44-04-08 'Red' Stembottom

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

• After supper Uncle Fletcher mentions he ran into "Red" Stembottom and Sade goes into a rage, forbidding him to change the man's name again.  
• Uncle Fletcher tells the story about Walter M. Veefy.  The story is a familiar one:   Drowned in the Missouri River.  Had another brother that drowned in the Ohio River.  Had another brother drown in the Mississippi River and still another brother who didn't get drowned at all.  [The problem is, he's already told this story (different rivers) about the same man, in 1941.  There have been several times where he told the same story and had a different man committing the ridiculous act(s) but I believe this is the only known time where told the same story twice about the same man.  And three years apart, to boot. - J.M.]
• Uncle Fletcher gives out the basic ingredients for Hyena Grease again in this episode.  This is at least the thrid time he's done so.
• At the end of the episode - and in fear of his life - Fletcher relents and refers not to "Red" or "Ted" but to "Fred" Stembottom. - compiled by Barbara Schwarz, edited by Jimbo Mason

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It's pretty safe to say that Fletcher is obsessed with Hyena Grease.  Either it works just as well as he says it does or he believes it will be a real moneymaker.

The fact that Fletcher knows Fred's real name and calls him by it at the end should clue us all in that he uses the senile and deaf act only to get/demand attention.

The episode where Fletcher told the Veefy story about the drownings was also the first episode we know about where he called Fred by the name "Ted."  My guess is this is a Rhymer homage to himself - or at the very least, he was looking at an old script to see why he ever decided to name Fred "Ted" - saw the Veefy story and had Fletcher tell it again. 

40-09-17 Uncle Fletcher Unexpectedly Departs

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Uncle Fletcher has suddenly decided to go back to Dixon.  He found out Mr. Breep is driving that way and can ride with him and save the train fare.

SEE SOME DIALOGUE AND THE SYNOPSIS

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This episode essentially boils down to 'saying good-bye'.  I believe Uncle Fletcher will miss the Gooks and they will miss him.  He doesn't like the whole 'saying goodbye' business.  This is why he has chosen to leave on the spur of the moment.

Trivia:

+ Uncle Fletcher tells a story about Walter M. Veefy: Was at the train depot, waiting for his train to leave and kissed his grandma goodbye... he kept waiting for the train to leave and he waited all afternoon and kept kissing his grandma.

+ Uncle Fletcher also tells the story about Veefy's brothers drowning in various rivers, which he told again (slightly different) 11 months after this episode aired.

41-08-26 Uncle Fletcher the Protector

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY, BERNARDINE FLYNN AND BILL IDELSON

Uncle Fletcher: And still another brother... and still another brother Sadie, that didn't get drowned at all!

Vic is away, so Uncle Fletcher decides to come over and spend the night when he reads in the paper that this night might contain "sharp thunderstorms." His philosphy is that women and children are timid about thunderstorms.

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I'm not sure what help Uncle Fletcher would be, even if Sade and Rush were afraid of thunderstorms. But he "reassures" them as he says, "[If there] comes up a heavy rain later on with lightning and wind, I'll be in the next bedroom, going back to sleep." He also says the same thing about burglars: "If you see any burglars, just remember I'm in the next bedroom, going back to sleep."

Trivia:

+ Sade tells Rush they can do the dishes later. This is typically a no-no for Sade.

+ Uncle Fletcher confuses Willis Rohrback in the street with Blue Tooth Johnson, twice.

+ Sade made mention that Vic has been gone a month and is expected back in a few days. This was probably just a vacation for Art Van Harvey but I'd be curious to know how the show explained away Vic's absence for a whole month? It seems the only viable excuse would be for work or lodge business. There's no way Sade would let him be gone away a month for lodge business for we can assume that the absence was explained away by Vic being on a business trip.

+ Uncle Fletcher sounds "different" in this episode. Maybe Clarence Hartzell had a cold or something.

+ Uncle Fletcher refers to Fred Stembottom as "Ted."  This is the first time this happens in the surviving audio.  He would later go on to influence everyone to call him that.

+ Uncle Fletcher tells the story of Ernie Feemer. Ernie wasn't afraid of anything - except thunderstorms. Even at age 46 he'd hide under his bed when a thunderstorm was happening.

Perhaps the oddest thing about Ernie was that he married a girl whose last name was, "Veefy." And Walter M. Veefy (perhaps the brother-in-law of Ernie Feemer) drowned in the Missouri River. He had a brother drowned in the Ohio River and yet another brother who drowned in the Mississippi River. And another brother who didn't drown in any river at all. {{{HEAR}}}

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