The big day is almost here. The wedding of Al and Ilene, and to mark the occasion, Tim talks about a "man's wedding" on Tool Time. In fact, he's got it all figured out. A man's wedding would cost roughly $137.50. Impossible, you say? Well, hear the man out. In lieu of fancy invitations, just make a 2-second cell phone call. He's even erected a man's wedding cake, with rock'em sock'em bride and groom on top. At home, Tim prepares a ginormous wedding gift for Al that he plans to bring to the bachelor party that night, when Jill comes in and scolds him for what he said on Tool Time. She fears that he be putting Al off of marriage, "stereotyping" women the way he did. Anyway, on to Al's bachelor party. All his friends were there, and he didn't get one raunchy joke that was told, plus he drank a little under his weight in diet ginger ales. However, he decides to throw caution to the wind and orders a jack and a beer back. That's when his friends bring up the subject of marriage, and none of them have anything good to say about it. We know Harry, Marty and Tim are married, Wilson is a widow, and I guess Benny was married at some point or maybe he got jilted, who knows. This kind of talk starts to make Al doubt himself and whether or not Ilene is really the right one for him. He confides in Tim about possibly not even going through with the wedding.
When Jill finds out, she's quick to blame Tim, but it had nothing to do with what he said. It was probably just cold feet. So Jill relays to Al her experience on her own wedding day, and how she had to be carried to the church kicking and screaming. A little detail of the day Tim didn't know about, so now the two of them start bickering. However, it's not cold feet. Al tells them the real reason he's doubting marrying Ilene: she's too darn nice. He wants an overbearing, nagging shrew of a woman...unfortunately for him, Jill is taken. Regardless, they both send him home to sleep on it. Hopefully Al will make the right decision, as this is a huge step for him. A major life changing event, and he only has 24 hours to think it over. Next day, the wedding. Jill's all dressed up in a pink Victorian era gown and Tim wears a rented blue leisure tuxedo. Al has decided to take the plunge and make the commitment, however the feeling may not be mutual for the bride. She's not sure if she's doing the right thing either. It turns out she doesn't seem to feel the same way about Al as she used to. So, before the photographer can get a big group picture, bride and groom included...even though I thought it was bad luck for them to see each other before the wedding...and that's when Al and Ilene come clean about their feelings, and they head into the bride room to talk further. Tim and Jill wait with anticipation, wondering if the wedding was still on. Finally, the two come out, appearing to be happy. That's because, the wedding's off. The two of them have decided to be friends instead. Al's mother didn't take the news too lightly and fainted, nearly causing the building to collapse.
This episode was underwhelming, to say the least. It was all just so standard, nothing about it stood out. At least it had a twist ending where Al and Ilene didn't get married, and I have to admit, that made me sad the first time I saw this episode. I thought the two of them should have gotten together, but now we'll have to wait until the series finale for Al to finally get married, and this time, it seems as if he's really found his soul mate. Other than that, this is just your basic sitcom wedding fare, but at least the characters getting married were established so we would care about them not tying the knot. I'm reminded of an early episode of Sanford and Son, the third episode in fact, where Lamont is marrying some girl who ends up saying no to him at the altar. That to me seemed very ill-timed, we didn't know the girl at all and we've just barely gotten to know Lamont. At least with Al and Ilene we've spent a few years getting to know. While "Something Old, Something Blue" is a bit downbeat and not very memorable, it's still decent enough. Check it out to see how one particular chapter of Al's life has ended. I also believe this is the last time we see Ilene, the next we hear of her is in Season 7 when she meets another guy, but that's another story.
When Jill finds out, she's quick to blame Tim, but it had nothing to do with what he said. It was probably just cold feet. So Jill relays to Al her experience on her own wedding day, and how she had to be carried to the church kicking and screaming. A little detail of the day Tim didn't know about, so now the two of them start bickering. However, it's not cold feet. Al tells them the real reason he's doubting marrying Ilene: she's too darn nice. He wants an overbearing, nagging shrew of a woman...unfortunately for him, Jill is taken. Regardless, they both send him home to sleep on it. Hopefully Al will make the right decision, as this is a huge step for him. A major life changing event, and he only has 24 hours to think it over. Next day, the wedding. Jill's all dressed up in a pink Victorian era gown and Tim wears a rented blue leisure tuxedo. Al has decided to take the plunge and make the commitment, however the feeling may not be mutual for the bride. She's not sure if she's doing the right thing either. It turns out she doesn't seem to feel the same way about Al as she used to. So, before the photographer can get a big group picture, bride and groom included...even though I thought it was bad luck for them to see each other before the wedding...and that's when Al and Ilene come clean about their feelings, and they head into the bride room to talk further. Tim and Jill wait with anticipation, wondering if the wedding was still on. Finally, the two come out, appearing to be happy. That's because, the wedding's off. The two of them have decided to be friends instead. Al's mother didn't take the news too lightly and fainted, nearly causing the building to collapse.
This episode was underwhelming, to say the least. It was all just so standard, nothing about it stood out. At least it had a twist ending where Al and Ilene didn't get married, and I have to admit, that made me sad the first time I saw this episode. I thought the two of them should have gotten together, but now we'll have to wait until the series finale for Al to finally get married, and this time, it seems as if he's really found his soul mate. Other than that, this is just your basic sitcom wedding fare, but at least the characters getting married were established so we would care about them not tying the knot. I'm reminded of an early episode of Sanford and Son, the third episode in fact, where Lamont is marrying some girl who ends up saying no to him at the altar. That to me seemed very ill-timed, we didn't know the girl at all and we've just barely gotten to know Lamont. At least with Al and Ilene we've spent a few years getting to know. While "Something Old, Something Blue" is a bit downbeat and not very memorable, it's still decent enough. Check it out to see how one particular chapter of Al's life has ended. I also believe this is the last time we see Ilene, the next we hear of her is in Season 7 when she meets another guy, but that's another story.
