- This one features Michael Burns as Howie almost to the exclusion of the rest of the cast. The result is a good show, if you want to follow around a fourteen year old in 1962, but it's the biggest dud of the series. It is a good exploration of a young man without parents dealing with loneliness, but it's a glaring reason why the series failed. The college age crowd that was so into the rest of the characters would have been tuning this one out in droves.—The Mystic Hedgehog
- Howie is acting out and bemoaning his perception that all his ninth-grade friends are creeps [except for his longtime pal, Richie Masters, and now even their friendship is being tested by Howie's suggestion that they revisit a remote junkyard site where the boys buried their childhood treasure chest years before; but it seems that Richie is more interested in observing the teenage pajama party that classmates Ina and Marilyn are having next door, that evening]. The two boys do embark on a somewhat perilous adventure [following the treasure map's out-of-date instructions] but they are able to abort their mission [two steps ahead of the police] and to return to Richie's house, safe and sound (but somewhat worse for the wear), in time for some surprisingly [at least for Howie] pleasant interaction with Ina and Marilyn. Meanwhile, Wes and Irene's bowling date is undermined by numerous trips to the payphone to check on Howie's current whereabouts. These efforts prove fruitless as Tom-Tom and Vern are still out on dates of their own, so Wes and Irene cut their date short. The episode concludes back at the houseboat with big brother Wes familiarizing himself with some of the characters and situations giving rise to young Howie's current "coming of age" angst .
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