If you guessed Lawrence Welk as the inspiration for this wild episode, you are correct! Who else would it be? Welk actually re-introduced the accordion on his popular tv show and sales soared around the country at the time.
Lucky(?) Beave enters the picture, who just happens to find an ad in the newspaper for a "free trial" accordion, and so this wild comedy of errors begins. Special thanks to some prodding by wiseguy Eddie Haskell, naturally smart enough to never take his own advice!
If you read between the lines, producers and writers Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher put some truths into this one, perhaps as a warning to all of kids back in the day --READ THE FINE PRINT. Beave gets a "five day free trial"... but does that include the shipping time?
If it includes shipping, Beave may have only had a one day free trial. How revolting! More over, the accordion costs 270 dollars, about $2700 dollars today. At least Beave got off cheap, because a high end accordion could run as high as 10,000 dollars today!
Next knocking at the door is angry Mr. Franklin (well played by John Hoyt, who we all so love!) from the Music Academy who wants his dough! There's a real good scene where Ward shows his anger (and just like any of our own dads would do), figuring Franklin's some creep -- until the accordion comes bouncing down the stairs!
This one scene, has to be the absolute BEST of all gag scenes in the entire series. Laugh out loud, with the joke on Ward and June! How about that?
Lessons learned for Beave, and thanks to Ward's business saavy, he'll only end up paying for repairs and nothing more. Whew!
Applause for John Hoyt, one of the best ever character actors in movies and tv for decades. Watch his facial expressions as he was a natural. They probably did his scene in one EZ take. If you are a movie buff, you probably remember him best as WWII German officers, which he fit like a glove. His most recent screen credit at the time was the great war film, NEVER SO FEW, starring Frank Sinatra. Watch for it.
Unforgettable fluff that you can't get enough of.
SEASON 4 EPISODE 13 remastered.