The Goldbergs: Video Stores and School Dances

The thing I like most about "The Other Smother" is that it's both timeless and completely dated. Beverly interfering with her son's life and doing everything possible to assist in his campaign for school treasurer could be happening right now, somewhere across the country. Keeping a video out for three months and racking up huge fines at a rental store, however, notsomuch. When I was a kid, my parents regularly took us to the video store and let us each choose a tape; until I was 9, the only things I picked were Rainbow Brite, Care Bears, and My Little Pony videos, which puts me there the same time as Adam. My biggest gripe was that my favorite Rainbow Brite episode was "The Mighty Monstromurk Menace," and, more often than not, it would have the wrong Rainbow Brite tape in the box. Because we went to a store where you handed the cardboard-box-stuffed-with-styrofoam to the cashier and he grabbed the video from the back, I would actually make the teenager open it and check the title before I'd let my dad pay for it... and I was in first grade the first time I demanded a spot-check. Anyway, I digress...

The Goldbergs "The Other Smother" (S01E11): The college fair is happening, and Beverly wants to plan where Barry and Erica will be going, though she cares more about outdoing her rival, Betsy, than anything else. [awkward that Beverly abandons Erica to work on Barry, even though the former is headed to college first.] Erica has been scamming Beverly about her extracurriculars since freshman year, and brings Pops into it, who soon suggests that she's over-stressing herself and should come clean. [Pops' disinterest in knowing about Erica's misdeeds was cute.] She even decides to re-join some of those activities, though Beverly is a bit busy to notice, as she's trying to make sure Barry beats Betsy's son in the run for student council treasurer. While Betsy bakes cookies, Beverly takes to calling the student body and hanging huge posters with an unattractive photo of Barry. The young man clinches his own victory, though, with a speech about moms sucking. [ha!]

ABC/Gilles Mingasson

Murray and Adam head to the local video store, and Adam pulls the one he wants (Temple of Doom) from the returns bin. But, the computer notes that they have an overdue video, which Murray denies. [you would not believe the number of times my dad would pack up all three of us kids at 5:55 to rush to the video store so the tapes weren't late at 6pm! and don't get me started on holiday weekends when you'd get a bonus night for free!] Turns out, they do have a late tape - and it's Murray's fault that it's 61 days overdue. Plus, rather than pay $59.99 for a lost movie, he owed over $100 in fines, letting down Adam when he won't pay, and being banned in the process. Murray decides to be a bigger man, however, pay the fees, and even get Adam his own membership, complete with 50 prepaid rentals. [Temple of Doom also winds up being way overdue, costing over $100. ha!]

The Goldbergs "You Opened the Door" (S01E12): It's November 22nd. [so this and the Dana intro episode were supposed to air before Christmas?] Dana asks Adam to save her a dance on Friday, so he asks Pops for help on dance steps. When his moves are outdated, he turns to Erica, who won't help, then Barry, whose moves aren't appropriate. When watching dance videos doesn't make things any better, he turns to Beverly, who has real dance moves and even shows him slow dancing. [I just showed up at my first dance in sixth grade and picked up moves as I went along, LoL. of course, I'd always paid attention to dancing in movies/on TV, so those were my basis, I guess.] She even buys him a new pair of parachute pants and volunteers to chaperone, so he turns to his older siblings for assistance. Erica decides to take a hit and keep Beverly busy with a scrapbooking project, but Bev had already mapped out the pages and finishes in no time, heading to the dance pretty early. [you'd think Beverly would want to spend a little more time with Erica, arguably the child who pulls away from her the most.] Adam kicks her out of the dance, but when Dana's mom is embarrassing her, he invites Bev back in to take the spotlight. In the end, Adam and Dana get their slow dance, and all seems right with the world for a few moments. [and I realize that I can't even remember who I first slow-danced with. I can't even picture which dance it was, though I'm fairly certain it was early seventh grade (we had four dances a year in middle school, plus a special "graduation dance" in eighth grade).] 

Beverly wants Murray to have "the talk" with Adam before the dance, but he hasn't even had it with Barry yet. Murray gives it a try, but isn't prepared for Barry's questions and comes back with a baseball analogy that doesn't work. [I wanted to see where he was going with it, though!] Turns out, Pops gave Barry "the talk," and Barry is just messing with Murray, so Murray messes with his son right back, complete with Fraggle puppets. ["Fraggles can't be nurses... they dance their cares away." love it!]