Story: Brian Buckner & Sebastian Jones
Teleplay:  Jeff Lowell & Tom Hertz
Director: Andy Cadiff

Episode Length: 22:02

Guest Stars:

Rating: n/a

Rating:  TV- PG - D

First Broadcast: November 26, 1997

Storyline #1: Oedipus Wrecks
Mike's mom is in town and he is intent on showing her off.  She spends here time hanging around the office embarrassing Mike and enjoying the wonder that is running New York City.  Mike plays along because he and his mom have a good relationship and he doesn't mind being the center of attention.  (Mike never has been one to shy away from attention.)  But when he can't get out of a business lunch, he hands his mom off to the Mayor and apologizes.  Mike's mom, Macy, is thrilled because she spends the afternoon convincing the Mayor to purchase educational software from her company.   That night, Mike wants to take his mom out on the town but she surprises him by saying she will just make her own plans.  That turns out to be a good thing for Mike because scandal erupts.  The Mayor is photographed giving money to a known prostitute and an overzealous reporter dreams up a story where the Mayor is hiding a scandalous affair.  Mike gathers the staff and sends them out to scour the city in order to find Mayor Winston.  Not having any luck, Mike visits his mom's hotel room to find solace.   Instead, he finds the Mayor emerging from the shower.

Storyline #2: Courting Disaster
City Hall is beefing up its security and the first step is installing metal detectors.   The second step is to wake the security guard.  It seems that Hank the security guard is a nice old man who is very personable but not very secure.  The next day, Stuart plays a prank on Stacey by filling her pockets with items that set off the metal detector.  Stacey decides she doesn't want to play around and simply walks around the metal detector.  At Stuart's whim, Hank feels he has to start doing his job and fires off a round into the ceiling.  Rumor has it that the shot hit someone upstairs near the vending machine.  The next thing we see is Paul all bandaged up with a cover over his right ear.  It seems Paul was shot in the head.  Paul files a complaint about being shot and Hank gets fired over the incident.  But Hank, the diligent American, feels that litigation will solve his problems.  He serves Paul with a supoena.  Hank is suing for his job back.

Storyline #3:  The Best Laid Plans
Since next week is Thanksgiving, Carter decides to book a trip to the Bahamas in order to get out of visiting his parents for the holidays.  The rest of the staff catches wind of his plans and muscle their way in.  Carter, albeit reluctantly, agrees to try to fit everyone into his plans.  He gets assurances they won't back out, then makes a non-refundable deposit on the rooms.  After initial booking, Carter announces room assignments that leave everyone up in arms.  All want single rooms.  Stuart wants ocean view, the girls prefer garden view.  After rigorous debate, Carter finally devises a solution that will keep everyone happy, but becomes so fed up, he declares the trip to be cancelled.  This is not the vision Carter had when he originally planned the trip.  Despite this statement, Carter is caught leaving the office in Island gear, and the trip is on.

Review: Family Affair I

Overall, a resolving episode.  All the threads left undone in the last show were wrapped up quite nicely I think.  Mike comes to terms with his mom's newfound social life, and Paul is found guilty of being a Paul.  What more could you ask for a sitcom really?

I'll admit, stretching these two plotlines out over two shows was a little risky.   It seemed however, that most of the filler in Mike's mom's storyline was put into last week's episode.  Here, we hurtle through Mike's deflection of the media, his confrontation with both Macy and Mayor Winston, as well as Stuart's chiding and the inevitable conclusion.  Yeah, the wrap-up with Macy dumping the Mayor seemed a bit sudden and a tad rude.  But, it's not like Meredith Baxter can come on the show every week.

The show continues to invite guest star after guest star.  Meredith Baxter returns from last week.  And this week, Alan Derschowitz and Ed Koch turn up the star power.   (Incidentally, Koch's first appearance on the show was last year in The Competitors as Speaker Rosen.)  Derschowitz was clearly the class of these new two guests.  While Koch continues to rack up loveability points in whatever he does, Derschowitz actually was somewhat entertaining in his coming back to repay Hank. 

The Bahamas trip was a pleasant distraction, if not all that realistic.  Can government workers afford to go on spur-of-the-moment trips to the Bahamas?  And even if they could, wouldn't the rooms be booked up for the holidays?  All that aside, it was still enjoyable to see this cast quibble over working out the minute details of setting up a vacation.

The best part of the episode?  Clearly, the meeting between Stuart and Mike.   We've come to expect Stuart as the wise-ass who never turns down the opportunity to make a joke.  But here, he sees that more can be gained by toning it down and opening up to Mike.  It's the first real time that we see Stuart as having his emotions in check.  Keep it up Stewie.

Rating [5 pt. scale]: 4.5

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