Date of airing: October 10, 1998 (CBS)
Nielsen ratings information: 9.74 million viewers, 6.6/13 in Households
written by: Carla Kettner
directed by: Lee Bonner
The series has changed a bit under the new showrunning leadership of executive producer Jeff Melvoin, who took over at the start of this season, after having been part of the show since the beginning as a consultant at least. After EARLY EDITION's time slot was changed by CBS from 9 p.m. to 8 p.m. (DR. QUINN, MEDICINE WOMAN, which aired before EARLY EDITION for two years, ended its six-season run in May 1998), the writers were clear about the studio and network notes that the series had to be more hip, and definitely younger. That is why Ron Dean (also known as retired Detective Crumb, who started working as Gary's bartender) is not a recurring cast member right now. That is why Billie Worley plays a young and energetic bartender in place of Crumb. That is why Kristy Swanson was cast, and that is why her character has a nine-year-old kid. After this episode though, I would have wished for Swanson's initial six-episode guest-starring arc (her contract wasn't for more initially, due to her being in demand, but was extended as the season progressed) to be just that: a six-episode guest-starring arc, because Henry was going on my nerves in this episode. Besides the two Paget family members bringing in melodrama, the kid brought the standard kind of drama into the show, which Gary suddenly had to run a lot faster and farther to save lives. Henry messed things up for Gary, and I am sure he will continue to do so, making him a kid character who is crumbling my cookies right now.
However, the added melodrama makes for a better show, when you compare it with the absurd assassination and mobster-related plots from the previous season. For one, I am a sucker for melodramatic storylines, so I definitely had some investment in the failure that was Henry's father Michael, and his gambling situation, but that doesn't mean this is still a well-written show. Michael is a cliched character with cliched behavior, but the drama surrounding him and his ex-wife and kid was working somehow. I would appreciate it though if Henry doesn't become the central character of the series – because this is only his second episode of the show, and he was the main star of both hours. Not that I mind the show steering back from Gary as the central character every once in a while, but Henry isn't the greatest or most interesting of kids.
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| The little brat is scheming. |
At least the writers made a move and had someone discover Gary's little secret. Okay, it happened a little too quickly here and it was way too easy for Henry to find the paper and figure it out (it took Gary longer than it took Henry, although maybe kids just get things a lot faster than adults do), to get the sports results and figure that he can make money with it, or at least give some of the results to his troubled father. Cue the melodrama storyline, in which Mike could not help himself to sink into his gambling addiction in front of his little kid, and use him to bet on the winning horses. It's quite the cliched storyline, but hey, at least all it did was tell the audience (and Gary) that Mike is unsuitable to be both Henry's father and Erica's love interest, so the way has been cleared for Gary to take over both roles in a couple of episodes.
Not to mention that, after two seasons, Gary's friendships with Chuck and Marissa were stalling and not doing much for the story at hand – Chuck has been removed from the fold now, so the continued effort for comical story elements by having Chuck try and take a peek into the paper to get information that makes him rich are gone as well, and there is no way that Marissa would ever go down that well. To up the number of people Gary has relationships with, and to have another character peek into the paper for nefarious purposes, Henry was chosen to be that character, with the added "bonus" that he is a kid, making things a bit more complicated for Gary. And voila, you get the hip storyline that could win over younger audiences on Saturday evening, only unfortunately, the writers forgot to make Erica and Henry more intriguing characters.
Maybe this is the kicker to a special relationship between Gary and Henry that will inform the former's relationship with Erica (she kissed him on the cheek already, so romance isn't far away from here), or maybe the writers were just interested in turning the show into a kids adventure every now and then. The 3 NINJAS and THE MIGHTY DUCKS franchises, and all the low-to-no-budgeted and kid-friendly 1980s and 90s movies you would find on your cable channel during federal holidays in which kids are the central characters, going through some sort of an adventure... EARLY EDITION wants to be that kind of show for an episode or two as well, but for that to happen, the writers needed to get rid of a lot of the melodrama that was thrown into this episode, and possibly make the viewers and the characters forget about the character that was Mike.
Because he was a weird character. He loves his kid, he loves betting all his money away, and, of course, the guys he owes money to didn't have pistols in their hands to show Mike how serious the situation is for him. Heck, Mike wasn't even angry that another father figure was in his kid's life, least alone in Erica's life, making me wonder how addicted to losing money this man really was, if he didn't even care about the competition for Erica's heart. Usually, someone like Mike would turn into an adversary for Gary, but no, Mike was almost crying into Gary's shoulders at the end, unable to do the right thing and get back on the proper track of being a father who is not a loser to his kid. Then again, there was no reason for Mike to be Gary's adversary, considering the Gary/Erica romance did not even come across anyone's mind yet (save for Marissa, because she knows what is going on).
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| Erica receives a very annoying phone call, but she looks good doing so. |
Meanwhile, this episode proved how cheap the show really is, because it reused a scene from an earlier episode. The school explosion midway through the hour, during which Gary had to save a janitor? Yes, that was footage from the season one finale, when Gary had to save a janitor from an explosion that was supposed to hit one of the professors at Marissa's school that she went to. That means either the episode came in short during editing and a scene or two needed to be added quickly, and there was no money to shoot extra stuff, or it was a planned instance of taking a scene from an earlier episode and a way for the production to save money. Honestly, I don't know what it means for the future of the show – are they going to repurpose some of Gary's earlier adventures for the next two years to fill time? Is this what the series will be about now?
