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Original Air Date: January 14, 2008
LAUREN and ANDREW are out walking with COOPER, who’s trying to lose weight before the party she has to throw for rival lawyer Beverly Morgan at work. After the couple thank Cooper for helping them out with their will, the three bump into Paige and Gary Bartlett, the only neighbors in the area with children. The Bartletts seem to think that they’re going to be best friends with Lauren and Andrew as soon as Lauren gives birth. In that spirit, the Bartletts invite them to a barbecue that weekend, not sensing how much the other couple dislikes them. To help Lauren and Andrew escape, Cooper slyly wanders away and then calls them on her cell phone so they can fake an emergency and leave.
At home while getting everything together to finish the will, Lauren realizes they need to name legal guardians for their child if something should happen to them. Nobody in their families and inner circle of friends seems suitable, so they decide that JULIE and ERIC would be a good choice. When Lauren asks, however, Julie replies that she’d love to, but since she’s already overbooked, she could only agree if someone else backed out. Lauren and Andrew are shocked that Julie would choose people in her cake-decorating class over them.
Later, Cooper hires DANNY to be the bartender at her party for Beverly when the catering company she hired fails to send one. Danny ends up in the bathroom having sex with the birthday girl during the party, but Cooper stops herself from throwing him out when he reveals her rival has to be in court at 8am the next morning. Cooper then decides to leave them be in the hopes that Regina will get drunk, lose sleep, and perform awfully at work the next day.
Meanwhile, Andrew and Lauren still can’t find anyone to be their child’s legal guardian. When a boy wearing a cowboy outfit rides by on a little horse, the two figure out he must be attending the Bartletts’ party for their son. It then hits them how much the Bartletts love kids and what great guardians they would be. So, they head over to the party after Lauren cautions Andrew that they have to get to know Paige and Gary before asking them about something so important and personal.
Back to Cooper, who’s thrilled. Danny’s been out with Beverly four nights in a row, and her work at the law firm is noticeably slipping. At the same time, Danny is suffering because Beverly expects him to pay for everything and, according to him, not only is she a fine wine and Kobe beef kind of girl, but she doesn’t even bring her purse along on dates.
Elsewhere, Julie has started taking rides on a Hollywood tour bus because the vehicle’s motion helps her baby Perry sleep. Yet, she’s so annoying and meddlesome, instructing the driver which streets to drive on so as to avoid construction that wakes Perry up, the bus driver ends up kicking her off the bus. The couple sitting behind her discuss what’s happening in German, which quiets Perry and alerts Julie to the calming effect of the language on her child. So, she invites the couple over to her house to make a tape of them talking that she can use to quiet Perry in the future.
At Andrew and Lauren’s house, the Bartletts arrive for a lunch date, and everyone hits it off surprisingly well. When the Bartletts begin talking about how much they like being parents, Andrew, overwhelmed, suddenly blurts out, “Will you be the guardians of our unborn child?” Lauren unnecessarily tries to explain his question, which she thinks was too early, by making excuses that reveal they used to avoid the other couple because they thought they would be annoying or boring. Oddly enough (Not!), the meal ends on a sour note.
Later, Cooper and Danny are over and both become distressed when they learn that Lauren and Andrew chose strangers to be their child’s guardian over them. The two begin arguing over who would be a better guardian, helping Lauren and Andrew realize the solution to the issue: co-guardians comprised of their two best friends. The tables get turned soon, though, when Lauren and Andrew go for a walk and pass by the Bartletts’ house. As soon as Gary sees them heading his way, he fakes a call on his cell phone and runs inside the house. The avoiders are now being avoided.
MY TAKE: Notes from the Underbelly is definitely not my kind of comedy, mainly because the subject matter—couples coping with parenthood—does nothing for me whatsoever. I have to admit, though, that this episode had its moments, primarily involving Cooper and Danny, as well as a running joke where every time someone got the details of a movie slightly wrong, Andrew had to fight himself not to correct them out loud. It happened three times and was pretty funny each time.
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