44-03-22 Grand Re-Opening of the Tea Shoppy

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND  DAVID WHITEHOUSE

• The Little Tiny Petite Pheasant Feather Tea Shoppy is now under management of Pom Pom Cordova.  Sade's Thimble Club is backing the venture. Thimble Club Vice-President, Mis' Fenwick, is the new owner.  Pom Pom, as manager and hostess, will put up a glamorous front for drumming up business.  One of the big, free attractions: Pom Pom and Lolita di Rienzi duets on Caribbean Dream Flute and Tropical Guitar.
• The shop re-opens at noon tomorrow: free funny hats for the gentlemen, free noise-makers for the ladies, cigars and roses for the old folks.  Russell and his pals will be handing out these items.
• Sade will attend the grand re-opening with Ruthie Stembottom, Mis' Trogle, and Mis' Hendricks.
• Sade: "everybody happy as my undershirt, huh?"
• Vic fears Sade will pounce on him in regard to Pom Pom. 
• Rishigan Fishigan is passing out handbills on people's porches.
• Russell: "they're really doing it up brown." - compiled by Barbara Schwarz, edited by Jimbo Mason

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So it comes out that the rumor Mis' Appelrot was passing around was somewhat true.  Vic doesn't seem to have any part in the backing - although, oddly enough - the Thimble Club seems to have way, way more to do with the Little Tiny Petite Pheasant Feather Tea Shoppy changing hands than Vic.

Pom Pom and Lolita make their musical dreams come true.  I'm sure their music was very pretty; it's a shame there are no  muted silver moonbeam chimes to go along with them.

44-03-10 Mis' Appelrot Spreads A Rumor About Vic

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND  DAVID WHITEHOUSE

• While in Chicago, Mis' Appelrot met a man who told her Pom Pom Cordova is going to manage the Little Tiny Petite Pheasant Feather Tea Shoppy, and Sade thinks Vic has been holding this intelligence to himself.
• Mis' Appelrot has led Sade to believe Vic's one of the backers and is on the Board of Governors of the restaurant.
• Lolita di Rienzi had told Vic about Pom Pom's plans and joked that Vic should be on the Board of Governors.  Mis' Appelrot also suggested Vic had agreed to play duets with Pom Pom on the Caribbean Dream Flute and Tropical Guitar.  Meanwhile, Russell squirms while waiting for Sade to concentrate on what items he's to buy at the grocery.
• Vic (kittenish): "Kiddo-widdow never even told Vicky-Sticky ‘hello' "
• Sade gets a cramp in her elbow – suggests it's a sign that your mother-in-law broke her darning needle.  - compiled by Barbara Schwarz, edited by Jimbo Mason
  

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It's not implied in the notes but it's evident that Sade is mad in this episode. She gets mad (or at least, pretends to be) whenever the subjects of Pom Pom and Lolita are brought up, especially in connection with Vic's name.  She may be jealous - she may just use it as an excuse to blow off steam against Vicky-Sticky.

In this episode, we have a rumor of information that may involve Vic and money.  And he's not said a word about it to Sade.  You can imagine that she's a bit curious to find out if the rumors are true.

We don't find out in this episode but will in the near future.

Dr. Keevy's name is brought up in this episode - and seems to be in each episode that Pom Pom and Lolita are in.

43-12-14 Misery in Dismal Seepage, Ohio

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN, DAVID WHITEHOUSE AND MERRILL MAEL

• Vic: "It's simple as a horse, Sadie. The towns of Dismal Seepage, Ohio and Sick River Junction, Kentucky have this keen athletic rivalry.  They play some game called, "Misery" on January the twenty-sixth, a date commemorating the tragic disappearance of the entire town of Spider Plague, Missouri, which sunk without cause into the muddy waters of the Wretched Indian River during the coldest winter ever experienced in…"
• Uncle Fletcher: "I like the noon-hour – always did.  Sade, I expect you remember Art McSwitchel there in Belvidere and his opinion on the noon-hour.  This was Art McSwitchel – not Frank."
• Fletcher refers to Vic's friend "Mary" Greetcham, the Mayor of the City.  Vic: "His name is not 'Mary.'  His name is Robert.  Robert S. Greetcham.  Mayor Robert S. Greetcham."
• Fletcher wants Vic to ask the mayor for advice on his intention to sue the Little Tiny Petite Pheasant Feather Tea Shoppy.  He had ordered three weenie sandwiches, and the waitress neglected to put the condiments on the counter.  He was visiting with Ernie Fadler and ate all three weenies and then realized he hadn't added condiments.  Vic says Fletcher has no case.  Uncle Fletcher wants Vic to get "Mary's" opinion.
• Finally Vic gets to explain to Sade:  the members of the lodge's All-Star Marching Team have been asked to go to Dismal Seepage, Ohio for the game of "Misery" because everyone on the Sick River Junction team has died and the marching team is needed to substitute for the deceased. - compiled by Barbara Schwarz, edited by Jimbo Mason  

SEE THE SCRIPT

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What's amazing is we have a tragedy - where the local holiday in Dismal Seepage is termed, "Misery" - and while Vic and his Marching Team are making plans to go to be a part of the remembrance, Uncle Fletcher (who we know was Merrill Mael in this episode) is oblivious to it all.

Look at the names of the places:

Dismal Seepage
Sick River Junction
Spider Plague
Wretched Indian River

Bill Idelson said this about grim situations and writer Paul Rhymer: (((HEAR)))

The concept of suing others in this show does not go unnoticed.  Blue Tooth Johnson once wanted to sue the Bijou and had done so previously (without luck.)  Rush also had a lawsuit all worked up in his head one time.  And now, Uncle Fletcher may sue over his three weenie sandwiches, sans condiments.

Uncle Fletcher previously referred to Mayor Greecham as "Mary" in this episode.

This episode was wonderfully recreated by the Radio Enthusiasts of Puget Sound in 1994 and can be heard here:  (((HEAR)))

Thanks to them.

SEE THE SCRIPT  (very large, be patient when loading)

46-08-01 Drum the Bum - Visitation Officer

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

 

Vic gets a visit from the L. Vogel Drum, the lodge's "Grand Nomadic Stenchel" and finds out the guy used to be a bum. In fact, he used to bum around with Uncle Fletcher's pal who is also visiting.

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Another of those inconsequential "post-Series 1" episodes.  The episode doesn't really center around the Gooks - which you figure, is the whole idea.

Almost all of the series with the new speaking characters - while not horrible - seem to be of no consequence to the Vic and Sade fan. I mean really, who cares about L. Vogel Drum unless he's going to make a mess out of Vic's lodge or his family?

Trivia:

+ Vic claims he's heard of L. Vogel Drum ever since he became a lodge member.

+ The title "Grand Nomadic Stenchel" is just another name for "General Visitation Officer."

+ Uncle Fletcher's pal is named Botch Purney. He and Drum knew each other back in 1932 in the Texas Panhandle.

+ Vic has planned a lunch with L. Vogel Drum at the Little Tiny Petite Pheasant Feather Tea Shoppy.

+ It takes two hours and fifteen minutes to get from where the Gooks live to Chicago by train.

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46-07-11 Chief of Police Visits

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

Vic has offered Chief of Police William Cullerson the use of his front room for his office while workman are at work at the police station.  The Chief is on the lookout for a man with endless aliases.

Vic wants to help and gets a hold of a uniform.  This gives him a chance to play a tough Irish cop.

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Uncle Fletcher told stories like crazy when he first joined the cast.  They gradually tarried off into no stories at all (during the end of the "Series 1.")  "Series 2" saw a smattering of stories but none of them really worth writing about.

This episode, however, harkens back to the first days of Uncle Fletcher, in that he tells a bunch of stories.  Some of them are rehashes of previous stories - or at least he uses elements of things that he's previously used.

Still, this is the Uncle Fletcher we got to know and love when he came aboard.

Trivia:

+ The narrator says Rush is mending his seam on his "indoor baseball." This was the same thing Russell was doing at the beginning of episode 44-07-26 Sade Pleads to See a Movie. And I still don't know what an "indoor baseball" is.

+ Uncle Fletcher talks about F.L. Rodgisherly, who gave the advice of, "Never go to sleep." His life seems to parallel those of Eugene Parklow and George McFulferm (or perhaps Uncle Fletcher just has his names mixed up.) He ran for coroner and got beat. Ran for sheriff and got beat. His one big ambition was to run for mayor and get beat; he realized that ambition.

+ Uncle Fletcher talks about Virgil K. McSneese who married a woman 38 years old, hit her on the head with a straw suitcase in disgust, poked her father in the jaw, wore his shoes on the wrong feet and held a section gang at bay with a 2x4 plank.

+ Uncle Fletcher talks about Bobton L. McQuirk who invented a vinegar bottle that had a button.  Married a woman 19 years old.  Deserted the powdered rabbit business.  Painted his house and barn without the use of either paint or paintbrush.  Died.

+ Uncle Fletcher talks about Mervin L. Melkowitz who refused all drinking water that didn't come from a stream in Idaho.

+ Police Chief Cullerson is on the lookout for Cortney Van Corlick (aka The Cunning Culprit from Covington, Kentucky, aka The Intrepid Evildoer of El Dorado, Arkansas, aka Ronald Rudman the Ruthless Ruffian from Radford, Rhode Island, aka Irving Ishouwood the Injurious Ingrate from Indianapolis, Indiana, aka Phillip Peggles the Purloined Pickpocket from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania -- whose real name is Pete McPunker.)

+ In a fun swipe at Uncle Fletcher, Vic tells Rush to "Go down cellar."

+ Mr. Sprawl shows up looking for his daughter Mis' Harris. When he notices Chief Cullerson and then Vic dressed up as a cop, he tries to flee under the davenport, spilling all of his peanuts with the chocolate smeared on the outside of them.

+ Vic, who somehow has a police uniform for himself, puts it on and talks now and then with an Irish accent: {{{HEAR}}}

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46-07-04 Women's Auxiliary

 

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

Sade spoke for Vic and told Vernon Korkell she would fix it so that he could join the Sewage Worker's Silver Cornet Band, even though his instrument is the piano, not the cornet  (it is revealed that he also plays the banjo.)  Vic argues with Sade and tells her the banjo doesn't belong in an all-cornet band.

Meanwhile, Vic has news of a Women's Auxiliary for his lodge. Sade - not-so-suprisingly - refuses to join, despite the promise that she can ride either a horse or a motorcycle.  Eventually she changes her mind when she makes a deal with Vic - that if he will fix it so that Vernon can play his banjo in the Sewage Worker's band, she'll ride in the parade.

Intertwined is Rush and Orville Wheeney practicing "evil chuckles."

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This is the first episode of "Series 3" that was presented "in full" - that is, no prior editing was done to it.  "Series 3" begins with a vignette or gist of the episode that gives you a hint of what the episode is about.

The 30 minute Vic and Sade episodes were really a bad idea.  There's more of the new characters, there's the annoying incidental music and almost three times the story length of those in the first and second series.

While this episode seems to be about the lodge, it's not really about the lodge at all.  It's much more about these suddenly-real characters.

The idea that Sade would agree (at any cost) to ride in a lodge parade at all -- seems silly. 

Trivia:

+ In this episode we learn that Vic's in-laws Bess and Walter Helfer once gave him long underwear for Christmas. Recall they once gave him a pair of easy slippers as a Christmas gift as well. They were decorated with Indian heads and tassels.

+ Vic says this is the first time the Women's Auxiliary has been official at his lodge. True, but once there was mention of a Women's Auxiliary Marching Team.

+ Rush says Mildred Tisdale publicly said he "wasn't good-looking."  Rush then goes on to say that, "He's plenty good-looking!"  This is not the first time he's gone down that avenue of thought.

+ Orville Wheenie is again a gas meter reader.  Recall he was fired from this same job in "Series 2."

+ Rush reads aloud from a volume of Third Lieutenant Stanley.  In it, he faces counterfeiting clothes manufacturers.  He has a solid gold revolver in a mink holster.  He also has twin rows of teeth(!) - of course, the color of old ivory.

+ When Uncle Fletcher and Roy Dejectedly (a real character now in "Series 3") arrive, they say they are seriously talking about buying part of the Little Tiny Petite Pheasent Feather Tea Shoppy.  However, they only plan on investing $9.00.

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43-11-11 Stingyberry Jam

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN, DAVID WHITEHOUSE AND CLARENCE HARTZELL

(((HEAR)))

B.B. Baugh wants to have Uncle Fletcher peddle his stingyberry jam house-to-house. Sade however, is against the idea.

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Trivia:

+ Uncle Fletcher ran into Ernie Fadler, who had just eaten at the Little Tiny Petite Pheasent Feather Tea Shoppy. He had eaten the following things: fresh bread, mealy potatoes, preserves peaches, olive root, rutabaga shortcake, scalded cucumber and fed grass oxbutter!

+ Uncle Fletcher and Sade both remember Lena Pritchard from Dixon; she was a very smart girl. She could add up the numbers of the boxcars on the train when it went past. But she did it once too often and got hit by a train. Her uncle, Ollie O. McDozer, cried really loud when she got hit.

+ Uncle Flectcher says Ed Winklemanflirch from Dixon could fall asleep 30 to 40 times (presumably in a day.)

+ Sade referred to the stingyberry jam as "horrible" and described it as "green and cloudy and funny."

+ Stingyberry jam contains 46 ingredients.

+ Sam E. Honker (from Belvidere) was a man who married a woman 19 years old and hated well water however he later cultivated a taste for it. He eventually liked well water better than warm lemonade, muskmelon cordial, choke wood fool or any drink.

Vic falls asleep: {{{HEAR}}}

Notice how Russell's "ha ha" sounds like Nelson's "ha ha" on The Simpsons: {{{HEAR}}}

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42-03-12 Little Tiny Petite Pheasant Feather Tea Shoppy

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY,  BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Vic has been invited to dine for lunch with some muckity-muck business associates at the Little Tiny Petite Pheasant Feather Tea Shoppy but unfortunately, the small restaurant only has 3 tables.  A scheduled party makes is necessary to scoot the table with Vic's associates against the side of the restaurant, making one spot unavailable to sit in.

Never fear; one of the dinner guests (Gus Fuss) comes up with the brilliant idea to shove the table against the window rather than the wall and seat Vic (the odd man out) perched outside against the window on a ladder.  This way, Vic can be a part of the dining experience.

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Vic has a positive attitude from the start and is more than willing to partake of his dinner on a ladder. Even when a cold March rain begins to fall, Vic carries on with a courageous and uplifted attitude.

To me, this will always remain one of the more clever episodes written by Paul Rhymer.  It seems possible that when he was writing this episode that he thought of sticking Vic beneath the table (Rush suggests that may be where Vic is sitting.)  But sticking him outside by the window on a ladder in the rain is just plain funny - and clever.

Trivia:

+ The other business associates that will be dining "with" Vic are Mr. Buller, Gus Fuss and Mr. Ruebush.

+ Vic says Mr. Buller has been to the Little Tiny Petite Pheasant Feather Tea Shoppy in the past and has been impressed both with the portions and Mrs. Idler Grice's home-cooking skills.

+ In this episode, Vic refers to himself as a "cog in the wheel of big business."

+ In a story that is probably somehow connected to a missing episode, Rush tells Sade that Rain Brain Woofer, a chum in Rush's gym class and who shares a nearby locker, claims to be related to Sade's friend, Edith, from Raliegh, Kentucky.

+ We find out that Sade has a "rule" that the boys should always enter the house by the back kitchen door rather than the front door.

+ This episode provides ample proof of how much Clarence Hartzell's portrayal of Uncle Fletcher has help mold and influence all three Gook players. Listen carefully how they say, "Fine!"

+ I can't prove it but I will bet you almost anything that writer Paul Rhymer set up the Little Tiny Petite Pheasant Feather Tea Shoppy in the earlier episode (where Hank Gutstop gets the job as a hostess) just to set up the premise for this episode.

+ Though it can be seen many places all over the internet as the Tiny Petite Pheasant Feather Tea Shoppe, the fact of the matter is that in this episode and a previous episode where the restaurant was mentioned, Vic mentions that the title of the restaurant is the Little Tiny Petite Pheasant Feather Tea Shoppy.  "Shoppy" is spelled this way instead of the traditional "shoppe" in OTR logs.

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42-02-17 Hank Gutstop, Hostess

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY,  BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Vic comes home and invites Sade and Rush out to eat at the town's new restaurant, the Little Tiny Petite Pheasant Feather Tea Shoppy. Hank Gutstop has gotten a job there as a hostess!

Before the family can leave, Hank predictably calls up and informs Vic that he's already been fired because he ate six meals his first day before 5 o'clock!

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Another fun episode, probably in the top 15 best, although hampered again by horrible sound that cannot be fixed.

Trivia:

+ The film playing at the Bijou is Gloria Golden and Four-Fisted Frank Fuddleman in Take This Dropping Heart Of Mine, Assistant Straw Boss Williamson.
 
+ This is the first mention of the Little Tiny Petite Pheasant Feather Tea Shoppy, which is notorious in Vic and Sade.

The restaurant is located at Monroe and Madison Streets.

+ The restaurant is owned by Idler Grice, who also is the cook. This is the first time she has been mentioned.

+ The restaurant has just 3 tables.

+ Hank does not get a salary, instead he is to be paid in meals.

+ Sade says Hank is sometimes seen sleeping on the courthouse lawn, something that was not previously known.

+ Sade has blue eyes, according to Rush.

+ The meals at the restaurant are just 35 cents. The basic meal includes: soup, salad, meat, potatoes, two vegetables, dessert and a beverage.

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Known Menu: Little Tiny Petite Pheasant Feather Tea Shoppy

• fresh bread
• mealy potatoes
• preserves
• peaches
• olive root
• rutabaga shortcake
• scalded cucumber
• fed grass oxbutter
• weenie sandwiches