Season 9 Episode 15: Kelly Takes a Shot

January 15, 1995

Published 01/15/95

Kelly has lost a film role to Meryl Streep, which she does not consider a reasonable outcome, and her next opportunity requires archery. She is auditioning to be the Fryer Tuck girl, and the job comes down to a contest against another candidate. Bud agrees to coach her, not out of fraternal feeling but because Amber has made clear that she finds supportive brothers attractive, and the two plots run into each other from there. Meanwhile Al has a bird problem. Something has been chirping outside his bedroom window every night for a week, his shotgun is missing because Peg gave it away, and his eventual solution is to buy an owl costume and sit in the tree in the backyard to frighten the thing off. Kelly is practising archery in that same backyard. The collision is inevitable and the show takes its time getting there, and Al’s performance after it happens, crawling toward the back door with an arrow in him while continuing to make owl noises, is the best physical comedy of the season. His promise to Bud about how he will handle his daughter’s feelings is the line of the episode. The contest itself ends with Kelly declining to take the final shot, because the final shot involves an apple on her brother’s head.

The owl costume is Al’s half of the episode and it operates on its own logic entirely: birds are keeping him awake, so he acquires a predator suit and takes up a position in the yard. The archery plot gives Bud a reason to be useful and a reason that has nothing to do with his sister, since Amber is the audience he is actually performing for, and it builds to an apple shot that leaves him badly enough rattled to spend the back end of the episode in a onesie.

Episode Facts

Original air date: January 15, 1995
Season and episode: Season 9, Episode 15
Overall episode number: 198
Written by: Al Aidekman
Directed by: Amanda Bearse
Taped: January 6, 1995
Production note: The onesie Bud ends up in is the same garment he wore as an infant in the 1974 flashback in season 7’s “Christmas.”
Title note: A double meaning on taking a shot at something and on actually taking one.