40-06-14 Freedom Last Day of School

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON 

The thrill...

Vic has special work from the office he has to do and Sade understands this; she's about to take her sewing upstairs and leave Vic to his paperwork. But before she can leave the room, Rush comes home and he's excited -seems it's the last day of school. Sade however, assures Vic she will shoo Rush outside so Vic can do his paperwork.

He never makes it outdoors. The phone rings a total of five times in this episode, all but one a call from Rush's friends as they jabber about the end of school.

Vic never gets mad - in fact, he's happy for Rush.

MIS' CROWE SAYS:
Hooray! It’s the last day of school! No more studies, no more books, no more teachers’ cranky looks! My first summer vacation as one of those cranky teachers begins tomorrow, so this is a well-timed episode.

Almost anyone who grew up in the United States knows exactly what Rush is feeling in this episode, and I think Rhymer did a great job distilling that euphoria into this little ten minute vignette. The tradition at Rush’s high school of bidding huge emotional farewells to everyone on the last day of school, even though it’s a small town and they’ll be seeing each other all summer long, seems like exactly the sort of goofy thing high school kids would do. Vic shows admirable patience and understanding with his son — Rush must’ve caught him on a good day (it’s certainly a far cry from his demeanor in “Office Invoices - Magnifying Glass”). It’s just a nice, pleasant episode. 

This little moment is worth mentioning:

SADE: For you, Willie.
RUSH: For me, eh? Bluetooth Johnson, no doubt.
SADE: It’s a little girl.
RUSH: [pleased] Well, well, well. Anabel Hemstreet. Thank you, Mom.
SADE: Uh-huh.
RUSH: [clears throat] [on phone] Ah, yes, Anabel [pause] Who? [pause] Oh, you, hey, Eunice?

Rush sure seemed certain that was going to be Anabel on the phone! And, of course, we know their relationship has a long and ambiguous history. Perhaps young romance is in store for this summer. And, then again, perhaps not. (And what about Eunice? Rush hadn’t even considered the possibility of a girl other than Anabel being interested in calling him at home. Does Rush have another admirer whom he didn’t even know about?)

 SEE THE SCRIPT (transcribed by Lydia Crowe)

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Who can ever forget the feeling when school was let out for the summer?  It's one of the greatest feelings in the world.

And though nine times out of ten Vic would be as upset as a horse at the phone calls while he's busy, in this episode he simply rolls with the flow and seems to smile along the way as he remembers the feeling he had when he was younger.

Trivia:

+ Friends who call Rush in this episode: Eunice Raypole, Blue Tooth Johnson, Smelly Clark and Rooster Davis.

+ Ruthie Stembottom calls too - she makes a date this evening for the two couples to play "500."

+ Though he bid a school year farewell to both Blue Tooth and Rooster, Rush is attending the movies with them this every evening.

+ Rush said Mildred Tisdel and Hilda Reagan said goodbye, hugged each other and cried - and they live next door to each other! This is the first episode in which Hilda Reagan has been mentioned.

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