39-05-11 The Davis' are Asleep Upstairs

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY AND BILL IDELSON

Sade is out of town and it's late night in the Gook household. Vic's just come home from the lodge and Vic wants to go to bed.

click to enlarge

But come to find out, Rush has secretly stowed away both Davis brothers (Rotten and Rooster) and their cousin Roper; all who need a bed to sleep in with family visiting the Davis house.

When Vic realizes that Roper (a person he's never even seen before) is in his bed, good-natured Vic begins to get angry -- but not enough to blow up.

MIS' CROWE SAYS:
Vic comes home from a late lodge meeting to discover some surprise overnight guests.

Rush is such a master manipulator. He doesn’t even give any indication that anything is off for the first couple of minutes here — just stalls for time with normal conversation. He’s only up late because he couldn’t put his Third Lieutenant Stanley book down. And he even makes a preemptive attempt to soften Vic up towards Rooster by telling a story about a compliment he gave Vic. He doesn’t cut to the chase until it becomes apparent that Vic has no more patience for chit-chat. And even then, he only drops one little bit of the story at a time instead of giving it to Vic all at once.

My burning question every time I hear this episode: why didn’t they just put Roper on the davenport? The rules of hospitality must have been different in 1939. And I suppose if Vic came home to Roper sprawled out on the davenport, Rush would have to explain his presence right away instead of breaking the news to Vic slowly.

It’s notable that Paul Rhymer makes one of his rare mentions of World War II in this script:

VIC: …Then a half a dozen of us dropped in at the Greek’s and ate scrambled eggs and talked over the European situation. 

Vic and Sade was a light-hearted, escapist comedy, so acknowledgements of the Depression and the war were few and far between. (The only episode that dealt with the situation directly was “Scrap Drive.”) This line of Vic’s gives us a little glimpse into reality. The image of this group of friends in a diner late at night, talking seriously about an overseas war and an uncertain future for the U.S., is a rare reminder of the anxious and sometimes difficult world Vic and Sade's listeners lived in. But it's only a nod, brief and easily-missed — our main concern, of course, is what Rush has been up to all evening and where Vic is going to sleep and what Sade is going to say about all this when she gets back from Carberry. 

SEE THE SCRIPT (transcribed by Lydia Crowe)

________________________

Not a very memorable show, with almost no memorable lines, whatsoever. Not a bad show by any means; just not among the best.

Vic shows that when he's alone with Rush he can be very tolerable and usually very kind to him. When Sade is around, he generally turns into a bit of an uncaring monster. *

(* Don't get me wrong. It's just a figure of speech.)

Trivia:

+ Vic went the to The Greek's with some lodge brothers.

+ The Davis' had relations over from Grand Rapids' Michigan. This is where Roper is from.

+ Names of some of the other relatives staying at the Davis household from Grand Rapids, Michigan: Uncle Funny, Aunt Gray, Cousin Harry, Uncle Frank, Aunt Wee and Cousin Flub.

+ Roper Davis used to play professional baseball (3rd base) with the East Lansing Michigan Skunks.

+ In this episode we find out that indeed, Rotten and Rooster Davis are brothers.

Download the complete commercial-free, sound-improved episode!