Late Night Retro Television Review: Check It Out! 2.13 “Love and Marriage”

Posted on September 28, 2024 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 is the world’s worst boyfriend …. again!

Episode 2.13 “Love and Marriage”

(Dir by Alan Erlich, originally aired on January 18th, 1987)

As I’ve said in the past, Check It Out! has never been very consistent when it comes to portraying Howard and Edna’s relationship. Sometimes, Howard is the perfect boyfriend, a romantic bon vivant who always knows the right thing to say. Then, other times, Howard is a complete idiot.

This episode finds Howard in idiot mode. He forgets Edna’s birthday and even admits that the cheap flowers that he sends Edna are the result of him asking the florist to remember Edna’s birthday so Howard wouldn’t have to worry about it. While Edna is definitely (and rightly) annoyed with Howard, she does receive some very beautiful flowers from a man named George Zuckerman.

Edna tells a jealous Howard that George was her boyfriend when she was a teenager. She says it’s been forever since she last saw George but George has invited her to have dinner with him at a fancy French restaurant. Of course, Howard follows Edna to the restaurant, where he gets on the nerves of the snooty maître d’ (Louis Negin, who gets the episode’s best lines) and he also meets George (Doug Paulson).

George is handsome, charming, rich, and Edna’s ex-husband. Howard is shocked the learn that Edna was married before but Edna explains that she was only seventeen and her father made them annul the marriage after two weeks. That still seems like a strange thing to have never mentioned in the past. Edna and Howard have been dating for seven years, after all.

While Howard fumes with jealousy, George says he has something he needs to ask Edna. Before he can ask, Howard throws a fit when his credit card is declined. (“It has a $150 credit limit!” Howard snaps. “The soup alone costs $150,” the maître d’ replies.)

Later, at the store, Marlene encourages Edna to marry George. Edna says that she can’t marry George because she loves Howard. Uhmm….Edna? George is handsome and rich. Howard runs a failing supermarket and forgot your birthday. Not that it matters because George isn’t interested in marrying Edna. Instead, he reveals that the annulment was never filed so he needs Edna to sign some divorce papers. Edna agrees and then looks forward to having a romantic dinner with Howard.

This episode had some funny moments, mostly due to the work of Louis Negin and Gordon Clapp, who returns as Viker and delivers his lines with such a hilariously sincere stupidity that he elevates the entire show. Viker reveals that he’s a tailor in this episode and he even makes Howard a suit. Howard later wears the suit to the restaurant and, every time he moves, the suit tears just a little more. Hey, it made me laugh!

Still, this was kind of a sad episode. Seriously, Edna, you can do so much better!

Late Night Retro Television Review: Check It Out! 2.12 “High Tech”

Posted on September 21, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, Howard once again ruins Edna’s life.

Episode 2.12 “High Tech”

(Dir by Alan Erlich, originally aired on January 11th, 1987)

Howard has a gambling problem!

Wait a minute …. I thought that was the plot of last week’s episode.

Well, it’s the plot of this week’s episode as well. After Howard invests Edna’s life savings ($10,000, though it should be remembered that this is Canadian money) in a Venezuelan gold mine, Edna can only watch in horror as an earthquake rips through Venezuela and wipes out the gold mine. (She should just be happy that she invested before Chavez and Maduro came to power.) Howard, however, is sure that he can win her money back because he has a tip about a sure thing in an up-coming boxing match….

That’s it! Edna demands that Howard go to therapy.

Which Howard does. Dr. Cravitz (John Stocker) seems to be a little crazy himself, especially when people accidentally call him “Clavitz.” The doctor does help Howard to realize that he has a gambling problem. His mother used to take him to bingo halls while his father spent all of his time playing poker. Howard is a bad gambler because he’s trying to both win his parent’s love and get back at them for neglecting him while he was growing up. Damn, that’s depressing.

Howard returns to the store, diagnosed but hardly cured. Fortunately, he gets a call from his stockbroker, telling him that the gold mine is now worth $10,000 because there’s oil underneath the gold. Edna gets her money back, minus the money that Howard lost on the boxer.

This episode is another one where Howard is a complete and total buffoon. I prefer the episodes where Howard is an idiot to the ones where he’s actually competent. A competent manager is not a funny manager but a buffoonish boss who makes life difficult for the people working under him …. hey, who can’t relate to that? That’s why The Office was better when Michael was boss than when Andy took over. No one watches a show like this to root for management.

This episode had some funny moments. There was an entertaining B-plot about Christian installing a new computerized checking system and accidentally ordering three-years worth of potatoes at one time. (I had to smile when a jump cut revealed that every display in the store was now potato-related.) Even better, Gordon Clapp finally returns as the dim-witted handyman, Viker. Clapp’s ultra sincere line delivery made Viker into a hilarious character and the scenes where Viker gets on Howard’s nerves are always entertaining. When we first see Viker, he’s upgrading his lunchbox. Later, he tells Howard that “an important person called with an important message, that’s all I remember.” This show works best when it embraces absurdity and Viker is so wonderfully absurd that you can’t help but love the character.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Check It Out! 2.11 “Short One Jockey”

Posted on September 14, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, Howard is irresponsible with money!

Episode 2.11 “Short One Jockey”

(Dir by Alan Erlich, originally aired on December 26th, 1986)

Howard has a gambling problem!

That’s one of the major things that we learn about Howard during this week’s episode of Check It Out! Interestingly enough, Don Adams, the actor who played Howard, was also something of a notorious gambler. I can’t really find anything online as to whether or not Adams was actually a good gambler or if he was one of those gamblers who was constantly in debt to the mob. If the latter was true, that might explain how he ended up agreeing to do a show like Check It Out!

Anyway, this episode features Howard taking the $2,000 that the members of the store’s staff have spent a year saving up to the track. ($2,000 may sound like a lot but remember, this is Canadian money we’re talking about.) Instead of betting the money on a horse, Howard instead buys a horse and enters it into a race. As he explains it, the staff stands to make a lot of money if the horse wins the race and is then bought by a farm. Or, Howard explains, they could just put the horse out to stud.

“He’s a gelding,” Edna says.

“A horse that sings soprano,” Marlene explains.

Unfortunately, the jockey that Howard has hired leaves the country at the last minute. (When he’s not working as a jockey, he sells sweaters and he learns that there’s a huge cardigan sale in Mexico. And I will admit that made me laugh.) Howard trains Murray to be a jockey by having Murray ride the store’s electric horse. Murray falls off. (That also made me laugh.) It then turns out that Murray is allergic to horses so Howard puts on the jockey uniform and Christian asks him if he “lost his lawn.” (Again, that made me laugh.)

Howard comes in second in the race but he reveals that he put money on the horse that came in first so the staff at least gets their cash back. But then it turns out that the horse that won has been disqualified and the staff’s horse did win! The staff makes a lot of money and Howard is out the cash he bet on the other horse.

(Gambling is confusing, which is one reason why I don’t do it. I’ll blow on the dice at the craps table but I’m not going to play with my own money.)

This episode …. actually, I have to be honest. This episode actually made me laugh quite a bit. It was just so silly and cheerfully dumb that there was no way I couldn’t laugh a little. Jeff Pustil (as Christian), Simon Reynolds (as Murray), and Kathleen Laskey (as the totally awesome Marlene) all got in their share of one-liners at Howard’s expense and it was fun to listen to them make fun of the boss. Workplace comedies always work best when the joke is on management.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Check It Out 2.10 “Edna Displays Talent”

Posted on September 7, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

After a two month break, it’s time to return to Canada’s favorite grocery store.

Episode 2.10 “Edna Displays Talent”

(Dir by Alan Ehrlich, originally aired on December 19th, 1986)

The tagline for the second season of Check It Out might as well, “Continuity: Who Needs It?”

After spending the previous few episodes as a hypercompetent manager and a great boyfriend, Howard is back to being an idiot in this week’s episode. Not only does he not appear to be capable of managing a lemonade stand (let alone a supermarket) but he is again so dense that he doesn’t realize that Edna is feeling stuck in a rut. Edna begs Howard to assign her the job of designing a display for a new barbecue sauce. Howard, of course, gives the job to Christian.

Christian has no idea what to do so he gets Edna to do it for him. Edna, recalling a romantic camping trip that she took with Howard when they first started dating, creates perhaps the ugliest display that I’ve ever seen. Seriously, look at this:

Not only it an eyesore but how is anyone going to be able to reach the front registers with all of that stuff sitting in the way? Plus, what exactly is the display for? It’s supposed to be for barbecue sauce but it looks like it’s for red tents and Styrofoam trees.

That said, Howard is really impressed by the display. He assumes that Christian is the one who did it. Even after Edna shames Christian into telling the truth, Howard continues to assume that Christian is the one who built the display. I’m not sure why Howard is so stupid in this episode but it certainly makes the company’s decision to fire him in the previous episode easier to understand.

Meanwhile, Murray is desperately trying to lose his virginity. When he asks Howard for advice, Howard tells him about the time he and Edna went on a romantic camping trip and …. suddenly, Howard recognizes the display! He apologizes to Edna and asks her to join him in the tent.

“In the store?” Edna says, surprised.

(Like, seriously, they’ve been together for seven years and they’ve never had sex in the store before?)

Uh-oh, turns out Murray’s busy losing his virginity in the tent. Sorry, Howard and Edna!

This episode was an odd one, in that it required Howard and Edna to behave in ways that went against everything that the show had previously established about their characters. But I laughed more than I thought I would. The truth of the matter is that Don Adams was always funnier when he played Howard as a buffoon than as a nice guy. As well, Jeff Pustil always makes me laugh as the cowardly but sneaky Jack Christian. Pustil was very good at making desperation funny and Christian is desperate for the majority of this episode.

Finally, check out Marlene’s hair this episode:

This episode was dumb but it made me laugh. That’s good enough for me.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Check It Out 2.9 “Don’t Take My Job Please”

Posted on July 6, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Well, it’s been over a month so I guess it’s time to get back to reviewing this show. I can’t really remember why I picked this show to review but whatever. Let’s see what’s happening in Canada.

Episode 2.9 “Don’t Take My Job Please”

(Dir by Alan Erlich, originally aired on December 12th, 1986)

It’s contract renegotiation time and Howard is convinced that his 12 years of loyal service and the fact that his store is making a lot of money will lead to him getting a raise. Instead, Corbin from Corporate (Grant Cowan) informs him that the company is letting him go.

Howard vanished, without even Edna knowing for sure where he’s gone. Jack Christian becomes the new manager and is soon putting pictures of himself up all over the store. However, when Christian’s “Buy One, Get One Free” sale leads to the store losing a huge amount of money, Corbin tells Christian that he’s fired …. unless, of course, he can track down Howard and convince him to take the manager’s job.

What? Is this how they do business in Canada? I understand firing Howard because the company didn’t want to give him a raise. I understand firing Christian because he lost a lot of money on a stupid promotion. But what type of company then begs the first fired guy to come back? Does Cobb’s not have any other potential store managers? Do they not have a management training program? This doesn’t sound like a well-managed company.

Of course, the problem with bring Howard back is that Howard has disappeared, with his last words to Edna being that he was struggling to find anyone willing to hire someone as old as him. (Howard says he’s 45. Don Adams was in his 60s when this show aired.) But then Christian takes everyone out to dinner at Musketeer, the Canadian version of Medieval Times, and guess who is dressed up like D’Artagnan and leading people to their tables? It’s Howard! Edna tells him that Cobb’s wants him to come back. Howard says this is the best news he’s ever heard.

Uhmm …. Howard, it’s obvious they don’t appreciate you and they’re probably just going to try to screw you over again. Tell ’em to kick rocks in Manitoba.

Anyway, that’s the episode. It didn’t really add up too much but that’s to be expected with Check It Out. This was one of those episodes where nothing made any sense but — to give credit where credit is due — the cast made the most of it, with Jeff Pustil, Kathleen Laskey, Aaron Schwartz, and Simon Reynolds all wringing laughs out of the most mild of dialogue. It’s too bad that the episodes were always so plot-heavy because Check It Out! worked best when it just lets everyone be strange.

Mini Late Night Retro Television Review: Check It Out! 2.8 “Homewrecker Howard”

Posted on May 25, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

I sprained my wrist earlier this week and, as a result, typing is a bit painful. So, for this week and this week only, I’m doing quick, mini-reviews that will hopefully get my point across without requiring too much discomfort on my part. Luckily, this is a format that works just fine when one is discussing a show like Check It Out!

Episode 2.8 “Homewrecker Howard”

(Dir by Alan Erlich, originally aired on November 21st, 1986)

This was just dumb.

Jack Christian is dating a woman (Randall Carpenter) who he met at the store. He’s also lying to her, telling her that he’s the store manager. The woman happens to be married and she’s also a friend of Edna’s. After the woman tells Edna that she’s getting back at her unfaithful husband by having an affair with the manager of the store, Edna assumes that Howard is cheating on her.

I’ve often said that I hate idiot plots. An idiot plot is any story where every complication could be prevented by the characters 1) not being complete idiots and 2) actually asking each other detailed questions and getting an answer before jumping to conclusions. This episode was a classic example of the idiot plot. Edna doesn’t tell Howard why she’s mad at him and Howard doesn’t bother to ask. Things don’t get straightened out until the woman’s husband (Tom Butler) shows up at the store and announces that he wants to beat up the manager.

Will this show ever figure out who Howard Bannister is supposed to be? Sometimes, he’s a great manager who cares about his employees. In this episode, he’s a pompous windbag who puts a cardboard cut-out of himself on the salesfloor. Sometimes, Howard is the world’s best and most romantic boyfriend. In this episode, he’s so clueless that he barely notices that Edna is angry at him and Edna, it must be said, has no problem believing that he would be unfaithful. Edna both lives and works with Howard so when exactly is he ever out of her sight long enough to have the wild affair that the woman describes herself as having?

As I said …. IDIOT PLOT!

Late Night Retro Television Review: Check It Out 2.5 “The Mis-Matcher”

Posted on May 4, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

I’m currently in the middle of a thunderstorm and in desperate need of sleep so this is going to be a short review. It’s okay because there’s not really much to be said about this week’s episode….

Episode 2.5 “The Mis-Matchmaker”

(Dir by Stan Jacobson, originally aired on October 31st, 1986)

This is the most pointless episode of Check it Out yet and that’s saying something!

Howard is looking after his niece, Denise (Lesleh Donaldson). Denise is young and she’s just broken up with her boyfriend and Howard is worried that she’ll hook up with a bad guy just because she doesn’t know any better. That’s why Howard shoos away even Murray when he tries to talk to her. (Never mind, of course, that Murray is usually portrayed as being so shy and awkward that he can’t even bring himself to look into a woman’s eyes.) It’s also why Howard asks Leslie to take Denise on a date. Even after Leslie explains that he’s gay, Howard insists that Leslie ask out Denise. Leslie finally agrees. I’m not sure why because, again, Leslie is both very out and very proud of who he is. In the end, it would appear that Leslie only asked Denise out because his boss ordered him to. Leslie should sue or at least demand a raise.

Anyway, Denise falls in love with Leslie and is heart-broken when Leslie informs her that he’s gay. (Wow, I interject sarcastically, who could have seen this coming?) Denise runs away. Howard calls the cops but is told that he can’t involve the police just because he hasn’t seen someone in 30 minutes. Then Denise shows up with a blue-haired guy who she met and married while she was out.

That’s the episode.

Seriously, that’s it.

This episode didn’t add up to much. Howard had never before mentioned having a niece or even another sibling before and Denise, despite being played by the talented Lesleh Donaldson, was not given any chance to really show any spark of personality. We really didn’t know how Howard felt about Denise or any other member of his family and vice versa. As such, it was hard to gauge how Howard felt when Denise was missing. Was he worried about her? Was he worried about his sister? Or was he just hoping to avoid any more excess drama. We have no way of knowing.

This was a flat episode, one that suffered from the show’s lack of consistency. A lot of the humor came from how people reacted to Denise vanishing but none of the characters have ever felt like three-dimensional human beings and their reactions felt strained and melodramatic.

Anyway, it’s raining and thundering outside so I’m going to keep this review short. There’s just not much to say about this episode. It’s just forgettable.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Check It Out! 2.4 “Operation Bannister”

Posted on April 27, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

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.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Check It Out! 2.3 “Buddy, Can You Spare A Job?”

Posted on April 20, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Never hire a friend is the lesson of this week’s episode.

Episode 2.3 “Buddy, Can You Spare A Job?”

(Dir by Alan Erlich, originally aired on October 17th, 1986)

Cobb’s has got a new butcher!

Curt Farquar (Billy Van, who was a prominent horror host in Canada) not only knows how to cut meat but he’s also been Howard’s best friend since childhood. When Curt approaches Howard and explains that his wife has left him and he desperately needs a job, there’s no way that Howard can turn him down. Unfortunately, Curt turns out to be a bit of a bully, yelling at both the customers and his other co-workers. He even yells at Mrs. Cobb. Howard knows that he has to fire Curt but he doesn’t have the guts to do it. He gets Christian to do it and then reverses course as soon as Curt confronts him.

It would be really nice if Check It Out! could decide just who exactly Howard Bannister is meant to be. There are some episodes where Howard is a such a competent manager that other companies try to lure him away. Then there are episodes where he is totally incompetent. There are episodes where he and Edna are practically married and then others where they can barely stand each other. There are episodes where Howard is a sharp-tongued leader who won’t let anyone push him around and then there are ones, like this one, where he has to be coaxed out of his office. Sometimes, Howard is a tyrant. Other times, he’s a wimp. There’s never been any sort of consistency with how Howard has been portrayed and, as a result, I still don’t feel like I know the character.

That’s a problem for an episode like this one, where all of the humor centers around Howard’s inability to take an honest look at his friendship with Curt. The Office did several good episodes that centered around Michael Scott’s toxic friendship with Todd Packer. It was hard not to think about those episodes as I watched Howard fumble his way through Check it Out! On The Office, Michael’s one-way friendship with Packer told the viewer everything they needed to know about Michael. On Check It Out!, Howard’s friendship with Curt tells us nothing because the Howard who we’ve seen in previous episodes of Check It Out! would never have a friend like Curt.

For the record, Howard does eventually work up the courage to fire Curt. And Curt actually thanks Howard for firing him because it gives Curt the time to patch up his marriage. But first, of course, we have to sit through Curt threatening to jump off the roof of Cobb’s, just to teach Howard a lesson about …. something. Who knows?

On the plus side, the always funny Gordon Clapp was heavily featured in this episode. Viker convinced everyone to give him money so that he could send off for everyone’s family tree. Viker discovered that he was descended from an axe-sharpener. Marlene was descended from wolves. Howard was descended from Napoleon, which of course led to Don Adams putting his hand in his suit. And Christian …. Christian didn’t have a family tree because “your cheque bounced.”

(The closed captioning apparently understood that Check It Out! was a Canadian show.)

The Viker stuff was funny, largely because of Gordon Clapp’s ability to deliver the most absurd dialogue with a totally straight face. The Howard/Curt stuff was kind of boring. This was not a memorable episode to check out.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Check it Out 2.2 “Edna’s Phantom Romance”

Posted on April 13, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Season 2 continues with more inconsistent Howard and Edna weirdness.

Episode 2.2 “Edna’s Phantom Romance”

(Dir by Alan Erlich, originally aired on October 10th, 1986)

Howard Bannister is, once again, the most unromantic man who has ever lived.

Now, I know that goes against what we’ve recently seen of Howard. In fact, just last week, Howard agreed to go without a paycheck for two months so that he and Edna could have a vacation together. This show has never been particularly consistent when it comes to its portrayal of Howard and Edna’s relationship. When it first started, Howard was portrayed as being a jerk. Then, he became a romantic. Then he went back to being a jerk. And then he become, yet again, a romantic. And now, he’s back to being a jerk. And Edna has gone from being snarky to naive to intelligent to naive again that it’s next to impossible to really say for sure who she is supposed to be.

Edna and Howard’s anniversary is coming up. Edna wants him to take her to Hawaii. Howard would rather stay at home and watch bowling. It seems to be an impasse but myself, I’m wondering if Edna realizes that flying from Canada to Hawaii is not exactly something that one does on a whim. I mean, you don’t just hop down to Hawaii for a few hours and then fly back, especially not on a retail worker’s salary. Howard may be the manager but I doubt he has enough money to purchase a private jet. Plus, Edna and Howard just took a 2-month vacation. She could have gone to Hawaii then.

Edna, trying to get Howard’s attention, hires one of Leslie’s community theater friends to pretend to be her new boyfriend. Howard freaks out after he sees Edna and the actor together. Edna thinks that Howard is going to propose to her but instead, he breaks up with her. “Oh, Howard!” Edna says before explaining that she was just paying the other guy to pretend to be in love with her. Howard is surprisingly okay with that and the two of them get back together. It’s interesting that Howard doesn’t care that Edna has basically spent a week lying to and manipulating him.

This was one of those really annoying and dumb episodes where every problem could have been resolved by people just talking to each other and not making assumptions. Bleh. I hate episodes like this.

On the plus side, Marlene’s constantly changing hairstyle remains the best thing about the show. Here’s what she went with this week:

This episode was pretty dumb and I’m pretty sure that they already did a Howard-Screws-Up-His-Anniversary episode during the previous season. If Check It Out! is already repeating itself (and especially if its repeating itself to diminishing returns), that means I’ve got a long few months ahead of me as I make my way through seasons 2 and 3 of this show.

Next week …. oh, who knows?