User Reviews

This seems like a plot one of the writers thought up in the shower one day and wrote out the whole scenario on a notepad while shaving with his other hand. In other words-a very simple story. While there were some funny scenes, two enormous bits of stupidity force me to greatly lower my score.

Kingfish and Andy are at the lodge preparing their income tax forms for the year. Not understanding very much at all, they enlist Amos, who knows just what to do and he fills out both their forms, puts them in envelopes along with their checks, and gives the two envelopes to Andy to mail.

Andy is next seen walking down the sidewalk and with his arm out, envelope in hands, is just about to drop them in the slot of the mailbox when he sees a woman coming down the sidewalk walking toward him. Like a love-strong Jethro Bodine, he lowers his hand with the envelopes still in his hand, and puts the envelopes in his pocket as he talks to the woman, who was just going out for some fresh air.

Later, Andy is in his apartment with the envelopes still in his pocket, and when that same woman calls, he puts down his cigar-not in an ashtray, but on the edge of the desk where he's sitting. Then he knocks the cigar into his pocket where it sets the envelopes on fire. He realizes his coat is on fire while still on the phone, but when he stamps out the fire, the envelopes seem to be totally destroyed. Now this is unrealistic for a fire-it would have more quickly burned the fabric than the envelopes thick with papers-at least, the envelopes as the scene was staged, would not have been so completely destroyed that Andy couldn't even see them and have his memory jogged.

Instead, the calendar pages turn like they did so often, so we see that months later, the IRS has noticed two missing returns, and their New York office sends a man over to the lodge. He goes all the way over there to speak only to Lighnin' leaving a card and telling him to tell them to come to their local office as soon as possible. When he was sent to go there, it appeared he was going to talk to them in person. If just leaving a card was all he needed it would have been far more efficient to have mailed them each a letter telling them to report. Instead the IRS guy relies on a man at a desk, not dressed like he belongs there to relay a message.

As our stars talk about why the IRS wants them, Andy suddenly has flashbacks and remembers that he never mailed the forms months ago. With Amos telling them it isn't a big deal, Kingfish and Andy go down to the office.

But they are spooked, first by a man who had filed late because of a serious auto accident. When he emerges with a broken foot, arm in a sling, and other bandages, our guys think the IRS beat him up. They start to leave in a panic, but then think the better of it and go back to wait, letting another man go ahead of them. Before he can be served, the agent dealing with him is told that the armed guards are there to pick up a bag of paperwork. While he is retrieving the documents, the guards turn on the TV in the man's office (I know) and they view the middle of an old western where a man is pleading with the bad guy not to hurt him because he owes him $6. He is shot. Kingfish and Andy outside are panicking again, especially when the guards drag a bag out of the inner office large enough to stuff a body.

They again attempt to leave, but before they do, they see the man leaving and talk to the agent who explains (unseen) what was really going on. He tells them he understands how someone could forget to mail in their forms and to get new copies in right away.

With Amos's help, they get them prepared again. This time Kingfish insists on mailing them instead of easily-distracted Andy. We see him walking down the sidewalk about to put them in the mailbox when he spots a quarter lying on the sidewalk. So he bends over, picks up his new-found fortune and doesn't even notice that he slid the envelopes into a trash container located right beside the mailbox.

The troubles they had filling out their forms were worth a couple of chuckles, and the panicking scenes in the IRS offices were reasonably funny. But the total stupidity of not just dropping the envelopes in the slot before going to talk to the girl, or not just dropping the envelopes into the slot and then picking up the quarter just made me want to slap the writers. I give this show a 5. Get rid of the dumb parts and I could have gone to a 7.

It could so easily have been staged differently to remove the stupidity. In Andy's case, he could have seen the girl while the mailbox was still half a block away. He could later have been shown to not notice the envelopes falling out of his pocket. As for Kingfish, I picture a box that shows the words "US Mail" and he drops in the envelopes and leaves. Just then someone comes up and removes a paper that was just above those words, so we now read that it says "This box is not for US Mail." Two easy changes, same results, would have equaled a lot funnier show.

Now I could never be a script writer, but I sure could fix up various scripts is only I had been around and in the right place at the time.

If you have never seen a single episode of "The Amos 'n' Andy Show", as the subject line states: "Start Here!!!" Absolutely one of, if not THE funniest episodes of the series. To hear Algonquin say the word "Alcatrazzy" is worth the price of admission...