Late Night Retro Television Reviews: Check It Out 1.6 “Seven Days Make A Week”

Posted on November 11, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

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 once again proves himself to be worst boyfriend ever.

Episode 1.6 “Seven Days Make A Week”

(Dir by Gary Plaxton, originally aired on November 6th, 1985)

So far, the first season of Check It Out! has been dominated by stories dealing with the romantic relationship between Howard and Edna. I’ve never really bought their relationship. Some of it is because Howard and Edna have supposedly been together for six years but they still often come across as just being work acquaintances. They seem more like friends than lovers, which makes all of the jokes about their sexual difficulties somewhat jarring. Just how devoted Howard and Edna are to each other seems to change from episode to episode. Unfortunately, Don Adams and Dinah Christie didn’t really have enough chemistry to help the audiences accept them as being a couple.

This episode, for example, finds Howard flirting with a health food representative named Michelle (Laura Dickson). Michelle has set up a table in the store and, because she’s wearing a cleavage-baring leotard, she soon has the attention of every guy in the store. Edna is concerned because she is planning on visiting her sister in Florida for a week and she doesn’t want to leave Howard alone with Michelle.

Fortunately, cashier Leslie (Aaron Schwartz) tells Edna that the last time that he and his boyfriend went on vacation together, Michelle was a guest at the resort and she was accompanied by her girlfriend. Edna says that women who are friends often go on vacation together. Leslie explains to Edna that Michelle and her girlfriend were more than just friends. Edna is overjoyed! Not only will she be on vacation but, while she’s gone, Howard will be humiliated when he tries to date a lesbian!

Seriously, this is does not sound like a healthy relationship. Edna is putting off her vacation because she’s convinced that Howard (who is also her boss, which brings up a whole other set of ethical questions) is going to cheat on her as soon as she leaves. But then she decides that she can go on vacation, not because she has any faith in Howard staying loyal to her but because she’s convinced that he’ll feel foolish once he does try to cheat on her. It never seems to occur to Edna that Michelle could have been bisexual or that Leslie might just have his information wrong.

Because …. guess what?

Leslie does have his information wrong! As soon as Edna leaves, Michelle tells Leslie that she and her girlfriend only pretended to be lovers so that all of the men at the resort would leave them alone. Leslie panics, especially when Michelle asks Howard if he wants to come by her apartment and have dinner. Howard agrees but — fear not! — Howard later tells Edna that he decided not to cheat on her because Michelle was boring.

(Myself, I’m trying to understand the idea of uptight, middle-aged Howard as being someone that anyone would fight over.)

Eh. Edna is so happy that Howard ultimately deciding not to cheat on her that she kind of overlooks the fact that he was planning on doing so in the first place. This episode required the audience to care about Howard and Edna’s relationship but since the relationship doesn’t really make sense, neither does the episode.

Late Night Retro Television Reviews: Check It Out 1.5 “Everyone’s A Winner”

Posted on November 4, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, Bingo turns dangerous!

Episode 1.5 “Everyone’s A Winner”

(Dir by Gary Plaxton, originally aired on October 30th, 1985)

Jack Christian, the assistant manager of Cobb’s, has been assigned to oversee the store’s bingo promotion! He has handed out over 3,000 bingo cards to all of Cobb’s customers. Each day, a new number is drawn. The first person to get a bingo will win a free trip to …. GREECE!

Really, Greece? That seems kind of random, especially for a grocery store contest. It seems like it would be easier to just give the winner a discount or even a basket of free groceries. But no, the contest is for a free trip to Greece and everyone in Toronto is excited about it. However, when Murray the Stockboy takes a look at the bingo cards, he notices what everyone else has missed. All of the cards are identical. Apparently, in order to save some money, Christian gave the printing job not to the usual company that Cobb’s uses but instead to his cousin Lenny. And now, once the number 35 is called, 3,000 people will be demanding a free trip to Greece.

Well, that could be a problem.

Another problem is that, when two blind men shop in the store at the same time, the leashes of their service animals get tangled. Security guard Alf untangles the leashes but he gives the wrong dog to each man. The men don’t notice because they’re blind. That said, one of the dogs is considerably larger than the other and that really does seem like something that one should be able to sense, even without eyesight. The dogs lead each man to the wrong home. One man is injured when he falls in a pool. The other man has sex with first man’s wife three times. Now, both men want to sue Cobb’s! Howard’s genius solution is to give both men a shopping cart and telling them to fill it up for free. However, the two men’s dogs end up running through the store, knocking over the bingo machine, and causing the bingo balls to scatter all over the place.

Yay! For some reason, that means the bingo promotion is canceled and everyone totally accepts it because Canadians are nice people. Seriously, if they tried that in the States, the store would have burned to the ground….

Actually, one of the more interesting things about Check It Out! is that the show never specifically says that it’s taking place in Canada, even though it obviously is. Almost every member of the cast has a Canadian accent. All of the measurements make use of the metric system. And yet the show itself will often toss in random references to places and people in the U.S. For instance, Edna has a sister who lives in Florida. In this episode, Howard makes a reference to Ronald Reagan’s economic policies. One gets the feeling that the show’s producers hoped to fool Americans watching in syndication into thinking that this very Canadian show was actually taking place in the U.S. It reminds me a bit of how Italian actors and directors would often be credited with stereotypically “American” name in order to hide the fact that a film was an Italian production.

As for this week’s episode, Jeff Pustil’s portrayal of Christian’s growing desperation was amusing. Most of the episode’s jokes, however, fell flat. I’ve noticed that this show repeatedly uses the same joke structure. Someone will say something outrageous and then Howard will repeat it in a slightly shrill tone. It gets old after the 10tth times it happens. Admittedly, hhere was some potential to the story. (Check out The Office’s “Golden Ticket” episode for an example of this type of story done effectively.) But having everything resolved via a random case of Dues Ex Machina just felt like laziness on the part of the writers.

I guess the lesson here is that you’ll have to pay your own way to Greece.

Late Night Retro Television Reviews: Check It Out 1.3 “No Cause For Alarm”

Posted on October 21, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, Howard has a chance to get the heck out of Canada!

Episode 1.3 “No Cause For Alarm”

(Dir by Gary Plaxton, originally aired on October 16th, 1985)

The workers at Cobb’s Grocery are reluctantly preparing for another theme week at the store. It’s a Switzerland theme week, which I assume will be very popular in Canada. All of the cashiers are dressed like Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music. Assistant manager Jack Christian is wearing lederhosen. Christian is really excited because he’s managed to borrow an expensive cuckoo clock with which to decorate the store.

Store manager Howard Bannister has a bit more on his mind, though. He has an interview coming up with an international hotel chain and, if he aces the interview, he’ll get to manage a hotel in Venice. As Howard puts it, this has been his dream for about 15 years. Unfortunately, it’s going to be difficult for Howard to ace that interview because the store’s alarm system keeps malfunctioning and the police finally tell Howard to just turn off the alarm so that they’re not bothered anymore. However, that expensive and borrowed cuckoo clock is still hanging on the wall so Howard ends up having to sleep at the store. Needless to say, the exhausted Howard falls asleep in the middle of his interview and doesn’t get the job. As Christian resigns himself to still being the store’s assistant manager, Howard accepts that he’s not going anywhere for a while.

This is an odd episode of Check It Out. For one thing, there’s a totally different stockboy (played by Jason Warren) from the kid who appeared in the previous two episodes. He’s a bit older than the usual stockboy, he wears rather thick glasses, and everyone acts as if he’s always been at the store. Meanwhile, the store’s electrician (played by Gordon Clapp) is referred to as being “Mr. Matthews” even though his name was Viker in his previous (and future) appearances.

Perhaps the oddest thing about the episode is that everyone is given very backstory-dependent dialogue. For instance, Edna has a long conversation with cashier Jennifer (Tonya Williams) in which she explains the history of her relationship with Howard. Whenever Christian enters a room, everyone is quick to mention that he’s the assistant manager, as if this is information that has never been mentioned before. The relationships between the characters also feel a bit off. For instance, there hasn’t been any hints of deep friendship between Edna and Jennifer in the previous two episodes.

My guess is that this episode was originally the pilot for Check It Out. Apparently, it worked well enough to sell the show but the show’s producers decided not to use it as the first episode. Instead, it aired as the third episode, despite the fact that the episode was essentially a rough draft of what the show would become.

As for the episode …. eh, it’s okay. Gordon Clapp was funny as the confident but incompetent electrician. Jeff Pustil had a few funny moments as Christian. Don Adams overacted a bit as Howard, as if the show still wasn’t sure how obnoxious or sympathetic the character should be. My main issue with the episode was the idea of Howard going from managing a grocery store in Canada to managing an international hotel in Venice. I mean, can Howard even speak Italian?

Next week, everyone at the store is required to get a physical!