Mike gets invited to a few parties in the local college fraternity's "pre-rush week" where they attempt to get acquainted with high school seniors with plans to attend this school that is only referred to as "State" throughout the episode. Being from Michigan, I figure it must be Michigan State since it's the only school I know that has players on some of their sports teams wearing uniforms that never mention where they are from-they simply say "State" on the front as though they are the only university in the state, or nation, that has state as part of their name.
The frat boys are on a week's break between semesters. Their fraternity members want to get to know these students, then when fall comes, they'll have the traditional "Rush" week and then formally invite the ones they like to join the fraternity. Mike is excited about hanging out with the college men of the KAG fraternity-although he doesn't care for their frequent smoking.
We see him at a few of these parties and the young men all seem happy to talk to Mike-up until he keeps giving the same answer to their question about his college plans. He says, "I'm not sure I even plan to go to college." They almost immediately drift away to talk to someone else.
A high school senior in 2021 would probably think it most odd that Mike is supposed to be halfway through his senior year and has no specific plans for even going to college, or what he wants to do for a career. While this was before my time, I do believe this episode was realistic to the times-many more students by percentage 60 years ago would not have everything all figured out at that point in their lives. There wasn't such pressure to have everything figured out while you're a junior and be committed quite so early.
As pre-rush week ends, there is one big party left and Mike is excited to attend, along with his girlfriend Jean, who he expects to meet up with at the party. He doesn't get the message from the fraternity guy Art, who called and un-invited him to this party, saying they had too many people coming already. So Mike shows up, surprising most of the frat guys, who are polite to him. He finds Art and learns that Jean was "dropped" from her sorority's list for this party. Art tries to be diplomatic but when he tells Mike that he also was dropped from this party's invitation list, Mike blows up and loudly lectures Art on all the things wrong with the fraternity, believing he was dropped because his car was too old or his clothes weren't right, or other things like that, and storms out, returning home where he finds Jean and his Dad and they talk about things briefly.
Next comes Art, who left his party to come talk to Mike, who grudgingly lets him in to learn the reason he was dropped was because the college men take their studies seriously. They felt he wasn't serious about college at all, only interested in the fine parties and having fun. He was meeting them during a vacation week, so they were focused on fun then, but they want members to be the kind of students that will enhance their fraternity's reputation and Mike seemed uninterested in that. He told Mike that if he enrolls in State, they'd be glad to talk to him again in the fall and Mike now understood that Art and the guys were pretty good guys after all.
In a minor role was Wally (Skip Young), the fraternity friend of David and Ricky Nelson. His role here was not the silly, funny young man, just another serious college man.
All family sitcoms feature a mix of comedy and drama-the characters deal with real issues that happen to people, whether just hurt feelings or misunderstandings that make them mad. With children, there are lots of lessons learned along the way and those portions are dealt with seriously, as they should be. Mix in funny things and you have your typical sitcom.
My low score for this episode is because nobody remembered to put in anything funny. When it ended, I asked myself, "Was there anything at all in here that was even supposed to make me laugh?" I think the closest was at a restaurant when Mike's "date" at first wanted to eat nothing but after Mike ordered, she decided to pig out and the bill for the pair came to almost $5, when Mike didn't have that much. Jean was across the table and could tell what was happening as Mike checked his pockets after being handed the check and she slipped a $5 bill into her shoe and leaned back in her seat, kicking him lightly. He was able to reach down and retrieve the money and pay his bill without anyone else realizing what happened. But nothing funny happened in connection with this.
This series was something I could watch with my family or not mind if I had something else to do and skipped it. It had some funny things, but usually was just an "alright" show to watch. This episode just didn't have anything to laugh at. I give it a 4 for being a decent half-hour drama.
The frat boys are on a week's break between semesters. Their fraternity members want to get to know these students, then when fall comes, they'll have the traditional "Rush" week and then formally invite the ones they like to join the fraternity. Mike is excited about hanging out with the college men of the KAG fraternity-although he doesn't care for their frequent smoking.
We see him at a few of these parties and the young men all seem happy to talk to Mike-up until he keeps giving the same answer to their question about his college plans. He says, "I'm not sure I even plan to go to college." They almost immediately drift away to talk to someone else.
A high school senior in 2021 would probably think it most odd that Mike is supposed to be halfway through his senior year and has no specific plans for even going to college, or what he wants to do for a career. While this was before my time, I do believe this episode was realistic to the times-many more students by percentage 60 years ago would not have everything all figured out at that point in their lives. There wasn't such pressure to have everything figured out while you're a junior and be committed quite so early.
As pre-rush week ends, there is one big party left and Mike is excited to attend, along with his girlfriend Jean, who he expects to meet up with at the party. He doesn't get the message from the fraternity guy Art, who called and un-invited him to this party, saying they had too many people coming already. So Mike shows up, surprising most of the frat guys, who are polite to him. He finds Art and learns that Jean was "dropped" from her sorority's list for this party. Art tries to be diplomatic but when he tells Mike that he also was dropped from this party's invitation list, Mike blows up and loudly lectures Art on all the things wrong with the fraternity, believing he was dropped because his car was too old or his clothes weren't right, or other things like that, and storms out, returning home where he finds Jean and his Dad and they talk about things briefly.
Next comes Art, who left his party to come talk to Mike, who grudgingly lets him in to learn the reason he was dropped was because the college men take their studies seriously. They felt he wasn't serious about college at all, only interested in the fine parties and having fun. He was meeting them during a vacation week, so they were focused on fun then, but they want members to be the kind of students that will enhance their fraternity's reputation and Mike seemed uninterested in that. He told Mike that if he enrolls in State, they'd be glad to talk to him again in the fall and Mike now understood that Art and the guys were pretty good guys after all.
In a minor role was Wally (Skip Young), the fraternity friend of David and Ricky Nelson. His role here was not the silly, funny young man, just another serious college man.
All family sitcoms feature a mix of comedy and drama-the characters deal with real issues that happen to people, whether just hurt feelings or misunderstandings that make them mad. With children, there are lots of lessons learned along the way and those portions are dealt with seriously, as they should be. Mix in funny things and you have your typical sitcom.
My low score for this episode is because nobody remembered to put in anything funny. When it ended, I asked myself, "Was there anything at all in here that was even supposed to make me laugh?" I think the closest was at a restaurant when Mike's "date" at first wanted to eat nothing but after Mike ordered, she decided to pig out and the bill for the pair came to almost $5, when Mike didn't have that much. Jean was across the table and could tell what was happening as Mike checked his pockets after being handed the check and she slipped a $5 bill into her shoe and leaned back in her seat, kicking him lightly. He was able to reach down and retrieve the money and pay his bill without anyone else realizing what happened. But nothing funny happened in connection with this.
This series was something I could watch with my family or not mind if I had something else to do and skipped it. It had some funny things, but usually was just an "alright" show to watch. This episode just didn't have anything to laugh at. I give it a 4 for being a decent half-hour drama.
