Second Look: Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place Season 2, Episode 2 – “Two Guys, a Girl and a Vacation”

Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place Season 2, Episode 2 “Two Guys, a Girl and a Vacation”
Written by Rick Weiner
Directed by Michael Lembeck
Aired September 30, 1998 on ABC

At first glance, “Two Guys, a Girl and a Vacation” feels like a leftover episode from season one of Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place, with its simplistic, shenanigan-based plot and lack of the show’s new/maturing elements (there’s not a mention of Ashley or medical school, which means there’s a lot of Berg Bits in the span of 22 minutes). And sure, it might be arguable “Two Guys, a Girl and a Vacation” might’ve fit better if it took place before “Two Guys, a Girl and Someone Better” – but it’s undeniably an episode grounded in the spirit and ethos of season two, directly benefiting from the shifts in tone and narrative on full display in the season premiere, in turn making what’s otherwise a perfunctory episode into a subtle statement of the show’s evolved ethos.

“Two Guys, a Girl and a Vacation” opens with Sharon at a tipping point; she’s lost sight of who she’s wanted to be in life, and is trying to quit her job working for the most evil chemical company in the world. As a farewell, her and the boys are enjoying a dinner and drinks on the corporate credit card – until she mentions her boss giving her use of the company condo in Aruba, sending Berg and Pete into a frenzy convincing her to take them along. When Sharon agrees, it sends the trio off on a day of misadventure that gives each of them an opportunity to reflect on the fact that, whether they like it or not, they’re all starting to grow up a bit.

The episode presents these ideas through obstacles placed in front of each character, straightforwardly designed as three extended scenes comprising the majority of the episode’s running time. In each of these stories – where Pete, Berg, and Sharon all contend with professional challenges that put the Aruba trip in jeopardy – Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place examines where its central trio are in their lives, setting up some of the existential tensions inherent in the “mid-twenties figuring life out” genre of comedy the sitcom was markedly make a shift into.

The first of these is arguably the best; Pete agrees to go to a last-minute interview his father set up for him, the latest in a line of attempts for Pete to start an architectural career he’s still not one hundred percent committed to. His interview, which takes place in a bar with Frank Farber, a racist, misogynist old executive (played beautifully by the always-terrific, dearly departed Fred Willard), is a fantastic little contained sequence, mostly existing to let Willard shine in his guest role – and for Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place to indulge in some Berg-isms, as he dons a fake Scottish accent trying to speed up the proceedings by convincing Farber he’s his long-lost bastard son.

What is important about the scene, however, is how insistent Sharon and Berg are about not leaving Pete behind (“fun for all, and all for fun!” they shout before leaving the apartment); on their journey of slightly arrested development, the trio are both supports and hindrances for each other, something the series would spend some good time exploring during these next three seasons. In “Two Guys, a Girl and a Vacation”, it uses their insistence on staying together through each person’s proverbial roadblock delaying their unearned trip to Aruba; that reinforcement quietly speaks to the strengths and weaknesses of the core trio when they’re together, points of comfort and tension Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place would smartly poke and prod at various points (to various levels of effect) throughout the rest of the series.

Here, their shared goal keeps them motivated; first through Pete’s long-winded interview, but also with Sharon’s impromptu press conference, thrust upon her when the press discovers Immaculate Chemical has thrown 30 tons of waste into the Chesapeake Bay. We don’t get a ton of scenes with Sharon in her professional mode early in the series run (and not much later on, for different reasons we’ll visit when the time is right), and seeing her fully in her element, fielding softball questions from Berg and Pete ‘disguised’ as reporters, is a great reminder of how sharp Sharon is as a human being, and finally gives us a cogent example of what it looks and feels like when she has to bullshit her way out of something for the sake of her shitty employer, and how conflicted (and empowered) she feels when in the trenches of her work.

If there’s one disappointment to “Two Guys, a Girl and a Vacation”, it’s how it runs out of time to provide Berg with the same opportunity for growth on-screen. After the guys push the car to a gas station to fill it up (Sharon somehow let her own car run out of gas), Berg gets his first on-call page as a student doctor, and has to decide whether to take the call and let his friends head to Aruba without him, or blow it off and join them. Instead of letting us observe Berg as he exercises agency in that moment, “Two Guys, a Girl and a Vacation” quickly cuts to an Aruba-themed party the guys are holding outside of Beacon Street Pizza, the result of Berg making the choice to stay home. It’s an effective moment in capturing the themes of the episode in one judicial jump cut, but the lack of space between the introduction and resolution of its tension undercuts the intended weight of the choices made by each character a bit – it’s a little nit-picky, but is jarring enough when it skips from introduction immediately to resolution of Berg’s conflict that it feels like there’s just a little something missing.

However, a consistent thematic thoroughline and delivery of punchlines makes “Two Guys, a Girl and a Vacation” another strong episode to start the show’s second season, a fine test case of the show’s more refined creative approach, and the immediate benefits its characters, tone, and humor are already benefiting from. Though “Two Guys, a Girl, and a Vacation” takes a few (necessary) shortcuts to get to its muted conclusion, its consistent underlying pathos and quiet introduction of some of the show’s emerging overarching themes display its growing versatility and adaptability, an impressive foundation season two will continue to explore, as the series gets more and more comfortable with being uncomfortable in its own skin.

Grade: B+

Other thoughts/observations:

• Can Pete pull off ‘da bomb’? All signs point to ‘hell no”.
  
• Pete hitting the high notes while they sing “Kokomo” is always a highlight.
  
• “What if it was an emergency?” “They’d leave the Bat-signal.
  
• Berg: “Maturity is stalking us.”
  
• Whether camera movements in the pizza place, or how the press conference frames Sharon, Michael Lembeck’s direction in this episode is more dynamic and engaging than almost anything in season one.
  
• Sharon opens her press conference by describing the situation that led to “the shoreline ramming into one of [our] tankers.”
  
• Pete Dunville makes himself a fake reporter for Boy’s Life, a joke that is incredibly dumb and simple that I still find hilarious every time I watch it.
  
• Berg breaks the fourth wall for the first time over the opening credits, introducing ABC’s string quartet as the play the Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place theme, “followed by the fourth movement.
  
• Up next: Berg recognizes Pete’s girlfriend in “Two Guys, a Girl and a Tattoo”.