Bagels with Bruce

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Tanner '88 episode
"Bagels with Bruce"
Episode no.	6
Prod. code	3B
Orig. Airdate	May 16, 1988
Writer(s)	Garry Trudeau
Director	Robert Altman

Season 1 February 1988 – August 1988
The Dark Horse (Part One) The Dark Horse (Part Two) For Real The Night of the Twinkies Moonwalker and Bookbag Bagels with Bruce Child's Play The Great Escape The Girlfriend Factor Something Borrowed, Something New The Boiler Room The Reality Check
List of all Tanner '88 episodes...

"Bagels with Bruce" was the sixth episode of the HBO series Tanner '88 to air. It originally aired on May 16, 1988.

1 Synopsis
2 Cast
- 2.1 Principal Cast
- 2.2 Guest Cast

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

In this episode, Jack and Alex have just been released from jail after having previously been arrested in "Moonwalker and Bookbag". Immediately after leaving the jail, they are ambushed by reporters. Jack begins to make a statement, but Alex takes the spotlight. She begins talking about her stance on the apartheid issue in South Africa. It is clear that Jack is distraught over his feelings that his daughter is defining policy for him.

Meanwhile, Stringer is still suffering from the effects of the Rev. Billy Crier fiasco from "The Night of the Twinkies." It seems to him that the others are still ignoring him after that mistake. Fed up, Stringer runs into Barney Kittman, a staffer from the Dukakis campaign. Barney persuades Stringer to join Dukakis's campaign, and they set up a meeting to talk things over. At this meeting, Stringer is very concerned about anyone finding out that he has defected. However, his paranoia is calmed when he learnes of how much more sophisticated and complex Dukakis's campaign is than Tanner's. Stringer is surprised to discover that Joanna Buckley, Jack's girlfriend, is Dukakis's Deputy Campaign Manager; and he worries that the news of his jump to Dukakis will make it to Jack.

Fed up with his feelings that the choices in his campaign seem out of his hands, Jack agrees to have bagels with former 1988 presidential candidate Bruce Babbitt. Jack and Babbitt discuss campaign strategy and Babbitt encourages Jack to take risks like he did, even though Babbitt admits that taking risks ruined his campaign. After his meeting with Bruce, Jack returns to campaign headquarters to discover that Deke has finished a new campaign advertisement. The advertisement is both shocking and offensive. In the ad, Deke has used entries from Jack's own personal diary that he took from Jack's room without permission; and the ad also admits that Jack has experimented with drugs, a fact that Jack did not feel comfortable revealing. Jack is appalled by the advertisement and leaves the room without speaking about it.