SCRIPT (transcribed by Garry Motter)
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This episode is special because it represents the audio debut of Russell Miller into the Gook family. |
| Russell with Sade and Vic |
The part of Russell was played by David Whitehouse and there's not much information available about him to be found anywhere although there is this article here, which I dug up several months ago. We do know the real reason he's been added to the family; he's an extra body, a son-figure.
Russell is certainly no clone of Rush but he does a pretty good job.
Trivia:
+ Mr. Bainbridge from Dixon, McClellan and Pete McStingel are mentioned but nothing else was said about them. I'm going to assume that McClellan is the train conductor that Uncle Fletcher gave a cupcake to in this episode.
+ Uncle Fletcher tells the story of Ernie Spotters from Belvidere. He could play the violin, guitar and mouth organ. The gang tried to play a trick on him by giving him an anvil to play but he just sat there. He wore a pair of shoes for six weeks then tried to take them back to the store. He loved apples but hated fish. He was right-handed and left-handed both. He never trusted smoking tobacco; was afraid it would explode.
+ Uncle Fletcher tells of Minnesota Hoosh who would smoke but he wouldn't chew tobacco.
+ Uncle Fletcher says that Harry Wool knew a man that knew Fred Stembottom.
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[1] On the air: the encyclopedia of old-time radio, page 701, By John Dunning
i'm not a fan of russell, the character or the actor playing him. as a character, he *is* a (watered-down) clone of rush. as an actor, he's nowhere near as talented as bill idelson, who brought so much life to rush. i find the precocious vocabulary that was so naturalistic with rush sounds very awkward coming out of russell's mouth.
ReplyDeleterussell sounds much of the time like he's reading lines from a script. on any other program, i'd probably not pay particular notice, but the original 4 actors were each, in their individual ways, so absolutely perfect in their roles, russell's so-so performance really unbalances the program for me. unfortunately, by the time bill idelson returned from WWII service, the show was no longer restricted to the 4 principle characters. so even though it's great to hear him back on the program, those shows still aren't anywhere near as good on the whole as the 1937-41 shows, imo.
Yes, I agree. The show up to the first Dottie Brainfeeble are the best by far. But what can we do about it? :)
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