Share
Clip description
Taylor’s (Marny Kennedy) parents are planning their act for the school talent contest and she is desperate to stop them. Seeing a story about adoption on television, Taylor decides that this is what has happened to her, and if she can prove that Don (Andrew Blackman) and Glenda (Rachel Blakely) are not her ‘parents’ then they won’t be allowed to appear in the talent show. Hector (Nicolas Dunn) decides that she needs to get DNA testing done.
Curator’s notes
The juxtaposition of perspectives is cleverly done in this series. On one hand Taylor (Marny Kennedy) focuses on all the embarrassing things her parents do – such as dancing together, her mother belly dancing, and then, yuck oh yuck, parents kissing. It’s enough to send a girl to her room. On the other hand, while Don (Andrew Blackman) and Glenda (Rachel Blakely) Fry are certainly sometimes inadvertently embarrassing in their exuberance, they also come across to the audience as fun and loving parents. But Taylor cannot see this.
Reflected in a mirror while plastering her face with pimple cream, she is the picture of pre-teen angst, talking to the audience as she ponders her dilemma. (Note the spotty cow underneath mirroring the pimple cream spots – a delightful touch.) Grasping for an idea, Taylor decides that she must be adopted and she can justify it because in her eyes, she is different to everyone else in her family. In a comic aside, Skinny Vinnie the greyhound (voiced by Todd Levi) puts this crazy idea into perspective when he tells Taylor that he’s really a schnauzer, swapped at birth. Given that the dog’s words come from Taylor’s imagination, it probably shows that she really doesn’t believe it herself – but in her enthusiasm for an answer she ignores her common sense. Loyal, clever Hector (Nicolas Dunn) has all the scientific ideas to help her get the proof she needs.
Taylor’s sister Layla (Dajana Cahill) adds the nasty older sibling dimension to the family dynamics and her boyfriend Anthony’s greyhound Skinny Vinnie is important in the final outcome of this episode.
