BEING MARY JANE: STORM ADVISORY {SERIES PREMIERE} (TV)
Summary
The premiere of this drama series about a television news personality and the conflicts in her personal and professional life.
Mary Jane rushes up to Lisa’s house in the middle of the night and breaks in when she cannot find the key. She finds her unconscious on her bed and tries to wake her. She drags Lisa into the bathroom, where she finds a number of open pill bottles. Lisa awakens, vomiting and sobbing. Eventually medical aid reaches Lisa and Mary Jane decides to tidy up the house while she rests. Lisa awakens the next morning to find Mary Jane waiting for her. Mary Jane asks her to call before she does something like this again, and Lisa decides she is feeling well enough to head in to work. She returns home to David and tells him about the previous night; he recommends that Lisa seek out psychiatric help. Andre pulls into the driveway claiming simply to be stopping to write a text message, but David gets him to drive on. He invites Mary Jane to go to a concert with him and she accepts. Her mother calls her to guilt her into driving her to the doctor’s office. While on her way she learns that her fellow anchor Charlie got fired, and runs into Andre again; she is incensed at him for not revealing that he was married.
She attends a meeting at work about Charlie’s departure and about the grim situation facing her and the rest of the newsroom. During this meeting they learn that an incoming hurricane has been upgraded in intensity. Her co-worker Mark thinks that he can keep his job by revealing that he is a homosexual, although Mary Jane does not believe that this will be effective. She and Kara discuss coverage of the incoming hurricane, but she is interrupted by Avery’s arrival. She wants to know the truth about Mary Jane’s interactions with Andre, pointing out that he has made numerous phone calls to her. She inquires about the details of Mary Jane’s relationship with Andre and she tells her about their history together, including probing and embarrassing details about their sexual interactions. While Avery is in the restroom, Mary Jane receives a call from her mother while simultaneously looking up Avery on the internet. Mary Jane hosts a segment on the hurricane on her show, featuring a segment from their young field reporter Lindsey Holmes. However, Lindsey is uneasy about being in the path of the hurricane and keeps asking for permission to leave, although Kara will not let her.
Both Kara and Mary Jane are asked to stay in the office to continue coverage of the hurricane, disrupting both of their plans; Mary Jane has the concert and Kara was supposed to attend her son’s piano recital. Kara prepares to shoot a satellite interview between Mary Jane and an elderly couple who have decided to weather the hurricane in their house. Mary Jane becomes quite concerned for their safety and asks if there is anything they can do to evacuate them. The interview goes on air, and Mary Jane appears to prepare to sign off, although Kara warns her not to. Before she can continue the elderly couple experiences a loud disturbance and suddenly their video cuts out, sending Kara into a panic. Mary Jane decides to complete the Lord’s Prayer, which the elderly woman on the other end had been reciting just before the video cut out. Upon going to commercial, Mary Jane becomes upset and tears off her body mic in an attempt to storm out of the studio. Kara tries to stop her, but Mary Jane feels as though they exploited the elderly couple “for ratings” and unnecessarily put them in danger. Kara counters that their story could serve as an example for others caught in severe weather.
Greg calls Kara and Mark into his office to inform him that his show’s ratings are poorer than expected and asks Kara to serve as a consultant to try to improve them. Mary Jane finally is afforded some leeway and asks David if he would want to go out, but he says that he is already meeting someone, and Mary Jane comes to believe that he is sleeping with another woman. He turns it around on her by deducing that she is sleeping with Andre. She is still incensed at him and hangs up on him. The next day she runs into Andre at the gym, and he again tries to make amends with her despite her animosity towards him. She is hurt because she believed she could start a life with him, but then discovered that he was married and had children; she tells him that she informed Avery of their affair. She seizes his phone in an attempt to delete nude photographs he took of her on it, although he claims that he erased them already. He allows her to look through it and she discovers that he is telling the truth. She also sees pictures of his children and says he has “a beautiful family.” She starts crying and he tries to comfort her, and they end up having sex in the gym’s showers. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: BET
- DATE: November 30, 1999
- RUNNING TIME: 0:41:08
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 122145
- GENRE: Drama
- SUBJECT HEADING: African-American Collection - Drama; Drama
- SERIES RUN: BET - TV series, 2013-2019
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Salim Akil … Executive Producer, Director
- Mara Brock Akil … Executive Producer, Created by
- Jessica Mecklenburg … Supervising Producer, Writer
- Paul Garnes … Producer
- Claire Brown … Producer
- Beth Tashjian … Co-Producer
- Gabrielle Union … Cast, Mary Jane Paul
- Lisa Vidal … Cast, Kara Lynch
- Margaret Avery … Cast, Helen Patterson
- Omari Hardwick … Cast, Andre Daniels
- Latarsha Rose … Cast, Dr. Lisa Hudson
- Aaron D. Spears … Cast, Mark Bradley
- Stephen Bishop … Cast, David Paulk
- Robinne Lee … Cast, Avery Daniels
- Michael H. Cole … Cast, Greg Stohl
- Ryan Homchick … Cast, Lance
- Jason Alexander Davis … Cast, John Lynch
- Anna Marie Dobbins … Cast, Lindsey Holmes
- Bobbie Elzey … Cast, Barbara Shelton
- Tom Thon … Cast, Harry Shelton
- Jennifer Malone … Cast, Stage Manager
- Timothy Hain … Cast, Reporter Bill
- Nick Basta … Cast, Robert
- Steve Young … Cast, Sawyer
- Harry J. Wells … Cast, Max Lynch
- Bryce Daniel Zentkovich … Cast, Scott Lynch
- Nelson Bonilla … Cast, Sgt. Lou Arlington
- Larry Rhem … Cast, Police Officer #1