Season 9 Episode 13: I Want My Psycho Dad (2)
December 18, 1994
The conclusion, and the episode gets its best sequence out of the cover story. NO MA’AM are flying to Washington to testify, and none of them has told his wife, so they assemble at the Bundy house at five in the morning and Al informs Peg he is going ice fishing. Then Jefferson arrives dressed for deer hunting. Then Griff arrives with skis. Then Ike arrives dressed for hiking and Bob Rooney arrives in scuba gear. Al calls a huddle, and the explanation he constructs on the spot, assigning each man a role in a single integrated ice fishing operation involving deer bait skied down to a lake and then scuba dived into it, is one of the finest pieces of improvised nonsense in the series. Peg’s response, which makes clear she has not believed a word of it, is the better joke. In Washington the group gets a Senate hearing through a connection of Jefferson’s, and their testimony does not restore the programme. Back in Chicago the children have taken the opportunity to throw a party large enough to reach the national news, and Al’s eventual discovery of what has been happening in his living room produces the one moment of actual violence in a two-parter about televised violence.
From there the episode becomes a road comedy about men who cannot admit where they are going. The alibis stack up, ice fishing, deer hunting, each one less convincing than the last, and Peg and Marcy work out the truth with no real effort. The Senate hearing that follows gives Al his platform and then takes it away from him, and the half-hour closes on the show’s most reliable position: the cause was never going to win, and losing it publicly is funnier than winning it would have been.
Episode Facts
- Original air date: December 18, 1994
- Season and episode: Season 9, Episode 13
- Overall episode number: 196
- Written by: David Castro
- Directed by: Gerry Cohen
- Taped: December 9, 1994
- Production note: Conclusion of the two-parter that Michael G. Moye had publicly accused FOX of trying to censor when it was drafted for season 8.
- Title note: A play on MTV’s slogan. The episode’s full on-screen subtitle, “Second Blood,” is a Rambo reference.
Guest Cast
- J. Patrick McCormack as Senator Furman
- Tom McCleister as Ike
- Joseph D. Reitman as Tom (credited as Joseph Reitman)
- T.C. Warner as Pam
- Barry Wiggins as Geronimo
- Michael Philip as Chopper
A Big Part of Ice Fishing
The cover story scene is the best thing in either half of this story and it is constructed perfectly. Each new arrival at the door makes the lie worse, Al stomps on Jefferson’s foot to stop him revealing a vote, and then rather than abandon the story Al calls a huddle and builds a single coherent activity out of five incompatible costumes. The mimed demonstration that follows, with each man stepping forward to act out his assigned role, is the payoff.
Peg’s exit line, wishing him a nice time and telling him to catch a big one, lands because she has clearly known the whole time, and Al’s reply confirms he knows she knows.
The Senate sequence is where the episode’s real subject surfaces. A group of men from a shoe store testifying before a committee about the cancellation of a violent television programme is a direct comment on the hearings that were going on in Washington while this was being written, and the fact that FOX did not want the episode made is the most interesting thing about it.
Two small revelations: Peggy reveals that Al never liked ice fishing, which is why the lie was a poor choice, and Griff reveals that he never liked Psycho Dad, which raises the question of why he came.
Joseph D. Reitman appears as Tom, having played Kelly’s boyfriend Genghis in “Naughty But Niece” earlier in the season. He is wearing the same outfit he wears as Genghis in season 10, which has led a lot of viewers to conclude they are the same person.
Famous Quotes
- Peg: “Al, it is 5 in the morning. Where are you going?” Al: “Fishing, Peg. Ice fishing, to be exact.” Peg: “You never used to like ice fishing.” Al: “Am I not permitted to grow as a human being, Peg?”
- Jefferson, arriving with a rifle: “Hey, buddy. You ready to go deer hunting?” Al: “You mean ice fishing, don’t you, Jefferson?”
- Al, salvaging it: “Jefferson forgot that a big part of ice fishing is getting the bait and in this case it’s… deer.” Jefferson: “Fish love deer.”
- Griff, arriving with skis: “Hey, guys, ready to go skiing?” Al: “Excuse us one minute, Peg.”
- Peg, after the full explanation: “Of course. Have a nice time, Boys. Catch a big one, Al.” Al: “Oh I already have, Peg.”
Notes
- Al confuses Philadelphia’s nickname for Washington’s, and Officer Dan’s correction is a joke at the expense of the capital’s 1994 football team, who won three games that season.
- Ike believes Jefferson was named after Sherman Hemsley’s character on The Jeffersons, and Jefferson does not deny it. Given that he admitted in season 8’s “The D’Arcy Files” that the name is an alias, that may be the only explanation that works.
- A goof the show walks straight past: a knife makes it onto Capitol Hill, through metal detectors that were in place well before 1994.
