Steve responds to a phone call by flying immediately to Washington to a meeting at the Pentagon where he is asked to discover a critical problem for a top secret project. It is stated that if he suddenly disappears it could be dangerous to our nation's security. The heads of this project approve of his suggestion that the best way for him not to attract attention is for him to handle this assignment working at home in his bedroom.
Steve is directed not to tell anyone about this assignment. When he gets home, he tries to get his family to think it's just ordinary work he's doing, but when he takes all his meals in his room and keeps the door locked, people get curious, particularly Chip and Bub.
When he leaves the door unlocked while getting himself some food late one night, Chip wanders in and looks briefly at Steve's papers, asking about one word he saw-Cintron. Steve tells him that he needs to not say anything about this to anyone, not even his best friends Ernie and Richard. (Richard is a new friend, played by Billy Booth, best known as Tommy on the Dennis the Menace series.) Viewers have already been clued in to the fact that G-men have set up an observation post across the street (no explanation given as to the normal neighbors absence) and they are closely following every member of the Douglas family whenever they leave the house, and recording all the phone calls. The agents are bored at the insipid phone calls Robbie has with some girl who also seems to be boring Robbie to death.
One man is shown following Chip but losing him when Chip hops a fence. Chip happens to overhear him talking to a colleague and learns that he is being followed, for reasons he doesn't understand. At one point, the agents are thinking they may have an issue because it sounds like Chip is about to tell his friends about his dad's work, but then Chip clams up and says he can't tell them anything. Good boy, Chip is.
Bub questions Steve so much that Steve tries to steer him away by telling him he's working on plans to be able to vaporize large groups of people and in seconds, have them transported and placed thousands of miles away. He got this idea from a comic book Chip left in his room.
Bub is later shown at the supermarket, talking to two women, one of them Gladys Kravitz, the neighbor to the Stevens' on Bewitched (her name here is Mrs. Fletcher.) Bub can't help but tell about the vaporizing project-without saying Steve is working on this. Later, Bub finds that comic book and learns that Steve was just telling him a story.
An agent is also in the store and overhears Bub's comments, so he goes to the house and has Steve explain it all to him.
The show has a unique finish. Steve has finished the project and is shown leaving the house. He talks to the camera, saying that now that he's finished, he can tell us what this project was all about. He continues talking but his words are jumbled and we see the words "Top Secret" on the screen.
Most episodes in this series have a significant dramatic portion dealing with one of the sons, sometimes Bub or Steve, learning some lesson about life. This one was essentially just a light-hearted comedy. As such, it was fairly decent, particularly concerning the agents' actions.
The only script complaints I have deal with: If it is so important that no foreign agent learn about the important work Douglas is doing for his country, why didn't they have some plain-clothes person go meet with him at his home or workplace, or a hotel room, instead of having him fly to Washington and go to the Pentagon, where there would be plenty of chance for an agent to discern that he must be getting involved in something big simply because of his rushed flight to meet there?
But that doesn't ruin the plot. Most comedy spy/detective shows (Get Smart is king here) have many episodes where the setup is quite improbable, but leads to really funny situations. There weren't enough laughs for me to give this one a score higher than 8, but it's one of this series best.
Steve is directed not to tell anyone about this assignment. When he gets home, he tries to get his family to think it's just ordinary work he's doing, but when he takes all his meals in his room and keeps the door locked, people get curious, particularly Chip and Bub.
When he leaves the door unlocked while getting himself some food late one night, Chip wanders in and looks briefly at Steve's papers, asking about one word he saw-Cintron. Steve tells him that he needs to not say anything about this to anyone, not even his best friends Ernie and Richard. (Richard is a new friend, played by Billy Booth, best known as Tommy on the Dennis the Menace series.) Viewers have already been clued in to the fact that G-men have set up an observation post across the street (no explanation given as to the normal neighbors absence) and they are closely following every member of the Douglas family whenever they leave the house, and recording all the phone calls. The agents are bored at the insipid phone calls Robbie has with some girl who also seems to be boring Robbie to death.
One man is shown following Chip but losing him when Chip hops a fence. Chip happens to overhear him talking to a colleague and learns that he is being followed, for reasons he doesn't understand. At one point, the agents are thinking they may have an issue because it sounds like Chip is about to tell his friends about his dad's work, but then Chip clams up and says he can't tell them anything. Good boy, Chip is.
Bub questions Steve so much that Steve tries to steer him away by telling him he's working on plans to be able to vaporize large groups of people and in seconds, have them transported and placed thousands of miles away. He got this idea from a comic book Chip left in his room.
Bub is later shown at the supermarket, talking to two women, one of them Gladys Kravitz, the neighbor to the Stevens' on Bewitched (her name here is Mrs. Fletcher.) Bub can't help but tell about the vaporizing project-without saying Steve is working on this. Later, Bub finds that comic book and learns that Steve was just telling him a story.
An agent is also in the store and overhears Bub's comments, so he goes to the house and has Steve explain it all to him.
The show has a unique finish. Steve has finished the project and is shown leaving the house. He talks to the camera, saying that now that he's finished, he can tell us what this project was all about. He continues talking but his words are jumbled and we see the words "Top Secret" on the screen.
Most episodes in this series have a significant dramatic portion dealing with one of the sons, sometimes Bub or Steve, learning some lesson about life. This one was essentially just a light-hearted comedy. As such, it was fairly decent, particularly concerning the agents' actions.
The only script complaints I have deal with: If it is so important that no foreign agent learn about the important work Douglas is doing for his country, why didn't they have some plain-clothes person go meet with him at his home or workplace, or a hotel room, instead of having him fly to Washington and go to the Pentagon, where there would be plenty of chance for an agent to discern that he must be getting involved in something big simply because of his rushed flight to meet there?
But that doesn't ruin the plot. Most comedy spy/detective shows (Get Smart is king here) have many episodes where the setup is quite improbable, but leads to really funny situations. There weren't enough laughs for me to give this one a score higher than 8, but it's one of this series best.
