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, Howard has an operation …. maybe.

Episode 2.4 “Operation Bannister”

(Dir by Alan Erlich, originally aired on October 24th, 1986)

A foolish attempt to impress a blonde customer by lifting and carrying a crate full of bottles lands Howard in the hospital.  He’s scheduled to have a hernia operation.  It should be a simple procedure but there’s a problem.  Howard’s a wimp.

Seriously, Howard spends this entire episode in a state of panic.  First, he has to deal with an ER doctor who is — *gasp* — a woman!  Then he discovers that the doctor who will be operating on him is barely out of medical school and looks like he’s about 16 years of age.  Then, he discovers that his roommate at the hospital is full of horror stories.  I guess it’s a good thing that Howard knows how to escape from hospitals because he ends up doing it several times.  Of course, every time, he’s promptly recaptured and sent back for his operation.

This episode ends on a curious note, with the store’s staff putting on a “welcome back” party three days after Howard’s operation just for Howard to reveal that he once again escaped from the hospital and, instead of getting the operation, he spent three days hiding out in a hotel.  He didn’t even let Edna know what he had done.  Two burly orderlies show up at the store and drag Howard back to the hospital as the end credits roll.

So, did Howard ever actually have the operation?  I’m going to assume that he did but it’s interesting that the episode leaves the storyline unresolved.  Instead of being about the operation, the episode instead becomes a meditation on fear and the foolishness of trying to escape fate.  Howard is very good at running away from his problem but, no matter how hard he tires, the orderlies always track him down.  Like the Grim Reaper, Canadian hospital orderlies cannot be escaped.

I hate hospitals so I could relate a bit more to this episode than some of the other episodes that I’ve seen of this show.  As an American who gets tired of hearing about every other country’s supposedly perfect health care system, I appreciated that this episode showed that hospitals suck no matter what country you’re in.

That said, I have to admit that, while watching, I got a bit annoyed with Howard.  I mean, first off, he shouldn’t have tried to pick up that crate to begin with.  Secondly, if you don’t want to have the operation, don’t have it.  Don’t keep returning to the hospital just because Edna and a bunch of orderlies yell at you.  And if you do decide to return to the hospital, own that choice and stick around until the operation’s done.  I understood Howard’s feelings but he still came across as being a bit of a wimp in this episode.  Nobody likes a wimp.

Next week, according to the imdb, Howard’s niece will make an appearance.  Let’s hope she has more guts than her uncle.