Thirtysomething (TV Series)

New Job (1989)

Ken Olin: Michael Steadman

Photos 

Quotes 

• Michael Steadman : No, no, just to be, you know, just to be in a place where there were empty drawers to fill up, and all these people with expectations and I could worry about not failing because that's easy to worry about. Because if I worried about, you know... oh, God... it just... I just wanted this baby so much, you know? I just really wanted this baby so much. So I just had to push it away.

  Hope Murdoch Steadman : Why?

  Michael Steadman : I don't know. Because... because there just wasn't room for all that. I guess.

• Hope Murdoch Steadman : If I were gonna paint, I'd wear a suit.

  Michael Steadman : I'm spackling.

  Hope Murdoch Steadman : Oh, that was my next guess. How's it coming?

  Michael Steadman : Good. I'm almost done with the ceiling. I got this window to shut, but now I can't open it.

• Doctor : I realize this is very hard for both of you, and it probably won't make you feel better when I tell you that I see this all the time. The ultrasound confirmed that there had been fetal demise. You know, one in five pregnancies ends in a miscarriage. It's nature's way of saying the fetus would've been unable to survive outside the womb.

  Michael Steadman : Why? Um, I don't understand.

  Doctor : We usually don't find out why. The thing for you right now is to give yourselves time to grieve, because it is a loss. You were already planning, thinking of it as a baby when it really hadn't developed. And after you've given yourself time, and when you're ready, you can think about starting again. The next time you're pregnant, you'll have an 80% chance of carrying the baby to term.

  Michael Steadman : The accident, maybe, huh? Hope's car accident...

  Doctor : What, because the x-rays, the drugs? We can't explain these things, Michael. I'm sorry. I know it would be easier if we could.

• Michael Steadman : Tell me.

  Hope Murdoch Steadman : No.

  Michael Steadman : Please?

  Hope Murdoch Steadman : What? That I feel like a failure? Because my body failed?

  Michael Steadman : It wasn't you, Hope.

  Hope Murdoch Steadman : You know, and I... and I see when you look at me, and I think you blame me.

  Michael Steadman : How could I blame you?

  Hope Murdoch Steadman : Because I let you down. You didn't lose this baby, I did. And I don't want to go through this again. And I don't want to think that every time we make love, we're going to be afraid. And that I'll think about it.

  Michael Steadman : It's too soon, Hope. It takes time.

  Hope Murdoch Steadman : But I don't feel like there is time.

  Michael Steadman : Shhhhhh...

  Hope Murdoch Steadman : I want you to make it all better.

  Michael Steadman : Listen to me. Listen. We'll make another baby.

  Hope Murdoch Steadman : But it won't be this baby.

  Michael Steadman : No, it won't.

  Michael Steadman : [holding Hope as she breaks down and weeps against him]  Shhhhhh...

• Michael Steadman : I just... I want to explain, okay? It's just that the timing of this has been so weird.

  Hope Murdoch Steadman : Well, I'll try to plan the next miscarriage better.

  Michael Steadman : Wait a second. Hope? Now wait a second.

  Hope Murdoch Steadman : What?

  Michael Steadman : Look. Things are out of control right now. I mean, neither of us has a handle on anything. So sometimes it just... it gets hard to figure out priorities.

  Hope Murdoch Steadman : No. Your priority is your new job.

  Michael Steadman : So what did you want me to do? Did you want me not to take it, Hope?

  Hope Murdoch Steadman : Of course not.

  Michael Steadman : Okay, so then if I take it I have to do it well, right? Because if I don't do it well, and I mean really well, I mean excel at it, then I'm out, you understand that, right?

  Michael Steadman : [grabbing Hope by the arm when she tries to walk away]  Wait a minute.

  Hope Murdoch Steadman : [pulling her arm away from him]  Fine. Go ahead. Excel at it. What do you want me to say?

  Michael Steadman : Okay. Look. I know that it's not that simple.

  Hope Murdoch Steadman : No. You make it simple. You couldn't be there today because Drentell walked into your office. You couldn't say 'excuse me, Miles, I have an appointment'? If you walked into his office, he would leave. No, you couldn't be there, thinking you were going to lose your job because you had an appointment at your daughter's school?

  Michael Steadman : No! That's not fair.

  Hope Murdoch Steadman : No, it is that. I mean that's what your priorities are: job, money, family, in that order, and that's doesn't even include throwing sports in there.

  Michael Steadman : Those are not my priorities. Damn it, Hope, see? You don't even know my priorities. I have responsibilities. I mean... I'm the provider here, Hope!

  Hope Murdoch Steadman : I have a job, excuse me!

  Michael Steadman : Okay, you could have been the provider, okay? But we chose to do it this way. And that... that's fine. Okay? I don't have a problem with that. But that means I have a responsibility. Don't make a face at me, Hope! So if I'm out of work for two months. And I find a job...

  Hope Murdoch Steadman : You don't even like this job.

  Michael Steadman : ...and I find a job. And I see a chance to breath again. And not have to worry about a budget, or what a new baby needs, everything that goes with a new baby, then your damned right I'm going to work hard at it.

  Hope Murdoch Steadman : We don't have a new baby.

  Michael Steadman : Yeah. But we were going to. And we were living off our savings. And we had a mortgage rate that seemed to go up every month. We had bumped-up car insurance rates...

  Hope Murdoch Steadman : And the baby's liabilities outweighed its assets.

  Michael Steadman : No, Hope! That's not what I'm saying.

  Hope Murdoch Steadman : No, no! Fine. Fine! This was a bad time for me too. I didn't want this baby either.