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Sunday, September 5, 2010

"Feeny's a butt!!" aka Father Knows Less

Alan and Cory are making "lunch" to go see the Blue Angels. From what I can surmise, it seems they've each put an entire package of bologna between two slices of bread, thrown it in a bag with some chips, and called it a day. To each their own I guess. The assistant manager at the store comes in and introduces himself to everyone for what seems like the eleventeenth time. Leonard Spinelli is played by Willie Garson of Sex and the City, and appears as different characters a couple times in Boy Meets World. Here, he's timid, socially awkward, and kind of a terrible assistant manager.

Anyway, a case of Perrier has fallen down and collided with a case of Alka Seltzer so Alan runs off, disappointing Cory. Alan says he'll make it up to him, but it's pretty clear how bummed Cory is. That night, Alan wakes Cory up to see the Phillies no-hitter against the Dodgers. Cory is really happy that he's spending quality time with his dad, and they stay up past midnight.

No surprise here- Cory falls asleep and fails a test the next day at school. He tells Alan about it and Amy overhears. She gets upset and Alan promises to smooth everything over by asking Mr. Feeny if Cory can take a make-up test.

The talk doesn't go well. Feeny refuses to let Cory make up the test and accuses Alan of not understanding the burden of being a teacher. Alan flips it around and says Mr. Feeny doesn't understand trying to spend quality time with his kids because he never had any, then leaves a dejected Mr. Feeny standing alone. Alan apologizes to Cory and offers to take him to play tennis.

Before they can leave, Spinelli comes by again. There's been a small fire at the store and Alan has to take care of it. Cory goes into the yard to hit tennis balls himself and hits one into Mr. Feeny's yard. Feeny invites Cory to sit down and have a drink with him. Cory gets really excited and pours everything from the decanter into a sherry glass, but it's just apple juice. Mr. Feeny tells Cory a story about how he was a boy during World War II and wanted candy, butter, and sneakers but couldn't have any because of the war. One day, young Feeny heard the war was ending and asked his dad if he could stay up and listen to the radio announcement with him. His dad said no and Feeny went to bed at the normal time. Cory says he sees the point, and Feen says he doesn't. He goes on to explain that the process of education is far reaching and so broad that the occasional no hitter or radio announcement won't derail it, and it's important for sons to spend time with their fathers.

Alan comes out to tell Cory to get ready for bed, and he apologizes to Mr. Feeny. Feeny accepts, and tells Alan he's a good father and if he'd had a son he'd wake him up sometimes too. At bedtime, Cory asks Amy why Mr. Feeny said Alan was right and Alan said Mr. Feeny was right. Amy says sometimes there's two sides to each story and they can both be right.

Roundup:

* When Amy finds out Alan let Cory stay up, she says he needs to figure out how to let Cory make up the grade or "he's grounded." Cory asks how grown-ups can be grounded and Alan just looks distressed and says "there's certain ways..." Heh. Dirty.

* Eric is talking on the phone to Heather apologizing for a hickey he gave her. Still Heather, eh? My girl tally is suffering.

* This episode is full of innuendo. After everything gets resolved at bedtime, Alan asks Amy if he's still grounded and Amy says they can talk about it while she leads him out of the room. Cory smiles and comments that they won't be back tonight. I don't know if I was that aware of my parent's sex life at 11.

* I think Mr. Feeny is pretty disappointed he never had kids all the way through the series. It's nice to see some continuity starting.

2 comments:

  1. The young Feeny story always makes me tear up.

    I like to think that Feeny does always wish he had kids, but that's why he got so invested in Cory, Eric, Shawn, and Topanga. They were like his surrogate kids. Fa-ha-eeny! :)

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