MovieChat Forums > Parker Lewis Can't Lose (1990) Discussion > Terrible 2nd Season

Terrible 2nd Season

posted 15 years ago by anspruchsvoiier
10 replies | jump to latest

Am I the only one who thinks that after the first season is a real big drop off in quality? I'm just watching the whole show after having seen it the last time 15 years ago. I really enjoyed the first season. It made me laugh, which is hard to do for a show directed at kids and teens. It made me think and I found it very clever and unusual to say the least.

Now, I'm three episodes into the second season and I have to say that the third ep is so far the worst in the whole show. The great music has been replaced by generic, dull tunes, which takes a lot of the feeling away that the first season had. Basically every character has become cliche and onedimensional. In this episode Parker and Mickey force Jery to give up his jacket for a week to help him deal with reality. This is very similar to the 1st season ep, where Jerry becomes a videogame addict and they help him out. The approaches in both episodes couldn't be more different. While in the 1st season version, Parker and Mickey were very sensitive towards their friends problems, they turned to selfrighteous idiots in the 2nd season ep. Even worse, the writing is so bad, that I could actually forsee what they would say: "How dare we [...]. Who do we think we are" - "His friends" Gimme a break...

Jerry himself acts nothing like the guy we know him as and utilizes a range of reactions from fear to rage, killing his witty reactions that we know from the first season.

Even the camera work is terrible. The scene, where they have to mow the lawn looks awful and doesn't fit the style of the series. At least the editing is still good.

Actually, the change of style was apparent right in the beginning of the very first episode of that season. The intro's theme was so shallow, predictive and full of cliches, that I immediately realized a change in direction into which the series was heading (compare that to the unforseen situations they used in the first season). It didn't surprise me to see two different writers being responsible for this season. I'm watching on and I really hope it's getting better, although I don't see how it could, or else they wouldn't have screwed up in the first place. Anyway, if it turns out to be sucky, I at least have the first season to enjoy.

I'm asking myself if the poor writing of that season would have even spawned another one if it hadn't been for all the great characters that they got to use. If the writers had to put together their own cast, I'm sure this would have failed instantly due to its massive shallowness. So how do you guys feel towards this season?

[–] sjbradford 14 years ago

I didn't like the new mom. The one from the first season was sort of goofy and spacey and fit right in with the spirit of the show. The new mom was just boring and unfunny. She was symbolic of the problems of the second season. And don't get me started on Annie. She sucked too.

[–] wbf200 14 years ago

The second season was very uneven, but most of the blame for that can be put on Fox. During the first season, they pretty much left Clyde Phillips and company to do the show they wanted, without interfering. But by the second season, Fox wanted to see the rating improve and they began to insist on changes they thought would make the show more popular. So they began to tone down the surrealistic stuff and added a regular girlfriend for Parker, among other changes. But there were still some very good episodes that season, mostly in the first part before Fox's interference became more obnoxious. Musso turning 40, the episode where Parker's audio diary is stolen by Frank, and the spoof of disaster movies are among the show's best. As it is, even with the changes, the second season is still superior to season three when Fox completely remade the show. Now that season was a genuine disaster.

[–] diskoboy 14 years ago

The show officially died when they introduced the Atlas Diner.

"You people voted for Hubert Humphrey! And you killed Jesus!" - Raoul Duke

[–] ItsEddieHaskellBeyotch 14 years ago

You guys must not have seen season three yet, when all the episodes were turned into half hour morality plays. Plus, everything that made the show unique was gone:

Parker's shirts
His Gumby-style haircut
Lemmer
Crazy-ass sound effects and camera angles
the music gets worse
"Dumb" Kubiac
Jerry's coat
Mikey actually being cool
Shelly being a real pain in the ass
That annoying fat coach guy is there

It goes on and on, however the one bright spot in season three is when they do an episode thats kind of a parody of the first two seasons.

"A commitment to cinema means to lead a technically deviant lifestyle."

[–] wbf200 14 years ago

Agree completely. They totally gutted the show for the 3rd season. Everything that made the show unique and won it a devoted audience was gone. I would add to your list:

No Dr.Pankow, one of the most insanely over-the-top characters on television.

No Parker Central.

Adding Brad Penny as the new resident bully. What a turnaround. Parker Lewis was the coolest kid in season 1 and 2 and now suddenly he was in complete terror of this unfunny punk. What were they thinking when they added this character? The episode where Parker's dad was trying to be more like Brad(!)had to be the absolute rock bottom for the show.

Also, Grace Musso was no longer out to get Parker and his friends (I won't even call them the "budz" any longer, because the focus of the show was now on Parker's relationship with Annie). In fact, Grace practically becomes their buddy this season!

I guess it was a good thing they changed the title of the show to just "Parker Lewis". At least fans were being warned that the show they loved was gone and all that was left was a pale imitation of every other teen show on television.

[–] ItsEddieHaskellBeyotch 14 years ago

Co-signed everything you said. The ones that really bugged me for sure were Annie and Brad. Mainly because the series itself was all about smashing certain standard sitcom stereotypes, and coupled with the changes, kinda just ruined the show altogether.

"A commitment to cinema means to lead a technically deviant lifestyle."

[–] burgershmurger 14 years ago

Season 2 was in the same vein as season 1. Don't confuse it with season 3, cos that's when the show's tone changed. I missed the whackiness of the previous seasons and wonder why they thought a chage was necessary. I liked the Coach, he was hilarious. But Musso was no longer a principal, Lemmer was gone and so was Nick. Shame. But I enjoyed the show neverteless. And there was one episode where they spoofed the previous seasons using the same outfits and goofy sound effects!

[–] ItsEddieHaskellBeyotch 14 years ago

The series was pressured by the network to be more or less a 90210 clone, just a half-hour sitcom version. Alot of the additions were due to executive meddling.

"A commitment to cinema means to lead a technically deviant lifestyle."

[–] burgershmurger 14 years ago

idiots....

[–] Deist 12 years ago

idiots....

That must be coach. :D