Writer:  Tom Hertz
Director:  Andy Cadiff

Episode Length:  21:38

Guest Stars:

Nielson:  n/a

Rating:  TV-PG - D

First Broadcast:  September 21, 1999

Storyline #1:  Searcing for Imperfection
The Mayor wants to raise visibility for a Senate campaign run and first stop is front row at Yankee Stadium.  At first, it works to his advantage because Roger Clemens, the Yank's pitcher for the game, is working on a perfect game.  That is, until The Mayor the final out from out of a fielder's glove.  On the next pitch, the batter gets a hit and the perfect game is history. 

Roger is upset and wants a piece of The Mayor.  While Mike tries to move into damage control, The Mayor has a much more drastic step:  he wants Mike to hire someone to run the campaign so Mike can resume deputy duties full time.  Mike's hurt.   But he figures since he's in charge of hiring the new manager, he can get someone who will defer to him.  Mike, with Carter's great reservations, begins to "interview" candidates.  His conclusion to all of them are that they are too qualified and won't work.  That is, until Caitlin Moore (Heather Locklear) shows up. 

On first glance, she seems rather dizty, rushed and almost competent.  Mike immediately hires her.  But when he takes her in to see the Mayor, Caitlin does a 180 and shows her true colors.  She's a coniving woman who tricked Mike into hiring her and seems to be just as qualified as all the other candidates.  And when Roger Clemens shows up to settle the score, Caitlin is the one who talks him down.  This endears her to The Mayor and her job officially begins.

Storyline #2:  My Heart Won't Go On
City Hall is offering free life insurance to those who pass a physical.  Now Paul loves anything that's free, but he doesn't think that his 3-ventricle heart could pass.   So he pleads with Stuart to take the physical for him.  At first, Stuart declines.  It is insurance fraud, you know.  But he eventually does sub for Paul and passess with flying colors.  And all is well, until Paul reads the policy.

It seems that since Stuart took the physical for the policy, he made himself the beneficiary.  Now Paul's in a tight spot.  He can't turn him in, because that would expose the fact that he didn't take the physical.  Stuart relishes this and does his best to give Paul a heart attack complete with stress and air horns.  But Paul eventually barters his policy back and makes Claudia the beneficiary.  Paul exacts his revenge later when he gets a hold of a bogus physical and convinces Stuart that he's sick.  "It's just to easy is what it is."

Storyline #3:  Klumageddon III
When we last left our deputy mayor, he had woken up next to Heidi Klum and was trying desparately to hide this fact from Nikki.  He eventually gets out of the apartment without spilling the secret, but he still can't remember what happened the night before.   During the day, he has flashbacks that slowly show that he and Heidi got drunk but inocently did nothing, except spoon.  (It's a PG website, so don't ask me to explain.)

Since Mike still hasn't figured out all the details, he does his best to avoid Nikki for the day.  He ducks out of offices, lies about one of Heidi's earrings, and tries to cover it all up.  During one of Mike's escapes, we see his point of view ala The Terminator.  Nikki, being the resourceful woman that she is, finds the initals HK on one of the earrings and puts two and two together.  She confronts Mike, who is still trying to run away.  But Mike comes clean and confessess that all they did was spoon.   Nikki feels betrayed and storms out.

Review:  Catcher in the Bronx

Overall, an almost-perfect episode.  While the guest stars underwhelmed, Mike Heather and the rest of the gang shine.  Cliff-hangers are always tough, trying to live up to 3 months worth of expectations.  It's even more difficult when you're adding a high profile cast member like Heather Locklear.  It's especially difficult when you change time slots and half your production staff.  And dog gone, they pulled it off.

First on everyone's mind is wheter Heather Locklear was able to fit in.  And I must say, she certainly established her character well.  She set Mike up, and to be honest the audience, as the ditz that we expected.  Then she turned and showed the coniving bitchy side that catapulted her to Melrose stardom.  All the while, she was trading barbs like a pro.  She did fine.  Let's move on.

Carville and Clemens put up the type of performances that you would think famous non-actors would.  Carville sounded like he had no soul.  (Of course, I could say that about his politics as well.)  And Clemens almost pulled it off.  He pulled off the righteous indignation part of the role and even sold his self-degradory line.  But he didn't sell the final chest-slash on Mike, which left a bad taste in my mouth and lowered his performance in my eyes.

The Stuart - Paul subplot was somewhat stillborn.  It's established Paul's a cheapskate and Stuart's a weasel, so there's no character development here.  Instead, we get them both playing their roles.  It was espcially sweet with Stuart using the air horn, but the rest was underwhelming.

For being the big season cliff-hanger, Mike and Nikki certainly weren't the focal point of the show as they became last year.  And that's good, because we all remember what happens to this show when Mike's romances become the focal point:  the show starts to suck.  The developments here give Nikki and Mike a chance to split up, at least for a while, and have Caitlin possibly inject a spark. 

If you thought that the move back to 7 would tone down the show's content, think again.   There was Action-style bleeps, and the final line of the episode was an explicit pun.  While I'm sure the Parent's Television Council will be all over it, the objectionable bits at least were funny.  If they can keep it up, more power to them.

Now for the big question:  will the show stick with The Mayor's senate run?   After all, last year's relection bid was dropped like a hot potato when the show gravitated to Mike and Nikki.  But this time, I think they mean it.  My prediction:  he'll lose.  After all, they're not going to relocate to Washington.  But I do think that Heather Locklear, especially after her performance, should stay on for a couple of years.  Although she's another cast member to eat up screen time, she does an excellent job and lends herself well to the role.  Onward, ho!

Rating [5 pt. scale]:  4.5  (almost perfect)

Did you Notice ...

Top 10 Lines