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!

Today, we start a new season of Check It Out!

Episode 2.1 “Getting to Know You”

(Dir by Alan Erlich, originally aired on October 3rd, 1986)

The second season of Check It Out! opens with some changes at Cobb’s Grocery store.

Howard now has a mustache.  Tonya Williams and Henry Beckman are no longer listed in the opening credits so I guess Jennifer and Alf have moved on from working at the store.  Gordon Clapp, however, is now listed in the opening credits so Viker, who was one of more consistently funny characters during the first season, is now a series regular.

The episode opens with zero customers in the store.  Due to a broken waterline, the store’s parking lot has been taken over by a bunch of construction workers.  Howard calls them “apes.”  Marlene is sick of them hitting on her whenever she comes to work.  Christian thinks he could take them on.  And Mrs. Cobb is demanding that Howard lay off two employees to help offset costs.

Howard could always point out that, with Jennifer and Alf gone, the store now only has seven employees but he doesn’t.  Instead, he follows Edna’s advice and sits down for one-and-one interviews with his employees and gets to know them.  Howard thinks that he’ll be able to find an employee who doesn’t really need the job but instead, he discovers that all of his employees are wonderful people.  Marlene cries about how difficult her life has been lately.  Murray talks about how both of his parents are out of work.  Leslie volunteers to give up his job and Howard is so touched that there’s no way he can possibly accept Leslie’s offer.  Jack Christian, who is usually pretty self-centered and obnoxious, seems like an easy choice but then he gets beaten up defending Marlene from the construction workers.

Finally, Howard realizes that there’s only one thing he can do.  He lays off Edna and then he lays himself off.  He announces that he and Edna are going on vacation and they’ll be back in four months.  Ummm …. look, I’ll be honest.  I’ve never been through the experience of being fired or laid off so I don’t really fully understand how it all works.  Isn’t Howard kind of taking a risk here?  I mean, I guess Howard is assuming that Christian will just fill in for four months and then Howard and Edna will return and everything will go back to normal.  But what if Mrs. Cobb hires a new manager?  What if she doesn’t want to take back Howard and Edna?  I mean, to me, it sounds like Howard basically just quit his job and forced Edna to quit her’s as well.  But everyone in the store seems to be convinced that Howard will be back in just a few months.

I guess my point is that Check it Out! doesn’t seem like it was always 100% realistic.

Anyway, this episode was okay.  It reintroduced all the characters and gave us a chance to get reacquainted with them, as any season premiere should.  Gordon Clapp, Jeff Pustil, and Kathleen Laskey all had moments that made me smile.  Those three have the ability to make even the simplest of lines funny.  During the first season, Don Adams could occasionally be a bit overly frantic as Howard.  For the second season premiere, though, his performance felt a bit toned down and it no longer felt as if he and the show were begging for laughs.  Still, I just can’t get over that ending.  Edna was so excited that her boyfriend essentially put her future employment at risk.

Next week, we’ll see if Howard still has a job.