User Reviews

There's just a smidge of It's A Wonderful Life in this episode. Times are hard for a family man who just happens to have a mortgage with the town's most infamous wealthy baron. That would be Ben. Remember Ben from the Christmas episode. That one had a smidge of Dickens A Christmas Carol to good effect, yet now the goodwill elicited from Ben in that episode has apparently given way to greed as usual. But I digress, Andy believes Ben is trying to take advantage by invoking a clause stating if a payment is missed the full amount is immediately due or the mortgage holder forfeits his lease. Andy is full stall mode and going as far as to hold a rummage sale to raise the needed cash. Of course Ben is in full "bah humbug" throw 'em out mode forcing Andy's hand to serve papers. Andy turns a mirror on Ben's ugly side by one-upping with a new mean spirit to evict a family with nowhere to go or no way to even take all their possessions in time. It forces Ben to see just how heartless his actions really are to which his own uncomfortable shame not only makes him backdown, but he hires his mortgagee in order to pay the debt and avoid foreclosure. While this episode may be short on the usual laughs, it is heavy on social commentary. The industrial and economic boom after the war took time for prosperity to fully arrive, especially for those who lived meagerly paycheck to paycheck. This caused more than a few, particularly in more rural settings far from the industrial centers, to suffer fore closures. I'd say it was an excellent social and economic commentary of a period that has some parallels with our post-pandemic landscape. This really is an excellent episode and we even get a humorous "Easter Egg" at the end with Barney all mushy on the phone to Juanita.