Date of airing: November 22, 1997 (CBS)
Nielsen ratings information: 13.34 million viewers, 8.4/14 in Households
I can’t recognize Emily Procter if my life depends on it (she does look quite like every other attractive blond woman), but when I hear her voice, I immediately know whose it belongs to. That is a weird thing, considering Ainsley Hayes is one of the best TV characters of all time, or at least of the first decade of the twenty-first century, and yet she was never a major character in any of THE WEST WING seasons, even if Aaron Sorking really wanted her to be part of the show permanently (but couldn't, as the cast was already too big), and she would have made the effort to return more often to the show, if she had known about Sorkin's desire to keep her on the show. But as much of an Ainsley Hayes fan as I am, that doesn't mean I necessarily have to watch everything that Procter stars in – for starters, I only watched about a season of CSI: MIAMI, and that only because it aired right before THIRD WATCH on German television back in the day. I remember that I was never interested in the crime procedural, and only watched it because I knew that the next hour would be all about my then-favorite show about cops and paramedics.
Anyway, this show is called EARLY EDITION, and Emily Procter was doing a guest appearance. And it's a forgettable appearance in a weirdly funny episode, and I'm not sure if it was supposed to be that funny, or if it was unintentionally hilarious after the writers decided to dish up this messed-up story about two football players getting chloroformed during an important game and no one notices. Because the two have been replaced on the field by the ones who chloroformed them, and they happen to make the game-winning movies – as if this series universe needed Gary Hobson and Chuck Fishman to be professional football players for two minutes, helping the Chicago Bears to get into the playoffs. But here I am, armchair reviewing this show, and I am just laughing about the absurdity of it all.
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| Future THE WEST WING Republican in former fantasy drama about tomorrow's newspaper today. |
While the initial premise of Gary losing sense and sensibility of the things he is doing, the life he is living, and blaming the paper for the life he doesn’t have, but wants to, that premise was kicked off the field halfway into the hour, to be replaced by football stuff, and becoming a comedy (unintentional or not, it was funny) about how two average Joes of Chicago sneaked onto a football field and changed the outcome of a game for the better, just so they could save the life of one of the players. I have no idea if the writers wanted a comedy episode like this, or if they shrugged their shoulders and said ‘screw it,” as soon as Gary chloroformed two professional football players, because, for this hour of EARLY EDITION, Gary was unable to talk sense into the people he needed to help and instead decided to go for sheer violence (but without the part that has him beating up other people). I mean, chloroforming Joe Damski? Taking his place on the field and actually throwing a nice touchdown? And then Chuck field-kicks it between the goal posts and wins the game? And while I laughed about that image, what was with Chuck escaping the field by taking off the uniform and leaving it on the field like he just became a ghost?
The entire final act was strange as heck, and it was definitely not the EARLY EDITION I came to know and love during the first season, but then again, this is the very awkward and assassination-friendly second season, so it was only a question of time until the writers figured out how to buy the fence and crash through it (as it's cheaper than jumping the shark) and just go with the flow. If you wanted to make a comedy episode, at least don’t fill it with a potential dramatic storyline that has Gary trying to prevent a football pro’s divorce and later death. By the way, why was Gary so interested in helping Joe and Colleen in the first place, and couldn’t that have been the main plot of the episode instead? What was so important to Gary that he had to notice the divorce headline (which would usually not find itself on the first page of the Chicago Sun-Times) and spring into action immediately?
In hindsight, the viewers might ask themselves if the writers decided not to go with the dramatic plot that comes with a divorce story, let alone with Gary having a bit of a crisis during the first couple of minutes and just wanting a break from the paper. Maybe this episode was supposed to be nuts. If so, then the first couple of acts should have been removed from the script and added to a later episode. Gary's realization that the paper is his life now and he will never be living the life of an "average Joe" was too important to bury under the absurdities of chloroforming football players and taking their place on the field.
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| We're in luck when a nuclear bomb *only* hits a psychiatrist office. |
Meanwhile, Chuck was behaving like an asshole yet again, but I guess the writers wanted to get back into the business partnership the two have declared somewhere between the end of the first and the beginning of the second episode this season. A smoking room was a crappy idea from the beginning, and I’m stunned that Gary didn’t even realize that while trapped in the trance he was in during the beginning, because smoking rooms would have generally been an immediate no-no (at least for me – people can smoke outside my restaurant). Chuck's feud with Marissa was a bit more interesting, however, as it brought Marissa as a business partner and co-manager of McGinty's front and center. She needs more scenes like that. By the way, I salute Gary for having made the decision that he would choose Marissa over Chuck. Granted, he didn't say that, but it was quite obvious. And let me say it, that would have been the correct choice. Can Gary do that one again next episode?
And finally, as a non-American who doesn't like American football, allow me to make that joke three decades after every one else did: Uh huh huh huh, his name is Buttkiss, and his first name is Dick. Uh huh huh huh.
