It's A Living Season 6

 

It's A Living Season 6 is Ready to End

by Kristin Battestella

The final twenty episode Sixth Season of It's A Living concludes in 1989 – limping to an uneven finish despite pivotal moments for our Above the Top waitresses when Jan (Barrie Longfellow) feels fat and stressed in “The Jan's Pregnant Show.” Her HVAC husband Richie (Richard Kline) considers moving to North Dakota and Jan was ready to have their teenagers out of the house in a few years. A lot is happening in this episode and it's surprising It's A Living would commit to a growing bump throughout the season, but the character focus brings the home and work life changes together.

Similar to Season Four's Psycho spoof, “Rear Window” has waitress/actress Dot (Gail Edwards) spying from the restaurant lounge window on a suspected murderer. Binocular visuals of the crime accent the nonbeliever cops, and this dialogue driven caper shows what the ensemble can do. Of course the apparent culprit comes to the restaurant, and the humorous horrors continue in “A Very Scary It's a Living.” Dot's researching for a slasher part and falls asleep in the lounge – dreaming of black and white point of view knives, screams, and evil hostess Nancy (Marian Mercer). Heavy breathing, shadowed lighting, ominous cues, lightning, and exaggerated zooms maximize the kitchen cauldrons and chainsaws as It's A Living goes for broke with all the horror cliches in one of the series' wittiest episodes. A piano playing guest is shocked at the badness of Above the Top's lounge singer Sonny (Paul Kreppel) in “Mike Fright” and temporarily fills in for him in what may be the highlight of this re-watch for me. The difference is superb as staff and guests are captivated by a true musical talent. The irony of course, is that such performance is bad for business because the customers order less drinks without having to listen to Sonny. Although “It's Dark at the Top of the Top” seems like it should have come at the beginning of the season instead of tossed in as a routine episode later on, a restaurant power outage and stuck in the elevator mishaps acerbate Nancy's potentially being replaced by a younger hostess, and the waitresses have one last chance to complain about their sexist uniforms. The ladies are in a bad mood for the “A Very Special It's a Living” finale, too – until Jan needs an emergency cesarean and dreams of Danny Thomas (Make Room for Daddy) as Death. She holds the bedpan for his cigar ashes in a lovely mix of humor and poignancy as Nancy says we should choose our words wisely because they might be the last thing we say. Here in the end, It's A Living shows that it can be excellent when it has a care for charming statements and tender moments.

Unfortunately, It's A Living gets off to a very weak start in the “Pistol Packin' Mama” premiere with men's vs women's views on guns and macho showmanship crowded amid a hotel owner degrading the waitresses and a customer dropping dead in his soup. They are there to serve not be abused, chef Howard (Richard Stahl) fears the dead diner – which has happened on the show previously – and this rocky execution does too much and not enough. Either by budget or choice, It's A Living leaves the hotel as little as possible, which means waitress Ginger (Sheryl Lee Ralph) moving out because roommate Amy (Crystal Bernhard) owns a gun is actually barely addressed. “Never Trust Anyone Under 40” grinds to a halt with repetitive nothing burgers at a stinky birthday party for Sonny, and the ensemble doesn't get enough attention thanks to obnoxious, unnecessary recurring characters. Jan fights a snobbish mini mall developer disrupting her neighborhood's playground so Ginger uses a voodoo kit her granny sent her to fix it in “You Do Voodoo.” Ginger's supposed to do love spells to find a man even though she already has a beau, and it's the same old runaround on top of racism instead of Jan making a community statement. After already repeating ideas from The Golden Girls, It's A Living's writing grows very lazy with political quips and pop references, and the cast is often divided in their own busy stories. It's frustrating to see one great episode amid three bad, and the stories often don't resolve – ending on punchlines instead. The series itself doesn't seem to know how to end, going all out four big marriages and births between run of the mill sitcom plots. Barrie Longfellow as Jan Hoffmeyer Gray suffers most, knitting in the lounge between hardly any mention of her pregnancy early in the season and only one opening appearance from her husband. He's said to be on the phone a few times alongside expense worries and gender results reduced to B or C moments that deserved primary attention. Dot even gets Jan a commercial about a pregnant woman with cravings for the pastrami product and we don't get see it.

Marian Mercer's Nancy Beebe warns the waitresses to wise up because they are all too old to work at McDonald's, and she and Richard Stahl's Howard Miller argue over wallpaper, their nest egg, his high blood pressure being her fault, and his mother staying with them. They tell each other off and have heart to hearts – Nancy wonders why people don't do more, if it's ignorance or apathy, but Howard says he doesn't know or care. Despite their banter, this opposites attract relationship grows tiring as It's A Living never shows their experiences but leaves them hating each other in kitchen B plots. Their twofer focus in “The Nancy and Roscoe Show” isn't bad, but Nancy is trying to make Howard jealous and this has been done a dozen times already on It's A Living. Gail Edwards' actress cum waitress Dot Higgins feels guilty for standing up to a groping customer who drops dead, and when she gets a hairspray commercial, she ends up turning it down over the hole in the ozone layer. The girls quote the terrible lines while she rehearses in “Dot Casts Off” but instead of a role, Dot is offered a job at the casting agency. This puts her in direct conflict with another bad actress friend, however it's all easily fixed in a sitcom bow with Dot apparently content at the casting job yet still waitressing at Above the Top. Although by the late in the season baby shower, Dot feels left out and spends her rent money on the titular “Matchmaker, Matchmaker.” Unfortunately, she can't force herself to marry the pleasant fumigator who gives her a scarab ring – sadly leaving Dot in the same place where she started.

Crystal Bernard as good girl Amy Thompkins inexplicably thinks Freddy Krueger is cute yet writes religious children's stories that keep getting rejected by the publisher. She meets a traveling minister in “The Amy and Bobby Show,” and what could have been a fitting exit for the character instead goes round and round with whether they are going to be in love and resist temptation or just get married already. The romance is forgotten for most of the season until a rushed Valentine desperation in “Just Say Yes,” where a side plot of free aerobics classes to promote the new gym at the hotel would have been more fun to see than the so virginal Amy suddenly so horny that she's proposing to him. Otherwise, Amy mostly repeats Ginger's stories from home, and it's unfair that Sheryl Lee Ralph's waitress gets engaged off-screen after she crashes her ex-boyfriend's wedding – also off-screen – in “The New Guy Show.” She's ready to get married, then isn't. Once confident, now Ginger's reluctant to date a doctor in more retreads and resets. The roommates argue about how much they'll miss each other when they decide to have a double ceremony in “Wedding, Wedding.” Of course, it's only the second time we see both grooms, and It's A Living rushes over the nuptials as unremarkable. The new wives can't cook and ask Howard to teach them, but neither wants to stick their hand in the chicken and it's clear that It's A Living does not know what to do with Ginger and Amy as individuals. Customers likewise roll their eyes at Paul Kreppel's piano playing Sonny Mann, his butchered knockoffs, contrived clown costumes, and racist performances. He tells Nancy she's an overbearing, terrible dresser, but again It's A Living wastes time with his Sonny's Man Hole local cable access show before he gets a singing partner who won't sleep with him so Sonny complains he's artistically unfulfilled. “I Never Sang For My Father” is clearly an out of order episode with Jan's traditional rather than pregnancy uniform, and her side plot with the kids dialing 1-900 numbers sounds like more fun than Kreppel going split screen to play Sonny's nuisance dad. By time we get to the fake accents and kissing to exchange microfilm while Sonny plays spy in “My Little Red Book,” it's clear It's A Living is out of ideas.

Although the increasingly bigger, longer, feathered hair matches It's A Living's bouncy theme tune, it's a sitcom liberty that waitresses could serve food with such fluffy hair everywhere! The black and burgundy uniforms remain standard, but wild teal and purple colors accent the chunky sweaters, wide belts, boxy blazers, shoulder pads, and big brooches. Nancy's gowns and capes are again downright Gibson Girl, but I really dig a green Edwardian frock she wears. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for the ugly wedding dresses! It's A Living finally leaves the hotel locales for Jan's protesting the development, but the work trailer is Stan's mother's trailer as seen in The Golden Girls, and It's A Living also uses the talking heads on a table joke just like it's more memorable sister production. While It's A Living is finally readily available on free streaming services after years of obscurity, the episode numbers or titles are occasionally out of order with several episodes missing altogether. I guess somebody didn't set the timer on their VCR, but when Nancy computerizes Howard's recipe file, she at least saves it on a giant floppy disc! For decades I missed seeing It's A Living, but today one has to accept this is not a groundbreaking eighties hit and ultimately never achieved it's potential. At times It's A Living felt like a chore to watch critically as the series goes through the syndicated sitcom motions even in this Final Year. Although disappointing if you expect deeper comedy commentary among the cringe plots and muddled characterizations, It's A Living is easy to half pay attention to for the occasional nostalgic zeal.