User Reviews

Ernie's class in school (which no longer includes Chip, like when the boys were paired in the same room despite an obvious age difference in an earlier episode) is doing some sort of talent night only for fathers and sons. Ernie volunteers to do something with his new father, despite the teacher's warnings to all the boys not to volunteer unless they are sure their dads can be there. Sure enough, Steve has an important business meeting in Washington-for the following week at 9:30 p.m. On Friday night. His meeting is at the Pentagon, so figuring he can't tell them to change things, he tells Ernie he simply cannot be there.

We viewers are wondering what sort of important planned business meeting for over a week away would anyone have at the Pentagon be scheduled for a Friday night, especially that late. I can see an emergency meeting, or some military people without civilians around meeting any time of the day or night, but Steve is a civilian and the timing of this meeting is, I'll say, unlikely.

So Uncle Charley will sub for Steve. The act, since Steve and Ernie have never done any performances together before, winds up being a short play that Ernie himself writes, with Ernie having the only speaking lines, talking directly to the audience, and to himself as other characters-he dons different hats and a fake beard to portray different people, with the other role being that of a monster. Charley uses a funnel on his head and a metal-looking rectangle on his chest to suggest a Frankenstein's monster-like character.

Now he doesn't use this for the performance. But they have a dress rehearsal for everyone in the show. This is done in the classroom. Charley even goes out of the room to get dressed, then enters and to be monster-like, when he opens his mouth smoke comes out, I believe two times. Obviously, he lit a cigarette just before entering and inhaled and held it for a few seconds. These days, he would be roundly condemned and asked to leave the school for daring to "smoke" on the premises, even just for this performance "prop." We get to see Ernie's entire skit, with Charley doing a great job of giving life to the character, adlibbing a line at the end which made a funny skit even better.

Right after the rehearsal, all of the fathers and sons get together for a photograph. With the teacher present, one of the fathers hands Charley a camera and says he should take the picture since he isn't a father to anyone, oblivious to the meaning of making Ernie the only boy in the picture not standing next to anyone in his family. Charley should have said, "Sorry Mac, but I'm going to proudly stand next to my new nephew in this picture. Let's let Mrs. King take the picture, OK?" Now it's the night of the performance. The whole family is dressed up ready to go. Steve is about to leave for DC, and suddenly he gets the idea that his business partner, who is going to Washington with him, can take his drawings and plans and get started, and Steve can catch a later flight and join the meeting in progress. Now Ernie is already at school-another thing that makes no sense-waiting for his Uncle Charley to appear, along with his two brothers. Instead of Charley wearing the full robot-like suit he rented, Steve will squeeze into the thing-which is quite snug on him, and he will surprise Ernie at the school, while Charley, Rob, and Chip all go to the airport to give Steve's papers to his partner.

They go off figuring Steve will take off his costume and drive to the school. But Steve cannot take off the costume and from the height of his hat, and his hand limitations by these awkward gloves that he apparently cannot take off by himself, he cannot possibly drive himself to the school.

Steve locks himself out of the house, in his Wizard-of-Oz-like Tin Man costume, so he goes next door to use the phone, dealing with a little girl who keeps calling him a monster. His plan is to phone for a cab, but he's told they cannot send anyone for some time. Now he plans to walk to the school, and encounters different people along the way, plus an unfriendly dog. He winds up falling down, and cannot even get up without the help of two passersby-to police officers. They help him up-well, they actually lift him and start to carrying him, telling him they are taking him downtown before he has a chance to explain anything. We do later hear that they listened to him and took him to the school, but their immediate reaction was not believable.

We move to the school where Ernie misses all the rest of the acts, waiting in the hallway for Uncle Charley. Finally Steve gets there, in costume, and the rest of the family follows. We see nothing of the show but conclude with a nice home scene from the next day.

Never was it explained why the other Douglas' took so long to get to the school. It's rather rude for most of a family to skip everyone else's act in a show, but just arrive in time for their own family members.

Now Chip and Ernie were often seen walking to or from school to home. There is no rational explanation for Steve not to be driven to the school by the others, en route to the airport. Even if out of the way, it could only be a few blocks. But that would have been the simple way to do things, eliminating the key scene, with him struggling to get there.

The whole set-up at the school didn't make sense. I guess we are to believe this show was just for some of the boys in this one class, along with their fathers, performing some sort of musical or comedy or other type of short act. But with Ernie's brothers going, surely the other boys would be having their other parents and siblings in attendance. Surely this grade school classroom cannot easily accommodate that many people, let alone have the space for some sort of stage set-up in the front. The school's auditorium was the only place for such a show. Since only a few boys were portrayed to be volunteering their dads, one wonders if the other boys and their families would be expected to come see the show. And, of course, would any of the girls in the class be attending with their families? More logically, it would have been a night for both sexes to showcase their "talents" with their families, and held in the auditorium.

I understand they wanted a show showing Ernie "bonding" with his new dad, but this script had far too many illogical happenings to deserve a good score. I say a 5.