The Life Goes On Unfinished Episode Guide, seasons 3-4

[Mark D. Rabinowitz]

The Life Goes On Unfinished Episode Guide for Seasons 3 and 4
By Mark Rabinowitz, Shari Feldman, Cindy Camp et al.

LGO SEASON THREE:
Paul got me this info on the whole Paige-Michael-Kenny thing: Paige starting
working at Stollmark Tubular Products. (Could anyone tell me exactly when?) The
owner's son Kenny started courting her, and Paige, looking for security in her
life, went along with it. Michael Romanov was a Bohemian-type sculpture artist
who worked with the the garbage strewn outside Stollmark's.

1. Toast (9-22-91): The Thachers toast a third season by reopening their
renovated grill, but their dreams go up in smoke. -SF

2. Hello Goodbye (9-29-91): The Thachers rise from the ashes of the restaurant:
exchange student Becca prepares to take wing for Paris; Paige and Corky go
hunting for jobs. (Is this where Corky starts working at the movie theater and
Paige starts working at Stollmark? And Maxie was the one who went to Paris,
right?) -SF

3. Out Of The Mainstream (10-6-91): Corky is nearly swamped when he tries to
help Tyler's younger brother, who also has Down syndrome, mainstream at Marshall
High. This episode introduces Chad Lowe as transfer student Jesse McKenna. -SF

4. Armageddon (10-13-91): New roles with Libby as the primary bread-winner and
Drew as the homemaker, create new friction in their marriage. -SF

5. Sweet 16 (10-20-91): At 16, Becca retains her innocence--but maybe not for
long. Throughout this ep, Becca records herself and her birthday party on
camcorder for Maxie, who is in Paris. When Corky buys Becca a great-looking
jacket for her birthday, it is with the new-found power of a checking account.
Unfortunately, some bad kids at school find out that Corky has checks and fool
him into giving them a $100 check to join the fictional "Plebian Club." Note
that one of these troublemakers is Ray Nelson! When Becca becomes involved with
him later, I guess the family forgot all about this little incident with Ray.
At the end, Becca is in front of the camcorder again with a robe on, then opens
it to reveal her negligee (which Maxie sent her as a birthday gift), asking, "Is
this *hot* or what?" -PS

6. Life After Death (11-3-91): Becca is devastated to learn that Jesse has
tested HIV-positive, and during a scuffle between him and Tyler, she blurts out
in front of everyone that he has AIDS. -SF

7. Dueling Divas (11-10-91): Libby's vivacious cousin Gaby (also played by Patti
LuPone) breezes in from Sicily like a whirlwind, touching everyone's life -- and
turning Libby green with envy.

8. Invasion of the Thacher Snatchers (11-17-91): Corky imagines that his family
is turning into Venusians after seeing a B-movie called "Body Snatchers from
Venus." At this time, Paige is learning to be a welder (in Corky's nightmare,
she builds a spaceship). Paige and Becca have a falling out over a
malfunctioning answering machine (in his nightmare, this machine is a
LONG-distance communicator). Drew is trying to go on a new diet-and-exercise
regimen (when he says to a friend that some new exercise machine "will make you
a new man," Corky freaks). Becca is applying for college (the Illinois State
University representative calls and says he wants to make Becca "one of us,"
which Corky overhears). After noting in the film that Venusians don't like dairy
products or other anti-acidic material, Corky attacks the family with baking
soda and milk.

9. Loaded Question (11-24-91): The Thacher house is burglarized. Suspicions
center on an African-American welder named Marquis (another acquaintance of
Paige's, he taught her how to weld). Drew and Libby debate over whether having a
gun is the best thing to do. Corky and Arnold are alone watching (what else, a
cop show) when Corky hears sounds from outside. He gets the gun, goes outside in
that sneaky cop fashion (emulating the show) and fires. Turns out Marquis was
returning something, and the family realizes how much they overreacted.

10. Triangles (12-1-91): Corky takes a tumble for the new assistant manager (at
the theatre?); Becca is torn between Tyler and Jesse: Tyler says he isn't over
her; Becca can't break the news to him because deep inside, she wants to commit
to Jesse. Becca helps Jesse search for the girl who infected him with HIV; when
they come to the house where she lived, Becca learns this girl has already died.
Jesse, walking through a cemetery during a particularly low point, asks Becca,
"Do you know that no matter how much I want you, I can never have you?" and
Becca answers, "YES! Yes, I do! Because I feel the same way about you!"

11. The Smell of Fear (12-15-91): Christmas brings anxieties to all, but most of
all to Becca, who fears the worst when Jesse is hospitalized with pneumocystis
pneumonia.

12. Struck By Lightning (1-5-92): The Thacher house is struck by lightning. As a
result, Corky predicts the future, Arnold the semi-wonder dog runs away, Becca
gets a major static problem in her hair, Drew becomes attracted to another
woman, and Paige enchants the boss's son, Kenny Stollmark Jr. Nothing returns to
normal until lightning strikes the house again.

13. Jerry's Deli (1-19-92): Is this the one where Corky and Jerry go to Jerry's
father's funeral? Or was that earlier in the third season?

14. The Room (2-9-92): Becca, Libby and Paige have entered "the Man Zone". They
tear down a wall in the Thacher house to reveal another room, which is then
redone (mainly by Paige) to be baby Nick's new room. Momentos from the old room
lead to flashback-type scenes that reveal the changing roles of women in
American society: Jesse and Becca as '60s hippies, Libby becoming a '50s Avon
lady (with the Thachers as a '50s family), et al. Libby decides to leave Jerry's
advertising firm to deal full-time with Nick. Paige discovers her true calling
after finishing Nick's room--she also wants to be a builder.

15. The Wall (2-16-92): It's just a graffiti-covered wall the students are
ordered to repaint, but it becomes a symbol of the future for Jesse, who's
awaiting his medical test results. Meanwhile Corky feels that finders should be
keepers when he finds an abandoned baby in the theater. -SF

16. The Blues (2-23-92) Jesse gets hired to work as a waiter at Drew's place,
but declining patronage forces Drew to let him go. They become real close
because they share a love of the blues, so Jesse is upset when Drew tells him of
his decision. In the end, Drew offers the job again, but Jesse declines. -SF

17. The Fairy Tale (3-1-92): Libby writes a fairy tale about Corky, and Corky
enters it in a contest. Libby then gets an offer to get it printed as a
children's book, but in a rewritten form. Libby turns down the offer, staying
true to the story which has so much to do with Corky. (Becca doesn't like this
because she would have wanted the money for college.) At the beginning of each
act in this episode, there is fancy narration and illustration which fades into
the scene in "real life". There was a subplot with Paige, Michael and Kenny, but
I forgot what happened there.

18. Hearts and Flowers (3-15-92): Inspired by her grandparents' upcoming 50th
wedding anniversary, Becca proposes to Jesse, and he agrees! But then they think
twice. Part of the problem with Jesse and Becca is that one of the guys at the
hospice is about to die from AIDS. This guy doesn't want to have any thing to
do with his wife -- doesn't want her to see the pain he's in, etc. Jesse does
the same thing to Becca and breaks things off completely, saying she doesn't
know what she's in for, and she should live a normal life. The man dies and
Jesse talks to the wife, who makes him realize that maybe Becca can handle this.
Becca is also worried about handling it, but Libby tells her about finding the
strength she needed to raise Corky. They get back together, but marriage is put
off. Subplot: Kenny wants Paige to marry him, but Paige isn't so sure. What's
more, a remark he makes about Corky ticks her off. Michael acts as psychiatric
help. -SF

19. Corky's Romance (3-29-92): Romance blossoms between Corky and a girl with
Down syndrome (played by Andrea Friedman, who has Down), but it's nipped in the
bud by her parents. Corky and Amanda first meet when Drew runs his truck into
the back of Amanda's car. Meanwhile, Jerry sponsors Becca in a need-based
scholarship contest, and Becca doesn't know it's need-based until the day before
a banquet she's supposed to speak at.

20. More Than Friends (4-26-92): Drew and Libby leave the kids to watch over the
house. Becca and Jesse decide to have a party there. Then Tyler and some college
frat buttheads crash it and take over the house. Meanwhile, Michael Romanov, a
suitor of Paige's (they met at that steelworks where Paige learned to weld)
crashes a stuffy gathering at the country club where she, Kenny and Kenny's
parents are. Becca kicks a drunk Tyler out, saying she cannot be friends with
him anymore, and he goes to drive off. Corky tries to stop him from driving
drunk, but cannot get him to hand over those car keys, so they drive off
together. They crash into a tree, leaving Tyler near death and Corky mute with a
broken arm. Paige returns with Kenny from the country club disaster to the one
at home. Kenny proposes to her, but when she hears the awful noise from the
house, she goes in and helps break up the chaos. Drew and Libby return, find one
last drunk who tells them where their children are, then go off to the hospital.
At the hospital, Paige tells Kenny that she will marry him; Michael, who is
spying on them, is dejected. Becca, baring her guilt over Tyler's plight, sees
Tyler for the last time on life support.

21. Confessions (5-3-92): Corky, somehow rendered mute by the accident, does not
speak up until Becca bares her soul to him. Then Corky says that Tyler tried to
swerve around a boy on a bike. Becca still feels guilty over Tyler's death as
she and Jesse place flowers at Tyler's grave. (There should have been more
mention of the fact that Tyler drove drunk, as Tyler could have had better
reflexes to stop before hitting the boy on the bike. Without that, it sounded
like, as Shari put it, "a cop-out".) Also, Paige and Michael get locked in a
refrigerated room for wedding cake storage (she was looking for a cake for her
and Kenny's wedding).

22. Consenting Adults (5-10-92): Paige has a great heart-to-heart with Drew
about her upcoming marriage with Kenny. Drew takes matters into his own hands
and convinces Michael to get Paige. Then behind both their backs, he hires
Michael's band to play at the wedding. Paige and Kenny break up at the altar;
Paige runs off with Michael instead. Corky proposes to Amanda. Jesse leaves for
Arizona with his mom, but later comes back, saying that Becca is his family now.

The following stuff took place in season three episodes, but I have been unable
to match them with the episode titles above. Do help if you can.

Friction develops between Jerry and his father Sam (Sandy Baron), the firm's
domineering senior partner. (Jerry's Deli? The Smell of Fear?)

Corky leaves the theater where he works to work at Drew's restaurant. He doesn't
like it, and when he tries to go back, someone else has taken his old job! But
Leo (Michael Earl Reid), the film projector operator, like Corky a mentally
challenged man, teaches Corky how to work the projector, and that becomes his
new job. (He has a nightmare in which he gets overstressed at the restaurant:
Jerry wants the bathroom cleaned up, Hans wants some salad bowls, Becca wants
service, and Leo goes after Corky with a chainsaw!) (The Smell of Fear?)

Note: "Consenting Adults" could be interpreted as an attempt at a series
finale, as LGO did face cancellation in 1992. It got a major reprieve when "Day
One," the Forrest Sawyer newsmagazine, failed to get off the ground and needed
an overhaul.

LGO SEASON FOUR:
1. Bec to the Future (9-20-92): A 40-something Becca (Pamela Bellwood) looks
back on the summer of '92. (In the future, Becca is now married and is a
doctor.) Jesse returns, but the reunion is bittersweet. Through most of this
episode, Becca is avoiding Jesse to be with her new friends who don't know Jesse
is HIV+. They find out when Jesse comes over to their pool party (which he
wasn't invited to). They invite him to join them, but he says he has to go to
the hospice. Someone asks if he isn't afraid he might get AIDS. Jesse then
tells them he is HIV+, then lectures Becca about the fact that she didn't tell
them about him: There is no break from AIDS. This episode introduces new
characters to complement series star Kellie Martin: Kathy Goodman, an extreme
extrovert who wants Becca to get a bigger slice of life; Harris Cassidy, the
storytelling boss (owner?) at the Nevermore Bookstore where Becca and Goodman
work; and Eric, the bookstore manager.

2. Exposed (9-27-92): Jesse paints a nude painting of Becca. (It is never
determined if she posed nude or if the nudity was solely the product of Jesse's
imagination.) Becca decides to let it be shown in the Nevermore Bookstore, and
this leads to a nice scandal. Endless date proposals on her answering machine
are just the tip of the iceberg. See, Drew buys his paper there, and when he
sees his daughter's voluptuous body immortalized in paint, he goes nuts, even
lecturing Becca at school loudly enough for Becca's French class to hear. Drew
tries to buy the painting from Harris, but Harris refuses. Drew, Corky and Jesse
conspire to steal the painting back, but get arrested. (Corky was the
mastermind, inspired by the Pink Panther Film Festival at the theater.) In a
subplot, poor Paige (still hurting over her breakup with Crown Prince of
Irresponsibility Romanov) shows Becca and Libby a cubist tattoo of Michael on
her shoulder. Now, back at the police station, Harris bails out the three art
bandits after selling the painting to the proprietor of a biker bar (!). Drew
comes to terms with the fact that Becca is, in fact, sexy, and Paige agrees to
have that tattoo removed.
Ray Nelson Jr. returns. He had a list of guys who wanted to pay Jesse to have
their girlfriends painted nude. He makes the mistake of saying, "Jesse, you've
got HIV. What could happen (in terms of sex)?".

3. Premarital Syndrome (10-4-92): Corky and Amanda's "trial marriage" gets off
to a rocky start. (or crunchy, as in the crunchy macaroni and cheese: they
didn't boil the elbows long enough.) Interviews with couples who have Down
syndrome are interwoven throughout. -SF

4. The Whole Truth (10-18-92): Paige fends off an attempted date rape by Becca's
poetry teacher (Leigh J. McCloskey). But their accounts differ and Becca, at
first, believes the teacher. Corky imagines that a calendar swimsuit model
(Shari Shattuck) has come to life, and this imaginary woman explains how men
tend to see only the bodies of women, not what's inside. Libby confronts her
memories of a rape during her high school days. Becca confronts the teacher when
his story gets a few holes in it.

5. Love Letters (11-8-92): Becca and Co. find old World War II letters at the
bookstore. (Martin, Smitrovich, and Burke read selected letters while they
played, respectively, a soldier's girlfriend working at a factory, a soldier
working a machine gun in a trench, and another soldier reading a letter in a
tent.) Eric gets cozy with Becca, and Jesse does same with a woman from an art
gallery named Jill. Becca returns the letters to the woman who wrote them. I
think this is where Corky and Amanda got officially married.

6. Windows (11-22-92): Amanda's angry parents vow to annul her marriage to Corky
and try to regain custody of Amanda. They then run off to a motel, further
angering the Swansons, not to mention their attorney. Amanda's father also
falsely tells Corky that Amanda wanted the annulment. Meanwhile, Becca and Jesse
are mad at each other. Becca canUt come to Jesse's first show at the gallery
because of Corky and Amanda, and resent his growing involvement with Jill. Jesse
is mad in part because the art show did not go well. Becca and Jill face off;
Jill says Becca is too much in control, and acts like the only one who can take
care of Jesse, but she'll back out anyway. Jesse talks with Corky about their
"honeymoon," and Corky makes Jesse happier by interpreting one of his paintings
as a window. In the end, the Thachers and Swansons go to court, but the judge
lets Amanda make the final decision: She will live with Corky. They get Paige's
old loft above the garage, while Paige decides to move out.

7. Babes in the Woods (11-29-92): Becca, Goodman, Ray Nelson Jr., Jesse and two
other students from their English class go on a weekend camping trip, chaperoned
by Harris. Things get bad when Becca gets sprayed by a skunk, knocks over a
kerosene lantern, starting a fire at the barn where they were staying, and worse
when they find a note from Harris saying they must fend for themselves. And then
it rains! Becca also learns that she tends to want to be in control to much:
With Jesse and with Goodman (she went behind her back to try and get Goodman
into high school). Goodman does return to school at the end. -SF

8. Udder Madness (12-13-92): Ray nominates Becca (against her wishes) for
Homecoming Queen; Goodman nominates a cow in protest of beauty pageants in
general. The third contestant is a stuck-up cheerleader. Also, Artie (Paige's
supervisor from the steelworks in season 3) and Paige redo a restaurant with a
bovine motif. (They formed a partnership called Darlin' Construction, so called
because Artie always calls Paige darlin'.)

9. Happy Holidays (12-20-92): The holidays take on a whole new meaning for
Corky, who's celebrating his first Christmas as a married man --- and now how
the wishes of a wife and in-laws to consider.

10. Choices (1-3-1993): Paige finds that she is carrying Michael's baby, and is
at first delighted to know this. So's the whole family. But Michael comes back,
and decides he does not want the baby. Paige is undecided on whether or not to
abort, and Corky and Amanda want to adopt the baby. This all conveniently ends
with a miscarriage.

11. Incident on Main (1-10-93): Gay-bashing skinheads beat up Jesse outside the
AIDS hospice. Becca gets his blood on her hands after the beating. She gets
tested and comes up negative, but has to get tested again in six months. (This
loose end was left untied, but it is generally assumed that she stayed
negative.) Jesse draws a sketch of one of the skinheads, which is displayed at
Drew's restaurant. It is trashed by the skinheads after one of them sees it at
the cashier. Jesse sees one of them in a lineup as well but cannot, perhaps out
of fear, pick him out.

12. Lost Weekend (1-24-93): In her quest to get Becca out her shell, Goodman
takes her and Jesse on a double date. But Jesse and Becca get pissed off as
Goodman and her date, Norman Bates, get kinky at the table. Jesse and Becca
decide to test the limits of their passions and try to have "safe sex". But
their sleepover at his apartment is more like a slumber party, as Jesse keeps
balking at going farther. Becca tells Drew and Libby about that night, that she
slept in Jesse's arms, and they get pissed off. Drew tells Jesse that he's
concerned the starcrossed couple will go too far. Subplots: Paige, not realizing
how much of a need she has for Artie, becomes jealous of an acquaintance of his;
Grandma Teresa stays over a night at the Thachers' due to her husband breaking
the furnace, then goes back because someone's gotta keep Grandpa Sal's feet
warm.

13. Visions (2-14-93): Shortly after his 18th birthday, a feverish Jesse
collapses in extreme pain at school and is rushed, unconscious, to the hospital.
Jesse's AIDS-Related Complex has progressed to AIDS. He has dreams which
highlight the show: Ray French-kissing Becca at Jesse's funeral, and one where a
healthy Jesse and Becca have a toast in an idyllic setting and have really nice
clothes on... While Jesse is sick, Ray takes Becca out. Jesse is unable to speak
about AIDS to a class, so Becca reads what he wrote for this speech, and it
breaks her heart, and Goodman comes over to finish for her.

14. Five to Midnight (2-21-93): Jesse's insurance runs out, and he gets
transferred to County Hospital (which is like being transferred to the Receiving
Hospital in Detroit!). Becca goes with him. Jesse nearly dies of AIDS-related
cardiac arrest, and the doctors apply the ol' shock therapy at--you guessed
it--five to midnight. Becca discovers a haunting self-portrait of Jesse's that
he doesn't remember painting. Jesse has a dream where he and Becca plan on going
to Paris, but the taxicab stops at the hospital with a tab of $11.55--another
interpretation of 11:55.

15. Bedfellows (2-28-93): A fellow AIDS patient named Chester (Richard Frank)
encourages Jesse to learn to live rather than give up and die. He holds game
shows with other patients, makes fun of the sugar-coated remarks the doctors
make every time a new patient comes in, and sings, too. Jesse objects to Becca's
inclination not to go to Brown University, saying that he would be too much of a
burden to her. Chester dies when he races Jesse on the hospital roof.

16. Last Wish (3-7-93): Becca and Jesse go to see the ocean, after Jesse says
that it's something he wants to do. Jesse is not exactly on top of the world,
however, as he is jealous of Ray, who has been seeing Becca lately. During an
argument, they flash back a few Glen Brook weeks (not from old episodes, but
stuff that would have occurred during the course of other episodes). Ray bought
them the plane tickets they needed to get there. This episode shows the
development of the relationship between Ray and Becca.

17. Life Goes On (And On And On) (5-23-93): The series finale, it leaps 4 years
into the future to see Becca and Jesse marry, and 10 years when Becca, now about
27 (and still played by Kellie Martin) tells her son a story about what happened
after graduating from high school. Corky doesn't graduate, but says, "I'll be
back." Ray was the valedictorian of Becca's class. Jesse leaves for Europe,
breaking Becca's heart, but returns four years later. It is not determined
whether Becca's son was fathered by Jesse or not, but Becca expresses a desire
to have Jesse's baby, saying that new treatments could make it possible. The
question of who fathered this child is hard to answer as Becca says the final
words of the series: "I love you, Jesse."
Note with regard to the series finale: The producers, not wanting to give
false hope to HIV/AIDS carriers, said in Entertainment Weekly that Jesse McKenna
did not father the child.

Final notes: I still have summaries which could use more detail than what TV
Guide listed; I would prefer that they all had detailed summaries. I would
otherwise call this guide complete.
Maybe if I had missed that "Sweet 16" episode, I may have missed the whole
four years. Anyway, please help me finish the job. I hope Kellie is impressed.
--
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********* MARK RABINOWITZ all replies forwarded to: *********
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|||||||||||||||||||||| CENSORSHIP SUCKS!! |||||||||||||||||||||