Written By:  Tim Hobert
Director: Andy Cadiff

Episode Length: 21:56

Guest Stars:

Rating: n/a

Rating:  TV PG

First Broadcast: January 28th, 1998

Storyline #1: The Heat is On
With a recent death in The Mayor's exclusive club, Mayor Winston is pushing Mike hard to join.  However, Mike feels pangs of concience since the Cabin House does not allow women into the club.  Mike resists at first, but soon starts to see The Mayor's perspective on the issue.  A reporter, looking for a headline, asks whether The Mayor is still a member of this discriminating club.  Mike denies the allegation, but immediately falls into damage control as he finds The Mayor at the club, with the reporter on a stake-out.  Mike sneaks into Mayor Winston's sauna room and convinces him to sneak out, until they see the reporter, the Annoying Phil Hockner, scouting out The Mayor's locker.  Despondant, Mike calls Carter and tells him to come down and bail them out, but Mike's phone shorts out, and Carter only gets the part of the message to come down.  He arrives in the steam room, with Phil still outside.  Down to his last chance, Mike calls the rest of the staff in to create a diversion.  They cetainly do:  they turn off the lights so they can sneak into the sauna as well.   Mike finally thinks a way out of the mess.  He brings The Mayor out of the steam room.  When Hockner confronts him, The Mayor makes the announcement that women are now  being allowed in Cabin House.  To prove it, Jannelle, Nikki, and Stacy file out of the steam room clad only in  towels.

Storyline #2: Card Sharks
James has found himself a new lunchtime hobby now that his boat has been blown to bits.  It's Three Card Monty.  At first, he seems dumbfounded that he never wins.  But after numerous explanations by Mike and Carter, James gets clued in that it's a scam.  But that doesn't keep Paul from trying to get in on the action.   When Paul learns of the scam, he buts in and tries to win James his money back.   As he bets all of James's money and calls the dealer on his game, the dealer runs off with the money, leaving Paul proud of outsmarting the dealer and leaving James broke.

Storyline #3:  Curling up With a Good Book
Stuart wants in on the girls' gossip sessions, but they will only accept admittance to their Book club if someone has read "The Great Gatsby".  Stuart claims he's read it, and intrudes.  He seems to be knowledgable about the book, but the discussion soon dissolves into talking about personal lives instead of actual book discussion.  At a later meeting, Stuart spends club time picking up women, and the girls try to pick up guys, forever dropping the book portion of the club.

Review: Gentlemen's Agreement

Overall, a water-logged episode.  While I orginally liked this episode, it's charm faded upon further review.  Both sub-plots (if you can call them that) were merely to give other characters something to do.  The Book Club story was absolutely awful.   First, there was no reason to start one.  Then, it appears to disband as quickly as it starts.  I was not impressed.

Have we finally figured out that James is sometimes prone to getting taken advantage of?  This plot was perilously close to James's boat excursions in Wonder Woman.  Both took place during lunch.  Both involved James enjoying time by himself before a Staff member butted in.  And both ended with James being despondant (over a blown-up boat and loosing money, respectivly.)   James is a hick.  We get it.  Move on.

That leaves the Cabin House plot.  I'll admit, the premise was interesting.  Although the controversy is now pretty much died down, this was a hot topic in the early 90's.  I'm a little suprised how quick Mike was to look down on the club.   (After all, Mike's white too.)  But given Mike's occupation, I can see where he would cast a wary eye.  Having Mike get trapped in the sauna was excellent.   Here, we get to see him at his frentic best, using all his energy to fix the situation.  Cell phone?  Call in a fire request.  People staking you out?   Get someone to resuce you.  Having the phone short out was a little too conveniant, but I can look past it in this case.   And the women in towels?   I'm with Stuart on this one:  Bring 'em on.

This is all well and good, but don't we expect more from this show?  I certainly would like to see a higher percentage of passable plotlines than this.  I'd like to see better characterizations.  I'd like to see more than a half-hearted attempt at writing.  This show is easily the worst since The High and Mighty.  (Is it a coincidence that that episode was the last time they tried to hype SportsCenter, an official ABC product.)

Rating [5 pt. scale]: 2.0  (The other plots were just too distracting.)

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