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 City Guys, which ran on NBC from 1997 to 2001.  Almost the entire show is currently streaming on YouTube!

This week, City Guys finally comes to an end.

Episode 5.25 “And Then There Were None”

(Dir by Frank Bonner, originally aired on December 8th, 2001)

Having graduated from Manny High, the gang (and Ms. Noble!) gather together at the Manhattan Diner so that they can remember all of the adventures they had over the past five years of high school.  I can understand a group of high school friends wanting to get together for one last time before going to college but what is the principal doing there?  I mean, Ms. Noble has retired.  Why isn’t she hanging out with her husband?  Why isn’t she in the Hamptons?  WHY IS SHE STILL HANGING OUT WITH THESE KIDS!?

Anyway, as you may have guessed, this is a clip show.  We get clips of Dawn crusading for the environment during the first season and then a scene of her getting drunk at Chris’s penthouse.  And then we get a clip of that weird time that Ms. Noble tricked L-Train into thinking she couldn’t walk.  We relive a few of the times that Al and L-Train did something stupid.  Cassidy remembers some cringey radio drama that she did with Chris and Jamal and, for some reason, she also remembers Chris’s terrible Austin Powers impersonation.  Finally, Chris and Jamal remember their stupid radio show.  After everyone has left, Chris and Jamal share one final embrace and then Chris leaves Manhattan Diner.  Jamal stands at the booth alone and …. wow, that’s kind of depressing.

In general, I loathe clip shows but I usually make an exception if they are a part of a series finale.  City Guys is a show that I grew tired of reviewing about halfway through the 4th season but the finale actually was kind of touching.  If nothing else, the cast themselves seemed to be genuinely emotional about filming their final scenes together.

However, this effective episode was not the final episode of City Guys to air.  There was one more episode to go….

Episode 5.26 “Al’s In Toyland”

(Dir by Frank Bonner, originally aired on December 15th, 2001)

As I’ve often said while reviewing both City Guys and Hang Time, NBC didn’t really pay much attention to little things like showing episodes in the order in which they were supposed to be seen.  Nowhere is this more evident than with the final episode City Guys, which finds the gang back in high school despite having graduated and left for college in the previous episodes.  This is because Al In Toyland was not meant to be the series finale.  It was meant to air earlier in the season but it was pushed back because of the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001.

This episode opens by reminding us that Ms. Noble is a monster as she announces that she has signed Jamal, Chris, L-Train, Dawn, and Cassidy up for the marching band without telling them ahead of time.  She explains that they all need an elective arts credit.  (Cassidy has appeared off-Broadway but somehow doesn’t have an elective arts credit?)  The band, of course, practices on the roof of the school and the gang is horrified to discover how uncool the band kids are.

Why isn’t Al in the band?  It’s because he’s working in advertising!  The president of Snappy Toys has hired Al to do commercials for him because he was impressed by Al’s suggestion that “Snappy Toys Ain’t Just For Kids No more” could be their new slogan.  Somehow, this leads to L-Train starring in a commercial.  I mean, it’s strange enough that a company would put Al in charge of their advertising but why would they hire L-Train to star in their commercial?

Snappy Toys asks Al to develop a campaign for a toy gun known as the Annihilator.  L-Train tells a story about a friend of his who entered a store with a toy gun and got shot by the owner.  Al promises that he’ll develop a non-violent commercial for the gun but his boss says that he wants the commercial to look like the “opening scene of Scream!”

While Al works on his advertising career, Chris, Jamal, Dawn, Cassidy, and L-Train discover that the band kids really know how to party.  In fact, they’re throwing a rave …. on the roof of the school!  It turns out that the band has very high standards and, after a pep rally, they kick Chris, Jamal, Dawn, Cassidy, and L-Train out of the band for just not being cool enough.  I guess they listened to Chris and Jamal’s radio show.

Meanwhile, Al sees his younger sibling playing with the guns and pretending to be dead.  He decides that he can’t work for Snappy Toys.  He quits but his boss assures him that, “a kid like you, who stands up for what he believes in — you have a great future.”

And so ends City Guys!  And, to be honest, Al’s In Toyland wasn’t a terrible episode.  I liked the fact that Al’s boss was not portrayed as being some sort of sleazy, money-crazed villain but instead just as a reasonable businessman making business decisions.  And I even liked the band subplot, if just because it featured all of the main characters being put in their place for once.

What is left to say about City Guys?  City Guys was the show that I used to launch Reto Television Reviews.  I’ve been watching and reviewing the show for nearly a year.  At first, I kind of enjoyed the show and then I got kind of annoyed the show and, by the fifth season, I think it was pretty obvious that I was ready to be done with it.  That said, I do feel a little emotional saying goodbye to it.  City Guys was a show that had a few good moments, though it never really escaped the shadow of better Peter Engel-produced shows like California Dreams and Saved By The Bell.

Next week, we’ll be starting a look at a new show on Thursday.  Here’s a preview: