Season 3 Episode 18: Married… with Prom Queen: the Sequel (2)

April 30, 1989

Published 04/30/89

The conclusion splits the reunion in two. Peggy recruits Bud and Kelly to rig the prom queen ballot, which turns out to be well within their abilities, Kelly carries lock picks in her handbag, while Al goes out to the car park to settle matters with his high school rival Jack. Neither storyline resolves with dignity, which is the correct outcome for both.

The episode is where the four-touchdown game finally gets a date. Al states that he scored them on November 17, and that he took the field at 4:40 in the afternoon, which is the most precise the series ever got about the single event his entire identity rests on. His conversation with Sable, an attractive woman at the reunion, also produces his account of having passed up a chance to play for the Chicago Bears in order to stay with Peggy, a claim the final script words rather differently from the draft, and which the episode lets stand without comment.

Bud and Kelly’s contribution is the funniest thing in it. Their ballot-box operation is competent, their behaviour at the reunion is not, and Bud’s line after lifting his food-covered face from a table, about the colours, went on to be quoted by Scott Ian of Anthrax, a band the series would eventually host.

David L. Lander, who plays Eli, was Squiggy on Laverne and Shirley, a character Kelly’s love interest had name-checked a few episodes earlier in “Poke High.” Lander also appeared on Happy Days and The Love Boat, both of which later employed Ted McGinley. Lynne Austin, who plays Sable, had appeared earlier in the same season as Peaches in “Her Cups Runneth Over.”