Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Saturdays, I will be reviewing the Canadian sitcom, Check it Out, which ran in syndication from 1985 to 1988.  The entire show is currently streaming on Tubi!

This week’s episode defies description.  Read on.

Episode 2.21 “Jack Be Numbskull”

(Dir by Alan Erlich, originally aired on March 5th, 1986)

Awwww, look how cute these two are!

After an office party, Marlene and Christian go home together.  The next morning, Christian has decided that he is totally in love with Marlene while Marlene will do just about anything to get Christian to stop bothering her with his romantic declarations.  (In real life, Kathleen Laskey and Jeff Pustil have been married since 1990.)

Marlene’s solution to her Christian problem is to invite her ex-boyfriend, the brutish Bruno (Eric Keenleyside), to the store and to tell him to threaten to beat up Christian, just to scare him off.  Marlene doesn’t want Bruno to actually hurt anyone, of course.

Bruno, however, mistakes Howard for Christian and threatens him.  When Howard makes a sarcastic comment about how he is going to fight Bruno in the alley, a visiting Mrs. Cobb (Barbara Hamilton) overhears and decides that sponsoring a boxing match between Bruno and an employee will be the perfect way to advertise Ka-Blam, a vitamin supplement that is so powerful that it’s sold in a container that looks like a hand grenade.  Mrs. Cobb also decides that Bruno will be Mr. Ka-Blam.

So, to make clear:

1. Mrs. Cobb thinks it will be a good idea to have a fight in one of her stores
2. Mrs. Cobb thinks hiring a violent criminal to be a store mascot is a good idea
3. Mrs. Cobb wants to have Bruno beat up one of her store managers
4. Mrs. Cobb wants the manager to get beaten up while the customers watch.

Yeah, it doesn’t make much sense to me, either.

A few hours before the boxing match, Howard breaks his hand so he has to find a replacement to fight Bruno.  Christian volunteers.

Christian is not much of a fighter but he impresses everyone with his refusal to surrender or throw in the towel.  However, after an illegal blow sends Christian to the canvas, Howard rushes into the ring and punches Bruno in the stomach and then knocks him out with an uppercut.  Wait a minute, I thought Howard’s hand was broken….

This episode was just silly.  It was so silly that it almost worked, just on the basis of weirdness alone.  The action played out like a fever dream and logic was abandoned early on and perhaps that was for the best.  This episode was so strange that it defies a traditional review but I will say that Christian and Marlene did make for a cute couple so I hope this is something that the show continued to explore.

Next week, the first season comes to a close!