SimonSphere biography
galleries
filmography
the guardian
episode reviews
articles
links
guestbook
iconic soup
iconic soup on The Guardian
1-09 The Funnies
Written by Peter Parnell & Michael R Perry.
Directed by Lou Antonio.
Nick Fix = 50%
Quotable quote
Bunny-Buddy's bigger than the both of us. [Nick]
Quick and nasty
Nick deals with the harrowing custody case of a stuffed toy while helping Barbara's son, who's been arrested.
Review
Yes, this is the one with the bunny, 'The Happiest Rabbit in the World'. But on a lighter note...

Barbara's son Russ is arrested after drugs are found in his car and Nick offers the very helpful suggestion that she needs to hire an expensive lawyer. Alvin gives him that glare and he reluctantly takes the case. Russ won't give up his dealer to save himself and then lands public defender 'Pushover Pushkin'. This guy wears a bowtie - always a bad sign. (In fact, he looks remarkably like my old biochem professor.) His profound inadequecies do make Nick look good, however - not that Nick needs any help with respect to how good he looks.

Meanwhile, back at Fallin & Associates, aggrieved toy designer (sorry, creator) Fulton Trout refuses to sell the rights to his beloved Buddy-Bunny and is sick of kids sending him hate mail. These shenanigans have provided some excellent quotes for the GuardianSpeak random generator, by the way. But what happened to the gritty realism at the end? Schoolkids, nuns and bunnies in a playground - a real Hallmark moment, which Nick and Alvin actually take time off work to witness.

James defends a white supremist because 'everyone has the right to a good lawyer'. Apparently the props department spent so much on creating Bunny-Buddy for this episode that they had no money left over to put milk and OJ into this neo-Nazi's fridge. A quick trip to the studio canteen should have resolved the problem, but who am I to pick nits? James handles the case with admirable restraint until he gets pushed over the edge by his smarmy client.

Oh, and one quote that didn't qualify for the GuardianSpeak button went something like this:

White supremist: I want Fallin.
Judge: I want to be 17 years old again.
Hang on! Surely the only correct comeback to 'I want Fallin' is 'Me too!'

Back to episode list

Nickcaps from nickfallin.com. Click to enlarge.


**
* Misses a meeting, arousing Burton's anger.

* Leaves his cell phone with Russ in jail. He's not supposed to do that.


***
* Takes Barbara's son's case and is fairly sympathetic to her, in his rushed 'I have to be somewhere else' kind of way.

* Provides assistance (possibly mouth-to-mouth) to a kid who's OD'ed.

* Thinks there's nothing wrong with just wanting to be loved.

Important things I learned from this episode:
  • Nick's probation number is 40385.
  • Barbara and Webster Hall were 'hellraisers' in college. They never married but Webster sends money for Russ every month (no longer, I fear).
  • Bunny-Buddy used to have overalls, funny shoes, and a hat with his ears poking through.
  • Dob in Dad! It's for the best.

Click here for the timeline of this episode.
Click here for the transcript of this episode.

Site maintained by iconic soup
Page updated 24 March 2002

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

1