| "Hat in the Ring" | |
| Season 1, Episode # 4 Number (#4) in series (6 episodes) | |
| Network: | CBS |
| TV series: | "The Bradys" |
| Guest star(s) | Caryn Richman Jerry Houser Ron Kuhlman Martha Quinn Ken Michelman Jaclyn Bernstein Michael Melby Jonathan Taylor Thomas Valerie Ick Herb Edelman |
| Production code: | 4 |
| Writer(s) | Sherwood Schwartz Lloyd J. Schwartz |
| Director | Nancy Malone |
| Original airdate | 23 February 1990 |
| Episode Guide | |
| IMDB | Hat in the Ring |
| Episode chronology | |
|---|---|
| « Previous "A Moving Experience" |
Next » "Bottoms Up" |
Hat in The Ring is the fourth episode of the short-lived show The Bradys. Written by Sherwood and Lloyd Schwartz, the episode premiered 23 February 1990 on CBS. Together with the preceding episode, "A Moving Experience", "Hat in the Ring" was repackaged as the two-hour movie The Bradys on the Move.
Summary[]
Mike and Carol, alongside Marcia and her family, who are temporarily living with them, have now moved into the reassembled Brady house on the new lot, as Carol is setting the house up.
Meanwhile, Mike is having a meeting with "The Committee of Concerned Citizens", who suggested him to run for the 4th district councilman in the previous episode, and Mike has now taken up the offer. However, they want to meet with Mike and his staff, problem being that Mike doesn't have a staff. However, Carol suggests to Mike that he could hire Peter as a staff member. Just then, Wally comes in, carrying his golf bag, having just lost another job when he failed to lose to his boss at a golf game, and later crashed into him with the golf cart, knocking him into the lake. Mike now hires Wally too as part of his staff, while telling him to "not to come near him with a golf cart".
Next, Mike and Carol meet with Peter and his new girlfriend, Teri (Charlie Spradling), who also happens to be the daughter of Mike's political rival, Gene Dickinson (Herb Edelman). While Carol and Teri are away from the table, Mike successfully enlists Peter as his campaign manager. As Peter now breaks the news to Teri, she suddenly pours a vase full of water on him and leaves.
As Mike is giving a speech to his family, Greg walks in with the news that the trauma center at his hospital will be closed, and Mike decides to handle this issue as a part of his campaign.
Next, Peter visits Bobby and Tracy at their new home, when Bobby said that he invited Peter over because he was upset about being left out from the meeting, and Peter confesses that they left him out because they didn't feel Bobby could handle the campaign in a wheelchair. Bobby is now outraged and points out that despite him being in a wheelchair, he could have too helped with the campaign, for he was a business major in college and has very good computer skills, and points out that even FDR managed to be president while in a wheelchair. Peter apologizes for leaving him out, and they make amends quickly.
Next, Carol, Marcia, Bobby, Alice and Nora are making phone calls to get voters, but after getting hanged up after first calls, they are about to give up, until Peter tells them to be persistent. Then, Peter and Bobby visit the office of Gene Dickinson, where they meet Teri again. Teri is still angry at Peter over the incident at the restaurant, and thinks Peter was using him just to learn about her father's plans for re-election, despite Peter continuing to assert that he didn't even know Mike was going to run against Gene. After she leaves, Peter and Bobby turn to Gene's campaign manager, Leo Barwell (Fred Holliday) to challenge Gene to a political debate against Mike, but he declines the offer, and points out to Bobby being in the wheelchair that Mike is using him to work for the sympathy vote.
Next, at Cindy's workplace at KBLA, Carol, Marcia, Jan, Nora and Tracy arrive to record a jingle for Mike's campaign, while Mike and Peter handle out political posters at police station, hospital and a construction site, while Marcia, Alice and the grandkids go around the neighborhood to collect old newspapers, bottles and cans for recycling, and handing out posters.
Then, Mike visits Glen Martinson, the chairman of "Save the Opera" committee, and offers him a suitcase full of money, to make sure he votes for the Cultural Legislation regarding the Opera. Mike leaves, and just then, Glen nods to someone outside the window.
As the family is preparing for the election a week away, a deliveryman arrives and gives Mike a manila envelope, inside which is a fake newspaper, with a picture of Mike holding the money in Glen Martinson's office, with headline "Political Candidate Takes a Bribe", and a note threatening that the article will be published unless Mike drops out of the race.
As the family discusses it, Mike decides to call Gene Dickinson, who seems to know nothing about the set-up, but promises Mike to find out about it. In the next scene, Gene calls Mike back, telling him that he found out his campaign manager, Leo, had done the Martinson set-up all on his own, and as a result, Gene fired him, and promises Mike that this paper and picture will never be published, and to make up for this, agrees to do the debate with Mike at Cindy's radio show.
Next, at Cindy's office, she, Mike and Gene do the debate as Carol, Peter, Alice and Teri look on.
The election day comes, as Mike, Carol, Peter, Marcia and the Logans prepare to leave for the election, where the gap between Mike and Gene is closing. Eventually, as the final votes come in, Mike wins by 13,119 to 12,871. However, as he has given his victory speech, he's interrupted by the curator of the Hall of Records telling him that after them moving the house eleven blocks from its original lot, they no longer live in the 4th, but in 5th district, thus making Gene Dickinson the winner. However, just as Dickinson is about to give his speech, the curator tells him that a ballot measure had just became effective today, according to which, "residency" means the place of residence in the last voting election, thus Mike had still won the election, and the Bradys join Mike on the stage as the audience applauds.