Wesley, who strikes out at meeting girls
at a laundromat, is amazed when Mr. Belvedere meets an attractive woman
there by the name of Louise Gilbert. She had just spent 5 years in
Rwanda researching apes when her grant money ran out and the University
of Pittsburgh offered her a spot as a guest lecturer. Having spent time
in Africa himself, Mr. Belvedere and Louise find they have a lot of things
in common and hit it off immediately.
Back home, Kevin is down with the chicken pox, mightily concerned
about losing a girl he likes because he can't go out with her. Heather
is annoyed when she gets assigned to attend to Kevin's needs. Louise arrives
to pick up Mr. Belvedere for their date and he introduces her to the rest
of the family. George makes fun, Louise puts him in his place and everyone
realizes that they really like her.
Wesley wants to go on a date with Marjorie and having no car, they double
date with Mr. Belvedere and Louise at a local drive in. Wesley is horrified
when he realizes that when the two are together, Mr. Belvedere and Louise
are more juvenile and crazy than him. Mr. Belvedere spends his days
in happy stupor, cracking jokes and singing and spending more time with
Louise.
The family starts to get concerned that Mr. Belvedere is getting serious
with his relationship with Louise and Mr. Belvedere is too, specially
when Louise invites him for a weekend in a cabin in the mountains.
"The
prospect of a weekend with Louise is quite appealing.
After
all, I haven't skinny dipped since that festival at
Woodstock.
On
the other hand perhaps events are hurtling on too
far too fast.
The
real problem is, old romantic feelings I'd long
thought lost
are
stirring once again."
Fearful of a
committment, Mr. Belvedere gets cold feet and decides to go out with the
Hufnagel's cousin Giselle instead. Before they can go out, Louise arrives
to see them together. Mr. Belvedere gropes for an explanation and
finally manages to say that he and Louise never really had an understanding.
Confused, Louise asks him to speak with her privately. The Owens' family
of course, listen in. Fearing a frightful confrontation, the family expects
the worst. That's when Mr. Belvedere comes back in to announce that
he and Louise are getting married.
Louise Gilbert
- Rosemary Forsyth
Giselle Hufnagel - Teresa
Ganzel
Marjorie - Laura
Mooney
The Cast
This is probably
the only episode where Kevin (Rob Stone) does not appear in. Curiously
enough, this would be difficult to understand since he co-directed this
particular episode with regular director Don Corvan. In the entire
episode, Kevin is supposed to be in bed quarantined with the chicken pox.
The script
was cleverly written so that Kevin was so often talked about, specially
by Heather (who was assigned to see to Kevin's needs), that it seemed
Kevin wasn't absent at all. There was a lame attempt to put Kevin physically
in the episode by putting an actor in literally a monkey suit, who was
supposed to be Kevin trying to get out of the house and wore the suit to
hide his chickenpox sores. It didn't work for me, at least ,because the
actor they got was a tad short and I was unconvinced it was actually Rob
Stone under it.
Rosemary
Forsyth (credited as Rosemary Forsyth-Yuro) appears as Louise Gilbert.
It is curious to note that Rosemary appeared previously in the show as
the Hufnagel's housekeeper Ilsa Schumacher, the only other woman
with whom Mr. Belvedere had serious feelings for. Watched one after
the other, this would really prove to be confusing.
The Hufnagels
Howie, Fifi, Homer,
Granma and Hortence Hufangel have been neighbors with the Owens ever since
the first season. Curiously, not one of them ever appeared on
screen and existed only in conversations. Often mentioned but never
seen. That is, until this episode where a previously unmentioned
cousin Giselle appears as Mr. Belvedere's date played by Teresa Ganzel. |
