Retro Television Review: Malibu, CA 1.20 “The Older Woman”

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https://unobtainium13.com/2024/12/05...e-older-woman/

Posted on December 5, 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, things get even dumber than usual. Forever summer!

Episode 1.20 “The Older Woman”

(Dir by Gary Shimokawa, originally aired on April 11th, 1999)

Tracyee wants to try to out for the Lakers cheerleading squad. Unfortunately, she makes the mistake of sharing her plans with Samantha and Stads, both of whom are morally offended that Tracyee would actually want to do something that could bring her 1) a steady income and 2) the fame that she’s desperately been searching for since this show started. Stads and Sam both declare cheerleading to be sexist and degrading. However, when they find out that the auditions will be televised, they decide to try out so that they can denounce the Lakers on television.

(Of course, unless the try-outs are being aired live, it’s probable that anything Samantha or Stads said would have been edited out of the program. Add to that, it doesn’t seem to occur to either one of them that they would also probably be ruining Traycee’s chance of making the squad as well.)

Now, I should point out that this is just the B-story. Only a few scenes are devoted to Murray training Sam, Stads, and Traycee before their try-outs. In the end, Murray is such a good coach that he’s the one hired for the cheerleading squad. The most (and really the only) interesting thing about this B-story is that it shows just how unlikeable and one-dimensional both Sam and Stads became as the first season progressed. There’s really no reason for them to even involve themselves in Traycee’s quest to become a Lakers Girl. Traycee indicates that she knows that it’s all sexist and exploitive but — and this is key — she doesn’t care. As soon as Traycee indicates that she doesn’t care, that’s the signal for Stads and Sam to back off.

(One of the consistent things about all of the teen sitcoms produced by Peter Engel was that feminists, whether they were Jessie Spano on Saved By The Bell or Julie on Hang Time, were always portrayed as being shrill, humorless, and, worst of all, hypocritical.)

As for the main plot — hey, it’s stupid too! In fact, it’s both stupid and creepy! Peter has hired a graphic artist named Laura (Odile Corso) to redesign the restaurant’s menus. Peter seems to like Laura and Jason decides that he’s going to help his father get laid. (He doesn’t put it that way but that’s still the general idea.) However, while Jason is trying to convince his father to ask out Laura, Laura decides to ask out Jason.

This is a bit awkward, seeing as how Jason is supposed to be a high school student! Even worse, the episode ends with Peter explaining that Laura was too young for him and suggesting that Jason should have asked her out. Again, why would a successful and attractive woman in her mid-to-late 20s want to date a shallow high school student who works in his father’s restaurant? This is not the first time that I’ve wondered if this show’s writers remembered that Jason and Scott were established, at the start of the season, as being high school students. Then again, even if Jason wasn’t a high school student, he would still be a sociopathic nepo baby so maybe Laura just has bad taste in general. As for Peter, he ends up dating a dentist, who is played by Deborah Shelton (who, in presumably better times, had a key role in Brian DePalma’s Body Double).

This was a dumb episode, even by the standards of Malibu, CA.