Take a Leap

Theo's traveling family reunion continues with a surprise visit by mommy dearest in front of a live studio audience. Is there a game show host in the house?

Analysis

Every once in a while the producers of this show will renew my faith in their ability to develop characters with no gimmick strings attached. "Take a Leap" is one of those rare occasions. Since there's plenty of good to say about "Take a Leap" let me get the bad out of my system first... Here we are half way through Season .09 and I've come to the conclusion that the Maximum Velocity Tour is thee worse edited season to date (hopefully it can't get any worse than this)!

As you'll remember, last week I ranted about the editors inserting an episode totally out of context and expecting us to accept it as concurrent; and what do you know, they up and do it again! The Roadies receive a clue informing them to head to Emory University to be put on the spot; but notice the slick editing done by the producers to conceal the geographical location--figuring that we're catching on to their blatant disregard for continuity over the past two weeks. And I'm really, really getting sick of that Roadgimmick--what was so awful about that tape player anyway?

Anyone with half a brain--or anyone with half a brain should know that Emory University is located in Atlanta, Ga; therefore, the producers are once again expecting us to believe that after milling around in Georgia and Florida for the past several weeks, the troopers would not only double back to Louisiana, but also double back to Georgia (!) as well, which is simply BS. C'mon! It's like there're stuck in the Dixie Triangle or something! On that note, I guess they'll be doubling back to Florida in acouple of weeks!

So once the troopers arrive at Emory, they're greeted by a audience of students who probably have nothing better to do anyway, and Steve Barnes, local radio DJ and this week's "Mission Mayor" who informs them that they've just walked into a trap, a "Parent Trap" that is. So one by one the parents file in to the troopers' stunned, albeit pleasurable amazement.

Basically it's the Newlywed Game without any newlyweds. Instead we get parent/child couplings with Mayor Barnes doing his best Bob Eubank impression. And judging from the line up, the majority of our parents appear to be rather common looking folk--with the exceptions of Laterrian's mom who could pass for his sister, and Theo's mom who could pass for his grandmother (time has not been too kind it seems).

In rounds one and two our contestants were subjected to such routine questions as: "Your child's favorite nickname?", "Greatest fear?", and "Where do you see yourself in 10 years?". However the highlight of the round came when Barnes put our troopers on the spot by asking them (in front of their parents) to disclose their first whoopee session. Surprisingly none lied and claimed that they were still a virgin; however, I was surprised at how many flunked out on the questions. Both Kathy and Holly-(no surprise there) passed with flying colors, but M'saada, Theo, Laterrian, and Rosemary's Baby (sorry folks, had to slip that pun in there) all struck out.

Tell me, how spaced out do you have to be to forget your first time? I mean you don't forget your first crush or your first love do ya? Now I'd be willing to cut them some slack on the memory laps had they all been in their 40's, but give me a break! Unless, they deliberately guessed wrong to appear naive in front of their parents, thus eliminating a lengthy reprimand later on. I could in particular see this with M'saada and her father, Leslie who's a "minister" BTW; but for goodness sake M'saada... you could've at least given a higher guess then 18, especially since your real de-flowerment was at 21--which was only a year ago, d'oh!

For the third and final round Barnes dragged everyone out to Emory's rugby field for a classic cliché the bungee jump [TM]. For every jump the troopers would receive a point equaling $1,000 bucks, but the catch is they'd have to bungee jump with their parents. And as expected the Baby Boomers took the news with about as much enthusiastic anticipation as G.W. Bush at a pop geography quiz. But eventually Rosemary's Baby was able to convince his mom to take a leap of faith. And soon one-by-one the other parents grudgingly followed their lead--that is until we came to Theo's mom Gina who seemed to carry on and on about how the bungee jump could affect her slipped disk--all the while I'm sitting in front of my tube going, "Hey put up, shut up, or back up!". I mean they had already racked up some $9,000 bucks, so what's another $1,000? A thousand dollars isn't going to break anybody-(for those of you who didn't see the joke in that quote, watch "It's A Wonderful Life").

But eventually like Rosemary's Baby, Theo is successful in sweet-talking his dear old mom into taking the leap of a lifetime, I'll give him props for that; but more so I'll give all the parents major props for taking a dive I know my parents would never do. Theo had a tough sale, especially since he and his mother have not been on the best of terms lately. Theo looked upon this mission as an opportunity to reconcile with his mother and "seal a few cracks" in the process. Whether Theo was successful on his endeavor remains yet to be seen, but I didn't see a lot of "mending" if you ask me.


P.S

• Not wanting to leave our hardy parents feeling empty handed at the end of the mission, Barnes/B-M supplied them all with a special reward of their own: Portraits of their respective children taking part in presumingly past missions; but in Gina's portrait Theo is seen repelling down what looks like a... a-a building??? Now when did this happen? Quick, dial 911! Call the Continuity Police!

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