Brad may well be on his way to college, having become a soccer pro, and having just taken his SATs. By the way, there's something different about the Taylors' living room. Haven't noticed it? That's okay, Tim and Brad haven't either. Jill practically has to point it out to them: they have a new couch. Remember the old one that Brad and Mark wrecked in "Whitewater"? Now they have a new one. Anyway, Brad scored a 420 on his math SAT, and unfortunately, schools like UCLA care more about potential students' academic scores than their athletic abilities...unless of course it's football. After the intro, it's a Fool Time salute to College. Makes sense, this show seems to be aimed at a frat-boy audience. Tim and Al have got something special today: the Man's Dormroom! Everything the college man could ask for...within reason. There's a laundry chute that not only washes the clothes, but shrinks them too. There's an oxygen bar attached to the beds, and alarms that would wake the dead. Tim's added an additional feature that exists primarily to humiliate Al and I would really rather not dignify this gag by trying to explain it. At home, Tim and Brad meet a former student of Wilson's from Oxford, Simon Chubb. He's a self-made philanthropist, and a bit of a soccer buff himself. Brad invites him to his next game, and then after that Tim shows him the Healy. So as they look under the hood, Simon remarks how good of a player he thinks Brad is, and goes so far as to say he could play professionally.
Brad drops this bombshell on Jill, saying he's going forget about college, let alone the SATs and play soccer professionally in England, on Simon's team, the Birmingham Chubbs. Naturally, she's not in favor of this concept, and apparently, Tim wasn't even aware of it, and so they argue right in front of Brad. He tries to convince his parents it's a worthy cause, and that Simon says he'll have his back. Brad also asks Tim that if he could have gone from high school to Tool Time without going to college, would he have done it? Tim stumbles around his words, but eventually admits he would have. Fearing he may appear to his son as a hypocrite, Tim goes to talk to Wilson, who helps him to admit that if he HAD skipped college and just gone straight to Tool Time, he would've missed out on a lot...such as "allegedly" blowing up the chem lab. So now, it's up to Brad's room for a man-to-man talk. It seems Brad doesn't want to go to UCLA for fear that he might seem inferior and flunk out. Tim builds up his confidence, telling him he can do anything, and that if he does get into UCLA, he'll build him the dorm room of his dreams, like the one on Tool Time, and asks Brad what we wants. His response is, of course, Heidi. Our story does have a happy ending after all, as Brad retakes his SAT and this time, he scores a 1080. Tim and Jill are relieved that they won't have yet another kid living in another country.
This one does have a good, strong message about staying in school. Opportunities knock, but sometimes it can be a false alarm, and if that happens, you've got your education to fall back on. The message is good, while the jokes fell flat, as usual. I'd recommend this episode if you can relate to Brad, wanting to skip the middle man and jump right in to what appears to be a golden opportunity, because it sounds like such a sure thing, and I'm sure that's a scenario that most of us can relate to. So, take the words to heart, and enjoy the last Man's room built on this series. There wasn't much to the Man's Dormroom, as opposed to the bathroom, kitchen or bedroom.
Brad drops this bombshell on Jill, saying he's going forget about college, let alone the SATs and play soccer professionally in England, on Simon's team, the Birmingham Chubbs. Naturally, she's not in favor of this concept, and apparently, Tim wasn't even aware of it, and so they argue right in front of Brad. He tries to convince his parents it's a worthy cause, and that Simon says he'll have his back. Brad also asks Tim that if he could have gone from high school to Tool Time without going to college, would he have done it? Tim stumbles around his words, but eventually admits he would have. Fearing he may appear to his son as a hypocrite, Tim goes to talk to Wilson, who helps him to admit that if he HAD skipped college and just gone straight to Tool Time, he would've missed out on a lot...such as "allegedly" blowing up the chem lab. So now, it's up to Brad's room for a man-to-man talk. It seems Brad doesn't want to go to UCLA for fear that he might seem inferior and flunk out. Tim builds up his confidence, telling him he can do anything, and that if he does get into UCLA, he'll build him the dorm room of his dreams, like the one on Tool Time, and asks Brad what we wants. His response is, of course, Heidi. Our story does have a happy ending after all, as Brad retakes his SAT and this time, he scores a 1080. Tim and Jill are relieved that they won't have yet another kid living in another country.
This one does have a good, strong message about staying in school. Opportunities knock, but sometimes it can be a false alarm, and if that happens, you've got your education to fall back on. The message is good, while the jokes fell flat, as usual. I'd recommend this episode if you can relate to Brad, wanting to skip the middle man and jump right in to what appears to be a golden opportunity, because it sounds like such a sure thing, and I'm sure that's a scenario that most of us can relate to. So, take the words to heart, and enjoy the last Man's room built on this series. There wasn't much to the Man's Dormroom, as opposed to the bathroom, kitchen or bedroom.
