MR. SUNSHINE: EMPLOYEE OF THE YEAR (TV)
Summary
One in this short-lived comedy series about the eccentric employees of a San Diego event arena.
It is Ben’s tenth anniversary of working at the Sunshine Center, and he expects that his co-workers will acknowledge this in some way. A pop star, Eli Cutler, is slated to perform at the Center and draw a capacity crowd. Ben is dismayed when no one seems to remember his anniversary, instead focusing on Heather graduating from Alonzo’s internship program; she is to train Roman to replace her as Ben’s assistant. Furtermore, Crystal announces some sort of “contest” in which each employee is to “wow” her in order to receive a golf cart as a prize. Alonzo feels that he is too busy to enter the contest and that he would win it handily due to being in charge of the Center’s community outreach programs, but Alice feels similarly due to her management of the Center’s finances. They become competitive with each other and try to outdo each other to win the prize. In private Crystal tells Ben that the contest is a sham and that the winner has already been chosen, implying that it is Ben. She only manufactured the contest as a means of getting her employees to work harder. However, Ben’s prediction that everyone would ignore their work in order to “wow” Crystal comes to pass, and he scrambles to try to get everyone on task.
He is the only one on hand to greet Eli, who constantly demeans him and makes odd demands of him. Alice and Alonzo each try to impress Crystal, each one trying to top the others’ accomplishments and becoming increasingly confrontational with each other. Eli continues to mistreat Ben and make demands of him. Alice is furious when Alonzo interferes with her plans by taking merchandise autographed by Eli that she secured for visiting investors and giving it to a group of blind children attending the concert, so she attempts to steal it back. Alonzo catches her and they argue about it. Ben is forced to fill in for more people’s jobs and asks Crystal to end her contest. She decides to announce the winner of the contest, and to everyone’s surprise and outrage selects Roman as the winner. Ben confronts her about this in private, and she claims that her plan all along was to use the contest as a means of getting closer to her son. Ben is furious, especially when Crystal reveals that she did not know it was Ben’s tenth anniversary. She tries to placate him, but Ben will not be satisfied unless he receives the golf cart instead of Roman. He storms off when Crystal gives him the rest of the night off, and does not return when Eli refuses to go on stage.
However, Ben feels guilty about leaving and changes his mind to deal with Eli and his reluctance to go on. He gives Eli a speech about how much he loves the Sunshine Center and his duty to it, and is surprised that Eli’s concern is more legitimate: he feels that his music is “no good,” and Ben tries to convince him otherwise. Ben’s encouragement is sufficient to get Eli to go onstage, and he thanks Ben, telling him that he is good at his job. Backstage, Crystal comes to see Ben, and tells him that he is invaluable to the organization, and thanks him for his years of service. Roman sets the golf cart on fire as a misguided form of protest against Heather leaving the Sunshine Center. Includes commercials.
Details
- NETWORK: ABC
- DATE: February 16, 2011 9:30 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:29:00
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 105389
- GENRE: Comedy
- SUBJECT HEADING: Comedy; San Diego, California; Management
- SERIES RUN: ABC - TV series, 2011
- COMMERCIALS:
- TV – Commercials – Chili’s restaurants
- TV – Commercials – Chrysler automobiles
- TV – Commercials – Home Depot home improvement stores
- TV – Commercials – Honey Bunches of Oats Raisin Medley breakfast cereal
- TV – Commercials – Jell-O desserts
- TV – Commercials – L’Oreal hair products
- TV – Commercials – Mazda automobiles
- TV – Commercials – Payless shoe stores
- TV – Commercials – Stella Artois beer
- TV – Commercials – Toyota automobiles
- TV – Commercials – Virgin Mobile phone service
- TV – Commercials – “Due Date” home video release
- TV – Commercials – “Red Riding Hood” motion picture
- TV – Promos – “Good Morning America”
- TV – Promos – “Grey’s Anatomy”
- TV – Promos – “Happy Endings”
- TV – Promos – “Off the Map”
CREDITS
- Matthew Carlson … Executive Producer
- Jamie Tarses … Executive Producer
- Thomas Schlamme … Executive Producer
- Matthew Perry … Executive Producer, Created by
- Alex Barnow … Executive Producer, Created by, Writer
- Marc Firek … Executive Producer, Created by, Writer
- Eric Gilliland … Co-Executive Producer
- Casey Johnson … Co-Executive Producer
- David Windsor … Co-Executive Producer
- Sally Bradford … Co-Executive Producer
- Bryan Adams … Producer
- Annette Sahakian Davis … Producer
- Barbara Brace … Co-Producer
- Rebecca Moline … Associate Producer
- Julie DeJoie … Associate Producer
- Beth McCarthy Miller … Director
- Rob Cairns … Music by
- Matthew Perry … Cast, Ben Donovan
- Andrea Anders … Cast, Alice
- James Lesure … Cast, Alonzo Pope
- Nate Torrence … Cast, Roman Cohen
- Allison Janney … Cast, Crystal Cohen
- Nick Jonas … Cast, Eli Cutler
- Portia Doubleday … Cast, Heather
- David Pressman … Cast, Mascot
- Kathy Najimy … Cast, Myrna
- Carl McDowell … Cast, Trevon
- Christopher Shea … Cast, Stage Manager
- Jim Hoffmaster … Cast, Lighting Guy
- William Jacob Olson … Cast, Blind Guy
- Johnny Skourtis … Cast, Food Service Guy
- Lili Simmons … Cast, Hot Teenage Girl
- Suzanne Krull … Cast, Mindy
- Roger Castillo … Cast, Worker #1
- Matt Levin … Cast, Worker #2
- Diego Villarreal Garcia … Cast, Co-Worker #1