Thursday, September 3, 2009

1.15.: How To Enlarge a Bedroom

(It is now September 12th. I wrote this over a week ago and, frankly, I'm not so thrilled with it. But, it is a spray of my thoughts on this very good episode. So, I'm posting it. Enjoy.)

"I called you three weeks ago for an estimate."
"Ralph was on vacation."
"Oh...When does that end?"
"Last Wednesday."

And...the Monroe brothers have arrived. Alf & Ralph!

Except one of them is a sister...Ralph.

They're not as wacky as they will be in a few episodes but their patented "Monroe brand" of laughs is here.

Lisa offers Oliver an "either-or". Enlarge the bedroom or the six months are up! So, Oliver gets Alf and Ralph over there immediately. At the same time, Eb is trying to borrow Mr. Douglas's car for a date with Ophelia, his gal. Oliver will not budge.

It's so great to be back on track with the "six months moving into the farm" stories again. There's no Mr. Kimball in this episode. But, aside from the Monroe's, Fred & Doris Ziffel get a great scene together. They get in some nice back & forth bickering, which is always great. (Arnold acts a little oddly but he's, generally, still a regular pig.)

This episode does begin immediately with the "enlarge the bedroom" plotline but it works here because there is a lot to get done. Alf & Ralph arrive. They expand out the bedroom. That actually means that they pushed out the wall with the window as far as Lisa wants it. That means that there are no walls along the side and anyone can just stroll in. And, it means that the telephone pole is now in the middle of the room. Oh, Monroe Brothers!

The episode follows Oliver from spot to spot. Lisa still hasn't completely adapted but, in this episode, she has become one of the characters that Oliver keeps meeting up with during his journey. And, now, there are so many of them. The Ziffel scene has a great moment when Oliver goes to check a reference for the Monroe Brothers work. Oliver's face when he learns what they did for Fred and Doris is great. Basically, the Brothers re-hung their front door so it swings a different way. And, they fixed the front porch. Of course, they broke it...

Eddie Albert carries the episode with a mix of bemusement and frustration and confusion. The Monroe's inability to give a proper estimate and the building inspector's bribery of sorts (Ophelia is his daughter. Room won't pass if Oliver doesn't give out the car.) drive him to some raging. But, then, watch his reaction when Mrs. Ziffel tells him that he looks pretty. It's very charming. The man perfectly fits into this society that he doesn't fit into that well at all.

Eva Gabor is as charming as ever. Really though, the episode is about Oliver trying to get the bedroom work started and get Eb to leave him alone. So, she doesn't do much here. In the last episode, she was the focus.

So, as we go through, approaching the second half of Season One, the bits are in place. Things are coming together and the bedroom will expand and Alf & Ralph will grow. (Apparently, Alf is married? Maybe he was kidding.) Being on the ground floor of a show is always great, if it's a good show. Let's see what happens next.

1 comment:

  1. “It has been great to know that there is someone out there that knows about falling down and getting back up. We always stay humble and never give up, and for the help of Mr Benjamin lee of getting me Loan from his firm to expand my business, at a pivotal time. The support I received from his loan firm was quite honest and an interesting low rate in return, Mr Benjamin Lee is a loan officer working with a group of investors which are willing to fund any type of business or give loan for personal use as long as their repayment is guaranteed.
    You can contact theirs email on  247officedept@gmail.com  Or Whatsapp Mr lee on   +1-989-394-3740

    ReplyDelete