Airdate: 10/24/74
Tom Povich is a football player attending Boatwright University on an athletic scholarship, but he struggles with his courses and enlists the tutelage of John-Boy to help him pass. During a test, though, he has an unfortunate lapse of judgment when he peeks over at someone else’s test; John-Boy sees this, and someone sees John-Boy. Under the school policy, John-Boy is just as guilty if he doesn’t turn Tom in, which Tom himself insists upon. At the college hearing, John-Boy defends his friend, who is revealed to be hard-working son of Pittsburgh coal miners trying to become a lawyer so he can go back home to defend them. The school board, understanding more about Tom’s integrity and moral fiber, aggress to reduce his penalty from expulsion to suspension.
A bit of courtroom drama adds to this above-par episode, which features one of my favorite character actors, Richard Masur, playing the role of Tom. He has tons of credits to his name, but has to be most familiar as Ann Romano’s boyfriend on One Day at a Time. My two favorite roles of his: mentally challenged man Archie treats like a child on All in the Family, and the straight-arrow father in the 80s teen comedy License to Drive.
Subplot has Grandpa “curing” Ben of his cigarette habit by getting him to smoke until he’s sick. Good for The Waltons, trailblazing the anti-smoking movement on TV!
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