Today's Tool Time looks at nifty space-saving ideas, up to and including a chest that can house an entire entertainment center. Just press a button and the TV rises up from inside the chest. Of course Tim thinks it doesn't move fast enough, so he decides to give it more power. The result is an airborne TV set. Well, if you didn't do the same thing to your set and stuck around, Tim and Al discuss Valentine's Day. Al's got Ilene's present ready and amazingly, Tim's already got one for Jill. That's the good news. The bad news is he doesn't remember where he hid it, or even what it was! Suddenly, Heidi delivers Tim a message: a woman named Liddy Talbot called for him and wants to meet with him. The name Talbot rang a bell, but Tim just couldn't place her. Possibly a former high school flame having looked the Tool Man up after all these years? When he gets home, he tells Jill about his new secret admirer, but not before bribing the boys $40 to look for his wayward Valentine's gift. Upon inspection of Tim's high school yearbook, it seems Miss Talbot was quite the bodacious babe, but she and Tim didn't seem to socialize as she was in all the honors' classes, and Tim... he was the king of the shop scene.
Tim arrives at the meeting place, the hotel barroom on the requested date, to see if Liddy shows up. When she does, Tim is a bit bewildered to find that she's 25 years his senior. It was her daughter Elizabeth who was in Tim's class. As for Liddy, it seems she was close friends with the Tool Man's father. Very close friends, lasting even after he married Tim's mom. Not wanting to even entertain the notion that his father might have had an affair, Tim quietly slips out while Liddy goes on stage to play with the band. At home, Jill finds out what Tim discovered, and being the crap psychologist she is, she pours salt in Tim's open wound by building scenario after scenario of 'what if's'. Like, what if Tim's dad and Liddy had a love child, what if Tim married his sister, etc., hey if I had a choice between marrying my sister or Jill, I doubt I'd pick the latter. Anyway, Tim goes into the backyard with a metal detector to try and find Jill's gift. Wilson sees him, and the two get to talking about Liddy and the love affair she had with Tim's father. Tim idolized his father and he didn't want to think he'd do something so slimy, however Wilson encourages him to try and see his father as a fallible human being who makes mistakes like everyone else. Determined to know the truth, Tim goes back down to see Liddy and find out once and for all if his father was the noble, faithful man he'd always believed him to be. Looks like Tim's fears were unfounded, as it turns out his father and Liddy WEREN'T knocking boots after all. So why did she look Tim up after all these years? Well, Papa Taylor had been there for Liddy when her drummer husband left her high and try. He lent her money to start giving piano lessons, and so Liddy wanted to meet with Tim to...settle up. He's reluctant to accept the money, but he does and decides to buy his mom a china hutch. Before Tim and Liddy part ways, he makes one small request: Hey, Hey, We're the Monkees. And what about Jill's Valentine's Day gift? Well, on a special Deux Ex Machina edition of Tool Time, Tim discovers it in an old Irish cupboard he and Al were going to strip the paint off of. His gift was a beautiful, hand- painted jewelry box. Jill would've loved it. I say would've because the dumbkopf then proceeded to drop it into a bucket of paint thinner.
While A Funny Valentine isn't a very funny episode, I did like the plot: Tim meeting an old flame of his father's. It helped to bring some more development to a character we've never seen, but heard Tim talk a great deal about. We've seen episodes where Brad, Randy and Mark learn that their father is a fallible human being, and Jill learning the same about her father, so this was a first for Tim. Other than that, this episode isn't really anything special. But I guess if you want to find out more about Tim's past and what his father was like, then you should probably see this one. As for me, now that I've critiqued each episode of Season 6. Not a bad season, but certainly not as good as the season before it.
Tim arrives at the meeting place, the hotel barroom on the requested date, to see if Liddy shows up. When she does, Tim is a bit bewildered to find that she's 25 years his senior. It was her daughter Elizabeth who was in Tim's class. As for Liddy, it seems she was close friends with the Tool Man's father. Very close friends, lasting even after he married Tim's mom. Not wanting to even entertain the notion that his father might have had an affair, Tim quietly slips out while Liddy goes on stage to play with the band. At home, Jill finds out what Tim discovered, and being the crap psychologist she is, she pours salt in Tim's open wound by building scenario after scenario of 'what if's'. Like, what if Tim's dad and Liddy had a love child, what if Tim married his sister, etc., hey if I had a choice between marrying my sister or Jill, I doubt I'd pick the latter. Anyway, Tim goes into the backyard with a metal detector to try and find Jill's gift. Wilson sees him, and the two get to talking about Liddy and the love affair she had with Tim's father. Tim idolized his father and he didn't want to think he'd do something so slimy, however Wilson encourages him to try and see his father as a fallible human being who makes mistakes like everyone else. Determined to know the truth, Tim goes back down to see Liddy and find out once and for all if his father was the noble, faithful man he'd always believed him to be. Looks like Tim's fears were unfounded, as it turns out his father and Liddy WEREN'T knocking boots after all. So why did she look Tim up after all these years? Well, Papa Taylor had been there for Liddy when her drummer husband left her high and try. He lent her money to start giving piano lessons, and so Liddy wanted to meet with Tim to...settle up. He's reluctant to accept the money, but he does and decides to buy his mom a china hutch. Before Tim and Liddy part ways, he makes one small request: Hey, Hey, We're the Monkees. And what about Jill's Valentine's Day gift? Well, on a special Deux Ex Machina edition of Tool Time, Tim discovers it in an old Irish cupboard he and Al were going to strip the paint off of. His gift was a beautiful, hand- painted jewelry box. Jill would've loved it. I say would've because the dumbkopf then proceeded to drop it into a bucket of paint thinner.
While A Funny Valentine isn't a very funny episode, I did like the plot: Tim meeting an old flame of his father's. It helped to bring some more development to a character we've never seen, but heard Tim talk a great deal about. We've seen episodes where Brad, Randy and Mark learn that their father is a fallible human being, and Jill learning the same about her father, so this was a first for Tim. Other than that, this episode isn't really anything special. But I guess if you want to find out more about Tim's past and what his father was like, then you should probably see this one. As for me, now that I've critiqued each episode of Season 6. Not a bad season, but certainly not as good as the season before it.
