39-04-25 Rotten Davis Phones

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Nineteen year-old Rotten Davis phones up the Gooks, brazenly calls Vic and Sade by their first names and asks if he can come over and bring a date to the house (for the second week in a row.)

Imagined photo of Rotten Davis

Rotten is a bit of a strange bird by all accounts as he wears spats, a long overcoat and hat with chicken feathers in the headband.

Although the Gooks aren't too verbally sure they want to entertain him or girlfriend again, they seem to be almost giddy when he comes over.

Perhaps it is the fact that Rotten is a suave entertainer and the Gooks need a clown.

MIS' CROWE SAYS:
What’s Rotten Davis’ choice venue for a cheap date?

The Gook residence.

I really like how excited and eager Rush is to have Rotten and his lady friend come over in this episode. He says it’s because he owes Rotten a lot of favors, but I think Rush also idolizes Rotten, having spoken wistfully in other episodes about how nineteen-year-old guys like Rotten don’t generally spend time with fourteen-year-old guys like himself. Many classic episodes center around Rush breathlessly telling the family all about one of Rotten’s escapades downtown. In this episode, Rush is thrilled at the chance to have Rotten in his midst again, and wants to do everything he can to make Rotten’s date a success — even if it means playing the part of the child so that Rotten and his girl can have a chance to act like adults.

Although Sade digs her heels in a little at the beginning because she’s worried about Rotten making a habit of bringing his dates to her home, she quickly warms up to the idea. Vic doesn’t seem to have any objection to it either. This is one of those happy times when the entire family is willing to go along with a scheme just because it’ll be worth a good laugh.

I have to wonder what Miss Rathburn thinks of all this and what they actually do on their date — Sade makes no mention of going to the grocery store for ice cream or other refreshments, and I get the feeling the Gooks don’t have a bottle of wine sitting around to offer guests. Most of the date, I suppose, involves Rotten attempting to impress upon Miss Rathburn how mature and grown-up he is…but it seems like that might get a little boring for her!

SEE THE SCRIPT (transcribed by Lydia Crowe)

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This is one of the stranger Vic and Sade scripts in that the couple almost seem to be depending on Rotten to keep them entertained.  While they say the things you might expect from a pair of wary, imposed-upon people; they secretly seem to enjoy Rotten's company.

Trivia:

+ This is the first time we hear of Rotten Davis from the surviving audio..  His date is Miss Rathburn.

{{{HEAR}}} Sade imitates Rotten Davis.

WHY DOES RUSH IDOLIZE ROTTEN DAVIS?

Rush’s high opinion of Rotten Davis arises from several connected circumstances. First, Rotten is his good friend Rooster’s older brother – practically a man – and deigns to notice the boy. Next, Rooster’s tastes are flashy and flamboyant, as Rush’s are (or would be, if Sade’s conventional tastes in men’s furnishings didn’t override them). Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Rush is a young man striving to claim his place in the adult world. He wants to make decisions about his clothes and his company. Rotten, on the other hand, is not much older, but has achieved this autonomy, so Rush is trying to follow the path he has blazed. Education and experience may refine Rush’s tastes, but, at this point in his life, his respect for someone like himself who has succeeded as an adult is understandable. - Sarah Cole

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37-11-28 Congress and the Supreme Court

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

This is an episode of -not Vic and Sade- but of a program called The Magic Key.

Vic, Sade and Rush discuss the government, Congress and the Supreme Court and it's importance in society.

Sade reads the paper and brings up the "Super 'em Court" (or so it sounds) and explains this is the same thing the "know-it-all" Mis' Appelrot talks about at the Thimble Club.

Sade doesn't seem to take knowledge of the government very seriously and acts nervously when the Gook men discuss the subject.

MIS' CROWE SAYS:
Sade expresses her confusion about the federal government. Vic & Rush attempt to enlighten her.

NOTE: This is not, in fact, an episode of Vic & Sade, but of a show called The Magic Key of RCA. (So does this mean it’s not canon? AU? Hmm…)

Like “Sade’s Trip to Dwight,” this is another one where the joke is Sade’s ignorance — in this case, willful ignorance — of something Vic and Rush consider to be basic knowledge. Now, my immediate, knee-jerk reaction to this and episodes like it, as a feminist, is slightly negative — especially with lines like this:

SADE: Mis’ Appelrot’s a grown-up woman with a family and a house to keep clean. What on earth does she care about the Congress?

Sade refuses to listen to all of Vic’s and Rush’s good-natured attempts to straighten her out about this. It looks a little bit like the message being sent here is “You can’t educate women about civics, even if you try!” But that reaction is unfair (Mis’ Appelrot and Mis’ Brighton have educated themselves, after all). That’s not the message being sent here. This show is character-driven, and the message is about Sade as an individual. Episodes like this one tell us a lot about her background and her inner life.

Sade never graduated from high school, and in at least one later episode, she expresses some self-consciousness about it. In this episode, she almost seems to take pride in her ignorance, but this is a defense mechanism:

SADE: Yeah, all that monstrous, big important talky-talk, and actually you’d think they were the king of Peoria. What was it Mis’ Appelrot said the other day?

VIC: Couldn’t tell ya.

SADE: Uhh, a Republican form of government, lah dee dah, Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg, Constitution, lah dee dah, receivable taxes, canal zones, Congress, dumpty dumpty dum. Silly.

RUSH: See, when the nation adopts a Republican form of —

SADE [giggles]: Looks like we got a Mis’ Appelrot right here in the family.

VIC: What?

SADE: Oh, Rush explains a thing the same way she does. Instead of comin’ right out and sayin’ what she wants to say, she hems and haws and beats around the bush ‘til a person wants to scream. Son, why don’t you just say they got Congress fellas in Washington, D.C. that fixes the law?

 In Sade’s eyes, Mis’ Appelrot and others like her are flaunting their superior education, talking in circles to confuse her on purpose. Without intending to, they are making her feel put down. So her defense is to deny that any of this information is important to her. Sade has spent her whole life learning to be an excellent homemaker and mother (ironically, she is hammering on Rush throughout this episode to study algebra and improve his grades, while resisting any attempt to be educated herself). She has worked hard to become what she is, and she is very good at it. She has a well-defined sense of her place in the world and her strengths as a person. But sometimes, people around her unintentionally make her feel inferior by implying that she needs to be something more than what she is. When that happens, this worldview is threatened, and the defenses go up. She curls up into a ball, puts her bristles out, and refuses to listen. And, if she can reinforce her self-image as homemaker extraordinaire by chastising Rush or Vic (“Your feet!”), so much the better.

So while the humor in these “Sade is ignorant” episodes does appear to be at her expense, they also give us a lot of insight into her as a person. It’s also important to remember that Vic & Sade's primary audience was housewives like Sade — not know-it-all husbands like Vic. While it sometimes seems like Rush and Vic are ganging up on Sade for her ignorance, I'll bet the audience was right on her side. Some of them probably experienced the same feelings at one time or another and were able to laugh a little at themselves while laughing at Sade. Vic & Sade wasn’t written to enforce a status quo — it was written to entertain ordinary Americans by describing life as it was (with frequent injections of the bizarre and the absurd to keep things interesting). To criticize it through a 21st-century feminist lens would be to miss the point. Sade is ignorant because Sade is Sade. That’s all. 

Was this too much to write about a 5-minute piece of light family comedy? Grad school warps you, I tells ya. Warn the young people you know.

SEE THE SCRIPT (transcribed by Lydia Crowe)

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There's not a lot of comedy here. Sade's poo-pooing of learning about the government here is the only joke going and it's not that funny.

Trivia:

+ This is the first time the Thimble Club is mentioned in the surviving shows.

+ One episode after being friendly with Mis' Appelrot, Sade is already beginning to turn on her, as I promised in the previous post.

+ T.W. Vogel is mentioned: He lives at 718 Tender Street. According to the paper, he was mysteriously ill for 3 weeks.

+ Mr. Steelpump is mentioned: Sade reads in the paper that he is going to marry Marie Hunkerman.

Sade poo-poos Mis' Appelrot's government talk:  (((HEAR)))

SADE DOESN'T HATE THE GOVERNMENT

I think it's a shame that Sade doesn't have better citizenship skills and knowledge. Or the desire to take initiative to learn more about how government works. Her problem doesn't seem to be a lack of patriotic pride, just a lack in her education. Government was one of my lesser enjoyed classes in school. It can be very complicated. The same can be said for Sade's other weaknesses in math and science.

Sade's personality is geared towards her loyalty to her family, and local society of friends, and acquaintances. Something like big government is foreign to her, and isn't a daily impact on her life, so she doesn't concern herself to learn it. And anything where Sade can't be on the top of her game, and dominate in, has to be silly and trivial. If you can't beat 'em, don't join 'em. Make fun of 'em. - Keith @ Retro Radio Podcast

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