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Step by Step

They say you can never go home again. Touch not the gauzy veil of nostalgia that covers all your happy childhood memories, lest you pull it back and discover that what you remembered as innocent really wasn’t so innocent at all. And above all else, don’t watch the Step By Step pilot as an adult.

Okay, okay, I’m being dramatic, but that’s only because I’m still reeling from watching the absurdist insanity of the very first Step By Step episode a week ago. Step By Step belongs to a very specific sub-genre of network sitcom that was meant to be suitable viewing for the whole family. Full House and its sequel series, Fuller House, are prime examples of this type of family comedy — and its mind-breaking “artistry.” Step By Step seemed fine enough when it debuted in 1991. I was only six years old, but I remember being cultured enough to gather that it was a modern spin on The Brady Bunch set up: two single parents get married and blend their respective families. Hijinks occur, lessons are learned, the bonds of family love always save the day.

Right? That was the point of the show, no? It surely wasn’t an ode to middle-aged lust, untamed by kitchen islands or weekday morning daylight.

Okay, so I was too young to pick up on the sexual subtext of Patrick Duffy and Suzanne Somers’ relationship — and no, I’m not going to call them by their character names because they are basically just playing Comedia dell’arte versions of themselves — so no harm, no foul. I was able to pick up on the fact that they had a whirlwind courtship and insatiable love for one another…after one trip in Jamaica. Okay, maybe the sexual subtext was less “subtext,” and more “text,” but at six, I just assumed that they loved each other in a benign way that included kissing and…skirts hiking up to…well, okay, Step By Step, thank you for introducing raw sensuality to the T.G.I.F. line up.

I should back up and explain how I got to this point. Hulu just nabbed the rights to the original T.G.I.F. line up and for some reason their internal algorithm decided that Step By Step was the show I wanted to watch immediately after a random season of Top Chef Masters. I was bored and waiting for something else to come on, so I shrugged and said, “Sure, Hulu, but you crazy.”What I immediately discovered was that Step By Step was both the exact show I remembered and a provocatively absurd show that I had never seen. For instance, I have fond memories of the impossibly congealed cereal milk gag. Fond memories! For years, I think I may have thought that milk did that.

This is the humor I remember. The silly, stereotype-derived funnies that poked at our cultural norms. I did not remember the sly Steinbeck shout outs.

I was absolutely transfixed by this show and its errant contradictions. It was family-friendly, but oozing with sex. It was dumb, but also sophisticated to a fault. It was set in Wisconsin even though both families gave off a distinctly – from my POV — Virginian vibe. Even the carefully constructed opening credits sequence, with its earworm of a theme song, and beautiful dream of an amusement park adventure day, contained mysteries. That is, if you looked closely enough. The big one? WHO IS THAT SMALL BOY WITH A MULLET? WHO? WHO?

(By the by, Wikipedia tells me this child was the original Mark Foster, Jarrett Lennon. The tyke was booted from the production after shooting this opening credits sequence and replaced with a blonder kid named Christopher Castile. Hollywood, you’re a heck of a town.)

So Step By Step is an arresting show because it makes no sense. And yet, the pilot wraps up in a tidy heart-warming way: Suzanne Somers earns the begrudging respect of her new stepdaughter Al after she believes that Al is sick and saves her from appendicitis. There’s an awkward hug. There’s hope for the family’s future. There’s…love.

There’s more than love in this show, though. There is a strange comfort in all its insanity and inanity. For what is family, but an absurd group of people who misbehave and embarrass you? Challenge you and stick up for you? What is family but the people you’d most like to ride a fake, green-screened roller coaster with?