Adult adam: Back in the '80s, you couldn't keep up with all the new dance styles.
There was breakin', poppin' and lockin', the running man,
And something called the electric boogaloo.
Unfortunately, I had two left feet.
I often found walking a hard enough challenge.
You okay?
Me? Yeah. (chuckles)
Been working out a lot. My quads locked up on me.
That ever happen to you?
Um, no.
Das coo', das coo'.
(chuckles) here you go.
Well, thanks for the help.
Hey, um, you going to the dance Friday?
Are you going? Yeah, maybe.
Save me a dance?
Oh, definitely. Sounds scrumptious.
Adult adam: Dana was amazing.
She wanted to dance with me,
And she didn't care that I used words like "scrumptious."
Nothing was gonna bring me down.
Beverly: Adam!
Hurry up! We're late for your dentist appointment!
Well, almost nothing.
Do you need to make...
Make poo-poos?
I know you refuse to go at school,
But we don't have time to stop at home,
So if you have to make poo-poos, then make poo-poos here.
Oh, my god! I'm fine! Just let me in and let's go!
Well, first, tell me who that girl was.
What girl? There was no girl.
You were talking to dana caldwell.
Why do you ask me a question if you already know the answer?
Unlock the door!
(singsong voice) what were you talking about?
Nothing! What were you talking about?
Nothing! Were you talking about the dance?
Tell me everything.
Let's just go to the dentist already!
What were you talking about?
Oh, my god! I'm the one kid in this world
Who's looking forward to getting his teeth drilled.
Sheesh. All right, captain no fun.
Adult adam: With a smother like mine,
You have to shut her down fast.
You can't open the door, even a crack.
Drive!
So, then, dana asked adam if he was going to the dance,
And adam said yes.
So, then, she said to save her a dance.
How do you know all this if you were in the car?
Sometimes a mother just knows.
And I trained myself to read lips a little bit.
Huh. Read my lips.
You need help.
Murray, this is a big deal.
Our baby has his first girlfriend.
I think you know what that means.
It's time for the talk. What talk?
You know, about the birds and the bees
And what they do when they've had a couple of white wines
And put on a lionel richie record?
Yeah, that talk. Not for me.
Not for you? You're his father.
Just give him the same talk you gave barry.
(sighs) ooh, here's the thing...
I never did that. What?
You were supposed to talk that talk with him about three years ago!
I know. I know. What can I say?
It got away from me. Well, do it now.
What's the rush? There's not, like, a line outside of his bedroom.
Murray! Fine!
(no audio)
No, you are a pain in my ass!
That's right. I read lips.
♪ I'm twisted up inside
♪ but nonetheless I feel the need to say
♪ I don't know the future
♪ but the past keeps getting clearer every day ♪
Adult adam: It was November 22, 1980-something,
And I was gonna learn to dance.
What do you mean you don't know how to dance?
You're my grandson. You've got rhythm in your blood!
I'm an open book. Teach me.
Adult adam: As always, my grandfather would give me all the answers I needed.
He had never failed me before.
A-shuffle and a-cha!
(singsong voice) a-shuffle and a-cha!
A-squibbidy bee, a-squibbidy boo!
And we take a break 'cause my foot is swollen!
Adult adam: There was a first time for everything.
I had to find another teacher.
Erica, teach me to dance, and fast!
What did he say? Come on! Then what did he say?
Please! I need to learn how to move my body to music!
Lainey's in crisis.
Her parents bought her a new car and it's yellow!
Barry: What's the matter little buddy?
Got a problem barry can solve?
No. You'll just make fun of me.
What?
I would never do that.
Fine. I need someone to teach me how to dance.
Ha! Loser.
But you came to the right guy.
But I'm not coming to you. Let's do this.
(dance music plays)
When are you gonna start dancing?
Shut up!
My body's becoming one with the beat.
Airplane!
The wave!
Crab legs!
Helicopter!
And turtle spin!
Breakin'.
How does any of this help me?
I need to learn how to dance with a girl!
Yeah, can't help you with that.
But I can help you with this.
The worm!
(thudding) ow!
Adult adam: After I got an ice pack for barry's face,
I decided to teach myself how to dance
Because time was running out.
(dance music plays)
Mm, get funky, snuggle monkey.
(panting) wait, what? This isn't the a-team.
No, leave it on. We dance to that in jazzercize.
Adult adam: Maybe I was desperate, or maybe I was just hypnotized
By my mom's surprisingly sweet moves.
Mom...
Do you think you could teach me how to do that?
Adult adam: I let her in the door.
Get over here.
For the first time, my mother and I
Were on the same team with the same goal.
(dance music plays)
There you go. Perfect.
And feel free to jazz it up with some head movements.
No one's gonna tell you you're moving your head too much.
Look, we're kid 'n' play!
(laughs)
John travolta. There you go.
It was awesome...
Until this.
(slow ballad playing)
Well, this has been great. See ya!
Wait a minute, mister.
I'm not letting you go before I teach you how to slow dance.
No. No way. Not interested.
Sweetie, I know you better than anyone.
I know this is what's stressing you out.
Hand placement, where do you look,
How do you keep from stepping on her feet?
Those are all valid questions, yes.
Adult adam: I had come this far. I couldn't turn back now.
Screw it. Let's do this.
First, you, uh, put your hands on my waist.
No, thank you. Adam, I'm your mother.
That's the point!
Just rock back and forth, very gently.
Right and left.
Right...
Left.
What are you doing?
Ohh! (muffled) no snuggies! No snuggies!
You smell like the dryer.
No snuggies! Honey, you're so yummy!
That's not cool. I'm out of here.
But thanks for the help!
And just to be clear, I know I'm yelling,
But I'm actually very appreciative!
Adult adam: While I was learning to dance,
My dad was ready to do some teaching of his own.
What are you doing?
Eating boo berry.
Good for you.
Very smart.
Feed your body.
(laughter on tv)
So, your mom found out that I never got around to giving you the talk.
What talk?
The "people making people" talk.
Ohh, that talk!
Exactly!
So, if she asks, tell her we just had it.
But we didn't. We don't need to.
I mean, you're a grown man, and you know everything.
Of course! Yeah!
I do have one question.
Is it true you can get a girl pregnant
If you french kiss her after midnight?
What are you talking about? Like in the movie gremlins.
If you kiss after midnight, the saliva goes into her tummy,
And 'cause of her hormones and the moon,
Six weeks later, a baby comes out.
Gremlins?
You think...
How could you even?
Ugh!
Where are you going? I got to regroup!
I wasn't prepared for this! I need to prepare.
Adult adam: Turns out, my dad's world wasn't the only one caving in.
Do you want the rad news or the totally rad news?
Don't say "rad." I got these on sale
And thought they'd be perfect to wear to the dance.
You like 'em?
They made a parachute into clothing!
Damn right, I like 'em!
And the even better news is
I will be joining you at the dance!
What? I know! (giggles)
I signed up to be a chaperone.
That way, I'll be there to help with your moves.
I don't need help. Don't help me.
All kids are embarrassed by their parents.
But don't think of me as your mom.
Think of me as your coach.
I don't want to think of you at all when I'm dancing with dana.
You won't even know I'm there.
And if I'm lucky, I'll get to see my little baby have his first slow dance!
Mwah! (giggles)
Adult adam: I'd done the unthinkable.
I opened the door, and my mom had burst right through it!
What did he say?
Have you lost your mind? (receiver thuds)
I slow-danced with mom!
What? You heard me.
What do you mean? What are you saying?
I slow-danced with mom.
You slow-danced with mom?
This doesn't concern you! The hell it doesn't!
You can't go slow-dancing with mom
And not expect me to have lots of opinions
On this controversial matter.
It was a moment of weakness and she taught me how to dance,
And now she's gonna be a chaperone tonight and totally humiliate me!
Now you've opened the door.
I know.
Just tell me how to close it.
There is no way!
Once the door's open, it stays open forever!
I sent her a letter from camp saying I was homesick.
And the next night, she showed up in the top bunk.
Look, this is a picture of us in a canoe together!
Never again, adam. Never again!
This is all so upsetting.
I got to go. I can't be here.
Okay. There's got to be a way out of this.
Yes! Lies and deception! That's your department.
I'll think of something, I promise.
I love you. Don't say that.
Look into my eyes and know that I love you.
Get out!
Adam: Love you!
Again with the boo berry.
You know it.
All right.
Here we go. Time for the talk.
All right, before we get down to the nuts and bolts...
(laughs) nuts.
(groans)
All right, instead of talking about
Male and female body parts, we're gonna use the names
Of our favorite baseball players as code words.
Look, you have a mike schmidt.
Ladies have a wade boggs.
And... Why are we doing this?
This way, we won't be talking about anything horrible.
We're just gonna be talking about baseball...
Like, when a man loves a woman,
Mike schmidt steps up to the plate against wade boggs.
Wade boggs plays third. Why is he pitching?
Fine! Wade boggs is now steve carlton.
Steve? That's clearly a dude's name.
Okay, the girl's parts are gonna be, uh, bo jackson.
That makes no sense.
Bo's a girl's name!
It's wintertime.
That's when bo jackson plays football.
He'd never be on the same field as mike schmidt.
I never thought that I would ever say this to you,
But you're over-thinking this, you moron.
I'm a moron?
Well, you're a mike schmidt!
Take that back! Never!
Get your head out of your orel hershiser
And come back here right now!
(crunching)
For what it's worth,
I found that whole baseball thing very confusing.
That bad, huh? It was bad.
What kind of 16-year-old boy
Doesn't even know the basics of the birds and the bees?
Murray, he knows everything.
I gave him the talk three years ago when you dropped the ball.
He's just messing with you.
So he wants a sex talk, huh?
Well, I'm gonna give him a sex talk, but good.
Or, instead of trying to spite him,
You actually have a real conversation about it,
Which would mean the world to him.
No, I'm gonna go with my thing.
Adult adam: As my dad was putting his plan into motion,
I was praying erica was, as well.
Oh, balls.
Hey, boopie. Look what mama bought.
Now we're parachute pals.
No! That's not a thing. Take 'em off.
I paid for the pants. Don't wear the pants.
I'm wearing the pants. Don't wear the pants.
Hey, mom?
Oh, look, it's erica.
Check out this box of old photos that I found in the basement.
Man, such good memories.
We should, like, organize these in some sort of way.
Maybe in, like, a book?
That would be fun.
Holy (bleep) erica.
I have been begging you
To make a scrapbook with me for years!
Well, let's make it right now. Oh, now?
God, no. I've got to chaperone adam's dance tonight.
Tomorrow morning, we'll wake up at dawn and really hit it hard.
What do you say?
Eh... I'm kind of losing interest.
Oh, no, no. Don't lose interest.
Um... I can do both.
Adam, I'll meet you at the dance.
Erica, don't move.
I'm just gonna run upstairs and get my smock and glue gun.
There's 1,000 pictures in this box.
There's no way she's gonna make it to that dance.
Have I mentioned that I love you?
Say it one more time, and I won't help you.
Adult adam: Erica had actually pulled it off.
My mom was gonna be stuck home all night!
All right, got our cocoa.
Let's cozy up and spend the next few hours
Reliving my entire life.
And...Done!
What? How did you do this?
Please, I've had this whole thing
Mapped out in my mind for years.
You pressed flowers...
And put my favorite music lyrics beneath each photo.
Take some time with it. (chuckles)
It's like a beautiful kaleidoscope of my life.
(chuckles) yeah, touching stuff.
Now, I've got to get to that dance.
The jam's not gonna pump itself up. (chuckles)
Adult adam: While erica's plan had failed,
My dad was giving his one more shot.
Hey, uh, bar, you got a sec?
I think we should have a talk, man to man.
Really? Okay.
I've never been a great communicator,
So I think I should keep things as direct and exact as possible.
All right. So, we're not just gonna have the talk.
We're gonna experience the talk.
We're gonna do some role-playing.
I'm gonna be the girl. You'll be the boy.
And we're gonna learn where babies come from with our hands.
Take a fraggle. I don't want the fraggle.
(high-pitched voice) I'm a pretty fraggle girl.
Would you like to come up to my condo for a nightcap?
I've been so lonely since I put myself through nursing school.
Fraggles don't own condos!
Take it. Put your hand in the fraggle.
Keep the fraggle away from me!
Take it now! Stop it! I was messing with you!
I know everything, okay?
I know you know everything.
Then why are you torturing me?
Because you tortured me!
What kind of moron makes their dad
Give them the talk when they don't need the talk?
Who does that? Me.
And you know why?
'cause you couldn't be bothered
To have the talk when I actually needed it.
Dads are supposed to teach their kids stuff...
How to throw a fastball and change a tire and shave.
You never taught me anything.
In my defense, I know very little.
And fraggles, they can't be nurses.
They dance their cares away.
Adult adam: As my dad was striking out at home,
I was ready to hit the dance floor at school.
The only problem was that at a junior-high dance,
Kids don't dance, but that didn't matter.
With my mom distracted by erica at home,
It was time for me to show dana my awesome moves.
May I have this dance? (laughs)
Kidding, I'm just here to chaperone.
Unless you're bored. Then let's boogie.
(gasps) what are you doing here?
I told you I'd make it.
Now I'm gonna need you to leave.
Will you stop with that?
I really want to be here at this dance.
You can't deny me that pleasure, adam.
Go away!
But you're the one who asked me to teach you how to dance.
It was a mistake.
I asked for your help in a moment of weakness.
It'll never happen again.
Okay. I guess I'll just go then.
(swishing)
Adult adam: The sound of those swishing parachute pants running away
Was the sound of victory.
So, then, why did I feel so bad?
Even though I was forced to hurt my mom in the name of love,
I had to forge on.
I'd charm dana with a cup of hawaiian punch
And then make my move.
Dana. (panting) hey.
Want some punch? No, I'm just gonna go
Hang outside until my mom dances herself out.
I didn't know your mom was a chaperone.
Yeah, and she went out for margaritas
With the other moms before the dance.
It's so humiliating.
Adult adam: Turns out, my mom was right about one thing...
Every kid is embarrassed by their parents. Mom!
And it gave me an idea. Mom!
Don't worry. I'm just leaving.
No. I need your help.
Oh, no. You don't get my help.
Not after you said you're never gonna ask for it again.
That's not how this works.
I'm sorry, okay?
Sometimes, I need your help.
But sometimes, I just want you gone.
Well, that's confusing!
I know. It makes no sense.
But for now, that's just how it's gonna be.
So, what do you want?
I want you to go on that dance floor
And just be yourself.
I can do that.
♪ we can dance if we want to
♪ we can leave your friends behind
♪ 'cause your friends don't dance, and if they don't dance
♪ well, they're no friends of mine
♪ say, we can go where we want to
♪ a place where they will never find
♪ and we can act like we come from out of this world
♪ leave the real one far behind
Well, what do you know?
No one's looking at your mom anymore.
Did you do that for me?
Well, I definitely didn't do it for me.
♪ we can go where we want to
♪ the night is young, and so am I
Adult adam: My plan had worked.
I'd saved dana,
But I couldn't have predicted what happened next.
My mom actually got
Junior-high-school kids to dance...
And it was epic.
♪ and you can act real rude and totally removed
♪ and I can act like an imbecile
♪ say, we can dance, we can dance
♪ everything's out of control ♪
(slow ballad playing)
Come on! I like the fast ones!
You know what? I'm gonna go out and get some fresh air.
Why don't you come with me?
Have fun, baby.
Adult adam: Normally, we don't say "I love you" in our family.
Luckily for me, my mom could read lips.
♪ I was always reachin'
♪ you were just a girl I knew
♪ I took for granted the friend I have in you
Want some company?
I am a terrible father.
I'll take that as a yes.
(sighs)
I don't even know how to talk to my kids.
I'm aware.
I always thought that I would do
Everything different than my dad did.
And look at me, I'm just like him.
Murray, you're nothing like him.
What are you talking about?
We both look alike.
We both scream all the time.
We both walk around in our underwear.
But your dad would never be out here right now, feeling like this.
And that's why you're different.
Adult adam: As for my dad, he'd never be a good communicator.
Damn it!
Has anyone seen the bottle opener?
Adult adam: But he was still able to teach you a few things.
Here. Let me show you something.
Ooh.
Little party trick. The ladies love it.
Not bad.
Don't just stand there.
Go get another one, and I'll show you how.
Adult adam: That night, I learned that some events
Can't be captured in a scrapbook.
You just got to be there and witness them yourself.
♪ then I touched your hand
♪ I could hear you whisper
♪ the search is over
♪ love was right before my eyes ♪
(dance music plays)
Mrs. Goldberg.
Mrs. Goldberg!
It's time to go home.
Mmm, dances don't really end,
And the invitation for this one said,
"6:00 to question mark," so...
That was a nine.
(sighs)
(music stops)
Okay, well, that was just rude.
(bell dings)