This episode features one of several guest appearances from famous actor Andy Devine who plays local boat repairer Hap Gorman. Two plots runs side by side - the first being Hap's tendency to tell tall tales prompted by the sight of fisherman weighing large game fish caught in the vicinity. Bud seems more gullible to Hap's tales meanwhile Sandy wants to get in on the big fishing action and calls Hap's bluff and blusters his way to having Hap take him and Bud to the prize fishing grounds he brags of the next day.
Right in the middle of this step the Johnsons for the 2nd plot line - father and son looking to rent one of Hap's boats. Turns out the son about 12 or 13 has been retrieved from a foster home where his gambling addicted father left him while he chased a hoped for fortune. The plan is to blow up the boat at sea to stage their deaths, row to shore in an inflatable boat and make it to a foreign country likely in the Caribbean. The son is only told of this plan once already in the small inflatable.
Hap seems to be lost at sea in a row dingy unable to find the great fishing spots the boys are seeking causing the boys to express impatience. Meanwhile Porter finds the Johnsons and has a gun pulled on him once he gets too suspicious as to their movements. After a short struggle in the water Porter subdues the fleeing fraudster and unearths the plot.
Hap and the boys see the abandoned rental boat, repair its deliberately disabled engine and start to bring it back to the harbor. Porter is forced to race against the clock to get Hap and the boys off the boat just before it explodes.
The episode features a soul searching and touching discussion between Bud and Porter regarding his consistency as a father and also plenty of eye rolling from Sandy listening to Hap's tall tales. At the end as they all survey the nice boat Hap got with the insurance payout, Porter and Sandy sneak off as Hap starts into new fanciful tales leaving gullible Bud behind to listen on. A bit of trivia - Lee Phillips (Dick Johnson) and Rene Burau (Tim Johnson) both appear as extras in the original Flipper movie filmed two years earlier in 1962.
Right in the middle of this step the Johnsons for the 2nd plot line - father and son looking to rent one of Hap's boats. Turns out the son about 12 or 13 has been retrieved from a foster home where his gambling addicted father left him while he chased a hoped for fortune. The plan is to blow up the boat at sea to stage their deaths, row to shore in an inflatable boat and make it to a foreign country likely in the Caribbean. The son is only told of this plan once already in the small inflatable.
Hap seems to be lost at sea in a row dingy unable to find the great fishing spots the boys are seeking causing the boys to express impatience. Meanwhile Porter finds the Johnsons and has a gun pulled on him once he gets too suspicious as to their movements. After a short struggle in the water Porter subdues the fleeing fraudster and unearths the plot.
Hap and the boys see the abandoned rental boat, repair its deliberately disabled engine and start to bring it back to the harbor. Porter is forced to race against the clock to get Hap and the boys off the boat just before it explodes.
The episode features a soul searching and touching discussion between Bud and Porter regarding his consistency as a father and also plenty of eye rolling from Sandy listening to Hap's tall tales. At the end as they all survey the nice boat Hap got with the insurance payout, Porter and Sandy sneak off as Hap starts into new fanciful tales leaving gullible Bud behind to listen on. A bit of trivia - Lee Phillips (Dick Johnson) and Rene Burau (Tim Johnson) both appear as extras in the original Flipper movie filmed two years earlier in 1962.
