Episode 107--"nice work if you can get it"

a.k.a "yo! it's my art center"

Teleplay Paul Haggis Story Jean Valley Director Claudia Weil Air Dates 12/1/87, 4/19/88 Guest Stars

Faith Ford as Janine, Amy Benedict as Amy the babysitter, Terry Kinney as Steve Woodman, Tony Cox as Dread, Daniel W. Frishman as Fear, Phil Fondacaro as Anxiety

Michael and Elliot race against a deadline to get a project ready for City Hall while Ellyn develops a crush on her boss, Woodman.

The Michael and Elliot Company lands an ad campaign through Ellyn at City Hall to promote the new art center and then has a horrible time coming up with any decent ideas. At one point Michael is even assaulted by a vision of three prickly midgets named Fear, Dread, and Anxiety. He and Elliot pull an all-nighter, get desperate, manic, and drag everyone into it, then turn in horrible work and lose the account.

In stark depression, Michael turns to the Home Shopping Channel and buys useless stuff before he comes to his senses. In apology, he goes to Ellyn's office and they work on solidifying just what their relationship is as mutual friends.

In the midst of this, Ellyn has developed an intense attraction for her boss, Steve Woodman, but doesn't really know what to do since it's actually been about eighteen months since she was involved with anyone. At first she panics when he makes a move, then practically tackles him in the closing shot.

Elliot and Nancy were once ticketed for driving 9 mph on the Massachusetts Freeway while under the influence of drugs

Ellyn told Hope not to marry Michael

Opening clip of Michael and Elliot dancing in the office

Ellyn's hair is truly bad.

Elliot's gold jacket pin appears.

I honestly believe that Hope got dressed in one scene and never took her night shirt off--just tucked it in and kept going. Upon further review, it seems that it was just a big oversized T-shirt she was wearing over some sweat pants. She removed the sweats, pulled some jeans on, tucked it in and slapped a flannel shirt over it. Still, it seems that the fine line between her night wear and her day wear is dangerously thin.

Ellyn sees Michael and Elliot as cheap salesmen (combs and vacuums) pitching to Woodman. Michael hallucinates that three midgets named Dread, Fear, and Anxiety are tormenting him at the office.

Sandy has written in to point out that right after Michael and Elliot leave the City Hall offices of Ellyn and Woodman for the first time the seal of the City of Burbank is clearly visible in the lobby. Someone attempted to tape over some of it to obscure the letters, but it is still visible. Thanks, Sandy!

"Yo! It's my art center!" --possibly Michael's worst ad pitch ever

--"Where are my lucky Argyle socks?" --Michael

--"I burned them. Janey and I tied them to an inverted cross in the backyard and danced around them naked." --Hope

"She sounded sorta muffled, as if she were being choked by a crazed babysitter." --Ellyn, much to Hope's mortification

• Michael was much less focused in his work than later in the show. It serves as a nice backdrop against which to trace his progression. On the other hand, this is also one of the few times in which we see Ellyn truly at work. Her career did something of a disappearing act in later seasons and that detracts somehow from her character.

• David Krell has noted that "Elliot and Michael win an account and reference other great ad agencies.  They mention McMahon and Tate, the ad agency from Bewitched." This is really neat in my book because the 30something gods were always referencing classic sitcoms.

• Hal Beardsley, resident of Philadelpha notes that:
  "Ever since the" Yo! It's my art museum " episode, many have taken to using Yo in their advertising here in the Philadelphia area. The Phila. Daily News has a section called Yo Philadelphia. Currently, as part of the local Labor Day celebration we have the Yo! Festival. Many people from our local media were featured on the show. Local celebrities and newscasters often found their way onto the show."

The dashed line marks the point where Lisa Stevenson Blackwell's original version of this page ended, and where Bob Fahey began adding material.

Three scenes edited in Lifetime version. - Luiza Hirsch (Luiza@gmx.org) has both the Lifetime versions and the unedited versions aired in Germany. She describes these cuts:

The beginning of the scene where Elliot and Nancy are over late at night at the Steadmans’, trying to find the right claim together with Michael, is cut short at the beginning but just by a few lines.

Michael: Elliot, I’m telling you, you can sell anything with dogs. Everybody loves dogs.
Elliot: What have dogs got to do with art?
Michael: We’ve been through that already.

Then Nancy comes in and says she wants to go home because it’s very late and that Hope is already asleep.

A short, almost wordless scene was cut (about 30 min. into the episode) between where Michael receives the call from Ellyn telling him he’s fired and Hope coming downstairs late at night to find Michael watching the home shopping network. Ellyn is seen at her desk with a tormented expression on her face. Woodman peeps through the door to say goodnight. Ellyn finally slowly dials Hope’s number but when Hope picks up, she quickly hangs up. Next take shows Hope in bed, asleep, then a slow camera move to the adjoining bathroom where Michael is sitting on the floor next to the toilet, leaning against the wall, apparently in despair.

Then there is a short scene after Ellyn has come over to Hope’s house hoping Hope will make her feel better about firing Michael. Amy, the babysitter, tells Hope she wants to quit because Hope doesn’t seem to need her and never leaves the house. Hope tells her in a snappy tone that she is indeed leaving the house this minute and that she can be reached at Michael’s office if there is an emergency.

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