It's Your Move Boned the Fish When...

[TMC]

http://www.bonethefish.com/viewtopics.php?3902

It's Your Move is an American sitcome which aired on NBC from 1984 to 1985 and starred Jason Bateman, Tricia Cast, Caren Kaye, Ernie Sabella, David Garrison, and Garrett Morris. The show centered on Matthew Burton (Bateman), a teenage scam artist who lived in a Van Nuys, California apartment with his older sister Julie (Cast) and widowed mother Eileen (Kaye). Matt ran various underhanded dealings with his high school friends, especially his sidekick Eli (Adam Sadowsky). Matt's scams included term paper sales, exam answer keys, and blackmail. The status quo of Matthew's world changed forever in the series' pilot, when Norman Lamb (Garrison) moved into the apartment across the hall. A quickwitted but impoverished writer from Chicago, Norman struck up a friendship with Eileen and the two were soon dating. Dismayed that his mother had chosen someone so far beneath her, Matt set upon sabotaging their relationship, but soon finds he has met his match -- Norman reveals himself to be cut from the same cloth as Matthew, and foils plot after plot. Matt and Norman's cat and mouse game continued and escalated for thirteen episodes, fighting relentlessly while always shielding the aggressively gullible Eileen from one another's true nature.

[Mr. Television]

This show never had a chance to JTS. I watched it every week. Funny all the way through and it had such a great cast too.

[TVFactFan]

Steve Rhodes before he left and moved to Chicago to marry marcy lol

[Mace Dolex]

I could see how the writers would've run of ideas fairly quick, I mean how many times could the kid come up with wacky schemes every episode only to have them foiled by Norman, its kind of repetitive in a Road Runner kind of way.

[TMC]

https://web.archive.org/web/20070225...ptheshark.com/

• Other Thoughts:
  
  A kid's cult classic. Jason Bateman, his hot older sister, Steve (Marci's 1st husband) from Married w/Children, and Jason's Mom. Fun for whole family!
  When the show concentrated more on Jason's Mom & Steve hooking up instead of Jason's older sister.
  How much proof do we need that Justine Bateman is more talented than her little brother Jason?
  It jumped when Jason Bateman's mother on the show (played by Caren Kaye) found out about his dishonesty/shenanigans.
  His mom caught on? REALLY?! When? I quit watching it after the first few episodes cos I was sick of the mom being such a moron with her son and being courted by yet another con artist! Maybe the show was too close to the way the more 'Eddie Haskell-esque' acquaintances during high school for me to enjoy it! It was amazing how CLUELESS some parents were about their kids' duplicity! Whether they were just plain stupid OR *pretended* to be so to keep from having to bother with dealing with the zillion problems their kids possessed and caused, I'm still not sure!
  Yes you moron above, his mother DID catch on when she found him in the principal's office at night smoking a cigar with his feet on the desk. The show went downhill after that. And who the hell wants to read your drivel about the your political views of the western hemisphere anyway. Oh and one more thing: try to communicate in WHOLE SENTENCES. Okay?
  When the mom found out the son was a dishonest conniver.
  It's Your Move jumped the shark when the entire high school saw "Bones" the drummer for the band The Dregs of Humanity fell over his drum set, only to reveal himself as a marionette skeleton controlled by none other than Jason Bateman and his crony "Elliot."
  I'm pretty sure his buddy was named Eli.
  Yeah, his name was Eli....and "Steve"'s name was Norman.
  caren kaye was, by far, the most beautiful woman ever. see my tutor, great movie. this was a great show, it's your move. it got bad, though, when it stopped becoming a show about jason doing tricks. it got into Ely, jason's friend, the fat kid, the show kinda blew. remember Ely couldn't play soccer? that was sharky.
  This show never jumped! The 2-Part 'Dregs of Humanity' episode is one of the funniest in sitcom history! Who can forget the episode where Matt tried to blackmail Julie into dating Eli? Or the way Norman kept beating Matt at his own game? This was a classic show that should have lasted at least 2 or 3 more years!
  The Dregs of Humanity episode was the funniest thing i ever saw. And when Norman tricked Jason Bateman into posing as his son, Seymour Lamb...that was classic!
  This show never jumped! This is one of the best shows ever on TV! The devious plots and counter plots between Bateman and Norman (David Garrison) were awesome! But the networks always yank the best shows anyways... whatever. The Dregs of Humanity RULE!!!!!
  When Matt's mother, Eileen Burton, caught on -- it completely changed the premise of the show, for the worse.
  The Dregs of Humanity episode was the funniest thing i ever saw. And when Norman tricked Jason Bateman into posing as his son, Seymour Lamb...that was classic!
  "It's your Move" is still one of the funniest shows ever made. Bateman and Garrison were comic timing masters on this show. My favorite line ever, was when Bateman was being teased about his toddler days by the Mom's friend. His response.."was that before or after your husband left you?" AND, if everyone thinks TRICIA CAST (the sister) is so hot, hot come no one can remember her name?
  A brilliant show waaaaay ahead of it's time, if NBC would not have done this plot flaw, who knows, could have been on forever. By the way, I emailed Eli (Adam J. Sadusky), and he actually sent a nice response back. He loved doing the show ELI RULES!!!
  This show never jumped the shark ... except when they cancelled it prematurely. Jason Bateman never acted better, and the writing was some of the funniest ever on TV.
  This was easily the best television show ever that only lasted one season. I say that the Dregs of Humanity episode is its Jump the Shark because it was so inspired and brilliant, how could they possibly ever top it? Where I lived, they showed episode one but pre-empted the second part, and I never got a chance to see the conclusion of the Dregs. To this day, I feel no sense of closure because of that!
  this was a classic program. It was smart and funny. It was only natural that it should be canceled in favor of the horde of lazily written, clichéd sitcoms that followed it. Nonetheless I was devastated when it was canceled
  This was my favorite show the year it was on. I'm glad to see there are some people who knew that Eileen caught Matthew at one of his pranks. It just lost it's edge after that.
  This was a fantastic show that failed because it looked like a dumb show for kids but actually had extremely smart, witty writing. It jumped the shark when the show's makers decided that adult viewers were turned off by how dumb Matt's mother was, and had the episode in which she finally catches on to him. The Dregs of Humanity episode was brilliant, especially the sight of Eli sitting back stage with ropes tied to his arms and legs to move the skeleton band members. (By the way, Matt got caught in his mother's boss's office, not in the principal's office.)
  This show never really jumped because it was canceled early on. I can't believe others still remember this show, whenever I talk about it no one has any clue which show it was. What I can't remember is if the show was a spin-off of Silver Spoons, which was a Ricky Shroeder show that Jason Bateman occasionally appeared on. Jason Bateman's character in It's Your Move (Matt) was basically the same character he played on Silver Spoons. Now, if I recall correctly Tricia Cast played the older sister and I haven't seen much from her since but I had a huge crush on her. The kid who played Eli had a very brief appearance in a movie called Three O'Clock High. David Garrison went on to play Steve Rhodes in Married With Children of course. If I'm not mistaken, the landlord from It's Your Move went on to play the landlord in Perfect Strangers and also was the boss in the summer beach episodes of Saved By The Bell.
  This show was not a spin off from 'Silver Spoons' because J. Bateman's name on that show was 'Derrick'.Anyway,I really loved that show and was sad when it went off the air.Another show that left too early was 'Spencer'
  IYM was a great show. The game show episode is a classic, and the Dregs of Humanity two-parter, well that was hysterical (even if the concluding episode wasn't quite as good as the first). And then even in the later episodes when I'm sure everyone including the writers knew they were going to get cancelled, they did inventive things like the Alfred Hitchcock episode and the Eli soccer game show with the brief "philosophical interlude" just before the ending. It was great!
  This was such a great show for it's time. I also can't believe there are a bunch of other people that remember it. No one ever knows what the hell I'm talking about! I was in the fifth grade when this show aired. I recall writing President Reagan a very angry letter when he addressed the nation and It's Your Move was not shown that week.
  never jumped!!!! definitely one of the best comedies ever as far as timing goes. yes the landlord goes on to be mr twinkisetti on perfect strangers(played by ernie sabella)but the conclusion to the dregs of humanity goes like this: the band becomes way too big after norman's article for rolling stone & jason bateman convinces norman to push his car(which he just bought from his advance on the article over a cliff with the costumes in it.
  Dregs of humanity was very good. Game show episode may have been the funniest episode of television to have been seen by under 30 people. Brilliant line after brilliant line. "Tell our contestants what they're playing for, Cindy" "It's a car. It's a red car. It's a red car with a radio." and... after Matt and Norm sit tied up in the living room for three hours arguing over which of them was trying to trick the other into believing that Matt's house was being robbed... "Norm, I think we've been robbed!!" "Gee, you think so!" "You were the one who helped them carry the couch!" "Well you didnt have to give them the elevator key!" Hehe. Classic.
  This show was absolutely fantastic. My favorite character was Eli, no question. The actor who played Eli just slipped off the earth, or possibly, simply found another profession. I would love to see him again someday.
  I loved this show when it was. Jason Bateman and Eli, the fat kid, were hilarious. Bateman's clashes with David Garrison, who later starred in "Married With Children," were great. "The Dregs of Humanity" episodes were classic Remember that newspaper headline after they "died:" "Dregs of Humanity to be Inducted in Music Hall of Fame." I also loved the Alfred Hitchcock show parody. Eli steps into an inked outline of his frame like Hitch did. The ending where the janitor yells at them for drawing the outline on the wall in the building with a black magic marker was priceless. So when did the show jump? I remember a "Very Special" episode where Bateman tape records his sister with her friends. One of them asks her how she can stand him. "He's my brother," she says. "I love him." Overwhelmed with emotion, Bateman destroys the tape. And the mom figuring out what was going on didn't help the series. BTW, could she have passed for Judith Light's twin sister?
  This show had such a high energy level. I'll always remember Eli's classic line when he was asked why he didn't stop the soccer ball (thrown by the foxy Tricia Cast) from going into the goal - "It was hard to concentrate while I was staring at her legs".
  IT'S YOUR MOVE was a great show. I would have to agree that once mom caught onto Matt's antics, it went down hill quick. All the Characters were very likable. After all, how could you not love Jason Bateman from his debut in Silver Spoons. I was in the 5th grade when "It's Your Move" was on...and remember it quite well. Awesome show. The Best things about this show first off, The older sister Julie (Tricia Cast) was incredible hot at age 16, I had a huge crush on her. And Jason Bateman outsmarting all his friends and his smart over the edge remarks. Now that I look back on it....I was surprised that it was only on for 6 months. Back then..I thought it went for about two years. GREAT SHOW. NBC, you suck for taking it off the air in '85.
  This show was a blast and I too thought Tricia Cast was a hottie. After "It's Your Move" ended, she was on the NBC soap "Santa Barbara" for a few months, then spent 1986-2001 on "The Young and the Restless" where she MADE the show. Unfortunately I met her in person a few times (I had a friend who worked on Y & R) and Tricia was not the most sociable gal. Oh well, she was still cute.
  I LOVED this show and tried to get everyone to watch it. Nobody did until for some strange reason, half my friends tuned in for the first Dregs of Humanity episode, and the rest heard about it from them. And of course, not long after, it was cancelled.
  This show rocked! Any guys going through puberty at the time remember how special the girl's slumber party episode was?
  The show was greatness and like all greatness it was done in by poor marketing and management by the networks. The show could have gone on for years with the same format. Bateman was born to play the part. The supporting cast was quality. It had no political correctness and was clever. However, the show kicked itself in the shin with the Mother catching on to Matt. He just seemed less sinister at that point. Still, the show remained great and could have jumped back had NBC not shied away from promoting it after critics ripped it for being mean spirited. Favorite episode hands down is the game show episode where Matt poses as Norman's son to win back his mom's furniture. Side note: Anybody know where we can get reruns? Suggestion: If NBC or the networks were smart they should be scouring this website and marketing the full runs on DVD of these year or less shows that were ultra great, but mismanaged into oblivion. Whoops, my bad.
  This was a really good show but i think they really jumped the shark when they had that episode with the soccer game. That character had to stop the shot on goal and just when he was about to do it they froze everything and had some message about morality up on the screen. Gimme a break it is just a frigging sitcom folks we don't have to have these high and mighty messages just over a silly soccer game.
  I LOVED this show! It never jumped. It was only on for one season, and EVERY show was really funny. Do you remember the episode where the sister got locked in the Gym Equipment Locker just before the big cheerleader tryout? Eli tried to figure out who did it. He thought it was Garret Morris(one of the black guys from SNL). His theory was that Garret said "I think I'll push a white girl into a locker". Hilarious. Loved Dregs of Humanity too!
  NEVER!!! This was probably my favorite show of all time. I still have several episodes I recorded nearly 20 years ago when I was 12 years old, and I still watch them today! Matt (Jason Bateman's character) was my idol. I thought he was so cool. And Tricia Cast, what a crush I had on her! It is such a shame that it ended so prematurely.
  Hands down, the 'Dregs of Humanity' episode was an all time classic. I'll never forget Eli in the back room, behind the curtains, flailing his appendages, actuating the Dreg mannequins with the ropes tied to his arms and legs. I was rolling! Classic! Another scene that still pops into my head periodically (almost two decades later) is the still pose of Eli as goalie, diving for the soccer ball, then the unprecedented voice over. That was one of the most hilarious things I've ever seen on TV. Frankly, I don't watch TV anymore, at all. Arguably, sitcoms in general jumped with IYM, and have gone downhill ever since! VAGC
  This show was hysterical. I think NBC shot itself in the foot on this one. The worst thing was the Dregs of Humanity episode - one of the funniest things I've ever seen - was split in two parts. One part aired and then the other part was not shown until later because of the 1984 baseball post-season. The way NBC sunk this reminds me of when they sunk "Jenny." The problem is that this show was hilarious from Bateman/Garrison's back and forth to Garrett Morris as the high school principal - and the kid (Eli) who had the crush on Tricia Cast? My brother's best friend was a dead ringer for him.
  Me and my sister idolized this show when we were kids. We used to watch the twelve episodes I managed to tape at the time endlessly. We've recently acquired a DVD with all the episodes on and watching it again for the first time in quite a while I realize the huge influence this shows humour had on me. We must use 30+ funny lines and mannerisms from the show on a regular basis, half of which I'd forgotten originated from It's Your Move, and seeing who can remember the lines has become something of a ritual. My sincere thanks to the "writers and producers of It's Your Move" for providing me and my sister with over 20 years of laughs!

[Heenan Fan]

You should of at least listed the retooling as one of the poll options.