32-07-14 Vic and Sade Wait For the Boy To Arrive

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

• Vic and Sade are on the porch. Mary and the boy were supposed to arrive two hours earlier.  (Andy Sampson walks past.)
• Vic admits he's excited – couldn't concentrate on his work at the plant.  The boy's coming from 400 miles away.  (Grace and George Peterson and Mr. & Mrs. Vance walk by.)
• Sade: "Well, Mis' Hess told me that Mrs. Vallenga told Mrs. James that this Mrs. Vance told Mrs. Wheaton that she… that she thought I was a gossip and talked behind her back."  They begin to wonder if Mary changed her mind about giving up her son.  Vic figures they'd have wired if that were the case.
• They've painstakingly prepared the boy's room, including Vic's old Harry Shootstraight books.  And Sade put Uncle Huber's piss-pot in the room because it's so far to the bathroom. ["Piss-pot" was the term in Barbara Schwarz's original notes.  I have no idea if these are her words or words from the script. - Jimbo] (Steve Adsit passes, as well as R. D. Foley, whose wife makes his life miserable so he stays out walking all the time.)
• Vic and Sade get more downhearted as time passes, and go inside and Vic tells Sade a story he's invented to amuse the boy, and they both fall asleep in the living room.
• Vic snores.  there's a knock on the door… and another.  A little voice says, "Hello… anybody home?  Hey, Mister, wake up! Wake up! C'mon…" - compiled by Barbara Schwarz, edited by Jimbo Mason

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Announcer Bob Brown talks about the early days of the show: {{{HEAR}}}

Bill Idelson talks about the early days of the show: {{{HEAR}}}

This seems like it would be a wonderful episode. The ending is absolutely perfect and even reading the notes from the script, you can feel the anticipation building and then Vic and Sade being let down.

This still has a soap opera feel to it (at least from reading) but now Rush is on scene. It won't be long before the soap opera feel leaves and is replaced by a whole different feel (although it won't happen right away.)

What's intriguing is that the show goes from one extreme to the other - soapy scenes to absolute craziness.

[Most of the characters the Gooks encounter in this episode do not have character profiles.]

32-07-13 Five Dogs Arrive

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY AND BERNARDINE FLYNN

• Vic has brought home a dog that Mr. Ruebush has bought for him.  
• Mis' Hess over on Virginia Avenue also sent them a dog that morning, a Boston Terrier who's in the kitchen. 
• Sade gets a letter saying the Meadows boy, Victor, is arriving tomorrow.
• They're excited, and they laugh over Mis' Fisher's nosiness.
• Another dog arrives, sent by Emil Croucher.  This is the Croucher who runs the market/butcher shop that we know so well from later episodes.
• Vic admits his secretary, Miss Lutz, intimidated him as he'd never dictated a letter before. He realizes he needs to get up to speed on the job, but when the boss gave him the dog, he used the excuse to get away from Miss Lutz.
• Yet another dog arrives, sent by Stanley Fogarty, the man at the gas station – another Boston Bull.
• Vic practices dictating letters to Sade but stops at the salutation. Sade suggests he write the letters on his shirt-cuffs and read them to Miss Lutz. Vic loves the idea.
• An unknown man pushes another dog in the door and leaves. the dog looks mean, and now, with five dogs in the house, they're a little upset.
• Mis' Fisher snoops around the back door as the five dogs fight in the kitchen. - compiled by Barbara Schwarz, edited by Jimbo Mason

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The Vic we "know" is very rarely intimidated (although he surely has a problem with women intimidating him, think of the many times Sade has done so and remember his fear over Mis' Korkel's football-playing, desk-smashing mother.)  Add in the fact that Vic never talks about his mother or sister (if he has one.)

His new job and new secretary intimidate him.  It's kind of hard to fathom, since we know that Vic goes on to become the head of his lodge and is a big man around town.  Maybe Vic is secretly a misogynist?

Although not specified by Barbara Schwarz, we assume the dogs were a gift for the coming Victor Meadows (Rush.)  Everyone in town seems to have gotten the same idea.  

Mis' Fisher seems like she could really present a problem to the Gooks - IF they were doing something they didn't want her to know about.  But it seems their life is pretty tepid and therefore, Mis' Fisher is worth a laugh rather than being angry about.

32-07-08 Sade Outfoxes Vic On Adoption

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY AND BERNADINE FLYNN

• Sade's mother has rearranged the furniture. Vic bumped into it, and he wants Sade to know her mother has caused him injury.
•  Her mother has also destroyed the picture on the mantle of Vic wearing Mable's hat. Sade tried but couldn't prevent the destruction.  He's in a foul mood, and ready to nix the proposed adoption.  Sade waylays Vic with a request that he teach her solitaire, which he's eager to do.
• Sade interjects – piece by piece – info that an old schoolmate, Mary Meadows and her family are in bad shape.  Mary hinted that the Gooks could take one of her four kids (2 boys, 2 girls – oldest boy is Victor, age 9).
•  Vic thinks Mary wants to shove off one of her kids on them.  He's surprised the boy's name is Victor. Sade hints she thinks the boy was named for him, and he's mildly interested.
• Back to the solitaire game, Sade mentions Victor's kind of a rough-neck – pitcher on his school baseball team, and he tends to clutter up a house with bats, balls, and things.
• Vic softens, tells Sade to write and have Mary send the boy to visit.  Sade: "I already have. He's coming next week."
• Vic blusters opposition. Sade points out all the mistakes he's made in the card game. - compiled by Barbara Schwarz, edited by Jimbo Mason

Bill Idelson's Page

• Wikipedia 
• Obituary
  
• Bernardine Flynn talks about Bill Idelson in various audio interviews:
  On Bill Idelson being perceptive at a young age
  
• From various audio interviews:
  

  Salary for kids in shows in early days, Kids shows take a lot of energy, Shows he did in the early days, Very young Rush, The show had been on 10 days..., The show had been on 10 days II..., The first couple of shows he did on Vic and Sade, Didn't want to show it - but he LIKED the show, Job that lasted 12 years, On being young and appreciating the humor, Early days of Vic and Sade and the orchestra, Amos 'n' Andy studio, Cast had respect for one another, Vic and Sade schedule, Idelson's replacements on the show, We did not ad lib - material was too good, Bright Kentucky Hotel, The scripts available at the U. of Wisconsin, The scripts at the U. of Wisconsin II, Third Lieutenant Stanley, Cast was a real family, A great satire, Sponsors, Mad at Proctor and Gamble, Proctor and Gamble saved one week's worth of transcriptions, The Uncle Strap story, The Uncle Strap story II, Unheard characters, Interruptions and cold readings of scripts, Not much happening, Writing for TV,  A three character show, Vic and Sade was Americana and unique, A Vic and Sade reunion with Andy Griffith as Vic?, Number one or number two in the ratings, A Letter to Walter (aka "Writing to Walter"), On foul-ups, On foul-ups and the early days, Walter Huston, Organist for the show, On Art Van Harvey, Finishing sentences, Inserts, Characters were combinations of Rhymer and his family, Scripts, Idolized Rhymer, I can't top Vic and Sade (writing), On Rhymer's uniqueness, Rhymer and cast reading from carbons, Paul Rhymer - one of the greatest, Story about Rhymer's mother, On Rhymer - even grim was funny, Rhymer occasionally wrote for magazines and periodicals before his steady job as Vic and Sade writer, A letter from Rhymer, Rhymer was naughty and clever, On Hartzell's audition, Fletcher and the fly, Bernardine Flynn, Bernardine Flynn was beautiful

• From the Research Notebook 
• From the Print Media site
• Rush Gook character page 
• Idelson photos