Episode One:"That's Life"(aired 1/17/81)
Story's "Two Kinds of People": "The Quick and the Dead -- and it cuts me to the QUICK as to why you're not DEAD!"
Note: Here's a pair of "what-ifs".... the part of Helen That (Roger's mom) was ALMOST played by Debbie Reynolds, and none other than Roy Rogers was going to play Roger's dad! Assorted contract issues ousted these stars, and Ted Knight and Nancy Kulp wound up with the roles in their stead. Of course, they did an adequate job - but wouldn't it have been interesting...?Episode Two:"Who's He That Wishes So?"(aired 2/1/81)
Story's "Two Kinds of People": "Married and Bachelors. And I didn't get my bachelor's until after I got married!"
Episode Three:"Leave That Alone"(aired 2/8/81)
- Roger's been put in an isolation tank for 24 hours. Meanwhile, the Air Force psychologist (Victor Buono) becomes convinced there's something "not right" about General Story.Episode Four:"That'll Teach You"(aired 2/15/81)
Episode Five:"That Goes Without Saying"(aired 2/22/81)
Episode Six:"How's That?"(aired 3/2/81)
- Bailing out of a disintegrating test plane, Roger parachutes deep into the Coshonee Indian Nation. Jenny and Hilo don't know if he's dead or alive...
Episode Eleven:"That was no Lady..."
Episode Thirteen:"That's My Dad"
Roger's folks come for a visit. Guess who may be moving to Keev?
Guests:
Watson That:Ted Knight
Helen That: Nancy Kulp
Note: Nancy Kulp and Ted Knight reprise their roles the first time since the pilot episode. Watch for a very young Chris Farley as one of Jenny's friends!
Episode Fourteen:"That's a Billion-Dollar Aircraft! "
Running a B-99 into a cliff, Roger brings down the wrath of the contractor.
Guests:
Nick Mitchell: Lee Van Cleef
This is the first appearance of Nick Mitchell(Van Cleef), one-half of Mitchell-Taft Aerospace. We never get to see Mr. Taft until episode 26, but we do get a good impression (or bad impression, depending on how you look at it) as to what Nick's business-mogul partner is like.
Episode Fifteen:"That's Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! "
Hilo's in jail? And only Jenny has the answer to getting him out?
Guests:
Judge Smoker:Murray Hamilton
Weird, slightly forced episode. For a story concentrating on Hilo, he doesn't have a lot of dialogue.
Brenda Sorne, who wrote this episode, said at ThatCon '95 that the original script had General Story under arrest. Unfortunately, Chuck Napier came down with pneumonia, and was out for ten shooting days. The script was quickly rewritten for Hilo, but some of the gags seem a little off-key.
Side note: Continuing the "death show" aspect of this series, this is the last network television appearance of Murray Hamilton.
Episode Twenty:"All That You Want"
Jenny succeeds in matchmaking! But is Melanie the "right" woman for Dad?
Guests:
Melanie: Meg Ryan
Note: This is the first of the three Melanie episodes. Little-known is that the writers wanted to immediately marry-off Roger, but Meg Ryan wouldn't sign up as a regular cast member! The auto parts store meeting is a true TV classic. Watching the chemistry between the two actors makes you wonder what the effect of having Melanie as part of the regular cast would have been like...
Episode Twenty-Four:"That's Right, Comrade!"
Chet: a Russian spy? Roger has 24 hours to solve the mystery...
Guests:
Chet: Ross Martin
How's this for overkill: Ross Martin actually knew Russian, and that big long speech he does in the supermarket is really Russian. According to Mark Cerulli's biography, "Wild, Wild Ross," the words Ross Martin said were a Russian translation of the Pledge of Allegiance! The guy that hands Chet the "computer tape" is Yuri Koskov, the series' stunt coordinator, who was from Moscow originally. If you watch carefully, you can see Yuri trying to stifle a laugh when Chet's speech begins. He didn't know what Ross was going to say.
Episode Twenty-Five:"That's a Relationship?"
The return of Melanie. Just where could this relationship go, with Mel bopping around the world, and Roger having to be somewhere else all the time?
Guests:
Melanie: Meg Ryan
Bet you didn't know Meg Ryan could play the clarinet. Actually, she could, so the writers worked it into the script. That really is her playing "Stormy Weather." Not so with Frewer: he couldn't play acoustic bass, so his music was dubbed.
This is a very musically-oriented episode, as it's also the episode where the show's theme song gets lyrics: "I Just Can't Let Go" - played over the beach scene. Strange how it took 25 episodes for this song to become a hit single (#3 on Billboard's pop charts).
Another distinction of this episode is that it is the only episode in the series that doesn't have Lara Flynn Boyle in it. Lara was asked at ThatCon'95 why she wasn't in this episode, and she said they were filming so many episodes at the same time, she didn't notice she was left out!
Episode Twenty-Six:"Isn't That...?"
Guests:
Horatio Taft:Orson Wells
Nick Mitchell: Lee Van Cleef
Mr. Welles' final television appearance is no disappointment: the mysterious Horatio Taft, the other half of Mitchell-Taft Aerospace, finally makes an on-screen appearance. Taft wants to hire Roger away from the Air Force. Will he take the early out?