Playing with Matches

Song Mariah Sang: Mariah Carey sang "Lead the Way". Click Here to purchase the CD.

Songs Nell Sang: Nell Carter sang "Match Maker" & "You Make Me Feel like Dancing". Nell can be heard on the CD Mathis on Broadway.

Guest Stars:
Mariah Carey as Miss Cushnip
Jami Gertz as Kimmy Bishop
Jacqueline Bisset as Frances Shaw
John Michael Higgins as Milter
Albert Hall as Judge Seymore Walsh
Jeremy Garrett as Timothy Boyle
Nell Carter as Harriet Pumple
Sy Smith as a singer
Vatrena King as a singer
Renee Goldsberry as a singer
Joe Colligan as Atty. Spencer
Bret Loer as Boy
Sean G. Griffin as Writer

Synopsis:

Jenny’s mom Frances returned to marry her child-groom, apparently amnesiac about being Jacqueline Bisset who could so obviously do better. So the unworthy one was totally giving Ally a look which led to her telling every breathing soul at the firm until finally Glenn spit it out that fiance boy was a scoundrel. Silly them, it’s an open relationship leaving everyone to sigh a collective ick.

Strangely Frances’ only issue was that lowly Ally might be Tim’s fling. That’s strangely because later Ally was one of her bridesmaids (huh?). Maybe Frances was getting revenge by having her wear that shapeless Barney dress, yeah, I’ll go with that explanation.

There’s no solid poll type question here so... how about Ally’s coats this season? They’re enough to have Carrie wishing Sex and The City filmed in winter.

On to anticipating a certain glittery type co-star. I sat there watching Kimmy tell John the devastating headline that she was deemed unmatchable by a matchmaker. I watched John and Coretta grill an unusually serene Miss Pumpel (Nell Carter used to topple The Practice’s yell-o-meter in the eighties). And then I watched her, but I couldn’t blink or else. Feathery hair, low-cut top, that kind of girl who can’t get a date (pardon?) complete with a portable spotlight on the witness stand. And then I watched and she was gone.

Sympathies if you watch FOX all week, but if you do you would have already viewed Mariah’s scene in almost its entirety in the ads. Shouldn’t they have been honest and called this a cameo? Maybe Larry can appear as an 8 by 10 photo.

Coretta ended up giving Kimmy some sort of makeover that made her look like an extra from a Winger music video, which is exactly what the matchmaker men go for so she was reinstated as prime dating material. Poor Kimmy.

Coretta is a blank slate, shouldn’t Jami Gertz’s brimming with personality performance have garnered the long-term role instead?

Best of the night: Vintage, alone romantic Ally, I always knew there was a reason the show was named after her. She had visions of a seven-year-old boy with skates who told her that she was killing him. Richard figured that the boy was Ally’s love for love like the way she used to long to be in a skating couple. So Ally (or someone a touch heavier) did an ice dancing routine as Mariah sang a little.

Wouldn’t you like to see them break free of offices more often like they did with the rink?

Boy, Ally has such timing becoming all open to sparks again right before she meets some guy whose hair just gets better the longer you know him.