As viewed today on Antenna TV, the episode "Father is a Dope" was the funniest I've seen since watching this series again a couple of months ago.
We began with the family laughing at a TV series where a family convinces the father that he would be dumb to give up everything to mine uranium. Everyone loves this series except Jim, who thinks it's so stupid he proclaims that instead of being titled, "Father Goofs Up Again, it should be called "Father Is a Dope." Then he makes plans to go hunting with his neighbor the next morning. But he begins worrying that Margaret and the kids will hatch some plot to keep him from going, even though she said she wanted him to go.
Almost immediately, Betty is asking him to go with her to a job interview, Kathy wants to go to a party, but can't because there'll be no car available to take her there (Jim is taking the family vehicle on the hunting trip), and Bud suddenly feels a strange pain in his side and shows dad that he cannot raise his hand up to here. When Dad points out that he is holding it there, Bud says, "Well, I can't go any higher." Then Margaret goes to take the car to go to the market, but smashes into the fence, further convincing Jim she is trying to keep him home. But he gets it fixed good enough the next morning, but as he prepares to leave, he keeps worrying whether or not they are trying to get him to stay home, or if they really happen to be coming up with true things that would keep him home, without having any sort of scheme.
One thing I have learned in getting reacquainted with this classic show is how most of the episodes I like a lot today, in 2016, are the ones featuring Jim. Although he frequently did not "know best" as Margaret and sometimes the kids really did, he was about the most realistic regular father character on TV in the medium's first 20 years.
This episode was excellent, earning the first 10 from me for any of these episodes seen this year.
We began with the family laughing at a TV series where a family convinces the father that he would be dumb to give up everything to mine uranium. Everyone loves this series except Jim, who thinks it's so stupid he proclaims that instead of being titled, "Father Goofs Up Again, it should be called "Father Is a Dope." Then he makes plans to go hunting with his neighbor the next morning. But he begins worrying that Margaret and the kids will hatch some plot to keep him from going, even though she said she wanted him to go.
Almost immediately, Betty is asking him to go with her to a job interview, Kathy wants to go to a party, but can't because there'll be no car available to take her there (Jim is taking the family vehicle on the hunting trip), and Bud suddenly feels a strange pain in his side and shows dad that he cannot raise his hand up to here. When Dad points out that he is holding it there, Bud says, "Well, I can't go any higher." Then Margaret goes to take the car to go to the market, but smashes into the fence, further convincing Jim she is trying to keep him home. But he gets it fixed good enough the next morning, but as he prepares to leave, he keeps worrying whether or not they are trying to get him to stay home, or if they really happen to be coming up with true things that would keep him home, without having any sort of scheme.
One thing I have learned in getting reacquainted with this classic show is how most of the episodes I like a lot today, in 2016, are the ones featuring Jim. Although he frequently did not "know best" as Margaret and sometimes the kids really did, he was about the most realistic regular father character on TV in the medium's first 20 years.
This episode was excellent, earning the first 10 from me for any of these episodes seen this year.
