Eating at a Chinese restaurant in Bryant Park, Steve learns that the owner recently passed away, and that his wife, the longtime hostess, is planning to sell the place and move back to Hong Kong. We all learn that she married at age 15, came to America, and has been totally devoted to her husband and his business, rarely going out into the American world. She is friendly and tells all about Chinese traditions, as well as the foods she serves in the restaurant, but has no American friends at all.
Steve wants to convince her that if she'd try, she'd find Americans friendly and enjoy being out with others, hoping she might stay in the U. S. He arranges for her to be part of a 6-person get-together in a friend's home. Here, the men go off on their own almost as soon as the party starts, while the other two men's wives are most polite and friendly to the woman. She quickly finds herself enjoying listening to these women talk about their children and is grateful Steve brought her to the party.
So Steve asks if she now plans to find an apartment, thinking she's decided to stay. In a most-oddly phrased answer, she says, "I'm still leaving." She then reveals that after that one chance to meet other Americans away from the restaurant she has, by now, sold, she's no longer staying at the town that has been her home for decades, nor returning to the only other world she every knew, but moving to Paris with plans to open a new Chinese restaurant there.
Does this seem at all realistic to you? One evening with two nice American ladies and this very shy middle-aged woman who has been with a husband since her mid-teens, suddenly is bold enough to move to a country where she knows nobody, doesn't at all speak the language, and will try to open a new business there without any knowledge of what things are like in France.
The subplot would never have been written for a show today in 2022. Chip loses his marbles (literally-the kid's game of marbles) to a Chinese girl at school who learns from her mother that this wasn't a good way to get a boy to like her. She plays him again and loses at marbles letting Chip get back what he lost. Now, Chip is OK with letting her come along with him and Ernie to some other place.
I don't recall laughing at anything. There seemed no real attempt to make us laugh at anything in this quite-boring episode of the series. I don't mind at all the producers having several episodes teaching us about Chinese customs. But my memory, after seeing these episodes, about one per season, is that they do not provide any interesting plots and almost no laughs at all. I have to give this episode a 3.
Steve wants to convince her that if she'd try, she'd find Americans friendly and enjoy being out with others, hoping she might stay in the U. S. He arranges for her to be part of a 6-person get-together in a friend's home. Here, the men go off on their own almost as soon as the party starts, while the other two men's wives are most polite and friendly to the woman. She quickly finds herself enjoying listening to these women talk about their children and is grateful Steve brought her to the party.
So Steve asks if she now plans to find an apartment, thinking she's decided to stay. In a most-oddly phrased answer, she says, "I'm still leaving." She then reveals that after that one chance to meet other Americans away from the restaurant she has, by now, sold, she's no longer staying at the town that has been her home for decades, nor returning to the only other world she every knew, but moving to Paris with plans to open a new Chinese restaurant there.
Does this seem at all realistic to you? One evening with two nice American ladies and this very shy middle-aged woman who has been with a husband since her mid-teens, suddenly is bold enough to move to a country where she knows nobody, doesn't at all speak the language, and will try to open a new business there without any knowledge of what things are like in France.
The subplot would never have been written for a show today in 2022. Chip loses his marbles (literally-the kid's game of marbles) to a Chinese girl at school who learns from her mother that this wasn't a good way to get a boy to like her. She plays him again and loses at marbles letting Chip get back what he lost. Now, Chip is OK with letting her come along with him and Ernie to some other place.
I don't recall laughing at anything. There seemed no real attempt to make us laugh at anything in this quite-boring episode of the series. I don't mind at all the producers having several episodes teaching us about Chinese customs. But my memory, after seeing these episodes, about one per season, is that they do not provide any interesting plots and almost no laughs at all. I have to give this episode a 3.
