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."

46-06-27 Assembling a Piano

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

Uncle Fletcher promises he will revive a thrown-out, chopped up piano so that Vernon Korkell can give Rush piano lessons.

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Welcome to (what I call) "Series 3" of Vic and Sade. The episode is intertwined with a lazy bassoon/fat alto saxophone in almost a cartoonish way. I'm not sure I'm quite enamored with it. The episode in full lasts 30 minutes; about 22 minutes plus when all the junk has been taken out.  All known surviving copies of this episode were already edited, thus this is not my editing job.

"Series 3" has a live audience.

Trivia:

+ Sade's daily newspaper love story has lately been about the Hawaiian islands.

+ Vic reads in the paper that "Mr. Ed McNilch invented a bicycle that could say 'mama.'" This is a big part of Vic and Sade nostalgia. But you may have read erroneously that the man was named Godfrey Dimlock; the below sound clip will prove this to be untrue: {{{HEAR}}}

+ Vic also reads that Mis' Cora Bucksaddle "swallowed a shotgun."

+ Robert and Slobert Hink and Cupid and Stupid Golfbake were mentioned in the local paper, even though both live in Hoopston, which is many miles away. Each couple was mentioned as going to see a Four-Fisted Frank Fuddleman and Gloria Golden movie. Why it was in the local paper is anyone's guess.

+ The actress who plays Mis' Harris in this episode is definitely not the same one who played the part in "Series 2."

+ Vernon Korkell's mother-in-law mowed the ivy off the side of her house, even though her arms got tired holding up the lawnmower and she was on a step ladder....

+ Mis' Keller's dog is named "Elizabeth."

+ B.B. Baugh uses piano wire for suspenders, Pelter Unbleat uses piano wire for an auxilary cord for his automobile.

+ Rush is asked to do his imitation of a man with his head caught in a revolving door at the post office.

His voice register is noticeably lower than the previous time he did such an imitation. In that episode, it was the Brick Mush man who got his head caught in a revolving door.

+ Sade says she was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and Uncle Fletcher says he was born in Tomahawk, Wisconsin.

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42-08-20 Telephone Call From the Hinks

STARRING: BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Sade and Rush must field a most unusual telephone call from Robert and Slobert Hink and their odd wives, their brothers and their girlfriends.

SEE THE SCRIPT

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A terrific and very funny episode, especially the first time you hear it but still laugh-out-loud funny the next few times as well. If the wacky names in the phone conversation won't get you rolling on the floor, the fact that everyone on the telephone thinks Rush is a girl and wants to know how much "she" weighs naked will.

I rank this as one of the funniest episodes; perhaps the best of the lot.

Trivia:

+ Smelly Clark is standing on his head when he calls Rush.

+ The following new characters are introduced in this episode: Bertie and Dirty Hink (younger brothers of Robert and Slobert and just initiated into the Sacred Stars of the Milky Way in Hoopston, Illinois), Bessie and Messy Hink (wives of Robert and Slobert) and Cupid and Stupid Golfbake.

+ This is not the first time the Hinks have called and talked to just Sade and Rush.  There is at least another episode, prior to this one where nearly the same events occurred - but it's one of the missing episodes.

+ Everyone in the Hink household who talks to Rush seem to think he's a girl named, "Ruth." Recall that H.K. Fleeber also thinks Rush is a girl.

+ Sade and Rush feel as though the Hinks must be rich as they can make long-distance telephone calls, send long telegrams and have a lawnmower costing $300.

+ According to Rush, Vic is away on a long business trip. This was during the time Art Van Harvey was missing from the show for a long while because of a heart ailment of some sort.

+ Sade reveals to Bessie that she has blue eyes. We knew this already. She also says she weighs 127 pounds.

+ Rush reveals his eyes are either blue or hazel and weighs 118 pounds stripped.

Rush and Sade discuss the living arrangements at the Hink household: {{{HEAR}}}

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