Season 7 Episode 9: Rock of Ages

Al’s paycheck has been seized by bill collectors, so he throws himself at the shoe store’s salesman of the month contest with an intensity that eventually crosses a line even his own son objects to. The prize is a first class trip to Honolulu. Al wins it by selling Marcy a replacement pair after arranging for Seven to steal the ones she was wearing, and by hijacking a sale from a young woman Bud has brought home, with Bud physically trying to restrain him. Peg then calls the airline and trades the single first class ticket for four standby seats, so the family ends up in the terminal instead of the cabin. Al’s consolation is that he can still get into the first class lounge if he can pass as somebody important, so he invents a rock career: Axl Bundy, formerly of Shoes N’ Socks. Inside the lounge is a genuine assembly of 1960s musicians playing themselves, Richie Havens, Spencer Davis, Robby Krieger of the Doors, Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere and the Raiders, Peter Noone of Herman’s Hermits and John Sebastian of the Lovin’ Spoonful. They believe him, invite him to jam, and nobody can retain his assumed name for more than a sentence. Why these six men are all in one airport lounge on the same afternoon is the joke the episode is building toward, and the reveal is a good deal more humiliating than Al had bargained for. For an episode that exists mainly to get six aging musicians into one room, it is unusually well constructed.

Episode Facts

• Original air date: November 15, 1992
• Season and episode: Season 7, Episode 9
• Overall episode number: 140
• Written by: Al Aidekman
• Directed by: Gerry Cohen
• Taped: October 30, 1992
• Production note: Six musicians appear as themselves, from the Doors, Herman’s Hermits, the Lovin’ Spoonful, the Spencer Davis Group and Paul Revere and the Raiders.
• Title note: Most likely from the 1983 Def Leppard single, with a second meaning in the age of the band Al joins. His alias, Axl Bundy of Shoes N’ Socks, is a Guns N’ Roses joke.

Guest Cast

• Richie Havens as himself
• Spencer Davis as himself
• Robby Krieger as himself
• Mark Lindsay as himself
• Peter Noone as himself
• John Sebastian as himself
• Mark J. Goodman as the VJ (credited as Mark Goodman)
• Aaron Lustig as the first class lounge attendant
• Teresa Lee as Petal (credited as Theresa Lee)

Rock of Ages

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