Season 9 Episode 24: Radio Free Trumaine

May 7, 1995

Published 05/07/95

This episode is a backdoor pilot. It takes place almost entirely at W-HIP, the campus radio station at Trumaine University, and it belongs to two student DJs, Oliver Cole and Mark Campbell, who programme the kind of unconventional material nobody is listening to. The new dean of students is Steve Rhoades, and the DJs put him on air for an interview that goes through his past in rather more detail than he had budgeted for, including an account of how a former chauffeur came to run a university. Both of them are thrown off the air and expelled by the end of it. Bud is in the building too, competing with a Chechen exchange student named Nikolai for the attention of a student called April, and the two of them conduct that negotiation in a studio while unaware that the microphone is live and the lounge is full of students listening. Bud’s contributions include a figure for his own experience that the series had established two episodes earlier, and his attempt to correct the worst of what he has said is the funniest moment in the episode. The proposed series never happened, which is a shame, because the cast assembled for it is remarkable in hindsight: Eric Dane and Keri Russell were both at the very start of their careers.

Because it was built as a pilot, the episode largely steps out of the Bundy house, and the regulars appear mostly in support. Eric Dane, Andrew Kavovit, Keri Russell and David Garrison were all set to carry their characters into the spin-off, which FOX ultimately passed on. It is also David Garrison’s last appearance as Steve Rhoades, his fourth guest turn since leaving the show in season four, and the script takes the trouble to explain how a man last seen chauffeuring in “Get the Dodge Outta Hell” ended up running a university’s student affairs.

Episode Facts

Original air date: May 7, 1995
Season and episode: Season 9, Episode 24
Overall episode number: 209
Written by: Richard Gurman and Stacie Lipp
Directed by: Gerry Cohen
Taped: April 7, 1995
Production note: A backdoor pilot for a proposed spinoff that was to star Eric Dane, Andrew Kavovit, Keri Russell and David Garrison in these roles. It was not picked up.
Production note: David Garrison’s final appearance as Steve Rhoades, his fourth guest return after leaving the regular cast midway through season 4.
Production note: Juliet Tablak said in a 2017 interview that Amber was originally to have featured in the spinoff and that she had signed on, before the character was dropped and April Adams created in her place.
Title note: After the Radio Free broadcasting services.