Guys with Kids: Gary's Business, Violet's Toy, Chris's Idea

Balance. I often talk about how this show is very skewed toward focusing on Gary and Marny's family over the others. That in itself is odd, because the original premise was to focus on the three guys, who just happen to have kids. But, I digress. This episode offered three storylines, one for each family. Yes, the larger plotline and episode title were reserved for Gary, but at least Nick and Chris had their own issues taking place. And those two stories were funny! Blaming your child for a talking toy when it's really your bottle opener? Hahahaha! Deciding to have a child with a woman to whom you're no longer married just so your child will have a sibling? Hilarious! And, who else besides Chris would say, "hey, apartment! I'm home!" ?? I'm gonna be sad if this show doesn't get renewed...

Guys with Kids "Rare Breed" (S01E16): Gary wears launches a website to sell his Wrapkins and starts going around to children's shoppes with Nick to market them. [albeit in a scheming way.] Marny panics that Gary won't have time to care for the kids if The Wrapkin takes off, but he claims that he can handle it all, though he has Emily watch his four children one day and then takes them all out with him the next. Utilizing Nick to help keep the household chores under control and bribing the older kids to keep quiet about what's really happening at home. [I love that Nick scooped one of the kids out of getting extra money for saying Gary is a "rare breed." I also laughed so hard at "take as much money as you need to keep quiet" that I had to pause before seeing Gary realize that Marny intercepted the twins.] Marny realizes how much trouble Gary is having, but because the business is going well, she decides that they should get some help in the afternoons. One day of that, however, and Gary misses out on Robbie's first steps. [awww!] Marny had paid off the boys to be quiet, but he sees through Clark and Yoda, and says that he hates missing milestones, so they decide to hire a business helper instead of a home helper. [that is one cute baby!]

Vivian Zink/NBC

One of Violet's toys can't be found, but its noises are keeping Nick and Emily up at night, to the point where Nick is taking naps at Chris's. [haha at Emily ripping open a pillow!] After all that, it turned out to be a talking can opener from Nick's mother. They don't want to take back a lecture at Violet about having too many toys, so they decide that, in the future, they'll be cool the first time they catch Violet drinking with her friends. [um, pause. it's not Violet's fault she has so many toys - have her donate some or put them into storage, ADULTS! Also, I want to talk about Nick going on and on about how awesome "Altered Beast" was for Sega. This has got to be some sort of random fandom happening. It's a somewhat obscure game that was panned in the early 90s, and many say it was only popular amongst those who received it as the "freebie" with the system. (yeah, most people recall "Sonic" as the "in-pack game," but this came first.) If this was ABC, I'd suspect that they were going for a tiny Wreck-It Ralph shout-out (which is available on DVD in a couple of weeks), as the final boss, Neff, is the purple rhino seen in bad-anon, but otherwise, why reference this specific game?? And, if you're curious, you can actually pick up Altered Beast on Amazon.]

Sheila is upset that Ernie isn't scribbling with crayons the way some other kids his age are, so she rushes him to a specialist. Chris begins to worry just as much, even after the doctor says Ernie is on-par for being fifteen months old. [why did these two divorce again? oh yeah, Sheila is this neurotic about EVERYTHING.] After nearly waking Freddy to show Ernie how to scribble, Chris realizes that Ernie needs a sibling so someone else will understand how ridiculous Chris and Sheila are as parents. [this is an even worse reason than Lilith deciding to have a second child with Frasier so Frederick would have a sibling!] He promptly announces this to his ex-wife, who thinks that a half-sibling would be good enough. [ha!] But, he points out that he doesn't want to remarry and doesn't think she'd do it promptly, so they decide to go to a lab and have another baby "for Ernie." [oh PLEASE let's have more of THIS story!]