Rushed endings

When I was in high school c. summer 1998, I remember TCFC made a brief comeback in syndicated reruns. Then it suddenly faded back into obscurity.

So I'm watching on Antenna TV, and what got me wasn't the corny jokes, but the awful closure efforts, which seemed tacked on at the last minute.

In "When The Bough Breaks", Henry is against pregnant Muriel going on a helicopter ride...meanwhile, Sara, Jackie, and April want to plan a surprise party, which is on-again, off-again because Henry and Muriel can't decide when to have their anniversary celebration. Well, the surprise party is still on, but Muriel walks in not feeling well. Everyone immediately becomes concerned that she could've miscarried, but of course it turns out all is well.

In the next episode "Cop Out", Jackie meets her new cop boyfriend, which Henry didn't approve of. He later goes downstairs to smooth things out, and finds Jackie sitting in the dark. She says her boyfriend was shot and might not make it. Henry takes a phone call and finds out everything was fine.

Now, had either of those been mid-show climaxes, it might've been different, but they were both towards the end of the last act, so unless they slapped a TO BE CONTINUED, chances are everything would be fine. I just thought they were tacked on rather hastily, a staple of sitcoms from that era.


Oh stewardess...I speak jive.