Discuss - Ep #0072

[Watching Project]

Robservations #72

                               

And if you'd care to look back, the first WP discussion topic for this ep:

Re: Discuss - Ep #0072

[dom]

Carolyn's an ass and a stooge and quite unlikable. Liz is an ass. Vicki holds her own against them both. Mrs. Johnson is pitiful and sinister. Bennett flubs, everyone else does a good job including KLS, whose Maggie is quite intuitive when it comes to Mrs. Johnson. Not a boring episode. And probably will be forever known for its two comic relief moments with the Mayo and the tip, perhaps making it Mrs. Johnson's episode as Clarice Blackburn steals the show.

Barrett and Bennett both look especially attractive. Clarice Blackburn has some very good moments, as does Barrett and Moltke. Bennett redeems herself in her last scene.

[McTrooper]

The dialogue is really enjoyable.  I wonder if a good chunk of was scripted long before the show was produced?

We’re soap operas of the time that enjoyably scripted? 
Was some of it just the style of the day and actually less clever than it seems now? 

I’ve read through the summary before (a year or two ago), but it’s fun looking at the source of the Mayonnaise reference that’s been a source of so many captions and fill in the blank games for myself and others. 

[alwaysdavid]

     Carolyn decides Vickie is her rival and blows things all out of proportion. It was amusing that Carolyn brings up the never ending foundling home stories that don’t always seem to mesh with each other. Vickie stated that nothing really ever happened to her before Collinwood, yet there are the endless stream of stories for almost any occasion. Carolyn was mostly annoying.
     Mrs. Johnson just seems so entitled that it’s hard to imagine Malloy putting up with her. The Mayo reminds me of childhood horror stories about dying from eating bad mayo.

[McTrooper]

Wow death  by mayonnaise.  I would have thought that was even a rumor.

Great summary alwaysdavid

[Bob_the_Bartender]

Who’s tighter with a buck (or a nickel): Sarah Johnson or Judith Collins-Trask? 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

That is an excellent question, BtB - one that I couldn't even begin to answer! 

I don't know if the rule back in the '60s was that you were supposed to tip at least 15%, but if we judge by that rule, Mrs. Johnson tipping only a dime would mean that her coffee and pie cost only 67 cents. Sure, a cup of coffee back then was a lot cheaper than it is now, but was one that cheap? And what about a piece of pie? I've never noticed if there's some sort of price list behind the diner's counter. But be that as it may, Maggie certainly expected a better tip...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I really was curious so I did a Google search to see if I could find a Web site that might say what a cup of coffee and a piece of pie cost in 1966. I was surprised to actually come across these two:

The Price of Coffee the Year You Were Born

Remembering What a Buck Could Buy in the 1960s

But what's even more surprising is that according to those sites, the average cup of coffee cost only 37 cents in 1966 and a piece of pie cost only 35 cents. That means that easily Mrs. Johnson's bill at the diner could have been only about 72 cents. Her tip doesn't look so cheap now, does it...

[Bob_the_Bartender]

Yes, maybe Sarah Johnson’s tip wasn’t that bad after all.

Still, Maggie didn’t look or sound very pleased when Mrs. Johnson gave her that “munificent” tip. 

Actually, I think they do have the prices for the various food items listed on that chart on the wall of the Collinsport Inn Coffee Shop from time to time. I think a roast beef sandwich went for around .95 cents.

No doubt, Barnabas, man of the 18th century, had “sticker shock,” when he saw those 1967 prices on the wall when he first met Maggie at the coffee shop!