A sleazy real estate salesman targets Mrs. Brown and seduces her into listing her house for sale by tempting her to squander the proceeds on an expensive vacation. Tim and Uncle Martin must scramble to avoid being evicted and also to prevent Mrs. Brown from making a foolish financial decision.
Another average episode, which means pretty good. This series is very consistent. 26 episodes in and we have only one boner, two classics, and the rest of similar (pretty good) quality. This episode features Mrs. Brown in a bigger role than usual, a good guest star (Allan Melvin, whom you may remember from several episodes of Gomer Pyle and The Brady Bunch), and two production pieces including a climax built, yet again, around the sound track.
Mrs. Brown gets a big role this time, with lot of lines and screen time and we learn for the first time that her name is Lorelei. She plays a pivotal role in the story and the series begins to build a love tension between her and Uncle Martin, greatly increasing the importance of the Mrs. Brown character.
In the first production piece Uncle Martin must hide his spaceship while prospective buyers are viewing the house. He hides it by levitating it with his magic finger. The special effect of the ship levitating out into the atmosphere is neat and they repeat it several times but it doesn't get old. There is some silly Marx brothers style content of the buyers bumbling around the area while Uncle Martin gets more and more tired of holding up his finger. The end result is just OK. In the big climactic production piece Uncle Martin uses his magic to make the house seem as if it is in poor repair while the prospective buyers are viewing it. He causes the faucets to drip and in this segment is the main point of the episode. The film editor, music composer, and music conductor work together to deliver a music video of various faucets dripping in time to the amusing symphonic music. Viewed at this late date the end result is not all that impressive, but it seems ambitious for a sitcom, let alone a sitcom from 1964. Because neither of the production pieces come off very well the episode just reaches a little above average because of the ambitious musical score.
The director of this episode takes care to frame a lot of reaction shots from the characters. Some actors in the cast are better at this than others with, of course, Bixby and Walston being the best. Reaction shots can be great fun, however the director makes a critical mistake and usually includes the reacting actor in the shot after the reaction shot. The actors fail to match their expressions between shots and the result is an embarrassing and distracting lack of continuity.
Larry Brown
Another average episode, which means pretty good. This series is very consistent. 26 episodes in and we have only one boner, two classics, and the rest of similar (pretty good) quality. This episode features Mrs. Brown in a bigger role than usual, a good guest star (Allan Melvin, whom you may remember from several episodes of Gomer Pyle and The Brady Bunch), and two production pieces including a climax built, yet again, around the sound track.
Mrs. Brown gets a big role this time, with lot of lines and screen time and we learn for the first time that her name is Lorelei. She plays a pivotal role in the story and the series begins to build a love tension between her and Uncle Martin, greatly increasing the importance of the Mrs. Brown character.
In the first production piece Uncle Martin must hide his spaceship while prospective buyers are viewing the house. He hides it by levitating it with his magic finger. The special effect of the ship levitating out into the atmosphere is neat and they repeat it several times but it doesn't get old. There is some silly Marx brothers style content of the buyers bumbling around the area while Uncle Martin gets more and more tired of holding up his finger. The end result is just OK. In the big climactic production piece Uncle Martin uses his magic to make the house seem as if it is in poor repair while the prospective buyers are viewing it. He causes the faucets to drip and in this segment is the main point of the episode. The film editor, music composer, and music conductor work together to deliver a music video of various faucets dripping in time to the amusing symphonic music. Viewed at this late date the end result is not all that impressive, but it seems ambitious for a sitcom, let alone a sitcom from 1964. Because neither of the production pieces come off very well the episode just reaches a little above average because of the ambitious musical score.
The director of this episode takes care to frame a lot of reaction shots from the characters. Some actors in the cast are better at this than others with, of course, Bixby and Walston being the best. Reaction shots can be great fun, however the director makes a critical mistake and usually includes the reacting actor in the shot after the reaction shot. The actors fail to match their expressions between shots and the result is an embarrassing and distracting lack of continuity.
Larry Brown
