Writer
Liberty Godshall
Director
John Pasquin
Air Dates
12/8/87, 7/26/88
Guest Stars
Sound wavs from this episode
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Writer
Director
Air Dates
Guest Stars |
Sound wavs from this episode |
Amy Benedict as Amy; Rosalind Cash as Val Shilliday; Marg Helgenberger as Cooper; Meg Wittner as Alex Miller; Clive Rosengren as Larry Richards
Synopsis
Hope returns to work and the household adjusts.
Summary
During a business dinner with one of Michael's big clients, Hope begins secretly seething because she has no career and Janey is weaning herself, which causes her to get on a soapbox. Michael tries to clue in as best he can and works a more sympathetic tone into his next commerical shoot, which Hope promptly hates and does a typically bad job of telling him about.
In the midst of trying to work out if she wants to go back to work at Synergy (the controversial environmental magazine where she was an editor ten months ago), Hope has a great conversation with Ellyn while sitting on the hood of the red Cherokee. Hope finally caves in and hires Amy the babysitter to take up the slack so that she can go back to work at Synergy as a parttime researcher. She and Michael end up exhausted and only seeing each other late at night. She gets frustrated, can't write the reports as well as before, and somehow ends up admitting that she doesn't really want to go back to work just yet and can't quite reconcile herself to it.
Meanwhile, Ellyn and Woodman go away to New England for the weekend and she deals with more relational issues.
Notes
Everyone at work calls Hope "Murdoch," which is apparently her maiden name.
Music
At the end of the episode, Hope dances with Janey to the tune of "Tupelo Honey", written and performed by Van Morrison from the album of the same title. (Thanks to Dana Ortegon-Spilios for spotting this!)
Fashion
Hope wears large, I mean huge, glasses while writing and looking productive.
Quotes
"I feel like I was sick for two weeks and everyone learned long division while I was gone." --Hope on maternity leave
--"I feel like that woman in the novel who's about to have a nervous breakdown, but no one notices, not even her husband." --Hope
--"That'd be hard with you." --Michael
Analysis
"Here I notice that when Hope returns to work, these guys are hooking up this ancient-looking computer to her work station. Hope acts like she never saw a computer in her entire life! The scenes after they "supposedly" installed the computer at her work station shows no computer in sight! Why not? Was Hope that computer-illiterate? So, she chooses to type her proposal on this dinky typewriter at home, and uses an eraser instead of white-out to wipe out her mistakes! I would think her proposal would have been more successful if she had used the computer!!!"
First, I promise I won't comment on every single episode though I surely could, God knows. But this particular one leaves a thorn in my paw. The main problem I see, is that Liberty and Co. tried to tackle a huge issue in only one episode. Maybe it would have helped to have seen Hope's dilemma covered over three or four shows. Beyond that, however, I take offense to several elements of the show.
It seems that a lot of people were put off by the fact that Hope seemed incompetent at handling work and Motherhood. What I have a problem with is Hope's ineptitude at prioritizing and the implication that being a mother isn't fulfilling enough. I would have assumed that if someone had already worked for 10 years and then decided to get married and have a child, she would have already given the issue of staying home full time a great deal of thought. Instead, I get this sense of, "Gee, I'm getting a little bored and I'm far too intelligent and driven to just stay home and take care of a baby all day." Well, ya know, that's really not the issue, Hope. Most of us who have chosen to stay home have incredibly high IQ's and expensive educations going to waste in theory. But what we are doing, if we're doing it well, is honestly the most important job we will ever be blessed to have. Yes, it makes you crazy. Yes, it can be tedious. And, okay, every now and then the thought of throwing yourself or your child into the path of a moving vehicle may cross your mind.
But what Hope fails to see is that this is not an all or nothing decision. Stay home with Janie until she's in school or until she's 12 or until she goes off to college and then have a career. And if you never go back to work, guess what, you've already had a career. The other aspect of the show that irked me was the silence to Ellyn's question of never having a child. I for one would like to go on record and say that I have the highest respect for women who have made the choice to commit themselves to their careers and decide not to have children and have the foresight to realize it's extremely difficult to do both. Woman who make this choice are often harshly criticized, but it seems to be a very unselfish choice in my view. Overall, I thought working women (the women at Synergy) came off looking much more competent and "together" than the moms (Hope and Nancy at the park) and I must say, I'm a little peeved."
The book Hope refers to [see the Quotes section] (I'm sure) is Diary of a Mad Housewife. Now, I happen to love this book, but the heroine there, too, is someone it's hard to feel sorry for. She's rich, and her main problems are juggling the housekeeper, laundress, window washer and caterer, not to mention her lover and husband. It is a good book, though. Made also into a very good movie with Carrie Snodgress, the late, gorgeous Frank Langella, and Richard Benjamin as the mad housewife's husband. It's such a memorable performance. He is so wonderful (and hilarious) as all-time pain in the butt that it is possible to sympathize with the heroine.
I just realized, amazingly, that my life paralleled "Weaning" even more than I casually remembered. I, too, quit a stable writing job to stay home with the baby and freelance. Though I did it in steps, first working part-time and then quitting altogether when the kid starting walking and the going really got tough for my husband, who was attempting to work at home with a toddler (this is not possible, even with an onsite babysitter like the mythical Amy - if the kid knows you're there, the sitter's history). What my husband was doing at home was consulting the Dept. of Ed. - well, old cabinet went away, also our income.
All this is by way of explaining what I don't like about this and subsequent episodes, which is that everyone takes so lightly the fact that Hope threw away her second chance at a stable income for the family, especially in light of Michael's agency soon failing. It's so demeaning, that Hope's job is regarded as fluff. I mean, I don't regret staying home with the baby, either (much), but on the show there could at least be a little recrimination and healthy dredging up of old resentments, e.g. You never supported me in staying at my job, and now look where we are! (Not that I ever did such a thing.)
The whole focus is on what Hope wants, not what's best for Janey. I dropped out of the corporate world for my son's sake. Let's face it: who really wants to take care of a baby's every need? But I do think kids benefit from being mostly with mom or dad (or anyone consistently there who loves and dotes on them) at an early age, give or take the odd moments of raving insanity. That discussion is missing in Weaning - what about Janey? Most babysitters are not as frisky and adoring as Amy, not to mention day care center workers - but it's all about Hope missing out on her cuteness. etc. And then soon, when Hope isn't even working at a paying job, Janey is in day care! (Not to slight working moms - my dearest friend has always worked full-time, and is a wonderful mother to her three kids. No solution is perfect - my son saw some ugly moments with me going nuts at home.)
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The dashed line marks the point where Lisa Stevenson Blackwell's original version of this page ended, and where Bob Fahey began adding material.
Two 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:
A short scene about 4 minutes into the episode. Michael is rushing to get to a business meeting with the diaper people, looking for misplaced documents, finds them, kisses Hope goodbye. Hope (with Janey on her arm) asks (in a tone that could be either mocking or real) if he couldn’t stay a while and "play with us. We feel soooo abandoned."
Michael, as he walks out: Other wives ask their husband 'Why aren’t you at work? Where’s the money? Couldn’t you start getting interested in a standard of living we’ll never have?'
The scene at the restaurant was cut short. After Hope gets off the phone with the babysitter, she’s seen in the ladies’ room trying to dry her blouse at the blow dryer, with Michael peeping in. Apparently she’s unsuccessful since they both come back to the table with their heads hanging low, clearly stressed out, and excuse themselves to the others. They commit a blunder when Hope says that Michael isn’t feeling well and Michael simultaneously gives a different excuse that I couldn’t make out.
Sound wavs from this episode - All sound names starting with "08"
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