Love is the Question

Synopsis

When Julie is assigned to help Troy with some extra music tutoring, Troy develops a crush on her and tells everyone they spent the night together.

Meanwhile a sleazy old friend of David's prints a revealing picture of David in a scandal tabloid, which Mrs Berg just happens to notice.

My Review

I do like this episode but Guest Star Syndrome raises its head again as Jimmy Osmond returns as Troy. At least there is a little continuity to a previous episode he was in and I notice both episodes are written by the same writer, Leah Marcus. However, this will be the last time we see or even hear about Troy so it’s a little hard to become too attached to him.

Story wise I think this episode works better than his first story as his character has already been established and we get more of a true insight into his world as he falls in love with Julie.

At least this means Lori gets a little more attention after being ignored for most of this season. It would have been nicer to explore the story from Julie’s point of view instead of from Troy’s as she finds herself becoming more and more trapped in a difficult situation and not knowing how to get out of it.

The B story of David’s room mate printing a picture of in a sleazy newspaper adds a few laughs, particularly with Mrs Berg but the story doesn't really go anywhere. Although I wouldn't mind seeing the photo!

"Love" is a great song, which unfortunately never made it on any of the Season 2 albums and it’s nice to hear Erica sing again as it feels like a long time since she had a chance to do that.

I'm not particularly keen on Doris and Bruno’s duet, "You're Just In Love" as it all sounds a bit silly and comes across as filler because the episode is running short. Interestingly it does appear that they are singing it live to camera rather than lip syncing to a recorded track, which they would normally do when they perform. I do however like Doris’ comments when Bruno is worried about Troy getting hurt by the so called relationship with Julie, where Doris says just like everyone else in the World. Highlighting that love can be wonderful and painful for all of us regardless of race, gender, sexuality, disability etc..

I do find it odd about keys to the school. Firstly I don’t buy that even Shorofsky would have a key to the school, so secondly it’s a bit hard to swallow that he’s allowed to give them out at random to his students. Why on earth would any of them need a key? I'm sure for health and safety reasons students wouldn't be allowed to wander into school when no one else is there as the school wouldn't want to be liable if anything happened to them or the school. After all students aren't allowed to wander around school during lesson time without a hall monitor wanting to see some kind of pass so it doesn't make sense that they’d be allowed to do it outside school hours.

At the start of the episode School is in session but there's no hall monitor in the main corridor, surely that would be the best place for them to be. Students who aren't in lessons probably would be entering and leaving through the main exit so it seems odd that the hall monitors aren't there. Also when Michelle takes Melanie out of the dance class, why do they walk out of the far door, opposite Sherwood's room and come round the corner into the main hall where Danny and Troy are? It would make more sense for them come straight out of the dance room by the door to the main hall. Melanie has injured herself so making her walk further makes no sense!

Episode Pictures

Jimmy Osmond as Troy Philips

Roberta Stuart as Mrs Phillips

Bronwyn Thomas as Michelle

Dana Kimmel as Melanie

David Ruprecht as Bernie

Walter Daly as Janitor

CREDITS

Production number 2750

Written by Leah Marcus

Directed by Robert Scheerer

Original U.S. air date 27th January 1983