jamesanthony
11-04-2005, 07:15 PM
Last night I caught the episode when he came back- it's the one when Jenny announces that she's pregnant. This episode in a sense marks a shift in the series- George's scene on the roof with Jenny has him being unusually sentimental and to me marks the beginning of his character being toned down. I found that scene a bit corny for some reason.
Also, it seemed like all of the other characters (including Mr Bentley and Jenny) had a stronger role in this episode than Mike Evans. It seems that from this episode Mike Evans was a shadow of his former self. The only episode from his second wave in this series where he had a really memorable and strong part is the one where Lionel is anxious about being a father and he and George try to paint their names on a bridge. Otherwise he was just kind of made to go through the motions in a way. Also I haven't counted but it seems that he was only contracted to do 13 episodes a season, which if my math is correct means that he only appears in 11 shows in year 1, 13 in year 6, 11 in year 7 and 3 in year 8 (there's a 2 parter at the start of year 8 that was produced in year 7) and 2 in year 11. That's only a fraction of the series.
Another thing about this episode, from this episode onward the show used a laugh track. All the episodes that have a piano solo in the closing credits used canned laughter instead of a studio audience. I'll have to watch more episodes to determine how this changed the quality of the series. On the plus side this episode has all the regular players plus Ralph Hart in meaningful parts, which is very rare for this series.
Also, it seemed like all of the other characters (including Mr Bentley and Jenny) had a stronger role in this episode than Mike Evans. It seems that from this episode Mike Evans was a shadow of his former self. The only episode from his second wave in this series where he had a really memorable and strong part is the one where Lionel is anxious about being a father and he and George try to paint their names on a bridge. Otherwise he was just kind of made to go through the motions in a way. Also I haven't counted but it seems that he was only contracted to do 13 episodes a season, which if my math is correct means that he only appears in 11 shows in year 1, 13 in year 6, 11 in year 7 and 3 in year 8 (there's a 2 parter at the start of year 8 that was produced in year 7) and 2 in year 11. That's only a fraction of the series.
Another thing about this episode, from this episode onward the show used a laugh track. All the episodes that have a piano solo in the closing credits used canned laughter instead of a studio audience. I'll have to watch more episodes to determine how this changed the quality of the series. On the plus side this episode has all the regular players plus Ralph Hart in meaningful parts, which is very rare for this series.