Ann receives an acting residual check, but unlike the ones she previously received that were, effectively, peanuts, this one was for a ton of money...At least, that's the way Ann felt about it.
She invites Donald AND her parents to come to her apartment without telling anyone what the big secret celebration-complete with champagne-is all about. She proudly announces that she is now "an independently wealthy woman." When pressed for details on her windfall, she slyly states that it's in "five figures." When they continue to go for details, she states the amount is "$743.62," which IS five figures to her, just that there's a decimal before the last two. The conversation moves to what to do with the money. Lew, the practical one in the room, says buy a few stocks and in a couple of years, it could be worth $900. Donald suggests taking a trip-but the only place she thinks of is Hong Kong, which she later reports would only leave her enough money to get one-third of the way back home. Her mother's suggestion was the loopiest of them all-odd for her. She thinks Ann should invest in culture-like buying a piano.
She says this knowing Ann can't play the piano, and as nice as her apartment is, it's not nearly big enough to accommodate one. Ann has trouble trying to figure out what to do, finally deciding to do something practical with part of the money, and to also, sort of, follow the advice of her three loved ones.
She buys 7 shares of some stock nobody ever heard of, invests in some sort of travel club, which sounds like the old bank "Christmas clubs" where she puts aside $4 a week and she'll have enough to go to Hong Kong...in 1987. She rents a piano for a month, and her contribution-she buys a new bed which she needs.
The bed part becomes the focus thanks to a nervy salesman played by Larry Storch (of F-Troop fame) who hits on Ann in every way possible in the store, and then has the nerve to appear at her door shortly after the bed has been delivered with flowers and a bottle of wine.
Now before that, we had Vic Tayback (Alice) and Joe Higgins (Dodge commercials) as the delivery men who came to deliver it at 9:30 p.m. Just as Ann, Donald, and Ann's parents are sitting around the piano, using it as a dining room table. They awkwardly lug the bedsprings and then the mattress over the guests into the bedroom.
When Storch's character sees Ann isn't alone, he is more-or-less escorted from the premises by Donald, who returns and says that he insisted they take the bottle of wine...as he ran down the street in leaving. Lew even admired the way Don handled the guy.
Now there was one other memorable scene that should be mentioned even though it didn't really affect the plot. With Don playing the piano at the second dinner at Ann's, we had Ann singing much of the Cole Porter song "I've Got You Under My Skin." When her kitchen timer bell rang, she left and insisted Donald finish the song. We were treated to Don singing lyrics in this love song while mostly looking at Mr. Marie, which was humorous. I'd say Ted Bessell sang fairly well, as far as I could tell, but my ears could not convince me that Marlo Thomas is any good at all in singing. I guess you can't inherit that talent from your father, who sang very, very well, and often, on his long-running hit series.
I do know that I am skipping over the silly part about Ann thinking she was rich, more or less, on $700, but they used that as a comedy point and making it clear that it was so much more than the couple of bucks she expected that I could accept that she felt rich at the moment.
Had they gone through the whole episode with everyone thinking she really had gotten a gigantic check and her going for things she couldn't possibly afford with what the amount really was, I would have said that ruined the whole plot. But it was just a few minutes in the elapsed time for the characters between hearing she was wealthy and learning the actual amount, so this bit didn't ruin a thing.
That makes this a rather funny episode that I score as an 8.
She invites Donald AND her parents to come to her apartment without telling anyone what the big secret celebration-complete with champagne-is all about. She proudly announces that she is now "an independently wealthy woman." When pressed for details on her windfall, she slyly states that it's in "five figures." When they continue to go for details, she states the amount is "$743.62," which IS five figures to her, just that there's a decimal before the last two. The conversation moves to what to do with the money. Lew, the practical one in the room, says buy a few stocks and in a couple of years, it could be worth $900. Donald suggests taking a trip-but the only place she thinks of is Hong Kong, which she later reports would only leave her enough money to get one-third of the way back home. Her mother's suggestion was the loopiest of them all-odd for her. She thinks Ann should invest in culture-like buying a piano.
She says this knowing Ann can't play the piano, and as nice as her apartment is, it's not nearly big enough to accommodate one. Ann has trouble trying to figure out what to do, finally deciding to do something practical with part of the money, and to also, sort of, follow the advice of her three loved ones.
She buys 7 shares of some stock nobody ever heard of, invests in some sort of travel club, which sounds like the old bank "Christmas clubs" where she puts aside $4 a week and she'll have enough to go to Hong Kong...in 1987. She rents a piano for a month, and her contribution-she buys a new bed which she needs.
The bed part becomes the focus thanks to a nervy salesman played by Larry Storch (of F-Troop fame) who hits on Ann in every way possible in the store, and then has the nerve to appear at her door shortly after the bed has been delivered with flowers and a bottle of wine.
Now before that, we had Vic Tayback (Alice) and Joe Higgins (Dodge commercials) as the delivery men who came to deliver it at 9:30 p.m. Just as Ann, Donald, and Ann's parents are sitting around the piano, using it as a dining room table. They awkwardly lug the bedsprings and then the mattress over the guests into the bedroom.
When Storch's character sees Ann isn't alone, he is more-or-less escorted from the premises by Donald, who returns and says that he insisted they take the bottle of wine...as he ran down the street in leaving. Lew even admired the way Don handled the guy.
Now there was one other memorable scene that should be mentioned even though it didn't really affect the plot. With Don playing the piano at the second dinner at Ann's, we had Ann singing much of the Cole Porter song "I've Got You Under My Skin." When her kitchen timer bell rang, she left and insisted Donald finish the song. We were treated to Don singing lyrics in this love song while mostly looking at Mr. Marie, which was humorous. I'd say Ted Bessell sang fairly well, as far as I could tell, but my ears could not convince me that Marlo Thomas is any good at all in singing. I guess you can't inherit that talent from your father, who sang very, very well, and often, on his long-running hit series.
I do know that I am skipping over the silly part about Ann thinking she was rich, more or less, on $700, but they used that as a comedy point and making it clear that it was so much more than the couple of bucks she expected that I could accept that she felt rich at the moment.
Had they gone through the whole episode with everyone thinking she really had gotten a gigantic check and her going for things she couldn't possibly afford with what the amount really was, I would have said that ruined the whole plot. But it was just a few minutes in the elapsed time for the characters between hearing she was wealthy and learning the actual amount, so this bit didn't ruin a thing.
That makes this a rather funny episode that I score as an 8.
