Season 9 Episode 21: And Bingo Was Her Game-O

Peg has qualified for a bingo invitational, and the venue is in a neighbourhood she is not willing to drive to alone, so she brings Marcy. The hall turns out to be run on terms the two of them were not prepared for, populated by serious players who have been doing this a long time and who regard outsiders accordingly. Jean Speegle Howard and Clint Howard both appear, which puts Ron Howard’s mother and brother in the same episode of this series. Peg wins ten thousand dollars. Getting home with it is the problem, and the resolution involves the entire amount going to a taxi fare. Meanwhile Al and Jefferson are on the couch watching monster trucks, which Peg assesses as a decline in PBS programming standards since the Republicans took Congress, and then their beer commercial comes on. The brand has a new spokesperson. She is Yoko Ono, she would like to tell them about the rainforest, and she has written a song. The sequence that follows, ending with Al putting the remote control through the television screen, is the funniest thing in the episode, and Jefferson’s summary of her career is the line of the season.

Peg’s story goes exactly the way the title promises: she wins, and the ten thousand dollars does not survive contact with her. Al’s half is a beer taste test, convened after NO MA’AM loses faith in their brand’s spokesperson, and it gives the garage another round of men evaluating products they cannot afford. Jean Speegle Howard and Clint Howard, Ron Howard’s mother and brother, appear among the bingo regulars, and Howard had turned up on the show twice before in other roles.

Episode Facts

• Original air date: March 26, 1995
• Season and episode: Season 9, Episode 21
• Overall episode number: 205
• Written by: Alison Taylor
• Directed by: Amanda Bearse
• Taped: February 24, 1995
• Production note: Jean Speegle Howard and Clint Howard, Ron Howard’s mother and brother, both appear. Jean Speegle Howard had already been on the show twice this season and last.
• Production note: Christina Applegate’s hair is noticeably shorter from this episode, a chin-length bob she keeps into the following season.
• Title note: From the folk song “Bingo,” with the obvious application to Peggy’s evening.

Guest Cast

• Jean Speegle Howard as Ceil
• Clint Howard as Mullen
• Rusty Schwimmer as Babs
• Peter Spellos as Elmo
• Pat Crawford Brown as the bingo caller
• Vick Sabitjian as Abdula
• Julia Kato as the voice of Yoko Ono

And Bingo Was Her Game-O

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