Season 4 Episode 15: Rock and Roll Girl

February 4, 1990

Published 02/04/90

The episode opens on Allowance Day, with Al being chased from the backyard through his own front door by his wife and both children, caught in a bear hug by his son, and relieved of a handful of crumpled notes and loose change which he throws on the floor rather than hand over. The three of them go down after it. Marcy, standing in the doorway, watches Peg fight her own daughter for coins.

Her suggestion is that everyone in the house earn their own money, and Al adopts it immediately. Kelly answers an audition call and gets hired as a dancer in a rock band’s music video. Bud installs himself as her agent, taking a cut. Peg’s entrepreneurial solution is to build a toll booth, which is both completely absurd and exactly the amount of effort she considers reasonable.

Two firsts here are worth knowing. This is the first time Kelly has a job, and the first time Bud manages her, which became one of the show’s standing arrangements for the next seven seasons. It is also David Garrison’s last appearance as a regular cast member, though not the last he filmed: the previous episode was shot after this one. He came back as a guest four more times across the run. The cold open is the best three minutes in the episode and it is worth the price of admission on its own. Nothing about it is exaggerated by the standards of this family: there is money in the house, Al has it, and the only question is whether he hands it over or they take it off him. He chooses the floor.