It’s Your Move (1984)

 Debuting September 26, 1984. NBC, 9:30/8:30pm Central

It’s Your Move starred a 15-year-old Jason Bateman, fresh off of Silver Spoons, and offered a unique brand of humor that resonated with many teenage viewers, becoming something of a cult classic sitcom in the last 40 years. The show followed the antics of Matthew Burton, a silver-tonged teenager who was an accomplished con man, a fact known to just about everyone but his mother Eileen (Caren Kaye). The character of Matthew was quite similar to Derek, the character he had played on Silver Spoons. This is because the show was originally intended as a spin-off of Spoons, but either as a result of show development or inability to use the character, Derek became Matthew.

What set It’s Your Move apart from your typical family sitcom was its willingness to eschew sappy wholesomeness and embrace Matthew’s unapologetically manipulative personality. When the series started, Matthew, assisted by goofy friend Eli (Adam Sadowsky) was an established operator, usually dodging sister Julie’s (Tricia Cast) attempts to throw a wrench into the works of his schemes. Matthew wasn’t all bad, his good-hearted side was also shown when he would secretly help his single mother by sneaking cash into her purse and later finagles free rent for his family. But when magazine writer Norman (David Garrison) moves in across the hall and becomes a potential boyfriend to his mom, Matthew finds Norman to be a sharp-witted adversary, introducing the shows catchphrase: “You’re gonna laugh…”

Created by Ron Leavitt and Michael G. Moye, series episodes depicted Matthew’s elaborate scams, now often targeting Norman – who presents a threat to the status quo – especially with his new position as substitute teacher at Matthew’s school. The show’s most memorable episode was “Dregs of Humanity”, a fan-favorite that highlighted Matthew’s outlandish schemes. When Eli loses money set aside to hire a band for the school dance, Matthew fabricates an entire rock band using skeletons borrowed from the school’s biology lab puppeteered by Eli. Things quickly get out of hand when Norman ‘interviews’ the Dregs for a music magazine with Eli ad-libbing the answers!

“Women are objects of lust. We toss them aside. What we really like to do is check into some hotel…and DESTROY! We are the DREGS.” Incredibly, the second part was pre-empted by President Reagan, and although the show was later rerun on USA Network, some fans never saw the conclusion until decades later when it was finally posted to YouTube.

The show was well-received by critics and loved by fans, but it wasn’t competitor Dynasty that did the show in. Unfortunately, the show ultimately was a victim of the infamous NETWORK RETOOLING. In response to letters from parents complaining about the antics of Matthew that supposedly had inspired their own kids to imitate his shenanigans, NBC forced a change in storyline. In episode 14, Matthew’s mother catches him red-handed breaking into her place of work as part of his latest scheme. With Eileen now aware of things, the core premise and appeal of the show was lost. The remaining four episodes neutered the Matthew character into a ‘nice boy.’ As Caren Kaye noted to writer Bob Leszczak, “What I think happened was that NBC presented a mandate that if we wanted to have any chance at renewal for another season, Jason Bateman’s character had to be softened somewhat. In the end, it ruined the original chess match premise, and the show suffered as a result. This really should have been a five-season or more show.”

A couple of seasons later, Moye and Leavitt got another chance to bring an edgy comedy to the air, bringing David Garrison along with them: Married… with Children. Although It’s Your Move has previously been shown on streamer Crackle, nearly half the episodes were missing. As a review of episodes on YouTube revealed that music clearances did not seem to be the reason, I reached out to the programming manager at Crackle. In this instance, there seemed to be materials issues leading to some episodes not being available. (This can range from defective master tapes needing repair or significant investment to fix playback errors to the tapes just being lost/missing.) Fortunately, a search reveals many episodes are on YouTube, although some have been removed.

Sadly, Adam Sadowsky quietly passed away three years ago at age 50; something that only became known in SAG-AFTRA’s yearly In Memoriam bulletin. Sadowsky was the president of Syyn Labs, responsible for the giant Rube Goldberg Machine featured in the music video for the OK Go song “This Too Shall Pass.” In 2010, he gave a TEDx talk about the making of the video. If you’re a tech nerd, you might remember him being interviewed on CNet’s Buzz Out Loud that year as well.

Extended article on It’s Your Move found at Forgotten TV’s Patreon page.