Raingirl is an episode from Season 4 of Married... with Children.
Kelly gets assigned to work at Channel 84's news studio as part of her senior class project, and becomes the channel's weather girl, which leads to a paid position.
Tropes
- An Aesop: When employing someone for a job, it should be based on their merit or qualifications and not for their appearance.
- Be a Whore to Get Your Man: Kelly, sensing her job is in jeopardy after she mangles the words on the teleprompter, hurriedly props herself up on the news desk, widens her fake smile and hikes up her already short skirt to flash some thigh at the camera. The viewer can't help but feel a little sorry for her: she's just doing what she knows, and it is all she knows.
- Cheaters Never Prosper: Al tried cheating 40% of Kelly's salary ($100,000 per year) in exchange for being her manager - a position that is of no use or purpose to her. After Kelly gets fired for being illiterate since she can't read the news or pronounce anything right, Al is stuck paying the tab on the Porsche she wrecked because he co-signed for the auto loan.
- Comically Small Bribe: Al was said to have cacophonously and voraciously demand a raise at work selling shoes. He settled for a raise of $5 a week.
- Downer Beginning: When the episode starts, Al is being burdened with the bills that Peg brought on him for her extravagant shopping. He refuses to pay off the bills, claiming he'd rather get shot than have to pay for her shopping, and when Peg snaps at him for refusing to, he just puts out a song ("Oh man we're broke Cha Cha Cha!") and storms off to bed.
- Downer Ending: Kelly loses her job and totals the Porshe she bought before they could return destroying the garage in the process sending the family even deeper into debt. And it's implied Al is about to give Kelly a brutal bashing with a baseball bat for wrecking the incredibly expensive Porsche he signed a loan for.
- Enraged by Idiocy: The weatherman at Channel 84 is so annoyed by Kelly's stupidity that he tells his bosses "either the bimbo goes, or I go." They immediately fire him and give Kelly his job instead. As Kelly noted, she's the one in the short skirt. Of course, those same bosses quickly regret hiring her, as she irritates one of them over her illiteracy to the point that he decides to tear up her contract.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Al grows incredibly jealous of Kelly for being hired as a reporter under her statement that she makes $1000 a week since he makes meager pay at the shoe store. However, her real contract states she's actually getting paid $250,000 a year as a weather girl, and so rather than stay jealous of Kelly, Al starts sweetening up to her.
- Greed: Al shows off his true colors as a greedy suck-up who demands 40% from Kelly without giving her anything in return other than stating he'll be her "manager" - when clearly Kelly's bosses would be the weather station executives, not him. He then makes Kelly buy both of them ice cream when she asks for it. This all comes to bite him in the ass in the end when after Kelly gets fired and crashes a Porsche, Al becomes responsible for paying the damages because he co-signed the Porsche's loan.
- Hired for Their Looks: Kelly, who being semi-illiterate has no qualifications for being the weather girl.
- Lover Tug of War: Al and Peg fight over Kelly by her arms when she becomes an instant meal ticket for being offered a job as a weathergirl for $250,000 a year.
- Malicious Misnaming: When Al tries to give custody of Bud to Peg while attempting to kick them out, he calls him "Buck".
- Ms. Fanservice: Kelly is hired to bring eye-candy to the news station. The management then poorly assumes that she is capable of reading the weather (without even testing her for literacy) when clearly she was only able to point out the symbols of weather on a diagram and look pretty.
- Never Learned to Read: Kelly.Kelly: (reading the teleprompter) There is a.. strom coming to........ to.... Chick-a-go.
Off-screen man: Chicago!
Kelly: (gets nervous) Oh. Is a strom coming towards us? What's a strom?
Same man: Storm!
(Kelly gives a blank stare at the camera)
Bud: (who's watching the news at home with Al and Peg) Why don't they just put some peanut butter on her gums like they do with Mr. Ed?
Kelly: (climbs on top of the desk and squints hard at teleprompter) Winds are up to 30 muffs!
Same man: That's miles per hour (mph) you idiot!
Kelly: Hey I'm not an idiot! I happen to be a meter-pheralogist! Dork. Anyway, strom clods are forming...
Same man: (irritated) Clouds! Strom clouds! Ugh! Never mind, somebody get her off. I'm ripping up her contract, she's gone.
(Kelly hitches up the hemline on her already short dress and makes an "Oh, Crap!" Smile.) - No Sympathy: Right before giving her weather report, Kelly brags about how one of her coworkers won an office pool for correctly guessing the death count for how many people died in a big bus crash in Peru.
- School Is for Losers: Al and Peg mock Bud for getting all As in school, while Kelly drops out for a job paying $250,000 per year. They quickly change their tunes when Kelly is fired on her first day.
- Shockingly Expensive Bill:
- At the start of the episode, Peg hands Al a bunch of bills for her extravagant shopping at the department store, leaving Al devastated. He refuses to pay, making Peg complain at him and Al storms off to bed.
- Al tries to comfort himself after Kelly's first and last TV appearance, saying he can return her brand-new Porsche to the dealership as only slightly used:Al: Well, how bad could the depreciation be? She only drove it four miles, so that could only be, what... about eight, ten thousand dollars? (clutches his head)
- Surprise Car Crash: Kelly totals Al's garage with her brand new Porsche.
- Swapped Roles: Usually it's Kelly who wildly begs Al for money in return for affection since Al is the breadwinner. Here, the roles are reversed and now it's Al who is cuddling up to Kelly for her money since she's being offered $250,000 a year for a three-year contract to read the weather.
- The Thing That Would Not Leave: Marcy gets jealous about Kelly finding employment at the news station that she keeps rambling on about her own sad, pathetic childhood and won't leave the Bundys home until Peg forcefully pushes her out.
- Who's Laughing Now?: While Bud never brings it up himself in the end, earlier in the episode Al and Peg make fun of him with Kelly for bringing home straight A's (as they considered the news to be "inferior" to Kelly's lucrative new job as a weather lady). Once she flops hard on the news and gets fired on-air, Al comes back and humbles himself to Bud asking, "All "A's", huh?"
- Would Hit a Girl: Furious at Kelly for crashing his garage and the new Porsche, Al grabs a baseball bat and awaits Kelly to step inside the house for due punishment.
