Season 9 Episode 22: User Friendly

April 9, 1995

Published 04/09/95

Bud volunteers for a research study at the university, and the equipment generates a virtual encounter with whoever the subject is thinking about, which in Bud’s case is Amber. The study runs him through it while two researchers and a janitor watch from a control room, and the running commentary they provide on what they are observing is the funniest sequence of the episode, ending with the janitor’s assessment of what the session will require afterwards. Bud becomes dependent on the machine almost immediately. The change in him is dramatic enough that his sister notices: he cleans himself up, he loses interest in the real Amber, and he starts boxing up the possessions he no longer needs, which Kelly inventories out loud. Meanwhile Al has found a light switch in the house that does not appear to operate anything, and the investigation of that switch consumes him. With Jefferson and Bob Rooney assisting, he progressively dismantles the house looking for the circuit, running wires across the staircase and through the living room, and the answer, when it arrives, is in the backyard and belongs to the dog. This is the last appearance of Amber.

Al’s half of the episode is one of the series’ purest pieces of nonsense: he finds a light switch in the house that does not appear to do anything, and he, Jefferson and Bob Rooney set about tearing the place apart to find out what it is wired to. Bud’s thread closes a door: this is the last appearance of Juliet Tablak as Amber, who had been built up across the season and who, by Tablak’s own account years later, had already signed on to carry over into the proposed Trumaine spin-off that never got made.

Episode Facts

Original air date: April 9, 1995
Season and episode: Season 9, Episode 22
Overall episode number: 206
Written by: Russell Marcus
Directed by: Sam W. Orender
Taped: March 10, 1995
Production note: The final appearance of Juliet Tablak as Amber. In a 2017 radio interview Tablak said the character was to have carried over into the proposed spinoff Radio Free Trumaine, and that she had signed on, before Amber was removed at the last minute and replaced by a new character played by Keri Russell.
Production note: Marcy’s hair is noticeably shorter from this episode, close to her season 5 style.
Title note: From the computing term.