STARRING ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN , BILL IDELSON AND CLARENCE HARTZELL
Vic is all alone at home and settled down to do some office work. He has two hours to complete it. A nearby street has been shut down (actually 2 of them, making the traffic lighter in front of his house), Sade's away on a car trip with
Ruthie Stembottom to Towanda and Rush is at school.
He calls his secretary,
Miss Hamersweet and instructs her to hold all of his calls. Peace and quiet.
But things go downhill
the moment he hangs up the phone. First, Rush comes home and he does so with a yell.
Instead of being upset, Vic gets Rush to read him off some figures and he imagines this will make his job
easier.
But wait! Sade comes home unexpectedly.
After Sade breaks a large gravy boat in the kitchen and Rush falls off of his chair, Uncle Fletcher arrives.
Then the telephone and front door bell ring at the same time.
Just when you think matters can't get worse for Vic, Uncle Fletcher has brought walnuts over and plans to crack them.
Then,
Mis' Kessler lets herself in the back door. She wants to go to
Mis' Call's house but a coal truck has stalled out between the Gook and Donahue house and Mis' Kessler can't go that way and
Mr. Erickson is putting in a new sidewalk(!) on the other side of the house and there are wooden horses everywhere. Mis' Kessler eventually asks to go through the Gook living room, disturbing Vic even more.
Uncle Fletcher goes out back to crack nuts.
As soon as the Gooks get rid of Mis' Kessler,
Orville Wheenie arrives. He too wants to get to Virginia Avenue (from the alley) and asks to come through the house.
As soon as Wheenie exits,
Mr. Sprawl comes in the back door.
Mis' Kessler has returned the mop she borrowed from Mis' Call and now must re-enter the Gook home to exit out to University Avenue.
As soon as she leaves, Mr. Sprawl then returns looking for a penny he forgot. He finds it in his mitten.
And as Mr. Sprawl is leaving, Uncle Fletcher returns. He wants to go out front.
As soon as he leaves, Sade returns, apologizing for disturbing Vic. Then a complete stranger shows up and goes right through the house!
Then a woman walks through the house, asking the Gooks for directions to the underwear department.
Then, a strange man whom knows Uncle Fletcher (calls him 'Fletch') and Mis' Kessler knows wanders in to use the telephone. Later it is found out that he's
Mr. Thompson. He and Mis' Kessler have a very, very strange conversation.
Then... Uncle Fletcher shows up and almost immediately leaves.
After Mr. Thomspon leaves, another strange man enters the house and then another guy... After they leave, in comes Mis Kessler again.
Then... Mr. Sprawl shows up again.
And so goes Vic's day.
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Not a bad episode, despite all the real characters, of which there are many. The only thing is : I have a hard time imagining that Mr. Erickson would spend the money to put in a sidewalk.
Trivia:
+ While he is the school principal, Rush has always referred to
Mr. Chinbunny simply as, "Mr. Chinbunny" - until this episode, where he calls him "Principal Chinbunny."
+ Sade said Ruthie's car wouldn't "begin" because the propeller was broke.
+ Sade drops a gravy boat in the kitchen and smashes it. It was a Christmas gift to her from Charlie and Irene (first time either has been mentioned, unless she was referring to the Razorscums; but that's only a guess.)
+ The person ringing the doorbell was a stranger who wanted to know where the
Burtons lived. Rush directed him across the street. The Burtons haven't been mentioned before.
+ It's Emerson Avenue (first time mentioned) and Oak streets that are shutdown. Virgina Avenue sits between the two streets, probably one east and one west.
+ Unlike
in this episode, Mis' Kessler has no problem in remembering Orville's name.
+ A strange man came inside to use the phone. Uncle Fletcher and Mis' Kessler both knew him as Mr. Thompson. He calls his daughter on the telephone.
Download the complete commercial-free, sound-improved episode!
The reference to "hanging his legs over the swing" seems to be a most important one - albeit only for the advanced Vic and Sade fan: both Vic and Sade refer to this habit of The Professor (across the street.) However, it seems to me that "hanging his legs over the swing" is actually the proper way to sit in a porch swing, Doesn't this then lead us to believe the reason the Gooks have so much trouble fitting 3 people on the porch swing (in almost every episode where they are on the porch) is that whichever Gook is in the swing tends to curl their legs up under themselves while sitting in the porch swing? I think it may be the Gooks who are unusual, not the visiting neighbor across the street!
Vic comes home from work early in order to do a little work on the lawnmower and presumably, he or Rush would mow the lawn soon after it was fixed.
