Season 3 Episode 10: I’ll See You in Court
June 18, 2002
This is the lost episode. Filmed on January 6, 1989 and scheduled for the third season, it was never broadcast in the United States at the time: the producers and FOX’s censors could not reach an agreement in the atmosphere created by the Rakolta boycott, and the episode was shelved. It aired elsewhere in the world in 1989 and became known to American fans by reputation only for thirteen years, until FX finally showed it on June 18, 2002.
The premise is why. The Bundys and the Rhoades discover a hidden camera in a motel room and find themselves in court over it, which requires the court to view the recordings, which means both couples watching footage of the other. Al’s reaction to seeing Steve and Marcy is amusement rather than horror, a notable outlier, given that “Banking on Marcy” later has him made physically ill by merely hearing Marcy, and season six’s “The Egg and I” renders him temporarily blind at the sight of her.
It is a good episode and the shelving is hard to justify on content alone; the series aired considerably more provocative material before and after. What it ran into was timing, arriving in the middle of the only serious commercial pressure the show ever faced.
Lillian Lehman, who plays the judge, has played judges across a long list of series including L.A. Law, Seinfeld and The Closer, and David Garrison went on to play a lawyer turned judge in four episodes of Law & Order. Two of the jurors had appeared earlier in the season among the Elvis pilgrims in “I’m Going to Sweatland,” and the painting above the motel bed was previously seen on Sanford and Son.
Episode Facts
- Filmed January 6, 1989 and scheduled for February 19, 1989, then pulled from the US schedule
- First US broadcast: June 18, 2002, on FX, thirteen years later
- Season 3, Episode 10, and the 45th episode of the series
- Written by Jeanne Baruch and Jeanne Romano
- Directed by Gerry Cohen
Guest Cast
- Lillian Lehman as the judge
- Ken Thorley as the jury foreman
- Lora Zane as Ms. Weigel
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