204 What Price Gloria?

What Price Gloria?


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alsplacebartender

Al's Place Bartender
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What Price Gloria?
October 16, 1961


Detroit, Michigan


Sam is a woman! And Al is in love. In this second season, we discover that Al sees Sam as the person he leaps into (which changes in later episodes) and Al has to see Dr. Beeks, the project shrink, to cope with seeing his best friend as a beautiful woman.

Sam and his best friend Gloria are secretaries. Sam is being stalked by every man in the office, especially his boss Buddy Wright, who is married but promising Gloria that he will divorce the wife and marry her. But it's not meant to be and unless Sam can intervene, Gloria will commit suicide.


Written by: Deborah Pratt
Directed by: Alan J. Levi


Rate and comment on this episode!
 
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I do love this episode, especially the end, and also Sam's reactions to all the "girl" stuff.

I have to say, though, Gloria's voice is annoying!!!!!! I can't watch it too often without wanting to say, "for god's sake, quit whining!!!!"
 
Great Comedy,Good episode,Disturbing and exaggrating Ending. And the ending is exactly what bothering me in all of Deborah Pratt scripts.She's an Excellent writer but It seems she has difficulties how to end what she's writing.
 
I'm really curious why you consider the ending "disturbing." I thought it was appropriate for Sam to give Buddy his comeuppance in the way he did.

Can you give me any other examples of what you consider to be Deborah's weak endings? I loved the endings to "Portrait for Troian" and "Another Mother," for example. And I don't consider the ending to this one to be weak at all.
 
I think if Sam would just go to buddy wright maybe handed him Samantha's resignation, and maybe say a few things about what he did to Gloria and then punch him could be enough.
But what did happend in the ending of this episode, in my opinion - was just pointless. And this pointless ending is what ruined the episode for me.
 
I agree with Cookiemon I think the ending was appropriate and funny. Cuz he needed to drive Buddy crazy(like loony bin crazy duh not the other kind) and freak him out. You know really make him pay for what he did to Gloria by taking away from him the other object of his harrassment. The only potential problem is that it could get the poeple questioning Samantha as well. So lets hope no one found out hehe.

The whole episode is very sweet and halarious. And I just love a good mixture of humor and romance/Sam sweetness. I thought Sam did an excellent job handling his first woman host.
 
isz said:
I think if Sam would just go to buddy wright maybe handed him Samantha's resignation, and maybe say a few things about what he did to Gloria and then punch him could be enough.
But what did happend in the ending of this episode, in my opinion - was just pointless. And this pointless ending is what ruined the episode for me.

I'm not thrilled with the ending either. The way Sam tried to convince Buddy that he was a man wasn't convincing to me. I wouldn't buy it if I saw some gorgeous babe proclaiming that she's a man. I think that trying to mess with someone's head is mean-spirited even if the other person is a jerk. I don't think this show is about being mean.

We've discussed Shock Theatre recently--I think that one falls apart at the end. And Revenge of the Evil Leaper was a real mess. Al just rattles off all this information, which Sam repeats, and everyone believes him even though they have no reason to.

But I don't think all of Deborah Pratt's stories have this problem, and some stories by other writers do have it. The ending of Lee Harvey Oswald was a real letdown, for example.
 
I agree with Revenge being a mess I love the Evil Leapers but Revenge took it too far I did not like Zoey as a leaper. But we are here to discuss Gloria and yeah perhaps Sam could have handled it a different way but I think his intention was to get Buddy off Samantha since she was the second object of his harrassing affections and Sam wanted to make sure she was not hurt as well. And that's not an easy task since as you said Snish shes this gorgous babe thats always sitting right outside his office. So I think the intention was to scare him off. And we all know that Sam is always mean-spirited when it comes to someone being mistreated.
****
On another note though possibly oneof my fav lines in the episode is
"What ever I did, I'm sorry."
When Sam is first called into Buddy's office and he starts putting the moves on "Samantha".
 
The ending of Lee Harvey Oswald was a real letdown, for example.
Gosh, I love that twist.

I like to think that after Sam leaped, Buddy Wright lived up to his sleaze ball status and spread the rumour that Samantha was a man in drag, and that the CEO guy we saw remembered Samantha's good sense in that meeting about the future of the company and sacked Buddy, who would be getting more and more unhinged, because everybody (rightfully so) disbelieved him. This works in my universe because Samantha goes on to be quite a success at the company.
 
Yeah I agree with Dana that's what I pictured as well, Buddy being thrown in a loony bin because he's trying to tell everyone that their favorite secretary is a man and no one believing him and of course Samantha will deny saying such as thing because she truthfully didn't it was Sam.
 
Has to be my favorite episode of the entire series run. The ending was just too hilarious and no matter how many times, I watch it I always end up ROTFLMAO.:lol
 
I'm not thrilled with the ending either. The way Sam tried to convince Buddy that he was a man wasn't convincing to me. I wouldn't buy it if I saw some gorgeous babe proclaiming that she's a man. I think that trying to mess with someone's head is mean-spirited even if the other person is a jerk. I don't think this show is about being mean.

We've discussed Shock Theatre recently--I think that one falls apart at the end. And Revenge of the Evil Leaper was a real mess. Al just rattles off all this information, which Sam repeats, and everyone believes him even though they have no reason to.

But I don't think all of Deborah Pratt's stories have this problem, and some stories by other writers do have it. The ending of Lee Harvey Oswald was a real letdown, for example.

Just quickly on the subject of "Revenge of the Evil Leaper", I think you're missing the subtlety of the ending... The fact is that after "Liz and Angel" were handed over to the state troopers, this changed history by ensured their safety, and would have given Liz the chance to say what had really happened on the night of Carole Benning's death. This is why Ziggy all of a sudden was able to spit out the information, because it had only just been made available.

Back on the subject of What Price Gloria, it's probably my all-time favourite QL episode, because of its humour, the way Al acts around Sam, the absurdity of Sam dressed like a woman and having to act like a woman, and I personally LOVE the ending, seeing Buddy get his come-uppance.
 
I love this episode...My favorite part was when Sam informed Buddy he was a man and then beat the crap out of him, but there are a lot of great scenes...Sam trying to deal with leaping into a woman...and Al was absolutely priceless. Dean was SO funny in this one. :lol :lol
 
This episode left me with some mixed feelings about it. The commentary on sexual harrasment and on how women must work harder than anyone else to make some sort of a difference and to break through all the barriers that are presented ahead of them in life actually worked for me. What didn't was the way most of the characters were developed.

It made me chuckle a lot, I think that the episode was probably intended to be a comedy-like play, but the characters were all a bit too one-sided to me. The antagonists were all perverts, jealous/bad (the girl with the glasses, for example) or unrespectful "macho" jerks, and the good guys were so naive and goody-two-shoes. One interesting and almost outstanding interaction was between Gloria and Buddy's wife. That was one of the few moments in this ep. that the dialogue seemed very real and life-like. Buddy Wright was a cartoon most of the time, in my opinion, except for the scene where he's having dinner with his wife. There he actually shows some kind of background and dimension. Gloria was so blind and even to some extent a bit abject.

Another thing I could never dig was the whole "oh, I'm having trouble and love dilemmas because I can see the leapee [a woman] and not my best friend." I don't think that was very well thought out, even if it was only for comedy purposes, and it never worked for me. I think this actually changed as the series progressed. It makes more sense if Al can see Sam as Sam and not the leapee in itself.

The ending was very hilarious... but also a bit embarrasing at times. All in all, an entertaining episode. An instant classic for being the first one ever to feature a woman as the leapee. Not Deborah's best, but definitely not her worst one, either.

Oh, and I really felt for Sam every time he had to put on those damned shoes, haha!

My rating: Average.
 
This episode left me with some mixed feelings about it. The commentary on sexual harrasment and on how women must work harder than anyone else to make some sort of a difference and to break through all the barriers that are presented ahead of them in life actually worked for me. What didn't was the way most of the characters were developed.

It made me chuckle a lot, I think that the episode was probably intended to be a comedy-like play, but the characters were all a bit too one-sided to me. The antagonists were all perverts, jealous/bad (the girl with the glasses, for example) or unrespectful "macho" jerks, and the good guys were so naive and goody-two-shoes. One interesting and almost outstanding interaction was between Gloria and Buddy's wife. That was one of the few moments in this ep. that the dialogue seemed very real and life-like. Buddy Wright was a cartoon most of the time, in my opinion, except for the scene where he's having dinner with his wife. There he actually shows some kind of background and dimension. Gloria was so blind and even to some extent a bit abject.

Another thing I could never dig was the whole "oh, I'm having trouble and love dilemmas because I can see the leapee [a woman] and not my best friend." I don't think that was very well thought out, even if it was only for comedy purposes, and it never worked for me. I think this actually changed as the series progressed. It makes more sense if Al can see Sam as Sam and not the leapee in itself.

The ending was very hilarious... but also a bit embarrasing at times. All in all, an entertaining episode. An instant classic for being the first one ever to feature a woman as the leapee. Not Deborah's best, but definitely not her worst one, either.

Oh, and I really felt for Sam every time he had to put on those damned shoes, haha!

My rating: Average.

If you felt for Sam having to wear high heels, wait til you see him in a bathing suit :p

Yes, in later episodes it's directly stated that Al sees Sam as Sam and not the leapee any more. It's believed that it's BECAUSE of this leap that Al and Gooshie tweaked the neuron-mason-link between Sam and Al so that Al would see Sam as Sam and never have this problem again.
 
If you felt for Sam having to wear high heels, wait til you see him in a bathing suit :p

Yes, in later episodes it's directly stated that Al sees Sam as Sam and not the leapee any more. It's believed that it's BECAUSE of this leap that Al and Gooshie tweaked the neuron-mason-link between Sam and Al so that Al would see Sam as Sam and never have this problem again.

Haha! Already did see him in a bathing suit. It was in "Miss Deep South". I'll get to that ep. pretty soon.

And yeah, it was better if Al only ever saw Sam. Al seeing the leapee was never going to catch on at all.
 
Haha! Already did see him in a bathing suit. It was in "Miss Deep South". I'll get to that ep. pretty soon.

And yeah, it was better if Al only ever saw Sam. Al seeing the leapee was never going to catch on at all.

An interesting piece of trivia about that bathing suit - they had to put a skirt on it to cover Scott Bakula's bulge :p hahaha
 
To begin I am going to revise some of my opinion on the revenge ending.
The hilarity of it was probably the main reason it was written (Personally I will never tire of Buddy shrieking like a girl when Sam begins to get the idea bothering him) but I must say I see how it was below Sam and unconvincing.

First of all he took a huge risk with Samantha's life by pulling that stunt, she could have easily been thrown in an institution just as Sam's mentally unstable version of her in Shock Theater suggested or even had just made a laughing stalk of her, throwing away all respect anyone had or would later have for her. It was a stroke of luck which still fated Samantha to be highly successful despite.

One thing that has come to bother me is how he gender stereotypes with the baseball for two reasons.
1.) Perhaps it wasn't as common in '61 but a woman can have a strong arm. Take the film inspired by a true story 'A League of Their Own' about the first woman's professional baseball league during world war II. One of the two lead characters had skill which probably could have rivaled a man's.
(This film also featured Renee Colemen who played the evil leaper, Alia).
2.) Sam is supposed to be above such suggestions as a woman not being able to be athletic and when it comes to his belief system he will never yield to his role.

In the sexual function areas "Samantha" could easily have been lying when he contradicted his knowledge coming from a brother, Buddy doesn't know her from Eve. He had nothing but her word in this whole event. Hypothetically had he known for a fact that she did not have a brother she could have had quite a few other sources such as a different male relative or an ex boyfriend.

Onto a new note, the whole issue with Al's and even the 1961 characters' attraction to Samantha doesn't completely work for me. The hilarity of it makes it enjoyable to watch but apologies, my best friend and I both do not find her very attractive. In fact in the scene where Sam is putting on the lipstick she has very manly arms as though they'd simply stuck her head onto Scott's reflection. Her prettiest shot was actually in Shock Theater.

I quite love the ending portrayal of Samantha as a strong independent woman though, using her character to support single mothers and the ability of a woman to be somebody without a man with her fate that though she never marries she adopts a child and conquers what at the time was considered a male career.

Yes, in later episodes it's directly stated that Al sees Sam as Sam and not the leapee any more. It's believed that it's BECAUSE of this leap that Al and Gooshie tweaked the neuron-mason-link between Sam and Al so that Al would see Sam as Sam and never have this problem again.

This was what I had assumed as well, and I could have sworn it was actually mentioned but must have been mistaken.
 
This was what I had assumed as well, and I could have sworn it was actually mentioned but must have been mistaken.

No, not specifically mentioned as having been tweaked, it's just obvious from the complete heel-face-turn.

On another note, how hilarious would it have been if Al had seen Sam as Darlene in Miss Deep South? :p
 
I have mixed emotions on this one. I like how it brings social justice issues to the forefront, like a woman having to work twice as hard as a man, just to be recognized as equal. I wasn't around in the 60s, but if what was written was true back then, that's horrifying what women went through (the sexual harassment) just to be employed. I found it hard to believe that Gloria would chase after a married man like that, though, especially since she wasn't sleeping with him for a position in the company. She truly believed he would leave his wife for her. It sounded to me that the wife was telling her that they have an open relationship, but their marriage is solid. Very progressive for the 60s.

I'm not so sure how I feel about Al seeing Sam as Samantha. I had always thought he could see Sam as Sam, but then this episode comes along to prove me wrong. I do have to admit I found Al's reaction to this quite comical, if not a bit over the top in places (wet lips?). Poor Sam was so embarrassed by all that.

I liked when Buddy got his due at the end. However, when Sam punches him out, they added the tweeting birds sound effect as he went down. That was a little too cheesy, in my opinion.

This episode gets a Good rating from me.
 
What Price Gloria is definitely a classic episode of the show. It's the first time Sam leaps into a woman and it's definitely a riot in some parts. The ending scene steals the show, of course. To see Buddy finally get his comeuppance is hilarious. Just the slow look of realisation on his face is priceless. I do sometimes wonder if Sam's actions had a negative lasting impact in regards to Samantha, though. Although I doubt many people would believe Buddy.

The scenes with Al throughout this episode are also humorous in nature. It is a little weird to me how hung up Al is about this leap, though. Samantha is gorgeous, but just knowing she isn't there and that it is Sam should have been enough to straighten out Al's line of thinking. I think him having such issues about it do come across as a forced attempt at comedy in some ways.

I did feel sorry for Gloria up to a point. I do think she needed to open her eyes, though. I felt like shaking her at times. I mean, Buddy didn't even seem to put on a good act most of the time. His whole image was that of a sleazeball! I'm glad Sam was able to help her realise that Buddy wasn't worth killing herself over.

My rating. Good. A great start to season 2 so far.