User Reviews

This time Thomas is portraying a young man so obsessed with a woman you can almost believe Thomas himself is in love. John Boy agrees to escort a famous NY poet around who is visiting Boatwright since his professor is unavailable. He immediately finds her beautiful and engaging. Madeline, herself is quite taken with this young man who shares her love of words. Soon she demonstrates how much she too cares and John Man is smitten. The love story is outstanding and you feel John's ache and passion for her. This is not puppy love.

Meanwhile we find Olivia and John will be exchanging their vows on their 20th anniversary and the children want to give them something sentimental not so much expensive. That scenario almost distracts from this love story. How could 7 kids draw that beautiful house showing all the rooms and draw themselves in the house? Did they have Olivia draw it? None of them can draw yet it's a professional painting and almost ruins the main plot but maybe not because Thomas' fine acting as well as Ms. Campbell's dominates this episode.

Madeline could never live in a provincial town after NYC but wants to be with him. John Man decides to quit school and home to be with her so she will wait and take a later train. On his way back to town for their departure he has second thoughts about this intention and he's wretched but is thinking clearly. He kisses her good-bye, she boards the train and that expressive smile he gives her is classic. A very poignant episode and Thomas certainly can portray a man head over heels in love.

This is one of the episodes that misses the mark. Olivia decides she wants to have a wedding ceremony where she and John repeat their vowes. The only problem with this is that sort of ceremony didn't exist until the 1950s in the United States.

John is reluctant, but eventually agrees and he goes and buys a dress for Olivia for the ceremony. I thought it was an ugly dress. He should have got the red one, instead of the dark green one. (Michael Learned, however, looks pretty in anything she wears.)

Meanwhile, John Boy is having a fling with a visiting poet, who will only be at the university for two days. She is older and famous, as poets go, and he is head over heals in love with her, staying in her hotel room for two nights. (He told his parents he was staying in the dorm.)

When it's time for her to leave, he decides to go with her, but eventually decides to stay with his family. You must be a hopeless romantic to find the scenes between him and his poetess touching or even vaguely interesting.