User Reviews

Sam decides to hit on the first woman hat comes into the bar and it ends up being Dr. Sheila Rydell . A friend of the Cranes. She is not into Sam but he tries anyways, even coming to her office and claim to be impotent. She goes out on a date with him and at the end he asks her psychological opinion of him She says that he is a guy who is not interested in anything but sex in his life.

Not a bad episode. Out of all the women Sam hits on this is probably the best scenario. Her way of handling the situation in her office was very funny. And her diagnosis of him is pretty correct, at least in the past few seasons he didn't think of anything but sex. Stooges don't help here.

Can I tell you how much I love Madolyn Smith Osborne? She is so luscious, so sexy, so crisp, so beautiful, with a great screen presence and comedic rhythm all her own. THIS is the woman who should have been cast as Shelley Long's replacement on the show. She is so good, and has such a great chemistry with Ted Danson that it's a crime she only got to be in one episode.

Madolyn plays Dr. Sheila Rydell, a standoffish psychiatrist and the current object of Sam's lust. He fakes impotence to see her again, which in the days before Viagra was a desperate measure, and he manages to melt her just enough to score a date. Sam tricks her into sharing her clinical opinion of him, and her words are harsh but true. The whole last act is just Danson and Smith Osborne alone in the bar, and they perform together like they've been doing it for years. She seems to bring out the Man in the Sam character instead of the arrested adolescent, and there is a wonderful gravity to Sam in this episode, even when he's joking around.

When Sam hears her honest opinion of him he refuses to sleep with her, even though she's still willing. Lost and disillusioned, he looks for meaning in his life and finds only... the Three Stooges. This is about as brilliant and original as network comedy has ever been. A classic for all-time.

GRADE: A+

Excellent episode, in which Sam is asked to confront the shallowness of his life. But, no mention is made of his having been in love with Diane, or his Baseball career. Why not? His life has not been completely shallow. The writers could have taken a moment to speak to more than Sam's enjoyment of the Three Stooges.