SEASON 1 – Fox
Created by Arthur Silver and Ron Leavitt
This series is a spinoff of the sitcom “Top of the Heap,” which was a backdoor spinoff of the sitcom “Married… with Children”
Theme song: “Vinnie & Bobby” performed by Jimmy Thrill Quill and Danny Harvey, music by Jonathan Wolff.
- 001. Full Heap – 5/30/1992
- Chicago resident Vinnie Verducci (Matt LeBlanc) has moved into a new apartment alone and taken a job in construction that his childhood friend Bobby Grazzo (Robert Torti). His seventeen-year-old neighbor Mona Mullins (Joey Lauren Adams) has had a longtime crush on Vinnie, but he refuses to date her since she is only seventeen. To celebrate his new job, she gives him a calendar with swimsuit photos of her, with her eighteenth birthday circled. Mona questions whether Bobby is paying rent to Vinnie, and the more Vinnie thinks about it, the more he does in fact want some rent money since he’s been staying there for weeks. Vinnie has also started attending night school at Dick Butkis Community College. Over at the construction site, Bobby introduces Vinnie to all of his co-workers, the heavyset Billy Belli (John Pinette) and the mumbling Jim Wotowski (Mike Genovese). Most of the construction workers are just sitting around and have to deal with the owners Carey (Carey Engel) and Carol Carricarol (Carol Rosenthal). Carol thinks Carey is too wimpy, so she fires everyone. Vinnie is able to sweet talk the Carricarols that the house is like a pregnant woman, and they shouldn’t abandon the project when they’re so close to labor. When Bobby invites the co-workers including all of Jim’s kids, and they make Vinnie watch Beverly Hills 90210 rather than the game, Vinnie decides to insist on rent from Bobby. When he again balks at paying his share, Billy offers to move in and pay rent. This causes a very short-lived fight between Bobby and Billy. Since this means that Bobby will have to move out, he finally comes through and pays the rent. Meanwhile, a giant guy (Jeff Hochendoner) and a little girl (Anndi McAfee) both punch Vinnie and warn him not to date their sister Vernoica, even though it was actually Bobby who had gone out with her. Later, Vinnie and Bobby hit on two French girls at a bar, but Vinnie nearly tricks Vinnie into chasing them out the door when they have merely moved seats. 9/25/23
- 002. It’s in the Bag – 6/6/1992
- While Bobby expresses his love of Julia Roberts and goes on an imaginary trip to Hollywood, Vinnie works on studying for his upcoming exam. Mona encourages him to study, and Vinnie is on board because he has dreams of running a big corporation. Bobby thinks he can pass simply by dating the teacher. Bobby shows up with Vinnie to his next class and helps Vinnie get a date with a student named Casey (Colleen Morris), but Vinnie has to back out of the date when he realizes that it is the night before the midterm. Bobby manages to wrangle a date with the course teacher Libby O’Seasons (Barbara Alyn Woods), which she agrees to because she thinks Bobby is funny the way he pretends to be done. Over at the construction site, Billy and Stanley (Ron Taylor) try to convince Vinnie that people succeed based on who you know, not what you know. It turns out they were just joking, but Bobby thinks that is really the way it works. Vinnie winds up going out with Casey before the exam, while Bobby has his date with Libby. Unfortunately, when Bobby is caught flirting with Libby’s sister, she gets angry enough with him that she gladly gives Vinnie a giant F on his test. Bobby feels terrible that he crushed Vinnie’s dreams. Vinnie mopes out on the balcony, and Vinnie thinks he is going to jump so calls 411 before getting hold of 911. Vinnie comes back in and tells Bobby he is thinking of dropping out of college. Libby shows up at the apartment and tells Bobby that her sister admitted that it was her flirting with Bobby and not the other way around. She also agrees to give Vinnie a make-up exam. Vinnie decides nothing will stop him from studying to prepare for the but when Casey shows up at the apartment and invites him out, he drops everything and rushes off with her. Sharyn Leavitt is Winnie, the mailwoman. 9/26/23
- 003. Killer Shiller – 6/13/1992
- Vinnie, Mona, Bobby, and his new girlfriend Kendall Borden (Robin Christopher) all watch Old Yeller together, but Bobby can’t bear to see the end. Later, Kendall stops by the construction site and brings pizza for everyone. Everyone thinks she’s great, but Billy thinks she looks familiar, and then remembers that he’s been reading about an at-large serial killer named Killer Shiller in one of his detective magazines and thinks that Kendall looks just like her. Bobby starts to get nervous right away, especially when he learns that her victims have been a lot of construction workers. Bobby starts writing his will and considers moving away to Cleveland, despite Vinnie telling him that the fears are all in his mind and that Billy knows nothing about being a detective. When she drops by unexpectedly, Bobby tells her that they need to talk, but Kendall has been wanting to tell him that she has become attracted to Vinnie. He is happy to get rid of her, but Vinnie thinks it is inappropriate to date his best friend’s girl. However, Bobby assures him that he is okay with it, so she and Vinnie start dating. The construction crew Billy, Stanley, and Fred Slacker (Fred Stoller) all come over to the apartment, and Bobby admits to them that he’s relatively sure that the killer in the magazine is Kendall. Billy tells the guys some more facts he’s gleaned from the magazine: her favorite color is green, she is good using a knife, her father either worked in a hardware store or a pet shop and has an aversion to cheap cologne. Vinnie still believes it is all ridiculous, but soon all of the facts about her seem to match up to Kendall. Vinnie gets nervous and hides all of the knives in the place in his shirt. When she sees him reaching for a knife, she starts to get scared of him, and when the knives fall out of his shirt, he is forced to admit his suspicions about her being Killer Shiller. She is offended by this, especially when Bobby comes home and tries to ‘rescue’ him, and she tells both of them that she doesn’t want to see either of them anymore. Later at the construction site, Kendall shows up to meet Billy for their date. Billy tells them all that he manipulated the entire situation because he had wanted to go out with Kendall so bad, and two of them take off together. Later, Bobby and Vinnie discuss that Kendall and Billy have now broken up. They both agree that neither of them have any interest in Kendall any longer and both head off to bed. However, they then both come back out from their room and dive for the phone at the same time. 9/30/23
- 004. Vinnie Gets Sued – 6/20/1992
- Vinnie and Bobby are hanging out at the Smokes bar trying to pick up women. Bobby tries to pick up a girl named Meg (Meg Register), but she only shows interest in Vinnie. Bobby then tries to use his line on a girl named Debbie (Debbie Dunning), but she blows him off. He then tells a girl named Felicia (Monica Creel) that his is Francis Ford Bronco, the director of The Godfather. Vinnie finds Mona in the bar, claiming to be with a rich doctor, who turns out to be a teenage boy named Carl Sweetwater (Vidal Peterson) Three obnoxious guys named Denny (Kevin Carr), Gus (Rocky Giordani), and Frankie (Frank Lord) come into the bar and flirt with Felicia and pick on Bobby. They then start picking on an old man (William Porter) who is having dinner with his granddaughter. Vinnie steps in and stop Gus from punching him. Vinnie takes on all three of them and leaves them passed out on the floor. The next day at work, Bobby tries to both exaggerate the facts and take credit along with Vinnie for the fight. Winnie brings a subpoena to Vinnie indicating that the bullies’ attorney Warren Bean (Warren Smith) is suing him for a million dollars. Bean shows up at the construction site to offer a deal for the three bullies or else they will bring up criminal charges. Bean intimidates everyone including Billy, who claims to be Vinnie’s lawyer, but doesn’t intimidate Vinnie. He thinks if he can find the old grandfather from the night of the fight, he can testify that the three bullies started the fight. Bean calls and talks to Billy and offers a deal to drop the charges is Vinnie will give them $3000. When Vinnie threatens to counter-sue, gets the idea to go to the bar with Mona and try and pick a fight with the three guys. He finds them at Smokes and tires to annoy them in hopes of getting beat up, giving him a reason to counter-sue. However, the guys aren’t biting and won’t hit Bobby. However, when the guys start to hit on Mona, Bobby tells the guys that he’s going to stop them. He gets in a few punches but gets knocked out by the three guys. Vinnie rushes in and beats them again. Frankie tries to hit Vinnie with a bottle, but Mona punches him. Vinnie then realizes that the old man is in the bar again, and he thanks Vinnie and offers to testify for Vinnie. B9obby wakes up in a daze, and Vinnie tells him that he had beaten all of the guys. 9/30/23
- 005. The Belli Ache – 6/27/1992
- When Bobby accidentally instigates a fight between roommates Stanley and Billy, the argument turns into a full belly-butting fight, with Fred getting caught between them. The fight is severe enough that Stanley kicks Billy out of his apartment, so he comes to stay with Vinnie and Bobby. While Bobby finds him annoying, Vinnie enjoys his constant cooking and eating, and begins to forego nights out with Bobby. He also stands up Mona when she offers to help him study. Soon he even starts to put on a significant amount of weight with all of the food he is eating. With Bobby clearly annoyed at him, Vinnie falls asleep wishing he had a dog that he sees on TV as a friend. He dreams that he is married to Mona and that they have a baby named Junior. He is fatter than ever, and it quickly becomes obvious that Mona is having an affair with Bobby. Stanley is a chair, and Fred is a lamp in the dream, and the baby turns out to be Billy. A hot girl (Robyn Killian) who always appears in his reams also shows up, but she also ignores the fat Vinnie and goes straight for Bobby. When Vinnie wakes up, he realizes what a bad friend he’s been to Vinnie, and he promises to do better. They conspire to get Billy to move back out by reuniting him with Stanley at work. They have Fred pretends that he is trapped under a seesaw with a refrigerator on top of it, and when Billy and Stanley show up for work, they have to team up to sit on the see-saw and send the refrigerator flying. After their cooperation, they realize they miss each other and agree to go to lunch. Bobby and Vinnie also agree to hang out together, just as they realize that the refrigerator hasn’t yet come back down, and they have to jump out of the way. 1/26/24
- 006. Spring Is in the Air – 7/4/1992
- When Vinnie spots an old classmate named Hillary Baumgarten (Jennifer Runyon) at Smokes, Bobby sends her a poem and claims it is from Vinnie. She is impressed with it, so Bobby tells her that he is now a poet. When she asks about his old friend, the loser Bobby, Vinnie tells her that he is now a physics professor. Hillary tells Bobby that she’ll meet him for a date if he will write her a poem and bring along Bobby, as another classmate named Elena Kerrigan (Lori Butler) will want to see him. The next day at work, everyone learns that Billy has an estranged wife named Shelly (Julie Uribe) that he wants to reconcile with, so he plans a night at Smokes as well. Stanley also has a girlfriend named Glodine (Kym Whitley), who is the cheese hostess at Hamburger Universe, and they also plan to be at Smokes that weekend. Fred has told Winnie that he only has three weeks to live, so she has agreed to go on a date with him as well. Vinnie struggles all week to try and come up with a poem to present to Hillary, while Bobby offers him various greeting cards to use. When they all converge on Smokes that weekend, Vinnie comes with glasses and his long hair hidden, and speaks in a Cary Grant-ish accent as he pretends to be a sophisticated professor. However, he quickly finds out that Elena isn’t interested in that and wanted to see the fun Bobby with whom she could have a meaningless fling. A guy named Jonathan Littman (Mark J. Goodman) then hits on Elena, and she is receptive. Fred accidentally gives it away that Stanley is only using Glodine for her cheese, so she walks out on him… and takes the cheese she gave him. He then reveals that Fred isn’t dying, so Winnie abandons him. Billy tries to pass himself off as a billionaire to his wife, but when he tells her that Fred and Stanley are his bodyguards, she realizes he is still the same liar he always was. Vinnie decides to be honest with Hillary and tells her that he’s not a poem, but he tells her this poetically. Bobby then asks if he needs to keep up the professor facade, so Vinnie tells Hillary the truth about him too. Despite his initial lies, Hillary still likes Vinnie, so they kiss and dance together. Bobby then swipes Elena back from Littman, and Winnie hooks up with him instead. Bobby, Fred, and Stanley all decide to leave, and they swear off women… until more come into Smokes and they decide to pursue them. Mona and her new boyfriend Carl watch all of these proceedings from another table, as he tries to find meaning in all of their behavior. When he finally tells Mona that his mother always told him to look for love and romance, she lays a big kiss on him. 1/26/24
- 007. The Credit Card – 7/11/1992
- Vinnie has been eyeing a 1970 FLH Harley motorcycle known as “Ruby” at a bike shop, but it seems too far out of range for him to buy it. At $10,000, with the money Vinnie has plus financing it for $8500, he is still a thousand dollars short. The shop manager Smilin’ Jack (Hiram Kasten) suggests that Vinnie take out a credit card to pay the rest. Back at work, Bobby tells his co-workers his predicament, but Belli tells him how to lie on his application. Bobby also wants a credit card, so he submits an application as well. Unfortunately, Bobby’s lying doesn’t go as far as Vinnie’s truthful applications, which gets him an American Excess card with a limit of $500… still $500 short to pay for the bike. Bobby wants to help, so he calls the company and tries to get the credit limit raised on Vinnie’s card. When that doesn’t work, he has a card made out in Vinnie’s ‘wife’ Bobby’s name, thinking it will give him $500 more in credit. Once he gets the card in his hands, he becomes addicted to spending and winds up nearly maxing out the $500. Meanwhile, Smilin’ Jack knocks $500 off the price of Ruby, and Vinnie comes home with the bike after all. However, when Jack calls the card into the bank and finds out that Vinnie has exceeded his limit, he is forced to take the bike back. When Vinnie sees the statement and realizes Bobby has maxed out his card, he wants blood. He threatens to burn Bobby’s clothes along with his little black book of phone numbers. Although they nearly get into a physical fight, Bobby apologizes to Vinnie and says he became addicted to shopping and wants to make things right. Vinnie forgives him but is disappointed that he can’t even get the bike back because Jack has sold the bike to his brother-in-law. The next day on the way to their softball game, Vinnie’s friends get him to stop in the bike shop, where he sees that Ruby is back. Smilin’ Jack tells him that he got a better offer on Ruby… from Bobby, who took Clutch’s (Cosie Costa) job in the grease pit to pay for the bike and buy it for Vinnie. To celebrate, the entire gang breaks into the song Ruby Baby. 6/13/24
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