017-018: A Member of the Family, Parts 1 and 2

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How do you rate this episode?

1 Jana
0
No votes
2 Jerry
0
No votes
3 Jenny
1
33%
4 Jason
2
67%
5 John
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 3

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KODY 105
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017-018: A Member of the Family, Parts 1 and 2

Post by KODY 105 »

These episodes broadcast on 2022-03-10 and 2022-03-11.
Episode summary
Monty Whittaker-Dowd, Whit's grandson, comes to visit for the summer, and learns a few lessons along the way.
My thoughts
Ah, our main Chad Reisser character: Whit's grandson Monty! Monty is a little devil. And Whit has a TV? I wonder at what point he ditched it.

I'm mildly amused about Whit and how he raises his voice at his grandson who is misbehaving. Also, he was really upset about something that happened before Monty came under his direct care: the $100 in the pocket of the jacket at the airport. Why is Whit getting in the way of how this boy's parent guides him and provides for him? I suppose a summer (say 13 weeks) to spend $100 is about $7.69 per week. That feels generous (for the late 1980s), but perhaps his parents are wealthy. He's from southern California so it's a higher cost-of-living place, so that $7.69 might not be that much there. Nowadays $7.69 will buy you the cheapest "meal" menu item at a fast food place.

This little boy lies about how his grandpa took his money away.

Whit asks him, "Do you know why I had to spank you?" Hm, he didn't explain the error before? So did he just grab him and spank him? Shoot first and ask questions later?

I distinctly remember the story about the puppy in the street. That's gold.

4/5
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Patterson
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Post by Patterson »

KODY 105 wrote: Fri Mar 11, 2022 5:37 pm And Whit has a TV? I wonder at what point he ditched it.
I don't know when he ditched it, but I know the why. In Isaac the Benevolent, Whit said he got rid of his tv because he's somewhat of a "tv junkie" and can't get anything done with one around. It's a remake of an Officer Harley episode, "Doing Unto Others" where Whit mentions the tv problem too. Interesting enough, Doing Unto Others is listed as Odyssey USA # 9 on AioWiki when A Member of the Family was Odyssey USA episodes 17 and 18. Either A member of the family takes place before Doing unto others or it was a writer's goof. I suppose Isaac the Benevolent could take place a while after A member of the family, so maybe it's not a goof in the rewritten Odyssey continuity.

As for this episode, while I overall liked it, I thought that it was weird that Monty thought Whit loved him more than Jana based on receiving punishment. Normally with kids saying things like "Grandpa loves me more than you do," it's because grandparents are often prone to spoiling grandkids a little. With Monty it was flip-flopped with Monty being spoiled at home, while Whit was stricter with him. I'd say Monty's incredibly mature to understand that deserved punishment is out of love, but throughout the episode Monty was far from mature.
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Post by KODY 105 »

Patterson, Monty would actually be too young to fully understand that, in my opinion, unless he's a genius. (Which his sister is, so maybe.) The AIO writers tend to write these stories in a Christianized bubble and the characters always learn the right moral right away, even the children. You can get a feel for the shielded nature of the output of this creative team because even this supposedly lax mother uses a term like, "on restriction," which somehow is understood by the characters.
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Post by TheDinosaurPlanet »

Patterson wrote: Fri Mar 11, 2022 10:40 pm
KODY 105 wrote: Fri Mar 11, 2022 5:37 pm And Whit has a TV? I wonder at what point he ditched it.
I don't know when he ditched it, but I know the why. In Isaac the Benevolent, Whit said he got rid of his tv because he's somewhat of a "tv junkie" and can't get anything done with one around. It's a remake of an Officer Harley episode, "Doing Unto Others" where Whit mentions the tv problem too. Interesting enough, Doing Unto Others is listed as Odyssey USA # 9 on AioWiki when A Member of the Family was Odyssey USA episodes 17 and 18. Either A member of the family takes place before Doing unto others or it was a writer's goof. I suppose Isaac the Benevolent could take place a while after A member of the family, so maybe it's not a goof in the rewritten Odyssey continuity.

As for this episode, while I overall liked it, I thought that it was weird that Monty thought Whit loved him more than Jana based on receiving punishment. Normally with kids saying things like "Grandpa loves me more than you do," it's because grandparents are often prone to spoiling grandkids a little. With Monty it was flip-flopped with Monty being spoiled at home, while Whit was stricter with him. I'd say Monty's incredibly mature to understand that deserved punishment is out of love, but throughout the episode Monty was far from mature.
A Member of the Family was originally a Family Portraits episode, which explains the flip-flop on the tv.

I think the that the whole punishment scene has to be taken into the context of the whole two-parter. Monty thinks Jana doesn't love him because she always fights with the people who are dear to her, (Whit and her husband) and that can appear as if she hates them. Whit also was spoiling Monty a little bit-- giving him time to eat a little too many brownies (though he eventually takes them away in the same scene) and allowing him to go the movies unsupervised. And also the fact that Monty was angry at his mom and wanted to stay at Whit's, so kids tend to say some pretty irrational things when they're angry. We all have that time when we were angry kids and told our parents "I'm running away from home!!"
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Other places are okay
And some are fine
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