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Magnets On The Fridge
Season #4 Episode List
1: November 16 & 17, 2004 (Season #4 Premiere) - The year is 2009. LP returns from a 5 year stint as a radio DJ in Cincinnati to find Paula pregnant with her fourth child, Paul a TV obsessed slob, and Nathan the owner of Canadalanda. Canadalanda is an amusement park built to subvert all the new developments of the current administration (Bush has entered his 3rd term). It has "all the amenities of Canada without the pesky drive" and every hour on the hour, park-goers are entertained by Mickey the Mountie, a.k.a. Ernie.
2: November 30 & December 1, 2004 (Autobiography of Malcolm X) - When LP's time machine fails to work, she resigns herself to reading the book. After skimming a few pages she is inspired to start a social reading movement and changes her name to LPK. The episode is presented like an A&E biography and follows LPK, the militant book clubber and avid drinker from her childhood as LP Caulkins through to an enlightened period a few years before her assassination, a time in which she called herself el-Pizzaz al-Fer-Reak. The end of the episode reveals the four remaining friends stuck even farther in the future...in 2024.
3: December 14 & 15, 2004 (Spiderman) - Bound only by the rules of a comic book world, Ernie is inexplicably given the ability to travel through time. After several failed trips (during which he tries to convince Paula he's from the future by producing a future burrito from Johnny's burritos, a place that doesn't exist...yet), Ernie manages to convince his 2004 buddies to not quit book club and, instead, throw a superhero party (or a thinly veiled reason to dress up in colored spandex). So as to not blow anyone's mind, however, the future Ernie has tied the past Ernie up in the boiler room and left him there. Highlight: seeing Paula and LP repeatedly rub up against each other while wearing weird spandex outfits.
4: December 28 & 29, 2004 (Where The Wild Things Are) - After discovering Ernie tied up in the boiler as he sings with a hallucination of Brett Michaels from the 80's hair band Poison, we fall into what is definitely the most traditional episode of the season so far. The book clubs meets and Nathan ends up reading the book out loud because Paula couldn't find a copy in the Books on Tape section. Book club ends with a holiday gift exchange, at which Nathan gives Paul a ticket on a literary singles cruise and Ernie gives his future self a liturgical dance.
5: January 11 & 12, 2005 (Fanny Farmer Coookbook) - Paul hosts a dinner party to talk about the book. Paul prepares a soup, Nathan and LP both bring pigs wrapped in a blanket, Ernie brings a place setting (and some spaghetti---for cutting, not eating) and Paula makes special brownies. Each character explains what they were expecting the party to be like. They play Iron Chef, complete with voice-overs and Paula eats too many brownies and ends up imbibing an obsene amount of peanut butter.
6: January 25 & 26, 2005 (Fight Club) - After watching the movie Fight Club (which Paula doesn't understand), everyone mourns the break-up of Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston. Nathan invites Lou to book club, causing the others to make rules before allowing a stranger to join. At book club, Ernie becomes convinced that Lou and Nathan are the same person because they are never in the same room at the
same time. After proclaiming that violence is never the answer, Paul hits Lou when he announces that no one should care about Brad and Jen's break-up. A huge fight ensues.
7: February 8 & 9, 2005 (The Tao of Sex) - During book club, it becomes clear to the audience that Ernie is Sir-Knows-A-Lot-But-I'm-A-Lady, the advice columnist in Cosmo. Unsure that he knows enough to give advice, he asks his friends "hypothetical" questions and prints confusing versions of them in his next column, including advice on how to break up with your friends. Bored with Nathan, Paula decides to follow this advice. Nathan discovers that Ernie is writing for Cosmo and they all decide to mess with him by giving him horrible advice. When the group picks yet another sex book for next time, Paula over-reacts (you can watch if you have Quicktime and can handle a 10-meg file download by clicking here).
8: February 22 & 23, 2005 (A Mind of Its Own: A Cultural History of the Penis) - Paul writes in to a Chicago based talk show (Greg
Speaks) that is doing a special on this book. He brings Paula with him. Also on the talk show are David M. Friedman, the author of the book, and Richard, a huge penis who is enraged that Friedman wrote a biography about him without ever asking him any questions. Paula is rowdy in the audience and Greg, the host, is simply obsessed with giving his audience the impression that he has a huge penis.
9: March 8 & 9, 2005 (The Time Traveler's Wife) - We take ignoring the actual book to all new heights in this episode. Ernie boycots the book because he is a time traveller but does not yet have a wife. Bent on finding one, he convinces everyone to join a dating service in order to get him the perfect match. When the dating service results come back, LP and Paula have been matched with each other. They proceed to go on a date at a restaurant where the waitress sings her way through the duties. Paul and Ernie crash the date and, of course, comedy ensues.
10: March 22 & 23, 2005 (CDB) - Paula and LP are still dating and have created what they think is a secret language. This prompts Ernie to create one that is, of course, unintelligible. Nathan returns from Spring Break '05 in Daytona Beach with very interesting tan lines. Relationship troubles plague the girls until (in a Very Special Episode moment) LP is forced to break up with Paula.
11: April 5 & 6, 2005 (Fox In Sox) - The 50th episode is celebrated with a variety of old guest stars making reappearances via video. LP is asked to watch the lobby of her building by her Spanish-speaking doorman. Book club comes to her. Gradually, it is discovered that most of the people that book club has met over the past four years live in LP's building (including Paula's "evil" twin sister and gross Uncle Dennis, both of whom make out with Paul) and they communicate with the lobby with video phones. A delightful trip down memory lane.
12: April 19 & 20, 2005 (The Bible) - All book club members end up at an exclusive party, but they spend their time in one of the bedrooms (played by our friend Perry's bedroom) because everyone but Paul thinks the party is boring. Goofy Bible parallels abound, a game of truth or dare is played and a speech/dance sequence from Footloose is recreated. All of it is topped off by a conversation with God who miraculously makes Ernie skip (sort of) and LP sing show tunes (really).
13: May 3 & 4, 2005 (Les Miserables) - While Paul is away on a literary singles cruise, the rest of the gang goes to Ernie's uncle's cabin (24601 Happy Trail Lane). They perform Paul's adaptation of Les Mis, complete with a rendition of "On My Own". Lacking a finale, they also sing Sir Mix a Lot's "Baby Got Back" which is interrupted by God who threatens to mess with season five of Magnets...what a cliffhanger.
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