Episode
thirtysomething: First Day / Last Day
Overview
Flashback scenes of Michael and Elliot meeting, working together, and forming their own company are interspersed with the present-day dissolution of the Michael and Elliot Company. The two have serious disagreements which threaten their friendship.
Details
- Series
- thirtysomething
- Season
- Season 2
- Episode
- Episode 8
- Air date
- 1989-02-07
- Runtime
- 60 min
Episode context
First Day / Last Day is Episode 8 in Season 2 of thirtysomething. It aired on 1989-02-07. The runtime is 60 min.
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Episode 7: Success
Melissa gets a job working with Carly Simon. Michael and Elliot face losing their business.
Melissa is excited--Russell has shown some of her work around and he might be able to get her the job of shooting Carly Simon's next album cover! When he calls to confirm the good news, Ellyn is with her. Russell also tells her they're going to be a party for Carly and she can invite all the friends she wants. Melissa hides that last bit of information from Ellyn. Meanwhile Michael and Elliot are worried about their biggest account, Motherland Dairies, which has been sold and may drop them. The Michael & Elliot company plays Miles Drentell's DAA ad agency in basketball and loses. Mike relives the game in his imagination, making the winning layup. Later Michael and Elliot meet with the new owners of Motherland, who let them go. Mike is sure this is the end of their company, but Elliot still thinks there is hope.
Russell and Melissa are at the Steadman's house.
Episode 9: About Last Night
Gary and Susannah try to figure out what to do when they finds out that she's pregnant. Nancy misses a publishing deadline for her book.
More episodes from this season
Episode 6: Politics
CAPSULE: Michael takes on a client that he, his wife and his friends find repugnant. Gary and Susannah's odd relationship continues to grow.
At a diner with Hope, Gary, Elliot and Melissa, Michael returns a phone call to Jerry Kravitz, an old friend of his and Gary's from their college days at Penn. He wants the Michael & Elliot company to do some media work a Senate candidate he represents, Diana McKay. Mike has the first of several flashbacks seen throughout the show of himself, Gary and Jerry involved in demonstrations and campus politics. Gary goes to the Race St. Project and offers to help Susannah write up their grant application. A little attraction seems to be developing. Gary leans in as if to kiss her, but she pulls away.
Michael & Elliot take on the McKay account, but Gary, Susannah and Hope let them know they think McKay is a terrible choice. Hope is not too impressed with Jerry either after a night of reminiscing with him and Michael. Susannah apologizes to Gary for the ""w
Episode 10: Elliot's Dad
CAPSULE: Elliot gets involved with his wayward father. Ethan suffers an injury.
Elliot goes to see his divorced father Charlie who is in town. Charlie introduces him to a woman friend, Roberta Sessions, in a bit of an awkward meeting. When they go to Elliot's sister Ruthie's house for dinner, she gets irritated because her dad won't stop talking business with her husband. Ruthie takes Elliot aside and warns him to not give their dad money or get involved in his schemes. She reveals that Dad never paid for her college like he promised. Charlie tells Elliot he regrets some things in the past, but just looks to the future now.
Soon Charlie has Elliot involved in doing some presentation work for a business idea he has. Elliot has Ethan with him at Charlie's hotel room when Charlie shows up with a sitter and says he's taking Elliot out to dinner. Elliot goes reluctantly. While there, they run into Nancy out on a date with Matt Enwright. She and Elliot have a big fight about leaving Ethan w
Episode 5: No Promises
Ellyn tries to deal with the shock of her parents' divorce and her growing estrangement from Woodman.
Ellyn is shocked to receive a call from her father asking her to lunch. With Hope and Nancy, she wonders why he's doing this for the first time in nineteen years. At work she has a disagreement with Woodman during a meeting. Ellyn meets her father, James. His conversation with her makes it obvious that he doesn't really pay attention to what she says. As they are leaving, he drops a bombshell: he and her mother Marjorie are getting divorced, and Ellyn should talk to her.
At home, Woodman wonders what's upsetting Ellyn. She just wants to be alone and doesn't know how to act. Later when Ellyn meets with her mother, she wanders through her old house reminiscing about her emotionally distant father. Talking with Michael, Ellyn muses that she should have fallen for a guy like him.
Episode 11: Payment Due
CAPSULE: Ellyn's work and personal life take a great toll on her, both physically and emotionally.
Ellyn has been suffering from an unknown stomach ailment but she tells Woodman and Hope that's she's OK. But at a dinner at the Steadmans she shows a sharp burst of temper, then makes a drunken crack about Michael's business failing. Hope and Woodman both want to know what's been making Ellyn so crazy, but she doesn't give them any good answers. Ellyn goes to her doctor about the stomach trouble. He gives her a referral to a gastro-intestinal specialist; she throws it away.
Meanwhile at City Hall, assistant district attorney Dave Callaman, an acquaintance of both Ellyn and Woodman, has been around asking about an investigation he's working on. But he has a personal interest in Ellyn and he asks her out. Ellyn goes bowling with him and tells Woodman she was talking to him about the investigation. Later at work he spies Ellyn and Dave having what appears to be an intimate moment. When Ellyn
Episode 4: Trust Me
Melissa and Gary consider having a child together. Gary volunteers his time at a social services center, where he is irritated by and attracted to a brusque administrator.
Gary and Melissa's relationship seems to be drawing closer as they both have rejection at work in common, along with thoughts of parenthood for themselves now that Hope and Michael are expecting. Gary goes to a private social welfare agency, the Race Street Project, and meets with Susannah Hart there about a mentoring program for a local youth. Susannah is skeptical of Gary's commitment. Gary meets his charge, Curtis Caldwell, a Stanford-bound student who does not want to be in the program. At a wedding, Melissa meets Russell Weller, a painter who has noticed her at the galleries. He invites her to a party.
Melissa goes to the party with Russell. When his good mood turns bleak after a phone call, she realizes that he's gay and has just heard about a friend contracting AIDS.
Episode 12: Deliverance
CAPSULE: Ellyn, Nancy, Hope and Melissa go on a cathartic camping trip.
Melissa gets some camping equipment as a payoff for a photo shoot and the gang makes plans to take a camping trip to the Poconos. But Elliot gets a lead on some work, forcing Michael to have to tell Hope, who has been looking forward to the trip for months, that he can't go. Gary opts out of the trip, and Ellyn, despite her ulcer, decides to go. The four women set off in the car for the journey.
On the trail to Parker Cave, Ellyn is gung-ho and pushing the group until they get to the cave, then she's afraid to go in. Nancy and Hope remember the scary old tour guide at the cave from their youth. Ellyn says she'll hike around the mountain cave--seven miles!--rather than go through. Hope decides that she and the others shouldn't leave her. They hike until nightfall, then they make a camp. Nancy's ghost story makes Ellyn more nervous. In the tent that night, Hope inadvertently reveals to Nancy that Elliot had an affair
Episode 3: The Mike Van Dyke Show
As Christmas and Hanukkah near, Hope suffers a minor injury and an unknown illness. Michael has a crisis of faith and imagines his life as a 1960's TV sitcom.
Michael and Hope are negotiating over Christmas/Hanukkah celebrations. Mike starts watching TV and sees himself in an old black & white TV sitcom, with the Westons interrupting his plans to be with Hope. The next day at work, Elliot tells Mike he seems distracted. Michael gets a phone call--Hope has been in an accident with Janey. Rushing to the hospital, he finds Janey unhurt and Hope looking tired with some contusions on her face, but otherwise apparently OK.
Mike watches the TV show again, this time with Santa in it. He drives Melissa to the synagogue and she encourages him to come on Friday. Michael returns home with a tree and finds Hope getting ill in the bathroom. He tells her to go to the doctor about the dizzy spells she's been having. Another flash to the TV show: Hope is missing on a wintry night.
Episode 13: Michael Writes a Story
Michael takes a creative writing class, as does Nancy. Michael incurs Nancy's wrath when he writes about something he heard about her in confidence from Elliot. Also, Michael and Elliot get new jobs working for Miles Drentell at DAA.
Episode 2: In Re: the Marriage of Weston
Things get complicated between Elliot and Nancy as they moved toward finalizing their divorce. They both try to establish new relationships.
Scenes of Elliot and Nancy's courtship are intercut with the present-day divorce preparations. Elliot has to get cash advances on his salary from an unhappy Michael. Nancy, using the last name Krieger, calls editor Jack Bronstein about her book. He's enthusiastic but says he can't recommend it yet--the story's a ""little weak."" Meanwhile Elliot's lawyer Adrian tries to talk business with him at a restaurant, but he's more interested in coming on to her. She declines to go out with him.
Nancy is working at an office job, and a younger employee there, Terry O'Neil, seems to like her. Later when she and Jack are at her house working on the book, he kisses her. Nancy tells Melissa she's been carrying around her diaphragm! Later, Nancy has a physical encounter with Terry.
Episode 14: New Job
CAPSULE: Hope suffers a miscarriage just as Michael and Elliot begin work for Miles Drentell at DAA.
Elliot and Michael are in Miles Drentell's office interviewing for jobs at DAA. While they are there Michael gets a phone call from Hope at her obstetrician's office: the doctor has done an ultrasound and it shows a case of fetal demise. Hope acts stoic about it. Later Elliot calls with good news--they got the jobs, with offices and great pay. Mike tells him about the miscarriage.
Michael is reluctant to go in to DAA for his first day but Hope insists that he does. Mike and Elliot meet a fellow creative team, Angel Wasserman and Hollis Amato, who seem to be playing with the guys' heads a bit. In fact, they been assigned to the same account as Michael and Elliot, the Spingeri automobile. Michael returns home to Hope, who is glad to see him. The phone rings, and it's Elliot with some work, which secretly disappoints Hope.
Hope talks with Val about working for Synergy. Val encourages her t