It's another winning episode for Broadway comic Harriet Harris who pre-dates her hysterically funny role as the mother who wishes that her son was gay in "It Should Have Been You" by wishing for a gay hairdresser to give her the makeover of a lifetime, needing someone to babysit the overly bratty bad seed sons Lyndon and P.J. Her idea of discipline is shouting at them, "Lyndon! P.J.! If you misbehave in church, Jesus won't love you anymore!" (spouted in the premiere episode), and as we've become used to for those watching the series, the kids never appear, although the husbands (mostly unseen) will make a few token appearances. For a Republican housewife, Vivian Buchannan is pretty liberal in her desire for a gay hairdresser, and when she returns, she blurts out to her disappointment that he was straight! Her hair by this point looks as if she stuck her finger in an open electric socket, and she is far too humiliated by the experience. Lyndon and P.J. have pretty much destroyed Alex's house after Bree agreed to babysit them (not at Vivian's as Alex had hoped), and when they make a scene at the mall, Vivian takes it upon herself to spank them. Not being used to discipline, the children of the corn make a huge scene, and Vivian is arrested for abuse. She encounters the typical crazies in the local women's detention center (shades of when three of the four Golden Girls were arrested) and must deal with social services who are further upset by the fact that Vivian waited until her boys were eight years old before she spanked them.
Of course, Mother Buchannan has to be involved somehow, and Eileen Heckart is hysterically funny in managing to escape from Vivian's plea that she take care of them and later on when she gets to use Vivian's incarceration against her. That's cabaret singer Sharon McKnight as the tough talking prison matron and veteran TV and stage actress Ellia English (Queenie in a PBS Broadcast of "Show Boat") as the compassionate social services worker. Kristen Johnson, later of "3rd Rock from the Sun", is very funny as one of the crazies in prison, and Jane Morris is both scary and hysterical as the even nuttier one. This episode makes harsh commentary on how disciplining your children is necessary even if society is sticking its nose in where it should not be, and Vivian's desire to be loved by her children (even though she seems to be constantly trying to hide from them) adds unique detail to be who she is. The audience has to see how Lyndon and P.J. destroy Alex's house and nearly harm Bree (as well as decapitate a squirrel) to understand the impact of this episode's message. Between its serious drama and humor, it takes a hard to discuss subject and makes its message more understandable.
Of course, Mother Buchannan has to be involved somehow, and Eileen Heckart is hysterically funny in managing to escape from Vivian's plea that she take care of them and later on when she gets to use Vivian's incarceration against her. That's cabaret singer Sharon McKnight as the tough talking prison matron and veteran TV and stage actress Ellia English (Queenie in a PBS Broadcast of "Show Boat") as the compassionate social services worker. Kristen Johnson, later of "3rd Rock from the Sun", is very funny as one of the crazies in prison, and Jane Morris is both scary and hysterical as the even nuttier one. This episode makes harsh commentary on how disciplining your children is necessary even if society is sticking its nose in where it should not be, and Vivian's desire to be loved by her children (even though she seems to be constantly trying to hide from them) adds unique detail to be who she is. The audience has to see how Lyndon and P.J. destroy Alex's house and nearly harm Bree (as well as decapitate a squirrel) to understand the impact of this episode's message. Between its serious drama and humor, it takes a hard to discuss subject and makes its message more understandable.