This episode entirely deals with Danny and Kathy wanting Rusty to learn how to handle money, yet not once in this episode do they do anything toward teaching him anything.
As the story goes, Rusty, unlike most youths of the era, appears to not get any sort of allowance, whether for doing chores or just to have some money. When he wants money, he asks Dad for a dollar and Danny usually gives it to him. Only when he seems to go through money too rapidly does Danny think he needs to do something.
There was a funny scene as Rusty explains to Danny what happened to the dollar he gave him yesterday. I believe it was 30¢ for three sodas—explained in that Rusty had two friends with him who didn't have their own money, so he had to treat them, and another 30¢ for lunch at school. When asked if Kathy didn't give him lunch to take, Rusty explained that he hates tuna fish, so he bought a lunch. Then he spent another 20¢ to get a friend to take the tuna sandwich—because he hates tuna fish too. Then there was another 3¢ to his sister, Linda, for not telling Mom that Rusty didn't eat the sandwich.
Danny and Kathy get the idea that if Rusty had a lot of money, he'd learn how to spend and save it. They come up with the notion of pretending an old nickel Rusty found was valuable and that Danny sold it for $50, which he gives to Rusty, simply telling him that it's his to do what he wants with.
Rusty starts to spend like crazy, then thinks he wants to keep it to spend on really important things. But he gets paranoid about being robbed, so he takes to putting it in a triple-locked box tied to his ankle with a chain, for when he sleeps at night. He rigs a booby trap for anyone entering the room—although the way the pans and pots keep falling for a dozen seconds is not at all realistic. He is constantly worried about losing his fortune.
(Spoiler alert concerning the ending coming up) Near the end of the show, Rusty comes in and asks for a dollar, explaining that he doesn't have the $50 anymore—that he gave it away to charity because he was a happier boy when he didn't have so much money to worry about.
Now there was a similar plot on Andy Griffth a couple of years later when Opie finds $50 and has to wait a week to see if anyone claims to have lost that wallet and money. If they don't, the money is Opie's. Here we saw Andy explaining to Opie how the smart thing to do is put away most of the money for later and only spend a small part of it.
But on Danny Thomas, it seems the only option is to spend it all, or put it all in the bank. And nobody ever explains to Rusty that even if the bank is robbed, the money is insured by the government and he wouldn't lose any of his money, not even if the bank went out of business. Had they done this, there would have been no need of the scene with all the booby traps falling down when Danny comes in the room. Nobody ever seems to discuss the notion of putting aside most of new found money and only spending a little. And nobody ever seems to think that if Rusty got paid some allowance for doing chores around the house and had to use that money to "treat his friends" and such, that he would actually learn how to allocate money for different things, instead of just spending whatever Dad gives him, knowing he can just ask for more tomorrow.
Suddenly having a "fortune" wasn't a good way to teach him anything. Having some money coming in regularly and needing to carefully spend it, because there would not be more until his next "pay day" would have been the only logical way to teach him to wisely spend his money. But this was never mentioned. It just seemed like every good thing you can and should do to teach a growing child about money was ignored on this episode.
As the story goes, Rusty, unlike most youths of the era, appears to not get any sort of allowance, whether for doing chores or just to have some money. When he wants money, he asks Dad for a dollar and Danny usually gives it to him. Only when he seems to go through money too rapidly does Danny think he needs to do something.
There was a funny scene as Rusty explains to Danny what happened to the dollar he gave him yesterday. I believe it was 30¢ for three sodas—explained in that Rusty had two friends with him who didn't have their own money, so he had to treat them, and another 30¢ for lunch at school. When asked if Kathy didn't give him lunch to take, Rusty explained that he hates tuna fish, so he bought a lunch. Then he spent another 20¢ to get a friend to take the tuna sandwich—because he hates tuna fish too. Then there was another 3¢ to his sister, Linda, for not telling Mom that Rusty didn't eat the sandwich.
Danny and Kathy get the idea that if Rusty had a lot of money, he'd learn how to spend and save it. They come up with the notion of pretending an old nickel Rusty found was valuable and that Danny sold it for $50, which he gives to Rusty, simply telling him that it's his to do what he wants with.
Rusty starts to spend like crazy, then thinks he wants to keep it to spend on really important things. But he gets paranoid about being robbed, so he takes to putting it in a triple-locked box tied to his ankle with a chain, for when he sleeps at night. He rigs a booby trap for anyone entering the room—although the way the pans and pots keep falling for a dozen seconds is not at all realistic. He is constantly worried about losing his fortune.
(Spoiler alert concerning the ending coming up) Near the end of the show, Rusty comes in and asks for a dollar, explaining that he doesn't have the $50 anymore—that he gave it away to charity because he was a happier boy when he didn't have so much money to worry about.
Now there was a similar plot on Andy Griffth a couple of years later when Opie finds $50 and has to wait a week to see if anyone claims to have lost that wallet and money. If they don't, the money is Opie's. Here we saw Andy explaining to Opie how the smart thing to do is put away most of the money for later and only spend a small part of it.
But on Danny Thomas, it seems the only option is to spend it all, or put it all in the bank. And nobody ever explains to Rusty that even if the bank is robbed, the money is insured by the government and he wouldn't lose any of his money, not even if the bank went out of business. Had they done this, there would have been no need of the scene with all the booby traps falling down when Danny comes in the room. Nobody ever seems to discuss the notion of putting aside most of new found money and only spending a little. And nobody ever seems to think that if Rusty got paid some allowance for doing chores around the house and had to use that money to "treat his friends" and such, that he would actually learn how to allocate money for different things, instead of just spending whatever Dad gives him, knowing he can just ask for more tomorrow.
Suddenly having a "fortune" wasn't a good way to teach him anything. Having some money coming in regularly and needing to carefully spend it, because there would not be more until his next "pay day" would have been the only logical way to teach him to wisely spend his money. But this was never mentioned. It just seemed like every good thing you can and should do to teach a growing child about money was ignored on this episode.