Retro Television Review: Malibu CA 2.14 “Retiring Dad”

[TMC]

https://unobtainium13.com/2025/06/12...-retiring-dad/

Posted on June 12, 2025 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. Almost the entire show is currently streaming on YouTube!



This week, Peter tries to enjoy retirement but his dumbass sons screw it all up.

Episode 2.14 “Retiring Dad”

(Dir by Gary Shimokawa, originally aired on February 5th, 2000)

This may be the worst episode of Malibu CA that I’ve ever seen and that’s saying something as every episode of this show that I watch is the worst until I watch the next one. Most bad shows will still occasionally have a good episode. Somehow, Malibu CA continues to get worse and worse. I say this despite the fact that Edward Blatchford, Brandon Brooks and Priscilla Inga Taylor have consistently managed to give performance that are far better than the material. I say this despite the fact that Trevor Merszie, in the role of Scott, is nowhere near as annoying during the second season than he was during the first. Despite those improvements, the show continues to decline with each passing week.

It all comes down to the writing, which is uninspired even by the standards of the typical 90s teen sitcom. Peter Engel’s shows were never known for their strong scripts but California Dreams (especially during its final season) showed that it was possible to make a good show while remaining true to Engel’s “vision” of what a teen sitcom should be. The writing on Malibu CA just feels lazy and, for whatever reason, storylines seem to consistently focus on the two weakest members of the cast, Jason Hayes and Marquita Terry.

(I should say that, in fairness to Terry, her character usually got stuck with the worst lines in each episode and the writers never came up with much of a personality beyond, “Girl Who Complains Nonstop.” As for Jason Hayes, he was still looking straight at the camera halfway through the second season.)

As for this episode, it features Peter finally retiring from running The Lighthouse so that he can fish and travel. He leaves his two idiot sons in charge. In this episode, we learn that Scott is apparently in college while Jason is still pursuing his — *snicker* — music career. Why Peter would leave his sons in charge (especially when you consider that, whenever he’s done so in the past, it’s always led to disaster) is a question that show never really explains. Seriously, is there no one else that works at the restaurant? It’s a big restaurant. Surely, there is someone else who is capable of running the restaurant. Considering the amount of time that Marquita Terry’s Lisa spends complaining about every little decision that Peter makes, maybe she should have been put in charge. She certainly seems more emotionally invested in the place than either Jason or Scott.

Jason and Scott’s attempt to turn the restaurant into a nightclub leads to a brawl between two customers who proceed to totally trash the place. Again, the restaurant gets trashed in every other episode so you would think Jason and Scott would be used to this. (You would also think that the restaurant would have gone out of business a long time ago as I can’t imagine it’s cost efficient to have to rebuild the damn place twice a month.) Peter ends his retirement because both of his sons are idiots. I’d feel bad for Peter but he was stupid for trusting them in the first place.

Meanwhile, Murray’s cousin — Alecia — is visiting from Alabama. Murray is overprotective but then, at the end of the episode, Alecia sings a song and everything is magically fixed. Alecia was played by Alecia Elliott, who was a cast member of another Peter Engel-produced sitcom, All About Us. Elliott had just released her first country album when she appeared on Malibu CA. I have to admit that I did laugh out loud when, from out of nowhere, she suddenly started singing. Of course, her song took up the last four minutes of the show, which spared us from having to deal with anymore scenes involving the restaurant. That was a good thing.

There’s only a handful of episodes left. Soon, I will never have to write or think about this show again.