The show centered on Matthew Burton, a teenage scam artist who lived in a Van Nuys, California, apartment with his older sister Julie and widowed mother Eileen. Matt ran various underhanded dealings with his high school friends, especially his sidekick Eli, such as term paper sales, exam answer keys, and even blackmail. The status quo of Matthew's world changed forever in the series' pilot, when Norman Lamb moved into the apartment across the hall. A quick-witted but impoverished writer from Chicago, Norman struck up a friendship with Eileen and the two were soon dating. Dismayed that his mother had chosen someone so far beneath her, Matt set upon sabotaging their relationship, but soon finds he has met his match; Norman reveals himself to be cut from the same cloth as Matthew, and manages to foil Matthew's plots.
Cast
Jason Bateman as Matthew Burton
Caren Kaye as Eileen Burton
Tricia Cast as Julie Burton
Ernie Sabella as Lou Donatelli
David Garrison as Norman Lamb
"The Dregs of Humanity" episode
A notable episode was a two-parter entitled "The Dregs of Humanity". In the first half of the episode, Eli loses the school's money that had been trusted to Matt for hiring a band for a school dance. To cover the loss, Matthew crafts the rise and fall of a band and acts as their manager. The fictitious band, which actually consisted of four skeletons stolen from the biology lab, is a little too successful and Matthew soon finds himself agreeing to allow Norman an interview with the band for Music Press magazine, figuring that if the truth ever comes out, Norman will be humiliated. The interview only fuels the Dregs' popularity, and this sets up the cliffhanger: the Palladium calls and offers a $20,000 gig for the Dregs. While heretofore willing to let the Dregs retire, the money is too enticing and Matt agrees to the gig. The second installment of the two part episode was scheduled to air the following week, but was preempted by a speech by then-President Reagan. In the second part of the episode, Matthew is scrambling to explain why The Dregsfailed to show up to a sold-out concert. To make matters worse, Norman is starting to suspect that the band doesn't exist and Matthew gets sued. He finally has the brilliant idea to send the "band" to a watery grave by concocting a story that the "band" drove off a cliff into the ocean. In a later episode, it is revealed that the fake band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Series changes and cancellation
The series opened with some positive reception from critics, but its time slot competed with the popular show Dynasty on ABC and the series was canceled in early 1985. In episode 14, "Caught in the Act," Matthew renounced his scheming after Eileen found out what he had been up to. For the last four episodes, the show's original premise was completely ignored; this may have been a result of letters that NBC received from parents of high school-aged boys. According to Bateman, the reason the show was cancelled was because NBC was receiving “letters from mothers across the country whose kids were getting into trouble at school by mimicking Mathew’s antics”.
Production notes
The show's creators and executive producers were Michael G. Moye and Ron Leavitt, who just 3 years later would take the harder tone of the It's Your Move concept and put it in an entirely different context: Fox's Married... with Children, in which Garrison starred for four seasons.
