User Reviews

"Long Live the Man" opens at the garage, where Mando (Isaac Ruiz, fifth of seven) leaves wreathes to commemorate the late Ed Brown, whose untimely arrival puts Mando in a dead faint. An incredulous Ed reads his own obituary in the newspaper, and wonders if it's true: "don't leave me dead too long, I'm getting hungry!" Louie proclaims the funeral to be a smashing success: "there wasn't a dry eye for miles around" Ed: "must have been the smog!" Mando reports that one woman was so choked up with tears that she had to leave: "I don't know her name, all I know is that she's allergic to flowers!" After all this love, Ed is devastated to learn that another Ed Brown is the recipient; even mail lady Mabel (Bonnie Boland's sixth and final appearance) can't cheer him up with her description of the sexy number she intended to wear to his funeral, had he actually died! Chico sums up his boss succinctly: "he gets no pleasure out of living, he got no pleasure out of dying, what's left?" Just then, Father O'Malley (Roger C. Carmel's second and final appearance) drops by to report that 'his' Ed Brown had a paltry six mourners, returning all the gifts bestowed upon the still living Ed Brown that everybody knows and loves. We actually get to see Mabel in her black dress after all, and it was a shame that Bonnie Boland was not retained beyond the first season. The episode ends with Ed trying out a eulogy for Chico, sadly prophetic in light of future events, with his final line: "good night, sweet Prince."