Season 8 Episode 9: NO MA’AM
November 14, 1993
The women get their own bowling night and the nudie bar is converted into a women’s coffeehouse, which leaves Al and his friends with nowhere to go and a grievance to organise around. They found NO MA’AM, the National Organization of Men Against Amazonian Masterhood, and this is its first appearance, four seasons before it faded out in season eleven’s “Live Nude Peg.”
Jerry Springer plays a version of himself, hosting a programme called The Masculine Feminist, which is the show that has caused all of this. In 1993 Springer was presenting a daytime talk show that had not yet become what it became, and the episode casts him as an earnest advocate rather than a ringmaster: he played himself again in Ringmaster five years later.
It is the only episode to feature the group’s Five Demands, read out formally, and the founding membership is larger than the one that stuck. Barney is the longest-serving of them, having been one of Al’s poker friends since the first season. Of the original roster only Jefferson and Bob Rooney became permanent fixtures; Barney and Roger appear once more, in “The Legend of Ironhead Haynes,” and then stop.
This is also the first officially credited appearance of Officer Dan, though Dan Tullis Jr. had been playing Chicago police officers on the series since season five, including the FBI agent pursuing Steve in “The Egg and I.” Lisa Boyle plays Bubbles Double Dee and came back in season ten as Kelly’s friend Fawn.
Episode Facts
- Original air date: November 14, 1993
- Season 8, Episode 9, and the 166th episode of the series
- The founding of NO MA’AM, and the only episode that lays out the Five Demands
- Written by Larry Jacobson
- Directed by Tony Singletary
Guest Cast
- Jerry Springer as himself
- E.E. Bell as Bob Rooney
- Dan Tullis Jr. as Officer Dan
- Steve Susskind as Barney
- Christopher Collins as Roger
- John Mariano as Pete
- Trip Hamilton as Jim
- Lisa Boyle as Bubbles Double Dee
- Harriet Leider as Velma
- Timothy Omundson as the bartender
Members get the full episode breakdown, famous quotes, behind the scenes notes and the episode discussion.
