Lisa wants to go to New York for her dear (previously unmentioned) friend's 25th wedding anniversary. Oliver questions her, saying she just got married last year. Lisa recounts that she was married to her first husband for 9 years, her second for 4, her third for 7, and her fourth husband for 3 years, so with 1 year with this one, that makes 25. Oliver, usually good at math, accepts that, even though the total is 24 according to my abacus.
It goes downhill fast from there. Oliver can't go this weekend because it's the busiest time of the year for him. He goes out to start work with Eb, and finds him sitting by himself talking. Eb "introduces" him to Charlie, and acts like Oliver should be able to see him sitting beside Eb. He doesn't say he's invisible but acts like it's a real person.
He continues this nonsense, annoying the heck out of Oliver, pretending the little fellow is shaking when Oliver raises his voice a little to get Eb to quit fooling around and get to work. Eventually, Lisa joins in the silliness by pretending to have a little girlfriend named Natasha.
Oliver jumps into it more or less just to see how they react, by inventing Homer. Eb immediately asks if Homer is French because he's wearing a beret. Later there's a "dog" named George who is retrieving an invisible stick Eb is throwing.
Inside the living room after that scene, Oliver tells Lisa he's worried about Eb, thinking he needs psychiatric help. There are no shrinks near Hooterville (you'd think they'd have 5 or 6 given the characters that inhabit that place) but it so happens that Lisa knows one in New York-the husband of her friend who's having the anniversary party.
Oliver is now upset, knowing how they tried to trick him. Eb comes inside all excited, claiming Charlie and Homer are having a big fight about Natasha and one has a gun and one a knife and Mr. Douglas needs to go out to stop it. When Oliver and Lisa let him know the jig is up, that Oliver knows all about the scheme, Eb admits it...but the sound of sirens reminds him that while he was still pretending, he got carried away and called the sheriff about the fight.
But wait-it gets worse. When the deputy comes in, Eb pretends to know nothing, saying Oliver is the one who saw the fight. Oliver, supposedly trained and practiced as a lawyer for years to say things clearly in a courtroom to officials, stumbles and bumbles in a Lucy Ricardo-type conversation with the deputy. He convinces the deputy that he needs help and is only saved from the county asylum by Lisa insisting she can take him to get good help in New York.
So Lisa and Oliver head off for New York immediately and all are happy-except for those of us who just wasted a half hour with what is quite likely THE worst episode Green Acres ever aired. It was so bad, the editing people mistakenly put the credits for a different episode while the theme song was played at the end. It did not list Bob Hastings as the deputy, but did list Mr. Wheeler and his daughter, neither of whom were on this episode. It appears to be the credits from the following episode, about the engagement ring, as they were the only guests on that one.
What makes it so bad is that as a viewer, we knew Eb hadn't really gone crazy and wasn't going off to a sanitarium. So since there was nothing else mentioned in the whole plot other than the trip to New York, we couldn't help but know just what was going on-somehow, this business of "friends" who weren't really there-and Oliver waved his hand through where Charlie was supposed to be without feeling anything, proving there wasn't even an invisible person there, if that were possible. So it was a matter of waiting until they got to the purpose of the whole thing.
All the dialog about Charlie being fat, and introducing Natasha to Homer was, at best, a great chance to head for the ice box for a snack. The folks smarter than me, got their snack and then grabbed a good book, or even a comic book, but didn't waste the whole half hour on this totally funnyless show. I have to give it a one.
It goes downhill fast from there. Oliver can't go this weekend because it's the busiest time of the year for him. He goes out to start work with Eb, and finds him sitting by himself talking. Eb "introduces" him to Charlie, and acts like Oliver should be able to see him sitting beside Eb. He doesn't say he's invisible but acts like it's a real person.
He continues this nonsense, annoying the heck out of Oliver, pretending the little fellow is shaking when Oliver raises his voice a little to get Eb to quit fooling around and get to work. Eventually, Lisa joins in the silliness by pretending to have a little girlfriend named Natasha.
Oliver jumps into it more or less just to see how they react, by inventing Homer. Eb immediately asks if Homer is French because he's wearing a beret. Later there's a "dog" named George who is retrieving an invisible stick Eb is throwing.
Inside the living room after that scene, Oliver tells Lisa he's worried about Eb, thinking he needs psychiatric help. There are no shrinks near Hooterville (you'd think they'd have 5 or 6 given the characters that inhabit that place) but it so happens that Lisa knows one in New York-the husband of her friend who's having the anniversary party.
Oliver is now upset, knowing how they tried to trick him. Eb comes inside all excited, claiming Charlie and Homer are having a big fight about Natasha and one has a gun and one a knife and Mr. Douglas needs to go out to stop it. When Oliver and Lisa let him know the jig is up, that Oliver knows all about the scheme, Eb admits it...but the sound of sirens reminds him that while he was still pretending, he got carried away and called the sheriff about the fight.
But wait-it gets worse. When the deputy comes in, Eb pretends to know nothing, saying Oliver is the one who saw the fight. Oliver, supposedly trained and practiced as a lawyer for years to say things clearly in a courtroom to officials, stumbles and bumbles in a Lucy Ricardo-type conversation with the deputy. He convinces the deputy that he needs help and is only saved from the county asylum by Lisa insisting she can take him to get good help in New York.
So Lisa and Oliver head off for New York immediately and all are happy-except for those of us who just wasted a half hour with what is quite likely THE worst episode Green Acres ever aired. It was so bad, the editing people mistakenly put the credits for a different episode while the theme song was played at the end. It did not list Bob Hastings as the deputy, but did list Mr. Wheeler and his daughter, neither of whom were on this episode. It appears to be the credits from the following episode, about the engagement ring, as they were the only guests on that one.
What makes it so bad is that as a viewer, we knew Eb hadn't really gone crazy and wasn't going off to a sanitarium. So since there was nothing else mentioned in the whole plot other than the trip to New York, we couldn't help but know just what was going on-somehow, this business of "friends" who weren't really there-and Oliver waved his hand through where Charlie was supposed to be without feeling anything, proving there wasn't even an invisible person there, if that were possible. So it was a matter of waiting until they got to the purpose of the whole thing.
All the dialog about Charlie being fat, and introducing Natasha to Homer was, at best, a great chance to head for the ice box for a snack. The folks smarter than me, got their snack and then grabbed a good book, or even a comic book, but didn't waste the whole half hour on this totally funnyless show. I have to give it a one.
