The full version of this episode might have been a bit different from the Me-TV version I just saw, but it would not totally change my criticism here, only partially.
We began with everyone in the household in the kitchen hearing a noise that we learned was coming from the garage where Dad was having trouble getting the car started. We were told that he had gotten off to a bad start-he cut himself shaving, and burned a finger at the stove. On his way out after getting the car going, he knocked over a couple of metal trash cans. Late to work for an appointment, he then realized he had forgotten the big plans back at the house. Mike rescued him (in a 10-minute drive, we were told, so rather quickly) and things seemed to settle down until Steve reached up to get a bottle of ink for a copy machine and spilled ink all over his suit. This time Robbie came to the rescue with a clean suit, taking the other one to the cleaners. Steve insisted he was fine, he just had 8 small accidents so far. When he got his tie stuck in the copier and it had to be cut off, he decided to go home for the rest of the day.
We cut to evening where the man he worked with, a Mr. Gordon, telephones. Earlier, we had heard him planning a fancy dinner with just himself and the client they were trying to woo, a Mr. Putman, and his wife. Gordon was at the office that morning, had explained he was flying to a nearby city-an hour's flight-but would have no trouble returning for the dinner. The phone call was because some bad weather at that city was going to keep him from the meeting and he wanted Steve to meet the Putman's.
There was a sort-of funny bit where Chip was trying to write down things Mr. Gordon said on the phone, while relaying them to his dad, who was in the shower. Here it seemed like Steve should have just wrapped himself in a towel and stepped out to the hall phone, instead of continuing to go through Chip. Chip kept returning from the upstairs hall phone to the living room phone because that's where the note pad was, for him to write down things. Gordon was very short on time but had to keep waiting while Chip went up and down the stairs, relaying to him what his dad was saying.
The gist was that it was already after 6 and the dinner he now had to suddenly attend was at 7:30. He had his white tuxedo to wear, but discovered he had left his wallet in the suit that was at the now-closed cleaners. Bub tried to get him money for the dinner at the drug store but the clerk was almost out of folding money, and wound up giving Bub $93 in coins for his $100 check.
So Steve now shows up late for the dinner because of several attempts to swap coins for folding money. He is just starting to explain this to the hat check girl when Mr. Putman comes over. Steve decides to hide the bag of coins behind his back and sticks it behind his body in the chair he sits in. The maitre d' sees a paper bag and takes it away, somehow not noticing that the bag suddenly ripped open, spilling pounds of coins behind his customer. Steve spends several seconds trying to secretly stuff these coins into his tux pockets while talking with the couple, but then is more-or-less forced by Mr. Putman to dance with his wife.
Predictably, the heavy coins in the pocket, as Steve moves about dancing, rip a hole in the pocket, that worsens in the next minute or so. After a few coins fall out, suddenly the whole pocket rips open and coins noisily fall all over the floor. Steve kneels to pick them up, saying something about how he's had a miserable day. We finish seeing one more thing go wrong-predictably, back at home as Steve goes to bed.
This episode had the makings of a funny show but all of these bad things except the coins falling out of the pocket, happened off camera. We just heard about all of Steve's mishaps. The garbage cans were only seen in the middle of the driveway as Steve was in the street heading off. How he got past them-they were blocking the driveway as we saw them-or how he came to hit them, were not seen. We saw him reach for the bottle of ink, but never saw it spill. We did not see him get his tie stuck, only call for help after this happened. We didn't need to see everything, but it was troublesome that almost everything happened off camera.
At the restaurant, when Putman came up, he could have said, "I'll meet you at the table in a moment" and returned to the hat check girl and gotten some coins changed, if not most of them. Or he could have gone to the table with his bag and said, "You won't believe what's happened to me today," and explained his bag full of coins. Had he asked, the Maitre d' might have gotten him bills for most of his coins, but he was too embarrassed to say anything. Steve wasn't a teenager. He surely should have realized the Putman's wouldn't need a detailed explanation. His bag of coins could have been explained as simply as, "I wasn't expecting to be here tonight until about an hour ago when Mr. Gordon telephoned me. The only place I could get a check cashed at that time was a drug store and the man only had $7 in bills, so he gave me all these coins." Since Putman already knew Gordon was flying away and planned to return for the dinner, and he had already seen Steve's plans, it wouldn't seem like Gordon phoning and explaining he cannot make the dinner would have been important to clinching the agreement to do business together. If the flight's cancelled, it's cancelled. How can he blame Gordon? This seems like a goofy way to set up Steve as "needing" to make this dinner at the last minute.
The one "accident" we got to see-the coins dropping through his pocket-we all knew would happen as soon as he started stuffing them into his pocket. For that matter, there had to be several dollars worth he left on his seat at the restaurant, which would have prompted far more questions from the Putmans than if he'd just showed them the bag in the first place.
By leaving out any scene of Steve in an ink-stained suit, as well as not seeing any of the other accidents, makes me feel like I "missed" most of the funny parts of the show. But the real reason for the low score is Steve's foolishness in causing problems for himself by hiding that bag of coins, as though he didn't think he could explain it to the Putmans. My score-three.
We began with everyone in the household in the kitchen hearing a noise that we learned was coming from the garage where Dad was having trouble getting the car started. We were told that he had gotten off to a bad start-he cut himself shaving, and burned a finger at the stove. On his way out after getting the car going, he knocked over a couple of metal trash cans. Late to work for an appointment, he then realized he had forgotten the big plans back at the house. Mike rescued him (in a 10-minute drive, we were told, so rather quickly) and things seemed to settle down until Steve reached up to get a bottle of ink for a copy machine and spilled ink all over his suit. This time Robbie came to the rescue with a clean suit, taking the other one to the cleaners. Steve insisted he was fine, he just had 8 small accidents so far. When he got his tie stuck in the copier and it had to be cut off, he decided to go home for the rest of the day.
We cut to evening where the man he worked with, a Mr. Gordon, telephones. Earlier, we had heard him planning a fancy dinner with just himself and the client they were trying to woo, a Mr. Putman, and his wife. Gordon was at the office that morning, had explained he was flying to a nearby city-an hour's flight-but would have no trouble returning for the dinner. The phone call was because some bad weather at that city was going to keep him from the meeting and he wanted Steve to meet the Putman's.
There was a sort-of funny bit where Chip was trying to write down things Mr. Gordon said on the phone, while relaying them to his dad, who was in the shower. Here it seemed like Steve should have just wrapped himself in a towel and stepped out to the hall phone, instead of continuing to go through Chip. Chip kept returning from the upstairs hall phone to the living room phone because that's where the note pad was, for him to write down things. Gordon was very short on time but had to keep waiting while Chip went up and down the stairs, relaying to him what his dad was saying.
The gist was that it was already after 6 and the dinner he now had to suddenly attend was at 7:30. He had his white tuxedo to wear, but discovered he had left his wallet in the suit that was at the now-closed cleaners. Bub tried to get him money for the dinner at the drug store but the clerk was almost out of folding money, and wound up giving Bub $93 in coins for his $100 check.
So Steve now shows up late for the dinner because of several attempts to swap coins for folding money. He is just starting to explain this to the hat check girl when Mr. Putman comes over. Steve decides to hide the bag of coins behind his back and sticks it behind his body in the chair he sits in. The maitre d' sees a paper bag and takes it away, somehow not noticing that the bag suddenly ripped open, spilling pounds of coins behind his customer. Steve spends several seconds trying to secretly stuff these coins into his tux pockets while talking with the couple, but then is more-or-less forced by Mr. Putman to dance with his wife.
Predictably, the heavy coins in the pocket, as Steve moves about dancing, rip a hole in the pocket, that worsens in the next minute or so. After a few coins fall out, suddenly the whole pocket rips open and coins noisily fall all over the floor. Steve kneels to pick them up, saying something about how he's had a miserable day. We finish seeing one more thing go wrong-predictably, back at home as Steve goes to bed.
This episode had the makings of a funny show but all of these bad things except the coins falling out of the pocket, happened off camera. We just heard about all of Steve's mishaps. The garbage cans were only seen in the middle of the driveway as Steve was in the street heading off. How he got past them-they were blocking the driveway as we saw them-or how he came to hit them, were not seen. We saw him reach for the bottle of ink, but never saw it spill. We did not see him get his tie stuck, only call for help after this happened. We didn't need to see everything, but it was troublesome that almost everything happened off camera.
At the restaurant, when Putman came up, he could have said, "I'll meet you at the table in a moment" and returned to the hat check girl and gotten some coins changed, if not most of them. Or he could have gone to the table with his bag and said, "You won't believe what's happened to me today," and explained his bag full of coins. Had he asked, the Maitre d' might have gotten him bills for most of his coins, but he was too embarrassed to say anything. Steve wasn't a teenager. He surely should have realized the Putman's wouldn't need a detailed explanation. His bag of coins could have been explained as simply as, "I wasn't expecting to be here tonight until about an hour ago when Mr. Gordon telephoned me. The only place I could get a check cashed at that time was a drug store and the man only had $7 in bills, so he gave me all these coins." Since Putman already knew Gordon was flying away and planned to return for the dinner, and he had already seen Steve's plans, it wouldn't seem like Gordon phoning and explaining he cannot make the dinner would have been important to clinching the agreement to do business together. If the flight's cancelled, it's cancelled. How can he blame Gordon? This seems like a goofy way to set up Steve as "needing" to make this dinner at the last minute.
The one "accident" we got to see-the coins dropping through his pocket-we all knew would happen as soon as he started stuffing them into his pocket. For that matter, there had to be several dollars worth he left on his seat at the restaurant, which would have prompted far more questions from the Putmans than if he'd just showed them the bag in the first place.
By leaving out any scene of Steve in an ink-stained suit, as well as not seeing any of the other accidents, makes me feel like I "missed" most of the funny parts of the show. But the real reason for the low score is Steve's foolishness in causing problems for himself by hiding that bag of coins, as though he didn't think he could explain it to the Putmans. My score-three.
