The BEST episodes of Thirtysomething
Every episode of Thirtysomething ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Thirtysomething!
When thirtysomething debuted in 1987 it was attacked by some critics as being a self-indulgent examination of the minutiae of yuppie life. Before the first season was over, some of those same critics were covering their tracks by calling it "the most improved show on television." Producers Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz had teamed up before on Family and would go on to create My So-Called Life, Relativity and Once and Again. Often using feature-film techniques, their brand of what could be called "reality" television tackled not only the small subjects, but the big ones too, all the way from life to death, as they followed their characters on the road from the idealism of youth to the search for security and responsibility as they glided toward middle age.
#1 - California
Season 4 - Episode 23 - Aired 5/28/1991
Michael gets a job offer in California. While out there, he runs into Elliot and they talk about forming another partnership. But Hope is adamantly against the move, so much so that her and Michael's marriage is threatened.
#2 - The Mike Van Dyke Show
Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 12/20/1988
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.
#3 - I'll Be Home for Christmas
Season 1 - Episode 9 - Aired 12/15/1987
Michael and Hope argue about whether their infant's first holiday should be Christmas or Hanukkah. A famous photographer shows interest in Melissa's work.
#4 - But Not for Me
Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 11/3/1987
Gary and Melissa rekindle their affair; Michael and Hope's first date in months is a disaster.
#5 - Pilot
Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/29/1987
Hope and Michael Steadman are still adjusting to parenthood while struggling with money problems and best-friend crises. After some intercut scenes of a courtship, wedding and pregnancy, we see married couple Michael and Hope Steadman at breakfast with their 7-month-old daughter Janey and their dog Grendel. At work, Michael tells off an important client over the phone, to the dismay of his good friend and business partner Elliot Weston. Both men realize that their fledgling advertising agency could be in danger of folding. Hope goes to meet her old friend Ellyn at a restaurant, but the occasion is ruined when Janey won't stop crying. Michael comes home to find Gary, his old friend from college, there with Hope. Arriving on the scene next is Michael's cousin Melissa, who is distraught because of a philandering boyfriend. From the conversation, it's revealed that Gary and Melissa have had a past romantic relationship.
#6 - We Gather Together
Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired 11/17/1987
Hope and Michael plan a quiet Thanksgiving but learn friends are counting on being invited.
#7 - Therapy
Season 1 - Episode 11 - Aired 1/12/1988
Elliot and Nancy seek professional help for their troubled marriage; Michael finds it hard to keep it a secret.
#8 - Separation
Season 1 - Episode 13 - Aired 1/26/1988
Elliot temporarily moves in with Michael and Hope after separating from Nancy.
#9 - Housewarming
Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/13/1987
Michael and Hope race to renovate their crumbling mansion for a huge housewarming party.
#10 - The Parents Are Coming, the Parents Are Coming
Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/6/1987
Hope's anxiety over her parents' impending visit taxes everyone's patience. Hope gets devastating news: Her parents are coming to visit in two days! The Steadmans hope Gary can fix their out-of-order bathroom in that time. Hope grows more and more frantic as the arrival approaches, and the news that Gary won't have the bathroom fixed only adds to her anxiety. Michael and Hope go to pick up Ruth and Ted Murdoch at the airport. On the way home, a palpable tension already is noticeable between Hope and her mother. Despite the parents' protests, Hope and Michael insist they take their master bedroom with its own bath. At night, Michael needs his razor but is afraid to enter in on Ruth and Ted. When they do let him in, Michael perhaps is thinking he's taking a look at Hope and himself thirty years down the line. Hope goes shopping with her mother and buys a dress she really doesn't like, but was afraid to disagree about with her mother.
#11 - Couples
Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/27/1987
A night out with friends degenerates as Nancy and Elliot's marital woes become apparent.
#12 - Nice Work If You Can Get It
Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 12/1/1987
Before a deadline, Michael and Elliot wrestle with a creativity block; Ellyn develops a crush on an associate.
#13 - Elliot's Dad
Season 2 - Episode 10 - Aired 2/28/1989
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
#14 - Success
Season 2 - Episode 7 - Aired 1/31/1989
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.
#15 - Payment Due
Season 2 - Episode 11 - Aired 3/7/1989
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
#16 - First Day / Last Day
Season 2 - Episode 8 - Aired 2/7/1989
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.
#17 - No Promises
Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 1/10/1989
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.
#18 - Business as Usual
Season 1 - Episode 15 - Aired 2/9/1988
Michael's hopes for a joyous reunion with his father are destroyed when he discovers the real reason for the visit.
#19 - Accounts Receivable
Season 1 - Episode 16 - Aired 3/1/1988
A rocky relationship between Michael and his brother Brad is further strained when Michael learns the family business is almost bankrupt.
#20 - Deliverance
Season 2 - Episode 12 - Aired 3/21/1989
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
#21 - Michael Writes a Story
Season 2 - Episode 13 - Aired 4/4/1989
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.
#22 - Towers of Zenith Part 2: Samurai Adman
Season 3 - Episode 24 - Aired 5/22/1990
CAPSULE: Michael's career is on the line as the hostile takeover attempt of DAA heats up. As Minnesota Brands plots its hostile takeover of DAA, Miles wants to take Michael with him to see Carol Arthur, the widow of former company partner Duncan Arthur who owns 27 1/2% of the stock. But Carol comes by the company, rather than have Miles set foot in her house. Michael decides to bring Mark in on the takeover secret. They realize that their failure in this matter could cost them both their careers. Hope worries that Michael may be crossing some ethical lines and turning into Miles. Michael is in Miles' office doing a bit of snooping when Miles and his secretary come in. He makes an excuse and then listens in as Miles places a phone call to Gabe Rivera, setting up an emergency appointment. Michael sends Elliot to spy on the Drentell/Rivera meeting. While on this mission, Elliot runs into Mark, who is doing the same thing. They find out Rivera's identity--he's Miles' dentist! Meanwhile Min
#23 - Going Limp
Season 3 - Episode 22 - Aired 5/1/1990
CAPSULE: Elliot gets a chance to direct a public service announcement, but is he capable of doing the job? Ellyn comes to DAA with a request for them to film a public service announcement for the city's new promotional campaign. Elliot pleads with Michael to give him the job of directing it, and Mike agrees. At a meeting with City Hall officials, Elliot's presentation strikes many of them as too far-out, but Michael assures Ellyn things will be OK. Elliot impresses Mike by obtaining the services of the well-known actor Ron DeLisle, a Philadelphia native, for $7500, but one of the City Hall people complains to Miles about a lack of confidence in Elliot. Miles reminds Michael that this project is his responsibility. Ellyn confides in Mike that she thinks the upcoming shoot looks like a ""train wreck."" Michael reassures her, but alone, he repeats her assessment: it's a train wreck. Even Nancy is getting apprehensive about Elliot's ability to do the job. The night before shooting starts, Et
#24 - Arizona
Season 3 - Episode 21 - Aired 4/17/1990
CAPSULE: Michael and Hope's relationship is deteriorating as they gather to attend her parents' anniversary celebration. Hope informs Michael they need to attend her parents' 40th wedding anniversary celebration in Arizona, but Michael says he needs to stay home for a while to attend to work. John Dunaway is in town and Hope invites him to stay at their house in her absence. Michael attends a dinner party at Melissa's where the guests joke about Hope having the hots for John. Michael returns home to find John looking very comfortable, seated in front of the fireplace with Grendel the dog at his feet. Michael immediately books the next flight to Phoenix. When Michael arrive earlier than expected in Arizona, it doesn't take long before festering tensions between him and Hope rise to the surface. She accuses him of working too much and ""checking out"" on his family. She tells him he's not proud of her for the things he should be, such as her work as a mother and with the ERC. Michael sneer
#25 - I'm Nobody, Who Are You?
Season 3 - Episode 20 - Aired 4/10/1990
CAPSULE: Resentment grows between the "haves" (the Steadmans) and the "have nots" (Gary and Susannah). Gary has put aside his ambivalence and is taking a job teaching Modern American Poetry. On the night before his first day on the job, Emma comes down with a fever and a terrible whooping cough. Frantic, Gary annd Susannah call up the Steadmans in the middle of the night. Hope tells them Emma probably has croup. The couple take the baby to the emergency room, where she's diagnosed with--croup. The bill comes to $704.75. Neither parent has insurance. In the morning Gary is reluctant to go to work but Susannah insists. Susannah is very reluctant to depend on Hope for help, but she calls her over anyway. Hope arrives with a humidifier and food. When she recommends their pediatrician, Susannah replies that they can't afford him. Hope talks to Ellyn and Michael about Gary and Susannah--are they really poor? Michael has been discussing a real estate deal with Miles, and he proposes investing
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