[1-17] An Affair to Remember

Writers: Michelle Nader & Amy Cohen
Producers: Jeff Lowell & Walter Barnett
Director: Lee Shallat Chemel

Episode Length: 22:08
Guest Stars:

Deborah Rush: Helen

George Stephanoplulos: Himself

Anne Twomey: Holly

James E. Tripp: First Reporter

John Bland: Second Reporter

Shelton L. Palmer: Bandleader

Starring as Themselves:

	Dan Dierdorf
	Patrick Ewing
	Frank Gifford
	William Heredia
	Larry King
	David Letterman
	Al Michaels
	Rosie O'Donnell
	Anthony Rapp
	Daphne Rubin-Vega

Rating:#27 15.6 million viewers 10.5 rating 16 share

Rating: TV-PG

First Broadcast: February 18, 1997

Opening sound: Birthday Noise-maker

Storyline #1: Whose your Valentine, now?
It's Mayor Winston's 50th birhtday and Mike is plannning a celebration. However, a worker from the Governor's office threatens to spoil it all. Seems Holly Cower, the afforementioned worker, has taken a shine to The Mayor. Unfortunately, The Mayor seems to have taken a shine to her. While preparing for this bash, Mike spends every waking moment keeping the two separate as much as possible while trying to deflect questions from nosy reporters. Finally, it's party night and The Mayor, having grown attached to Holly, has promised a dance to "the shark." Mike, after trying to play a Spanish tune and failing at a toast, pulls Mayor Winston aside and confides that he shouldn't do it, from one friend to another. The final straw is when Mike call the Mayor "Randall". The Mayor finally sees the error of his ways and dances with Helen, his wife who still isn't sure she's happy to be there.

Storyline #2: Guest Stars? Who needs guest stars?
Throughout the course of the episode, we see snippets from real-life celebrities (except for the cast of "Rent") wishing the Mayor a Happy Birthday. Carter and James are put in charge of putting the clips together to make a 50th Birthday video. However, James get a complex about the making of the movie. (At least he's not obsessing about Nikki.) Carter finally gets himself off the project. When James finally finishes the video, the audience is treated to what can be best described as a video collage that makes absoloutely no sense. The only parts left shown are the odd things the celebrities say in addition to stock footage of everything under the sun. In a related story, Paul spends most of the episode trying to court George Stephanoplulos(apologies for the spelling) to appear at the banquet for the Mayor. Seems that Paul and George used to work together in college and are quasi-rivals.

Review: An Affair to Remember

Overall, a dramatic episode. Never mind that the entire Western world starred in this episode. (Sorry I only had Rosie O'Donnell listed. She was the only one I knew of that was confirmed.) Some of the choices make me groan (Let's hype ABC personel more) although some was inspired. (How did they get Dave?) Paul's line about not watching ABC made up for it. Very Simpson-esque. As for James's film, I'm glad he has something to do in between making failed passes at Nikki.

Now let's get to the real meat of the episode, the relationship between Mike and Mayor Winston. First, Mike's guitar playing was hysterical. If only he had started playing "Johhny Be Good"... Anyway, the dramatic scene was a lot more effective than the Mike-Nikki scene in Bye Bye, Love. The way romantic tension was used for the Mayor was good since they have been halfway alluding to it for the past month or so. I was even impressed when Mike said he could spin the dance. It's about time they officially tie the title into the show. However, I did have trouble with the idea that Mayor Winston was too innocent to pull off this dance. In the Pilot, The Mayor remarks that he "did a little bird-dogging in his day". This led me to believe that Winston could in fact pull it off. However, as the season has progressed, Barry Bostwick has continued to dumb down his protrayal of Mayor Winston so this new set of events is more in line with the character. It's nice to see Deborah Rush return as Mrs. Winston. Since she has been listed on the ABC website for some time as a recurring guest star, I was beginning to wonder when her character would recurr.

Rating [5 pt. scale]: 4.0

Did you notice ...

Mike drinks out of his NY Ranger coffee mug again?

Both the Monday Night Football crew and George S. work for ABC?

Patrick Ewing complains that the Mayor has focused too much on the Yankees. (If I'm not mistaken, The Mayor hasn't said anything about local sports.)

Stuart used to work for Congressman Nalens?

JFK Jr. was mentioned again? (last mentioned in The Great Pretender)

Mayor Winston and Holly were working on a Federal Subsidy for Special Education?

Nikki has a Great Uncle Ray & Great Aunt Edna?

Mike says something "from the heart", something he hasn't done since Grand Illusions?

Shelly Palmer, the show's composer, cameos as the party's band director?

Top 10 Lines

10. George: "Paul, you're better than this."
Paul: "No I'm not."

9. Mike: (toasting the Mayor) "I would like to do that by reading a few passages from the Bible."

8. Mike: "Stuart, don't make me to bring up the Connie Chung restraining order."

7. Stuart: "Mike, that is classic denial."
Mike: "No it isn't."

6. Holly: "Leave me alone or I'll have you terminated."
Stuart: "You can't fire me."
Holly: "I meant killed."

5. James: "I don't want to pull rank on you but I almost went to film school."

4. Mike: "I like the Kennedy men as much as the next gal ..."

3. Paul: (about ABC) "I don't watch that network."

2. Holly: "We even finish each other's ..."
Mayor Winston: "Meals."

1. Mike: (to reporters) "I just came by to remind you this is a party, not a press conference. Please reserve any offensive, unfounded, potentially libelous questions until tomorrow when I will be happy to mislead, misdirect, and misinform you as per our usual arrangement."

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