41-06-01 Uncle Fletcher Telephones Aunt Bess

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN, BILL IDELSON AND CLARENCE HARTZELL

Uncle Fletcher, having been careless in not writing his niece Bess Helfer, is prodded by his landlady Mis' Keller to call her long distance. He goes to the Gook house where they can all say hello to the Helfers.

But Uncle Fletcher hasn't called long distance much and doesn't really know or remember the procedure and so has to ask for help. The Gooks all have their own way of calling long distance and all talk at the same time.

Poor Uncle Fletcher!

MIS' CROWE SAYS:

Uncle Fletcher comes over to make a long distance telephone call and receives some very unhelpful technical support from the family.

As dated as this might seem on the surface – long-distance phone calls are not the complicated process they once were – I think it’s extremely easy to see my own family in this episode. There have been times when my grandmother has been “helped” with a computer problem by me, my parents, my aunt, and a younger cousin all at once, and everybody involved thinks they’re the only one who knows how a computer works, and by the end you’re wondering if it’s even worth it to have one! At the end of the episode, Fletcher is so overwhelmed and defeated, he hangs up and goes home without ever having talked to Bess. If only they’d just left it to the telephone operators – they would have been happy to walk him through the process, I’m sure.

SEE THE SCRIPT (transcribed by Lydia Crowe)

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A very typical episode - but that's not a bad thing!

Trivia:

+ The Helfer's phone number is Carberry 18.

🎙Hear the Vic and Sadecast 077 – Uncle Fletcher to Telephone Bess Long Distance (11/16/17)

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