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Writer Joseph Dougherty Director Rob Cohen Air Dates 1/19/88, /9/88, 3/13/90 Guest Stars Faith Ford as Janine; Richard Masur as Werner Breslow; Danitza Kingsley as Faustine (the haircutter) Synopsis A powerful executive takes a liking to Elliot and tries to woo him away, which makes Michael extremely jealous |
 Michael & Elliot's ideas for Mr. Squeeze |
Summary
Werner Breslow hires Michael and Elliot to promote Mr. Squeeze, the drink. Werner and Elliot click right off the bat and Michael is quite clearly out in the cold as they negotiate, interview radio actors, and go about script writing. Michael has a nightmare sequence of Werner offering Elliot a job and another of Elliot ditching him to move on to stardom. Michael finally has a fight with Elliot about Werner asking him to leave, not knowing that the mike is turned on in the recording studio and Werner overhears the whole thing. Later they play a "friendly" game of office basketball and Michael breaks Elliot's finger. In the hospital they make up after Elliot admits that Werner offered him a job, but he turned Werner down. Much analysis is made of why men need to compete so much and their basic drive to dominate.As a subplot, Nancy and Hope work on setting up Nancy's computer which she got for the kids and Ellyn eventually shows up to trouble shoot, but ends up intimidating them. The closing shot is of Ethan playing the fighter jet simulation, emphasizing the point that humans will subvert tools of education for the purpose of conquest and domination.Notes
- Mr. Squeeze has been around since 1935 and is owned by Minnesota Brands (first mention of that name); Mr. Squeeze is described as "carbonated grapefruit juice with an attitude"
- Nancy mentions possibly writing a children's book for the first time
- Opener clip of Ellyn climbing over the couch.
Continuity Goofs
Chris Ryerson notes a few interesting bits about the sibling situation on the show:
"Nancy is talking to Hope about computers and Hope says something like, "Oh, you'll pick it up," and Nancy responds something like, "No, my brothers would, but not me..." This is the only reference I recall to her brothers - I thought Nancy only had sisters, Deb and Sue. Come to think of it, the show is very top heavy with sisters - Nancy's, Melissa's, Hope's, Gary's, Elliot's, Susannah's. Michael is the only one with a brother."
Dream Sequence
Michael has a waking nightmare of Elliot taking a job with Werner Breslow and then becoming famous and ditching him for Hollywood glitz
Quotes
--"I'm returning your copy of Dr. Zhivago." --Ellyn
--"What did you think?" --Hope
--"Women that cold shouldn't look that good." --Ellyn
--"Janine? Coffee." --Elliot
--"No thanks." --Janine
Analysis
- There seemed to be a shade too much overt, blatant philosophy about the development of man and nature of competition. If the director had simply let the action speak for itself, I believe the point would have been made clearly enough without the strong didactic tone. On the flip side, Ken Olin did an excellent job as the development and portrayal of Michael's isolation is very real and believable.
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