Original Air Date: January 23, 1989

Directed by: David Trainer

Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains spoilers for this episode!

Synopsis: After an eccentric, wealthy client passes away, the women find themselves as decorators for her heir, a cat named Mr. Bailey.

Kitty Cameo: It must be noted that in the opening credits of the series an orange and white tabby cat is sitting next to the picture frame for Charlene’s (Jean Smart’s) photographs.

Featured Feline: The episode begins with the women discussing the odd situation in which they find themselves; their client, Mrs. Whitehead, has passed away and so they must take instructions from her heir. This is without their having actually seen the house. Anthony (Meshach Taylor) returns from the reading of Mrs. Whitehead’s will and introduces them to their new boss, pulling a long-haired ginger tabby named Mr. Bailey from his bag.

The next scene finds Mary Jo (Annie Potts) and Charlene (Jean Smart) looking through wallpaper patterns with Mr. Bailey. At first Julia (Dixie Carter) is uncertain about the assignment but when she finds out the lawyers are trying to break Mrs. Whitehead’s will on the grounds of her being crazy, she becomes determined to abide by the wishes of the will.

Suzanne (Delta Burke) then enters, sweet talking Mr. Bailey and presenting him with a bag of cat toys. All this after previously saying she thought cats were the most useless animals on earth.

Of course Suzanne is hoping to get hold of Mr. Bailey’s money, but she doesn’t appreciate it when Mr. Bailey gets hold of her silk blouse (in actually the cat’s claws were nowhere near her blouse).

Eventually the women go to Mrs. Whitehead’s house, bringing along Mr. Bailey. There they are shocked to see a bizarre mix of items, including license plates on the walls, teddy bears on the mantel and a china cabinet full of fishing lures, not to mention a giant cat dish in the cellar.

There is some real confusion about the state of affairs at Mrs. Whitehead’s house, since there is fresh food in the pantry even though she was a recluse.

Back at home the women discuss the dilemma of trying to find a good reason why Mrs. Whitehead would leave her money to Mr. Bailey. They have the option to name a guardian for Mr. Bailey but don’t know who to choose.

Mary Jo points out that they’ve all been sucking up to Mr. Bailey because he is rich. Suzanne insists that isn’t the case and cuddles the cat until she finds out being Mr. Bailey’s guardian does not give her his money. Then she dumps Mr. Bailey back into Mary Jo’s lap.

They return to Mrs. Whitehead’s house and Mary Jo comes up with the idea of letting Mr. Bailey choose who he wants as his guardian. She sets the cat on the ground and they wait for him to approach one of them.

A man then enters with bags of groceries and Mr. Bailey runs right to him. He picks up the cat and greets him. The man turns out to be a friend of Mrs. Whitehead named Joe Hale (William Griffis) who would occassionally bring her groceries and necessities.

Upon hearing about the passing of Mrs. Whitehead and the situation about her will, Mr. Hale explains that all of the items around the house are actually expensive collectibles. When told Mrs. Whitehead left her money to Mr. Bailey, he says that is very logical since Mr. Bailey earned the money in the first place. “This cat is a celebrity. Mr. Bailey played Fluffy, the Kitty Yums-Yums cat.” Mary Jo remembers the commercial where the cat did the samba around the giant cat dish, which explains the prop in the cellar.

Joe Hale agrees to be a character witness for Mrs. Whitehead and also to be Mr. Bailey’s guardian.

Final Mewsings: Cats sure inherit a lot of money in movies and on television!

Many thanks to Stevie Holcomb for letting us know about the cat in this episode!

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