The First Time
Airdate: 10/03/1983
Summary: Lee Stetson aka Scarecrow, secret agent working for the elusive Agency inadvertently embroils housewife, divorcée and mother of two Amanda King in a dangerous mission.
Take Cover: In the opening scene, Lee is dressed as a waiter in a tuxedo; Later Lee takes on another waiter persona, this time dressed as a pirate at a drive-in restaurant called Moby Dick's. Amanda uses her real-life role as a den mother to gather information about the Colonial Cookery show.
Spy Speak: When Lee and Amanda meet at the party: Amanda: "How did you find me?" Lee: "We have our ways." Amanda: "I thought only Nazis and spies said that." Lee: "Well, I'm not a Nazi."
Amanda: "So, you're a spy?" Lee: "Actually, we don't say 'spy.'"
Amanda: (to Francine) "So, do you like this work or is it mostly tapping phones?"
Lee: "You sure know the hot spots." Amanda: "Well, we couldn't exactly meet at the grocery store, could we? Anyway, isn't this where you guys meet? Like in isolated place, kinda' creepy and stuff?" Lee: "Yeah, only when we wear trench coats."
Amanda: "That is what you say, isn't it? Freeze?" Lee: "Yeah, usually when you're armed."
Weapons of Mass Distraction: Amanda uses a stray melon to great effect, causing it to topple over boxes of produce and allow herself time to scamper into the basement of Mrs. Welch's home. "You dropped your melon."
Pointing her fingers in the shape of a gun, she shouts "Freeze!" to distract the goon who was loading Lee into the helicopter.
This section wouldn't be complete without also including the helicopter flight as Amanda tried to learn how to fly it with Lee shouting instructions at her.
Shouldn't I know How to Hit?: Amanda: "I might need some special training. I'm not sure I have the right skills. I mean, I type, I don't shoot, you know?"
Stay in the Car: Twice, Lee tries to say goodbye to Amanda and get her away from the Agency life. Lee: "Anyway, I'm sorry I dragged you into all of this." Amanda: That sounds like a good-bye." Lee: "It is. You have another life to get back to."
Lee: "Amanda, I think you ought to stay away from all of this. People in my business have years of training. It could get dangerous. Even worse, you could screw things up."
Partners in Crime Fighting: Lee: "I happen to like being alone. You'll notice that I don't even work with a partner." Amanda: "No, I hadn't, but that's probably because we were too busy working together." Lee: "No, no, no. You were not a partner. You were an emergency."
Also, in the tag: Billy: "Scarecrow, I think we finally found you a partner. Lee: "Knock it off, Billy.
We're Not Involved: In the party scene, Lee and Amanda are dancing awfully closely for two people who just met.
Black Book Babes: In the same party scene, Celeste Van Kreswinkle blatantly hits on Lee, at which point, he awkwardly introduces her to Amanda. Celeste: "You came dressed as a housewife. That's nutty!"
Whopper of the Week: Amanda needs an excuse for her mother to watch the boys, so she tells her she'll be "at my club." Dotty: (after Amanda has left) What club? When arriving home that evening drenched to the bone, Amanda adds to the lie, "Marine life, Mother, to save the clams."
Denial, Thy Name is Dotty: See above. When Amanda hurries off, leaving the cub scouts in Dotty's hands citing an emergency at her club, Dotty utters the now-classic phrase, "Clams again, Dear?" In the penultimate scene of the episode, she can be seen watching news footage of Mrs. Welch's arrest, not putting together that her daughter was responsible for it.
Mother Knows Best: On the subject of Dean, "A good relationship is nothing to tamper with."
Boys Will Be Boys: Amanda has to scold both boys at different times in this episode. To Jamie, "No sugar sandwiches," and to Phillip, "Do NOT hit your brother in the head with trash."
Jamie: "Why can't Dean take himself to the train station?" Phillip: "'cause they're in love, Stupid."
Then there is the cute "I opened the present," scene where Phillip reveals that he peeked inside Lee's package thinking it was a Christmas present, complete with Jamie's gleeful, "Now, you're gonna' get it."
New Normal: Amanda attempts to invite Lee for Thanksgiving dinner.
Leaps of a Logical Mind: Amanda brilliantly puts together that the coded message inside the package were recipes from Mrs. Welch's cooking show.
Rescue Me: Lee is overpowered during the investigation and held captive by Mrs. Welch and her cronies. Amanda charges in to rescue him.
Only the Good Die Young: In the opening sequence, Agent Frank Warner is killed right after handing off the package to Lee. Agent Guthrie AKA the man in the red hat, to whom Lee was supposed to pass the package is killed off-screen and is body appears in the morgue. References are also made to blown missions leading to the deaths of Fielding in Portland and Jeffries in D.C.
Bad to the Bone: Mrs. Welch was using her cooking show to send coded messages to the KGB via her recipes, leading to thwarted missions and the deaths of several agents. She gained the inside information by drugging Francine during her cooking lessons.
Cracking the Case: Trekking to Mrs. Welch's home, Amanda discovers that Francine has been drugged by Mrs. Welch and unwittingly providing top-secret mission information. She learns how to fly a helicopter, which is her and Lee's only escape route.
Francine Fun: Francine on Amanda, "I understand she...knits...or something."
Amanda, on Francine, "Nose job."
Also the gem, "I've decided to go back to school...learning how to cook."
Continuity: This is a continuity-fest. This is where it's first mentioned that Lee has suffered at least one loss that has led to his aloofness. "A partner is a guy who laughs at your jokes, he loans you his socks, and one day, he takes a bullet in the head for you." We get the sense as viewers that this is why he is so reluctant to call Amanda his partner.
We are given the impression that Francine had a bit of a privileged upbringing in the fact that she never learned to cook and Amanda suggests that she's had a nose job.
We get our first hints of just how pushy Dotty can be when it comes to her daughter's love life in her comments about Dean and that Amanda is not ready to commit. "It'll be nice when you get married..." Amanda reminds her mother that she's only been divorced for a year.
It is also established that handing off the package to Amanda isn't the first time that Lee has used that ploy. According to Francine, "It was the same ploy that Lee used in Munich in his brilliant rescue of Dr. Forbisher's formula," however, it is not stated when this happened and it's never mentioned again. It is also established that Dotty doesn't drive. See "Fearless Dotty."
We get hints that Amanda needs to work, both from the beginning when she teases Dean about needing someone at the Weather Bureau and in the tag when she asks Billy "Does this job pay anything?"
This episode also establishes that Amanda has been divorced for a year and is in a relationship with Dean McGuire. The relationship appears to be serious enough that he lets himself into her home near the end of the episode with a cheerful, "Hi, Honey, it's Dean." Between her comments to Dotty about needing more time and her lack of response to Dean's half-joking, "I only hire people who marry me," we are given the impression that's it's more serious on his side than hers.
Summary: Lee Stetson aka Scarecrow, secret agent working for the elusive Agency inadvertently embroils housewife, divorcée and mother of two Amanda King in a dangerous mission.
Take Cover: In the opening scene, Lee is dressed as a waiter in a tuxedo; Later Lee takes on another waiter persona, this time dressed as a pirate at a drive-in restaurant called Moby Dick's. Amanda uses her real-life role as a den mother to gather information about the Colonial Cookery show.
Spy Speak: When Lee and Amanda meet at the party: Amanda: "How did you find me?" Lee: "We have our ways." Amanda: "I thought only Nazis and spies said that." Lee: "Well, I'm not a Nazi."
Amanda: "So, you're a spy?" Lee: "Actually, we don't say 'spy.'"
Amanda: (to Francine) "So, do you like this work or is it mostly tapping phones?"
Lee: "You sure know the hot spots." Amanda: "Well, we couldn't exactly meet at the grocery store, could we? Anyway, isn't this where you guys meet? Like in isolated place, kinda' creepy and stuff?" Lee: "Yeah, only when we wear trench coats."
Amanda: "That is what you say, isn't it? Freeze?" Lee: "Yeah, usually when you're armed."
Weapons of Mass Distraction: Amanda uses a stray melon to great effect, causing it to topple over boxes of produce and allow herself time to scamper into the basement of Mrs. Welch's home. "You dropped your melon."
Pointing her fingers in the shape of a gun, she shouts "Freeze!" to distract the goon who was loading Lee into the helicopter.
This section wouldn't be complete without also including the helicopter flight as Amanda tried to learn how to fly it with Lee shouting instructions at her.
Shouldn't I know How to Hit?: Amanda: "I might need some special training. I'm not sure I have the right skills. I mean, I type, I don't shoot, you know?"
Stay in the Car: Twice, Lee tries to say goodbye to Amanda and get her away from the Agency life. Lee: "Anyway, I'm sorry I dragged you into all of this." Amanda: That sounds like a good-bye." Lee: "It is. You have another life to get back to."
Lee: "Amanda, I think you ought to stay away from all of this. People in my business have years of training. It could get dangerous. Even worse, you could screw things up."
Partners in Crime Fighting: Lee: "I happen to like being alone. You'll notice that I don't even work with a partner." Amanda: "No, I hadn't, but that's probably because we were too busy working together." Lee: "No, no, no. You were not a partner. You were an emergency."
Also, in the tag: Billy: "Scarecrow, I think we finally found you a partner. Lee: "Knock it off, Billy.
We're Not Involved: In the party scene, Lee and Amanda are dancing awfully closely for two people who just met.
Black Book Babes: In the same party scene, Celeste Van Kreswinkle blatantly hits on Lee, at which point, he awkwardly introduces her to Amanda. Celeste: "You came dressed as a housewife. That's nutty!"
Whopper of the Week: Amanda needs an excuse for her mother to watch the boys, so she tells her she'll be "at my club." Dotty: (after Amanda has left) What club? When arriving home that evening drenched to the bone, Amanda adds to the lie, "Marine life, Mother, to save the clams."
Denial, Thy Name is Dotty: See above. When Amanda hurries off, leaving the cub scouts in Dotty's hands citing an emergency at her club, Dotty utters the now-classic phrase, "Clams again, Dear?" In the penultimate scene of the episode, she can be seen watching news footage of Mrs. Welch's arrest, not putting together that her daughter was responsible for it.
Mother Knows Best: On the subject of Dean, "A good relationship is nothing to tamper with."
Boys Will Be Boys: Amanda has to scold both boys at different times in this episode. To Jamie, "No sugar sandwiches," and to Phillip, "Do NOT hit your brother in the head with trash."
Jamie: "Why can't Dean take himself to the train station?" Phillip: "'cause they're in love, Stupid."
Then there is the cute "I opened the present," scene where Phillip reveals that he peeked inside Lee's package thinking it was a Christmas present, complete with Jamie's gleeful, "Now, you're gonna' get it."
New Normal: Amanda attempts to invite Lee for Thanksgiving dinner.
Leaps of a Logical Mind: Amanda brilliantly puts together that the coded message inside the package were recipes from Mrs. Welch's cooking show.
Rescue Me: Lee is overpowered during the investigation and held captive by Mrs. Welch and her cronies. Amanda charges in to rescue him.
Only the Good Die Young: In the opening sequence, Agent Frank Warner is killed right after handing off the package to Lee. Agent Guthrie AKA the man in the red hat, to whom Lee was supposed to pass the package is killed off-screen and is body appears in the morgue. References are also made to blown missions leading to the deaths of Fielding in Portland and Jeffries in D.C.
Bad to the Bone: Mrs. Welch was using her cooking show to send coded messages to the KGB via her recipes, leading to thwarted missions and the deaths of several agents. She gained the inside information by drugging Francine during her cooking lessons.
Cracking the Case: Trekking to Mrs. Welch's home, Amanda discovers that Francine has been drugged by Mrs. Welch and unwittingly providing top-secret mission information. She learns how to fly a helicopter, which is her and Lee's only escape route.
Francine Fun: Francine on Amanda, "I understand she...knits...or something."
Amanda, on Francine, "Nose job."
Also the gem, "I've decided to go back to school...learning how to cook."
Continuity: This is a continuity-fest. This is where it's first mentioned that Lee has suffered at least one loss that has led to his aloofness. "A partner is a guy who laughs at your jokes, he loans you his socks, and one day, he takes a bullet in the head for you." We get the sense as viewers that this is why he is so reluctant to call Amanda his partner.
We are given the impression that Francine had a bit of a privileged upbringing in the fact that she never learned to cook and Amanda suggests that she's had a nose job.
We get our first hints of just how pushy Dotty can be when it comes to her daughter's love life in her comments about Dean and that Amanda is not ready to commit. "It'll be nice when you get married..." Amanda reminds her mother that she's only been divorced for a year.
It is also established that handing off the package to Amanda isn't the first time that Lee has used that ploy. According to Francine, "It was the same ploy that Lee used in Munich in his brilliant rescue of Dr. Forbisher's formula," however, it is not stated when this happened and it's never mentioned again. It is also established that Dotty doesn't drive. See "Fearless Dotty."
We get hints that Amanda needs to work, both from the beginning when she teases Dean about needing someone at the Weather Bureau and in the tag when she asks Billy "Does this job pay anything?"
This episode also establishes that Amanda has been divorced for a year and is in a relationship with Dean McGuire. The relationship appears to be serious enough that he lets himself into her home near the end of the episode with a cheerful, "Hi, Honey, it's Dean." Between her comments to Dotty about needing more time and her lack of response to Dean's half-joking, "I only hire people who marry me," we are given the impression that's it's more serious on his side than hers.
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