Continuing with episodes from the first half of season 2, this episode features what is now the typical sitcom pregnancy storyline. It introduced Allyn McLerie as Mr. Carlson's wife. (McLerie had been a regular on The Tony Randall Show, where Hugh Wilson was one of the producers.) The writer, Blake Hunter, was a friend of Hugh Wilson's from more or less the same background -- Southerner, former advertising man. He appears to have done a lot to make Mr. Carlson's mother a more sympathetic character than she was in the pilot.
The cold opening or "teaser" of this episode does a very skilful job of introducing a new character and providing a ton of information/exposition in about two minutes.
Music: "Still" by Lionel Ritchie, one song (near the end) that I'm not sure about, and, most importantly, "Thank Heaven For Little Girls" by Maurice Chevalier. This was replaced soon after the show went into syndication, ruining the ending of the episode. This is the original version.
Cold Opening and Act 1:
Act 2:
It's a really good episode. You describe it as "typical," though. Could you imagine any situation comedy today having such a blunt discussion of abortion as this, even though the Carlsons decide against it? You can't quite hear it, but you can really feel the audience's shock when Carol Bruce first brings it up.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this episode in its proper form.
Great to see this episode. You're right...changing the music at the end completely screws up the gag's payoff. It's bad enough that they dubbed in another song, but the one they used in syndication doesn't even SOUND like the Carpenters!! Talk about cheap!
ReplyDeleteThis is the ultimate example as to why this show needs the original music. People who say otherwise just don't get it.
Thanks for putting these up. I had forgotten just how excellent this show was. The DVDs (as they are right now) serve absolutely no purpose whatsoever.
My all-time favorite quote from the show! I wonder how they do the .96 part! I forgot that this is the show where Les tells Mr. Carlson that no one's allowed to touch his silver sow award. Classic.
ReplyDeleteAs always, just a great show. That they could raise the issue of abortion and not make it THE central issue shows how well-written this show was.