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a.k.a. "first day/last night" Writer
Director
Air Dates
Guest Star |
 Sound wavs from this episode - All sound names starting with "29" |
Sheila Kelley as Cheryl Eastman; Art la Fleur as Al Pressman; Nicolas Coster as Amos Borden; Jonathan McMurtry as Client; Jim Doughan as Accountant Fred; Joseph Dougherty as the voice of Sherman Howard on the answering machine (thanks to Lynn Wilhite for this tip!)
Synopsis
The company's last day is filled with reflections on their early days together.
Summary
January 3, 1983: Michael starts at Bernstein Fox and meets Cheryl Eastman, who wears snug clothing and hovers. A lot. He fills out the personnel application with a pen given to him by Melissa with a tag on it saying "For Creative Writing Only." Ironically, the pen turns out to be dry. Going to search for a working pen, he meets Elliot, an artist, and they started bantering like old friends. The guys get their accountant Fred to help them liquidate while planning a meeting with Pressman Department stores to be hired into their in-house advertising agency.
January 8, 1983: Michael is bored at a meeting. The client, frustrated with the service, puts him on the spot and tells to make a better suggestion for selling Sunnykline Baked Goods. Elliot bails him out by passing him notes with good suggestions. Their partnership in crime is sealed. Elliot is disgusted with the idea of retail advertising and very against the idea of going to Pressman for new jobs.
October 5, 1984: Michael, Elliot, Nancy, and Hope go for a picnic and Michael asks Elliot for advice about how he'd asked Nancy to marry him. Elliot tells him the story of visiting Nancy's parents, having to sleep in separate rooms, and missing her so much he sat up all night drawing the pastel chalk picture of her. Then in the morning he told her she was going to marry him. As Michael returns home to his family, Fred the accountant calls back and says he's found some problems in the account: there's a corporate officer loan for $5000 that Elliot never told Michael about. When confronted, Elliot says he knew he was wrong, that he's very sorry, and promises to pay it back.
May 25, 1985: Michael begins to have some creative conflicts at the agency and doesn't want to change the copy on an ad. He and Elliot fantasize about getting to do what they want to creatively. At the interview with Pressman, Michael and Elliot are run all over the store, following Pressman, and it's pretty humiliating. Elliot gets slightly rude with him and walks off, but Michael stays. Back at the office (in dark lighting), Michael and Elliot blow up at each other.
December 21, 1985: Michael and Elliot get drunk at the office Christmas party and talk about starting their own agency. Elliot goes to copy the picture of Nancy in the copy room, he interrupts Cheryl Eastman who is snorting cocaine. She closes the door, sort of makes a pass at him, and as they're both tipsy, Elliot goes for it. Nancy and Michael talk, analyzing how hard it is to deal with Elliot.
March 8, 1986: Michael and Elliot have lunch with one of Bernstein's clients in order to steal him away to start their company, but they run into Cheryl Eastman in the restaurant and Michael bolts, feeling the pressure of his impending betrayal a little too much. Pressman calls back and wants Michael to come back for an interview, but alone. The message is that if he ditches his partner, he can have the security he craves.
Friday March 13, 1986: Borden finds out that the guys are trying to leave the company, no doubt tipped off by Cheryl, and is going to fire them but is willing to give Michael a second chance. Elliot somehow gives him the nerve to stand up and to Borden and they quit together. Pressman offers Michael a job as an assistant ad manager. Michael and Elliot clean out the office for the last day while images of themselves on the day that they first checked it out are superimposed and all four characters show both ends of the relationship--sweet beginning and bitter end.
Notes
Fashion
Quotes
"Did I earn getting it published or is it some sort of consolation prize for my marriage not working out?" --Nancy
--"She snuck up on me." --Michael
--"Yeah, Ninja baby." --Hope
"Pride might be a luxury right now." --Elliot
--"Where's your pioneer spirit?" --Elliot
--"Remember the Donner Party?" --Michael
"Ho ho ho." --Sheryl Eastman at the Christmas party
Analysis
"Here's some real minutiae for you: Joseph Dougherty's brief "appearance" as Sherman Howard was an insider acknowledgement of Dougherty's friend, Howard Sherman, a regional theatre manager who did publicity on Dougherty's play DIGBY at the Manhattan Theatre Club in 1985. I know, because it's me. My name didn't clear legal at ABC for some reason."
Sound wavs from this episode - All sound names starting with "29"