THE UNPLANNED CHILD

Mad About You

Season 2 (1993)

This episode of Mad About You ranks very low in the Halloween department but is fun as a sort of 90s time capsule.  I never followed the show (except for one episode guest starring Yoko Ono, who wants to make a documentary about “the wind” that has somehow stay trapped in my mind for years).  This episode, as I suspect the show as a whole, nicely captures relationship dynamics but is a bit on the dry side.

It’s Halloween and Manhattan couple Paul and Jamie have plans: Paul is going to shoot documentary footage of the Halloween parade from their rooftop and Jamie is going to meet a girlfriend to shop.  Their plans are derailed when Paul’s sister drops off her son and then later fails to retrieve him (seriously, at least in the episode she is the WORST MOTHER EVER.  She abandons her kid.  On Halloween, no less!). 

The two bicker over taking care of the kid and, in one of the episode’s few cute moments, Jamie is forced to improvise a homemade Aladdin Halloween costume for him and then later take him trick-or-treating.  Outside of the costume (complete with their dog transformed into a camel) the episode’s highlight is Jamie trying to explain to a snobby British neighbor exactly what trick-or-treating is.

Behold Last-Minute Aladdin & Camel-Dog

I emphasized the Halloween aspects of the plot but this episode is very low on holiday cheer. The majority of the time is spent on Jamie and Paul arguing and, perhaps the biggest crime, there is not a single Halloween decoration or even a freaking pumpkin to be seen throughout the entire episode.  Someone eats some candy corn at one point.  That’s it!

Lack of Halloween and general excitement aside, you can glean some enjoyment from the aforementioned 90s feel that pervades the whole episode.  The kid is obsessed with Aladdin, as was every self-respecting child of the 90s (I saw it three times in the theater).  Jamie and Paul go to a video store and rent an actual VHS.  A neighbor references Bosnia.  The episode even ends with them on their rooftop with the Twin Towers in the background.

Recurring Themes: Jamie is forced to improvise a Last Minute Costume (and does a pretty good job of it).

Halloween Quotient: 1

See It, Skip It, Own It?

This is definitely skippable.