SEASON 1 – CBS
Created by Sherry Coben
Opening Theme: “Along Comes a Friend” composed by John Loeffler and Ralph Schuckett, performed by John Loeffler
- 001. Allie’s First Date – 3/19/1984
- Childhood friends Kate McCardle (Susan Saint James) and Allie Lowell (Jane Curtin) share a brownstone in Greenwich Village in New York City after their divorces. Sharing the house are Kate’s daughter Emma (Ari Meyers), Allie’s children Jennie (Alison Smith) and Chip (Frederick Koehler). Kate works at Sloane Travel and make a blind date with another agent named David Hamill (Kelsey Grammer) whom she has only talked to. When he picks up Kate for her date, she has a nice chat with Allie while she is wallpapering and then heads out on the date with Kate. When she returns, she reports that there was nothing between them. David calls Kate the next day and asks if she would be okay if he asks out Allie, who is ecstatic that David preferred her over Kate. Allie is also anxious to have David show up when her ex-husband Charles Lowell (Paul Hecht), who left her for another woman named Claire, is there to pick up the kids. Kate and Jennie give Allie last-minute dating advice, and then stalls Charles until David shows up. Allie and David go to dinner, where Allie spends the entire evening talking about her failed marriage. When the date ends early, she winds up hiding in the laundry room with their neighbor Roger (Jack Gilpin) until Charles drops off the kids. 12/28/18
- 002. The Very Loud Family – 3/26/1984
- Allie’s kids are really pushing themselves to create elaborate school projects, while Emma has put together a very simplistic dead leaf project. Allie encourages Kate to push Emma to challenger her more. They have a talk, and Emma decides to do a film production about Kate and Allie’s divorce to highlight the ‘changing world.’ As Emma films the household, the family has trouble behaving naturally and to keep from fighting on camera when Allie washes Kate’s cashmere sweater. Kate finally reaches a boiling point and asks Emma to stop filming in the house, but then reconsiders when Emma accuses her of getting her started on the project and then forcing her to quit when it becomes inconvenient. Emma ends up getting an ‘A’ on the project, and it is shown on parents night at the school. The video includes a potential food fight, Jennie hiding her haircut, Chip making a plaster heart for Allie, and the most telling moment: Kate getting a call from Emma’s father telling her that he won’t make it Parents Night, and Emma breaking down as a result. 12/28/18
- 003. Odd Boy Out – 4/16/1984
- Chip receives a shiner from his friend Timmy after calling Chip a sissy for not having a father and living with a bunch of women. Kate thinks that Chip needs to learn how to fight, but Ali has another idea: asking Chip’s father to take him to do something manly with his friends. Charles comes though and takes them all to a hockey game and promises to take them camping over the weekend. Things turn bad though when Chip decides he wants to live with Charles. Ali has tell him that his dad works too often to have him, and makes sure to spoil him to excess. When Charles has to call Chip and cancel the plans, Kate convinces Ali to step and become the hero to Chip and his friends. She is reluctant, but finally agrees. When the time comes, the rain will not let up for them to leave, so they have a campout in the living room, have a seance, make s’mores, and Ali sings them a dirty song. The boys have a great time, but Kate gets most of the credit, with Chip a little embarrassed by Ali’s song. Kate convinces Ali that she is supposed to be the mother, and she did her job just fine. 6/7/19
- 004. The Family Business – 4/23/1984
- Kate is expecting a promotion to become the branch manager at her office, but the job goes to someone else, and in a moment of anger, she quits her job. Kate and Ali agree that this can be a fresh start for both of them, but Ali quickly realizes she has no skills to get her first job. Eating their celebratory cake, Kate suggests that Ali open a bakery. One by one, Kate keeps getting offers for Ali’s cake, which nets a considerable profit. Soon the operation becomes too large for her to handle alone, so Kate begins working a baking shift. They are quickly overwhelmed and not getting enough sleep, to the point that Ali falls asleep in the refrigerator and starts becoming delusional and destroying the cakes and ingredients. Each of the ladies confess to Roger that they are only staying in the business for each other. When Kate gets an offer to return to her old job when the other guy doesn’t work out, Ali can finally quit baking and drag her exhausted self upstairs for a bath and a nap. 6/7/19
- 005. Dear Diary – 4/30/1984
- Allie longs to have some of her belongings in the house so it will feel more like home to her, so Kate tells her to go ahead and move her things in, not realizing that it would amount to entire trailer full of boxes that would nearly fill the house. Allie also starts moving Kate’s things out of the way to put in her furniture and things. Kate and Emma are both instantly irritated, and Kate becomes even more so when Emma and Chip read through one of Allie’s old diaries and find out that Allie once kissed Kate’s old boyfriend Bucky Lanier. This leads to a fight about the kiss and the things Allie brought into the house. Allie finally realizes that she is been very invasive, and makes an apology but they still can’t quite agree upon what they keep. Finally they hold a sale and are able to unload the bulk of Allie’s things, but Kate insists that she keep some of the sentimental items, even if they are items that Kate can’t stand. 2/24/20
- 006. A Weekend to Remember – 5/7/1984
- Kate makes plans to go on a ski trip with her ex-husband Max (John Heard), and with Allie’s kids visiting their father, Allie worries about being all alone. As Max attempts to romance Kate at the lodge, Allie can’t get to sleep and resorts to alphabetizing the spice rack and calling her mother. Although there is a lot of flirting and humor in the air, Kate sees a lot of the irresponsibility of Max’s career choice of being a waiter while he still works on his acting. Allie’s mother (Rosemary Murphy) stops by to check on her and advises her to spend some time finding herself. Kate declines Max’s effort to get back together but they agree to remain best friends. He is happy when she assures him it is not about money, since he charged the lodge to her. 2/24/20
SEASON 2
- 007. Baby – 10/8/1984
- Kate stops by the office to visit Allie and meets her secretary Joan (Cheryl Giannini), a pregnant single mother. Kate is fascinated by this and talks Allie into throwing her a baby shower at their house. They host the party with friends Paulette (Kelly Bishop), Ronda (Carolyn Bird), and Candace (Judy Engles). As she opens her gifts some of the ladies start to envy her having a baby… until she goes into labor. They all accompany her to the hospital and she gives birth to a baby girl she names Jessie Kate. This inspires Kate to want to have another baby, fearing that her time is running out if she ever want to. When Joan has to go to San Francisco to take care of her sick mother, Kate agrees to keep Jessie while she is gone. They go through a very difficult night with Jessie crying, and Kate refusing to feed her because she doesn’t want to get her off schedule. The next day the baby’s father Mike Vallan (Vasili Bogazianos) pays a visit to the office, and he tells Kate that not only did he not abandon Joan and the baby, but he very much wants to be part of their lives and she has cut him out for to hurt him for breaking it off. She discusses this with Allie as the other kids are putting headphones, earrings, and hats on the baby, and she concludes that it is not fair for a baby to be raised without a father. In that vein, she decides that it is best if she doesn’t have another child. She shares all these feelings with the baby, and Kate overhears… and admits that she too pines for a baby. Later Kate tells Allie that Joan is letting Mike see Jessie on the weekends, and Allie compliments her on her ‘good interference.’ 6/5/20
- 008. Landlady – 10/15/1984
- Kate gets a visit from her landlady Janet Franklin (Gloria Cromwell), who informs them that since Allie has moved in and made the apartment a two-family dwelling, their rent is increasing by $648 per months retroactive for the three months she’s already been there. They panic and decide that they need to move out and go looking around for apartments, much of which are completely unliveable. With no other options, they decide to tell Janet that they are actually lesbian lovers so they are really part of a single family. Once they tell Janet this and convince her that it is true and they were only embarrassed to admit itat first. Janet then brings over her lesbian lover Miriam Goodman (Chevi Colton) to offer their well-wishes and convince them to not be ashamed of who they are. They have a few awkward moments around the kids, but Janet merely thinks they haven’t told the kids that they’re gay, and encourages them to do so. The ladies keeps coming around and visiting, and they happen to be there one night when Kate brings home her boyfriend Gary Ross (Gary Beach). They convince him that Gary is their gay friend who is with a guy named Bill, who happens to be Gary’s dog. Janet and Miriam invite everyone to attend a gay dance in honor of Kate and Allie. Kate wants to attend the dance so they can keep the place, but Allie is adamantly against it. When the ladies come to pick them up for the dance, Allie refuses to go and Janet overhears them saying that they are pretending to be gay to avoid the rent increase. Janet is furious, but Miriam softens her up a bit. Kate and Allie convince them that just because they are not gay, that they are still family. Janet decides they can still be friends and attend the dance together. Maurice Shrog is the super at the slum apartment. 6/6/20
- 009. Diner – 10/22/1984
- Shortly after Allie goes for an interview at an art gallery and alludes to the fact that she graduated with a fine arts degree when in reality she left school to marry Charles. Later Charles stops by and tells Allie that someone wants to purchase their old family house in Connecticut instead of just renting. Allie is resistant to giving the house up, but after talking with Chip and Jennie who also waver, she decides to move forward with it. Kate goes along with her to sign the papers for the old house, and while Allie visits the house, Kate waits in Stan and Rose’s Diner that they used to frequent as teens. Kate re-connects with the proprietor Rose (Rita Karin) and her onion rings. Allie comes to the diner and tells Kate she couldn’t go through with it after seeing all of the memories. While they are in the diner, Rose tells them how Stan had always hoped to retire with her in Florida, but he put off retiring and going to the doctor, and ended up dying having never enjoyed retirement. They also overhear two teens Suzie (Katherine Kamhi) and Dawn (Rachel Longaker) who are discussing whether Suzie should go off to school at Cornell without her boyfriend. And finally they meet old classmate Linda Cabot (Holland Taylor), who is completely consumed with her children’s lives in the suburbs. Allie flashes back to when she and Kate were teenagers and Allie told Kate that Charles has proposed to her and that she wouldn’t need school since they were getting married. It finally becomes clear to Allie that her life in the suburbs is over and she wants to return to the city and to school. Before leaving she encourages Suzie to go to Cornell. Both ladies need Alka Seltzer when they get home after eating to many onion rings. 9/19/20
- 010. Lottsa Luck – 10/29/1984
- It’s been a stressful day for Kate, who has lost a lucrative corporate account, for Jennie who was snubbed by her crush Tommy Berlinger, for Emma who is studying for a biology exam, and for Chip who is struggling on his football team. Things brighten up temporarily when a man (Lara Teeter) with a singing telegram stops by… but ultimately delivers the bad news that Kate’s Aunt Eleanor has passed away. However she thinks she might receive a large inheritance so she goes to the reading of the will. She comes home with nothing more than Eleanor’s lucky monkey paw. When she puts it on, she immediately gets a call that she got the account back that she had lost. Emma wears it school and aces her exam, and Jennie gets asked to a concert by Tommy. Allie thinks the whole idea is ludicrous and tries to discourage everyone from believing in magic powers. Kate arranges for everyone to gather around the table and make wishes with the paw. Hers is that she wins the $25 million lottery, and she takes the paw with her to buy the ticket. She then passes the paw of to Roger to use in court where he is being sued for video game plagiarism. He is supposed to have it back to her by the time the lotto numbers are called, but when he comes in, he says he has lost it. Kate almost has the winning number, but it is off by one digit. At the same time, Tommy cancels his date with Jennie. The winner (Graciella Lecube) who they see on TV has a monkey’s paw around her neck. By this time, Allie is now a believer in the paw’s power and starts to call the lottery commission. Roger then enters and says that he found the paw, and that it has helped him recover the evidence he needed to win his case. He gives them the now-damaged paw, which is clearly a different one that the lottery winner had. Allie still wants to keep the paw because she still believes it has magic powers. 9/19/20
- 011. Candidate – 11/5/1984
- Allie discovers that her wallet is missing, so calls to cancel her credit cards. Just as she finishes the call, a woman named Natalie Bernstein (Kate Wilkinson) shows up at her house, having directed the recovery of her purse from pickpockets by a group known as Conti’s Commandos, a neighborhood watch group organized by State Legislature candidate Jonathan Conti (Sam Freed). Allie is unable to get her cards reinstated, but in appreciation, she volunteers for Conti’s campaign. Although not political, she is immediately impressed by Conti’s honesty when he turns down a donation from a sleazy slumlord. It becomes clear that she is attracted to him and doesn’t mind working after hours to help him with his speech. Once they are finished writing a great speech together, Allie kisses him, and returns it with a passionate kiss of his own. He invites her to come back to his place, but she declines since she had to get home to her kids, but later tells Kate that she might be willing to locate to the capital city of Albany with him. One of the other Conti volunteers named Rosie (Cristine Rose) seems intent on keeping Allie doing menial tasks, even when Allie tells her that she’ll be working closer with Conti. It becomes apparent why when Conti’s wife June (Willa Scott) come in looking for him. Allie storms out and tells Kate that he is a scumbag, and she will never support his campaign. Kate however defends him by telling her about all of the politicians through history who had affairs. Allie decides to finish her work for him but tells him that she is keeping it professional because he is the best man for the job. But when he again asks her out for discreet drinks, she storms out. He later wins the race, and Allie claims she is happy for him. Kate accuses her of still carrying his picture in her wallet, but when Allie goes to check, she finds that her wallet is missing again. Maurice Shrog is volunteer Murray. 1/5/21
- 012. Kate and the Plumber – 11/12/1984
- The ladies are having trouble with a slow running faucet, and when Kate tries to fix it, it winds up later shooting out water. Allie calls a plumber named Ted Bartolo (Greg Salata), and when Kate comes home, she and Ted wind up chatting about his fear of spiders, dating, and then having a beer together as he writes out the bill. He asks if she would go out with him, but she declines because she doesn’t know him. After he leaves, the faucet knob falls off and Kate angrily calls him to come back and fix it. He arrives right away because he did it on purpose and was waiting outside. This charms Kate enough for her to agree to go out with him. When she gets ready for the date, Allie thinks she has overdressed since he is a plumber, but after she changes and he arrives, she sees that she’s actually under-dressed because he is taking her to the opera to see. During the intermission, he confesses that he hates the play, and seems irritated with her. He tells her that he feels she is talking down to him because he is a plumber, especially after dressing down and being surprised he wasn’t taking her somewhere simple like bowling. She tells him that he has a chip on his shoulder and has been looking for reasons to see her as acting superior. She ends up storming home and goes home and laments being so attracted to him. He returns to the house to apologize but expects one from her as well. The continue to bickery, but he insists on taking her to dinner. They return home continuing to argue but wind up in a passionate kiss. He then gets an emergency plumbing call and asks Kate to go along with him as his assistant plumber. Allie waits up for Kate, who tells her that they fought on numerous subjects, but she still likes him. When Chip gets up in the ‘middle of the night’, Allie is surprised to learn that it is almost 7am. 1/5/20
- 013. The Safe Caper – 11/19/1984
- While trying to hang a painting in the apartment, Allie accidentally busts through the wall and finds a safe behind it. Ted comes over and breaks into it, and they find an old letter written in 1929 from the apartment’s former renter David Dowling (Gwyllum Evans) to Lotte Simpson (Carmen Mathews). The letter indicates that David was supposed to meet Lotte at the Biltmore Hotel and they were to be married, but since David lost all of his money in the stock market crash, he wanted to tell her why he didn’t come. The gals decide to search for Lotte, and they find her nearby, recently widowed. She said she was relieved that he didn’t come, because she was going to tell him that she was getting married to her parents’ friend’s son. Although she eventually grew to love him, it took a while, and now she is interested to see David again. The girls track him down at a nursing home, where he now lives after having a successful life after all. They tell the story to him, before realizing that they are speaking to a crazy man named Resnick (Carl Don). When they finally find David, he agrees to see Lotte… but winds up having second thoughts because he doesn’t want another disappointment. Kate talks him into coming, and the two have a wonderful reunion and a terrific time. However Lotte confides to Kate and Allie that he’s still a dope after all of these years, and she felt no romantic feelings toward him. They are stuck with having to break the news to him, but before they can, he tells them that he felt no sparks with her. However, he shows them a picture from 1932 of a girl that he’s be interested in them tracking down. 5/1/21
- 014. Pirates – 11/26/1984
- Jennie and Emma are two of the three finalists for the lead in the Pirates of Penzance play at school. Kate & Allie agree to work together to coach both of the girls for their audition. Jennie is much better and singing, while Emma is much better at memorizing and delivering her lines. Neither are good at dancing. Jennie winds up with the part, and Emma is relegated to the chorus. Although they agree to not make it weird and promise to not to be bitter or laud it over the loser, Emma’s resentment starts almost immediately. Kate tells her the story of how she and Allie both wanted the same boy in the orchestra, forming a rivalry between them. However she now knows how much more important their friendship was. Although the entire story was completely fabricated, it inspires Emma to get over her jealousy. However, while rehearsing at school, Emma makes a crack about Jennie not being able to remember her lines. This devolves to an even worse fight, where Jennie ridicules Emma’s father, and Emma tells her she doesn’t want her living in her room and never wanted her to come. Allie then starts to feel guilty about moving her kids from the Connecticut homes without discussing it. Kate and Allie have to share the bunk beds in the girls’ room, so that that they can use their bedrooms. The girls wind up in the kitchen and make up, telling each other most of what they said was out of anger and not true. They go back to tell their mothers, who begin arguing with each other about rather its right to let out tactless emotions. The girls can’t help but laugh now that they’ve made up and their mothers are fighting. The play goes off without a hitch, except for the lead Tommy Berlinger’s mustache falling off. Maia Danziger is the director Miss Lacusch. 5/1/21
- 015. Country Dog – 12/3/1984
- Chip’s sixth birthday is coming up, and his father Charles allows Kate to keep him on his birthday even though it is his regular night to have him. But when a $1500 computer arrives at the house as a gift for chip, Allie realizes that she can’t possibly compete with that. Then when he sends a clown (Gabriel Barre) to pick Chip up in a clown car, she really racks her brain trying. Although Kate is dead set against it, Allie gets a dog named Trista from an old lady who lived on a farm who is now entering a nursing home. As expected, Chip is crazy about the dog and wants him to sleep in his room with him, but for three nights in a row, Tristan barks up a storm wanting to go outside. Kate and Allie both try to figure out ways to tire him out and keep him from barking, but Kate finally tells Allie that she is going to have to get rid of him. When she tells this to Chip, he is heartbroken and angry at his mother. When Charles comes over to pick up the kids, Allie jumps all over his case for staring the problem to begin with. He explains that a divorced father has to spoil his kids, since he only has a few hours with them each week. Allie suggests that he spend more time with them. He loves that idea, and not only agrees not to buy them anything large without discussing it with Allie, but also suggests that he keep the dog at his place since he has a much larger area for the dog to run around and stay busy. Chip agrees this will be a good compromise for him and the dog. Later Allie wonders if she is becoming more tolerant and less bitter about Charles, or if he is becoming nicer. Edouard DeSoto is the delivery man. 8/25/21
- 016. Piano Lesson – 12/10/1984
- On the eve of Emma’s father Max (Harley Vinton) leaving for Los Angeles to pursue his dream of acting, he takes her out to dinner and gives her his piano. She tearfully says goodbye and plays a slow version of Chopsticks on the keys. The piano teacher Mr. Beckmesser (Mitchell Jason) advises that Emma should make her father proud by actually learning to play the piano, and recommends a piano teacher named Walter Beck (John Leffler). Upon meeting Walter, Emma immediately is smitten by him, as is Jennie… and Allie. Emma becomes especially excited when he invites her to come see him play his music in concert. She starts to think she is his girlfriend, but when Kate finally meets him face to face, he becomes flirtatious with Kate, and Emma starts to get annoyed. Not only does Kate continue to flirt, but when she finds out that the concert is at 11pm on a school night, Kate has to tell Emma that she can’t go. She becomes livid, especially after Walter invites Kate to the concert then stops by the house to lend Kate his demo tape, and starts blaming her for also sending her father away. When Kate asks Allie is she really ‘bops around’ like a teenager, Allie had to tell that she does. She goes up to talk to Emma, and admits that she does try and act cute because it is her personality. She also tells her that Walter is a grown man in his twenties and she is only fourteen, so they shouldn’t be dating anyway. She also assures her that she went through some painful puppy love too, and she got over it and was very happy with her father. The two finally reconcile. 8/25/21
- 017. New Year’s Eve – 12/31/1984
- Jennie and Emma ask their mothers if they can host a New Years Eve party at their place, and also inform them that they don’t want them to be present for the party. After some consideration, and a handful of rules, Kate and Allie agree. The girls also tell Chip that the only way he can attend is if he comes down the stairs at midnight in a diaper like Baby New Year. The family also talks about resolutions, and the one that everyone agrees on is that Kate has to quit smoking. She agrees to give it a shot if everyone will stick to their own resolutions: no chocolate for Allie, no nail biting for Jennie, sticking to piano lessons for Emma, and no fighting with his sister for Chip. Kate and Allie then face their next obstacle for the holiday by trying to find something to do. Since Kate’s boyfriend is out of town, and the lack of nicotine is making her ravenous and grumpy, she tells him to buzz off. They agree to go to a scary movie, out for pizza, and to Times Square. However, after the movie proves to be too gory, and the pizza place is too crowded, they go home with the pizza and spend the rest of the evening in the basement. They try to cheer each other up by talking about their worst New Years, birthdays, anniversaries, vacations, etc. Kate spill pizza on her new dress, so Allie has to wash it… and ruin it since it is silk. They hear the kids upstairs celebrating as they ring in the New Year, but they both lament they have no one to kiss. However, they do express how grateful they are for each other, and are there for each other to hug for the New Year. The next morning, they start addressing the disaster area upstairs. 2/23/22
- 018. Back to School – 1/7/1985
- Allie is nervous about going back to school, but Kate assures her that she has her and all of the kids support, and that they will pick up the pieces so that Allie can concentrate on her classes and studies. Although Allie does her best to fit in the class, she finds that her Biology teacher Professor Biedermeyer (Lee Richardson) is a crotchety fussbudget with no sense of humor, and he even ridicules her in front of the class for her desire to ‘start over’. The Professor also tells the class that they are overbooked by three students, so he will have an exam, and the students with the three lowest scores will have to drop the class. In the days before the exam, Chip comes down with the flu, and although Kate tries to take care of him and find him a sitter, it makes it difficult for Allie to study. In fact, she is so scared of being forced to leave class that she copies her exam off of a student sitting next to her… and is caught. Professor x sees her cheating and throws her exam away, telling her after class that he’s kicking her out, and will petition the dean to expel her from school altogether. Allie tries apologizing to him, reasoning with him, and using the excuse that she needs the class to help put food on the table for her kids. Allie cooks dinner that night to celebrate the fact that she decided to ‘quit’ school. Later to she confides to Allie the truth that she might be getting expelled. Since the Professor won’t budge, she is forced to meet with the Dean, who turns out to be a woman whose husband also walked out on her. Not only does the Dean keep her in school, put her in another Biology class with a different teacher, but she also accepts an invite to come have dinner at Allie’s home. Edward J. Gernon is the student Svenson. 2/23/22
- 019. Charles Marries Claire – 1/14/1985
- While Allie is busy studying for her Anatomy exam when Charles comes to pick up Jennie and Chip for dinner, and mentions to them that he and Claire have broken up. When it finally sinks into Allie’s head, she is thrilled to hear the news. Charles admits that to Allie that they split up because he is set in his ways, and the time has come to either split up or get married…so they split up. He also tells her that he and Allie are set in the same ways because they has spent their lives together. Kate can see that Allie is falling under Charles’ spell again and warns her to keep focused on her studies. When Allie joins Charles and the kids, they wind up going out after drinks afterward and spending the night together at a hotel after they drop the kids off back at home. When Allie has Charles over for dinner, she goes out to multiple stores to look for Charles’ coffee, and Kate gets hold of him while she is out, warning him that he had better not hurt Allie again, that if is still trying to figure out his relationship with Claire to leave Allie and his kids out of it. The next time he sees Kate, he tells her that he and Claire did in fact talk, and have decided to get married. Kate insist that he not get to break up with Allie a second time, and that she is going to arrange it so that Allie gets to break up with him. She then meets with Allie and tells her that if she cares about Charles, she needs to give him a chance to be alone so that he can find out what he wants to do with his life… just like she got the opportunity to do. Allie agrees, so she gently breaks it off with Charles, and explains the reason why. Later she hears from Charles that he is marrying Claire. By this time she has mostly gotten over him again. She also gets Allie to admit that she knew that Charles was going to get married, and forced him to let Allie break it off with him. Although angry, Allie can only say ‘thanks’. 6/30/22
- 020. If She Goes, I Go – 2/4/1985
- When Emma comes to meet her mother at work, Cate’s boss Mr. Sloan (Alan North) jokingly offers Emma a job to come work at the travel agency. When she gets home, she talks about it to the others, but Kate wants her to keep quiet because she doesn’t want Allie to become interested in the job, mentioning that they already see each other almost all of time and that it would be too much. Nevertheless, when Allie gets wind of the job opening, she applies and get the job. Kate maintains her composure and starts training Allie. It isn’t long before Allie makes a major mistake by confusing airlines’ codes with airport codes, resulting in a huge number of travelers stuck in airports without their airline tickets. Allie takes the blame for the error, but Mr. Sloan is so demeaning in yelling at Allie, that Kate has to step in and tell him to stop, threatening to quit herself if he doesn’t back off. Allie decides on her own to quit the job, so that Kate doesn’t have to, and Kate agrees. Allie is grateful for Kate sticking up for her, but when everyone keeps asking her to re-tell the story, with Emma even doing a school report on it, Allie has to keep hearing how incompetent she was during her training. Soon Allie becomes resentful that Kate always has to ‘rescue’ her, and they stop speaking to each other. The kids all get tired of their argument, so they arrange for Chip to handcuff them together with the handcuffs he had been playing ‘police’ with. They wind up stuck together with their arms cuffed around a rolling cart. Allie makes Kate vow not to come up with the solution, as she is tired of Kate bailing her out. Allie then tries to climb through the rolling cart, but getting stuck. Kate apologizes for always bailing he out, and Allie forgives her. However, Allie is not too proud to turn down Kate scratching her back while she is stuck. Julie Delaurier is Kate’s co-worker Suzanne. 6/30/22
- 021. Rear Window – 2/11/1985
- While Kate and Allie are busy doing Saturday morning cleaning, Chip can’t find anything to do. His friends aren’t home, and Emma and Jennie won’t play with him. He tries to get attention by covering his shirt in ketchup and pretending he has been stabbed, but Allie just sends him to clean his room. He finds some cleaning agents and medicine and begins pouring them down the toilet, causing it to bubble over all over the floor. When his mother finds this, she grounds him to his room. With nothing else to do, he starts staring at the apartment complex across the courtyard outside his window. There he sees a man (Edward Seamon) give a woman (Donna Watton) a pair of red shoes. When he comes back to the window, he sees the legs of the women wearing the shoes laying on the bed and sees the man with a knife bring in a trunk. Meanwhile, Allie asks the girls to occupy Chip and pays them babysitting wages to do so. When they go to get him to play, they find him with binoculars staring out his window. He tells them his theory about the man murdering the lady, and gradually as they watch what is happening, they start to believe it too. The girls recall seeing the Alfred Hitchcock movie Rear Window, so they suggest that when the man leaves Chip go get the man’s name from his doorbell so that they can call over there and see if the woman gets up. As they start to realize that the murder could actually be real, they decide to retrieve him. However, it is too late, as they see that the man has returned, and they are in the same room with the dead woman. The girls then panic and get their mothers to come see what is going on, but Chip seems perfectly find and is talking to the man. It turns out that he is a magician working on his illusion to saw a woman in half. The legs are completely fake and part of the trick. Allie demands that Chip come home immediately, and then sends him to his room. The she has a talk with him about the ‘boy who cried wolf’, but Chip’s only comment is that Allie’s eyebrows are different colors. She sends him back to his room, but later she and Kate discuss the fact that when they were kids, getting sent to their rooms never resolved any of their behavior problems. 10/23/22
- 022. Lovely Rita – 2/18/1985
- Kate gets a bit worried when her father Ben Hanlon (Conrad McLaren) calls and leaves five messages on her answering machine, then tells her that he’s in town, and then shows up at the house. She is afraid that he is sick, but he simply wants to tell her about his new girlfriend Rita Carney (Patti Karr), to whom he is thinking about getting married. They make plans to all meet up the next day for lunch at the house. Unfortunately, Kate takes an instant dislike to her, and thinks she is over-bearing and pushy, and calls her Katie like her father does. She keeps trying to talk to Allie while she is trying to study for finals, and she advises Kate to not say anything about it if her father seems to like her. When Ben finally asks how she feels about Rita, Kate can’t help but to make it pretty obvious that she doesn’t care for her. He wants to know if he should call it off, and Kate simply tells him that if he feels at all unsure or feels rushed into the decision, then he should end it. Ben uses that as his cue to break it off with her, and then ask if he can stick around town for a couple of days at Kate’s house. He gets pretty mopey as he spends time with the kids, and winds up sitting in the park feeding the pigeons to find out what older life alone will be like. Kate feels guilty that her decision has caused him to potentially lose his future happiness. She even follows Allie to the library to try and get her advice but keeps getting shushed by the librarian (Imogene Bliss) and a student (Garry Dennis) trying to study. Jennie then offers her own advice to Kate since her life has taken the same direction where she doesn’t care for her stepmother Claire very much. She admits that she doesn’t care for her, but that she manages to hide it when she is with them, and she makes Kate aware that it isn’t a big deal to pretend when they are together… especially when it is only a few times a year. Jennie’s advice gest Kate to change her mind. She tells her father that she thinks he was having a hard time making the decision to marry Rita and used her as an excuse to get out of it. She makes it clear that hers or anyone else’s opinion shouldn’t matter if he really loves Rita. They end up hosting Ben and Rita’s wedding in their house. Kate makes her only negative comments to Allie about Rita’s wedding dress. Charlie Miller is the minister. 10/23/22
- 023. Sons and Lovers – 2/25/1985
- With Kate constantly Ted, she comments that Allie must be feeling a little jealous that she has someone, while Allie is relegated to babysitting for the kids when Kate is on her dates. Meanwhile, Allie gets stuck in the college elevator with an assistant professor named Steven Hawkesworth (Tom Isbell). As a photographer, he makes Allie uncomfortable initially by taking photo of her while they are stuck. He sees some of Allie’s fruit bowl artwork and suggests that she might enjoy photography more than painting. He coaxes her into taking some photos of him to pass the time while they are stuck. They finally get out of the elevator, and Allie goes home. Steven later shows up at her house to show her the photos that they both took, asking her permission to use them in the gallery space where his photos will be featured. He takes her to see the gallery where he is putting up his photos and she then has him over to cook a Moroccan dinner. He encourages Allie to take more photos and offers to process them for free in his darkroom. In fact, they process them together, which leads to Steven trying to kiss her before she flees. Kate can tell that Allie likes him, so she encourages her to invite him to the movies. They begin dating causally, but Allie declines when he invites her to his apartment. Kate again encourages her to take a chance with him, so she agrees to meet him at his place. She arrives before he gets home from work and lets herself in with a key he left. While she is waiting, Steven’s mother Helen (Franziska Rhine) stops over to drop off some groceries. Allie is clearly embarrassed about her age, and fumbles over her words while chatting with his mother. Helen tells Allie that she admires her for starting over after a divorce, but Allie maintains she isn’t proud of some of the things she is doing lately. Helen then asks her why she continues to do them then, and Allie tells her sometimes she’d rather do bad things than nothing. Allie decides at that moment to walk Helen to her car, and break things off with Steven. When she thinks Kate calls her a chicken, she tries to justify her decision, but it turns out that Kate was only asking her to pass the chicken while they are eating their Chinese dinner. 2/23/23
- 024. Author, Author – 3/4/1985
- While having Ted over for brunch, the girls read in the paper that rock star Bruce Dalton is being interviewed on Midnight Talk on TV, but Kate and Allie are more interested when they discover that their former professor Owen Ives (Noel Harrison) will be on discussing his new book Anna. They both, along with the other female students in his class, had crushes on him. Although the girls fall asleep, Kate and Allie are wide awake when they learn that the romantic novel about the love he never forgot was about one of his students. Both of them run out and buy the book and simultaneously reads through it to get clues as to who the book was based on. Each of them think that it is the other… or perhaps Debbie Baumgarten. As they read about the exploits of Anna and her friend Rosalyn, they each start to suspect that it could be themselves, and each has a fantasy about Ives admitting his love to them. Kate discovers that he will be at the Sheraton Square bookstore to do a book signing. Allie acts as if she isn’t interest in attending, but in the end, she does go. Ives recognizes her immediately and then Inscribes her book “known to me forever as Anna” and “thanks to the inspiration.” He tells her to come back to the bookstore at 6pm and that they will talk. Allie is ecstatic that she really is Anna. She bumps into a former fellow student named Cindy Hooper Portnoy (Christine Farrell) and shows her the inscription. Kate later shows up for signing and runs into Cindy. She shows Kate the inscription and tells her that he wrote the same thing in Allie’s book. Kae leaves without speaking to him. When she gets home, she doesn’t plan to shatter Allie with the truth, but when she finds out that Allie plans to meet up with him, she is forced to tell her that he is just using the book to pick up women. Allie decides to go anyway and read him the riot act. She later returns and tells Kate that Owen took her to a bar to meet his wife Phyllis. He tells her that all of the female students in his class were a piece of Anna. Olivia Virgil Harper is the TV hostess. 2/23/23
- 025. Dead Cat – 3/11/1985
- Chip and Jennie come home from their father’s place, and Chip is upset because he can’t bring his dog Tristan home with him. Kate gets the idea to bring home a kitten from the pet store to help Chip get over the dog. Chip loves him upon first sight and names him Iggy. Unfortunately, Kate notices that Iggy isn’t moving in his basket because he has died. Allie tries to take the cat back to the pet store and exchanges it for another cat before Chip finds out. They tell Iggy that she had to go back so that Iggy can get his toys, but it turns out that the pet store is closed. They are then forced to tell Chip the truth about Iggy, who doesn’t fully understand the concept of death. Kate takes the dead cat down to the laundry room. In the middle of the night, Chip goes down there and brings Iggy a toy and some chewing gum. Kate finally brings Iggy back to the pet store, but not only will they not exchange it for a live cat but accuses Kate of sitting on the cat and killing it. Kate decides to take the pet store to small claims court, so Allie takes the cat to the vet to find out why it died. Kate gets nowhere waiting at the courthouse, but Allie finds out that had Iggy had distemper, so it is proven that the cat was sick when it was purchased. Still, Allie had to bring Iggy’s body back home because Chip wanted to have a full-blown funeral for him. Kate tries to go back to the pet store, and even though it is closed, she demands her way in and brings home a new kitten. Chip is excited about the kitten, but thinks it is Iggy risen from the dead. When they tell him that it is a different cat, he throws a fit and says he doesn’t want him. He wants to know how Iggy is supposed to feel. Kate and Allie go upstairs to see him, and Kate takes over to help explain death to Chip. She tells him that once you die, you either go to heaven or you don’t… but you no longer have any feelings and can’t feel sad or sick. She tells him that Iggy is find and not suffering, but now there is a real, live kitten who needs some loving. He decides to love Iggy Jr. Allie tells Kate that she did a good job, but is worried that Chip now thinks animals can think. 7/29/23
- 026. The Bad Seed – 3/18/1985
- Jennie comes home late for dinner one evening and tells her mother that she is hanging out with a new, older friend named Carter Lowe (Martha Byrne), a rich girl who is seemingly giving Jennie some questionable advice. Later, Jennie tries to sneak by Allie the next time she comes home after being with Carter, and this time she has gotten her ears pierced after Allie had told her that she couldn’t get her ears pierced until the following year after she turns sixteen. Allie and Jennie get into a big fight, but Kate gives her some advice about being more understanding after her own mother hadn’t let her shave her legs when she was a teen. Allie calls a truce with Jennie and even offers to go earring shopping with her. They come home not speaking to each other because Jennie wanted to get non-matching earrings. Carter finally comes to the house and meets everyone and is quite polite. However, once she gets up to Jennie’s room, they light up cigarettes so that Carter can show her how to French inhales, much to the degust and irritation of Emman. Allie walks in and catches them, leaving Allie furious again and delivering a lecture to Jennie. The next day, Emma finds out that Carter and Jennie are skipping school, so she tells her mother this in a roundabout way. Kate isn’t sure whether to interfere, but ultimately decides to tell Allie. Jennie and Carter spend their day going shopping, and when Carter steals an expensive scarf, she sets off an alarm at the store, making it appear as if it were Jennie who stole it. Jennie is taken to jail and Detective Jackson (Frankie Faison) calls Allie to come down to the station. When Allie gets there, Jackson tells her that they won’t press charges for the first offense, and Allie tries to get it expunged from her record altogether. Allie figures out that it was actually Carter doing the stealing. She forgives Jennie and tells her that she knows that teen girls are wired to rebel against their parents, just as she did, and is sure that Jennie’s daughter will do. Allie says it will take some getting used to for her to start seeing her as a young woman, but she will try. Still, she can’t help but giving her opinion on Allie’s new non-matching earrings. 7/30/23
- 027. Goodbye, Plumber – 4/8/1985
- While Ted is spending the evening with Kate at the house, Allie asks him to look at the kitchen sink pipes again, as he has already checked it once that day. He finds a piece of cloth inside, and wrapped in the cloth is a diamond ring. Although it takes Allie a minute to understand what has happened, Kate is thrilled when she realizes that Ted has proposed to her. She accepts the proposal, and Allie offers her excited congratulations. That night when Emma comes home, she too is excited, but wonders if they will move away from Allie and her family, if she will go to a different school, and whether she has to call Ted “Dad”. Some of the questions make Kate start to think of things she hadn’t considered, so she wakes up Allie to share her thoughts. Allie thinks she is just getting marriage jitters and thinks things will look better the next day. However, Kate is just as confused by them as before. She later goes over to see the house where they will live once they are married, and Kate meets Ted’s sisters Fay (Wendy Wolfe) and Bea (Marianne Leone). They tell Kate that they’ve known for a while that he was going to propose, and they tell her that Ted has had a dream of living in this family home and having four kids, the first one named Angie, and having a wife who stays at home. Kate’s thought about marriage suddenly become more unsure, and when she gets home, she wakes up Allie in the middle of the night to tell her that she doesn’t want to get married. Kate again tells her that these fears will abate, but the next day, she doesn’t want to see Ted. In fact, she can’t even call him to tell him to come over later because she can’t breathe. When she starts hyperventilating, Allie gives her some tranquilizers and tells her to take a half a pill to calm down. Kate takes half of the six that Allie has taken from the bottle, so Allie insists that she quickly call Ted while she still has her wits. That evening when Ted comes to visit, Allie can barely sit up, and although Ted sits next to her, she keeps telling him to sit down. She rambles about not wanting to get married, but Allie insists that it is the medicine talking. Allie tells Ted to leave and that she will come see him as soon as the meds wear off. Once they do, she goes over to his place, where he is sitting alone in what would have been the nursery. She tells him that she really does feel the same way about them getting married. She says that she respects his dream too much to ask him to change, and that dream of staying home and raising kids is not something that she wants to do all over again. She tells him that he needs to find a woman who has the same dream as he does. He tells her that she is breaking his heart, and she says that she is also breaking her own. Then she leaves Ted sitting alone. 11/28/23
- 028. My Dinner with Kate & Allie – 5/6/1985
- Allie helps get Chip ready to head off with Jennie and Amy to Charles and Claire’s wedding. When Charles comes to pick the kids up, Allie and Kate give him his congratulations and wishes him the best. He tells Allie that he hopes he does it better this time. Kate gets her last roll of film back in the mail which includes a batch of photos of her with Ted. The two ladies vow to go out and have a fabulous dinner together, but they wind up going and picking up a pair of lobsters and some champagne and brining it home. They name the live lobsters Allie and Kate. They start with the champagne and toast the lobsters before they eat them. Allie laments that they need a couple of men, but Kate says they should just dress up and be gorgeous and happy together. Kate puts on her formal dress that she had intended to wear at Ted’s birthday. She decides to wear it that night before she returns it, since it was meant for Ted. Allie tries to convince her to keep it and cut the tags off, but Kate refuses. She insists that if she does keep it, she wants the pleasure of cutting off the tags herself. Kate laments her situation, stating that she really wanted to get married and settle down, but then when Ted offered her that, she ran. They go downstairs to get a lobster pot and wind up finding a bunch of old junk full of memories. Allie finds a couple of love letters that Charles had written to her. They go upstairs and read the letters, which demonstrate how unromantic Charles was. Kate tries to convince her to toss the letters, but Allie says she wants to keep them for a while. As they get ready to boil the lobsters, they decide they can’t kill them, but have no idea what they can do to free them. Instead, they dig into the chocolate cake with their champagne. They start to talk about sex, which Allie describes as something you have to do to keep a man, and if you like it, it is a bonus. Kate equates talking about sex with talking about Ted. They definitively decide to not eat the lobsters. Kate declares that she likes herself and Allie, and that they are fun people. Kate decides to eat the dessert you have at the moment and not worry about the past or the future. Kate says she likes the pie on her plate currently. Kate thinks they make some of their own pies. Allie thinks some just fall in their lap. They agree that they need to not keep old, moldy pies around, but to discard them to make room for new ones. Kate grabs the tags off of her dress and Allie grabs Charles’s letter, and they both burn them over a candle. Kate says she needs the new dress, because they are going places. 11/28/23
SEASON 3
- 029. The Reunion – 9/30/1985
- Kate and Allie get an invitation to attend their 20th high school reunion at the Riverview Motel. Allie has no interest in attending since she is divorced and jobless, but Kate talks her into going by telling her that she needs to set an example for her kids to show bravery. After much debate, Allie agrees to borrow one of Kate’s dresses and attend the reunion. One particular girl whom Allie had befriended is Gloria Anderson (Marcia Jean Kurtz), who had been nicknamed “mouse” by the meanest girl in the class, Pamela Waterson Rand (Patricia Richardson), was the only one who Allie actually felt sorry for in school. When they arrive at the reunion, Kate confides in Allie that she brought along a football charm that she intends to rub into the face of a guy named Darrick Burke (James Rebhorn), who dumped Kate when he went off to Princeton. While Allie is hanging out in the bathroom, she runs into both Gloria and Pamela. She quickly finds that Pamela has not changed in that she still brags about herself and tries to make everyone feel inferior to her. Allie lies and says that although she is divorced, she is now a published fiction author. When Kate comes into the restroom and hears Gloria mention Allie’s novel, Kate is disappointed in her, but making matters worse, Pamela overhears them and begins laughing. Soon she has passed this gossip around the reunion. Kate gets the now-married Derrick alone, they chat about their lives, and Kate asks him point blank why he dumped her. He tells her that she was so wild and unpredictable with her causes that it scared him. He was afraid he would be embarrassed by her wild antics when he went off to Princeton. Now he sees that she was completely correct in all of her causes and regrets losing such an amazing woman. She quietly returns his charm and tells him that his son might want it. When Gloria tells Allie that she is still intimidated by Pamela after all of these years and continues to spread gossip about everyone, Kate reads Pamela the riot act in the bathroom in front of all of the other ladies. All of the ladies applaud Allie for calling her out. Camille Ameen aka Kim Ameen is Assemblyperson Linda Cranston Goodman. Anne Gartlan is Blake. Tara Hugo is Charlotte. Robin Groves is Cybil Schwartz from the Lehrman Bar Mitzvah. 4/7/24
- 030. Make Mine Mink – 10/7/1985
- After going to a foreign movie, Kate and Allie stop at a restaurant to eat, where they overhear a fight between two lovers named Sylvia (Rita Taggert) and Harold (Jack Ryland). Sylvia is angry that Harold hasn’t left his wife after they’ve been in an affair for four years, and she’s so disgusted by the fact that he’s tried to ‘buy her off’ with a mink coat, that she asks Kate for one dollar and gives her the coat. Allie makes Kate leave her name with the restaurant so that when she comes to her senses, she’ll know where to find her. Kate falls in love with the coat and wants to wear it to a fancy French restaurant, so she and Allie make plans to have lunch the next day. However, when her boss Mr. Sloan wants her to drop off a proposal for review by a client named Barbara (Pamela Brook), Kate tells Allie she’ll run it over while Allie waits at her office, and they they’ll go to lunch afterward. When Kate arrives both Barbara and her secretary (Eve Bennett Gordon) see the mink coat and think that she is the vice president of Sloan Travel. Barbara invites her to go out for lunch, and Kate tells her that she has reservations at La Belle et Toi. Kate calls Allie and asks her to forgive her, but she wants to cancel the plans, have lunch with Barbara, and make a good impression. She winds up impressing Barbara so much by speaking French to the waiter (Daniel Dessin) that Barbara asks her to deliver the presentation the next day instead of Mr. Sloan. Kate tries to talk her out of it by telling her that Mr. Sloan is the right man for the job, but Barbara calls Sloan and insists that she give the speech. Sloan is naturally insulted and tells her that she had better impress her during the presentation as much as she did at lunch. Meanwhile, Sylvia calls the house and wants to come pick up her mink. Kate begs her to let her keep the mink for one more day, and after Barbara tells them about the indignities, she’s gone through to earn the mink, she agrees to let her keep it. Allie tries to tell her that she should be confident enough to deliver the proposal without the mink. Kate doesn’t agree and takes it anyway, then comes home depressed because she bombed the proposal. Mr. Sloan stops by and tells her that they hated the presentation, and they lost the account. He chooses not to fire Kate and tells her that one day she’ll be ready to give the presentations, but for now he will handle them. When Sylvia comes to get the jacket, she tells Allie that she is giving it back to Harold and then leaving him. Daren Kelly is the elite Jeffrey O’Callan 4/8/24
- 031. Whatever Happened to Romance? – 10/14/1985
- When Allie attempts to put a job-seeking ad in the paper, it accidentally is printed in the personal section. As they look it over, she and Kate discuss the notion of placing personal ads, they see a very well-written and romantic plea from a guy known as “Mr. Whatever Happened to Romance?” The discount the notion of answering it, but Jennie and Emma become even more curious about it and want to know more about the man known as Michael. They decide to answer the ad from someone named “Sabrina”, open a P.O. Box, and use Kate’s photo to lure the guy to write back. After they receive a response, they decide to arrange for a meeting at the Cafe Cafe, where they will just go and watch him. However, when the man shows up and waits all afternoon, they start to feel guilty about disappointing him. Instead of telling him the truth, they decide to write him and tell him that Sabrina became very sick and is dying of consumption. When Michael writes back with tenderness and sorrow, they opt to send him one more letter along with a book of poetry so that he will remember Sabrina. Realizing that they want to be remembered also, they write to tell him that Sabrina wants to send the two girls who are taking care of her to deliver the book of poetry. After arranging the meeting, they tell their mothers that they are going to a poetry reading at the library, but when Kate and Allie catch Chip with one of the letters, they read it and figure out what is going on. As the girls are giving Michael the book, he requests that they take him to see Sabrina so that they can meet just one time. Before they can answer, Kate and Allie show up and introduce themselves to Michael Armstrong (James Patrick Gillis), who was starting to become suspicious of the entire scenario. He appreciates the romance on the part of the girls and asks that Kate and Allie are not too hard on him. They offer to buy him lunch to make up for the trouble, but he tells them that he has just met an ‘actual’ woman, who will be relieved that Sabrina has ‘passed away’. Later, both Kate and Allie lament that if they had answered Michael’s letter, they might be the ones going on with him, so they both decide to dig back into the personals. Maryellen Conroy is the waitress. 8/22/24
- 032. Evening in Paris – 10/21/1985
- On a particularly stressful day while Allie is baking cookies and putting up with the kids fighting, Charles calls her and makes a surprise offer to give her and Jennie his tickets to Paris that he was going to use for a medical convention. However, his wife Claire’s grandmother has gotten sick, and she needs to stay behind to take care of her. Allie jumps at the chance, and the two of them pack and gather their passports within three hours. Chip stays behind at his friend Eddie’s. On the plane, Allie and Jennie begin planning their itinerary, when Allie suddenly realizes she is feeling sick. When they arrive at the hotel. Jennie gets her a French-speaking doctor (Jacques Roux) who verifies that she has the flu. Jennie is a good sport and prepares to stay in the hotel room with her mother and read, but Allie, although jealous because it is also her first time in Paris, tells her to get on a bus tour of the city with the other doctors’ wives. Jennie comes back in six hours with some chicken soup and a blouse that she purchased for her mother and asks her if she can go out to a party with an eighteen-year-old boy named Jacques (Daniel Lambert), whom she met at the deli. Allie insists that Jennie bring Jacques to meet her, and he tells her that the party will be at the home of his twenty-year-old friend Pierre, and that Pierre’s mother will be present. Allie tells Jennie to be home at 11:00pm and then goes back to sleep. She wakes up a few hours later and decides that despite feeling sick, she is going to go see the Eiffel Tower. She asks the bellboy (Pierre Epstein) how to get there and then catches the subway. Unfortunately, she quickly falls asleep and later wakes up in a darkened subway car that has stopped, and she cannot get out of it. Jennie arrives back to the room at 1:00am and receives a romantic kiss from Jacques. She hears her mother in the bathroom and explains why she is two hours late, and then realizes it is another hotel guest (Bill Nelson) in their shared bathroom. Jennie initially panics and tries to figure out who to call, but just then, her mother arrives with the help of the bellboy. When she asks Jennie what time she got back, Jennie answers in French… and Allie falls asleep. Later back home, Jennie tells Emma all about her experience. When she starts to talk about how the kiss made her feel, she realizes that she feels nauseous, because she too is coming down with the flu. 8/22/24
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