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kathysdogs
Reviews
King of the Hill: Peggy's Fan Fair (2000)
Peggy's egotism hits the heights
Here Peggy is egotistic but for a change is partially justified. First she's in her glory that her suggestion of a church trip to Nashville for a country music stars fan fair is adopted. She commandeers control of the trip to the consternation of Assistant Pastor Larry who went to seminary in Nashville, claiming that she was the expert. When they arrive, Bobby calls Connie but Kahn answers the phone and hangs up on him. He and Luanne mention this to Brooks & Dunn who kindly took the time to speak to them about Bobby's distress. Meanwhile Peggy was boasting about a song she wrote and sent to Randy Travis and that she got a letter from him encouraging her in her song writing career but rejecting her tune; at a record signing she is furious to hear his voice singing her lyrics so she butts ahead of the line to confront & deck Randy, only to be escorted outside. Amazingly Randy's assistant calls Peggy and Hank to his trailer where she explained about the song and the letter - he said the letter was boilerplate verbiage from his "pit bull lawyer" and claimed never to have seen let alone stolen her song (she might not have known this but writers, etc. As a rule usually don't review unpublished material in order to avoid accusations of plagarism such as what Peggy was claiming) which satisfies them somewhat. Meanwhile Bobby & Luanne decide to thank Brooks & Dunn with Peggy's apple brown betty - somehow, one of the trays got eaten so they buy some more, alas, Bobby trips and spills it so they decide to just quickly put it back in the pan, not knowing they were also mixing dirt that had horse manure in it into the treat. Brooks liked it so much that he ate the whole tray, getting violently ill and needing hospitalization. Meanwhile, while Hank is standing in line with Charlie Daniels to buy beer, Randy is singing another song where he further incorporates details from Peggy's life that she shared in the trailer, further infuriating her, especially since Hank later didn't believe her! She talks to Dale & Bill who help her retaliate by TPing Randy's trailer; unfortunately the brake gets dislodged and the trailer rolls into the lake with Randy (unbeknownst to them) was trapped inside. When Hank arrives to where the trailer was, he promptly dives in to save Randy - for once, Peggy is contrite as she didn't want his death on her hands. Noticing Peggy's attitude he confides in Assistant Pastor Larry who tells him "Reverend Schuller once took wording from one of my Christmas cards to use in a sermon but I didn't burn down the Crystal Cathedral". Later it seems he tipped off the police all that had happened and they were looking to arrest Peggy for trying to harm Randy - this was escalated when she announced her intentions to give Randy her apple brown betty - the same kind that Brooks got ill from. Hank decides finally to stick up for Peggy, offering to have some of the treat to prove nothing was wrong. At the very end Randy tells a story how he saved Hank from drowning in the lake and Hank wanted to deck him - Peggy said what's the use, leave it alone.
This was great that they got many country music stars to guest voice on it. Also guest voicing was Tony Danza as the voice on the prepaid calling card Connie gave Bobby which he tried to use to call her on. I didn't like Assistant Pastor Larry's conduct here once Hank expressed his concerns about Peggy. Although he's not a Catholic priest who is bound to keep all matters confessed confidential, he still shouldn't have thrown Peggy under the bus by reporting her to the police. Maybe that's why the character only appeared in this episode - it's possible the Hills and the others who witnessed it complained to Pastor Stroup and/or the church board and he got transferred or fired on account of it.
King of the Hill: Father of the Bribe (2002)
A bribe that backfires
For about the 100th time in this series, Kahn is frustrated over Bobby & Connie's relationship - he's always trying to push her into a relationship with obnoxious but fellow Asian Chane who were wealthier and Kahn aspired to acquire Chane's parents' lifestyle. One day he manages to pull Bobby aside and bribe him $300 to break up with Connie. $300 was a decent sum for an early teen in 2002 & even in 2023 not chump change especially for a usually lazy teen such as Bobby. Bobby tells Connie what Kahn did and they decide to have their cake and eat it too by spending of it on a motel room after school (am surprised that a motel would rent a room to minors!) and just lay on the twin beds chastely separated, holding hands. To make it pay off, Bobby would pretend to break up with Connie who to Kahn's pleasure is appropriately distraught about the "breakup". To cement the picture she deliberately flunks a class, angering Kahn since they only found A+s to be acceptable, especially since she gets transferred into an easier class which Bobby's in. During an extremely boring lecture on ear cleaning, the teacher intercepts her passing Bobby a note saying "I'm so bored I could kill myself". (Of course she had no such intentions but the teacher didn't know that). The teacher erred on the side of safety and reported this to Principal Moss' office, fearing possible suicide or a suicide pact - since teen suicide is on the rise this was a prudent action to take. In short order both sets of parents are called in. Hank interprets the note as just a note from a bored teen which was correct. Peggy acts obnoxiously innocent of the whole affair (for once she's correct). Connie's parents act all contrite and are now pushing her towards Bobby in order to prevent a possible suicide. As a result of the crisis both sets of parents triple date with Bobby & Connie - sadly, all this attention of pushing the sweet couple together ends up in breaking up their relationship so they were now just friends for the rest of the series.
King of the Hill: The Redneck on Rainey Street (2004)
Shameful, blatant reverse discrimination & bribery a school participates in?!
In this episode Kahn & Minh - especially Kahn - are pushing to get Connie admitted to Rice University's summer school program - a real coup since she's only about age 13 but quite intelligent. Despite all her accomplishments she is rejected to their chagrin. I hope the university reflected here is nothing like the real Rice University since when Kahn takes his usual pushy manner to confront the admissions person, she actually admitted she was turned down since they already had many intelligent Asians in the program and if Connie were any other race she would have been admitted in a heartbeat (I thought this sort of thing, having racial quotas had been outlawed in the 60's and 70's). Kahn of course doesn't take that too well - why should he. When he confronts the fellow Asians coming out of the Episcopal church as to why they were worshipping there instead of their Buddhist temple, they admit they converted for social & business reasons. When Kahn asks how come their obnoxious son Chane got admitted to Rice's summer program with the same background, they admitted to giving Rice a 10K donation to smooth the way and score him a top dorm room. This creates bitterness and despair among Kahn & Minh due not only to not being able to come up with a similar 10K bribe but Connie's rejection after all the time having immigrated to the US and always playing by the rules. It doesn't help matters when Kahn's boss berates him while he's stuck in traffic causing him to be late for the first time ever. He at this point is vulnerable to a redneck named Elvin who befriends him at the gas station where he accidentally breaks his side mirror en route to work. In short order, Kahn and Minh adopt Elvin's redneck lifestyle to such an extent they neglect to pay the electric bill and the mortgage. The former causes a loss of power and the latter puts their home ownership in jeopardy since the property's deteriorated condition per a local Realtor was dragging down property values. Despite her parents' urging to slack off (totally out of character) Connie perseveres in studying hard and doing her usual routine. Thankfully when Hank gets hold of all this he managed to talk some sense into Minh so she starts paying past due bills before they become homeless. Another school - Stanford (surprise since the real Stanford is in CA and this show takes place in TX) accepts Connie belatedly in their similar program upon learning of her family's recent hardships.
The positive aspects of this episode were Connie's perseverance in keeping doing what she was continually doing all along despite Rice's rejection and her parents adopting a redneck lifestyle. Also the introduction of the Lucky character.
King of the Hill: The Petriot Act (2005)
A meh episode - gives veterinarians a bad name
Not one of my favorite KOTH episodes. Hank's patriotism is all fired up which is good - to a certain extent. He learns from Bill about a special program where people can foster service personnel's pets while the service person is overseas. That's a truly noble effort BUT as does happen with government programs it doesn't always have a good result. The only nice thing about this episode is that there's something positive for Bill who is normally the guy treated like a dishrag. Hank learns that Bill got paired with a sweet dog & Hank wants to do his part - without considering Peggy & Bobby's feelings. This is important since the Hills were fixing to go on vacation to Dollywood. When what Hank did was a fait accompli, Peggy's not a happy camper but Hank mollifies her by assuring her that the kennel that Ladybird will be boarded at will be able to accommodate the fosteree (the Army insisted on sending the pet BEFORE their vacation instead of after as Hank requested). Worse, Hank assumed that all the fosterees were dogs - and he ends up with the cat from hell named Duke. Maybe Duke's what the Animal Planet show with that name was based on - as he was very nasty to the Hills (the Army should never assume that a person who will accept a dog will accept a cat as many people are allergic to cats but not dogs; Hank did push back on taking the cat but with no success). Among other mandates, Hank had to get the vet that the owner used to sign off that he took all the necessary steps to ensure the health of the pet. First Hank has to get some cat food at the pet store that's a bit pricey - then he encounters the owner's choice of vet: Dr. Bradley Leslie whom IMO was a con artist. He dismisses the food Hank bought at the pet store and foists on him another brand that was $57 a pop for a small bag saying in a condescending manner "we can't expect Duke to pay for it on his salary" and orders a bunch of mostly unnecessary tests, running up a bill that's thousands of dollars, putting the Hill's long awaited vacation plans in jeopardy. His protest about the cost fell on deaf ears and the receptionist just coldly points to a sign tersely saying "payment in full required at time of service". Am surprised when Hank informs Peggy & Bobby about the costs jeopardizing the main highlight of their trip that Peggy didn't just up and get a lawyer to file for divorce, suing for custody of Bobby. Also am wondering if Duke's parent was being paid excessively by the Army if he could afford all the fees that Dr. Leslie required. Upon Peggy's suggestion he gets a second opinion from Ladybird's vet who is older, very competent and much more reasonably priced. He said Dr. Leslie was competent but more likely to go whole hog on expensive machines (and pass it onto the consumers). A salesman came by to try to talk the vet into an expensive machine that he admits even Dr. Leslie had not invested in and Hank asks for one of his sales pamphlets - this planted the seed for Hank's defensive power play/leverage/blackmail against Dr. Leslie who had been refusing to sign off on the paperwork despite all the time and expenses Hank had invested in Duke, with Duke only giving the Hills a lot of trouble. When Hank confronts Dr. Leslie about not having the most comprehensive equipment despite high fees and threatens to tell the other pet parents, the vet finally caves in and signs off on the paperwork - which he should have done days and thousands of $ earlier.
Saturday Night Fever (1977)
A Brooklyn take on a "Rocky" type underdog story
You have here John Travolta - the only cast member in this film nominated for an Oscar - as a 19 year old fellow stuck in a dead end job in a hardware/paint store, contributing some of his wages to support his family: laid off father, mother, younger sister and grandmother. The family appears dysfunctional: at a dinner scene everyone is hitting each other except for the sister and the grandmother. The father Frank Sr., after flipping out at Tony for having a second pork chop - which his grandmother gives to him (who serves pork chops with spaghetti anyway? I've only heard of meatballs being served with spaghetti) gets angry at his wife Flo for defending their son and saying she might get a job herself since this threatens his role as family provider. Tony has a bit of practicality and vanity in this scene: he has a tablecloth draped around him to protect his good clothes from possibly spilled spaghetti sauce and is angrier with his father for hitting his hair (since he spent so much time styling it) than the rest of his body. He's clearly influenced by tough Italian types: imitates Al Pacino and has a Rocky poster in his bedroom (another Italian underdog type with a special talent) - in the "Staying Alive" sequel Sly Stallone directs it and as a cameo as a man bumping into Tony on the street - and Sly's younger brother Frank composed some of the music plus has a slightly larger cameo. Tony's special talent and early in the film only true ambition was to be an excellent dancer - but he's stuck in the dead end job, having only a high school education, blowing most of his wages on the weekend at 2001 Odessey. His buddies are mostly out of the same cloth except for the dancing talent and probably don't have jobs. The one exception is Bobby C. Whom is on the fringe of the gang - mostly in the gang since he's the only one with a car enabling him to transport them when and where they wanted or needed to go (Tony even borrows it one afternoon to help move his new love's belongings from her Bay Ridge home into her new Manhattan apartment, causing his boss to fire him in a moment of anger - but he rehires him the next day). Then low and behold there's a dance contest coming up at the club with a $500 grand prize which would be about 20K in 2023 dollars - but he spots this slightly older gal Stephanie who's also an excellent dancer - she however, puts on a haughty, uppetity air that seems typical Manhattanite (it crumbles in a heartbeat when you hear her Brooklyn accent and later see her insecurities). Unlike Tony at this time, she's ambitious and sets goals to improve herself: she takes college courses at night and probably works as an administrative assistant at a public relations firm (although she puts on airs of being in public relations and boasts of all the celebrities she's met). After he sweettalks Stephanie into being his dance partner (upon an agreement forced on by Stephanie that it's strictly professional) he blows off Annette who's his age and has been hanging around him by a puppy dog whom he previously agreed to have her as his partner under a strictly professional agreement. Unfortunately, Annette is overly eager to have sex with Tony - when he finally agrees he asks "are you fixed?" in a crude manner as if she were a dog - it would have been better if he asked "are you protected?" plus he should have protection available for himself. He's later repelled when she later approaches him with condoms.
In the backdrop of all this, there's the nice, short, good looking, probably people pleasing, shy Bobby C. Who managed to get his devoutly Catholic girlfriend pregnant (but if she's so devout, why did she consent to have sex with him?) who has been pressuring him to marry her as are both sets of their parents, their priest and her high school guidance counselor (so this might also be statuatory rape) - but he wants to avoid this. At the same time Tony's elder brother Frank Jr. Quits the priesthood - Frank Jr. Had been revered by both of their parents especially their mother as practically saintly on account of his being a priest - when he quit the priesthood upon recognizing it wasn't truly his heart's desire but mainly entered the priesthood to please their family, he became the family shame which was the role Tony mostly played in the family even though he was the only one actively employed in the secular world. At the scene where Tony brings Frank Jr. To the disco to meet his friends Bobby C. Made Frank Jr. A bit uncomfortable by awkwardly asking him could the Pope give his girlfriend Pauline a dispensation for having an abortion, Frank Jr. Truthfully said he didn't think so. Hello! Even the more liberal current Pope Francis wouldn't do so - and the recently deceased retired Pope Benedict definitely wouldn't have done so. I'm guessing it never occurred to anyone that there were homes for unmarried pregnant women to discretely stay in until they give birth and then the child is given up for adoption - but of course they became less prevalent once abortion was legalized. Then Bobby C. Asks Stephanie what she would do if she were in Pauline's situation - she needlessly asks who she'd have to marry - and when he says him, she says she'd have an abortion (that was uncalled for ego deflating!). Meanwhile Tony had been blowing off his promises to talk to Bobby C. About his problems - mostly since he was preoccupied with hooking up with Stephanie and the dance contest, besides being full of himself as were the other members of their gang named the Faces. The Faces except Bobby C. When they weren't dancing, they were fighting, preoccupied with sex, foul language, drugs/alcohol and daredevil stunts on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge (am using the misspelling on the the real life sign displayed in the film of the very long bridge connecting the boroughs of Brooklyn & Staten Island - the only vehicular means of traveling to and from Staten Island to the other NYC boroughs as the famous ferry connecting Staten Island to Manhattan doesn't permit vehicles - the first word of the bridge should have 2 z's in it).
Fast forward to the night of the contest where an outside of the neighborhood Hispanic couple also competes and does very well, but in a different type of disco style. Stephanie & Tony also did very well in their own style. Stephanie & Tony win first prize but the Hispanic couple came in second. Tony (most likely correctly) senses a rigged contest - as unfortunately many local contests tend to be this day - stating the judges weren't about to give it to outsiders, especially those of a different racial group and gives the couple their 1st prize under Stephanie's objections. After the Faces except Bobby C. But including Annette indulge with a vengeance their usual drug/alcohol routine, two of them proceed to gang rape Annette leaving her in tears, causing her later to run to the bridge where they did their usual daredevil stunts. Bobby C.'s despair is now escalated so he goes to the bridge and does even more reckless stunts than the other Faces had ever done, finally calling Tony's full attention to his plight - he finally genuinely tries to talk to Bobby C. But he tragically has a fatal slip - the bridge's height is such he was probably dead before he hit the water. Before the bridge scene, right after they leave the disco in an argument, Tony brutally rapes Stephanie. Amazingly, after the police finish questioning Tony and the other surviving Faces, he takes a series of subway rides overnight landing at Stephanie's new Manhattan brownstone apartment. Even more amazing, instead of calling the police (since she had been raped by him a few hours prior), she actually lets him in to vent & apologize - she also apologizes and she promises to help him out since he no longer wants to return to his dead end Brooklyn existence.
Staying Alive (1983)
"She's in good hands..."
Interesting but somewhat disappointing sequel to the 1977 blockbuster "Saturday Night Fever". Disappointing part is very little carryover in continuality from the prior film - none of Tony's buddies appear here, nor do any of his ladies Annette (Donna Pescow - was rumored they did some scenes with her but they landed on the floor) and Stephanie (Karen Lynn Gorney) whom Tony vowed to move to Manhattan to be friends with. Also none of his family appear save his mother whom he has an intensive scene with - she praised his intelligence for being able to get out of Bay Ridge Brooklyn over to Manhattan (it was said a scene was filmed with his father but it landed on the floor with the implication that he had passed on).
Although it seems Tony has matured some - you don't see him drinking or smoking and much less cursing, probably to help this film get a PG rating unlike the R rating the prior film got, he still has a ways to go. He's hitting on the haughty British lead dancer, Laura - the film's equivalent to Stephanie while leading on another dancer - the sweet gal Jackie who is genuinely interested in him (equivalent to Annette). Meanwhile he's trying to get his break in show biz whilst living in a rooming house, working as a dance instructor by day and a waiter at night. Overall the film has a feel of partially "Fame" and a future glimpse of "A Chorus Line". Sly Stallone was recruited to direct this and has an uncredited cameo as someone Tony bumps into on the street. Sly's younger brother Frank was recruited to write some of the music and he has a small role as rhythm guitarist Carl. The film has a partial underdog feel to it, similar to the first 2 "Rocky" films and there is even a brief Adrian reference in it.
There is a bit of humor injected about two thirds of the film when Carl belatedly drops Jackie off to the dance studio to meet with Tony. Carl says "everything okay"? Tony answers "everything's fine - she's in good hands". Carl retorts "what are you, Allstate"? Tony retorts "yeah, you want disability"? Obviously, this is a reference to the insurer's well known slogan but what might not have been as widely known is that they used to write life and disability policies along with their bread and butter products of auto and homeowners' policies. (No, I'm NOT employed by them nor am I insured by them).
Seinfeld: The Finale (1998)
The Seinfeld Finale: the 2nd of 2 episodes where Jerry's stolen marble rye loaf bit him in the rear
OMG, the finale definitely showed karma working overtime! First, there's Newman predicting disgrace about to hit Jerry over his refusal to take him along on the quartet's trip to Paris before Jerry & George move to CA to do their new NBC series "Jerry". (Actually, the combined weight of George & Newman aboard that little jet might have caused it to act up in the Hamptons instead of the fictional Latham, MA). Then, the quartet get to filming a grossly overweight young man's being carjacked at gunpoint - but they very meanly blatantly mock the poor soul's girth - but you have a police officer who it seems saw some of it but instead of intervening, he arrests the quartet for violating a "Good Samaritan Law" that mandated citizens offer assistance to those in peril when it's reasonable for them to do so. First of all, he should have initiated a search for the robber and the victim's car. Secondly, the real life Good Samaritan Laws only indemnify from liability persons who rendering assistance to victims in good faith and the victims experience injuries as a result - these laws cover physicians; depending on where someone lives it could also cover nurses and other medical personnel or even all persons. Thirdly, if only the gang didn't make those nasty comments which were clearly head on the video, they could have argued it could be used as evidence for the police. In the 2nd half you have whatever guest stars that were available to do flashbacks and anecdotes of encounters with at least one of the quartet where they were done wrong, whom the DA was using as character - or lack of - witnesses to past antisocial behavior, probably spending a lot of taxpayer monies to do so. A notable one was Mrs. Mabel Choate whom Jerry mugged her for her marble rye loaf in "The Rye" which was also exposed in "The Cadillac". Demerits were a bit overly dramatic fainting by George's mother when they are convicted - she earlier in vain offered sex to the judge to try to get him acquitted. Also, you had Newman choking when the verdict was read (I hope he was OK but he shouldn't have been eating popcorn and chips in the courtroom as if he were in a movie theater). I could be wrong but defense counsel Jackie Chiles did an act that's possible grounds for disbarment: sleeping with the witness Elaine "accidentally" stumbled on in a sauna per Jerry's request to see if her breasts were natural or augmented by implants since it would be a conflict of interest. Personally, I thought the quartet got off too lightly with a one year sentence - 2 or 3 of their misdeeds to me would have warranted a 3 to 5 year sentence.
As stated in the trivia section Frank Sinatra died during the LA original broadcast of the finale - wonder if the episode triggered his fatal heart attack? - even though the LA roads were clear, enabling the emergency crews to get him to the hospital in record time, it still wasn't enough to save Ol' Blue Eyes.
Seinfeld: The Cadillac (1996)
First of 2 episodes where the marble rye loaf indirectly bit Jerry in the butt
One of my favorite Seinfeld episodes, showing the flaws each member of the quartet has. Jerry after doing well and getting highly paid in his Atlantic City gig buys his parents a new Cadillac - kudos to him for doing so but no good deed goes unpunished. Morty's nemesis Jack Klompus just can't believe Jerry was doing so well & loudly proclaims he must be embezzling from their condo board in Fl. Elaine, upon hearing of Jerry's sudden prosperity, blatantly starts hitting up on. George, upon learning one of Elaine's friends is a friend of Marisa Tomei's starts pestering Elaine and her friend for Marisa's contact information, even when the latter is in a coma - he does this even though he's already engaged to Susan. In a spoof on how cable companies kept consumers waiting for many hours to show up for service, Kramer decides to do karma on the cable guy fixing to remove from Kramer's cable ill gotten HBO & Showtime by ducking him.. Upon a park date with George & Marisa, when he reluctantly reveals he's engaged, Marisa properly decks him. When Jerry goes to surprise his parents at their FL condo he objects to going with them for the early bird dinner special, offering to pay the additional cost in order to eat at a regular time - they are caught doing this by Jack & his wife - a further piece of supposed evidence of Morty's embezzlement, and he felt Morty was acting like a big shot.
Morty & Helen talk to the undecided impeachment voter, Mrs. Mable Choate - the same woman in NY whom Jerry mugged to get her loaf of marble rye bread a few episodes prior - and manage to get her on their team. The other guest stars in the impeachment scene included Jesse White - the perennial Maytag repairman in a thousand commercials - veteran of Newman-like characters in Ann Sothern's sitcoms - the real Jerry Seinfeld was a huge fan of White's and got his autograph as a child. It seemed after Mrs. Choate cast her acquittal vote all would be good for Morty; however, Jack said "I can't believe you got that old bag to go along" - which triggered her memory in "The Rye" of Jerry mugging her and saying "Shut up, you old bag" - those immortal words were also used by super bully Biff Tannen in "Back to the Future". As a result, she changed her vote as did the others who initially voted to acquit so Morty was unanimously impeached as condo president. Ending scenes: the cable guy makes up with Kramer; Morty and Helen leave the condo building in disgrace and Morty before entering the Cadillac makes gestures spoofing those Nixon made in real life while leaving the White House when he resigned from the Presidency.
Archie Bunker's Place: The Incident (1980)
Very good but am wondering about some stuff...
Very good episode overall but am wondering about some things: did the neighborhood NOT have another market that Arch, Ms. Canby and Veronica could patronize? If so, Ms. Canby (preferably with Arch's backing) should have gotten the African American community to start a boycott of the market until Gordy got fired - after all, the $ matters no matter the skin color of whomever is presenting it - all lives matter - period. I thought that this Gordy person was the same one that was on the AITF episodes called Archie Joins the KKK but I saw they had different last names. Gordy actually could have pressed charges on Arch for assault even though he provoked it and/or banned him from the market - athough he did have it coming for besmirking Edith's memory after she had only passed on a few months prior. The other poster might not have realized this but Arch was actually a lodge member for many years on AITF, and Barney threatened to kick him out for declining to do a minstrel show when Gloria was overdue to give birth. Barney also cited the life insurance and burial benefits he'd forfeit - wonder if they included Edith? If so, would they now dare to exhume Edith? Even though Arch had a lot of friends in that lodge, he could do better than them and he didn't need that lodge.
You Again?: Social Insecurity (1986)
Harbinger of a Zoe Baird incident
This episode predated an incident a few years later when Zoe Baird was up for confirmation for a Cabinet post under then President Bush Sr. She had to withdraw her consideration when it was exposed that she never paid or withheld any $ for taxes - especially Social Security taxes - on her housekeeper. Here it seems Henry's British housekeeper Enid is seeking US citizenship - and is on the verge of acquiring it - when it turns out she never filed a tax return - which later discloses that Henry never paid or withheld any taxes on her behalf. Since Henry paid her in cash, she was unaware of her need to pay taxes or file a return - but this is now causing her to lose her chance at citizenship plus big $ owed to the IRS by Henry. Luckily this all gets sorted out without too much pain by Enid befriending fellow widow Charlene @ the IRS who was handling Henry's case - and Enid gets her citizenship after all. Great comic telling of a story that can potentially be a huge issue. British comic Elizabeth Bennett is underrated in her talent - she actually pulled double duty doing the same Enid character on the British series Home to Roost that this was based on - and it was also being taped & broadcast concurrently. Ms. Bennett must of acquired a whole bunch of frequent flyer miles on British Airways flying back and forth from the UK to L. A. Good show!
Ivan the Terrible (1976)
Too short lived a series - but the State Department was pressured by the then Soviets to end the series
To add to the recollection of the opening theme:
"Life's getting better; spring's coming soon
Nine feet of snow - and it's only June.
Look @ our ........, look at our luck,
Papa's a head waiter - and Mama drives a truck!
Chorus: .........
Living in Moscow; living in Moscow gets better every day - hey!
Plenty of friends here: vodka and wine,
Such a big family - some of which is mine.
Shoulder to shoulder, close as can be,
There's 9 in my apartment - and there's no room for me!
Chorus (reprise)"
This was a CBS limited run series that ran during the year of the Bicentennial late summer/early fall. I don't recall how many episodes were taped but a mere 5 episodes of this parody of Soviet life aired. Although it was popular, the State Department apparently ordered CBS to discontinue the series under political pressure of the then Soviet Union. It featured the most unusual family unit - at least for 1976: the father Ivan Petrovsky worked as a head waiter in a major Moscow hotel, his wife Olga drove a truck. Also in the 1 bedroom apartment were: their son Nikolai who was an astronaut, Nikolai's wife Sonya, their daughter Svetlana who was a ballerina, their younger son Sascha who appeared to be in grade school, Olga's former husband Vladimir who appeared to do zip but give opinions, Olga's mother Tatiana who drove subway trains and Raoul Sanchez - a Cuban exchange student who boarded there - plus a never seen but sometime heard dog named Rasputin that appeared confined to a room behind closed doors.
I also remember the late great Lou Jacobi's Ivan character frequently calling someone a "yutz" - which probably was a catchphrase meaning fool. A decade later the late great Estelle Getty used it in her Sophia character on "The Golden Girls". I've used that word myself to this day. To me the funniest were Lou Jacobi (Ivan) and Phil Leeds (Vladimir - his "husband-in-law" - the former husband of Ivan's wife Olga) - the two actors and characters complimented each other well in their comedy, closely followed by Christopher Hewitt, the Federov character that appeared in each episode as a different KGB buttinsky type official (one episode he was an unemployment agency official, another episode he oversaw the Petrovsky family's being interviewed by American TV reporter Tom Skyler - an obvious take off on real life Tom Snyder - as a typical Russian family to make sure the family were portrayed as upper middle class, lending them appliances for the broadcast that they were obviously unfamiliar with [(e.g. Olga putting dishes in what she & Ivan thought was a dishwasher but was actually a washing machine!]).
The series gave American typical sitcom plots what they felt would be a Soviet twist - possibly cutting too close for comfort to the Soviets who in turn pressured the US State Department to have the plug pulled on the series - a shame - wish the episodes could be found some place.
Seinfeld: The Rye (1996)
Oh my - the marble rye mugging - with ongoing repercussions!
Wonderful episode! Best part was Jerry's encounter with the late Frances Bavier as 90ish Mabel Choate! That bit of mugging the poor woman for the bread (to cover up for the loaf Frank took back from Susan's parents when they failed to put it out for dinner, she bought the last loaf & she wouldn't resell to Jerry even for $50) really bit Jerry & his family in the rear as time went on. First in "The Cadillac" it turns out she changed her crucial vote to impeach Morty as president of the condo association in FL (she recalled Jerry's "shut up you old bag!" line whilst he mugged her - that line was verbatim super bully Biff Tannen from the original "Back to the Future" film BTW). Then in "The Finale Part II" this act causes her to be one of many character - or lack of - witnesses the prosecution calls up to testify during the trial. Actually I'd think $6 would be a tad high to pay for marble rye - even in NYC in the late 1990's. Flash forward to 2020 just outside of Philly: fresh marble rye usually is no more than $3 - doubt it would be $6 in NYC or LA even today. One thing's for sure: whenever I see marble rye (which I enjoy) I remember this episode. Liked the word play of Kramer's Beefarino - an obvious spoof of Chef-Boy-Ar-Dee's Beefaroni.
Seinfeld: The Statue (1991)
Agree with the poster regarding Rava's accent
I agree with the person commenting why Rava, who is supposed to be Finnish, appears to be speaking with a Spanish-Russian accent which tends to challenge credibility of the humor involved. A little insight: I read the actress who played Rava was born & raised in Puerto Rico so a Spanish accent most likely would be natural for her. Russia borders Finland on the east so that's understandable. Since Finland is a Nordic nation bordered by Sweden on the west (and Swedish is Finland's second official language next to Finnish) it may have been more credible - if no one knows how to do a Finnish accent - if she did a Swedish-Russian accent. Of course, it is possible that the powers that be told the actress to do it in a Spanish-Russian accent to be funny. Outside of the accent, I didn't care for the character which is why this is a 4 star instead of a 6 star rating. I didn't care for Rava's arrogance, feeling she's above the law (in the elevator scene arguing with Elaine there is clearly a "No Smoking" sign posted & Rava is brazenly smoking despite it. One man in the back asked her "would you please put that cigarette out?' & the second time she retorts "maybe I'll put it out in your face!") I know the remark was intended to be funny but if if happened in real life I'd hope the man when he got off reported her to whomever was in charge of the building - and would hope there was a camera in the elevator recording her smoking.