Topic: Abbott and Costello Show - Season 1, Ep. 2 - The Dentist Office (1952)

[metaldams]

      Episode number two is upon us, this time it’s THE DENTIST OFFICE. Like all the episodes, this time the opening stage banter between Bud and Lou is Lou is forty the girl he’s dating is ten routine.  You know, Bud’s four times older and in five years he’ll be three times older.  At what point does she catch up?  Delivered like only Bud and Lou can do it.  We’ve seen the routine before, but the whole point of this Abbott and Costello Show is to catalog all these routines without all the other things that take up their features.  So if you just want the comedy, here it is.

      Once that classic routine is done, the biggest takeaway from this episode is that the Hillary Brooke character is finally established.  I mean, it took to episode two!  Very beautiful, very classy, cultured, and kind.  I love the way she just starts speaking French to Bud and Bud says something to the effect that he can’t do that for her.  Well, Lou, not understanding what she says, says he can.  She kindly gets Lou an appointment at the dentist’s office she works at and during the hugging scene, Lou is too stupid to realizing she’s hinting at love!  Love the relationship between her and Lou and her presence in season one.

      We do get Sid Fields as a blind dentist trying to pull Lou’s tooth out.  I especially like it when he goes after Lou’s ear.  While it lacks the virtuosity of Shemp in the THE TOOTH WILL OUT, still an entertaining scene, even if better bits are to come.  I do like Lou’s head going through the wall replacing the moose head and the casual banter between Bud and Hillary.

      Lou’s tooth is still not out, so Bud comes up with some concoction of having Lou’s tooth tied and he gets dragged around as a cat is chasing a dog, hoping the tooth comes out in the process.  It does lead to some real funny physical comedy with Lou getting tossed around every which way.  Funny, but they’re still saving the best stuff for the end.

      With a lot of Harold Lloyd reviews, I always mention his genius on milking a gag, like for example, trying to hide the fact he has no pants in AMONG THOSE PRESENT.  Well now it’s Bud and Lou’s turn.  Lou, tooth still not out, is given the idea from Bud if he goes to jail, the state will pay to have his tooth pulled.  So Lou tries everything he can to go to jail and fails miserably.  The failure all comes down to bad luck.  You think he’s doing something illegal, but he either comes across as heroic or is just messing with the wrong person.  Gag after gag of this, one after the other, all hysterical and I won’t give any of them away.  I’ll just say it ends with some great car gags and poor Lou getting dragged around.  Classic scene!

      There’s another great bit, a three way verbal banter between Bud, Lou and Sid Fields.  It involves Sid commenting on how the town knows Bud takes advantage of Lou’s imbecilic nature.  As Bud tries to end it, Lou insists Sid continues going on about what an imbecile Lou is.  Lou is too stupid to realize he’s being made fun of because the mere idea of Bud being yelled at overshadows any of that.  Another fine verbal bit and Sid Fields can join Bud and Lou very well in this type of banter, as he’ll do in several episodes.

      So yeah, another good episode and like I said, there aren’t really any bad ones.  Just some better than others.  As for Lou’s tooth?  Great resolution at the end.

[HomokHarcos]

Hillary Brook gets added to the regular cast. The first episode she felt more like a bit player, here she’s an actual character.

OK now the 40 and 10 routine. The idea of a 40 year old and a 10 year old is kind of creepy, but Lou actually does call that part out, and it moves on to a math question. I like when Lou thinks she’s catching up in age and will surpass him.

The dentist scene is funny and was done by Laurel and Hardy and The Three Stooges before. Hearing the screams in agony while they wait is chilling for Lou waiting, but funny for us viewers. I also get that Bud does not care at all what happens to Lou, unlike Ollie and Moe. I laughed when he was more concerned about continuing the conversation than what happened in the dentist chair.

Seeing somebody stick up for Lou was nice. Although he was mocking Lou for being unintelligent, he was calling Bud out for taking advantage and abusing him.

Then the getting in jail section. As another example of Bud not seeming to care about Lou, he seems to have no issue telling him to go to jail to get a free tooth pull. I wonder if that is a thing in real life jails. It’s funny that Mike the Cop is actively looking for a reason to arrest him.

[Umbrella Sam]

Alright, episode 2. Well, it  starts off with the “40 and 10” routine, which is one of the few Abbott and Costello routines I don’t like. Part of that is the creepiness factor, although like HomokHarcos says, Costello does call it out and clearly hates the scenario; it’s really just meant to be a mathematical thing, but it doesn’t ever feel like it goes anywhere. With other mathematical routines like “13 x 7 = 28” or the “365 to 1” routine from ONE NIGHT IN THE TROPICS, they build up to something kind of clever and end it with a bang. This routine just kind of dissolves into chaos; no clever punchline, just Costello complaining about her surpassing him in age and Abbott derailing things with his complaint to Costello about marrying someone he doesn’t even know. I don’t find it clever at all.

The rest of the episode, though, is good, although not quite as good as the first. One thing that does seem a bit more established is Hillary Brook’s place in the cast; not just a random passerby, this time she is established as an acquaintance of the duo and drives the first half of the “plot” by recommending the dentist office where she works. Sid Fields does a great job as the blind dentist. Metaldams mentions THE TOOTH WILL OUT. I think everything surrounding the actual drilling scene there is fantastic (the “sandpaper the chest” part never fails to make me laugh), but I feel like the actual drilling part is a bit drawn out and lacking variety. This does a much better job with that, with Costello dealing with everything but his tooth getting pulled. I especially like the part where he’s having his finger crushed; great reactions from Costello there.

The dog part is predictable, but it does still give us a chance to see some great physical work. I also really like the scene before it with landlord Sid listening to Costello prove that a loaf of bread is the mother to the airplane. It actually builds up to something, and there’s a bit of cleverness to it, but what I especially like is how Fields is intrigued and kind of amused by this turn of events. I like that, while he still gets mad at them for not paying their rent, his relationship with the duo does seem a bit deeper, almost like he enjoys the challenge that they bring to his daily life.

After a brief detour back to the drugstore from the previous episode (a fun little callback and attention to continuity), we get to the highlight, which is of course Costello trying to get arrested and failing multiple times, at first due to people just finding excuses to hurt him, but eventually going on to save people and foil robberies. It’s just so funny seeing Costello finally have something good happen to him for once, but he can’t enjoy it because he just wants the tooth gone and continues to have these hilariously miserable expressions, and making it even better is that Mike the Cop, who’s always looking for an excuse to arrest Lou, is always put in a bad light for trying to arrest him. I really like how, when Costello has his tooth tied to the car, it doesn’t just automatically start with them pulling him away like you’d expect; there’s this very funny build up to it where Costello literally gets caught in the middle of the shootout and the car almost backs into him; another really clever physical routine that ultimately results in him getting what he wants...just not in the way that he expects, and they even go out of their way to fool the audience at the very end too.

So, overall, another good episode even though I don’t like the first routine. Physical routines are focused on more this episode, which is good as it gives them a chance to save more verbal routines to be spread out through later episodes. Very fun second half especially and Sid Fields really shows his comic skills throughout.

[NoahYoung]

I guess I'm late to the party. Better late than never. Haven't checked-in in awhile.
At least you are only up to episode 2. I will go by old my notes now and memory until I have a chance to start re-watching each one of them for the thousandth time.
I rate using the 4-star system. from 0 - 4 including 1/2s.  That gives you 9 separate ratings.
My ratings are relative to other episodes of the Abbott & Costello Show, and to A&C as a whole.

Rating: 3 and 1/2 out of 4.

Routines/bits:
- Bread is the mother of the airplane
- You're 40 she's 10
- Hillary speaks French routine -- lifted from RIO RITA
- Mr. Fields (as druggist) insults Costello, who mistakes them for compliments
- Dentist office/tooth pulling routines lifted from THE NOOSE HANGS HIGH
- Trying to get arrested routine lifted from THE NOOSE HANGS HIGH

Other notes:
- Joe Kirk plays 2 roles: a gangster, and Mr. Bacciagalupe
- Sidney Fields plays 3 roles: Dentist, Druggist, and Mr. Fields the Landlord.
- Stinky does not appear

This is a classic example of the unoriginality of the show, which plays like a digest of THE NOOSE HANGS HIGH, with some other random routines thrown in. This isn't really a knock on the show -- it's great to have everything in undiluted form, although THE NOOSE HANGS HIGH was an undiluted feature.

BTW, in PARDON US, Stan and Ollie visit the jail's dentist office. So maybe it used to be a "thing".

[metaldams]

I was hoping you’d come back and participate in these Bud and Lou discussions.  You’re definitely the expert.  Good to see you here, episode three will be in a few days.

[NoahYoung]

I was hoping you’d come back and participate in these Bud and Lou discussions.  You’re definitely the expert.  Good to see you here, episode three will be in a few days.

I'm the expert? Schucks, folks, I'm speechless.
If I am, it's a result of a mis-spent youth sitting in front of the boob-tube.

[NoahYoung]

I don't know where else to put this information, so I'll put it here.

One of Lou's reasons for doing the show was so he could copyright and own all the routines.  Bud and Lou's timing in these shows is nothing short of brilliant. If you watch their feature AFRICA SCREAMS (directed by the very talented Charles Barton), and then watch the TV episode "Safari", you won't believe the world of difference and improvement in the latter. Of course, the live COLGATE shows are another entity altogether, since they let you see the boys work with a REAL audience.

The second season brought in Clyde Bruckman as writer, and the scripts were formula situations as opposed to bizarre formats for brilliant routines. Also, the show moved from Hal Roach to General Service and it really looked dingy. And gone were Joe Besser, Hillary Brooke, Joe Kirk, Joan Shawley, Murray Leonard, Elvia Allman and many of the other great burlesque players.

The show was filmed with one-camera. (The Mulholland book claims that a second camera was used to focus on Lou and catch all his unscripted bits of business,
but I highly doubt it.)

There were TWO soundtracks made for each episode. The first track, "Audience 1", featured a combination of the live-recorded laughter (recorded during a film playback
of the show), and CANNED laughter. This is also known as a "sweetened" laugh track.

The second track, "Audience 2", was ONLY the live-recorded laughter. There was a very sparse live audience. In fact, part of the charm of the programs was the
laughter, since it sounded like a half-full burlesque house (with Bud's sister close to the mic. Lou supposedly loved her laugh.) For the original network prints and the 16mm prints, this is the sound track they used.

WPIX used to run 35mm prints of the show back in the 60's. A lot of music from the show wound up in the MCA music library and showed up in later shows like LEAVE IT TO BEAVER.

When the 35mm negatives were re-accessed for transfer back in the 90's (for the DL Taffner syndication package), the "Audience 1" sweetened laugh track was used, and it really hurt. There was a reason they didn't use the augmented audience tracks originally, and they should have simply discarded them to prevent such a mistake. Even though the second season had two laugh track negatives, even the "Audience 2" live-recorded track incorporated some sweetening. The "Audience 1" tracks for the second season are almost unbearable with lots of annoying laugh loops. The shows were also HORRIBLY time compressed (basically sped-up).

The Passport DVDs appear to be the "Audience 2" tracks with just the live laughter, although there was probably some sweetening added when they were created. In the first pressing, at least 2 episodes mistakenly used the time compressed DL Haffner transfers. I was able to get replacement discs for these episodes from Passport simply by emailing them, as they had rectified the mistake.

I do not know which soundtracks are used on the latest DVD release by Bob Furmanek. All he has said is that a few full episodes, and some scenes from others,
have the option of viewing them without ANY laugh track at all.  I would guess that the "Audience 2" laugh tracks are used for other episodes.


Here are the official episode titles for Season One, some of which differ from those listed on the Passport DVDs:

DRUG STORE
DENTIST
JAIL
VACATION
LOU’S BIRTHDAY PARTY
ALASKA
VACUUM CLEANER SALESMAN
ARMY 
POTS AND PANS
CHARITY BAZAAR
THE WESTERN
HAUNTED HOUSE
PEACE AND QUIET
HUNGRY
MUSIC LOVER
POLITICIAN
WRESTLING
GETTING A JOB
CHIMPANZEE
HILLARY’S BIRTHDAY
TELEVISION SHOW 
LAS VEGAS
LITTLE OLD LADY
ACTOR’S HOME
POLICE ROOKIE
SAFARI