The Life Goes On Semi-finished Episode Guide for Seasons 3 and 4 By Mark Rabinowitz, Shari Feldman, Cindy Camp et al.
LGO SEASON THREE: Paul got me this info on the whole Paige-Michael-Kenny thing: Paige starting working at Stollmark Tubular Products. (Could anyone tell me exactly when?) The owner's son Kenny started courting her, and Paige, looking for security in her life, went along with it. Michael Romanov was a Bohemian-type sculpture artist who worked with the the garbage strewn outside Stollmark's.
1. Toast (9-22-91): The Thachers toast a third season by reopening their renovated grill, but their dreams go up in smoke. Corky is given more responsibility at the grill, specifically, cooking french fries. When they close one evening, he turns the fryers off, so he thinks, but in actuality, he turned the fryers up as high as they go, which was the cause of the fire. He finally tells Drew that he was the cause of the fire at the end of the episode.-SF
2. Hello Goodbye (9-29-91): The Thachers rise from the ashes of the restaurant: exchange student Becca prepares to take wing for Paris; Paige and Corky go hunting for jobs. (Is this where Corky starts working at the movie theater and Paige starts working at Stollmark? And Maxie was the one who went to Paris, right?) -SF
3. Out Of The Mainstream (10-6-91): Corky is nearly swamped when he tries to help Tyler's younger brother, who also has Down syndrome, mainstream at Marshall High. This episode introduces Chad Lowe as transfer student Jesse McKenna. -SF
4. Armageddon (10-13-91): New roles with Libby as the primary bread-winner and Drew as the homemaker, create new friction in their marriage. (Another question: I remember Drew reopening the place, and he had that nightmare where too many customers came in at once, but in reality, almost no one comes in. Which ep was this?) -SF
5. Sweet 16 (10-20-91): At 16, Becca retains her innocence--but maybe not for long. Throughout this ep, Becca records herself and her birthday party on camcorder for Maxie, who is in Paris. When Corky buys Becca a great-looking jacket for her birthday, it is with the new-found power of a checking account. Unfortunately, some bad kids at school find out that Corky has checks and fool him into giving them a $100 check to join the fictional "Plebian Club." Note that one of these troublemakers is Ray Nelson! When Becca becomes involved with him later, I guess the family forgot all about this little incident with Ray. At the end, Becca is in front of the camcorder again with a robe on, then opens it to reveal her negligee (which Maxie sent her as a birthday gift), asking, "Is this *hot* or what?" -PS
6. Life After Death (11-3-91): Becca is devastated to learn that Jesse has tested HIV-positive, and during a scuffle between him and Tyler, she blurts out in front of everyone that he has AIDS. -SF
7. Dueling Divas (11-10-91): Libby's vivacious cousin Gaby (also played by Patti LuPone) breezes in from Sicily like a whirlwind, touching everyone's life -- and turning Libby green with envy.
8. Invasion of the Thacher Snatchers (11-17-91): Corky imagines that his family is turning into Venusians after seeing a B-movie called "Body Snatchers from Venus." At this time, Paige is learning to be a welder (in Corky's nightmare, she builds a spaceship). Paige and Becca have a falling out over a malfunctioning answering machine (in his nightmare, this machine is a LONG-distance communicator). Drew is trying to go on a new diet-and-exercise regimen (when he says to a friend that some new exercise machine "will make you a new man," Corky freaks). Becca is applying for college (the Illinois State University representative calls and says he wants to make Becca "one of us," which Corky overhears). After noting in the film that Venusians don't like dairy products or other anti-acidic material, Corky attacks the family with baking soda and milk.
9. Loaded Question (11-24-91): The Thacher house is burglarized. Suspicions center on an African-American welder named Marquis (another acquaintance of Paige's, he taught her how to weld). Drew and Libby debate over whether having a gun is the best thing to do. Corky and Arnold are alone watching (what else, a cop show) when Corky hears sounds from outside. He gets the gun, goes outside in that sneaky cop fashion (emulating the show) and fires. Turns out Marquis was returning something, and the family realizes how much they overreacted.
10. Triangles (12-1-91): Corky takes a tumble for the new assistant manager (at the theatre?); Becca is torn between Tyler and Jesse: Tyler says he isn't over her; Becca can't break the news to him because deep inside, she wants to commit to Jesse. Becca helps Jesse search for the girl who infected him with HIV; when they come to the house where she lived, Becca learns this girl has already died. Jesse, walking through a cemetery during a particularly low point, asks Becca, "Do you know that no matter how much I want you, I can never have you?" and Becca answers, "YES! Yes, I do! Because I feel the same way about you!"
11. The Smell of Fear (12-15-91): Christmas brings anxieties to all, but most of all to Becca, who fears the worst when Jesse is hospitalized with pneumocystis pneumonia.
12. Struck By Lightning (1-5-92): The Thacher house is struck by lightning. As a result, Corky predicts the future, Arnold the semi-wonder dog runs away, Becca gets a major static problem in her hair, Drew becomes attracted to another woman, and Paige enchants the boss's son, Kenny Stollmark Jr. Nothing returns to normal until lightning strikes the house again.
13. Jerry's Deli (1-19-92): Jerry's dad shows up at the ad agency, and starts pushing Jerry around, so Jerry quits and starts to help "run" the grill, much to Drew's annoyance. Drew has decided that Corky and he should be closer and that Corky should inherit the grill, so asks him to work with him at the grill. Corky quits his job at the theatre and helps his dad out. During a conversation with Jerry, Jerry tells him to lead his own life and stop letting his Dad make his decisions, a reflection on Jerry's own situation. Corky quits the grill, but finds that his job at the theatre has been given to another guy (a real jerk). Drew persuades the theatre owner to let Corky be the apprentice projectionist. Meanwhile, Jerry's dad dies and Jerry and Corky go to the funeral. Jerry loses his keys in the snow and breaks down in tears. Corky comforts him. -DH
14. The Room (2-9-92): Becca, Libby and Paige have entered "the Man Zone". They tear down a wall in the Thacher house to reveal another room, which is then redone (mainly by Paige) to be baby Nick's new room. Momentos from the old room lead to flashback-type scenes that reveal the changing roles of women in American society: Jesse and Becca as '60s hippies, Libby becoming a '50s Avon lady (with the Thachers as a '50s family), et al. Libby decides to leave Jerry's advertising firm to deal full-time with Nick. Paige discovers her true calling after finishing Nick's room--she also wants to be a builder.
15. The Wall (2-16-92): It's just a graffiti-covered wall the students are ordered to repaint, but it becomes a symbol of the future for Jesse, who's awaiting his medical test results. Meanwhile Corky feels that finders should be keepers when he finds an abandoned baby in the theater. -SF
16. The Blues (2-23-92) Jesse gets hired to work as a waiter at Drew's place, but declining patronage forces Drew to let him go. They become real close because they share a love of the blues, so Jesse is upset when Drew tells him of his decision. In the end, Drew offers the job again, but Jesse declines. -SF
17. The Fairy Tale (3-1-92): Libby writes a fairy tale about Corky, and Corky enters it in a contest. Libby then gets an offer to get it printed as a children's book, but in a rewritten form. Libby turns down the offer, staying true to the story which has so much to do with Corky. (Becca doesn't like this because she would have wanted the money for college.) At the beginning of each act in this episode, there is fancy narration and illustration which fades into the scene in "real life". There was a subplot with Paige, Michael and Kenny, but I forgot what happened there.
18. Hearts and Flowers (3-15-92): Inspired by her grandparents' upcoming 50th wedding anniversary, Becca proposes to Jesse, and he agrees! But then they think twice. Part of the problem with Jesse and Becca is that one of the guys at the hospice is about to die from AIDS. This guy doesn't want to have any thing to do with his wife -- doesn't want her to see the pain he's in, etc. Jesse does the same thing to Becca and breaks things off completely, saying she doesn't know what she's in for, and she should live a normal life. The man dies and Jesse talks to the wife, who makes him realize that maybe Becca can handle this. Becca is also worried about handling it, but Libby tells her about finding the strength she needed to raise Corky. They get back together, but marriage is put off. Subplot: Kenny wants Paige to marry him, but Paige isn't so sure. What's more, a remark he makes about Corky ticks her off. Michael acts as psychiatric help. -SF
19. Corky's Romance (3-29-92): Romance blossoms between Corky and a girl with Down syndrome (played by Andrea Friedman, who has Down), but it's nipped in the bud by her parents. Corky and Amanda first meet when Drew runs his truck into the back of Amanda's car. Meanwhile, Jerry sponsors Becca in a need-based scholarship contest, and Becca doesn't know it's need-based until the day before a banquet she's supposed to speak at.
20. More Than Friends (4-26-92): Drew and Libby leave the kids to watch over the house. Becca and Jesse decide to have a party there. Then Tyler and some college frat buttheads crash it and take over the house. Meanwhile, Michael Romanov, a suitor of Paige's (they met at that steelworks where Paige learned to weld) crashes a stuffy gathering at the country club where she, Kenny and Kenny's parents are. Becca kicks a drunk Tyler out, saying she cannot be friends with him anymore, and he goes to drive off. Corky tries to stop him from driving drunk, but cannot get him to hand over those car keys, so they drive off together. They crash into a tree, leaving Tyler near death and Corky mute with a broken arm. Paige returns with Kenny from the country club disaster to the one at home. Kenny proposes to her, but when she hears the awful noise from the house, she goes in and helps break up the chaos. Drew and Libby return, find one last drunk who tells them where their children are, then go off to the hospital. At the hospital, Paige tells Kenny that she will marry him; Michael, who is spying on them, is dejected. Becca, baring her guilt over Tyler's plight, sees Tyler for the last time on life support.
21. Confessions (5-3-92): Corky, somehow rendered mute by the accident, does not speak up until Becca bares her soul to him. Then Corky says that Tyler tried to swerve around a boy on a bike. Becca still feels guilty over Tyler's death as she and Jesse place flowers at Tyler's grave. (There should have been more mention of the fact that Tyler drove drunk, as Tyler could have had better reflexes to stop before hitting the boy on the bike. Without that, it sounded like, as Shari put it, "a cop-out".) Also, Paige and Michael get locked in a refrigerated room for wedding cake storage (she was looking for a cake for her and Kenny's wedding).
22. Consenting Adults (5-10-92): Paige has a great heart-to-heart with Drew about her upcoming marriage with Kenny. Drew takes matters into his own hands and convinces Michael to get Paige. Then behind both their backs, he hires Michael's band to play at the wedding. Paige and Kenny break up at the altar; Paige runs off with Michael instead. Corky proposes to Amanda. Jesse leaves for Arizona with his mom, but later comes back, saying that Becca is his family now.
Note: "Consenting Adults" could be interpreted as an attempt at a series finale, as LGO did face cancellation in 1992. It got a major reprieve when "Day One," the Forrest Sawyer newsmagazine, failed to get off the ground and needed an overhaul.
LGO SEASON FOUR:
1. Bec to the Future (9-20-92): A 40-something Becca (Pamela Bellwood) looks back on the summer of '92. (In the future, Becca is now married and is a doctor.) Jesse returns, but the reunion is bittersweet. Through most of this episode, Becca is avoiding Jesse to be with her new friends who don't know Jesse is HIV+. They find out when Jesse comes over to their pool party (which he wasn't invited to). They invite him to join them, but he says he has to go to the hospice. Someone asks if he isn't afraid he might get AIDS. Jesse then tells them he is HIV+, then lectures Becca about the fact that she didn't tell them about him: There is no break from AIDS. This episode introduces new characters to complement series star Kellie Martin: Kathy Goodman, an extreme extrovert who wants Becca to get a bigger slice of life; Harris Cassidy, the storytelling boss (owner?) at the Nevermore Bookstore where Becca and Goodman work; and Eric, the bookstore manager.
2. Exposed (9-27-92): Jesse paints a nude painting of Becca. (It is never determined if she posed nude or if the nudity was solely the product of Jesse's imagination.) Becca decides to let it be shown in the Nevermore Bookstore, and this leads to a nice scandal. Endless date proposals on her answering machine are just the tip of the iceberg. See, Drew buys his paper there, and when he sees his daughter's voluptuous body immortalized in paint, he goes nuts, even lecturing Becca at school loudly enough for Becca's French class to hear. Drew tries to buy the painting from Harris, but Harris refuses. Drew, Corky and Jesse conspire to steal the painting back, but get arrested. (Corky was the mastermind, inspired by the Pink Panther Film Festival at the theater.) In a subplot, poor Paige (still hurting over her breakup with Crown Prince of Irresponsibility Romanov) shows Becca and Libby a cubist tattoo of Michael on her shoulder. Now, back at the police station, Harris bails out the three art bandits after selling the painting to the proprietor of a biker bar (!). Drew comes to terms with the fact that Becca is, in fact, sexy, and Paige agrees to have that tattoo removed. Ray Nelson Jr. returns. He had a list of guys who wanted to pay Jesse to have their girlfriends painted nude. He makes the mistake of saying, "Jesse, you've got HIV. What could happen (in terms of sex)?".
3. Premarital Syndrome (10-4-92): Corky and Amanda's "trial marriage" gets off to a rocky start. (or crunchy, as in the crunchy macaroni and cheese: they didn't boil the elbows long enough.) Interviews with couples who have Down syndrome are interwoven throughout. -SF
4. The Whole Truth (10-18-92): Paige fends off an attempted date rape by Becca's poetry teacher (Leigh J. McCloskey). But their accounts differ and Becca, at first, believes the teacher. Corky imagines that a calendar swimsuit model (Shari Shattuck) has come to life, and this imaginary woman explains how men tend to see only the bodies of women, not what's inside. Libby confronts her memories of a rape during her high school days. Becca confronts the teacher when his story gets a few holes in it.
5. Love Letters (11-8-92): Becca and Co. find old World War II letters at the bookstore. (Martin, Smitrovich, and Burke read selected letters while they played, respectively, a soldier's girlfriend working at a factory, a soldier working a machine gun in a trench, and another soldier reading a letter in a tent.) Eric gets cozy with Becca, and Jesse does same with a woman from an art gallery named Jill. Becca returns the letters to the woman who wrote them. I think this is where Corky and Amanda got officially married.
6. Windows (11-22-92): Amanda's angry parents vow to annul her marriage to Corky and try to regain custody of Amanda. They then run off to a motel, further angering the Swansons, not to mention their attorney. Amanda's father also falsely tells Corky that Amanda wanted the annulment. Meanwhile, Becca and Jesse are mad at each other. Becca can't come to Jesse's first show at the gallery because of Corky and Amanda, and resent his growing involvement with Jill. Jesse is mad in part because the art show did not go well. Becca and Jill face off; Jill says Becca is too much in control, and acts like the only one who can take care of Jesse, but she'll back out anyway. Jesse talks with Corky about their "honeymoon," and Corky makes Jesse happier by interpreting one of his paintings as a window. In the end, the Thachers and Swansons go to court, but the judge lets Amanda make the final decision: She will live with Corky. They get Paige's old loft above the garage, while Paige decides to move out.
7. Babes in the Woods (11-29-92): Becca, Goodman, Ray Nelson Jr., Jesse and two other students from their English class go on a weekend camping trip, chaperoned by Harris. Things get bad when Becca gets sprayed by a skunk, knocks over a kerosene lantern, starting a fire at the barn where they were staying, and worse when they find a note from Harris saying they must fend for themselves. And then it rains! Becca also learns that she tends to want to be in control to much: With Jesse and with Goodman (she went behind her back to try and get Goodman into high school). Goodman does return to school at the end. -SF
8. Udder Madness (12-13-92): Ray nominates Becca (against her wishes) for Homecoming Queen; Goodman nominates a cow in protest of beauty pageants in general. The third contestant is a stuck-up cheerleader. Also, Artie (Paige's supervisor from the steelworks in season 3) and Paige redo a restaurant with a bovine motif. (They formed a partnership called Darlin' Construction, so called because Artie always calls Paige darlin'.)
9. Happy Holidays (12-20-92): The holidays take on a whole new meaning for Corky, who's celebrating his first Christmas as a married man --- and now how the wishes of a wife and in-laws to consider.
10. Choices (1-3-1993): Paige finds that she is carrying Michael's baby, and is at first delighted to know this. So's the whole family. But Michael comes back, and decides he does not want the baby. Paige is undecided on whether or not to abort, and Corky and Amanda want to adopt the baby. This all conveniently ends with a miscarriage.
11. Incident on Main (1-10-93): Gay-bashing skinheads beat up Jesse outside the AIDS hospice. Becca gets his blood on her hands after the beating. She gets tested and comes up negative, but has to get tested again in six months. (This loose end was left untied, but it is generally assumed that she stayed negative.) Jesse draws a sketch of one of the skinheads, which is displayed at Drew's restaurant. It is trashed by the skinheads after one of them sees it at the cashier. Jesse sees one of them in a lineup as well but cannot, perhaps out of fear, pick him out.
12. Lost Weekend (1-24-93): In her quest to get Becca out her shell, Goodman takes her and Jesse on a double date. But Jesse and Becca get pissed off as Goodman and her date, Norman Bates, get kinky at the table. Jesse and Becca decide to test the limits of their passions and try to have "safe sex". But their sleepover at his apartment is more like a slumber party, as Jesse keeps balking at going farther. Becca tells Drew and Libby about that night, that she slept in Jesse's arms, and they get pissed off. Drew tells Jesse that he's concerned the starcrossed couple will go too far. Subplots: Paige, not realizing how much of a need she has for Artie, becomes jealous of an acquaintance of his; Grandma Teresa stays over a night at the Thachers' due to her husband breaking the furnace, then goes back because someone's gotta keep Grandpa Sal's feet warm.
13. Visions (2-14-93): Shortly after his 18th birthday, a feverish Jesse collapses in extreme pain at school and is rushed, unconscious, to the hospital. Jesse's AIDS-Related Complex has progressed to AIDS. He has dreams which highlight the show: Ray French-kissing Becca at Jesse's funeral, and one where a healthy Jesse and Becca have a toast in an idyllic setting and have really nice clothes on... While Jesse is sick, Ray takes Becca out. Jesse is unable to speak about AIDS to a class, so Becca reads what he wrote for this speech, and it breaks her heart, and Goodman comes over to finish for her.
14. Five to Midnight (2-21-93): Jesse's insurance runs out, and he gets transferred to County Hospital (which is like being transferred to the Receiving Hospital in Detroit!). Becca goes with him. Jesse nearly dies of AIDS-related cardiac arrest, and the doctors apply the ol' shock therapy at--you guessed it--five to midnight. Becca discovers a haunting self-portrait of Jesse's that he doesn't remember painting. Jesse has a dream where he and Becca plan on going to Paris, but the taxicab stops at the hospital with a tab of $11.55--another interpretation of 11:55.
15. Bedfellows (2-28-93): A fellow AIDS patient named Chester (Richard Frank) encourages Jesse to learn to live rather than give up and die. He holds game shows with other patients, makes fun of the sugar-coated remarks the doctors make every time a new patient comes in, and sings, too. Jesse objects to Becca's inclination not to go to Brown University, saying that he would be too much of a burden to her. Chester dies when he races Jesse on the hospital roof.
16. Last Wish (3-7-93): Becca and Jesse go to see the ocean, after Jesse says that it's something he wants to do. Jesse is not exactly on top of the world, however, as he is jealous of Ray, who has been seeing Becca lately. During an argument, they flash back a few Glen Brook weeks (not from old episodes, but stuff that would have occurred during the course of other episodes). Ray bought them the plane tickets they needed to get there. This episode shows the development of the relationship between Ray and Becca.
17. Life Goes On (And On And On) (5-23-93): The series finale, it leaps 4 years into the future to see Becca and Jesse marry, and 10 years when Becca, now about 27 (and still played by Kellie Martin) tells her son a story about what happened after graduating from high school. Corky doesn't graduate, but says, "I'll be back." Ray was the valedictorian of Becca's class. Jesse leaves for Europe, breaking Becca's heart, but returns four years later. It is not determined whether Becca's son was fathered by Jesse or not, but Becca expresses a desire to have Jesse's baby, saying that new treatments could make it possible. The question of who fathered this child is hard to answer as Becca says the final words of the series: "I love you, Jesse." Note with regard to the series finale: The producers, not wanting to give false hope to HIV/AIDS carriers, said in Entertainment Weekly that Jesse McKenna did not father the child.
Final notes: I still have summaries which could use more detail than what TV Guide listed; I would prefer that they all had detailed summaries. I would otherwise call this guide complete. Maybe if I had missed that "Sweet 16" episode, I may have missed the whole four years. Anyway, please help me finish the job. I hope Kellie is impressed. -- Mark Rabinowitz *** The Internet's #1 Kellie Martin Fan All replies forwarded to [email protected]