Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Thursdays, I will be reviewing Jennifer Slept Here, which aired on NBC in 1983 and 1984.  The entire show is currently streaming on YouTube!

This week, Joey has the house to himself …. kind of.

Episode 1.9 “Risky Weekend”

(Dir by John Bowab, originally aired on April 14th, 1984)

It’s the weekend and George and Susan Elliot are going out of town.  They’re taking their daughter with them but they’re leaving teenage son Joey alone in the house.  George leaves the family’s sailboat sitting on the back patio so that “It will look like we’re still here!”  How could this go wrong?

Jennifer is certainly excited about the house being nearly empty but Joey tells her that he has a big test coming up and he just needs some peace and quiet so that he can concentrate on studying.  Jennifer agrees to leave him alone for the weekend but what she doesn’t know is that Joey is a damn liar.  He and his friend, Marc, are planning on throwing a party.  Woo hoo!  Unfortunately, while Marc is helping to get the house ready for the party, he accidentally gives the sailboat a shove and it crashes into the living room.

Fortunately, Jennifer has come back home and she tells Joey that he should call his parents and just tell them what happened.  Joey, however, decides to take care of the situation himself.  He calls in a local landscaper, Eddie (Hamilton Camp).  Even though Joey doesn’t have enough money to cover the repairs, Eddie says that he’ll fix the damage if Joey allows Eddie’s church to have bingo night in his house.  Again, despite Jennifer’s reservations, Joey agrees.

It turns out that bingo night is actually an illegal casino.  Joey tells Jennifer not to worry about it but, when his mom calls him and says that they’re coming home early, Joey is soon begging Jennifer to help him out.  Jennifer helps Joey put the casino out of business by helping him cheat at all the games.  Myself, I’m just amazed at how quickly the house was transformed into a casino, complete with slot machines, a craps table, and a roulette wheel.  Did Eddie just have all of that stuff sitting in his living room or something?

Anyway, Joey breaks the bank.  All of the gamblers leave but Eddie and his gangsters say that they’re not going anywhere.  Fortunately, Jennifer calls the ghost cops to come and arrest Eddie because …. EDDIE AND HIS ASSOCIATES ARE ALL GHOSTS!

Even though Eddie left behind all of the casino stuff, it has mysteriously disappeared from the house by the time Susan and George return to the house.  George is really impressed by how nice the house looks.  Joey tells his parents about the casino and the ghost cops and they assume that he’s delirious from doing homework all weekend.  Then George goes outside and accidentally crashes the sailboat into the living room again.  What?  How stupid is George?

This was a weird episode.  The plot makes no sense but it’s also so random that it becomes likable in its own strange way.  This is one of those episodes that feels as if it was made up on the spot but Ann Jillian and John P. Navin Jr. both give energetic enough performances that the whole thing somehow holds together.  Then again, maybe I just like movies and TV shows that take place in casinos.  I always appreciate the fact that people dress up to gamble.  Were the gamblers also ghosts or was it just the gangsters?  Weird episode.