The Son of Feeney

TSOF Musings and Commentary: Step by Step and Brad Pitt

It is with great shame and embarrassment that this reviewer must admit an egregious error.  In the previous post, I identified the reviewed episode as "J.T.'s World."  While the episode "J.T.'s World" introduces the audience to J.T.'s cable access show, it is the episode "No Business Like Show Business" that carefully traces the plot of the feature film Wayne's World.  To the numerous readers who showed me the error of my ways, I thank you.  

More importantly, upon a subsequent viewing of "No Business Like Show Business," this reviewer could not help but think of Brad Pitt.  Why you ask?  The thought stems from the fact that Step by Step's pervasive derivative nature extends even to the production itself, most notably the casting department.  Inexplicably, Step by Step repeatedly used the same actors to portray completely different characters.  For example, in the above scene, producer Phil Jones is played by actor David Graf.  Two seasons later, Mr. Graf played the character Mitch Crawford in the episode "The Flight Before Christmas."  Two seasons after that, Mr. Graf played Dave Roberts in the episode "Just Say Maybe."  Notably, in the latter episode Dave Roberts is a police officer who is nearly cuckolded by the inexplicably heterosexual Jean-Luc.  The late Mr. Graf clearly had a talent for playing buffoons.

Mr. Graf is far from the only example of this bizarre practice.  Mary-Pat Green played Cody's Russian mail order bride in "Don't Ask" and then played a mother at basketball game who fights with a cross dressing Carol in the episode "Walk Like a Man."  Melanie Wilson plays Aggie, the woman whom Frank hires to work on his construction crew, in "One of the Guys."  She then plays two more roles in the series including the prospective buyer of the Lambert home, Cathie Adler, in the series finale.

Which leads us to Growing Pains, the sitcom that provides perhaps the most stunning example of an actor playing multiple roles in one series - Brad Pitt.  Mr. Pitt portrayed Jeff in the episode "Who's Zoomin' Who?" in 1987.  In "WZW?" Jeff is the new kid in school who scams Carol into dumping her beloved Bobby in favor of his mysterious charms.  Two years later, Mr. Pitt played a very different role in the episode "Feet Of Clay."  In that episode, Mr. Pitt played Jonathan Keith, a cool rock singer who seemingly befriends Ben.  But when Ben catches Jonathan cheating on his wife backstage, Jonathan shows his true nature and lashes out at a hurt Ben.

The strangest aspect of this casting is that it resulted in Growing Pains launching the career of both Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt.  

Finally, numerous readers questioned the accuracy of the previous post's representations.  Several followers of this blog insisted that Step by Step could not have borrowed from Wayne's World as liberally as your faithful reviewer stated.  To those readers, I provide this exhibit.  Skip ahead to the 3:30 mark for the truly damning footage.

"J.T.'s World:" An Examination of Step by Step's Ambiguous Philosophical Perspective

"Andy Warhol is the only genius I've ever known with an IQ of 60." - Gore Vidal

"Dada began not as an art form but as a disgust." - Tristan Tzara

If there is such thing as a percipient television theme song, it is the theme to Step by Step.  In the song, the singer astutely asks "Will there ever be a second time around?"  The significance of this line derives from the fact that every aspect of Step by Step is recycled from other television programs.  While sitcoms are often criticized as formulaic, Step by Step stands apart due to the sheer pervasiveness of its unoriginality.  Indeed Step by Step is essentially a collage of television history.  The premise of the show borrows liberally - some would say copies - from television icon the Brady Bunch.  The show's stars Patrick Duffy and Suzanne Somers attained stardom on Dallas and Three's Company.  Even supporting actors and characters borrow from other media.  Stacey Keenan played a similarly wise cracking daughter on the show My Two Dads.  The character Cody is constructed from Keanu Reeves' Ted "Theodore" Logan in the Bill and Ted films.  Notably, Cody is the nephew of Patrick Duffy's character, Frank Lambert.  This is significant because Sasha Mitchell, the actor who plays Cody, previously portrayed Bobby Ewing's nephew on Dallas.  Absolutely everything about Step by Step is derivative.

It is this derivative nature that makes Step by Step perhaps the most challenging of the sitcoms addressed in this blog.  The challenge stems from the fact that it is impossible to discern the philosophical nature of Step by Step's derivative approach.  For instance, one could interpret Step by Step by concluding that the show is taking a Pop Art sensibility to the sitcom.  Like Warhol, Step by Step's writers simply view the pop culture landscape and liberally incorporate elements into a new whole.  Seen through this Pop Art lens, Step by Step brilliantly acknowledges what is obvious to any viewer - no sitcom is remotely original.  Instead of avoiding this truth, Step by Step embraces it.

It is also possible to view Step by Step as portentously cycnical - a ridiculous farce that levies a harsh criticism on the sitcom form itself.  Like the dadaist movement, perhaps Step by Step's derivative nature arises not from an appreciation of the sitcom, but a disgust.  Clearly, Step by Step's imitative nature makes it a fascinating, though troubling, study.

Nowhere is Step by Step’s dedication to unoriginality more prominently displayed than in "J.T.’s World," the fourth episode of the second season.  Originally airing on October 9, 1992, in "J.T.'s World," J.T. has a cable access show where he and his sidekick Cody discuss attractive females from their living room couch.  At the beginning of the episode, J.T. is excitedly preparing for the arrival of a big time producer who may want to syndicate their cable access show.  As a side note, one of the more intriguing aspects of this scene is that J.T. declares that the producer is looking for the "next Wayne and Garth."  This statement is interesting in that J.T does not reference the movie "Wayne's World."  Instead, J.T. speaks of the characters Wayne and Garth as if they are actual people within his reality.  The statement creates the possiblity that Step by Step  exists completely within the continuity established in Wayne's World and that J.T. is attempting to emulate the success of two indivduals within that reality.

But I digress.  After the producer's visit, J.T. begins making plans for his new found fame and fortune.  Frank even makes a deal with him that if the producer calls back, J.T. does not have to do his paper for school.  As luck would have it, the producer calls and J.T.'s World will seemingly hit the big time.  As they begin preparations for the show, J.T. and Cody arrive on a set that is an exact replica of the Lambert living room.  Throngs of adoring women crowd the set hoping to get a glimpse of J.T., the new star, even seeking to have J.T. autograph their undergarments.  On the second day of shooting, however, the producer tells J.T. and Cody that they are fired and will be replaced by actors who will portray them on the show.  Apparently, J.T. signed away all of the intellectual property rights to the concept, characters, and set of the show, retaining nothing for himself.  Embarrassed, he learns a valuable lesson about not counting your chickens before they hatch and has to do his homework again. 

As should be evident, except for the ending, this is the exact plot of the movie Wayne's World, a film that premiered just eight months prior to the air date of the episode.  It is impossible to accept that Step by Step's writers were simply lazy and decided to steal the premise from a highly successful and recently released film.  Instead, the show must have had a deeper significance for appropriating pop culture elements in such an obvious manner.  This reviewer finds it highly vexing that he cannot discern the philosophical purpose the writers intended.

In the end, however, Step by Step's philosophical perspective may not matter.  Whether the show is the height of Pop Art or cynically dadaist, it is unquestionably brilliant.  As Gore Vidal suggested, the difference may not lie in the show's genius, but merely in its measurable IQ.