Lou goes to his annual Army reunion and shows up at 3:00 a.m. at Mary's place with the whole gang. He has with him a guy who took a rap for him and ended up in the stockade. To call it even, he asks Lou to set him up with Mary, but Lou becomes really protective. This guy is a real jerk, but he does have some charm, and Mary feels she can handle him just fine. The other plot line has Georgette going to Lou's office to negotiate Ted's contract. The whole thing is quite weird. Also, the very ending with Lou back at Mary's is funny.
3 Reviews
Seven years ago
Rrrobert1 April 2020
OK episode.
Lou's old army buddy Ben (Alex Rocco) has Lou set him up with Mary. Lou soon has misgivings as Ben is a real player. Georgette acts as Ted's agent and negotiates Ted's new contract with Lou.
It is a bit clunky. The contract negotiation is the funniest scene. The Lou - Mary final act emphasises the 'looking back over the last seven years' that crept into several the final season episodes.
Lou's old army buddy Ben (Alex Rocco) has Lou set him up with Mary. Lou soon has misgivings as Ben is a real player. Georgette acts as Ted's agent and negotiates Ted's new contract with Lou.
It is a bit clunky. The contract negotiation is the funniest scene. The Lou - Mary final act emphasises the 'looking back over the last seven years' that crept into several the final season episodes.
Certainly has its moments!
AnnieLola28 September 2020
This is a likable episode, even if it doesn't approach the brilliance of some of the more memorable entries. Always fun to see Georgette in action, this time going to bat for Ted in her inimitable way to wangle a raise from Lou. The Lou stuff is very Lou stuff indeed, which is reliably amusing. By now, in the show's seventh and last season, viewers feel they've lived with the MTM characters, invited them into their homes as part of their own family circle.
A high point is when an enraged Mary has to be physically restrained by Lou from committing mayhem on presumptuous babe-hound Ben Selwyn. Definitely one of her more assertive moments! Contrast this with the Mary of the early seasons... Speaking of early seasons, it was in the first season that Lou was telling about his military reunions, and at that time his service wasn't given as having been in the Army but in the Marine Corps. He mentioned the discomfort of being a former Marine sergeant surrounded by former Marine privates he no longer outranked. The writers had either forgotten this detail or assumed it came up so long before that we'd have forgotten. Like reruns didn't exist?
One thing I personally like about this one is including what was almost the last television appearance of Dort Clark, who started on the small screen in 1948, when TV was new-- and the screen was small indeed. The list of his credits in TV movies and series is staggering, plus he went big-screen as well at times, and onstage too. In "South Pacific" he was a hit in the wild-man role of Luther Billis (who could forget 'Honey Bun'?), played on the screen by Ray Walston, who visited Dort to pick up some pointers for his own portrayal. Dort Clark had only one more TV appearance after Lou's reunion. Too bad he wasn't given much to do-- when the guys arrive at Mary's, he's next to Lou coming through the door, with a true Character face like a side of beef. It's really a bit part, which is a sorry waste of talent. But he was regarded highly enough to have his name in the credits, which meant better pay as well as recognition. There might be more hidden gems among the cast, but aside from Alex Rocco, Lou's other Army buddies are unnamed. Who were they?
That's a lot of the fun of these decades-old shows-- finding long-gone onscreen friends, as well as brief glimpses of up-and-coming performers who later made real names for themselves.
A high point is when an enraged Mary has to be physically restrained by Lou from committing mayhem on presumptuous babe-hound Ben Selwyn. Definitely one of her more assertive moments! Contrast this with the Mary of the early seasons... Speaking of early seasons, it was in the first season that Lou was telling about his military reunions, and at that time his service wasn't given as having been in the Army but in the Marine Corps. He mentioned the discomfort of being a former Marine sergeant surrounded by former Marine privates he no longer outranked. The writers had either forgotten this detail or assumed it came up so long before that we'd have forgotten. Like reruns didn't exist?
One thing I personally like about this one is including what was almost the last television appearance of Dort Clark, who started on the small screen in 1948, when TV was new-- and the screen was small indeed. The list of his credits in TV movies and series is staggering, plus he went big-screen as well at times, and onstage too. In "South Pacific" he was a hit in the wild-man role of Luther Billis (who could forget 'Honey Bun'?), played on the screen by Ray Walston, who visited Dort to pick up some pointers for his own portrayal. Dort Clark had only one more TV appearance after Lou's reunion. Too bad he wasn't given much to do-- when the guys arrive at Mary's, he's next to Lou coming through the door, with a true Character face like a side of beef. It's really a bit part, which is a sorry waste of talent. But he was regarded highly enough to have his name in the credits, which meant better pay as well as recognition. There might be more hidden gems among the cast, but aside from Alex Rocco, Lou's other Army buddies are unnamed. Who were they?
That's a lot of the fun of these decades-old shows-- finding long-gone onscreen friends, as well as brief glimpses of up-and-coming performers who later made real names for themselves.
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