The Others
"$4.95 A Minute"

Airdate: May 6, 2000

Somewhere in Boston, a man finds his job really stressful then gets nailed by a car; a badly dressed gay couple mourns their dead dog, Spike; and elsewhere, Satori tries to communicate with her uncommunicative dad -- he has been dead for five years and has no interest keeping in spiritual touch with his daughter. What do any of these situations have in common? Apart from the dead part, that is. The answer is, a phone psychic fraud named Simian Nye who really just wants to be a clown.

When I put it like that, it sounds like a silly late night comedy sketch. But thankfully, there are no sudden appearances by say, Count Floyd from SCTV jumping out with a howling "Whooo-ooooo!" in his sorry attempt to scare us. No, "$4.95 a Minute" did not need Count Floyd for laughs, scares or even tears. It achieves these emotions all on its own and if I may say so, with glowing results.

First off, the featured cast -- both the regulars and the guest stars -- are simply brilliant. We are given some back story on Satori, and Melissa Crider turns out a fine performance, showing a whole new sensitivity and vulnerability to her psychic powers. This is a nice switch from her usual confident, if not bitchy character. And the brothers, Lanny and Leonard! Small roles, but played with much gusto by genius 20th Century Fox casting agent, Randy Stone and with much morose despondence by genius Emmy-winning writer, Darin Morgan, respectively. The man of the hour, however, is guest star James Morrison as Simian Nye/Troy Manheim. Never in my life would I dream of watching a man perform a mime act titled "Drunken Man Searching For His Penis" on television. Then, for him to have an emotional breakdown, with the line, "All I ever wanted to be was a clown" and take it seriously! A fine line between poignant and stupid could easily be drawn here. Hats off to director, Sanford Bookstaver for not pushing it too far.

This is not to say that "$4.95 A Minute" is performance only. The quirky script could certainly have come off like a bad SCTV sketch had it been cast with shitty actors, but then, so could any TV show or movie. You can sometimes equate laughter with fear. The former is often used to cover the other. But moving a story from extremely happy to extremely sad is a tougher one to accomplish well. This story wonderfully weaves back and forth... actually, it does a weird figure-eight kind of number, between funny to absurd to tragic to creepy, to heart-wrenching and back to creepy again. Admittedly, it does so with elements that aren't entirely unfamiliar. In fact, "$4.95 A Minute" is an ultimate hybrid of what I like to call quintessential Wong-TV. This recipe's main ingredient includes Glen Morgan and Jim Wong's adeptness at selecting bad Muzak and scary-ass clown figures. Then there is this character, Simian Nye/Troy Manheim, a tragi-comic cynic who is able to predict people's deaths. Sounds a bit reminiscent of Clyde Bruckman, the famous X-Files creation of Darin Morgan -- a master of comedies with tragic endings himself. Ultimately however, the episode was conceived and written by Richard Whitley, who is also veteran of Wong-TV. Whitley is able to create character studies that have you laughing in one scene then suddenly wanting to cry in the one immediately following.

Now, I hate to flog a dead horse, but remember that show Space: Above and Beyond? Well, it was cast by Stone, starred Morrison, and was run by Morgan and Wong. The last time I remember being moved to a bout of tears after busting a gut with laughter only seconds earlier was on this series, in an episode titled "Dear Earth"... written by Richard Whitley. Coincidence? I'm reminded of a line that Darin Morgan wrote so commendably in "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose":

"If coincidences are just coincidences, why do they seem so contrived?"

Indeed, "$4.95 A Minute" is contrived -- constructed, assembled, and actualized by a group of buddies, choosing to work together again on their own free will (okay, I'll guess that it took some finagling to will Darin Morgan to work). But that they made yet another successful hour of television is certainly no coincidence, and no surprise. Viva la Wong-TV!

-- Julie Ng

The Others airs at 9pm EST, Saturdays on NBC.

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