Season 9 Episode 1: Shoeway to Heaven

September 4, 1994

Published 09/04/94

Season 9 opens with Al and Jefferson spotting an opportunity in 1970s nostalgia. Platform shoes are coming back, so they clear out Gary’s and restock it with period footwear, and the operation briefly works: a reporter from a tabloid news programme turns up to cover it, Al dresses the part in full seventies costume and a long-haired wig, and for a few minutes he is a businessman with press attention. The reporter’s reaction to his four-touchdowns story is the driest put-down the character receives all season. A fashion show is arranged, fronted by a model named Dominique, and it goes wrong in the way these things go wrong in this house: a heel gives way, she comes off the stage, and the shoemaker who supplied the stock is produced to explain himself. By the end Al’s response to the collapse of the venture is to brick himself into the wall of his own house, which the closing credits confirm he does not come back out of. Katey Sagal had just given birth, so Peg is written out for the early part of the season as being away in Wanker County nursing her mother, and in this episode she exists only as a voice on the telephone. It is a serviceable premiere that spends most of its energy on housekeeping, and the Verminator cold open is funnier than anything in the main plot. It is also a useful marker for anyone tracking the series’ production history, since this is where the show changed studios, changed its credits and changed Kelly’s hair all at once.

Episode Facts

Original air date: September 4, 1994
Season and episode: Season 9, Episode 1
Overall episode number: 184
Teleplay by: Nancy Steen, story by: Carl Studebaker
Directed by: Gerry Cohen
Production note: The first episode taped at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City. Seasons 3 through 8 had been shot at Sunset Gower in Hollywood.
Production note: Katey Sagal had given birth to her daughter in August 1994 and appears only sparingly in the first four episodes. Peggy is written as being away in Wanker County caring for her mother; here she is a voice on the phone.
Production note: The episode closes with an on-screen dedication to James Maura, a costumer on the series who had died of cancer in June 1994.
Title note: A play on “Stairway to Heaven.”