Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Thursdays, I will be reviewing Jennifer Slept Here, which aired on NBC in 1983 and 1984.  The entire show is currently streaming on YouTube!

Today, we finish up Jennifer Slept Here!

Episode 1.13 “Take Jennifer, Please”

(Dir by Charles S. Dubin, originally aired on May 12th, 1984)

The final episode of Jennifer Slept Here opens with Joey in a panic.  His family is confused as to why Joey constantly appears to be talking to himself.  Both his bratty sister and his best friend have developed a habit of breaking into his room so that they can read his diary, which is full of his thoughts concerning Jennifer.  His father is concerned that Joey is having a breakdown.  His mother continues to insist that it’s just a phase.

And Joey thinks that they might be right.  He’s suddenly no longer 100% sure that Jennifer is real.  Maybe he is just seeing things.  Maybe he is losing his mind.  Maybe….

Maybe this doesn’t make any sense from a continuity point of view because it goes against everything that we’ve see over the past 12 episodes. Joey and Jennifer have been hanging out together for a very long time.  Jennifer has repeatedly helped Joey out.  On one occasion, Jennifer’s help even involved making herself visible to the other members of the household.  Joey has watched Jennifer possess people in the house.  Joey has experienced a fake exorcist putting Jennifer in a jar.  Joey has met other ghosts!  Just last week, his tutor turned out to be a ghost who had been sent to take Jennifer’s place.  Judging from the previous episodes, it would seem that Joey got over his doubts a long time ago and, for that matter, his family now seems to be used to him talking to himself.

I have a theory.  I have no proof for this theory.  This is based on my own gut feeling as someone who has watched and read about the production of a lot of old TV shows.  You’ll notice that this episode was not directed by the show’s usual director, John Bowab.  Instead, it was directed by Charles S. Dubin, who also directed the pilot.  Here’s my guess.  This episode was probably meant to air much earlier in the season.  It wouldn’t surprise me if maybe it was meant to be the second episode or if maybe the pilot was even originally meant to be an hour-long special, with this episode serving as the second half.  (I mean, the neurotic Joey in this episode has a lot more in common with the Joey of the pilot than the Joey of the rest of the series.)  For whatever reason, though, this episode did not air when it was originally meant to.  I’m going to guess this episode sat in limbo for a while and then the network decided to use it to close out the season, despite the fact that the previous episode felt more like a season finale than this one does.  That’s my theory, take it or leave it.

(Also, as support of this theory, I would point out that this episode features Jennifer telling Joey the story of how she died, which seems like something she would have mentioned when they were still getting to know each other.  Joey’s little sister appears to be significantly younger than she did in the previous few episodes.  And, finally, George is just as negative in his comments about Jennifer’s love life as he was in the pilot.  This was initially one of George’s least appealing traits and it was one that was largely abandoned about the first two episodes.)

As for the episode itself, Joey is desperate for Jennifer to prove to him that she’s real and not a figment of his imagination.  So, Jennifer tells Joey that, before she died, she sent a note to Joey’s father explaining that she hadn’t written a will.  That note is sitting in a vault in George’s office and no one has ever seen it.  Jennifer and Joey break into the vault and retrieve the letter.  Not only does this prove to Joey that Jennifer exists but it also gives Joey a chance to help out his father, who has been having to deal with all sorts of people coming out of the woodwork and claiming to be the beneficiary of Jennifer’s estate.  It also provides an excuse for the invisible Jennifer to humiliate a nosy security guard by dousing him in liquor and causing his pants to fall off.

If you can look past the continuity issues, this is actually a funny episode.  This show was always at its best when Jennifer was allowed to be mischievous force of chaos and that’s certainly the case here.  I will admit that I laughed when Joey ordered Jennifer to prove her existence by shaking the breakfast table, just for Jennifer to discover that shaking a table is not as easy as it looks.  Jennifer cracking the safe at the office was also amusing, mostly because Jennifer was obviously having a lot of fun committing a felony.  Of course, when the security guard does show up, Joey’s the one at risk for being arrested for a felony.

Overall, Jennifer Slept Here was not a bad show.  Having now watched all 13 episodes, I can say that this show may have been uneven but it had more hits than misses.  Though the supporting characters never really had much personality and the writers never seemed to set any definite rules as to what Jennifer could and couldn’t do as a ghost, the chemistry between Ann Jillian and John P. Navin, Jr. kept things lively and Jillian had a talent for delivering sardonic one-liners.  This show was cancelled after 13 episodes and that may be for the best because there’s only so many “safe-for-network-TV” storylines that a show about a ghost and a teenager can really explore.  Still, Jennifer Slept Here definitely had a lot of charm to it.

Next week …. I’ll be reviewing something else!  What will it be?  I have no idea but it will be something.  Check here next Thursday to find out what I found!