Fame

Danny decides to go after his dream of stand-up comedy.



This is truly one of the worst episodes of the series, it fails to even follow up on its own initial premise. Danny is working late nights at a comedy club, something that his English teacher (the always waffling Carol Jenkins Mayo) finds unacceptable. Danny also is anxious that his friends attend his debut as a comedian. Plot holes abound, Danny takes "uppers" to stay awake, something his father discovers and is then never mentioned again. His disappointment in the lack of support from the "gang" is lost as the script turns to focus on his relationship with his dad. Probably most unforgiveable is the fact that while Carlo Imperato cannot act out of a paper bag, STILL the writers prove yet again that they can't feed him with one passably funny joke. Not even one. The secondary storyline is marinal and would have been adequate, Doris trying over and over again to get a hamburger commercial right, but with such a botched main story, it's just a small diversion.



Any number of small things could have at least dragged this installment to mediocre status. Focus on either the drugs or the father/son dynamic. Examine Danny's real (or imagined) closeness to his friends. Try an angle on a kid's school performance vs. entertainment dreams. Make Danny actually funny in his starring scenes. As is, it's vapid and incoherent.