we could those could have been two episodes. Frankie's in love with a girl and needs Corey and Sean to help him fall in love with a girl, not Harley's girlfriend, just a girl, and there's there's another conflict about who the girlfriend is. And then in a separate episode, Harley's having relationship problems and he ends up needing to go to Phoenie or the Matthews to get that kind of advice. If these were two totally different episodes, yeah, it would have been amazing. But what what show is this? What is this nineteen fifties meets World? I was just about to say, if that second episode, the b storyline is he's got to figure out how to love his girlfriend before the Big Rumble, then I think it'd be great. It's like, we gotta go down the mills for the Big Rumble and I got to fall in love with my girlfriend. Yeah exactly. Yeah, so's we're talking about the grease in his hair. Yeah, yeah, man. So then then we're in the tag in the school cafeteria. Mister Turner tells Corey he liked his paper on Syrra No, and Corey says he is syran No and points to Frankie and Gloria, saying he put them together. Corey explains he helped Frankie woo Gloria, then asks if there's any extra credit for his work. Turner says no, but he wants to know what Corey learned, and Corey tells mister Turner love is something you can't take for granted and don't buy them tires or major appliances, and mister Turner says he's wise beyond his years with the subject of love. Sean then runs into Cory and exclaims that the girls volleyball team is running laps and they run off together to go watch oh maybe well boys will be Boys. So yeah, not my not my favorite episode, not my least favorite episode certainly, no, um, but I think because the concept was so good, yeah, it fell a little flat for me. Yeah. Also, I think of the three of us, will you are definitely the most offended by a dumb man storyline. I don't know, you don't. I don't like it, don't like it. I don't like it. I don't. It's just it's so I did you like Home did you hate Home Improvement when it was on? Or did you like it back then? No? I get I mean I got what it was going for. It's just such a one sided look at men right that. I don't know, It's just it's just the and again being such a fan of sitcom, just always doing the trope of like the big schlubs key to have or they were both horribly flawed. That's the thing that was so great is you were both horribly flawed, and it was it was brilliant. Um, but after a while where it's just like, you know, my dumb husband and it's like I'll never get my wife. It's like, seriously, this is again, we're doing this. Yeah, And if they started the show that way, that would be one thing. But we've talked about how Alan Niemi's relationship was. They were the different parents, they were the cool parents. They were figuring out how to parent together. And now this couple that was figuring out how to parent together, don't even talk about their own relationship like it, right, he was just weird. I don't know it was me, but you're right. I don't like the dumb man storyline. Yeah it does. It does because I don't consider myself a dumb man, and my mom and dad were never like that. And you know, doing it once or twice on a sitcom where it's like, that's that's what you're doing. You're doing okay, great, when it's then every show is starting to get like that, it's like, really, this is what we're doing. And according to Jim and Kevin, Jane and everybody loves Rayman, it was all that like these women were these men are just lucky to have these women who they didn't understand it all and it's like, oh, okay, I've just seen it. Yeah, you know. We talked about how like, uh, like Seinfeld or at any great sitcom right, so often is built around this idea of like stating a thesis within the first scene, right like this is the way you do X y Z or this always happens when this happens. And I feel like gender roles are the easiest thing to fall back on, right, like men always do this and women always do that, and then you play out in a scene a situation that either illustrates that or defies that, only to not defy it at all and to recapitulate the values that you started with. Um, I think it's lazy. I think it's true. It's such an easy sitcom thing. I mean, the reason why Seinfeld is so elevated is that their their thesis. Their theses were so bizarre. They're like and that was the point. It's like, yes, George or somebody would have a theory that we'd be like what you think, man hands is a thing or you know, so whatever, random thing, and that would become a storyline to you know, to their own detriment. And I think that, Um yeah, Like I think a lot of sitcoms just stay on that easy territory, like the gender role than is so easy. Well that's the thing we've talked about it being music and Seinfeld and great shows. They always played offbeat, they played you didn't you didn't know where it was going to go, and this when you get these it's kind of like, well, I bet you Alan's going to learn that how to listen to his wife and he's gonna buy or something nice at the end it was just like, yeah, it's it's going to be a creative. Yeah, yeah, it's it's And I know we have a ton to do when we invent the time machine, starting with inventing the time machine, right exactly. Um, but yeah, there's some stuff I'd like to switch about this and give Rusty more to do because I mean, that's just a waste of rusty in my opinion too, is you know? So Yeah, and Betsy for that matter, Well, thank you for joining us for this episode of pod Meat's World. You can join us for our next recap episode, which will be season two episode fourteen, I Am Not a Crook, which aired January thirteenth, nineteen ninety five. And you can follow us on Instagram pod Meets World Show. You can send us your emails pod Meets World Show at gmail dot com. And as always, we have merch Trim play it backwards pod meets World Show dot com. Oh boy, I am dying to know what that is? What is that? It's it's merch backwards Tram Trams trim trim Tram Tram Tram c h R EM Tram play backwards people. Oh boy boy, I love you so much. Will send us out we Love You All, pod dismissed. Pod Meets World is an iHeart podcast produced and hosted by Danielle Fischel, Wilfordelle and Ryder Strong Executive producers, Jensencarp and Amy Sugarman Executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo, producer and editor, Tara Supboch producer, Jackie Rodriguez, engineer and Boy Meets World superfan Easton Allen. Our theme song is by Kyle Morton of Typhoon and you can follow us on Instagram at Pod meets World Show or email us at pod Meets World Show at gmail dot com