We open with Steve at a luncheon where a juvenile court judge tells the men about her success in helping delinquents from broken homes by placing them, temporarily, in good homes, even when just for a week. Steve is asked to volunteer to help but he says he can't right now because Bub is away on a fishing trip. The judge says, "Good, you have a spare room he can use." So this is going to happen right away.
Steve tells the boys about it, and directs them to be nice to their guest. But the next day while everyone's at school, Steve is called away to Washington for his work. He has left a brief note for them and he calls the judge to tell him to postpone the problem boy's visit. Then he gets a call from Bub saying that his fishing companion's nephew is going nuts with hay fever and he has put him on a bus to Bryant Park to stay with the Douglas clan to get over his constant sneezing. Bub tells Steve the boy, Gilbert, can sleep in his room.
So Steve does not write anything in his note about postponing the delinquent, only adds that a Gilbert Thornbury will be coming to stay a few days. Somehow he never thinks the boys will assume Gilbert IS the delinquent.
Mike, Robbie, and Chip have determined to ignore Steve's direction about being nice to their visitor. They are as hostile as can be, doing nothing to make him feel welcome, seeming to almost be threatening him with every sentence.
Any normal conversations among them would lead to Gilbert talking about his uncle and how he was fishing with him and their grandfather and the whole plot unravels. Instead, because of their hostility, the boy mostly keeps to himself.
One evening, the three brothers decide to "test" their guest by going out for a short while, leaving him alone in the house. When they return, after parking in the driveway, Robbie wants to peak in the side window to see what he's doing. Mike drags him away to just go in the front door. Cannot understand why they wouldn't go in the back/side door, near the car, like almost everyone does, including people on this series frequently.
They find the front door locked, but instead of ringing the bell or knocking, they go back to that side window and Robbie opens it to enter. Just then a police car pulls up and they all have to explain to the cops that they live there.
Gilbert, we learn, called the police after hearing strange noises outside (when the boys returned). The total time from when they pulled up to when the police got there was about one minute. I say the police must have been parked across the street, and Gilbert must have phoned the instant he heard one noise, without ever peeking out to see if the trio had returned from the store.
Then we see Robbie and Chip coming home together to find several motorcycles in the driveway. They go in the back door (see) and listen in as Gilbert has invited several friends from home over. He even is overheard telling them how he made sure not to charge some food and pop charges to the Douglas family. He wants to paint Bub's room, he tells his friends, who offer to help. But Robbie and Chip ignore all they hear and burst in, rudely ordering everyone to get out, right away.
Moments later, Mike has come home and in another confrontational scene with Gilbert, we learn he has taken on himself to buy paint for Bub's room, and has chosen a light blue to match Bub's eyes. On learning that he knows Bub, the brothers finally learn that Gilbert is not the delinquent they thought he was.
I know lots of sitcoms in the 50s and 60s had plots centered on some sort of misunderstanding. But this one was absurd in the ways nobody ever said anything to prevent this. Starting with Steve not in his note, nor a phone call ever thinking to tell the boys that he delayed the delinquent and this youth is someone Bub knows. The boys never attempted to be nice to him, like they were told to do. Had they done so, Gilbert might have told them earlier about knowing Bub. The boys ignored everything Gilbert said or did, all nice, innocent actions, and treated him like someone they would tolerate, but not get along with.
I would have written it so Steve did write a note that explained Gilbert, but Tramp leaned on that counter where the phone is and knocked that page off to where it slid under the easy chair-something to explain why the misunderstanding happened instead of Steve being in such a rush that he didn't explain anything. By the way, from all we saw, Bub must have taken Tramp with him, since we never saw the dog at all.
The fun part of the show was seeing the Beaver's brother, Wally (Tony Dow) playing the role of Gilbert. I am waiting for the follow-up episode now. They should have had this delinquent come by and stay with the whole family an episode or two later. The delinquent could have been played by Eddie Haskell (Ken Osmund). Can't you hear him saying, "Gee Mr. O'Casey, that sure is a nice shirt you're wearing."
Once again, the plot outline on IMDB is incorrect (this seems to happen with more than half the episodes. It states that "Bub and the boys" are left to handle the visit, when Bub is never around the house the entire episode.
The weakness in setting up the misunderstanding, and the boys ignoring their instructions which prevented them from learning about the mistake kept this from being a show I could rate higher than 4.
Steve tells the boys about it, and directs them to be nice to their guest. But the next day while everyone's at school, Steve is called away to Washington for his work. He has left a brief note for them and he calls the judge to tell him to postpone the problem boy's visit. Then he gets a call from Bub saying that his fishing companion's nephew is going nuts with hay fever and he has put him on a bus to Bryant Park to stay with the Douglas clan to get over his constant sneezing. Bub tells Steve the boy, Gilbert, can sleep in his room.
So Steve does not write anything in his note about postponing the delinquent, only adds that a Gilbert Thornbury will be coming to stay a few days. Somehow he never thinks the boys will assume Gilbert IS the delinquent.
Mike, Robbie, and Chip have determined to ignore Steve's direction about being nice to their visitor. They are as hostile as can be, doing nothing to make him feel welcome, seeming to almost be threatening him with every sentence.
Any normal conversations among them would lead to Gilbert talking about his uncle and how he was fishing with him and their grandfather and the whole plot unravels. Instead, because of their hostility, the boy mostly keeps to himself.
One evening, the three brothers decide to "test" their guest by going out for a short while, leaving him alone in the house. When they return, after parking in the driveway, Robbie wants to peak in the side window to see what he's doing. Mike drags him away to just go in the front door. Cannot understand why they wouldn't go in the back/side door, near the car, like almost everyone does, including people on this series frequently.
They find the front door locked, but instead of ringing the bell or knocking, they go back to that side window and Robbie opens it to enter. Just then a police car pulls up and they all have to explain to the cops that they live there.
Gilbert, we learn, called the police after hearing strange noises outside (when the boys returned). The total time from when they pulled up to when the police got there was about one minute. I say the police must have been parked across the street, and Gilbert must have phoned the instant he heard one noise, without ever peeking out to see if the trio had returned from the store.
Then we see Robbie and Chip coming home together to find several motorcycles in the driveway. They go in the back door (see) and listen in as Gilbert has invited several friends from home over. He even is overheard telling them how he made sure not to charge some food and pop charges to the Douglas family. He wants to paint Bub's room, he tells his friends, who offer to help. But Robbie and Chip ignore all they hear and burst in, rudely ordering everyone to get out, right away.
Moments later, Mike has come home and in another confrontational scene with Gilbert, we learn he has taken on himself to buy paint for Bub's room, and has chosen a light blue to match Bub's eyes. On learning that he knows Bub, the brothers finally learn that Gilbert is not the delinquent they thought he was.
I know lots of sitcoms in the 50s and 60s had plots centered on some sort of misunderstanding. But this one was absurd in the ways nobody ever said anything to prevent this. Starting with Steve not in his note, nor a phone call ever thinking to tell the boys that he delayed the delinquent and this youth is someone Bub knows. The boys never attempted to be nice to him, like they were told to do. Had they done so, Gilbert might have told them earlier about knowing Bub. The boys ignored everything Gilbert said or did, all nice, innocent actions, and treated him like someone they would tolerate, but not get along with.
I would have written it so Steve did write a note that explained Gilbert, but Tramp leaned on that counter where the phone is and knocked that page off to where it slid under the easy chair-something to explain why the misunderstanding happened instead of Steve being in such a rush that he didn't explain anything. By the way, from all we saw, Bub must have taken Tramp with him, since we never saw the dog at all.
The fun part of the show was seeing the Beaver's brother, Wally (Tony Dow) playing the role of Gilbert. I am waiting for the follow-up episode now. They should have had this delinquent come by and stay with the whole family an episode or two later. The delinquent could have been played by Eddie Haskell (Ken Osmund). Can't you hear him saying, "Gee Mr. O'Casey, that sure is a nice shirt you're wearing."
Once again, the plot outline on IMDB is incorrect (this seems to happen with more than half the episodes. It states that "Bub and the boys" are left to handle the visit, when Bub is never around the house the entire episode.
The weakness in setting up the misunderstanding, and the boys ignoring their instructions which prevented them from learning about the mistake kept this from being a show I could rate higher than 4.
