MovieChat Forums > One Day at a Time (1975) Discussion > Mark and Barbara would have made excelle...

Mark and Barbara would have made excellent parents.

posted 8 years ago by prolia705
1 reply | jump to latest

I know the show went with a realistic conclusion with the adoption of Jesse being called off but really wouldn't the audience have preferred a happier ending for those two than she and her brother in law in the travel agency developing inappropriate feelings for one another and him basically his stabbing his loyal brother in law in the back by kissing her and curling her toes?

I know that episode was good and soapy and I enjoy a good soap opera but I would have preferred the conclusion of the series to be with that boring but goodhearted couple to have a real happy ending instead of ending on such a weird, scandalous note. If they were going to conclude the show anyway why not just give them the child they so wanted who needed a good home? I guess it was because they wanted to showcase the dramatic acting of the two leads when it all unraveled. They both deserved Emmy's for that last scene which was heartbreaking.

Well, what do you all think? Would you have preferred the Royers to get their happy ending with a child to love and care for or do you think it ended the way it should have ended? Them being childless and her caught in a nearly incestuous love triangle.

😉

ETA...This has nothing to do with the INCREDIBLY talented Michael Lembeck or the charming character of Max who I love to pieces. I think he did the right thing by letting Barb and Mark have the tickets to Mexico and I know he was very lonely from that ungrateful shrew of a wife leaving him and his baby. I just thought it strange that they would have such a scandalous episode like this and not make it a 2 parter with the fallout of Mark finding out and figuring a way to forgive his brother in law. That would have been far more interesting to me.

[–] caligirlbr323 8 years ago

What is really a shame is that they didn't have a made for TV movie two or three years after the show ended? At that point maybe Barb and Mark could have adopted. Or Barbara was very content with being a wonderful Auntie,and basically being little Annie's Mama! Grandma was wonderful,but she was older,she was Grandma. Annie really down the line needed a younger woman,close to her biological Mother, Julie's age to really raise her! And if Max remarried, sure the woman would be her Step Mom, but she knew Barbara first,they were blood relatives,Auntie and niece! A very strong bond,probably closer than a Step Mom would be!

And Max, it left off at the end of "Nearness of you" that he was all set to call that girl for a date that Grandma had introduced him too! He was ready to move on and jump back into the romance,dating pool! He realized what he felt for Barbara was wrong, and that he was just very lonely. She was the closest woman to him,and she was sweet to him and a very attractive girl! Can't blame the poor, lonely guy!

And it was only one kiss,standing up in the living room.It was a week moment! Look at it this way! A lot of men wouldn't have been as respectful as Max was ! He and Barbara had that chance to go to Mexico together. He could have been a slimy, perv and really a back stabber and TOOK the trip with her, in the intent to ply her with Margarita's and seduce her! He didn't, he TOLD Her up front he couldn't go with her! And all that really happened was the one kiss!

But her saying it "curled her toes" made it soapy and romantic!!! That is EXACTLY why there really should have been a follow up to all this! A made for TV movie! Did Mark and Barbara stay together? Hey it could have even been square ,straight laced Mark that ended up straying? He could have been the one to end the relationship? Therefore maybe Max and Barbara reconnect and there is still that spark "toe curling" and found they really were meant for each other. Or not ,maybe Barb and Mark grew old and grey together, adopted or maybe she was the one in a million AND did end up pregnant and had a baby? Maybe Julie ended up getting some counceling and on the right medication and came back to Max and Annie? Or not,maybe Max met another woman ,his "Miss Right" (ME!!! I volunteer to be the next Mrs. Horvath) LOL!

Lots of possibilities? There really needed to be a follow up ODAAT TV movie a couple or few years after the show ended! But there wasn't and here we sit over 30 years later and speculate? But it IS so fun!!!!