1.27: Send a Boy To College

"He been suffering from lassitudinessness?"
"He's been lastiduinising all over the place."

Hooray! We get a Whole Lot Of Eb in this episode and it is very, very cool. Eb turns out to be very good at treating sick animals. So, the Douglases (mainly with pushing from Lisa) send him to the local college to become a vet. Of course, he comes right back in the end without a degree but I don't want to ruin everything. The "Sending" is the important part of this episode.

And, it is one of the funniest. (That's saying something in a show like this.) I always forget how funny it is until I sit down and watch it. But, starting with the "Shneaking" around the house to get away from Lisa's new breakfast recipe to the closing scene in the barn (with Lisa's charming laugh over the closing shot of the barn itself), this episode has a very high Funny Factor to it. In fact, it was tough to pick one quote. New ones kept popping up every couple of minutes. Everyone shows up and does their thing and everyone is funny.

The scene with Mr. Drucker is a great example. ("He should go to college so he can become a vegetarian."). Lisa is on a Super Roll. She's becoming very insistent that Eb must go to college and her varying English is steamrolling across the conversation. One of my favorite things that the show will do is underplay the laughs on the laugh track. She says some very funny things. And, Oliver's reactions are wonderfully dry but they never overdo the laughs. Restraint on a sitcom? Who would have guessed?

As always, the Douglases are good people. And, the people of Hooterville are nice & a little loopy. The show now seems to be right in the spot where it needs to be. It isn't entirely crazy yet but it's getting there. Bits like Mr. Kimball preparing his coffee in a test tube ("It makes it more scientific.") could have seemed like standard silly sitcom behavior but the writing here is sharper and the actors are game. When something is actually funny (as opposed to forcing it), it's funny. The comedy just flows.

That's the Green Acres that I love. An energetic, silly, funny show filled with a lot of heart and characters who make me want to visit their town. This is a great episode. I would say that it's perfect for a first viewing but I always get those things wrong. Make it your third viewing of the show after the first two episodes... enjoy.