44-05-05 Rish Fish's Short Career

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND RUSSELL MILLER

Almost the very same story as 39-06-21 Hank's Job Royal Throne Barbershop, except Rishigan Fishigan gets the job instead of Hank Gutstop and Russell Miller is in the episode instead of Rush.

SEE THE SCRIPT  (part 1) (part 2)

40-06-21 Hank's Job - Royal Throne Barbershop

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON 

Vic is excited.  He's just gotten off the telephone with his pal, Hank Gutstop, who informs him that he's gotten a new job at the Royal Throne 25 Cent Barbershop.

He procured the job by coming up with ideas to help improve business, plus he knows so many fellows in town that Ed Holvey, the shop owner, decided to give him a job.

But Hank, who has a bad history with holding a job, may not last the whole afternoon...

MIS' CROWE SAYS:
Hank has a new job as a publicity manager for the Royal Throne Barbershop. Vic shares some of his ideas.

Hank has stumbled upon yet another job opportunity that will benefit him more than it will benefit his employers (free room and board, free lunch, and free haircuts included), but he can’t even hang onto that for a whole episode. Vic’s unending faith in him, given his employment history, is touching. Hank’s ideas are intriguing, but I’m not sure how well they’d actually work. Free lunch in a barbershop seems a little unsanitary. I’m worried you’d end up with hair clippings in your sandwich.
I’m always struck by this little moment in this episode:

SADE: I had quite a little conversation with Mis’ Eapers today.
VIC: How’s she?
SADE: All right. Little leaner than she was, I thought.
VIC: How’s TJ?
SADE: I never asked after TJ. Kinda afraid to, don’t ya know. After he was in jail those four times a person anymore kinda hates to inquire. Might make it embarrassin’.

"Vic and Sade" is full of little details like this — just passing comments that help add depth to the fictional community. Often they’re humorous or idyllic, but not always. Small towns all have those little things that everybody knows about but are too afraid, embarrassed, or polite to talk about. This moment always feels a little jarring to me because Vic and Sade talk about things like this so seldom. It’s also jarring because of the actors’ line readings — it’s the kind of thing that could have been played for laughs or not, depending on how the actors read it, and it is definitely not a humorous read (because Vic and Sade wouldn’t joke about this kind of thing). Listen to Vic’s voice, low and serious and sounding as if he’s anticipating bad news, when he asks "How’s TJ?", and Sade’s concerned tone as she answers. Notice, also, that she waits until Rush is out of the room before she even brings this subject up. Much like Rhymer’s rare and oblique references to World War II, this reference reminds you that darkness exists in Vic and Sade’s world — it just stays in the background, in other people’s lives. It’s these little details that add verisimilitude to "Vic and Sade" and make it the great portrayal of life that it is.

SEE THE SCRIPT (transcribed by Lydia Crowe)

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Trivia:

+ Rush infers that Hank once had a job selling homemade candy.

+ Some of Hank's barbershop ideas include:

• Free lunch - there was no talk of what this may constitute.
• Improving the appearance of the barbershop - no details were given
• Every 50th haircut free - Rush worked it out that it may take three years to get a free haircut.

+ Ed Holvey is always sleeping in the barber chair.  Rush says he lives there - Hank had plans to live there too (also sleeping a barber chair) as part of his payment.

+ Mr. Sludge came home crying again this day.

+ The barbershop is a hot place, according to Rush - no breeze can get in there.

+ Jim Skooner at the Butler House hotel barbershop is Vic's regular barber.

+ Sade called the shop 'dirty' and 'dingy.'

Perhaps it's a joke but a look at Google and "royal throne" brings up as many toilet references as royalty references.

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40-07-13 Short Bio of Little Dipper

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Vic has been asked by lodge headquarters to write a small biography about Hank Gutstop, who is a Little Dipper in the Sacred Stars of the Milky Way lodge. The problem is, Vic can think of nothing that Hank excels in, except singing, and the lodge says singing qualities are not allowed in the bio.  Go figure.

Finally, Vic think he will simply write, "Hank Gutstop is healthy" - a short but sweet bio. But -- Hank winds up ill at the end of the episode.

MIS' CROWE SAYS:
Vic practices minimalism in his biography of the Exalted Little Dipper.

As usual, Vic is trying to do right by Hank — give him a little boost in life. Paint him in a flattering light for the readers of the Lodge Magazine. But it’s hard to write a compelling biography of someone whose biggest claim to fame — other than being a singer, which has been barred by Headquarters as a theme — is that he’s just an all-around nice fella. Perhaps Vic could have said something about Hank’s innovation. Although you couldn’t truthfully call him “hard-working,” he does seem to be quite the “idea man.” Never mind that the ideas are often bad and impractical. The readers of the Lodge Magazine don’t need to know that.

I enjoy the colorful story about Black Hawk coining the word “Ouch” that Vic manufactures from whole cloth in this episode:

VIC: Black Hawk was standin’ on the side of the mountain gazin’ down into the valley. He was lookin’ for enemy Chippewas. An enemy Chippewa snuck up behind him with a hatchet. The hatchet flashed through the air and Black Hawk’s skull was cracked open. “Ouch,” said Black Hawk calmly. “Ouch.” Just that one word. And now all over the world whenever a human bein’ is injured he says “Ouch.

Since Black Hawk’s tribe, the Sauk, lived in what is now the Midwest, I’m not sure where he found a mountain to stand on. And the Chippewa (Ojibwe) and Black Hawk were both allied with Britain against the United States in the War of 1812 (ah, the war that public school history classes forgot…). Good thing for Vic that Sade and Rush aren’t very good fact checkers.

Black Hawk is a prominent figure in the history of the Illinois/Iowa area, so it’s no surprise that Rhymer selected him as the subject of Vic’s questionable history lesson. But since Black Hawk came from my neck of the woods, and was laid to rest very close to my hometown, I’d be remiss if I didn’t link to some of his real, beautiful and bittersweet words at the end of his life. "I liked my towns, my cornfields and the home of my people. I fought for it. It is now yours. Keep it as we did— it will produce you good crops."  (“Ouch” is not among them…but who knows?)

SEE THE SCRIPT (transcribed by Lydia Crowe)

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We probably all know someone like Hank. I know I do. Usually people like Hank can at least excel at some physical prowess; the man I know who is a bit like Hank can do very little except he is regularly taking care of his lawn; seems he mows his yard maybe twice a week and does it better than anyone I've ever known.

A funny episode; especially some of the feats of the other Little Dippers that Vic mentions.

Vic and Sade fan Dave Duckert wrote a short bio about Hank Gutstop:

Hank has applied his many talents to a variety of industries, including business development and entertainment. He specializes in in the financial area of monetary debt structuring. In his spare time he pursues indoor sports and spends countless hours perfecting his skills in this area. If there is one thing that can be said about Hank, it is what all his employers have said, “You’ll be lucky to get Hank to work for you!” 

Trivia:

+ At the beginning of the program, the announcer says Sade and Rush are reading sections of the newspaper but once the action begins, Rush is actually reading a Third Lieutenant Stanley adventure.

+ In this episode, Hank Gutstop is 39 years old.

+ Sade saw Hank sleeping outside on the Illinois-Central platform this very day. [You wonder why Sade would be at or near the train station, as nothing else was mentioned about it...]

+ Sade says Charlie Razorscum and Mr. Sludge use the Royal Throne 25 Cent barbershop.

+ Although I have heard many stories about the cast laughing during the scenes, I hadn't been aware of any in the surviving episodes. But we get a taste of it in this one as Vic chuckles a bit during one of his lines: {{{HEAR}}}

A try at finding a Hank attribute: {{{HEAR}}}

And another stab: {{{HEAR}}}

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44-05-06 Rish Fish's Short Career

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND RUSSELL MILLER

Almost the very same story as 39-06-21 Hank's Job Royal Throne Barbershop, except Rishigan Fishigan gets the job instead of Hank Gutstop and Russell Miller is in the episode instead of Rush.