American Dreams Season 3 thread (1 Viewer)

[Patrick Sun]

1/2/05

JJ nows works in a Marines recruitment office, signing up young men for the war effort. JJ has the nightsweats, and has anxiety about signing up the young men for the Marines. JJ has problems with being at places with flashy lights (a gathering with JJ's high friends and Beth at a local spot), causing him to re-live the difficult times in Viet Nam. JJ and Beth leave the gathering, and they go to Pete's place to re-connect. JJ's been living at Pete's place upon his return.

Helen is asked to help a conscientious war objector find a way to Canada. After seeing JJ having a hard time re-integrating back to life in Philly, she helps the war objector.

Jack gives Rox a talking to about her living conditions with Luke. This happens after Rox finagles Jack to help with some plumbing issues of Luke's sink. Jack gives Luke a toolbox to help him adjust to being "the man in the house".

Pete has Will do some snooping for him to find out what Chris's mom thinks of Pete. Pete likes what he hears, and becomes more into her. Pete appears to use his "in" with Shelly to get some phone bill records to build a case against Chris.

Patty wants to win a science fair project contest and is concerned that another girl with "help from a college boyfriend" is going to beat her, so Chris suggests that she do a little sabotage. Later, Patty's project goes without a hitch, but the other girl's project doesn't work anymore, but Patty finds out that the other girl actually knew what she was doing, and didn't help from her "boyfriend" which was also a rumor, as she didn't have one. From Patty's guilty look, her "getting to the science fair early" might have led to Patty's sabotage.

Chris wants Meg to move with him to LA for more peacenik stuff, Meg tells Rox that she was accepted to the local college. Jack isn't receptive to Meg going to college, but the deal they work out is that she stays and works at the store to help pay for college.

Pete tells Meg of the background check he ran on Chris, and he has been a naughty boy. She confronts him with his past, his involvement with the recruitment office, and he minimized his past, and still tries to spin that he tried to prevent the fire at the recruitment office.

Meg makes a visit to JJ's recruitment office, and they take a walk, and she asks JJ about how one knows another person is for them, and JJ didn't know, but he offered that if another person knows you better than yourself, it's a good sign.

Nathan gets help from Sam and his friends on the boat that was left for him. After cleaning it up, Nathan sells the boat and then offers the proceeds to Henry for Sam and Angela's future education plans, but Henry tells him that he should use the money for himself. Later, Nathan shows up with a delivery truck, and offers his delivery services to Jack because of Jack's current problem with the delivery outfit he was using for deliveries.

JJ asks Beth to marry him. She appears to have accepted, for a second time.

 

[RobertW]

nathan's story is one of the better things they've been doing this season. it's good to see him growing up from the angry young man persona, headed nowhere good, to actually making something of himself, and now appars to be starting his own moving/delivery business.

 

[Patrick Sun]

1/9/05

Patty's guilt over sabotaging Tonya's science project gets the best of her, and she tries to ditch the trophy she won, but it keeps coming back, like a bad Friday the 13th sequel. Jack finally prods Patty into doing the right thing, and Patty leaves the trophy with Tonya's stuff in class.

JJ's job as marines recruiter makes him doubt if he's doing the right thing as protesters protest the recruitment office, showing photos of men who died in the war, and to make people aware of whether the soldiers are dying for the right reasons.

Henry finds out that his daughter's school is in need of classroom repairs and textbooks, and take it upon himself to rally some other parents to help in providing for a better place for their children to attend school. The school teacher puts the moves on Henry, he seems receptive to the invitation.

Sam's track team wants to have a moment of silence at a track meet to show unity since James Meredith got shot during the March to DC. The coach said the administration did not sanction such a display, and there is a small group of track athletes that still want to boycott the meet, but Sam breaks away from the pack and decides to make his statement on the track, not off the track. All but one of the athletes follows Sam's lead.

Beth wants their wedding in a Unitarian setting, Helen wants it in the Catholic church, and Beth puts her foot down, but JJ manages to convince Beth to have their wedding in a Catholic church given his wartime experience. Beth and Helen remain civil, and Beth offers her appreciation for the Pryors taking her in when she got pregnant.

Rox helps Meg makes arrangements do the rabbit dance with Chris by letting them use Rox/Luke's apartment. Chris gets pulled out of class and interrogated about his involvement with the recruitment office bombing. Meg is mad at Pete for Chris's predicament, but Pete tries to warn Meg to stop seeing Chris because he's trouble. Chris and Meg do their rabbit dance, and the next morning, Chris confesses to being the one to throw the firebomb at the recruitment office, and Meg immediately leaves Chris, feeling betrayed and lied to by him. Later, Meg turns in her college application, and when she returns home, Chris is waiting at the swings at his house, and Meg avoids him and goes immediately into her house, heartbroken by his betrayal to her.

 

[Glenn Overholt]

Good one! (I think I'm ready to scream, though). Is this supposed to be around Jan. of '66?

I'm asking because Dick Clark said - "This is the latest from the Association" and played, 'Along Comes Mary'. I thought that came out in '65, and when I looked it up, it was copyrighted that year. I know they've been screwing the songs all up but this one seems to be a 'retro' movement. It would be really weird to pick out that quote from him, knowing that they were in '66. I think that song came out around May of '65, which would put it about 7 months off - in reverse!

Great show, but it does make me wonder!

Glenn

 

[Marty M]

Along Comes Mary was released in 1966, but if I recall it was later than January 66. Another song played in the show, Hey Little Girl by the Syndicate of Sound was also released later in 1966.

The Monkees were probably appearing on AB sometime in September or October 1966. Their TV series began in the fall of 1966.

I was a year younger than Meg in 1966. I graduated high school in 1967 so I have vivid memories of the exact years of songs played on the radio at the time. One of my complaints of this show has been the inaccuracies of the years of songs played on the show.

They are usually off a year or two on the years, except for the pilot episode, where Uptight by Stevie Wonder was played. The pilot was suuposed to by Novmeber 1963, but Uptight wasn't released until 1968.

 

[Thomas H G]

Who was playing the part of the Monkees?

 

[ChrisDixon]

Those of you who are interested in the inaccuracies should read the weekly reviews of Chuck Millar (or something like that) on rec.arts.tv. I believe he is a published author and music/pop culture expert. His analyses are both entertaining and amazing in their nit-picking! He even notices incorrect record label colors.

Chris

 

[Patrick Sun]

1/23/05

Jack is offered a bribe to vote for a mall project, but Jack resists the bribe.

Sam is offered a summer with Melanie in Paris, but Sam is less than enthused about the prospects of such an adventure.

JJ and Beth's wedding date is approaching fast and furious. Beth wants a house with a ranch style layout, and the down payment is $4,000. Beth ask Jack to give her away.

JJ gets a letter from Vietnam asking for monetary help to with one of his deceased Vietnamese girlfriend's relative's travel expenses. JJ send the money, and it short of the down payment for the house. JJ asks for a loan from Jack, and Jack is able to offer $2,000.

JJ finds out that Helen helped a draft dodger make his way to Canada, and that she belongs to an anti-war group. JJ expressed his anger over Helen's involvement in both activities. Helen just doesn't want anymore moms to have to worry about their sons at war.

Patty has a strange affliction with Margaret Mead's sociological theories, especially focusing on Samoan marriage observations when it came to the role of the wife and the role of the husband.

Chris tries to get Meg to forgive him and take him back, but she wants nothing more to do with him.

Rox and Luke argue playfully over the type of clients they want to manage (Rox and the bubblegum pop, and Luke with the non-paying sounds of Joan Baez/etc).

JJ's buddy Tommy learns of JJ's money woes, and suggests that he take $3,000 and bet it on a fixed game, so JJ does.

It's finally wedding day, and it goes off without a hitch, but JJ got bad news at the reception, Tommy tells him the fix is off, and JJ loses the money, and is forced to tell Jack, and Jack tells JJ to not worry about it, and he'll come up with something. Jack talks it over with Pete, and comes to the conclusion that he'll have to take the bribe, and Pete warns of being owned if he goes down this road.

JJ finally lets Helen know that he's okay with her stance on the war, given how much he cares for his own child.

Sam tells Meg about the Paris trip, and comes to realize that he doesn't have the strong feelings for Melanie that Melanie has for him, and he tells her face-to-face about his decision to not go to Paris with her, and it's pretty much over for them as a couple.

Rox catches Patty kissing Beth's cousin, all in the name of a Margaret Mead sociological "experiment". Later Patty is bummed when the boy doesn't call her.

Meg has second thoughts about Chris and realizes that she still does care for Chris after he professes to only want her to be happy, and she goes to find him at his house, and his mother tells her that Chris has left, rode his motorcycle out of town.

JJ tells Beth that they were outbid on the house, so they'll have to look for another house, buying him some time to gather up down payment money.

 

[Chris_Morris]

Helen will either wind up in a cult, or sleeping with the preacher, I just haven't figured out which yet. Either way, she is one emotionally messed up person (and has been from the start)

This show is really starting to slip for me, no where near as good as the first season.
Roxanne/Luke is starting to get irritating.
But the whole Meg/Chris deal and dropping the ball with Sam's character may be the straws that break the camel's back.

Chris

 

[Marty M]

I think JJ's acceptance came after Jack said he would take care of the debt for JJ. This made JJ realize what parents are willing to do for their children.

 

[RobertW]

still, one of the best moments for me was the wedding, done just with pictures and the voiceover of the vows, and then the reception, filmed to look like old home movies and snapped photographs.

thank god chris is gone.

 

[Karl_Luph]

I always felt that Chris was a worthless POS, didn't bring anything to the series, will pay dearly for fire bombing the recruiting station.

 

[Patrick Sun]

1/30/05

Jack's in a pickle for taking the bribe to bail out JJ's gambling debts. A vote comes up that involves racial lines, and the reverend (Rocky Carroll) that helped Jack get elected is up for the spot, along with someone else who is white and more favorable to Rizzo (police chief, and up and coming mayoral prospect). Jack hates thinking that he's being owned for every vote after taking the bribe, and when the vote finally comes, Jack votes in favor of the reverend, and that becomes the difference in a 6-5 vote. Jack voted his conscience, but there will be repurcussions.

Rox hates Luke's facial hair, and the prom is coming up soon. Rox pays the janitor to play a priest who is susposed to be giving the okay to prom dates not currently enrolled in East Catholic. The scam is to convince Luke to shave his face for the prom, otherwise, he won't be allowed to attend. Luke uses that condition to not go to the prom with Rox. This leaves Rox flummoxed. Later, on prom night, Luke does shave and Rox is happy.

The prom committee lost their band, and Rox steps up to round up a band on short notice. Meg doesn't have a prom date and considers not going. Patty gets invited by a senior to attend the prom, but she blows him off. Later, she reconsiders, but the boy has already asked someone else. Patty doesn't tell Helen that she wasn't going to prom, and Helen then take Patty elsewhere (I forget what they ended up doing for prom night).

JJ wants to sell the car to pay for his debts, but Jacks wants him to keep the car. JJ goes looking for a second job, but nothing shows up. JJ finally tells Beth that they don't have the money for a new house because of his gambling debts. Beth is not amused by this development. She goes back to waitressing at the bar she had worked at before. They do settle their fight now that everything is out in the open and promise each other to not keept things from one another.

JJ takes Meg to prom. At prom, JJ talks with one of the priests, and JJ has an opportunity to coach sports at the high school. JJ and Meg get into her anti-war activities and her relationship with Chris. JJ is unsympathetic to Meg's crusade, and reduces her to a high school girl who doesn't know what's really going on over in Vietnam. Both leave one another, Meg goes to Beth's bar, and sees that Sam is there, so they talk about the night, and Sam offers Meg the dance she missed at her prom, and feelings that were 3 years in the making appear to finally be surfacing for the both of them as both are now single, and supportive of each other.

JJ drives back from the prom, and gets stopped by the police. The police bust out a tail light and a headlight, and then treat JJ like a pinata as a message to Jack for his vote for the reverend and going against Rizzo's will.

And then there's the dreaded February hiatus, as the show will return in March.

 

[Anthony Moore]

no new one's till March?

Will Law & Order: CI get a better share for ratings? Is that why?

 

[Patrick Sun]

Plus, I think NBC only ordered around 18 episodes (or maybe it was last season where NBC cut their episodes order down to 18), so that's a month of episodes not there for sweeps, and NBC hasn't been that high on the show, so we get yet more Law & Order reruns. Whoopee!

 

[Chris_Morris]

His plans now are uncertain.


Chris

 

[Rob P S]

I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think this will be back next season. :frowning:

 

[Marty M]

I hope that NBC will give this show another season, but I am afraid NBC is looking at the ratings and seeing they are getting beat by their competition. Also, I am wondering if they are worried about where the storylines will go with Meg out of high school.

 

[Rob P S]

Moving to Wednesday nights in March:
http://www.thefutoncritic.com/cgi/go...=20050207nbc04

That's great - put it up against Lost. I'm sure that move will really save it.

 

[Chris_Morris]

Sigh, so long American Dreams.
Just when it was picking up some.


Chris