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Abbott and Costello Show - Season 1, Ep. 9 -Pots and Pans (1953)

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Offline metaldams



       Good to be watching Bud and Lou again.  Now we’re on the ninth episode, POTS AND PANS, a very Lou-centric episode.  Bud is in the back ground and even in the obligatory scam you out of your change scene, it’s Lou doing the scamming this time, the victim being Mr. Bacciagalupe!  Not quite as elaborate as when Bud does it, but still fun seeing Lou gaslight Bacciagalupe for giving Lou change for an item Lou never bought in the first place.  Then we get the throwing away of bad tomatoes which always end up in Officer Mike’s face!  They milk this gag pretty well, even taking it to different settings, such as outdoors or in the apartment.  Sometimes it’s Lou who throws the tomatoes, sometimes it’s someone else, but it’s always Lou getting blamed and a great display to see Officer Mike get angry, always a comic plus in my eyes.

      The main point of the short is Lou invites the whole neighborhood over for a meal to try to sell the pots and pans he’s cooking them in.  A wonderful excuse for some good old early 1950’s kitchen shenanigans which I’m a fan of.  Floating gassy turkey that floats in the air that Lou chases down?  Check.  Some soap substituting accidentally for Parmesan cheese that causes the guests to blow bubbles when they talk?  Check.  Seriously, they can make a blu ray box set of comic shorts where soap is substituted for something else.  I love the duck in the bonnet and always get a kick out of the gangster with the soft heart who refuses to kill the duck.  Love the homey neighborhood feel in general, everyone is invited!  Break out the ironing board for a bench.  Good stuff, another fun episode and one that put me in the mood to watch a few Shemp shorts this Saturday morning.
- Doug Sarnecky


Offline Umbrella Sam

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A very fun episode and one that actually seems quite original for Bud and Lou; there aren’t any routines from their films as far as I can tell. The closest is the “scamming out of change” scene, which even then has a nice twist with Lou being the scammer and, knowing Lou, it seems like he legitimately was confused by the situation, he wasn’t doing it on purpose. Bacciagalupe and Mike get some funny scenes in the first half, but for the second half, they and Hillary are kind of just in the background, as it becomes a vehicle for Lou to mess around in a kitchen. Very much a Three Stooges type thing, yes, and the floating turkey particularly reminded me of the floating cake in LISTEN, JUDGE. In this case, though, Lou is simply trying to get the cake down whereas in the previous example, Shemp and Larry are trying to hide the fact from Moe. So, yeah, even that part feels unique to Costello and while there are predictable moments such as Lou accidentally substituting soap for cheese, even those are done with such great comic energy from Lou that they work. I also really liked the twist with the duck; Costello bonding with the hit man about how they take care of ducks was something I definitely was not expecting. So, yeah, another fun episode, one of the best ones I’ve seen so far.
“I’ll take a milkshake...with sour milk!” -Shemp (Punchy Cowpunchers, 1950)

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