"TRACEY TAKES ON...": FANTASY (JANUARY 27, 1997)

by Roger Reini (rreini@wwnet.com)

This week, "Tracey Takes On..." took on fantasy. And the results were, if you'll pardon the expression, fantastic.

To kick things off, Tracey tells about the time she got to see the Beatles in concert when she was 5 years old. She had a great time, screaming, carrying on, and having thoughts 5-year-olds shouldn't be having. This inspired her fantasy of Paul McCartney driving up and picking her up, and they'd drive off to who knows where, with her resting her head on his shoulder. If this sounds vaguely familiar, it should; we saw this fantasy become reality in the video for "They Don't Know."

Short bits: Fern's friend Jobie (Julie Kavner) has the hots for the new pool guy; Trevor would like to be the steward on the space shuttle -- with men in close quarters, and being weightless; Mrs. Noh Nan Ning reveals her fantasy of tap dancing in a big movie musical (and she can tap pretty well); and Her Royal Highness and Tracey tell each other off. That bit was too short; I hope we see round 2 in the future.

Longer sketches: Sydney fantasizes about what would happen if she killed a priest who happened to be the star witness against her client (she'd be imprisoned but would get her mother to take the rap); Ruby has a close encounter of the sexual kind with some aliens (whose flying saucer looks just like an Airstream trailer); and Rayleen and Mitch try yet again to get into Penthouse magazine's "Forum" column, with this attempt involving a hang glider.

Jokes and gags? We've got jokes and gags... Inside the flying saucer, we see a picture of the chief alien, and he appears to be giving The Finger -- in his case, a very long finger; then we see the chief alien in the flesh, which Ruby describes as a cross between Gene Barry and a cucumber; we have Rayleen and Mitch telling us about how they made love in "Passenger 57" (inside an overhead compartment) and "Apollo 13" (weightlessness wasn't as good as they thought it would be); Sydney refusing to pass on the word about a breakout from prison until she gets her Paul Mitchell shampoo and conditioner; and Tracey describing what HRH's voice sounds like (like having a broomstick stuck up one's ***).

I give this episode 3 1/2 stars, same as last week.

NEXT WEEK: MOTHERS -- and I can already see a missed opportunity: Kay is not in next week's episode. Talk about a missed opportunity!