Ep. 77 - You Can't Go Out of Town Again

September 2, 2019

Writer: Dan Guntzelman
Director: Howard Hesseman
Original Air Date: January 13, 1982

It may not have been planned this way, but I get the sense this episode is both a sequel to the Season Three episode "A Simple Little Wedding" and a foreshadowing of the upcoming, and Very Important episode "Circumstantial Evidence."

"A Simple Little Wedding" is a different Arthur and Carmen centred episode in which the couple wants to celebrate their wedding anniversary by renewing their vows until Mama wants to turn it into the biggest event in Cincinnati. It ends with them running off to a seedy motel out of town.

Like many sequels, "You Can't Go Out of Town Again" hits the same big beats, but it's not as well written. The cold opening in an excuse for Mr. Carlson to explain the setup for the rest of the episode. It is the weekend of his college reunion.  He was in a "fraternity" called the Omegas. Well, it was a real fraternity "Mother rented this house for a bunch of us who couldn't get in." He doesn't really want to go, but he believes it was important to Carmen; this is where he and Carmen met despite the fact he was not very popular on campus. The best thing that happened to him was the time Carmen invited him to a Sorority dance... but they never arrived. They end up at the Eat and Sleep Motel (gasp!)

All of this exposition just gets dumped on Venus before the credit ever roll! Although necessary, it feels clumsy here. But there's even more of it!

The next scene is Jennifer helping Carlson making the arrangements for the trip. Again he tells her about the Eat and Sleep Motel (gasp!). He also tells her about how much he dislikes Hank "the Hunk" Kremsky, the only other Omega we will meet in this episode. Once Carmen arrives, she tells Jennifer that she's only going because it is so important to Arthur (ooooh!)

So there is ALL of this set up to get us to the Eat and Sleep Motel, which I my opinion plays out as a revisit to the cheap hotel in the "Simple Little Wedding" episode. Both feature this very loving WASPy couple thrown into a very uncomfortable situation that they survive by reminding each other that because they love each other so much, they can survive any situation.

Even Arthur finding out he was on the Dip List! (To be fair, ALL of the Omegas were on the Dip List). Arthur had harboured the fantasy that this bright, beautiful girl on campus had seen through all of the "Moose" and Omega stuff to find the good person within and pursued him. And she did! But that was really only after Carmen went on a date with Arthur as a dare to get into her Sorority. He had started the rumour that the two of them skipped the dance to go to a motel (gasp!) and even through they only went for hamburgers, she didn't stop the rumour either. (oooooh!)

This all comes to light after Arthur has a couple of beers with his old frat brother Hank "the Hunk" Kremsky, who really should be a frat brother with Herb. Like Herb, he is a loud, obnoxious lout - no wonder he was also on the Dip List. His wife, Fluffy, was rushing the same Sorority, so he assumes Arthur knows all about this story.

I want to take a moment here and discuss Fluffy. I get that she's an airhead who married a guy who got rich but the writers couldn't come up with a more realistic name than "Fluffy"? Have you ever met ANY HUMAN named Fluffy or whose nickname is even Fluffy? Just getting a laugh with a dumb name is below the standards of the comedy writing we know this show aspires to. I don't even know what the sore calves thing is suppose to mean.

There is a very prominent B plot in which Venus is having a date in the booth while on the air. We've seen hints of this before but this episode spends a lot of time - in fact, two dates - with Venus and this woman, and the elaborate spread he prepares for her. There are cheese and wine, gherkins and crab puffs. Tupperware containers full of crab puffs! Venus' mounting frustration with the several interruptions to his dates is funny, but as I said, I believe this is all to set up what will be a more serious episode coming up in a few weeks.

Roy

Other Notes - This is Howard Hesseman's second time directing. That why we only see him in the short scene with Jennifer discussing Crab Puffs. In 1982, Bailey wants the station to buy a "computer!" Imagine now how she could do her job without one! Alice Nunn, the actress who plays the lady running the motel is none other than Large Marge from "Pee Wee's Big Adventure."  If Arthur was in a Cardinal mascot costume, that would mean he attended Otterbein University in Westerville OH, just outside of Columbus. The song Arthur plays on the jukebox at the end has obviously been replaced for the boxset. It originally should have been "Satisfaction" by the Rolling Stones, which probably costs a fortune to license.