The WORST episodes of Life Goes On
Every episode of Life Goes On ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of Life Goes On!
Meet the Thatchers, Drew, Libby, Becca, and Corky. Corky suffers from Down Syndrome. The show dealt with many issues. Some of which included drinking, sex, and HIV in the third season when Becca started dating a man that was HIV positive. Drew also had a daughter from a previous marriage, whose name was Paige.
#1 - Last Wish
Season 4 - Episode 16 - Aired 3/7/1993
Becca and Jesse go to see the ocean, after Jesse says that i's something that he wants to do. Jesse is not exactly on top of the world, however, as he is jealous of Ray, who has been seeing Becca lately. During an arguement, they flash back a few Glen Brook weeks ( not from old episodes, but stuff that would have occurred during the course of other episodes). Ray bought them the plane tickets that they needed to get there. This episode shows the development of the relationship between Ray and Becca.
#2 - Thacher and Henderson
Season 1 - Episode 13 - Aired 1/21/1990
At the high school football reunion, Drew finally makes peace with his best friend after a falling out over a business deal that caused Drew to lose $10,000 after 10 years. Becca watches Paige who is with her vet boyfriend and then her ex (the motorcycle man) shows up and Paige has to choose between the 2 of them. Becca gets a crush on one of the football players sons until Tyler Benchfield shows up putting her in the same position as Paige.
#3 - La Dolce Becca
Season 2 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/11/1990
Becca gets a crush on a French student and Maxi with this French guy's friend. They have high hope of getting in with this ""mature"" crowd. She and Maxi go to a bar with these boys and Maxi gets drunk. Becca tells her mom the next morning to get some help for Maxi's hangover. Becca's mom ends up telling Maxi's mother what happened after giving her word to Becca that it was just between them. Becca and Maxi get into a fight and Maxi is in with the mature crowd. Becca ditches school and gets grounded but has to go out that night when she recieves a call from Maxi because one of these guys had left her stranded. She gets caught sneaking back in the house. Side plot: A lady is choking in the restaurant, Corky runs to get Drew who gives the lady the Heimlich maneuver and the two of them become heros. Later the lady sues Drew for $ 25,000 because supposedly he broke one of her ribs.
#4 - The Buddy
Season 2 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/9/1990
A fun-loving old buddy brightens up Drew's life, but the man has a shady side. Meanwhile, Becca and Zoe squabble over room sharing.
#5 - The Bigger Picture
Season 2 - Episode 14 - Aired 1/13/1991
Gina despairs when nothing she does is right in the eye of her mother, and Corky despairs when his special-ed substitute suddenly takes leave.
#6 - Invasion of the Thacher Snatchers
Season 3 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/17/1991
Corky imagines that his family is turning into Venusians after seeing a B-movie called ""Body Snatchers From Venus"". At this time, Paige is learning to be a welder (in Corky's nightmare, she builds a spaceship.)Paige and Becca have a falling out over a malfunctioning answering machine ( in his nightmare, this machine is a LONG- distance communicator).Drew is trying to go on a new diet-and-exercise regimen (when he says to a friend that some new exercise machine ""will make you a new man"", Corky freaks). Becca is appling for college ( the Illinois State University representative calls and says he wants to make Becca ""one of us"", which Corky overhears). After noting that Venusians don't like dairy products or other abnt-acidic material, Corky attacks the family with baking soda and milk.
#7 - The Fairy Tale
Season 3 - Episode 17 - Aired 3/1/1992
Libby writes a fairy tale about Corky, and Corky enters it in a contest. Libby then gets an offer to get it printed as a children's book, but in a rewritten form. Libby turns down the offer, staying true to the story which has so much to do with Corky. (Becca doesn't like this because she would have wanted the money for college.) At the beginning of each act in this episode there is fancy narration and illustration which fades into the scene in "" real life"". There was also a subplot with Paige, Michael and Kenny.
#8 - Babes in the Woods
Season 4 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/29/1992
Becca, Goodman, Ray Nelson Jr., Jesse and two other students from their English class go on a weekend camping trip, chaperones by Harris. Things get bad when Becca gets sprayed by a skunk, knocks over a kerosene lantern, starting a fire at the barn where they are staying, and worse when they find a note from Harris saying they must fend for themselves. And then it rains! Becca also learns that she tends to want to be in control to much: With Jesse and with Goodman ( she went behind her back to try and get Goodman into high school). Goodman does return to school at the end.
#9 - Udder Madness
Season 4 - Episode 8 - Aired 12/13/1992
Ray nominates Becca ( against her wishes) for Homecoming Queen; Goodman nominates a cow in protest of beauty pageants in general. The third contestant is a stuck-up cheerleader. Also, Artie (Paige's supervisor from the steelworks in season 3) and Paige redo the restaurant with a bovine motif. (They formed a partnership called Darlin' Construction, so called because Artie always calls Paige darlin'.)
#10 - Choices
Season 4 - Episode 10 - Aired 1/3/1993
Paige finds that she is carrying Michael's baby, and is at first delighted to know this. So's the whole family. But Michael comes back, and decides he does not want the baby. Paige is undecided on whether or not to abort, and Corky and Amanda want to adopt the baby. This all conviently ends with a miscarriage.
#11 - Incident on Main
Season 4 - Episode 11 - Aired 1/10/1993
Gay-bashing skinheads beat up Jesse outside the AIDS hospice. Becca gets his blood on her hands after the beating. She gets tested and comes up negative, but has to get tested again in six months. ( This loose end was left untied, but it is generally assumed that she stayed negative.) Jesse draws a sketch of one of the skinheads, which is displayed at Drew's restautrant. It is trashed by the skinheads after one of them sees it at the cashier. Jesse sees one of them in a lineup as well but cannot, perhaps out of fear, pick him out.
#12 - Lost Weekend
Season 4 - Episode 12 - Aired 1/24/1993
In her quest to get Becca out of her shell, Goodman takes her and Jesse on a double date. But Jesse and Becca get pissed off as Goodman and her date, Norman Bates, get kinky at the table. Jesse and Becca decide to test the limits of their passions and try to have ""safe sex"". But their sleepover at his apartment is more like a slumber party, as Jesse keeps balking at going farther. Becca tells Drew and Libby about that night, that she slept in Jesse's arms, and they get pissed off. Drew tells Jesse that he's concerned the starcrossed couple will go too far. Subplots: Paige, not realizing how much of a need she has for Artie, becomes jealous of an acquaintance of his; Gradma Teresa stays over a night at the Thatchers' due to her husband breaking the furnace, then goes back because someone's gotta keep Granpa Sal's feet warm.
#13 - Visions
Season 4 - Episode 13 - Aired 2/14/1993
Shortly after his 18th birthday, a feverish Jesse collapses in extreme pain at school and is rushed, unconcious, to the hospital. Jesse's AIDS Related Complex has progressed to AIDS. He has dreams which highlight the show: Ray french-kissing Becca at Jesse's funeral, and one where a healthy Jesse and Becca have a toast in an idyllic setting and have really nice clothes on-While Jesse is sick, Ray takes Becca out. Jesse is unable to speak about AIDS to a class, so Becca reads what he wrote for this speech, and it breaks her heart, and Goodman comes over to finish for her.
#14 - Five to Midnight
Season 4 - Episode 14 - Aired 2/21/1993
Jesse's insurance runs out, and he gets transferred to County Hospital (which is like being transferred to the Recieving Hospital in Detroit!)Becca goes with him. Jesse nearly dies of AIDS-related cardiac arrest, and doctors apply the ol' shock therapy at-you guessed it-five to midnight. Becca discovers a haunting self-portrait of Jesse's that he doesn't remember painting. Jesse has a dream where he and Becca plan on going to Paris, but the taxicab stops at the hospital with a tab of $11.55- another interpretation of 11:55.
#15 - Bedfellows
Season 4 - Episode 15 - Aired 2/28/1993
A fellow AIDS patient named Chester (Richard Frank) encourages Jesse to learn to live rather than give up and die. He holds game shows with the other patients, makes fun of the sugar-coated remarks doctors make every time a new patient comes in, and sings, too. Jesse objects to Becca's inclination not to go to Brown University, saying that he would be too much of a burden to her. Chester dies when he races Jesse on the hospital roof.
#16 - Happy Holidays
Season 4 - Episode 9 - Aired 12/20/1992
The holidays take on a whole new meaning for Corky, who's celebrating his first Christmas as a married man-and now how the wishes of a wife and in-laws to consider.
#17 - Brothers
Season 1 - Episode 15 - Aired 2/11/1990
The Special Olympics, a time for warmhearted competition and fun, also bring love to Corky and a challenge to Tyler, whose father won't permit Tyler's Down-syndrome brother to participate.
#18 - Paige's Mom
Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/5/1989
Paige's mom comes back. They have a great time, and make plans for a trip to New England. Paige's mom winds up living without Paige. A lot of flashbacks to when Paige's mom, an actress, originally left. Tearful ending with Paige calling Libby mom.
#19 - Honeymoon from Hell
Season 2 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/16/1990
The Thatchers win a problem-plagued church raffle trip to Hawaii.
#20 - Lighter Than Air
Season 2 - Episode 21 - Aired 4/28/1991
Libby cooks up a great ad for a line of diet frozen foods; Corky and Zoe paly Sherlock Holmes and snoop into Tyler's furtive behavior.
#21 - Life Goes On (and On and On)
Season 4 - Episode 17 - Aired 5/23/1993
The series finale, it leaps 4 years into the future to see Becca and Jesse marry, and 10 years when Becca, now about 27 ( and still played by Kellie Martin) tells her son a story about what happened after graduating from high school. Corky doesn't graduate, but says, ""I'll be back."" Ray was the valedictorian of Becca's class. Jesse leaves for Europe, breaking Becca's heart, but returns four years later. It is not determined whether Becca's son was fathered by Jesse or not, but Becca expresses a desire to have Jesse's baby, saying that new treatments could make it possible. The question of who fathered this child is hard to answer as Becca says the final words of the series: "" I love you, Jesse.""
#22 - The Baby-Sitter
Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/1/1989
Corky gets a babysitting job; his classmates barge in at the house where he is babysitting. The intrusive folks include Tyler, who regrets the whole thing, and ""Russo"", who is basically a jerk/nemesis.
#23 - Call of the Wild
Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/12/1989
Drew works on a construction project at an Indian burial ground. A wolf who mysteriously gaurds the grounds saves Corky from Dobermans pursuing him in a nearby wooded area.
#24 - The Bicycle Thief
Season 2 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/16/1990
Corky resolves to enter a 50k bike race despite his father's objections, and makes friends with another biker who is epileptic. He bought a brand-spanking new bike from a guy in the bike store who had a crush on Paige. The bike was stolen, and Zoe, seeing Corky's heartbreak, stole him an almost identical one. The truth wins out, though, and all gets cleared up in the end.
#25 - Head over Heels
Season 2 - Episode 16 - Aired 2/10/1991
Becca does a double flip over her gymnastics coach-as does Gina over a handyman (Michael St. Gerard) several years her junior.