By ElaineB
It started on the 4th of July and it ended, most fittingly, on Labor Day, and Swingtown was one of the sweetest of summer’s pleasures. I did not know that Sept. 5 was the last night of the series, but as it went on, it seemed so. A check on the Internet shows that the series has not been cancelled, in spite of low ratings, due in no small part to devoted fans, critics who love it and CBS execs who are lobbying to keep it. Perhaps an Emmy nomination or two next year will seal its return. If not, CBS has not dropped it but is looking at perhaps moving it to cable. Their affiliate Showtime is always ready to swing, but I wonder if that move wouldn’t ruin the show – because it would get graphic and too much sex would change the tone of it.
I’d like to see Swingtown make another limited run next summer, one that perhaps starts on the 4th of July 1977 and goes through another summer. It will give us a chance to see whether Janet is still happily giving advice to Chicago, whether Susan and Roger became a couple or are still a pair of frustrated partners of others trying to do the right thing. And then there’s Bruce and Melinda and Tom and Trina – did she keep the baby? I hope so − she’d be an awesome mother and I think Tom will rise to the occasion. Then there’s Laurie and Doug, BJ and Sam, Rickey and Lisa and Dear Janet. Yes, we want more and next summer would be ideal.
For those who missed the last episode, if you have a good Internet connection, stop reading now and head over to CBS.com where the episodes are reaired. For those who do not, here’s some of the action.
It’s the day before Labor Day and Tom and Trina are planning their end of summer clambake. It’s a good thing that Trina has money because those clams and lobsters and all their fixings don’t come cheap. They have so many coolers that Trina asks Susan to hold on to some for them. Along the way, Susan tells her that she suspects that Bruce is having an affair. Trina advises her to talk to him. Susan takes the advice and heads downtown to confront Bruce but he isn’t at the brokers’ watering hole. Melinda is, and she tells Susan that they are just having fun and that Bruce feels he and Susan aren’t connected like they used to be. “Do you feel connected to Bruce?” Melinda asks. Of course not. How can she be?
That same morning, Janet is working from home early, discussing the advice column Henry is submitting for her. Roger tells her he got the job, he is going to accept it but they’ll have to move to Cincinnati. She is actually shocked into silence. At work, Janet is offered the advice column job but tells Henry that she turned it down without telling him why. It’s a miserable moment for Janet. She does what Janet does at a time like that, and buys Trina a copy of Dr. Spock’s book. When she drops it off, she explains her problem to Trina who reminds Janet that it is 1976 not the ‘50s and she has a say in their marriage, too.
Roger runs into Susan at the train station where he’s waiting for Janet who is getting off early and tells her he’s accepting the job. Janet gets home much later. “I was worried sick,” he tells Janet when she finally arrives. I don’t want you to take the job, she says. I don’t want to move. I’m accepting it. You are the heart of the house but I’m the head of the house and we are moving, he tells her.
Meanwhile the kids are going through plenty of changes, too. Sam’s mother is supposed to go to rehab so Sam will be living with her aunt (Lisa’s mother) until her mom is well enough to take her back. For kids that age Naperville might as well be another country, but they take it as best they can, even though it’s clear that rehab isn’t going to do Sam’s mother much good. For Laurie and Doug, a huge earthquake in Guatemala gives him a chance to do something useful and head down to help. Laurie decides to go with him, and packs her bag without telling her parents her plans. But when she gets to his apartment, he’s already gone. He left her a note telling her he loves her, and his keys so she has a place to go that she can call her own. So yes, he will be coming back.
For the adult couples, everything changes at the Clambake on Labor Day. Janet and Roger stop by the party to drop off more rosy perfection salad. She drives Roger to the airport so he can go back to Cincinnati and look at some houses. Susan and Bruce head down to the beach to try to talk but they have nothing to say except to point fingers at each other over who is to blame. Susan goes back to the fire and pulls some other guy’s keys out of Tom and Trina’s fishbowl and heads home with some guy who is likely going to be very disappointed because shortly thereafter, Susan at home is taking a call from Roger. He did not go to look at house but checked into a hotel and wants her to come to him.
Henry shows up at Janet’s with champagne and Janet’s first column. I took the job for you, he tells her. She says Roger isn’t home but would he like to crack open the bottle. He tells her has a date – with a guy. I suspected, Janet never did, but she takes it well and later cracks open the bottle and drinks it herself as she frames her first column. She’s not leaving town, that much is clear.
Bruce heads back to the bar and kisses Melinda and this time he means it. Trina has finally told Tom she is pregnant. He is open to the idea of kids and we see them in bed – he’s asleep and she is reading Dr. Spock. And then there’s the knock on Roger’s hotel room door and it’s Susan and she comes in. He shuts the door and they stand there just looking at each other the show fades to black. Bravo CBS! Bravo!
