1.25: The Deputy

Lisa: Is that how you spell shopping, with one "o" and two "p"'s?
Oliver: Mmm-hmm.
Lisa: I always spell it with two "o"'s and one "p"?
Oliver: That's shooping.
Lisa: You mean all this time I've been "shooping" instead of "shopping".
Oliver: I guess so.
Lisa: Funny nobody noticed it.

Even the title clues you in, with this episode we're heading back to a more normal world of sitcom than Molly Turgis would have implied was our future. Mr. Drucker is going on vacation for two weeks. He tricks Oliver into becoming the deputy. That's the first act. The second act is general faffing around as Oliver gets his Deputy kit (more like a Deputy bag) and tries to give Mr. Charlton (?) Haney a ticket. Then, in time for the third act, he handcuffs himself to Lisa and that takes the wacky to the end.

Eisner & Krinksy's Television Comedy Series has an appendix that lists "Standard Classic Sitcom Plots", including meeting a person who is identical to one of the lead characters, a picnic or family trip of some sort and other great ones. One of them is "characters get handcuffed together". Lisa & Oliver's handcuffing isn't as funny as Kramden & Norton on the train. But, it's still darn good. The fact, however, that this plot line is in the "Standard Classic etc" list meas 1) GA is a Classic Sitcom & 2) there's a good chance that this episode isn't all that crazy.

You're right on both counts.

After the regular episodes of the house & farm being assembled and Lisa's decision day, the show would need to settle into a familiar groove. Something that people would want to tune into week after week. Something a little different each week but not terribly different. That's just the way sitcoms worked back then. So, the last third of this season is the show manoeuvring around as it finds its niche. Molly T. implies that the show is going mad. And, in fact, it will. This is the direction it followed. The Deputy shows the program as a Standard Sitcom. The structure might still be a bit strange but the storytelling is pure Classic Sitcom. Another route the show could have taken.

And, luckily, Jay & Dick are so good at what they do that this is a viable avenue for the show to take. Once the Second Season begins, it will be the rare episode that is as standard as this. There are wonderfully individual moments, pure GA: The shooping list, Wyatt Earp talk, "Let me see your credentials...Oh, you've got a whole bag of them" and talk of The De-Putty. Mr. Kimball is the sign that something isn't quite matching up, however. He seems rather out-of-place in his scene. His weird antics at the train tracks feel off here. But, setting that aside, the show could have run like this for years, (possibly with a toned-down Hank) telling regular stories with touches of strange wit & odd humor.

But, the show didn't go this way. It is still early enough in its run that it can play around with what it's doing and it's great to see. Many shows go down one route and then abandon it for something else. (For example: the first 12-ish episodes of The Munsters are far more macabre than the remainder of the show. And, frankly, I think it loses something.) GA has two types of Green Acres running alongside one another...I wonder if folks originally watching would have noted this? It's pretty cool to see. And, obviously, with each episode we draw closer to the Firm Green Acres Style set in stone.

Oddly enough, the next episode by production order (I've decided that's the way I'm doing it) is about fixing up the house in some way but it is loaded with the oddness to come. Stay tuned.