This is a rather fun story featuring the youngest of the Douglas boys, Chip. He's been assigned to make a drawing for the school's upcoming open house. Chip is not good at drawing. He keeps trying to draw an airplane bomber, but nobody can even tell what it is-one thought it was a butterfly. I empathize with Chip as art class was always a challenge to me in school.
After being frustrated that nobody can even tell WHAT his drawings are, Chip gets dome help from Bub who rapidly shows him how to draw a sailboat, hoping it will inspire him. But all he feels is frustrated because he cannot do a good sailboat himself. He sort-of accidentally winds up, sort-of on purpose, submitting Bub's drawing for the open house-but immediately is worried because his dad and Bub will be there and they'll see what he did.
This leads to the best scenes in the show, featuring Chip's buddy Sudsy, who absolutely gets off his best line in the series. First Sudsy tells him that passing off the drawing as his when he didn't draw it is a crime called "pugilism." Chip says he's going to have to swipe the drawing back, only to have Sudsy tell him that would be "pugilism with larson on top of that." Sudsy, whose father is a lawyer, tells Chip that he could wind up in prison. He suggests talking to his dad (Mr. Pfeiffer) to see how to avoid prison. Chip is skeptical and Sudsy gives my favorite line: "Lots of people who hire my father go to prison." Now there's a line no lawyer would ever use in a commercial, eh?
Chip does go to see Sudsy's dad and his dad has some great reactions to what Chip tells him that Sudsy has been saying, including the thing about his clients going to prison. When Chip talks about the "larson" Mr. P at first thinks he means "arson."
Then Chip has a wild dream where he's in prison, with the proverbial horizontally striped shirts and pants. In the second part, he has been there so long he has a long white beard, and is still imprisoned next to his faithful dog Tramp-also in prison attire.
When Steve and Bub learn what Chip did, they arrange with the teacher and principal to see if he will do the right thing before the deadline to submit the drawing to the newspaper-Bub's drawing was a hit with the teacher. Rather than just confront him, Steve believes in his boy and gives him a chance to redeem himself. Chip does, but not at all in the way they thought he would.
On Leave It to Beaver I don't believe ever saw Ward giving Beaver a chance to redeem himself-Beaver was always caught with his endless supply of lies and deceit. I thought the resolution was well-handled.
The laughs are better in this episode than in most, with the only silly things being in Chip's dream-and I have surely had many dreams sillier than what they showed here. They even had a funny line from Steve regarding Sudsy's project for the open house when something went wrong with it. Let's see: More laughs than usual, a kid who does right after doing one bad thing...sounds like a 9 to me.
After being frustrated that nobody can even tell WHAT his drawings are, Chip gets dome help from Bub who rapidly shows him how to draw a sailboat, hoping it will inspire him. But all he feels is frustrated because he cannot do a good sailboat himself. He sort-of accidentally winds up, sort-of on purpose, submitting Bub's drawing for the open house-but immediately is worried because his dad and Bub will be there and they'll see what he did.
This leads to the best scenes in the show, featuring Chip's buddy Sudsy, who absolutely gets off his best line in the series. First Sudsy tells him that passing off the drawing as his when he didn't draw it is a crime called "pugilism." Chip says he's going to have to swipe the drawing back, only to have Sudsy tell him that would be "pugilism with larson on top of that." Sudsy, whose father is a lawyer, tells Chip that he could wind up in prison. He suggests talking to his dad (Mr. Pfeiffer) to see how to avoid prison. Chip is skeptical and Sudsy gives my favorite line: "Lots of people who hire my father go to prison." Now there's a line no lawyer would ever use in a commercial, eh?
Chip does go to see Sudsy's dad and his dad has some great reactions to what Chip tells him that Sudsy has been saying, including the thing about his clients going to prison. When Chip talks about the "larson" Mr. P at first thinks he means "arson."
Then Chip has a wild dream where he's in prison, with the proverbial horizontally striped shirts and pants. In the second part, he has been there so long he has a long white beard, and is still imprisoned next to his faithful dog Tramp-also in prison attire.
When Steve and Bub learn what Chip did, they arrange with the teacher and principal to see if he will do the right thing before the deadline to submit the drawing to the newspaper-Bub's drawing was a hit with the teacher. Rather than just confront him, Steve believes in his boy and gives him a chance to redeem himself. Chip does, but not at all in the way they thought he would.
On Leave It to Beaver I don't believe ever saw Ward giving Beaver a chance to redeem himself-Beaver was always caught with his endless supply of lies and deceit. I thought the resolution was well-handled.
The laughs are better in this episode than in most, with the only silly things being in Chip's dream-and I have surely had many dreams sillier than what they showed here. They even had a funny line from Steve regarding Sudsy's project for the open house when something went wrong with it. Let's see: More laughs than usual, a kid who does right after doing one bad thing...sounds like a 9 to me.
