44-01-12 First Robin of the Season Racket

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND  DAVID WHITEHOUSE

• Sade: "Boy are my toes cold. Feel like thirty-six chunks of ice."
• Russell mentions mom was calling on Mis' Hyster on Lee Street.
• Russell mentions Harry Antidisestablishmentarianistic Jackson - who is a female and a member of the Thimble Club!   Sade: "…and gollies, she hasn't got any more the funniest thing to tell than a rabbit."
• For years Hank Gutstop (Hank's full name is Franklin J. Gutstop) has traditionally spotted the first robin of the season, which means money to Hank – he gets his picture in the paper, bird-lovers offer him odd jobs at good pay.  People invite him to Sunday supper. Pretty girls shower him with candy, books, and flowers.  The previous year, Rishigan Fishigan noticed Hank's many benefits and tried to cut in on the action.  This year, Stacey Yopp and Y.I.I.Y. Skeeber decided they wanted in on the action.
• Vic, as arbitrator, decided the four will get equal credit for seeing the first robin. Tomorrow morning they will all walk east on West Chestnut Street on their way to work and will suddenly see the first robin of the season.  Vic has equipped them with a tale to fend off folks who smell a rat.  Stacy Yopp will direct the group's attention to his sister's house and they all see the robin at once.
• B. B. Baugh calls to announce he's seen the first robin of the season, and his picture's in tonight's newspaper.  
• Vic (to phone): "Bee bee, bye bye.  I mean, bye-bye, B. B... - compiled by Barbara Schwarz, edited by Jimbo Mason

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This episode provides a lot surprises in terms of trivia.  

Harry Antidisestablishmentarianistic Jackson isn't even the oddest name is the series...

44-01-06 Letter To Walter (another version)

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND  DAVID WHITEHOUSE

Sade gets to thinking about her sister Bess in Carberry, (yes, another letter), which leads her to prod Vic to write Walter.  Vic has nothing to say to Walter, so he writes him about stuff he had found in the newspaper.

Sade gets upset and goes to bed early, which is the kiss of death in the Gook household.

SEE THE SCRIPT (part 1) (part 2) (part 3)

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Though this script idea is very similar to this one, it is quite different.  Rush was in the previous version, and got Vic in trouble with Sade.  This episode sports Russell, who is more interested in talking about Oyster Krecker's cousin Lombard than anything else.  Both versions have pretty much the same ending.

Sade thinks Vic can write Walter just like he writes his pals in the lodge, but she fails to realize that he dislikes his brother-in-law, for all kinds of reasons that are never expressed on the program, only implied.  Vic would never come right out and tell Sade that Walter is a fat-head.  Doing so would only anger and hurt her.  Instead, he just ignores Walter - and ignores thinking about him too, it seems, or at least as little as possible. 

When he is prodded to write him, he remembers (perhaps) that in the first version of this episode, Sade told him:

SADE: Put down a little chatty talky-talk.

VIC: Such as what? 

SADE: Oh... "Business is fine... I suppose you read in the newspaper about this, that, and the other thing. Looks like big doin's in Washington, D.C. with Congress making different laws..." You know...

Though she didn't tell him to copy from the newspaper (he did this in both letters), Vic has such a poor relationship with Walter that basically, this is all he can find to say to him.  It's like talking about the weather with a stranger, something I know that I am prone to do in that situation where I am almost forced into talking to someone I don't know.  Vic doesn't know Walter - and doesn't want to, either!

Sade mentions he should rattle off lodge trash to Walter, but Vic seems to think that lodge business should stay in the lodge.  Lodge secrets, no matter how small and insignificant, are still lodge secrets.  And he is the Exalted Big Dipper, after all.  Will Sade never learn?

Trivia:

+ Writer Paul Rhymer does a very interesting thing here; he has Russell use the word proffering, a 12th century word that pretty much means to offer.  He seemed to enjoy using archaic words in his scripts.

+ Cousin Lombard is a fellow I'd like to know a whole lot more about.

+ The letter to Walter:

"Dear Walter, How is every little thing with you?  We're all first-rate. Harry Murchison and family of 818 West Chestnut Street is moving to Fiendish, Indiana the first of next month.  His brother Clifford is the proprietor of a large shoe store in that city, and a partnership is to be set up.  Mr. & Mrs. Murchison and their two beautiful little girls, Elizabeth and Dorothy, have many friends in this community who will be sad to see them leave.  Mr. Murchison will be remembered as solo-trombonist with the Sewage Disposal Workers' Semi-Classical Silver Cornet Band.  The best wishes of hundreds of local people will accompany the Murchisons to their new home.  Well, Walter, I guess that's all for this time.  Yours truly, Vic."

36-12-17 Sade Goes Christmas Shopping (Joyeux Noel)

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Sade comes home very tired after battling the Christmas shoppers at Yamilton's; but the men are just as tired from their day.

SEE THE SCRIPT SYNOPSIS

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You will find a lot of similarities with this episode and 44-07-18 Fantastic Sale at Yamilton's.

TRIVIA:
* One of the funnier conversations in the series appears in this episode:

RUSH: I been playin' basketball in the gym ever since school let out.  I can hardly drag one foot after the other.

VIC: I been manipulating large business enterprises.  I can hardly drag one brain after the other.  

Joyeux Noel:

was a series of widespread unofficial ceasefires that took place along the Western Front around Christmas 1914, during World War I. Through the week leading up to Christmas, parties of German and British soldiers began to exchange seasonal greetings and songs between their trenches; on occasion, the tension was reduced to the point that individuals would walk across to talk to their opposite numbers bearing gifts. On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, many soldiers from both sides – as well as, to a lesser degree, from French units – independently ventured into "no man's land", where they mingled, exchanging food and souvenirs. As well as joint burial ceremonies, several meetings ended in carol-singing. Troops from both sides were also friendly enough to play games of football with one another. (Source: Wikipedia)