Harold brings home an abandoned dog and falls in love with it because of course! See, back in the sixties, kids fell in love with dogs at first sight because they weren't preoccupied with video games about dogs. Or something like that. So Hazel and Missy convince themselves that the boy NEEDS a dog. Not only that, he needs THIS dog.
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| "I'd better be getting paid as much as Buntrock by next season." |
Well, as far as I can tell, the dog seems OK with this plan, though I don't recall a scene in which he shares his direct feelings. So the goal is to trick Mr. B into allowing this.
Here's where the story falls apart. George reminds the ladies that dogs just don't like him. In fact, they tried to adopt a dog before, and the dog beat him at poker--I may be hazy on the details--so now the patriarch of the House of Hazel KNOWS that dogs detest him. He seems amenable to the idea of taking in a pooch otherwise, but he is firm on this.
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| You know Mr. B is missing the awesome finger-pointing abilities of his right hand. |
Well, wouldn't the smart thing be to introduce the dog to the man and see if they get along? That instantly removes the objection. Unfortunately, it also removes 80% of the episode, and so we get Hazel and Missy scheming to hide the dog while they can come up with ways to make George think HE needs one.
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| "It's such a foolish idea, I can't believe I didn't think of it before!" |
For example, they stage a faux break-in to set up a need for a watchdog, but it backfires when Mr. B hires someone to install an alarm system.
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| Yep, this guy seems reputable. |
At the end of the episode, we find out, guess what, the dog (dubbed Smiley, which has a much better ring than "That Shaggy Mutt What Done Got Found by Harold) likes George and George likes the dog.
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| "Jeez, what does the guy think I am, a cobra?" |
Thus endeth A Dog for Harold, an episode about 80% longer than it needs to be. However, there is some value in seeing how the family pet gets his place in the home.
OK, now for what we all really care about: The Don DeFore hand injury update. It's still wrapped up in this episode, and Hazel asks him how it's coming along. George is making progress but still doing his Muy Thai one-handed. I am almost disappointed that George doesn't try to tie this into his uneasiness with dogs by trying to retcon a story about a runaway canine biting him.
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| "So then I used a reverse knife edge on him, but the son of a gun had a steel plate on under his jersey." |
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2 comments:
I wonder what he did to his hand. It is obviously a real life injury or surgery. Not just for the show.
Per Don's son, Ron:
Well, my Dad didn't cut his finger "off" but came very close. He liked to work in the garage and made a lot of the old fashioned furniture in our Mandeville Canyon home in Brentwood. One day he went to Sears and for some reason (maybe by mistake) bought a 9 inch replacement blade for his circular table saw. Unfortunately for him he had been used to a 7 inch blade, and while cutting wood that 2 inches got to his ring finger, left hand. He came very close to losing it but with a lot of very good surgical assistance and platinum rods the docs were able to save it. Coincidentally I did the almost identical thing on our band saw just a couple years later on the exact same finger.
Ron DeFore
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