The Big Picture

Production #177-419
Tape Date: January 23, 2004
Original Airdate: April 16, 2004 

Starring
Amanda Bynes (Holly Tyler)
Jennie Garth (Valerie Tyler)
Wesley Jonathan (Gary Thorpe)
Leslie Grossman (Lauren)
Michael McMillian (Henry)
Allison Munn (Tina)

Guest Starring
Ed Kerr (Rick)

Co-Starring
Lisa Arning (Julie)
Danneel Harris (Kate)

Written by
Kirker Butler

Directed by
Steve Zuckerman

EPISODE SYNOPSIS/REVIEW 

     The Yankees and the Red Sox be damned. The real matchups tonight were Holly and Henry, and Val and Rick. Relationships old and new take center stage on "What I Like About You" as we begin tying up the loose ends on the second season of the series, and the theme running through both halves of this episode, "The Big Picture", is sacrificing personal happiness for that of others. 

     Holly (sporting straight hair for the first time since "No More Mr. Nice Guy") has completed work on a school paper which may win her an internship in Paris, so she calls on her just-a-friend Henry (who has just won a $10000 grant from an Internet entrepreneur as one of the city's outstanding scholars) to read it to her and critique it. But Henry overstates how wonderful the paper is before picking it apart. She agrees to rewrite it, with Henry helping over the phone, but as she goes to print it, she accidentally deletes it from her computer. Henry then gives up an awards banquet (where he would meet that entrepreneur) to help Holly recreate the essay, or at least recover it from her computer. But Holly gets upset when Gary tells her that Henry gave up that awards dinner to help Holly. She heads for the diner where Henry's waiting for the gang, and they talk -- just before Kate, Henry's girlfriend, comes back one day early, sending Holly crashing to earth again..

     We also meet Rick's fiancee, Julie (guest star Lisa Arning), and share an eventful evening with them at the loft where Val and Lauren are hosting a dinner for them. During ice cream dessert, Rick mentions that one time Val accidentally got Magic Chocolate (actually Magic Shell. fine product of Hershey's) topping all over his Giant-Size X-Men comic book. Julie tells Rick she didn't know he collected comic books, and Rick corrects her -- "collects comic books." All of a sudden Julie is learning new things about Rick, brought about by his past with Val. He then tells Julie "Sometimes you get caught up in not listening to me." After we cut to Holly's room for awhile, Julie gets started to leave, and she's not happy having learned so much about Rick, such as the fact that he still has one baby tooth. But that's not the big bombshell -- Rick then thanks Val for leaving the cilantro out of the pasta dishes. "You don't like cilantro?" Julie thunders. Rick seems to be confiding in Val more than Julie, and Julie doesn't like it. But Val gets the sense that Rick seems to care more about Val's feelings than Julie's at this point, giving her hope (thanks to some well-placed Lauren encouragement) that there may be a door opening here. It sets up a meeting between Rick and Val, and Rick tells Val that he got an ultimatum from Julie never to see Val again. Rick thinks that Julie's full of hot air, but Val, sacrificing her own happiness for Rick's, goes along with Julie's wishes -- and they part, not without a hugely passionate "goodbye kiss we never had". The next step in this storyline will emerge in "The Anti-Prom" in two weeks.

     Kirker Butler does what Wil and Caryn usually do with their scripts, in his own winning style. While not totally giving away the fact that Holly wishes she and Henry had never broken it off, we still see that he does care for her as a friend, but seems to wash those thoughts away when his girlfriend Kate returns early from her visit. Butler also establishes the fact that Rick is confiding more in Val than he is with his intended, and not with important stuff -- but trivial things like comic books, Magic Shell, and cilantro. But still, for Julie, it's not comfortable knowledge that he'd probably win the grand prize on "The Newlywed Game" if he brought Val along instead of his wife. The series is starting to do well with their usage of "arc" guest stars like Ed Kerr as Rick, but one never knows how things evolve. If something happens during the season finale, we may see him fulltime on the show. And Henry will be around for awhile after he and Holly have re-established the amity and cameraderie -- if not the romance -- they opened the season with. We get some nice comedic punctuation from Leslie Grossman, who spits out ice cream when Val goes to get the Magic Shell, and brandishes binoculars to see Val and Rick talking on the terrace. Everyone else performs admirably.

     Next week we get some bad news about one of the relationships on the series, as it looks as though Lauren may not make it to the church on time -- at least with her boyfriend, Brad. Did we mention he's a doctor? As well as watching Holly "Rollin' In It" after receiving an 18th birthday windfall from the beloved Nana.   
     
SHOW NOTES    

One exchange cut from the first draft of the script was the exit of Julie and Rick, which saw Rick fumbling for his keys. Julie, offstage, yells, "Why don't you ask Val where they are?" Without thinking she says "They're in the bowl on the counter." Flustered, Rick grabs the keys and quickly leaves.  

NEXT LINE, PLEASE 

VALERIE: They say that moving is one of the most stressful times in your life second only to marrying someone. (after a pause) I meant, burying someone. There's nothing more stressful than covering up a murder more coffee?

From "What I Like About You" Fan Site at ABNOW! (http://www.amandabynesnow.com/wb/)