In one corner, we have Mary Jo, tiny, agile, and out for justice. In the other corner, her opponent and former mugger, Norman Bates (yes, we said Norman Bates), pizza slinger and plea bargain extraordinaire. Will Mary Jo get her day in court? Sort of. Will there be obligatory Rocky references? Absolutely. Join us to see the inner workings of the justice system through the lens of situational comedy.
Then come back Thursday for an “Extra Sugar” dedicated to another Southern court movie, only slightly more prestigious, To Kill A Mockingbird. Join us to talk about the ins and outs of this classic film.
Some reads and watches:
It’s Mrs. Chesley! Superbad (2/8) Movie CLIP - Seth Buys Vodka (2007) HD
Readers Digest’s write-up of the craziest things people do while driving and a Reddit post
Come on y’all, let’s get into it!
Or listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Amazon Music.
Transcript
Salina: Hey, Nikki.
Nikki: Hey, Salina.
Nikki: I almost forgot to unmute our mics.
Salina: I wanted to make a mute sound, but there's nothing to make, so I just was going to be quiet anyways.
Salina: Hello, everyone, and welcome to sweet tea and tv.
Salina: Hey, y'all.
Salina: The show where we have an awkward start to every show.
Nikki: Not awkward.
Nikki: If it were awkward, I'd take you to court.
Salina: I knew you were going to do that wonderful, wonderful segue.
Salina: Take us there, Nikki.
Nikki: We're up to designing women, season five, episode 20.
Nikki: I'll see you in court.
Nikki: The designing Women Online summary is Mary Jo finds the young man who mugged her back in season three, episode 20, but has second thoughts about pressing charges since the legal system seems to be in his favor.
Nikki: After Julia forces her sister to escort Bernice to the mall, Suzanne starts making regular trips with the seniors when they start buying her little gifts.
Nikki: Air date March 18, 1991 we're calling this one Mary Jo meets her mugger.
Nikki: It was written by Cassandra Clark and Deborah Pearl and directed by Iris Dugal.
Nikki: General reactions.
Nikki: What did you have, Salina?
Salina: This is one, and this happens to me sometimes where I liked it more on rewatch.
Salina: I think the first time I watched it in our preview of the season, if you made it this far, is that I made it this far.
Nikki: I did.
Salina: You made it really far, though.
Salina: I did.
Nikki: I was shy, like two episodes.
Nikki: It's really embarrassing that I just couldn't finish the drill.
Salina: Is it, though?
Nikki: I don't know.
Salina: I don't think it is.
Salina: So I think when I first watched it then it felt maybe like a little disjointed or something.
Salina: But eventually I think what I came around to is that the balance between the time spent with Mary Jo and then the subplot of like Suzanne and Bernice actually worked for me and may have benefited this episode some.
Salina: And I appreciated that balance more in subsequent watches.
Salina: It doesn't matter how many times I had to watch it.
Salina: That's probably not important.
Salina: It was either one or 100 times.
Nikki: All that matters is that you watched it.
Salina: That's right.
Salina: What landed for you in your general reaction?
Nikki: My generals are very stray this week.
Nikki: Dollar theaters were CD in the early 90s, which Charlene, in that discussion with Anthony, someone alludes to the fact that dollar theaters are kind of sketchy.
Nikki: They were CD in the late 90s when I went to them.
Nikki: So what was the heyday of the dollar theater where it wasn't CD?
Nikki: Nickelodeons, which would have been the 40s, but they were nickels then.
Salina: Yeah.
Salina: Was it?
Nikki: Don't know.
Nikki: I have no idea.
Salina: I'll have to ask Nickelodeon.
Nikki: When you said Nickelodeon's, I was like, but that was the mid 90s.
Nikki: Wait a minute.
Nikki: Hold on.
Nikki: Not those Nickelodeons.
Nikki: It just struck me as like, oh, wait, we're talking about dollar theaters.
Nikki: They were super sketchy.
Salina: I'm going to say something, and I'm going to say this as someone who grew up not wealthy, okay.
Salina: My understanding from film school class 101 back in the old college days is that this particular visual medium in general was always lower brow.
Salina: And so, like, people who were really fancy went to go see shows on stage.
Salina: The visual medium of movies, I think, was always something that was a little less expensive and maybe some theaters were a little less nice.
Salina: I don't know.
Salina: Anyways, film school.
Nikki: The other thing that struck me was that the whole issue with Bernice was that she needed someone to take her shopping.
Nikki: No one took her shopping because they said they didn't have time.
Nikki: Instead, they just sort of sent her upstairs to take a nap.
Nikki: Then Mary Jo comes in and is all like, this guy, I think he mugged me.
Nikki: I need to go see him again.
Nikki: And Julia's like, I have time.
Nikki: And Bernice didn't like, but you didn't have time to take me shopping, but you have time to go sit around and TGI Fridays or whatever and find this guy.
Salina: Yeah.
Nikki: Poor Bernice.
Salina: Poor Bernice.
Nikki: I feel bad for her.
Salina: Yeah.
Salina: She won't remember.
Salina: This probably would have been a better thing when you were talking about the movie theaters.
Salina: So maybe I should have said it sooner.
Salina: I don't know.
Salina: But my God, the movie references in this one are just, like, out of control.
Nikki: Oh.
Salina: So I looked it up just to see the background.
Salina: You think, Salina, could you have dropped this in the references?
Salina: And I say, nay, no, I drop it.
Salina: The general reaction, wherever you want, it's your show.
Salina: But I looked it up, and the 63rd Academy awards aired one week later, so I was curious if that had something to do with it.
Salina: But they were hosted on ABC.
Salina: The show was on CBS.
Salina: So other than the love for prestigious movie awards, I don't know why they did it.
Salina: Anyways, it was just like, a lot.
Salina: This is maybe the most serious episode all season, and that stood out to me.
Salina: This is my final general.
Salina: We watched Mary Jo re victimized, maybe.
Nikki: In the police station, but in a very funny way.
Salina: Well, it's a sitcom, so it made to feel foolish for trying to take a stand against her attacker, and by a woman, no less.
Salina: And then there's this larger point about our legal system that it's so backed up and messed up, no one, especially survivors, wants to fool with it.
Salina: So those are like all serious things.
Nikki: It really felt like a lot of work to come back after all this time with no proof whatsoever that this was the guy that mugged her and try to prosecute.
Salina: I wouldn't have done it, I don't think.
Nikki: I'm just not sure what she thought was going to happen here, which was probably my biggest issue with this whole storyline.
Nikki: As a true crime follower myself and aficionado, I was like, what did you think was going to happen here?
Nikki: The whole idea is to prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that he was guilty.
Nikki: You have zero proof other than what you think he looked like as proof.
Nikki: So this is kind of, on the face of it, a really silly episode for me to watch.
Salina: Yeah.
Nikki: So I had trouble feeling sorry for Mary Jo.
Salina: So this was Nikki's favorite episode of the season.
Nikki: You know what will be real interesting is what my score was.
Nikki: It'll be a surprise to us all.
Salina: When I say, will we all be surprised?
Salina: Probably.
Salina: So now that we've done nothing but cover strays, do you want to cover some strays?
Nikki: I got some strays.
Salina: Okay.
Salina: You got some strays.
Salina: I hope they're general observations.
Nikki: That'd be fantastic.
Nikki: It must have been really gratifying for Charlene to be able to tell Julia that the first rocky was nominated for nine oscars.
Nikki: I love when someone's really uppity about something and you can be like, it.
Salina: Felt especially good with, you know, she deserved that moment for herself.
Salina: I think that Suzanne's shopping club is fine.
Salina: That's my hot take.
Nikki: Oh, let's talk about that.
Salina: Yeah, she's taking them.
Salina: They want to pay her with small gifts.
Salina: What's the problem?
Nikki: What's the big deal?
Salina: I didn't understand.
Salina: No, I really didn't.
Salina: So I was.
Salina: I mean, would it have been the most altruistic thing to not accept the small gifts?
Salina: Maybe.
Salina: But at the same, if they want to get you things, what's the problem?
Nikki: Yeah, they didn't seem hurt by the whole situation.
Nikki: They wanted to buy it for her.
Nikki: In the case of Bernice, I think there could be an argument made that, like you just alluded to a minute ago, she has memory problems, so that's right.
Nikki: For taking advantage of.
Salina: Right.
Salina: Like, if she was like, you were going to get me a gift, she had already bought her a gift and kept lying until she bought her like, a million dollars worth of the same product, then you're getting into gray area.
Nikki: Right?
Nikki: But everybody kind of won in this scenario.
Nikki: They got to go shopping.
Nikki: They got to dote on someone.
Nikki: Maybe they saw her as a little bit of like a grandchild situation.
Salina: It's fine.
Salina: Nobody got hurt.
Salina: Calm down, Julia.
Salina: Stray.
Salina: Am I stray?
Salina: Mrs.
Salina: Chesley.
Salina: That's her.
Salina: This time she's Margaret.
Nikki: Okay, hold on.
Nikki: Mrs.
Nikki: Chesley was the grumpy.
Salina: Grumpy, grumpy lady.
Nikki: Grumpy.
Salina: Mary Jo's art teacher when they ran away.
Nikki: Okay.
Nikki: She and Mary Jo, Suzanne.
Nikki: Were fighting over the spot on the couch.
Salina: That's right.
Salina: Okay, Mrs.
Salina: Jesley, other straits for you.
Nikki: I had some cut lines, and I'm reading through them real quick to make sure that I should mention something.
Nikki: Right after the thing about Rocky winning nine oscars.
Nikki: This was cut.
Nikki: Charlene said, I'm sorry to put you in your place like that, but I'm very sensitive about my Rockies.
Nikki: Now, I know the last couple have gone downhill, but it must be difficult making five different movies using the same plot.
Nikki: There was also a cut line after Charlene said, people should be more careful what they name their kids.
Nikki: This was cut.
Nikki: Remember that Grace Slick was going to name her child?
Nikki: God, of course.
Nikki: It was the 60s.
Nikki: Later, she thought better of it, and she named him something else.
Nikki: And there's probably something.
Nikki: If that had been in the main episode, we probably would be talking about weird names people give their kids.
Salina: Oh, that's fair.
Salina: But I thought that the grace slick thing was.
Salina: I must have gotten that from the script and then wrote it into my references.
Salina: Definitely looked into that.
Salina: You looked into it?
Nikki: Because I was going to say it also could have ended up on references.
Nikki: So you'll tell us about it later?
Salina: I will.
Salina: Perfect.
Salina: Yay.
Nikki: And then there was a judge Wapner reference that was cut after Mary Jo gave her rue the day speech about Norman Bates.
Nikki: I think it was an okay cut, for what it's worth.
Nikki: But I think if it had been there, it would have made the transition out of the scene cleaner.
Salina: Yeah, that happens sometimes recently.
Salina: $15 for parking at a courthouse in 1991 is $34 a day in highway robbery.
Salina: It is.
Nikki: When we went downtown for.
Nikki: You remember that?
Nikki: Like, German Kindle Mark Chris Kindle market.
Nikki: I spent, like, $26 to park for.
Salina: 20 minutes in 2023.
Nikki: In 2023, yeah.
Salina: And this was 1990.
Salina: $115.
Salina: And you're going to court.
Salina: Not even to something fun?
Nikki: I would have been so angry.
Salina: Whatever.
Nikki: I have been known to park really far away and walk a long way because I refuse to pay to park.
Nikki: Yeah.
Nikki: It makes me angry.
Salina: Yeah, I understand.
Salina: I really do.
Salina: Not the first time they've called Charlene a big old donkey girl scout.
Salina: Julia also called her that back in mistrial, which was earlier this court episode.
Salina: How's this now?
Nikki: Also a court episode.
Salina: I thought you said something about night court.
Salina: I was like, I like night court.
Nikki: I love night court.
Salina: It was good.
Nikki: Have you been watching the reboot?
Salina: No.
Nikki: It's cute.
Salina: I couldn't get through the first episode.
Salina: Oh, no.
Nikki: I think it's cute.
Salina: I should probably go try and push on.
Nikki: Yeah.
Nikki: It gets better.
Nikki: Another podcast.
Salina: What a good another podcast.
Salina: But also, like, it gets better.
Nikki: Ringing endorsement.
Salina: Yeah.
Salina: Thank you.
Salina: Give me words, Nikki.
Salina: I just wanted to know that now that Carolina is an official Girl scout, is that meaningful to you?
Salina: A big old donkey girl scout?
Nikki: I don't understand the donkey edition.
Nikki: I think the concept resonates with me, which is like, Girl Scouts is supposed to instill a really strong moral code and following all the rules.
Nikki: Girl Scout is always honest and fair, considerate and kind.
Salina: Right.
Nikki: Respectful.
Salina: I mean, they're calling her a square.
Nikki: Exactly.
Salina: Which I get, but I just don't.
Nikki: It's also kind of like, suck it.
Nikki: There's nothing wrong with that.
Nikki: There's got to be some donkey Girl scouts to keep you in line.
Salina: Yeah.
Nikki: I don't understand the donkey connection.
Salina: Yeah.
Salina: Okay.
Salina: I just didn't know if you'd learned something.
Nikki: I think I meant to look that up at some point.
Salina: I think I looked it up and the first thing entries were weird and I was like, I don't know what's happening, but I'm going to get away from know.
Salina: The Internet gets to be a strange y'all.
Nikki: Especially when you start looking up animals.
Salina: That's right, Suzanne, watch.
Salina: Are we okay with that?
Salina: Or did you have stray?
Nikki: I have a stray, which is kind of a mini sidebar.
Nikki: It's so even.
Nikki: I'm not even going to play the theme music, Salina.
Salina: It's a sidebar.
Nikki: I'm not even going to play the music because it's so nonsensical.
Nikki: But the whole thing with Suzanne is she comes in the room and she was doing her mascara in the car and got pulled over by a police officer and it was like a whole thing.
Nikki: And it got me thinking about some of the crazy things I've seen people doing driving down the road.
Nikki: Okay, so I did a real quick goog.
Salina: Or did you just think about the crazy things you've done driving down the road?
Salina: And who needs to know them?
Nikki: Who needs to know okay, I guess it depends on whether I actually linked a source in the show notes.
Nikki: It'll be a surprise to us all.
Nikki: But I found the basics, wardrobe, changing, makeup, reading.
Nikki: But a couple of them did surprise me.
Nikki: One person shared that once they saw a woman with her baby in the front seat and she was changing its diaper as they drove.
Nikki: That's wrong on so many levels.
Salina: Yeah, that seems rough.
Nikki: But logistically, a diaper change is a two handed job.
Nikki: I don't care who you are, what you're doing, it's going to require too.
Salina: Does that help?
Nikki: That's terrifying.
Nikki: That's terrifying.
Nikki: Another person said, I saw a gentleman one time in a suburban and he had a full size piano keyboard sitting between the two seats.
Nikki: He was using his right hand to play it while he was going down the road.
Salina: That's so much better than what it could be.
Salina: Go on.
Nikki: Another person said they saw a man with coffee between his knees and his laptop on his lap, typing while driving.
Salina: How are you getting this vantage point?
Salina: Are you in a semi?
Nikki: Probably in a taller car.
Salina: Yeah, right.
Salina: Okay.
Nikki: Those were child's play, though, compared to some of the things I found in a Reddit post on this topic.
Nikki: I'm going to allow folks to review the not safe for work ones on their own time, but here are a couple of the wacky ones that I found.
Salina: I was about to say, I'm like, I reviewed those in real time.
Salina: Just going down the road.
Nikki: I think we've all seen one or two.
Salina: Yes, one or two is exactly the way I would.
Salina: And then you just ask, like, what's happening in the world?
Nikki: What's happening?
Nikki: Who are these people?
Nikki: Yeah, there's some of those in that Reddit.
Nikki: So these are word for word from the Reddit.
Nikki: Fellow was behind me at a light, and I know they're word for word because he said, fella fellow was behind me at a light and unwrapped a cheeseburger.
Nikki: The light turned green and he put both hands back on the wheel and proceeded to eat the whole cheeseburger with no hands.
Nikki: One of the most bizarre things I've ever seen, but, like, talented really for them.
Nikki: Was stopped at an intersection and looked at the car next to me.
Nikki: Guy took a piece of deli meat and bit, sorry, it's funny all over again.
Nikki: Took a piece of deli meat and bit mouth and eye holes into it and then placed it on his face to wear as a sort of mask, followed by randomly placing cheese and crackers on the deli meat on his face.
Nikki: He then turned and smiled at me with a thumbs up.
Nikki: And they say, oh, Portland, I would.
Salina: Be so scared because I would terrify.
Salina: Silence of the silence of the lands.
Nikki: Yeah, very.
Nikki: Buffalo Bill passed an old red truck that was going about ten below the speed limit.
Nikki: When I passed him, I saw he was holding a baked potato and was eating it like an apple.
Nikki: He was the most content looking man I'd ever seen.
Nikki: That one I had to read a little bit further because my very first question was, how did you know it was a baked potato?
Salina: Yeah.
Nikki: Not a raw one.
Salina: Sure.
Nikki: And the very first question that somebody responded to him was, how do you know that was a baked potato?
Nikki: And he goes, that's the story I had to tell myself to let that story sit okay with me, was that the potato was baked and not raw.
Salina: He just needed a potassium hit.
Nikki: That is possible.
Salina: It's the most potassium is in a potato.
Nikki: Maybe that's what it was.
Nikki: He's getting some really bad muscle cramps.
Salina: That's right.
Nikki: The last one.
Nikki: And finally, a man shared that he had to drive his wife from New Jersey to New York City.
Nikki: Long story short, they ended up in the Lincoln tunnel, frustrated with one another, and the driver next to them was making sandwiches.
Nikki: This person says, I don't mean he has some Jimmy John's unwrapped there.
Nikki: I mean, he is laying out bread, slathering it with mayo, layering meats, cheeses, and veg, then chowing down and then repeating the process.
Nikki: So we broke the tension in the car by counting how many sandwiches this guy made.
Nikki: Or more interestingly, how many sandwiches he could make with the fixings he had available in his car at that time.
Nikki: Did he know the tunnel would be jammed and come prepared?
Nikki: Does he always keep emergency lunch meat in his car for just such a circumstance?
Nikki: In the follow up questions, someone asked the very next obvious question, how many did he make?
Nikki: He said they watched him make three, but the traffic started moving again.
Salina: That's crazy.
Nikki: Does that any of that.
Nikki: Have you ever seen someone making a full on sandwich in a car?
Salina: No, I've only seen the not suitable for work thing.
Nikki: Perfect.
Salina: Okay.
Salina: Can't say that my thing is this, okay?
Salina: In life, there are those times where I'm, like, trying to multitask and I'm not even talking about the car, just, like, be on ground.
Salina: And what I usually come around to is it's just too annoying to be trying to do two separate things at once.
Salina: Yeah.
Salina: It's like my brain can't handle it.
Salina: So when I think about all these jobs that really you're just making the process take longer.
Nikki: Right.
Nikki: That's exactly saving any time.
Nikki: That's what it ends up being.
Nikki: 97% of the time is it just.
Salina: Takes longer and it's more dangerous hours in traffic.
Nikki: Yeah, I can say that.
Nikki: Speaking of things, we've watched Nikki's sidebar.
Nikki: Do you want to do?
Salina: Yeah.
Salina: So she is in this episode a good bit, which is a great thing for us, but she is notably separated from the main plot.
Salina: It's like they're trying to keep her from the main cast at this point.
Salina: It's kind of a perfect way to do it.
Salina: I mean, I think that's all we've been seeing is just these.
Salina: Between Delta Burke being a phenomenal performer and these choices they're making with the narrative, it's all working out really well.
Salina: And because we feel like she's off with, like, we feel okay about it.
Nikki: Feel like she's part of it.
Salina: That's right.
Salina: But she's not.
Salina: And the only other thing I really thought about this is more of just, like, an observation about what's happening between her and Dixie Carter.
Salina: That ear grab is funny, but that must have been super awkward since they're.
Nikki: Not in a good cause.
Salina: Like, just think about how when you're mad at someone, can you imagine grabbing your ear?
Nikki: I will break your arm.
Salina: Exactly.
Salina: This is what saying so.
Salina: So I know that we both like our ear grabbed.
Salina: What did you like about this episode, Nikki?
Nikki: I was laughing just a second ago because I was accidentally pre reading my notes and remembering that there were a couple Julia lines that I really liked.
Nikki: I felt her with every fiber of my being when she was in the police station waiting room and was like, this is my seat.
Nikki: I waited an hour for this seat.
Nikki: I am keeping this seat despite its obvious disadvantages.
Nikki: Once I've committed to something and made it happen, the world could fall down around me and I would still be sitting in that chair because I waited for it.
Nikki: And I felt that I also really liked her front yard suggestion.
Nikki: We might as well put our valuables in the front yard with a sign saying, help yourself.
Nikki: Thank you for not dismembering my family.
Salina: I love that line.
Salina: It was so good.
Nikki: And then I think it was Charlene said at the very end of the episode, that's what you did, Mary Jo.
Nikki: You had the courage and you went the distance.
Nikki: What a nice way to tie up the episode.
Nikki: Just felt encouraging.
Salina: You felt encouraged?
Nikki: I felt encouraged.
Nikki: That's why I showed up here today.
Salina: I was going the distance, and Nikki just compared me to finding her.
Salina: So sometimes it feels that way.
Salina: I have picture evidence for this one.
Salina: Just that I think that Delta Burke is stunning in this, like, canary yellow that she's wearing.
Nikki: Pretty.
Salina: It's about midway through the episode, like, who pulls off that color?
Nikki: So first of all, good for you.
Nikki: Must be nice.
Salina: Must be so nice.
Nikki: We don't do enough jewel tones anymore.
Nikki: I know I've said this before, but, like, jewel tone blues and greens, that's kind of a bright jewel tone yellow.
Nikki: It really should be a thing we do again.
Salina: Yeah, they're good colors.
Nikki: They look good on people.
Salina: I mean, I will kind of gravitate towards the jewel tones because I kind of need to.
Nikki: They're really rich.
Nikki: They are very flattering.
Salina: They're also very good for the pales.
Nikki: I identify with that.
Nikki: Quite pale, actually.
Nikki: So can Delta Burke.
Nikki: She's a little bit of a.
Salina: I was.
Salina: I've already mentioned the A and the B plot.
Salina: I wanted to say one thing that I really liked about the B plot.
Nikki: This time is I was really hoping you were going to get to here.
Salina: Were you really?
Salina: I figured you were just that.
Salina: I think this took some pressure up off of Mary Jo's mainline.
Salina: And I think where we've fallen short a little bit is Mary Jo gets her own plot and then we just give her the whole thing and we don't give anything to take up off of her.
Salina: And then it's 22 minutes just for something that may or may have not needed 22 minutes.
Salina: So I did feel that one in this one and wanted to call that out as a good thing.
Salina: I really don't know what it was.
Salina: I guess it's just that Anthony is so funny, but when he describes his dollar theater experience and someone with, I guess, like, some kind of lisp behind him talking and he's in there watching Spartacus, I laughed unnecessarily hard.
Nikki: Sounds like me with my invisalign trace.
Salina: And I'm just not even sure it's that funny.
Salina: But I couldn't stop laughing about that, probably because I have a little bit of a list.
Nikki: Everybody loves a list.
Salina: Yeah.
Salina: But just the fact that they pulled out Spartacus to go with that was like, let's see.
Salina: Oh, Suzanne shuts down.
Salina: Like, I liked all the ways that we were shutting down Julia in this.
Salina: Um, okay, so this is Suzanne and Julia talking about bras and sales.
Salina: And it's so nice because we're right at this holiday, as it were.
Salina: But what better way to commemorate the birth of the father of our country than by selling push up bras at half price.
Salina: And Suzanne says, I assure you, I did not buy a push up bra, okay?
Salina: Those are for small, busted women.
Salina: If I wore one, I wouldn't be able to see.
Nikki: I thought you would love that line.
Salina: I like a b*** line.
Salina: You like the things you don't just.
Salina: Nikki took her cans off and left.
Nikki: That means headphones in this context.
Salina: I don't know Bernice's idea for a party.
Salina: Well, Alita Daniels was all set to marry old man Merkin at Hillcrest Leisureland.
Salina: We were going to give her a wedding shower, but then he ran off with his 25 year old nurse.
Salina: And since he has really bad angina, we decided to change the shower into a he'll probably be dead within the month party.
Salina: Glorious.
Salina: Let's see Suzanne finally breaking down and taking Bernice shopping.
Salina: And that was prompted by this opportunity.
Salina: Let me get this straight.
Salina: Y'all are going to go to some kitty pizza parlor where there's lots of screaming brats to stake out some low life pervert purse snatcher.
Salina: That's right.
Salina: Come on, Brenice.
Salina: You and I are going shopping.
Nikki: She's a smart lady.
Salina: I love Charlene's indignation at them.
Salina: Never getting any of the rocky references or appreciating it.
Salina: She's just so good.
Salina: Her level of exasperation each time is Chef's kiss.
Salina: And it's literally me.
Salina: Anytime someone says they haven't seen still magnolias.
Salina: What?
Nikki: And then me, when they say they haven't seen son in law or the Brady Bunch movie.
Salina: I've seen Brady Bunch movie, and I've seen ladybugs.
Salina: It's just that Brady Bunch movie I saw in 1995, where we should have left it.
Salina: No, disagree.
Salina: And I've seen lots of parts of son in law, and I would just stop there and I would just say that the movie lover of me celebrates the movie lover in you.
Salina: Yep.
Salina: I celebrate your decisions, Nikki.
Salina: I've got one more.
Salina: Like the courtroom scene.
Salina: Bernice objecting, and then when asked to what, ask?
Salina: I don't know.
Salina: What are my options?
Nikki: What are my options?
Salina: And I just like that you ask your questions for sure.
Salina: You got to know what you're working with.
Salina: What did you not like about this episode?
Nikki: So I have two slightly minor criticisms, but criticisms nonetheless.
Nikki: I think they could have done a smidge more with Suzanne and the ladies from Hillcrest Leisure land, which I always want to call leisure lounge.
Nikki: I've called it leisure lounge like a zillion times in my head, I just feel like they could have done more there.
Nikki: I would have liked to see them interact with one another a little bit more, maybe be in a store together and see what are some of these tiny trinkets she's getting.
Nikki: I don't remember if they mentioned what it was, but to the point we were having, the discussion we were having earlier.
Nikki: Is she getting, like, tennis bracelets or is she getting, like, a moisturizer for her face?
Nikki: What is Suzanne's idea of a tiny trinket?
Salina: That's true.
Salina: And that might change our opinion.
Nikki: That might change our opinion.
Nikki: I would have liked to have seen more of that.
Nikki: I also feel like Anthony just keeps dropping from the episode entirely.
Nikki: Which brings me back to my Salina.
Nikki: Why can we not have an Anthony watch?
Nikki: And why are we not talking about justice for Anthony?
Nikki: Because this episode, he just drops off altogether after the dollar movie theater reference.
Salina: I also started to wonder, like, and I should have looked up his filmography or something to see if he was, like, shooting a movie or something.
Salina: It almost feels that abrupt.
Nikki: It's so crazy.
Salina: But especially since we brought him on as full partner, made a big deal about that, and then he's in less episodes lately than he has been.
Nikki: This is what I'm saying.
Salina: So my dislike was the same as yours, which is like, a nitpick, but I just think if we had gotten to spend some more time with Suzanne and the ladies in the mall or somewhere, that would have been good.
Salina: Or, like, where's our Chippendale's episode?
Salina: I think I want that think?
Nikki: Yeah.
Nikki: It's hard to know for sure, isn't it?
Nikki: Yeah.
Salina: What about a rating?
Nikki: I was looking at his filmography.
Salina: Oh, no.
Nikki: Did you know he was in double double toil and trouble with Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen?
Salina: I did not.
Salina: Is that 91?
Nikki: 93.
Nikki: 93.
Salina: Why do I know that?
Nikki: I don't know.
Nikki: That's scary.
Salina: I've never even seen it.
Nikki: I can say with almost certainty I don't think he was otherwise engaged.
Nikki: Rating.
Nikki: My rating scale this week is penal codes, and I gave it a four out of five.
Nikki: I feel like there were a couple gaps in potential for this episode.
Nikki: One I just mentioned, it feels kind of zany to completely leave Anthony out of this storyline.
Nikki: Like, maybe he could have helped Mary Jo navigate the legal system or something.
Nikki: Maybe he'd have some really funny lines of encouragement for her after his unfortunate incarceration.
Salina: What can t Tommy reed teach us?
Nikki: What could t Tommy reed teach us?
Salina: Yeah.
Nikki: It just felt like a really big gap.
Nikki: Then, like I said, I felt like we didn't get enough of Suzanne and the elderly ladies, so enough to bump it down a point.
Salina: Okay.
Nikki: Penal code.
Salina: Penal code.
Salina: Also, something that you might randomly see in the car.
Nikki: If you're driving down the road, you.
Salina: Might randomly see it.
Nikki: Penal code.
Salina: So, I mean, first of all, I keep getting tripped up in my own headphone wire.
Salina: Happened like, eight times today.
Salina: Okay.
Salina: I gave it 4.3 out of five.
Salina: Lowlife pervert pursenatchers.
Salina: I think this might be my favorite of all the Mary Joe centered plots this season.
Salina: I think it fits with her continued arc of gaining confidence and standing up for herself, something we've watched happen over the course of the series.
Salina: I think it builds on previous season and episode.
Salina: Even if one could argue that maybe they should have snuck this bad boy in last season, because now we're, like you mentioned at the top, we're a long way from when she met her mugger.
Salina: It works better because they're not asking Annie Potts to shoulder the entire episode.
Salina: I already mentioned that.
Salina: And I think the other thing I didn't say earlier is, even though it was funny, we almost needed that extra layer of levity to kind of help just take the pressure off 90s things.
Nikki: Oxy five is what Mary Jo said.
Nikki: The prosecutor smells like.
Nikki: That's like an acne medication from the sit here and rub a pimple on my face.
Nikki: Maybe I need some oxy five.
Nikki: She also mentioned that he wears a ninja Turtles watch.
Nikki: Very eighty s and ninety s.
Nikki: Good job.
Salina: Yeah, that's a good one.
Nikki: And then there was like an LA law reference and I think a few other associated references to that, which felt 90s.
Nikki: That's all.
Salina: Well, I'm going to tackle.
Salina: That's it.
Salina: I'm going to tack on that.
Salina: I noticed there were a ton of those.
Salina: I would only call out Corbin Burnson.
Nikki: Yes.
Salina: Because we met his brother earlier in the season.
Salina: The infamous dawn.
Nikki: Who did p***.
Salina: That's right.
Salina: Yes.
Salina: Well, soft core.
Salina: I don't know.
Salina: Hard stuff.
Nikki: Yeah.
Salina: Okay.
Nikki: I think that was the name of a movie.
Salina: Of course it was.
Salina: How could it not be?
Salina: That might have been the first p*** name ever.
Salina: I did like dollar theaters.
Salina: It's just so ninety s, and they were driven out by multiplexes.
Salina: And now streaming is driven out multiplexes.
Salina: So I guess it all comes full circle.
Salina: I don't know.
Salina: And then Chippendale's at Phil's very.
Salina: At the time.
Salina: I mean, I think there still are things that happen, but it's not quite as it was also.
Salina: They did a Chippendale show on Hulu.
Salina: Is pretty good.
Salina: Pretty good also of this time period, too.
Salina: So if you all want to dive back into your late eighty s and early ninety s, you can.
Salina: You can.
Salina: Southern things.
Nikki: Whistling Dixie.
Nikki: That's what Julia said.
Nikki: She didn't care if Bernice was doing in the fountain.
Nikki: And then Mary Jo made a reference to the 285.
Nikki: We've talked before on here about how that's a big interstate or a highway here in Atlanta.
Nikki: It is not the 285.
Nikki: It's I 285 or just two eightynch.
Salina: It's very painful.
Nikki: Makes me so angry.
Nikki: I know in California they do call the highways.
Nikki: We don't do that here.
Salina: We don't do that.
Nikki: We don't do that.
Salina: We add extra syllables to words, not extra words to us.
Salina: That's correct.
Nikki: That's correct.
Salina: Except for me.
Salina: I do.
Nikki: And we had that one writer in an episode recently who had the very specific Atlanta directions and that set of writers.
Nikki: And I was, like, so impressed by how in the weeds they were.
Nikki: And the 285, man, that's a mistake.
Nikki: We don't need to make more than once.
Salina: That's right.
Salina: That was my only southern reference.
Salina: So I'm with you there.
Nikki: Okay.
Salina: Perfect references we need to talk about.
Nikki: I don't have any.
Salina: Okay.
Salina: How many, Salina?
Salina: I don't know.
Salina: Well, one thing I just needed to know is, like, why were we getting all the rocky references?
Salina: So I looked back, and Rocky five had just come out three months earlier, in November of 1990.
Salina: So perhaps it was just on the writer's minds why they wrote this one.
Salina: Excuse me.
Salina: While they wrote this one.
Salina: And then I just have to call out the movie references we got, again, Rocky, like, a lot.
Salina: Including the iconic.
Salina: Yo, Adrian.
Salina: Spartacus.
Salina: Including the iconic I'm Spartacus, dances with wolves, psycho.
Salina: The purse stature's name was Norman Bates.
Salina: So that's how they snuck that one in.
Salina: I'm mad as h*** and I'm not going to take it anymore.
Salina: This is a reference to the movie network.
Salina: And then, Nikki, you know, I have to ask, which of these movies have you not seen?
Nikki: The network.
Nikki: I don't think I've seen that one.
Nikki: And I probably haven't seen Rocky five.
Salina: Yeah, I've never seen a rocky movie ever.
Nikki: I've definitely seen the first one.
Salina: It's a real gap, actually.
Salina: I think I'm going to challenge myself to watch the original Rocky.
Salina: I might have been a little Julia on that my whole life.
Salina: And I don't want to be that guy or that gal.
Salina: All.
Nikki: Would you have time to watch?
Salina: Yeah, well, I have time, probably.
Salina: Maybe.
Salina: Sort of.
Nikki: We'll see.
Salina: Grace slick.
Nikki: Tell me, tell me.
Salina: Cut line.
Salina: I didn't realize it was a cut line.
Nikki: Well, now I hope it was a cut line.
Salina: Who knows?
Salina: Who knows, Nikki?
Nikki: Someone knows.
Salina: But I also look at the cut lines while I'm.
Salina: Or the script.
Salina: So anyways, so I feel silly that I did not realize that this was the lead singer and front woman of Jefferson Airplane and then the subsequent spinoff bands of Jefferson Starship and Starship, which I also didn't realize were spinoff bands.
Salina: So I was just learning.
Salina: I was learning left and right.
Nikki: I think it's okay.
Salina: Starship.
Salina: I would just say that's what I'm more.
Salina: I'm familiar with all of these, but this is that, like, real.
Salina: So we built this city and nothing's going to stop us now.
Salina: Which, by the way, I'm going to connect it back.
Salina: Nothing's going to stop us now was like the main song in Mannequin.
Salina: And who was in mannequin?
Salina: Mishak Taylor.
Salina: And what's Mishak Taylor in designing women.
Salina: And what do we do?
Salina: We cover designing women.
Salina: And where are we sitting in my closet.
Salina: I ran out of things, but I.
Nikki: Was going to say double, double toilet trouble.
Nikki: But you didn't give me enough space.
Salina: To say I'm sorry.
Nikki: Thought that's what we knew him from, but okay.
Salina: Mishak Taylor.
Nikki: Mary Kate Ashley Olsen.
Nikki: I told you that a minute ago.
Salina: Oh, sorry.
Salina: Okay.
Salina: The other thing I wanted to point out about Mrs.
Salina: Slick is that that's actually not true about her naming her child God or even ever considering it.
Salina: She gave birth to her daughter, Chyna Cantor on January 20, 571 in San Francisco.
Salina: Contrary to popular belief, that's not what she intended to do ever.
Salina: She was actually just jokingly saying that she was going to do that to the religious delivery room nurse as she was filling out the birth certificate.
Salina: So it's a very layered story in there.
Nikki: I'm glad we got there.
Salina: Liar.
Salina: Guga.
Salina: I didn't know what that was.
Nikki: I don't know what that.
Nikki: I don't remember.
Salina: Someone said it in the episode, but it's a showy thing, especially one that is useless or worthless.
Salina: Like sometimes Salina going through references, what a bunch of goo ga.
Salina: Donna Hardy.
Salina: I wanted to mention her.
Salina: She is who plays Mrs.
Salina: Chesley.
Salina: And I realized something in looking up her filmography because I don't know, I somehow did not realize that she appears in a movie that is very important to many millennials.
Salina: Do you know about this?
Salina: Okay, so she has an odly memorable appearance in Superbad.
Salina: So for anyone who remembers the sequence where Seth, you might also know him as Jonah Hill, attempts to buy alcohol at the liquor store and we see a bunch of fantasies go through his head, including one of a very old woman buying the liquor for him.
Salina: It's Mrs.
Salina: Jesley.
Nikki: Oh, I love Superbad's on my shortlist, too.
Nikki: I love Superbad.
Nikki: It's hard to rewatch now.
Nikki: It doesn't stand the test of time.
Salina: Problematic areas in that movie.
Nikki: It's really challenging to watch.
Salina: But there's also some really funny parts of that movie.
Nikki: Really funny part.
Nikki: Any of the funny parts are the problematic parts.
Salina: And this is life, is it not?
Salina: Yes.
Salina: One might also call that got to rewatch that.
Nikki: I don't remember that she looks 211.
Salina: Years old because, I mean, she's really old in this.
Salina: I mean that with all due respect.
Salina: Well, she's playing a lady who lives.
Nikki: At a retirement village.
Nikki: I think we're allowed to say that.
Nikki: That's not a secret.
Salina: And we're talking about.
Salina: So this is 91 2016 years after this.
Salina: That's time.
Salina: That's it.
Nikki: Okay, I've got super bad on my list.
Nikki: To rewatch next episode, season five, episode 21 the Big Circle.
Nikki: We'd love everyone to follow along with us and engage Instagram and Facebook at SweetTv, TikTok at Sweettvpod, YouTube at SweetTV 7371.
Nikki: Our email address is sweettvpod@gmail.com.
Nikki: And our website is www.sweettb.com.
Nikki: There are several ways you can support the show.
Nikki: You can tell your family and friends about us, rate and or review the podcast wherever you listen.
Nikki: And then you can visit our website to find other ways to support the show on the support us page and then come back Thursday for an extra sugar where we're going to talk about to kill a Mockingbird, the movie to kill a Mockingbird, but a little bit the book, too.
Nikki: It's kind of inspired by all the movie references in this one.
Nikki: There are some other designing women connections that we've made over the years with it.
Nikki: And it's just, you know what?
Nikki: We didn't have enough to do.
Nikki: So we threw in watching a 1960s movie and then reviewing it for this recording today.
Salina: And you know what that means?
Nikki: What does it mean, Salina?
Salina: Well, it means we're crazy.
Nikki: Crazy.
Salina: And it also means that we're going to see you here on Thursday.
Salina: Bye.
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