Airdate: 2/13/75
Grandpa wins Ike Godsey’s raffle prize: a white statue of a partially-clad, beautiful woman. Grandma instantly dislikes it (she thinks that it looks just like one of Zeb’s old girlfriends) and the rest of the family isn’t singing its praises either. Grandpa just can’t keep his eyes off it though, and even considers putting it in the cemetery next to his and Esther’s plot. Predictable, she puts her foot down, and the family takes the statue down to Drucilla’s pond, for a decent sea burial. Subplot: John-Boy wants to write a short story loosely based on one of the Baldwin sisters’ long lost love, but she thinks it should be more biographical. When he sticks to his guns, she still loves it, thinking it captured the “essence” of the story.
Light, late-season episode features another tried and true TV trope, the statue (see All in the Family, Everybody Loves Raymond, etc). Here, it is the McGuffin for a slew of squabbles, notably that between Grandma and Grandpa, whos closed-door altercation provides the setting for the show’s funniest scene, in which the family discusses orioles and worms to try and fake normalcy at the dinner table.
Interesting note: does anyone actually lie on the show? (Outside of a plot device) Such a far cry from modern day dishonesty, irony and cynicism, at least on TV.
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