It's A Wonderful Job: Rate this episode

[diane]

Jan 14, 2012 23:59:12 GMT -5 gene said:

This one is a perfect 10.

What's not to like? I can't think of a thing and I have tried to really be critical. It has all the things that make for a successful show. Characters that we care about, a compelling twist on a well known Christmas classic, and for once and maybe the only time a self contained happy ending that could have ended the series right then and there and it might have worked.

Ok, Gene....you're new and my new favorite person! Welcome and thanks for loving my favorite episode as much as I do!

[bluemoonshampoo]

I love this episode too - maybe it should have come after the big bang? Like end series 3 with it? Maddie abolishing the pact herself - it would have been pretty poignant too what with all of her misgivings about him and then, when faced with losing him entirely, she is forced to face her true feelings xxxxxx

[Tamm]

Now that would have been great

[sandra]

Jan 16, 2012 10:28:25 GMT -5 bluemoonshampoo said:

I love this episode too - maybe it should have come after the big bang? Like end series 3 with it? Maddie abolishing the pact herself - it would have been pretty poignant too what with all of her misgivings about him and then, when faced with losing him entirely, she is forced to face her true feelings xxxxxx

That's a great idea! True!

[iluvdavid]

What a wonderful idea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[dedaved]

Rating: 7

Like It's A Wonderful Life this episode is pretty depressing for the majority of its duration but in the end it manages to be uplifting enough to give you that warm and fuzzy feeling. This is also, like all the best episodes, immensely creative. The sequence that always sticks out in my mind is the scene in Agnes's alternate timeline. Greeting card company? Stroke of genius! CEO of said company? Brilliant! Company policy to rhyme all day as a means of keeping employees honed? Priceless! Bert was new to the show at this point but his limited history is barely an issue in this wonderfully tense scene that could've easily been played for cheap laughs where he attempts to reason with the now tyrannical Dipesto and appeal to her sense of humanity. It's a fantastic scene and worth watching the episode for it alone. The other timelines are hit and miss. Having the Harts buy out Blue Moon was a cute idea but the result was rather stilted and lame. However David's timeline fares better with a refreshingly subdued scene with David and Richie on the balcony. "Maddie Hayes? I haven't heard that name in along time." Legitimate chills at that line! Also a special mention to the wonderful and underrated Richard Libertini who was perfect as the guardian angel.

Unfortunately the chaotic production schedule of Moonlighting seemed to get the best of this ambitious, special effects heavy show. The effects are not only horrendous (even for the 80s) but more importantly take their toll on the film, causing a garish fuzzy, washed out look. The lowest point being where during what should be the most tense, harrowing sequences we've seen to date, we get a drop in frame rate on top of the colour, film quality issues. A drop in frame rate is just not acceptable for a broadcast quality show. It may have been the 80s and it may have been a result of this show biting off more than it can chew post-production wise but these problems really hurt this other wise wonderful, inventive episode.

[diane]

So, now you have happened upon MY favorite episode, Dedaved.

And you have pretty much nailed it....there are some amazing scenes -- like the "Rhymes for the Times Scenes" in which Allyce and Curtis really get to shine. And the scenes on the patio as David recalls his meetings with Maddie, and expresses some regrets. And the scenes with Albert....and...and...

But this is Maddie's/Cybill's episode, and is filled with such introspection. Some of her reactions and realization are heartbreaking...and yet, the scenes in the car, where she is fighting for her life, are some of the finest in regards to showing Maddie's true strength. This episode touches me.

Are you right about the production values? Sure...it's hard to measure up, especially with its proximity to Atomic.

But I feel about this episode in the way I might feel if somebody told me I had an ugly baby......I would probably realize it...but I would still love it with all my heart.

Really enjoying your analyses.

[klr]

I'm actually very glad to find this site and this message board because I have wanted to vent about this episode for quite a few weeks now.

I recently happened upon this episode on YouTube and re-watched it. I first watched it when it first aired back in the 80's. I was a mere slip of a girl then. I don't remember how I felt about the episode as a teenager. That frustrates me because I wish I had that recall so I could compare my feelings then to how I felt watching it as a grown woman in 2012.

The only thing I do clearly recall is that I thought, after that big kiss at the end of the episode, that they did become lovers at that point. I remember being surprised, when seeing the next episode, that they had, in fact, not consummated their relationship after the Christmas show. Not only did it seem like they were "going there" right on the desk under the mistletoe, I cannot, for the life of me, imagine how Maddie managed to get away from a thoroughly turned-on David who had just been mashed in a dark office. Now, that's an exit scene I would have liked to see.

I give the episode a 3 and that's only because I don't blame any of the actors and I think they did a fine job. I also think it was a funny bit of stunt casting to have Cheryl Tiegs as alt-David's intended.

Other than that, I hated this episode. Hated, hated, hated, hated.

Did I mention the hate?

Now, as I said, I don't know how I felt as a young girl, back then, but as an adult, it made my blood boil.

Why? Because I think Maddie was right in that episode, from soup to nuts, and I think she was treated shabbily by everyone in her life: parents, office staff and David.

While the very notion of Maddie being the boss and actually owning and running Blue Moon was groundbreaking for the mid-80's, I know, I thought the underlying premise of the episode was extremely sexist.

If Maddie were a man, I don't think the staff ever would have given her the grief they did about working Christmas because there wouldn't be the (unspoken yet very present) expectation, in the first place, that Maddie should be emotional when it comes to running her business. When men make hard business decisions, they may not be liked, but they are understood and respected.

The employees acted like nursery school kids who had been told they couldn't have cookies before nap time. They were churlish and rude to Maddie. As for Macgillicuddy -- he absolutely, positively deserved to be fired. I only wished that Maddie had favored him with one of her famous slaps, as well. But, that would have been unprofessional of her. Enjoyable, but unprofessional. So, in the end, I guess I'm glad she didn't. (Sort of.)

Now, David, on the other hand, would have chastised any partner of his for trying to make the staff work through Christmas, male or female. He would have used different word choices and arguments with another man, probably, but his general position would have been the same.

This isn't, in my view, really to David's credit, however, because he only survives being "the fun parent" to the staff because there is someone there (Maddie) to be the parent who says, no, we can't eat candy all the time, kids. Sometimes, we have to eat our vegetables and brush our teeth.

I don't think they ever got into the background of the agency before Maddie's reversal of fortune forced her to make a go of it as her main source of income, but there was one almost throw-away exchange in the pilot episode where David assures Maddie that the only reason the agency always lost money was that it was supposed to do so for tax purposes. I think it's interesting that it's never explored why a live-wire like David Addison would be at a dead-end company where the actual goal was to lose money, in the first place. Surely, such a situation would lack the excitement on which he thrives.

I submit it suited him because, at another agency, any position of power would have forced him to be the kind of disciplinarian he would never want to be. I don't think he realizes (certainly not in this episode) that he is really fortunate to have someone like Maddie, who puts up with his nonsense and his need to be liked to such an extent.

Maddie doesn't seem to want to be liked by the others, with the exception of Agnes, of course. She never seems to spend much time with them. But, she does show her deep caring for them right at the start of the episode, way before her angelic transformation. As she tells David, none of the staff would have jobs, if not for her. She even backed the payroll out of her own (very diminished) resources when the agency couldn't make payroll. How many bosses would do that? Not many in the 80's and even fewer in this current economic climate of 2012. That's why it burned me up when, after Maddie said what she did, it went one of David's ears and out the other. He didn't even respond to her comment.

I felt so sorry for Maddie in this episode and I thought she was getting dumped on left and right. And, how dare the Blue Moon trio at the end (instead of the three wise men, we get David, Agnes and Macgillicuddy as the three wise-guys, as far as I'm concerned) apologize to her the way they did? The fact that they found out she had a death in the family doesn't, all of a sudden, make their previous treatment of her rotten. It was plenty rotten all on its own.

They all owed her an apology. No doubt about that. But, I think they were apologizing for the wrong things.

Maddie, on the other hand, didn't owe them an apology at all. I also don't think she owed her parents an apology. You couldn't hear the other side of either conversation with her parents in the episode, but you could tell one after the other was berating her.

Hey, Alex and Virginia: they have flights from Chicago to L.A. all the time. Every. Day. Trying being on one and stop making your daughter your mule just because of geography. She's trying to rebuild her life and run a business, m'kay?

The episode, overall, was much more "A Christmas Carol" than "A Wonderful Life" despite the play on the title, but Maddie is no Scrooge. She does operate with her heart -- ultimately. She doesn't do it openly or right away. But, she does it. Otherwise, she wouldn't have kept the staff employed. Otherwise, she wouldn't, despite her hemming and hawing and screaming, trust David Addison down to the ground, even to the point of walking away from a small fortune and getting a piece of her own back from her cheating accountant.

So, no. I don't like the episode. At all. I might have liked it as a kid, but I think it's a sexist screed that picks on Maddie and blows her supposed faults out of proportion. All due respect to those who like it, of course. To each her/his own. But, I won't be watching this again in a few weeks in rotation with my annual viewings of Frosty and Rudolph.

[snappysara]

Wow that is some review Klr. Welcome to the board! It is not one of my fav episodes either but I don't hate it. The reason i wouldn't give it a 10 is because for the most part, it is not Maddie and David being Maddie and David. It does have a serious message though and I often think of the one line that stuck with me from that episode "A good job doesn't love you back" ! So true and very wise coming from David. I think Maddie realises too that she can't live without David in her life and we see how jealous she is when she learns he is with Cheryl. I guess it is christmassy but Twas the night before Xmas knocks socks off it for the slapstick humour that we all love with David and Maddie.

[vic]

I liked it, and I got a kick out of Agnes becoming a boss.

I didn't like how Maddie was being treated. Yeah, she was making everyone work the holiday, but she was going to work as well, right?
On top of that, I got the impression from previous episodes, that they were often in the red. Prior to her coming on board, they never had a case.
I could buy that the employees were taking down Christmas decorations to spite the boss.

I couldn't buy that that one guy was talking trash to the boss when she was stepping out, and when he said "I quite" all the other employees kept clapping. Its like they had no respect for their boss whatsoever.
Overall, I felt bad for Maddie, especially considering what she was going through, her Aunt dying, and how she blamed herself.
Even David wasn't too understanding of her. He was just pretty much saying she was a grinch, and not being persuasive at all.

Basically, it was a reversal of the Wonderful Life film. She doesn't make David's life better, David makes her life better. Makes sense. But I think that it goes both ways. I can't see David Addison falling into money and marrying a model.
And apparently, Agnes not being stuck at Blue Moon, she becomes a big shot. So Maddie and David are holding her back in a way.