User Reviews

It's all too common that we say or act in ways that may lead others, especially those we love, to think we don't care. As a dad I know I have been guilty of such attitudes toward my family. Thankfully I had an opportunity to realize this before it was too late-like the young expectant mother in this episode.

In a time when it's easier than ever to communicate, society has become far too lax in just "saying" what they feel without considering how others may interpret the message. We would all be so much stronger in our relationships if we thought before we spoke and considered how blessed we truly are instead of "longing" for what we don't have. It's often true that we don't know what we had until we don't have it anymore!

Here was another example of a serious episode, focusing on Margaret. She had decided to sell the family's baby crib, along with a baby scale and some blankets, by placing an ad in the newspaper.

We viewers are taken into the kitchen of a young, married couple, who decide to go over the very morning they see the ad. The wife, Esther, played by Christine White, is much troubled by the things she hears from Kathy,particularly when told that her mother is going to disown her because of all the trouble she causes. Now Kathy explains right away that her mother isn't serious, only that she's rather upset at everyone but this doesn't placate the nervous mother-to-be.

Nevertheless, on husband Walt's insistence, they buy the items for $10, asking if they can pick them up that evening. Esther, whose face makes one think she was in a hypnotic trance throughout the episode,continues to be haunted by the chaotic scene in the Anderson household— basically things like a sweater dropped on the floor and Margaret seeming rather annoyed with everyone—nothing all that disturbing. Walt has not returned by the usual time from his job at a gas station. We see him still working and not quite picking up the phone in time when Esther calls to find out if he's still at work.

Now this is where we lose sight of logic. Esther immediately decides to go home to mother, by bus, just because she couldn't reach him at the station on one phone call, and not tell him anything about her sudden bus trip, nor let him know anything about what is troubling her. First she returns to the Anderson home to get back the $10 they paid. While there, she gets a good talking too by Margaret about how much she really cherishes her family, and that Esther just happened to earlier catch her on a bad day. Jim, Kathy and Bud overhear what Margaret tells her, and they are most happy to hear what she really thinks. Walt shows up about this time and Margaret gives him a story that Esther came by to surprise him by being there when he arrived to pick up his merchandise.

The only humorous parts were how sloppy Bud and Kathy kept making messes, and how Jim and Bud could sit at the table unaware that badly burning toast was smoking about 6 feet away. That is to say, almost all of the intended humor was in those scenes. There really were almost no chuckles, let alone anything more in the whole episode. We were given no reason to believe Esther and Walt had any serious troubles, which is why her plan to suddenly leave Walt—even assuming it wasn't to be permanent, is the sort of thing old shows used to do often, which always frustrated me. How, I ask, can one spouse leave his/her partner without ever letting that person know that there is a problem?

Trying to put myself in Walt's place, I will say that if my wife got furious with me, told me off royally, yelling and whatever, and said she's "going home to mother"…when we talked in a few days, maybe a week or more, I would be most happy to listen, apologize if necessary, work out our problems. But if I got home one night and she was just gone and didn't let me know for days where she was, I would be furious at her for making me worry AND for running away without letting me know what the problem was. Repeated actions like that could threaten any long term hopes of happiness.

I think the writers really just wanted an excuse for the family, minus Betty, to hear Margaret saying some really nice things about her wonderful family. This vehicle left this viewer quite bored with this almost-laugh less story. A 3.