Georgie Bukatinsky (Annette Kalicki) bounds onto the stage of Tony Giordano's club and welcomes us to Girl's Night Out. "Let's hear it for gals who work!"

While her husband is at home doing the dishes, she introduces us to the featured attraction of the evening - Buddy "Keno" Walsh (James Finley) - the personification of male physical perfection in an expensive business suit, though not for long. Soon enough, Keno is down to a G-String and accepting the cheers and screams (and dollar bills) from the women in the club.

While the women are having a night out, the guys are having a different kind of meeting. They're all out of work because the steel plant in town has closed, and they're at their union meeting house to pick up their weekly checks. Their discontent is beginning to show, and Jerry Lukowski (Patrick D. McMahan) commiserates with his best friend, the hopelessly overweight Dave Bukatinsky (Dave Moretti), as well as the somewhat simple-minded but good-hearted Ethan Girard (Ernie Achenbach), and the sweet Malcolm MacGregor (Rich Shegogue), who lives alone with his infirm mother - they all feel like SCRAP.

After the meeting, Jerry, who shares custody for his 12-year-old son Nathan (Zack Phillips), takes him to the bus stop which is outside Tony Giordano's club. Nathan tells Jerry not to worry, that he will get a job. Jerry says that he knows he will, but he's "waiting for the right situation... you don't want to see your old man bussing tables, do you?" Nathan's response is simply "I wouldn't mind".