Television Review: LOVE THAT BOB: "Bob's Economy Wave" (1957)

 

LOVE THAT BOB a.k.a. THE BOB CUMMINGS SHOW: "Bob's Economy Wave" (1957 NBC-TV/ Laurel-McCadden Productions) Original Air Date: April 18, 1957.  Starring Bob Cummings as Bob Collins, Rosemary deCamp as Margaret MacDonald, Ann B. Davis as Schultzy, Lyle Talbot as Paul Fonda, Dwayne Hickman as Chuck MacDonald, Lisa Gaye as Collette Dubois, Maxine Gates as Maxine, Ralph Dumke as Leo the Butcher, General Clarence Shoop as Himself.  Written by Paul Henning, Shirl Gordon, Phil Shuken and Dick Wesson.  Directed by Bob Cummings.

Introduction to the LOVE THAT BOB/BOB CUMMINGS SHOW episode guide at this link.

Bob's Economy Wave is an annual occurrence after income taxes are paid each year (note the air date), so let the cost cutting begin.  Challenged to do a better job with the food budget than Margaret is already doing, Bob baffles the family by bringing home what appears to be $100 worth of meat after exiting with a double sawbuck.

Well, $94.50 worth of meat to be exact; a phone call from Leo the Butcher reveals that Bob bartered his studio time ($100 value) photographing Leo's daughter Maxine in exchange for months of prime beef.  Not wanting to give up on his original belt-tightening point, Bob enters into an agreement (overseen by Schultzy) that he will join the rest of them in sticking to a set "allowance"--a contract that may not make it 24 hours once Collette reminds him of their big date that evening.  And speaking of big dates, Maxine arrives for her studio time and proves to be a literal eye full.

Bobby boy is in full fledged stinker mode from fade-in to fade-out in Bob's Economy Wave.  After the attempted subterfuge on his fair exchange fails he schemes to: fake Margaret out of their agreement with a phony phone call; paint the town rouge with Collette on Fonda's dime; and finally, shift that date with her to steak Chez Moi (by faking a cold).  

"The man of iron is about to be melted, how you say, down?"

Each new ruse blows up in his face, and the faked call creates a bigger misunderstanding by giving Bob a second date that evening--one he'd never set up for himself knowingly.  Bob succeeds surprisingly often during this episode guide--when he does crash and burn it is usually due to his own hubris (Bob Batches It) which often brings the same height of humor we got when BILKO overplayed a hand.  The new wrinkle in Bob's Economy Wave is that our boy never knowingly two times Collette--it really is a misunderstanding.  Bob's deadly sin this time is pride in his thrift.

"Did you photograph her?"

"With a wide angle lens..."

And, boy, is this a collapse worthy of the 21st century Miami Dolphins in December.  When the music stops Margaret is dressed up and going out with Paul Fonda, but Collette's date for the evening is the very married General Shoop (his real life wife Julie Bishop is name dropped, so no hanky panky Shoopy!), and despite her fuming once she learns of Bob's (inadvertent, this time!) "two timing" she is thrilled to learn that Clarence is fluent in her native language.  Bob?  His date for the evening is the very eager Maxine, who keeps turning the lights out on him when they're alone and looking at "shy" Collins like he's one of those steaks on the stove. 

"When Bob says he'll get a girl like that (snaps fingers) he means like that!"

Bob's Economy Wave may not offer many love lessons, but it does offer a historical lesson on the barter system.  One could use it as Bob does here to fly under the I.R.S.' radar in the Eisenhower Era.  It took another 25 years before Uncle Sam really got wise to it, with the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 taking this loophole away.  It seems like everyone wins financially: Leo the Butcher is ecstatic with his side of the deal.  Hey, if daughter's happy, momma must be happy too.  Bob's ultimate victory is open to debate, but at least he has yet to cave on his three way family contest at fade-out.

Ease up there Shoopy, Julie Bishop is waiting when you get home

"Parlez vous Francais?"

"Well, not enough!" 

Bob may not be having much mirth onscreen when all is said and done, but the star obviously enjoyed directing this door slammer.  Particularly the second act, which only leaves the maison for two calls.  Suffice to say that the phone was consistently our playboy's undoing, whether the calls were incoming or not.   I guess saving money by getting rid of it is out of the question though.

Maxine Gates was likely best known for her trio of Three Stooges shorts and brought her comedic timing back to LOVE THAT BOB in similar fashion for Bob, the Matchmaker.  This was Ralph Dumke's only appearance here, but he was familiar to McCadden Productions as Mr. MacAfee in a quartet of BURNS AND ALLEN episodes.  In its ninety-third episode overall, LOVE THAT BOB is past its halfway point but solidly in its prime, with its best team of writers (IMO) and director on a roll.

WHO WAS BLOCKING?

Bob blocked himself with his zeal to prove his superior management of the family purse strings in the view of yours truly.  However, the final blow is delivered by "that wolf" Paul Fonda himself, who gleefully informs Collette of Bob's "other date".  The end result was a definite downgrade in his evening's plans.  To be fair, we all know Collette will be back and resuming her rivalry with Shirley Swanson in the future, but as for the present.....

DID BOB SCORE?

With Collette, an emphatic Hell no, and I'll bet old Shoopy could have if not happily married from the looks of things.  But home plate is still available to him if he desires.  Bob has the house to himself with his consolation prize, and from the looks of things he's going to need that steak dinner, since he'll be calorically depleted from running or being caught.  Possibly both.

Lisa Gaye fresh out of the bubble bath.  You're welcome.

THE BOTTOM LINE: 

After viewing this episode and the riotous Bob and Automation it feels safe to say that Mr. Collins should just lay off the austerity plans for his fam.  In that instance the end result was a swing and a miss with Millie Davis; here, it costs him what seems to be a certain score with Collette DuBois.  Those draconian income tax rates from days of yore would be mined at deadline time a year later in Bob Retrenches, but this episode has higher stakes (Lisa Gaye, gents!) and with them higher comedic peaks, outdated fat shaming be damned.  (***1/2 out of four) 

Courtesy of the YouTube channel Forgotten Memories, you can see Bob's Economy Wave for yourself by clicking on the video below!

GET CHRISTIE LOVE!: Teresa Graves in TV GUIDE, November 30-December 6, 1974

Fifty years ago this week, Teresa Graves graced the cover of TV Guide, two months after the premiere of GET CHRISTIE LOVE!  

"He throws her to the floor.  She gets up.  He knocks her down again.  She kicks him.  She stomps him hard with her foot and uses karate to toss him over her shoulder....Then Time out for Bible Study".  

So begins Richard Warren Lewis' cover story, written some eight months after Miss Graves was baptized a Jehovah's Witness.  Her trailer on set is noted to have a New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures and several copies of Awake magazine rather than the expected "Hollywood trade papers and dog-eared scripts".   

 

Maybe this issue, from July 1974, was one of them

Graves relates spending 100 hours per month (nights and weekends) pioneering for Jehovah, and her agreement with producers guaranteed her a 5 P.M. release once a week for Bible study along with a two day furlough to attend the sect's Dodger Stadium assembly.

It's too bad TV Guide is typically skimpy with the photos, as the only accompanying one is shown above.  Still, we do get a thorough retrospective on Graves' career, with the star apparently time limited (or perhaps reticent) and co-manager Laura Brillstein filling in the blanks for Lewis.  "She played the hippy-dippy girl on LAUGH-IN, but that's not Teresa".  Indeed it isn't, Miss Graves is a non-smoker and non-drinker who lives with and supports her mother.  (This would incidentally also be the case some 28 years later when Graves sadly perished in a house blaze; Graves' mother had recently had a stroke and was hospitalized and thus not at the home when it caught fire in October 2002.)

Manager Laura Brillstein keeps a scrapbook for her client, admitting that "in six years, I don't think she (Teresa) has saved a clipping".  She also admits that "we have no immediate plans for what Teresa is going to do if and then this series is over".  Further, "she has expressed no tremendous desire to be a superstar.  If it happens, it is going to be in spite of  Teresa".  As it would turn out, GET CHRISTIE LOVE! would be her Hollywood swan song: a year after this issue was on the newsstands, Graves had already walked away from showbiz for good at age 27.  

Teresa Graves in VAMPIRA

One can certainly see that coming from reading Lewis' article.  VAMPIRA (playing a titular creature) and BLACK EYE (as a bisexual girlfriend of the lead detective) are cited as two projects Graves had taken pre-conversion but would not have considered after it.  Lewis himself notes the impact on her vehicle: "with the downgrading of violence has come a lessening of the show's original bite".  

To further that thought, Cleveland Amory's review in this issue is POLICE WOMAN, NBC's more successful female undercover officer given a Friday time slot following SANFORD AND SON and new hits CHICO AND THE MAN and THE ROCKFORD FILES.  Predictably, Amory isn't all that impressed with the show, but the review certainly describes the key difference between it and CHRISTIE succinctly.  POLICE WOMAN has "so far given you either rape or prostitution every week, although once in a while, as a special treat, you get drugs!"  Proving that POLICE WOMAN was giving the 10 P.M. audience what it wanted half a century ago, Angie Dickinson and the late Earl Holliman were off to a four year run on NBC.  Meanwhile, the content restricted CHRISTIE was gone by the Spring of '75.   GetTV has run POLICE WOMAN on weekends recently, though it is currently on hiatus. 

This issue (mine is the Cleveland edition) contains a six-page TV Guide insert that you would only see in the heart of the Seventies:  a Happy Hour Mixology with 45 drink recipes plus a Primer of Happy Hour Astrology!  The picture makes it clear, this is your guide to impressing the opposite sex (and presumably, drunkenly getting it on after the Christmas party!).

Yes, you'll have all the answers when inevitably asked "What's your sign?"

And you'll have new fewer than 45 bartending choices, so your odds of being able to mix her favorite just got worlds better.  TV Guide, giving you all your viewing choices AND helping you get laid for the holidays.  But just in case you strike out (maybe you're just the wrong sign?) we've got TV listings for you too!

If you're not reading Mitchell Hadley's weekly vintage TV Guide reviews every Saturday at It's About TV, you should be.  When he does an issue from the 1960's, he compares ED SULLIVAN to HOLLYWOOD PALACE; for his Seventies issues, we get DON KIRSHNER'S ROCK CONCERT versus MIDNIGHT SPECIAL every week.  Following Mitchell's example, I'll do the same:

The Cleveland area has an embarrassment of riches at 1 A.M. early Saturday, first off.  We have NBC's MIDNIGHT SPECIAL going head to head with not one, but two KIRSHNERs.  Check it out:

MIDNIGHT SPECIAL gives us Tom Jones, Chuck Berry and....Kiki Dee???  Ok, two out of three ain't bad, especially when Tom and Chuck do a medley together.  KIRSHNER 1 counters with Felix Cavaliere and Donovan; KIRSHNER 2 gives us Golden Earring, Bloodstone and Jo Jo Gunne.  Neither is a bad option, but SPECIAL wins this battle hands down with two Hall of Famers.  Having said that, check out a third option, WIDE WORLD IN CONCERT, going head to head with Carson an hour and a half earlier:

Kirshner created this monster, which ran on ABC approximately bi-weekly from 1972 to 1975, leaving it to go syndicated with the show bearing his name.  And check out this powerhouse lineup with two Hall of Famers in its own right: Sly and the Family Stone?  The late, great Minnie Riperton?  And Rush, fresh off their first album?  Easily eclipsing both Kirshner shows later that night, and it would create a dilemma if it aired at 1:00.  It's likely that this was one of Rush's earliest shows with Neil Peart, who made his debut with the band on August 11 that year.  Fortunately in this pre-VCR era, you can catch this at 11:30 PM and change the channel to MIDNIGHT SPECIAL right after for a phenomenal Friday night of concerts.  And if you get lucky thanks to your newfound drink and astrology wizardry, you have some great music to make out to.

KIRSHNER might be beaten on Friday by the networks, but shows the power of syndication by having three additional cracks at it on Saturday night at 11:30, going head to head to head with himself on Channels 5, 9 and 35!  We don't have a listing for Channel 35's offering, so if these two lineups don't float your boat you can take your chances with that one.  Channel 9 offers Fleetwood Mac (pre-Lindsay and Stevie), Weather Report and Blue Swede (ooga chaka!)  Channel 5's ROCK CONCERT counters with the Edgar Winter Group and Foghat.  Suffice to say that no matter what your taste you could find some live music to your liking at some point on the weekends.

Speaking of multiple options in syndication, 1974 was a great time to be a GILLIGAN'S ISLAND fan living in Ohio.

  

Yes, that's GILLIGAN going head to head to head with itself at 4 P.M. on channels 6, 13 and 33, and channel 43 wisely avoiding the fray by airing its GILLIGAN a half hour after the chaos at 4:30!  Better still, Channel 24 offered you a fifth trip to the Island at 7 P.M. each weekday!  If you don't like MIKE DOUGLAS, MERV GRIFFIN or GILLIGAN though, your options seem somewhat limited.  Though I could always deal with Charo in 1974:

You could too, admit it!

Getting back to our articles for a minute, it says something that Teresa Graves got the cover over two guys at the peak of their respective powers in December 1974.  First we have Paul Newman, just a week away from hitting theatres in THE TOWERING INFERNO.  His TV venture for the week is narrating The Wild Places for NBC, airing Monday the 2nd and spotlighting America's wilderness areas: a caribou range in Alaska, Utah's Red Rock Canyon and Minnesota's North Woods lakes among them.  Newman likely had a tough go in the ratings against THE ROOKIES and GUNSMOKE though.

And second, John Denver, who got the plum spot of 8 P.M. Sunday night on ABC for his latest special, Back Home Again.  Obviously, he plays that track, sings with guest Doris Day, and of course gets around to "Thank God I'm a Country Boy". 

Dick Van Dyke and George Gobel help supply the comedy, and Denver gets his own showcase article indicating that many more ABC specials are forthcoming.  Indeed there are, one or two annually through 1983.

Competing with Denver is the debut of AMY PRENTISS, yet another female detective making her debut in 1974-75.  Jessica Walter has the title role in this spinoff of IRONSIDE (in its final season) and has a lot going for it: William Shatner guest stars in the debut and it is the newest spoke in the NBC MYSTERY MOVIE.  Alas, both POLICE WOMAN and CHRISTIE LOVE outlast it: PRENTISS airs only three installments and is gone by February.  All is not lost, though: Walter does win an Emmy for outstanding actress in a limited series, beating out Susan Saint James.

My Dolphins beat the Bengals 24-3 on MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL, but the one and only World Bowl, 1974's World Football League championship, takes place on Thursday night at 9 P.M. on Channel 61 with Jack Gotta's Birmingham Americans edging out Jack Pardee's Florida Blazers 22-21.  The Americans led 22-0 going into the fourth quarter but a furious rally by the Blazers comes up a point short.  Thrilling, no doubt, but I always hated the WFL for taking Csonka, Kiick and Warfield from my 'Fins and then folding.  So I probably would do it like Pruitt and watch MOVIN' ON instead.  You can catch it on Tubi and on ION network yourself in 2024. 

Christmas specials won't kick into high gear for another week, but we do have Santa Claus is Coming to Town at 8 P.M. Thursday and Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus at 8 P.M. Friday, both on ABC.

My tough decision of the week comes on Sunday night, with a couple of choice reruns and a personal favorite film colliding at 11:30 P.M. Eastern.  You get Buddy Hackett AND Steve Martin on a TONIGHT SHOW rerun.  Even if Buddy can't be as hilariously blue as he would be on his HBO Special a few years later, it's still gotta be pretty great.  Meanwhile WIDE WORLD repeats an EVENT from earlier (like I said, concerts on TV were incredible a half century ago) recorded during the legendary California Jam on April 6, 1974: Earth, Wind and Fire, the Eagles, and Seals and Crofts!  Jackson Browne joined the Eagles, filling in for Don Felder (whose wife was giving birth).  Just a fabulous lineup, arguably the best overall 90 minutes of live music in a week full of riches.

Marie Gomez (L) making the movie better, as always

And yet, I'm considering a third option: RIO CONCHOS on Channel 11 because my girl Marie Gomez is in it.

And wrapping up this look at TV GUIDE a half century ago this week, I'll take it back to another childhood crush of yours truly, cover girl Teresa Graves, who remains "eternally optimistic" and quotes the Apostle Paul for her closing quote on her way out of Hollywood stardom: "For all things I have the strength by virtue of Him who imparts power to me."   We certainly missed her on the tube in the years to come, but she certainly found something in life more fulfilling to her than superstardom.  

Agent Brillstein might have been about to lose a client, but hardly seems bitter: "She's found something for herself, a very calm, controlled way of life.  Few people can live that way.  She's very lucky."

And we were very lucky she shared her talents for a few years before moving on to her life's calling.  R.I.P. 

F TROOP Fridays: "Reunion for O'Rourke" (1966)

 F TROOP Fridays: Number 39   

F TROOP: "Reunion for O'Rourke" (1966 ABC-TV/Warner Brothers) Season One, Episode 25; Original Air Date March 8, 1966.  Starring Forrest Tucker as Sergeant Morgan O'Rourke, Larry Storch as Corporal Randolph Agarn, Ken Berry as Captain Wilton Parmenter, Melody Patterson as Wrangler Jane, Frank de Kova as Chief Wild Eagle, James Hampton as Private Dobbs, Bob Steele as Private Duffy, Joe Brooks as Private Vanderbilt, Ivan Bell as Private Dudleson.  Guest stars: Eve McVeagh as Wilma McGee, Ben Gage as Mike O'Hanlon, Marjorie Bennett as Ella Vorhees, Richard Reeves as Jim Sweeney.  Written by Ed James and Seaman Jacobs.  Directed by Charles Rondeau.

"Many years ago, tribe leave Massachusetts because pilgrims ruin neighborhood...."

Sergeant Morgan Sylvester O'Rourke lets slip to the Captain that he is celebrating his 25th anniversary in the service this month, but his accompanying furlough request is motivated by business rather than nostalgia: namely, a surplus of souvenirs needing a buyer.  Unfortunately, an elevated threat of Indian uprisings has by-the-book Captain Parmenter denying O'Rourke's reasonable request.

The threat of losing his share of the profits has Agarn off to persuade Parmenter but the Captain coaxes the Corporal with an idea of his own: a surprise testimonial dinner.  As planned by the C.O. the secret celebration will make travel unnecessary by bringing the Sergeant's oldest and dearest friends to Fort Courage for the occasion.  Yes, Agarn puts sentiment ahead of profit once the Captain puts him in charge of the entire affair.  But as demonstrated in Play, Gypsy, Play the previous week, there's good reason not to have him in the driver's seat.

"We have lined up the finest entertainment west of.....hey, what's just east of here?"

As I've noted in prior posts, series creators Ed James and Seaman Jacobs envisioned a more cynical F TROOP than what ultimately emerged once Hy Averback won the post-William T. Orr era power struggle on the set.  Reunion for O'Rourke was as close as we ever got to a heartwarming outing from the James/Jacobs team, and you can forget about a sappy conclusion like those found in A Gift From the Chief or Will the Real Captain Try to Stand Up here.  

"Sarge, if you ruin this night--I'll kill ya!"

Agarn temporarily putting his greed aside is an eyebrow raiser but makes sense here, as the opportunity for the second banana to run the show is the one thing almost as appealing as money to the frustrated subordinate.  Softie underneath he may be, but the empowered Corporal really gives that hat a workout and even goes after O'Rourke with a hat rack(!) when the guest of honor refuses all efforts to lure him out for the surprise.  He even rubs off on his underlings, as Duffy gives Vanderbilt a whack with his (likely decades-old) head covering.

The James/Jacobs attitude (also likely director Rondeau's) towards any F TROOP mawkishness is in evidence throughout O'Rourke's big night as every single attempt at hugs or tears is thwarted.  Often violently.  His old schoolteacher confirms that kid brother Morton was "the good kid" in the family and still holds a decades-old grudge over a frog in her teapot.  Old girlfriend Wilma McGee still has her figure despite gaining eight children (the Sarge's reaction is one of the best laughs in an episode stuffed with good ones) and her own thriving Emporium (now this interests Morgan) from the husband she married "while she was waiting" for O'Rourke to come home.  Two old buddies from the Mexican-American War have ended up on very divergent paths, to the peril of all party attendees--Mike O'Hanlon's shows us O'Rourke could be doing far worse things than his Enterprises.

"Where the Hekawi?"

Despite it's title and the numerous welcome tidbits from the Sarge's past, Reunion for O'Rourke is almost certainly best-remembered for the backstory provided for his business partners.  Yes, this is the episode that reveals just how the Hekawi tribe was named.  I won't reproduce the entire story; I couldn't tell it nearly as well as Frank deKova's Wild Eagle does anyway.  Suffice to say it is a legendary moment among F TROOP aficionados that lives up to the hype. 

Not long after his 2,038 performance run touring the country as THE MUSIC MAN, Forrest Tucker sings Dear Old Donegal.  Or, I should say, finally gets in more than a line or two at the fadeout of Act Two.  My Wild Irish Rose however is mostly ceded to the Hekawi Glee Club(!).  At least until the coda.  Par for the course for F TROOP, both are sung decades before they were actually written.

Once more, the co-creators allow O'Rourke to succeed where Bilko often failed, as the Enterprises finds that much-needed buyer in the Sarge's romantic past.  No, he and Agarn will never get rich either, but they'll surreptitiously keep ill-gotten gains almost every episode.  At least until the J.J.'s (and Rondeau) were completely out of the picture in Season Two.  Too bad.

Look out for LOVE THAT BOB's Mrs. Niemeyer (Bob Gives S.R.O. Performance), Marjorie Bennett as the Sarge's still-angry third grade teacher, and for MAVERICK's James Arness impressionist extraordinaire Ben Gage (Gun-Shy) as the Sarge's shady old pal O'Hanlon aka The Canary Kid.  O'Hanlon demonstrates the pitfalls of sentimentality in this universe better than anyone--if he could have forgone going to see his old friend, the Kid would still be at large and the most successful outlaw in the West at episode's end, right? 

HOW'S BUSINESS AT O'ROURKE ENTERPRISES?

Way too slow at the outset, but a timely sale to the McGee Emporium gets the souvenirs moving again by the epilogue.  Ever the shrewd negotiator, O'Rourke manages to make that sale without becomin' that father to eight blessed McGee young 'uns.

TIME PASSAGES:

O'Rourke states he "joined up for the Mexican War" and since it has been 25 years, this episode likely takes place circa 1871.  O'Hanlon's statement that Morgan was a Sergeant 22 years ago (and 3 years after that enlistment) is contracted in Our Brave in F Troop later: "it took me ten years to get these stripes!"   In the coda, we learn that Chief Wild Eagle has been leading his tribe for 17 years.  Hey, close enough for that golden sundial. 

NUMBER OF TIMES O'ROURKE COULD HAVE BEEN TRIED FOR TREASON:

Zero, with everyone putting any differences aside for one night to celebrate the Sarge's silver jubilee.

PC, OR NOT PC?

Natives and palefaces come together in peaceful harmony to pay tribute to the Sarge, and the Irish cultural appropriation by the Hekawis is received well by the patrons sans O'Rourke.  The festive occasion even has by-the-book Parmenter cutting through red tape to let the Natives into the saloon, with the dangers of letting them near whisky going unmentioned. 

THE ALL-IMPORTANT NIELSENS:

Reunion for O'Rourke scored well with viewers with a solid 21.4 rating and 31.6 share, both above the season average of 20.4/31.3.  RED SKELTON led the 8 PM pack as usual with a 28.4/41.9 for the half-hour but the Troopers bludgeoned NBC's movie September Affair (15.7/26.3).

THE BOTTOM LINE:

Nice bit of symmetry for the show to celebrate O'Rourke's 25th year in the Army with its 25th episode.  Reunion for O'Rourke demonstrates the show in full stride on all fronts; just a tad of unintrusive heart and chock full of laughs.  I originally gave this the top rating and an extra half star for the classic Hekawi history story, and while I'm taking that half-star back in my revisionist rating, it's still a very worthy entry in a very worthy season.  (***1/2 out of four) 

F TROOP is currently seen weekday mornings starting at 9 A.M. Central Time on Outlaw TV.

Television Review: LOVE THAT BOB: "Bob Digs Rock n' Roll" (1958)

LOVE THAT BOB a.k.a. THE BOB CUMMINGS SHOW: "Bob Digs Rock n' Roll" (1958 NBC-TV/Laurel-McCadden Productions) Original Air Date: May 27, 1958.  Starring Bob Cummings as Bob Collins, Rosemary deCamp as Margaret MacDonald, Ann B. Davis as Schultzy, Dwayne Hickman as Chuck MacDonald, Olive Sturgess as Carol Henning.  Guest Stars Ingrid Goude as herself, Dan Tobin as Wallace Seawell, Stanley Stenner as himself, El Brendel as Ole Svensen.  Written by Paul Henning, Dick Wesson and Shirl Gordon.  Directed by Bob Cummings.

Introduction to the LOVE THAT BOB/THE BOB CUMMINGS SHOW episode guide is at this link.

Trouble in the McDonald/Collins household--Chuck has lost Carol to rock n' roller Stenner.  Wishing to step up his game, Chuck wants $20 down payment on a guitar to compete with the singing sensation.  Bob's reaction?  Well, he explains it better than I can:

"A girl goes for the same thing she went for 2,000 years ago--a man!  And you don't need an overgrown ukulele around your neck to get her!"

Chuck remains unconvinced, and determined to cut a deal at the pawn shop to compete with Stanley on a level playing field.  Even learning that Stenner went to Bob's arch rival Wallace Seawell for his promotional poster doesn't commit our Playboy to his nephew's cause, since Bob has a girl of his own to win: the unattainable Goude.  

"Uncle Bob, you don't know what makes the girls go ape!"

"Are you kiddin'?  I've been monkeyin' around since I was twelve."

Miss Sweden is modeling for the day's bathing suit ad, giving Bob one more opportunity to close the language gap (and the deal) with the nubile beauty.  Having tried almost everything else, Bunko Bob produces a medal proclaiming him Sweden's Greatest Hero.  (Our playboy has made some pawn shop swaps of his own!) It looks like the big bad wolf might finally make some headway with the Scandinavian supermodel until Schultzy switches Bob's medal with janitor Ole's lookalike 'award'.  All the while, Seawell's portrait of Stenner keeps getting redeveloped--to no avail as each new poster eventually receives darts from the rivals of both the singer and his ace shutterbug.

In a show loaded with in-jokes, Bob's unfriendly rivalry with Wally Seawell was explored in a handful of episodes sprinkled throughout the first four seasons.  In real life, Seawell was the show's technical advisor: in reel life, he's played by Dan Tobin, returning to the role after Bob Enters a Photography Contest and Bob Sails for Hawaii.  Collins definitely comes across as the least mature of the shutterbugs here, joining Chuck in throwing darts at his rival's work.  Which is fine, 'cause its a lot funnier that way.  No one wants to see our Playboy lose his youthful edge--something the ratings would prove in 1959 when Tammy Johnson arrived.  The mustachioed Tobin took over the Seawell role in 1957 from John Hubbard (The Petticoat Derby).

The first of a two parter, Bob Digs Rock n' Roll gives seventeen year old Stanley Stenner a push towards rock n' roll stardom.  Who's he, you ask?  The son of Cummings' valet who was also a protege of Mary Martin after being cast as Curly in PETER PAN on Broadway at age 14.   Stenner had a lot of star power behind him, and demonstrates a solid voice, but neither acting nor music worked out as a long term career for him.   This one is an admirable effort to put Stenner over worthy of any wrestling jobber.  To be fair he's a much better candidate for rock n' roll stardom than Hickman ever was, something Hickman would freely admit in FOREVER DOBIE.   

Bob Digs Rock n' Roll is the last of seven episodes for unattainable Ingrid Goude, and Bob gets no further here than before.  It's later than you think, Bob--that rock n' roll that you so casually dismiss appeals to the ladies in your desired age group!  (Once Bob realizes this, he sort of lives up to the episode's title--once he thinks it'll help him score that is.)

But lest you think Bob is just too old for Ingrid, she is dancing with Ole to Stenner's strumming, and in real life Goude was finally landed by apparel mogul Jerome K. Ohrbach in 1962 (54 to her 25 at the time).  So much for that coming youth revolution!  Speaking of, that would be explored much more fully when the story continued the next week (sans Goude) in Colonel Goldbrick.  Chuck's relationship woes continued into that installment as well.

WHO WAS BLOCKING?

Schultzy took these "honors" more often than anyone, so it isn't surprising that she does it again here by switching the medals.  I'd still say Bob's chances were mighty slim even with the real one, though...

DID BOB SCORE?

No, but it's a noble stab at glory--secluded beach shoot, war hero story complete with artifact, and even his own attempt at rock n' roll.  Too bad none of it worked in what would prove to be his final attempt with Miss Sweden.

THE BOTTOM LINE:

Director Cummings worked his magic with countless inexperienced actors in his two and a half seasons at the helm while also maintaining top notch work from his pros.  Bob Digs Rock n' Roll pokes fun at our hero’s age, but not as pointedly as the better half of this two parter, Colonel Goldbrick.  Part one is still up to the overall high standard from the show's last great season.  (*** out of four)

Don't want to take my word for it?  Want to see Bob Digs Rock n' Roll for yourself?  Here ya go: