Date of airing: October 24, 1998 (CBS)
Nielsen ratings information: 11.14 million viewers, 7.3/14 in Households
written by: Jeff Melvoin
directed by: Jim Quinn
It's a good thing Gary isn't interested in being interviewed every time he saves someone's life, since he would have been on television every other day and be a national star by now, interviewed by 60 MINUTES, and profiled in The New Yorker Magazine. Some people would have wondered after a short while why Gary is always saving people, and whether you are in danger when you see Gary walking towards you. The fact that Gary is not taking the chance for an interview when he sees the press makes him the perfect hero in the background, one who just comes in, saves your butt, and walks away, without wanting anything in return. Okay, maybe he wants something in the realm of a "thank you" every once in a while, but it's not like Gary is asking for monetary compensation for constantly risking his life for the Chicago citizens.
This is an episode that was written in a quick manner by executive producer and showrunner Jeff Melvoin, after he realized that Kristy Swanson didn't have a lot to do during one of her episodes in her initial six-episode story arc for which she was cast. So Melvoin created this episode to give her a lot of screentime and a story, in which a random suitor from Erica's past shows up out of nowhere, romances her, pops the question at the end of the episode, and probably disappears again after it, as the story of Gary and Erica is not about any other guy in her life. It is about Gary and Erica, and this is essentially the first episode during which it was obvious that either one of the two (or both) would harbor feelings for the other, teasing the romance between the two and laying the ground for it. And this story needed to be spelled out for all of the viewers, so here it is: EARLY EDITION will have a romance storyline.
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| Gary is so nice, he helps tourists to remember their lives with staged pictures. |
The episode was okay. It was a major step forward for Gary and Erica turning into a couple, and at one point it was necessary that Gary realizes his feelings for his bar manager, and after four episodes with the two getting to know one another, it was even the right time to move the story along and have their romance teased. However, the story chosen for that plot development was a little absurd at times and worthy of some historic eyerolls. To help along the Gary/Erica romance, the writers decided to create a character out of thin air who is way too perfect to be real, and who probably should have been gay. There is no way that a man as proper as Nick – always romantic to his lady, always helping when people around him need help, always nice to everyone (even those who annoy him, like his fans), always catching up with his patients from the past – exists in real life, because he was just too much of a fairytale prince to be taken seriously. Nick was the hunk of a man, a pediatrician (those were becoming a hot commodity, possibly due to Geroge Clooney portraying one on ER over on NBC), a philanthropist, and a world traveler, without getting too crazy about any of it, and always sticking to the ground. Of course, someone like Erica would have the hots for him, and of course, a guy like this would be serious competition for Gary, the loner and bar owner, the guy who constantly runs across the city to save people, the man whose heart was broken by his ex-wife, the man who always wakes up at 6:30 in the morning because a cat brings him tomorrow's newspaper.
By the way, how long were Erica and Nick even dating? Since he showed up out of nowhere and Gary didn't know about him until he coincidentally saw them together, it either means he just came to town recently or Erica has kept her private life a secret for this long. If the former is the case, then Nick was definitely crazy to pop the question after a week or two of dating Erica. If the latter was the case, then maybe there is an issue with Erica keeping secrets about her life when she was otherwise ready to tell all to Gary during their first days together in the second episode of the season (let alone when her ex-husband was back in the game for an hour). Not to mention that, if Erica had accepted Nick's proposal, she would have continued spending time alone, as he would have continued traveling the world. What kind of marriage would that have been? The husband far away in Africa, during philanthropic things; the seduction so close, owning the bar and writing the paychecks...
Besides all that, Gary kind of started to behave ridiculously in his efforts to save lives. He almost gets strangled to death by a chef (everybody just looked on and no one came to Gary's rescue – so much for him being invisible), he almost gets trapped in a fiery hospital, he almost drops a few floors down while helping a painter... Sometimes, Gary just gets into these situations without thinking them through, and at some point, this will not end up well for him. There are better and more appropriate ways to save lives, but Gary tends to forget them for the sake of entertaining the audience in a comedic fashion. He could have easily thrown something at the painter or knocked very hard on the window to get the painter's attention, but no, he had to climb out the window and get on the scaffolding, just so the writers can move the plot to the next point (Gary being saved by Nick). Also, Gary could have behaved a little better. In the opera, he was definitely an asshole. He could not have respected the establishment a little more, or the people who enjoy opera, even if crying?
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| Date night has ended in flames and with dirty faces. |
Yeah, Nick didn't bring the best out of Gary, or the episode in general, which means the writers forced themselves to write Gary around the existence of Nick, making the guest character of the week a pretty huge plot device. Unfortunately, that made Nick a boring character, considering he didn't have his own depth and issues to deal with (being a world-famous philanthropist who also travels a lot – I don't think that is good for anyone's psyche and mental stability. What was Nick running away from?). Also, Nick brought the ridiculousness of the show out again. I mean, just look at the scene in the restaurant – the Chef wants to choke a random man to death, and no one gives a damn. But as soon as the hottest man in Chicago springs to action, everyone surrounds him and wants a picture with him. Sometimes, EARLY EDITION is down to earth. But sometimes, and lately, more often, the show was just blasting off into the stratosphere with absurd plot lines that only make sense if you understand them on a metaphorical level.
