One episode from the third season that I didn't have room to mention in the article was the two-part season finale "A Star Named Arnold Is Born," where Arnold the pig makes a splash in a local play called "Who Killed Jock Robin?" (playing the part of an English police dog when Columbo the trained dog is unavailable), and winds up in Hollywood, replacing a horse in a major motion picture after the horse asks for too much money. (The producer of the film expresses regret at hiring the horse instead of his first choice, Elizabeth Taylor.) Arnold decides to give up on Hollywood stardom when he meets the horse he replaced, and has a subtitled conversation with him -- Arnold's grunts and the horse's whinnies subtitled in English -- in which he learns that the horse was counting on this picture to put his son through college:
ARNOLD: Grunt, grunt. (Subtitle: "BUT IF HE DOESN'T GO TO COLLEGE THEY'LL DRAFT HIM!")
HORSE: Neigh! (Subtitle: "I WAS COUNTING ON THIS MONEY TO BE ABLE TO SEND HIM.")
ARNOLD: Grunt, grunt. (Subtitle: "I FEEL LIKE A HEEL.")
HORSE: Neigh! (Subtitle: "C'EST LA VIE.")
ARNOLD: Grunt, grunt. (Subtitle: "OH, YOU SPEAK FRENCH.")
In the scene that directly follows this scene, Lisa, Oliver and the producer speak English, and the subtitles continue to flash on the screen until Lisa turns to the camera and says "We don't need those words any more."
My article from last week, on contemporary sitcoms, is online too. I seem to be carving out some kind of niche as Sitcom Guy. It's a (freelance) living.
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