Story:  Kirk J. Rudell
Teleplay:  Brian Buckner & Sebastian Jones
Director: Andy Cadiff

Episode Length: 21:48

Guest Stars:

Rating: n/a

Rating:  TV- 14 - D

First Broadcast: April 29, 1998

Storyline #1: It's My Party & I Can Strip if I Want To
Marriage day is fast approaching, so it's party time!  The guys plan for Paul's bachelor party on the same night as Claudia's bachelorette party.  The gals head out to our beloved Landmark Tavern; the guys stay in the office.  At Claudia's party, she shares her dark secret that she's acutally 1 year older than Paul.  Meanwhile, Paul wants to go clubbing, but towing The Mayor to a "100% NUD_" bar would look bad.  The guys spend the evening playing poker and quaffing beverages, until the statue arrives (See storyline #2) and the party ends before it really gets going.  In true Stuart fashion, he calls for a priest to attend the girl's party.  The girls, half loaded after playing a drinking game, think the father is their stripper and begin to defile him.  And when they find out, they send the guys the male stripper that they ordered.  It's something of a backfire, since Carter seems to enjoy the entertainment.  Claudia eventually tells Paul her dark secret and Paul wants to back out, until Mike gently reminds him about Paul's serial cheapness.   Problem solved.

Storyline #2: Modern Art
The Administration is looking to promote the arts, so it commissions a statue to be placed in the City Hall's rotunda.  But when it's delivered, they discover that the statue is a giant sculpture of a giant hand ... flipping the bird.  This puts and end to the bachelor party festivities as the rest of the evening and early morning is spent trying to move the thing out of sight.  This proves difficult since the statue seems to be extremely heavy and bolted down.  All seems lost until James mentions something about giving peace a chance, which inspires Mike to make a large second finger made of spackle added to the statue to make it look like a peace symbol.  While it looks like it might work, the "extra" finger falls off during the press tour, making for a political faux-peas.

Storyline #3:  Big City Blues
Seems James is having a bad week.  First, he gets robbed with only a tank top and kilt left of his wardrobe.  Later that night, he gets mugged on the subway.  He feels a little down during the bachelor party and tries to brighten up by accompanying Carter to the hardware store to get tools.  This turns bad as they walk right into a stick up.  James starts to think that New York is just too much and wants to move back to his beloved Wisconsin, but he "gives peace a chance". He recovers enough to participate in the official unveiling of the bird statue.

Review: Bye Bye Birdie

Overall, an enticing episode.  Having been gone for a month, the show comes back with a vengeance.  The detractors will say it's just more smut as usual, but this episode ranks right up there with the best outings from the series ever.  Political Overtones.  Relationship Troubles.  Questioning of relevance.  Camaraderie of the Staff.  Ah heck, it was just plain good.

First and foremost of course was the ongoing saga of Paul and Claudia.  The bit about Claudia being older seemed a bit forced, but is wasn't as jarring as, say, Mike fearing cancer then dismissing it all in one episode.  It came off as something Claudia could have been hiding that no one else knew about.  (I was secretly hoping she'd had a darker secret, like being from Arkansas.)  But the real magic was in the two parties, and the night's "entertainment".

Nikki has never been more needy, more neurotic, more self-depreciating, and more funny.   Her drinking game shenanigans were the best work Connie Britton has put forth since her fashion stint last year.  (Yes, her New Year's eve kiss with Mike was more dramatic, but we're talking total entertainment value.)  The girls accosting the priest and the one-liners that followed were equally priceless. 

The guys scored just as big.  The party started off a little slow as we all seemed to be disappointed we weren't going to a strip club with the gang.  But that quickly changed when the statue arrived, and much silliness ensued.  The Mayor's invoking of his ex-wife was just the sort of bitter pill you'd expect from someone who hasn't gotten completely over it.  And it was good.  To top the evening off,  the stripper cop was truly inspired.  They almost telegraphed it too much by having too much dialogue between the first contact and the beginning of the act, but Carter's response was true to character and worth the minor quibble.

James's story didn't seem to stand out among these gems, but that's just because we've covered this ground before in The Competitors and Gentleman's Agreement among others.   However, this was probably the best "James gets used to living in the City" story if only for his appearance in the "I Love Wisconsin" T-Shirt.  Great stuff.

This episode definitely wasn't for the kids.  Strippers.  Middle Fingers.   A drunk Nikki.  Yet these bawdy elements merely served to tell a fun and eventful story.  This is a great example of the show's potential.  Fine work all around.  It almost makes you bemoan the fact that the season only has 3 episodes left.

Rating [5 pt. scale]: 5.0

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