Season 1, Episode 6
Date of airing: November 2, 1996 (CBS)
Nielsen ratings information: 16.0 million viewers, 10.1/18 in Households
written by: Bob Brush
directed by: Rick Rosenthal
This was a solid episode, and a great example of how EARLY EDITION is the perfect little, family-friendly television drama that can be anything it wants to be, as long as it stays familiar and friendly and never defines itself by sex and violence, like most of the broadcast network's offerings that would fill their program at the turn of the century. Get your entire clan of characters together and watch them solve problems for a guest character for an hour each week, because this episode served up a great moral of the story, and with Marissa walking Gary through her old Chicago neighborhood, you get a sense of realism in the characters’ backstory, even if Marissa’s own backstory sort of felt forced into this episode, just so Gary can be led back to Connie and both men can continue to talk into Michael and save his life.
It’s especially noticeable since Marissa kind of made Chuck disappear, after he and his car trouble were filling the first 20-or-so minutes with comedic material. For Chuck, who is already not one of the characters I would want to watch all the time (he is better in small doses, or when completely rewritten), having him be written out of the episode for Marissa touring the old neighborhood, as well as her potentially romantic backstory with Connie, was almost a thing too good to be true. Then again, I didn’t mind at all that it was Marissa who turned into Gary’s sidekick for the second half of the episode, and she didn't even need to "replace" Chuck for that opportunity – the show could easily have both of Gary's friends help him at the same time, without one replacing the other halfway into the episode.
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The story was good. I might have wondered what Michael and Gary’s “lucky guess” talk was about at Michael’s place, but maybe it was just another one of those conveniences the writers helped themselves with to bring along the story, and to start explaining why Gary would insert himself into the lives of strangers and save them from their ultimate doom, and the guest characters won’t have to ask themselves repeatedly what this stranger with the newspaper in his back pocket is doing in their lives. The fact is that Michael was an interesting character facing a life-or-death dilemma, making an understandable decision that might cost him his life, because the reward on the other side is so appealing for him and his little brother. The writers could have gotten a little deeper into Michael’s backstory, including what kind of heart problem he actually had (although in the sense of the story you didn’t need to know the exact medical term, but with ER being my all-time favorite show, I sort of wanted that question answered), but I loved seeing the kid slowly developing into a steady character in this episode – from the cool hotshot boy with a money-making future at the beginning of the episode to the calculated, soft, loving older brother who just wants to keep his younger brother out of trouble.
I’m sort of a sucker for those stories and they happened to work well for shows in the vein of EARLY EDITION. I’m pretty sure there is a similar story hiding somewhere in the TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL television franchise, and it kind of makes me want to watch that show as well, just to get through the emotional 45-minute-long short stories and get my tear ducts opening up. I can remember that when I watched TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL, as it aired on a daily rotation on German television, I managed to cry during a couple of episodes. Maybe that was because of Monica’s monologues under the orange halo light shining on her beautiful hair, or maybe it was just because the stories were captivating to my teenage mind.
The episode decided to bring a twist halfway through, when it was revealed that the little brat stealing Chuck’s car tire was Michael’s brother, and that Connie the car mechanic, who was nice enough to put the tire back on Chuck’s car, was also friendly with the brothers and was able to help Gary out with his white savior story of the week. It turns out it worked as a well-convenient twist in this episode, as both Robbie and Connie were separately introduced to the viewers before they became involved in the main story about Michael. I would consider it great writing, and I would even say it’s rare writing because I don’t see that happening very often in proceduralized television with characters who come and go on an episodic basis. Besides that, the episode kind of began with an A plot and a B plot that were soon to be merged into one – the A plot being Gary’s efforts to save Michael, while the B plot turned out to be about the perpetrator of the theft of Chuck’s car tire. There usually is no way for a show like EARLY EDITION to employ the two-story structure this early in its lifetime, especially for a series that was intended to be entertainment for the whole family, and giving the entire family a complicated structured narrative after only six episodes of a show that hasn’t been fully established yet seemed like a no-no for 1990s broadcast network executives, something that should have been noted to death during the episode’s development process.
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And Gary got in the middle of it all and became the angel in Michael and Robbie’s life. EARLY EDITION turned into TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL with this episode, and judging by the general look of the show, that was an intended effort. Although it’s going to be interesting to learn whether the writers came up with that by themselves or if the producers were told to get the feel and tone of the show with angels from Heaven and copy it for the show with the guy who gets tomorrow’s newspaper today. Considering the show’s weekend slot in 1996, one might think the similarities were intended. After all, TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL was a solidly successful show, and creating a copycat may help the new show get the viewers it needs for a second-season renewal and get the same audience tune to a new television show that is already known and tested.
