Steve is seen at the beginning at a bus station where he sees a woman about his age entering with a girl, who we learn is 16 years old. The girl, Rebecca, is getting on the bus to Bryant Park and is being cautioned by her mother to not trust, or even talk to, any strangers.
For some reason, he thinks the woman will be happy to have him come over and offer to look after Rebecca. She reacts like you would expect. What mother, in 1963 or 2021 would be comforted by a middle-age man, a total stranger at a bus station, coming over and wanting to look after her teenage daughter on the long bus trip? He would seem to be exactly the type of person she was warning her daughter about.
Well, the woman sends him away, so to speak, but Rebecca does talk to Steve on the bus and tells her just where her aunt's house is where she will be staying. Steve gets home and tells his family about how much she reminded him of the old-fashioned type girl he knew when he was young. He then remembers who, gets out his old high school yearbook and finds her picture, which we see, is really the same girl. He also meets Robbie's new girlfriend, a very outgoing girl who has her own car, comes to pick up Robbie and leaps over the door to exit the vehicle (off screen) and is quite the opposite of the type of girl Steve remembers dating.
Steve decides to take an evening walk, accompanied by Bub and he stops at a movie theater showing an old Greta Garbo movie-from 1935, and we get to flashback scenes where he recalls asking Sarah out at that theater, where she had to first check with her mother.
Steve and Bub then go to a park where they observe a sign saying something about tossing a penny into the pond to feed the fish entitles you to a kiss. Now Steve recalls that one date with Sarah where they came to the same spot and he so scared her by emptying his pocket displaying several pennies that she shoved him into the pond. She was not about to kiss a boy because she wasn't yet 16 years old.
Back at home, Steve decides to ask Rob to take Rebecca out, cautioning him about how she is a "lady" and not like the girls he knows. He thinks it would be good for her to have a date and for Rob to see what girls were like years ago.
Reluctantly, Rob agrees and he is planning to do his best to be a real gentleman, wanting to take her to a movie and a walk in the park. Instead, she is so happy to have an evening away from her Victorian-mined mother and aunt, that she tells him "Tonight, I want to live!" They go to a club for dancing and Rob wants the modern style (c. 1963) where couples rarely touch each other, while she wants to hang onto him closely.
When they get to the park, Rebecca has a pocketful of pennies and she cannot understand why Robbie is totally resisting even a single kiss. He winds up falling into the pond, just like his dad decades earlier.
Back at home, he tells dad he fell into the pond, without telling him it was to resist the romantic advances of the "old-fashioned" girl Steve admires. He lets his dad think he was too pushy for her, figuring it would make him happier.
I think it interesting to note that despite two major scenes centered at a pond where young people on a date talk about kissing, the only kiss in the whole episode was between Robbie's bold girlfriend and Bub, who she kissed on the forehead during the brief scene where she was inside the living room.
When Steve is talking to the ladies at the bus station, he tells them the ages of his sons: Mike is 19, Robbie 16, and Chip is 9. At this point, it has been 10 months since the episode about Chip's 10th birthday party. Since they have happily advanced Robbie to being halfway through high school and Mike to his second year of college, I don't know why they want the youngest boy to stay 9 forever.
Unless the Me-TV version edited out something, Steve only told Robbie how girls were more lady-like in his day. He didn't order him to not touch her, or anything else. Had this been a 21st-Century series and the girl seemed to be wanting Robbie to "go all the way" I could see where he would have shied away. I cannot see why he felt he had to resist a simple kiss, or more, from a girl who so clearly wanted this experience. The sign by the pond clearly suggests that this is a place where people frequently exchange kisses. Frankly, Robbie acted like HE was the 9-year-old in the family. We could easily see Chip pushing away a girl trying to kiss him.
IMDB has noted that the actress, Joyce Bulifant, was 25 when she played these girls, ages 15 and 16 (I believe Robbie's date was 16, Steve's "not-quite 16.) Her hairstyle and makeup made her a convincing 16-year-old to me, so that was no problem.
I think there were three key scenes: Steve boldly approaching the women at the station, Steve as teen at the park with his date, acting too pushy when trying for a kiss, and Robbie at the park with his date, acting ridiculously bashful with his pushy date. None of these three were at all realistic to me.
I could have seen Robbie exchanging a couple of kisses and then resisting if she continued to want to get closer. Young Steve seemed to have a chance of persuading his date but he got too anxious and tried for a kiss when she was still balking. But the worst was adult Steve thinking he could, as a total stranger at the bus station, make the overly-cautious mother happy he approached to look after her daughter on her long bus ride. It would have been more believable for her to tell him to leave them alone and then tell her daughter they were going home, that she'd leave to visit her aunt in the morning on another bus when this annoying man wasn't around.
When the script has major problems with the three biggest scenes, I just cannot give it score higher than 2.
For some reason, he thinks the woman will be happy to have him come over and offer to look after Rebecca. She reacts like you would expect. What mother, in 1963 or 2021 would be comforted by a middle-age man, a total stranger at a bus station, coming over and wanting to look after her teenage daughter on the long bus trip? He would seem to be exactly the type of person she was warning her daughter about.
Well, the woman sends him away, so to speak, but Rebecca does talk to Steve on the bus and tells her just where her aunt's house is where she will be staying. Steve gets home and tells his family about how much she reminded him of the old-fashioned type girl he knew when he was young. He then remembers who, gets out his old high school yearbook and finds her picture, which we see, is really the same girl. He also meets Robbie's new girlfriend, a very outgoing girl who has her own car, comes to pick up Robbie and leaps over the door to exit the vehicle (off screen) and is quite the opposite of the type of girl Steve remembers dating.
Steve decides to take an evening walk, accompanied by Bub and he stops at a movie theater showing an old Greta Garbo movie-from 1935, and we get to flashback scenes where he recalls asking Sarah out at that theater, where she had to first check with her mother.
Steve and Bub then go to a park where they observe a sign saying something about tossing a penny into the pond to feed the fish entitles you to a kiss. Now Steve recalls that one date with Sarah where they came to the same spot and he so scared her by emptying his pocket displaying several pennies that she shoved him into the pond. She was not about to kiss a boy because she wasn't yet 16 years old.
Back at home, Steve decides to ask Rob to take Rebecca out, cautioning him about how she is a "lady" and not like the girls he knows. He thinks it would be good for her to have a date and for Rob to see what girls were like years ago.
Reluctantly, Rob agrees and he is planning to do his best to be a real gentleman, wanting to take her to a movie and a walk in the park. Instead, she is so happy to have an evening away from her Victorian-mined mother and aunt, that she tells him "Tonight, I want to live!" They go to a club for dancing and Rob wants the modern style (c. 1963) where couples rarely touch each other, while she wants to hang onto him closely.
When they get to the park, Rebecca has a pocketful of pennies and she cannot understand why Robbie is totally resisting even a single kiss. He winds up falling into the pond, just like his dad decades earlier.
Back at home, he tells dad he fell into the pond, without telling him it was to resist the romantic advances of the "old-fashioned" girl Steve admires. He lets his dad think he was too pushy for her, figuring it would make him happier.
I think it interesting to note that despite two major scenes centered at a pond where young people on a date talk about kissing, the only kiss in the whole episode was between Robbie's bold girlfriend and Bub, who she kissed on the forehead during the brief scene where she was inside the living room.
When Steve is talking to the ladies at the bus station, he tells them the ages of his sons: Mike is 19, Robbie 16, and Chip is 9. At this point, it has been 10 months since the episode about Chip's 10th birthday party. Since they have happily advanced Robbie to being halfway through high school and Mike to his second year of college, I don't know why they want the youngest boy to stay 9 forever.
Unless the Me-TV version edited out something, Steve only told Robbie how girls were more lady-like in his day. He didn't order him to not touch her, or anything else. Had this been a 21st-Century series and the girl seemed to be wanting Robbie to "go all the way" I could see where he would have shied away. I cannot see why he felt he had to resist a simple kiss, or more, from a girl who so clearly wanted this experience. The sign by the pond clearly suggests that this is a place where people frequently exchange kisses. Frankly, Robbie acted like HE was the 9-year-old in the family. We could easily see Chip pushing away a girl trying to kiss him.
IMDB has noted that the actress, Joyce Bulifant, was 25 when she played these girls, ages 15 and 16 (I believe Robbie's date was 16, Steve's "not-quite 16.) Her hairstyle and makeup made her a convincing 16-year-old to me, so that was no problem.
I think there were three key scenes: Steve boldly approaching the women at the station, Steve as teen at the park with his date, acting too pushy when trying for a kiss, and Robbie at the park with his date, acting ridiculously bashful with his pushy date. None of these three were at all realistic to me.
I could have seen Robbie exchanging a couple of kisses and then resisting if she continued to want to get closer. Young Steve seemed to have a chance of persuading his date but he got too anxious and tried for a kiss when she was still balking. But the worst was adult Steve thinking he could, as a total stranger at the bus station, make the overly-cautious mother happy he approached to look after her daughter on her long bus ride. It would have been more believable for her to tell him to leave them alone and then tell her daughter they were going home, that she'd leave to visit her aunt in the morning on another bus when this annoying man wasn't around.
When the script has major problems with the three biggest scenes, I just cannot give it score higher than 2.
