Retro Television Review: Malibu, CA 1.9 “Murray Wear”

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Posted on September 12, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Thursdays, I will be reviewing Malibu CA, which aired in Syndication in 1998 and 1999. The entire show is currently streaming on YouTube!



This week, Jason and Scott do something stupid!

Episode 1.9 “Murray Wear”

(DIr by Gary Shimokawa, originally aired on December 6th, 1998)

Peter gives Jason and Scott the responsibility of ordering supplies for the restaurant. Jason and Scott get distracted by a bunch of models who stop by for a bite to eat and, as a result, they order too much of everything and end up costing Peter a lot of money. It’s tempting to say that this is another example of Jason and Scott being idiots (and it is) but this also an example of Peter being an even bigger idiot for giving them any responsibility to begin with.

Peter wants to be paid back for the money that his son wasted and he threatens to take the money from their paychecks unless they can pay him back in some other way. Jason and Scott rent out time on the community access channel and attempt to do their own home shopping network. No one’s interested in buying their kitchen supplies but when Murray wanders on set wearing a paint-splatted, plastic coat, the phones start ringing.

Realizing that everyone wants their own version of Murray’s coat, the boys start up Murraywear and produce their own commercial. When a buyer from Bloomingdale’s calls and says she’s thinking about stocking Murraywear in the store, Jason and Scott decide it’s time to have a fashion show on the beach….

Of course, if Jason and Scott have the money to 1) produce a television show, 2) produce a commercial, 3) buy ad space, and 4) put on a fashion show, why don’t they have the money to pay back their father?

It turns out that Murraywear has one fatal flaw. The paint wipes off very easily. A sudden rainstorm leaves everyone at the fashion show wearing only a transparent coat and their underwear. Everyone freaks out. It’s about as racy as a Peter Engel show can get, which is to say that it’s not racy at all and everyone is wearing boring underwear.

Meanwhile, Tracy dates a British snob who is, of course, named Ian (John Paul Saurine). When Ian and his parents talk about how Malibu is beneath them, Peter reminds them that they lost the Revolutionary War and Tracy realizes that she loves the beach too much to be with someone who hates it. Good for her!

What a stupid episode. I mean, it could have been worse. I actually did like Murray’s paint-splotched coat and I would have ordered one for myself. But still, Jason and Scott are just too unlikable and, quite frankly, too stupid to really be compelling protagonists. One could imagine the casts of California Dreams or even Hang Time pulling this episode off but it’s impossible to care about whether or not Jason and Scott get in trouble. Seriously, they need to head back to New York.