Season 8 Episode 14: Sofa So Good

January 16, 1994

Published 01/16/94

Al and Peg are away at a Wanker County family reunion, which leaves the house to the children, and Kelly’s latest boyfriend manages to set fire to the sofa. The damage is total. Peg’s couch is gone, and Peg is due back next week, which gives Bud and Kelly time to find an identical replacement. Then Peg calls to say they are coming home tomorrow. Jefferson, brought in as a consultant, delivers the bad news in stages: the couch was not a popular line, only two were ever manufactured, and only one of those sold. Kelly’s conclusion that this makes the search easier is the episode’s best joke and earns her the harshest thing her brother ever says to her. The hunt leads out into the woods, to the man who built the thing, a recluse named Mary who has lost his mind and constructed a shrine to the Three Stooges. He has the other couch. He is willing to part with it, but not for money, and the terms he proposes put Kelly in a position she has to think seriously about. She takes the deal. The couch comes home, the parents arrive, and the episode saves its punchline for the moment Al and Peg go upstairs and notice what is missing from the bedroom. It is one of the strongest Bud and Kelly episodes of the later seasons, because for once they are working together and both of them are desperate, which brings out the best in the writing for both characters.

Episode Facts

Original air date: January 16, 1994
Season and episode: Season 8, Episode 14
Overall episode number: 171
Written by: Doug McIntyre
Directed by: Amanda Bearse
Production note: Marcy does not appear, as Amanda Bearse directed.
Production note: The opening scene of Bud on the phone was lifted for David Faustino’s clip in the season 9 opening credits.
Title note: A pun on “so far, so good.”