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.
