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 Griff, depicted as America's Hero after being selected to carry the Olympic torch. | ||||
| Season 10, Episode # 25 Number (#234) in series (259 episodes) | ||||
| Guest star(s) | Pat Morita Todd Parker Darrell Kunitomi Angela Spangler | |||
| Network: | FOX | |||
| Production code: | 10.25 | |||
| Writer(s) | Donelle Q. Buck | |||
| Director | Gerry Cohen | |||
| Taping date | ||||
| Original airdate | May 19, 1996 | |||
 IMDb
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Torch Song Duet | |||
| Episode chronology | ||||
| ← Previous | Next → | |||
| "Kiss of the Coffee Woman" | "The Joke's on Al" | |||
Torch Song Duet is the 25th episode of Season 10 of Married... with Children and the 234th overall series episode. Directed by Gerry Cohen and written by Donelle Q. Buck , it premiered on FOX-TV on May 19, 1996.
Plot Summary
Al and Griff are listening to the sports quiz show on the radio - the winner gets an all-expense paid trip to the Olympics as well as running one of the Chicago legs of the torch-carrying relay. Al has been banned from the station, so he feeds the answers to Griff who ends up winning the contest. Al begs and pleads to at least run the torch until Griff finally gives in. Moments later, a beautiful woman tells Griff how hot she think he would be running the torch and Griff goes back on the deal. On the day of the relay the media camp is set up in the shoe store, questioning Al on what it is like to work with Griff. Al can't take it anymore and tackles Griff as he runs by with the torch. They end up wrestling in the fountain and the torch flame goes out for the first time in Olympic history. The Atlanta games are postponed as they have to take the torch back to Greece to start the relay over.
Recurring Cast/Regulars
Guest Cast
- Richard Kline as Flint Guccione
- Renee Tenison (Playboy centerfold for November, 1989) as Marla
- Rosie Tenison (Renee's twin sister) as Carla
- Petra Verkaik (Playboy centerfold for December, 1989) as Model #1
- Victoria Fuller (Playboy centerfold for January, 1996) as Model #2
- Burke Roberts as Reporter #1
- Nikki Dunn as Reporter #2
- Alex Carl
- Larry Brown
- Bo Jackson as Calvin Farquhar (the radio show host)
- Roy Jones, Jr.
Trivia
- The title of this episode is a reference to Torch Song Trilogy, a collection of three plays written by actor and playwright Harvey Fierstein.
- During the credits, instead of a still frame of Al and Peg on the couch, a live scene with Calvin at the radio station introducing Larry Brown, Roy Jones Jr. and Marcy D'arcy as Bruce Jenner.
- Throughout the episode, Marcy is mistaken for Olympic athlete Bruce Jenner, who, almost 20 years after this episode aired, underwent surgery to become Caitlyn Jenner.
- Flint Guccione the publisher of Big 'uns, is played by Richard Kline, who is best known for his role as Larry Dallas, the sleazy friend of Jack Tripper, on the 1970s/1980s sitcom "Three's Company"
- The name Flint Guccione is a reference to Larry Flynt, the publisher of Hustler Magazine and Bob Guccione, the publisher of Penthouse Magazine.
- Griff mentions that he sounds Caucasian when excited ...like that guy from "Hangin' with Mr. Cooper", referring to actor, Mark Curry and his ABC sitcom
- The theme of this episode revolves around the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, GA.
- Renee Tension, who plays Marla, Griff's love interest in the episode (and one of the Big 'uns cover models), previous appeared on MWC with her twin sister Rosie in the season 6 episode Looking for a Desk in All the Wrong Places during Jefferson's fantasy.
- Bud tells Al "when people think of olympic shame, they'll think of Al Bundy first, and then Tonya Harding." referring to the figure skater who was involved with the attack on Nancy Kerrigan while trying out for 1994 Winter Olympics.
Goofs
- The reporter, looking off screen, reports that Al has tackled Griff and knocked the torch into a fountain. However, we hear the splash only after the reporter said it happened.
- The reporter stated that when the torch went out that it was the first time it had been extinguished in 3000 years. While the lighting of altar fires were a part of the ancient games, the first use of it in the modern Olympics was during the 1928 Games in Amsterdam.
- The reporter mentions that the torch must be re-lit in Athens and the Summer Olympic games have been cancelled indefinitely because of the torch being extinguished before the game. In reality, if the flame from the torch does go out, as it has several times before, it is simply re-lit with a back-up torch or various back up cauldrons across various locations, which wouldn't require the the torch to be sent back to Greece or the games to be cancelled indefinitely.