Late Night Retro Television Review: Check It Out! 2.22 “Put Your Best Face Forward”

Posted on December 7, 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, season two of this show finally comes to an end.

Episode 2.22 “Put Your Best Face Forward”

(Dir by Alan Erlich, originally aired on March 22nd, 1987)

The second season of Check It Out! ends by revealing a little bit more about the origin story of Howard Bannister.

Howard’s stint at hotel management school has been mentioned several times throughout the series. In this episode, he is upset because his reunion is coming up and he’s the only members of his graduating class to have not made a success of himself. One of his classmates owns several motels. Another manages a popular bed and breakfast. Lester Pinkus (Alan Jordan) has had the most success of all. He is the manager of a 5-star luxury hotel. Meanwhile, Howard is just the manager of a small grocery store in Canada.

Howard explains to Edna that he was always at the top of his class but somehow, he flunked the final exam. Lester, who was previously always at the bottom of the class, got the highest score on his final and received a great job right out of school. With the reunion coming up, Howard is feeling inadequate. When he sees that Lester still looks young and happy, Howard decides to take Lester’s advice and get a facelift.

Or, at least, that’s Howard’s plan until he actually meets the doctor (Jack Northmore) and learns what a facelift entails. The doctor explains he’ll be peeling back Howard’s entire face and then breaking his nose. Agck! Howard faints and goes to his reunion with a black eye.

(For the record, there was a time when I was determined to get a nose job but then I considered that I had inherited my nose from my mom and it would be disrespectful to do anything to it. Big Nose Crew forever!)

At the reunion, Lester accepts an award for all of his success. He then announces that he doesn’t feel like he can accept the award because he cheated on the final. He stole Howard’s exam paper, put his name on it, and turned it in as his own. As such, Howard was actually the one who got the best score on the exam while Lester was the one who should have flunked. Lester says that he’s happy now because he’s rich, successful, and has a newly cleared conscience.

I have to admit that made me laugh. Howard’s life sucks and it’s all because of Lester. Lester’s girlfriend throws champagne in his face and then leaves him. Howard thanks Lester’s girlfriend so Edna throws champagne in Howard’s face and season two comes to an end.

What a strange show. Edna learns why Howard is so miserable and instead of offering him any sympathy over the fact that he’s doomed to spend the rest of his life as a grocery store manager, she throws champagne at him and accuses him of cheating. Howard can’t win but that’s okay because Howard really isn’t that likable of a character.

Season two was …. well, yes, it was inconsistent and frequently downright bad. But the show occasionally showed some sparks of life, usually when the focus was on the supporting cast. Jeff Pustil, Kathleen Laskey, Aaron Schwartz, and especially Gordon Clapp were able to generate some laughs, even from the weakest of material. The season season suffered because Howard’s personality seemed to change from episode-to-episode. It’s hard to root for a guy who doesn’t behave in a consistent manner.

Will the third and final season be an improvement? We’ll start finding out next week!

Late Night Retro Television Review: Check It Out! 2.21 “Here Comes The Bride”

Posted on November 23, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, Christian gets married!

Episode 2.21 “Here Comes The Bride”

(Dir by Alan Erlich, originally aired on March 15th, 1987)

Jack Christian (marvelously played by Jeff Pustil) is getting married!

He’s known the girl (Barbara Radecki) for twenty minutes and he’s not totally sure what her name is. (It’s turns out to be Gilga.) Gilga is the niece of Jan (Barry Baidero), the store’s never-bef0re-seen butcher. When Jack first meets Gilga, she’s crying. Her visa has expired. The only way that she’s going to avoid being sent back to her home country Baclavia is if she manages to get a Canadian green card. One quick way to do that is to get married. Jan offers to pay Christian to marry Gilga and then divorce her after she gets her green card. Christian agrees.

However, there’s a problem.

Christian is actually falling in love with Gilga but he doesn’t know how he can convince Gilga that his love is real. Howard tells him that the only way to do it would be to give back the money. That sounds simple enough but Christian really likes money. Plus, he needs a new car….

(Maybe he could just stay married to Gilga and so charm Jan that Jan would buy him a new car just to welcome him to the family. The possibility of anyone sincerely liking Christian is never really considered, which is kind of sad.)

This episode was fairly dumb but it was more enjoyable than the usual Check It Out! offering, if just because it focused on one of the show’s few consistently funny characters. Since the first season, Jeff Pustil has been one of the stronger members of the cast, playing Christian as being such an unapologetic sleaze that it’s impossible not to like him. No one should ever trust Jack Christian but he still comes across like he would be fun to catch a movie with. Unfortunately, up until this episode, the show rarely took advantage of Pustil’s strong work as Christian. This episode finally gives Pustil the spotlight and he manages to wring quite a few laughs out of so-so material. Much like Gordon Clapp and Kathleen Laskey (who played Marlene and married Pustil after the show ended), Jeff Pustil brought enough odd quirkiness to his role that he often transcended the show’s scripts.

Along with giving Jeff Pustil a chance to show off, this episode also featured several never-bef0re-seen employees of Cobb’s. They show up for Christian’s bachelor party and the wedding, both of which take place at the store for some reason. I’ve often wondered how a major supermarket managed to survive with only two cashiers and one bagger. (It often seemed strange that Howard had a secretary but apparently not a janitor.) This episode revealed that a lot of people worked at Cobb’s, the viewer apparently just never noticed them before.

This was a rare good episode. Next week, we conclude season two!

Late Night Retro Television Review: Check It Out! 2.20 “The Son Also Rises”

Posted on November 16, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

I don’t even know where to start this week.

Episode 2.20 “The Son Also Rises”

(Dir by Stuart Gillard, originally aired on March 8th, 1987)

For what seems like the 100th time since I started watching the second season of this show, Edna is going on vacation. Technically, she’s going to be taking a computer course but everyone refers to it as being a vacation. Not that it matters because, knowing this show, we’ll never hear another word about this class that Edna is taking or the promotion that she’s hoping to get.

No sooner has Edna left then Howard’s ex-girlfriend, Molly Maguire (Diana Barrington), shows up. As Howard explains it to his employees (though why they would care, I have no idea), Molly was the great love of Howard’s life when he was in college and studying hotel management. (We often hear about all of these wonderful things that Howard did in the past, which leads me to wonder why, in his mid-50s, he’s just the manager of a middling grocery store in Canada.) Howard is excited to reconnect with Molly. It’s hard not to notice that, for all the episodes that have portrayed Howard as being the perfect boyfriend, he always tries to hook up with someone else whenever Edna is out of town. Oddly, it appears that none of her friends at the store have ever told Edna that Howard isn’t particularly faithful when she’s away.

(Remember when Howard threw a snit fit over Edna having dinner with her ex-husband? Seems kind of hypocritical, no?)

Howard’s plan to hook up with Molly is to invite her over to his apartment and to have Viker dress up like a butler in order to fool her into thinking that he’s rich. However, when Molly shows up, she reveals that she doesn’t want to rekindle any sort of romance with Howard. Instead, she wants Howard to give her child support because, according to Molly, he’s the father of her “teenage” son, Mickey (Keith Knight).

(Teenage is in quotes because, despite everything that Howard and Molly say to the contrary, Mickey is clearly not a teenager. Actor Keith Knight, who appeared in a number of classic Canadian films including My Bloody Valentine and Class of 1984, was 31 years old when he appeared in this episode.)

Howard and Mickey bond. Mickey turns out to be a pretty nice and intelligent “kid” and Howard starts to think that maybe he would like to be a father. (Good luck explaining any of this to Edna, Howard.) Howard worries about paying child support. Leslie the cashier offers to loan him the money. (What?) But then Molly shows up and reveals that — ha ha! — Howard’s not Mickey’s father after all. She just said that to get some money from Howard but since Howard obviously doesn’t have any money, never mind.

Well, that was …. interesting. Seriously, what a weird episode. Howard’s a jerk and, after bonding with 30-something Mickey, he discovers that he’s not Mickey’s father. Edna comes back from her trip and asks Howard if anything happened while she was gone. Howard says he doesn’t know where to start. Roll credits! There have been many inconsequential episodes of Check It Out! but none as inconsequential as this.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Check It Out! 2.17 “Chain Reaction”

Posted on October 26, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, a wave of bad luck crashes into the store.

Episode 2.17 “Chain Reaction”

(Dir by Stan Jacobson, originally aired on February 15, 1987)

This is a bit of an odd episode.

For one thing, neither Jeff Pustil nor Gordon Clapp appear in this episode. As Pustil and Clapp were two of the more consistently funny performers on this show, their absence is definitely felt.

Since Pustil’s assistant manager character is said to be on vacation, Murray is temporarily promoted to assistant manager and spends this episode wearing a suit and making smarmy comments that are totally out-of-character for him.

There’s a new cashier named Amy (Kathryn Rose). We’ve never seen her before but everyone on the show acts as if she’s always been there.

This episode features everyone at a store getting a chain letter, which was an annoying thing where someone would send you a letter and tell you to send a copy of the letter to ten other people for good luck. (It’s the sort of thing that was apparently popular in the years before email.) Everyone at the store takes their chain letter seriously, except for Howard. Howard sets his chain letter on fire.

Immediately after Howard destroys the letter, ominous thunder rumbles. A fire breaks out in Howard’s office and Howard uses Edna’s sweater to put it out. A terrible smell spreads through the store, chasing away the customers and forcing the health department to order the place closed until it’s gone away. An old woman gets food poisoning from can of Pears and sues the store. Finally, Marlene tells Howard that this is all his fault, Howard insults Marlene’s hair, and Marlene quits.

Marlene is later in an accident and taken to the hospital. Howard and the gang (including the mysterious Amy) rush over to the hospital to check on Marlene. Howard goes in Marlene’s hospital room and finds a patient covered in bandages. Assuming the patient is Marlene, Howard calls her the daughter he never had and promises to rehire her and give her a raise. Surprise! The patient wasn’t Marlene but Marlene was standing behind Howard and listening the whole time.

It’s sweet but it’s also a reminder that Check It Out rarely made much effort to maintain a consistent continuity. Just a few episodes ago, Howard went undercover to save Marlene from a cult. In this episode, they act as if they’ve never had a good relationship.

This episode just feels off, to the extent that I wouldn’t have been surprised if it had ended with Howard waking up and realizing it was all a dream. The absence of Pustil and Clapp is strongly felt and the remaining characters don’t seem to be acting like themselves.

On the plus side, this episode features Marlene’s best hair yet.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Check It Out! 2.16 “The Oddest Couple”

Posted on October 19, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, Viker needs help!

Episode 2.16 “The Oddest Couple”

(Dir by Alan Erlich, originally aired on February 8th, 1987)

Viker has been kicked out by his wife, Mrs. Viker (Laura Henry). Mrs. Viker apparently doesn’t have a first name. Even Viker calls her “Mrs. Viker” whenever he talks to her. Because he has been kicked out of his house, Viker has started sleeping on Howard’s couch.

Howard tells Viker that he can’t sleep on his couch, which just leaves Viker with one other option. He moves in with Howard! Normally, I’d wonder how Edna would feel about this but Edna is not in this episode. In fact, there’s no mention of Howard being involved and his apartment suddenly looks like a tacky bachelor pad. He even has a round bed in the living room.

As you can guess by the episode’s title, Howard and Viker make for an odd couple. It’s not a case of one of them being a neat freak and one of them being a slob. In fact, they’re both pretty neat. It’s just that Viker can be a little weird. He gargles extremely loudly. He takes everything that he hears literally. He spends a lot of time talking about his bunions.

Howard attempts to bring Viker and Mrs. Viker together but, when Mrs. Viker catches Viker teaching Marlene how to dance (more about that in a minute) in the store’s aisles, she declares that she can’t trust Viker. But then Howard invites Mrs. Viker to his apartment, where he has prepared a romantic dinner for the Vikers. That’s all it takes for the Vikers to fall back in love and apparently have sex in Howard’s living room bed while Howard waits in the hallway outside.

Why is Viker teaching Marlene how to dance? Because a good-looking customer named Philip (Richard Hardacre) has asked Marlene to come to his country club! Marlene gets all dressed up, does her hair nicely, and looks forward to her date. But then Richard shows up looking like he’s the bassist in Sex Pistols cover band. Richard says that it’s “punk night” at the country club and he wanted to impress his friends by bringing “an actual punk.” Realizing that she was being used, Marlene tells Richard to get lost and then she, Murray, and Christian go out for pizza. Awww! Since this show usually features those three characters at odds, it’s kind of nice to see them all going out as friends in this episode.

(In real life, Kathleen Laskey, who plays Marlene, is married to Jeff Pustil, who played Christian. Even though their characters are usually rivals, the chemistry between the two performers is obvious.)

This was an okay episode. It made me chuckle a few times. It’s obvious that, after the first half of the second season, the showrunners realized that Don Adams and Gordon Clapp made a great comic team. Check It Out is a show that works best when it embraces absurdity and few characters are more absurd than Gordon Clapp’s Viker.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Friday the 13th: The Series 2.14 “Face of Evil”

Posted on October 18, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a new feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing Friday the 13th: The Series, a show which ran in syndication from 1987 to 1990. The show can be found on YouTube!

It’s sequel time!

Episode 2.14 “Face of Evil”

(Dir by William Fruet, originally aired on February 6th, 1989)

In this sequel to the first season episode Vanity’s Mirror, Joanne Mackey (Gwendoline Pacey) returns to Curious Goods for the first time since the death of her younger sister, Helen. Joanne reveals that she’s the one who stole the cursed gold compact at the end of Vanity’s Mirror, explaining that she simply had to have something that belonged to her sister. Jack is not amused, telling her that she should have turned it over so that it could be stored in the vault.

Calm down, Jack. Joanne knows she did something wrong and she’s trying to make amends. She is especially concerned because the compact is now in the hands of an aging supermodel named Tabitha Robbins (Laura Robinson). Tabitha is upset that her career is struggling and she’s been told that not even plastic surgery can reverse the fact that she’s just not as young as her competition. Tabitha has figured out that anyone whose face is caught in the reflection of the mirror will either die or, at the very least, suffer a terrible disfigurement. Apparently, in this case, the antique’s curse changes depending on who owns it.

I have mixed feelings about this episode. On the one hand, I could relate to Tabitha’s feelings about aging. No one wants to age and that’s doubly true when you’re working in an industry where youth is the most valuable commodity. I also enjoyed the very 80s fashion shoots that were featured in this episode. On the other hand, there were a lot of rather silly scenes of Tabitha trying to catch Ryan and Micki’s reflection in the mirror while Mick and Ryan ducked around with their hands over their faces. There’s no other way to put it other than to say it all looked really goofy.

The biggest problem with this episode is that the majority of it was taken up with clips from Vanity’s Mirror. Every few minutes, Joanne would think about Helen and we would get a flashback. Unfortunately, a lot of the flashbacks didn’t even feature Joanne so you have to wonder how exactly she was able to remember them. The constant flashbacks made this episode feel like a clip show and you know how much I hate those.

In the end, Tabitha accidentally catches her own face in the mirror’s reflection and she immediately starts aging. I guess that’s the risk you take when you try to use a mirror as a weapon. Micki and Ryan finally retrieve the compact and Jack mentions that Joanne could have saved a lot of lives by not stealing the compact in the first place. Look, Jack — she feels bad enough already! I’m sorry everyone isn’t beating down the doors of the antique shop to give you their cursed items. Get off Joanne’s back!

Oh well. At least the evil compact will hurt no one else….

Late Night Retro Television Review: Check It Out! 2.15 “Tots ‘R’ Us”

Posted on October 12, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, Edna has a good idea.

Episode 2.15 “Tots ‘R’ Us”

(DIr by J. Sumner, originally aired on February 1st, 1987)

I have no idea who J. Sumner was.

J. Sumner is credited as being the director of this episode. (Up until this episode, Alan Erlich was the show’s regular director.) I’ve never seen the name before and it struck me as being such an odd name to use that I actually looked the director up on the IMDb. According to the IMDb, this episode of Check It Out! is the only thing that J. Sumner has ever been credited as having been involved with. That’s quite an accomplishment, making your entertainment career debut as a director Most people have to work up to it.

I kind of suspect that J. Sumner is a pseudonym of some sort. Maybe the real director didn’t want to be credited for this episode, though there’s nothing about it that’s really all that different from any other episode of Check It Out. It’s not a terrible episode but it’s also not a particularly interesting one, which is why I’m wasting so much time speculating about the identity of J. Sumner.

The episode takes place on Canadian Mother’s Day. Edna decides to turn the back offices into a daycare so mothers can leave their children while they shop. That actually does sound like a good idea to me. Whenever I go grocery shopping, I always seem to get stuck in line behind people who have multiple hyperactive children. Just last week, this little brat stepped on my foot while running around the store and his mother didn’t even apologize to me. Seriously, I was limping for hours afterwards! I should have called the cops and pressed charges….

Anyway, all of the moms and their kids eventually leave. Except there’s one child (played by Benjamin Barrett) left behind. He wears a nametag that reads “Orphan” but a call to the local orphanage reveals that no one is missing. Edna calls the police but tells them that the store will take care of the kid and hold onto him until his parents arrive. The police apparently say, “Okay, thanks for letting us know,” and then never bother to come out to the store. That doesn’t sound like typical police procedure when it comes to an abandoned child but who knows? This is a Canadian show so maybe that’s the way they do it in Manitoba.

Edna pressures Howard into using a sock puppet to talk to the kid. The previously silent kid is happy to talk to Goober The Sock. The kid’s name is Freddy. He stays overnight at the store with Edna and, in a really sad scene, Edna asks Freddy if he knows anything about adoption. Edna’s dreams of taking Feddy into her home are ruined when Freddy’s father (Walker Boone) shows up. Howard gives Freddy and his father tickets to a baseball game. Awww, that was nice!

This was a pretty simple episode and, to be honest, it was kind of boring. Howard and Edna are more fun when they’re weird than when they’re nice. As always, Gordon Clapp (as Viker, the electrician) got a few funny lines and made the most of his limited screentime. Otherwise, this was a sweet-natured but not particularly enthralling episode.

And if J. Sumner is reading this, say hi in the comments! We’d love to hear from you!

Late Night Retro Television Review: Check It Out! 2.14 “Let’s Get Metaphysical”

Posted on October 5, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, Howard goes on a mission to save Marlene.

Episode 2.14 “Let’s Get Metaphysical”

(Dir by Alan Erlich, originally aired on January 25th, 1987)

Marlene’s been showing up late for work!

Christian thinks that it’s a big deal that Marlene isn’t showing up for work. I’ve never had a retail job or a job where I had a boss who required me to do things but I do have to say that I think Christian has a point. Since it appears that Cobb’s only has seven employees and it appears to be a rather large store with several different departments, I imagine it is a bit difficult when one of them doesn’t show up.

(Actually, two of them. For some reason, Edna is not in this episode.)

Howard, however, says it’s no big deal because Marlene is only late because she’s in love with a new guy and this guy apparently likes to stay up all night and discuss philosophy. (Bleh! Sounds like she’s dating a real bore.) But when Marlene starts lecturing at her register about how unfair it is to charge people for food, Christian feels that he has no choice but to fire her. Marlene thanks Christian for setting her free and then leaves the store for her new home at the local commune.

Uh-oh …. MARLENE HAS JOINED A CULT!

Wanting to free her from the Order of Eternal Light, Howard decides to go down to the commune. Accompanying him is Viker and I was happy about that because, as played by Gordon Clapp, Viker was a character who made any scene funnier by his very presence. The head of the cult is a bearded man who calls himself Solar (Sam Moses). Solar preaches a life of simplicity while living in a mansion and driving a Ferrari.

Howard decides that the best way to free Marlene is to go undercover and pretend to join the cult. Over the next few days, Howard doesn’t show up at work but Marlene does. Marlene explain that she left the cult after talking to a strange man with a beard. She also says that she never saw Howard at the cult.

Suddenly, Howard shows up, wearing love beads and speaking in an Indian accent. Marlene throws water on his face, which magically sets Howard free from Solar’s brainwashing. Marlene tells Howard that she left on her own after talking to the bearded man. Howard reveals that he was that bearded man….

Wow, it sounds like a lot of interesting stuff happened off-camera! In fact, that’s the main problem with this episode. Almost all of the interesting stuff — Marlene getting brainwashed, Howard going undercover, the police raiding the commune and arresting Solar — happens off-screen. What we’re left with is okay but never quite as funny as it potentially could be.

Still, at least Marlene’s back! Someone has to keep the sharp insults flying in that store and no one’s better at it than Marlene.

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.