Parker Lewis Can't Lose (TV Series) Jerry: Portrait of a Video Junkie (1991) User Reviews

Jerry's found addiction and needs his fix... Of video games.

[vex86bird · 7/10 · 28 June 2007]

The story of Jerry falling into the world of addiction of video games is kind of a cheesy one. I think sometimes the writers go a little overboard on certain episodes which makes them ridiculous. It's funny to see the old game systems that pop up though in this episode though. All the hand-held games are 8-bit and at one point a Sega Genesis game falls from Jerry's jacket. It's rather disturbing at the end of the episode when a mountain of old school video games and hand-held's are 'disposed of'. If you notice in the credits Jerry Mathers and Barbara Billingsly are listed. Sure enough the two appear in the episode as Musso's mother and brother (which was their role in "Leave it to Beaver" sans Musso though). One constant I've noticed in PLCL is the music and sound effects that find themselves overplayed at times. In this episode the video game music that plays almost every time Jerry whips out a hand-held is the same which grows tedious.

Leave it to Parker and Mikey

[safenoe · 10/10 · 16 February 2024]

Leave it to Beaver superstars Barbara Billingsley makes a sublime appearance as Ms. Musso's Mother, and Jerry Mathers makes a brief appearance as Ms Musso's brother, Theodore.

Anyway, here Jerry is trying to cope with his video game addiction, and his attendance at a video game addiction support group was moving. This episode is very real, because people are addicted to video games, and I remember the tamagotchi craze from the 1990s, and kids and adults being addicted to keeping their digital animals alive throughout the day.

Anyway, I'm enjoying rewatching Parker Lewis Can't Lose, having first watched it when it debuted in the 1990s.