I think Rita later says she had 'people looking in on them.' Fwiw.

Same here. Even the threat of violent bullying didn't cause a kid to think of the police. I remember at 15 another kid who owed me a few bucks pulled a knife on me during lunch. I fended him off, and for whatever reason bringing police or the principal into it didn't occur to me. We just lived in different world from…

Yeah. I remember someone deciding that Frankie stealing rolls of toilet paper in the Disneyworld episode spoke so poorly of her character that they could no longer watch the show.

We have an ILL program here, though my state's libraries are so poorly stocked it often doesn't help.

A rare forgettable episode.

Her insistence too that she'd prove something that might very well turn out to be incorrect was grounds alone for an "F" given how clearly that showed she failed to understand the assignment or the nature of scientific hypotheses.

Darrin's hope that a bobcat would be loosed within the high school might have been his best moment.

Perhaps not, but the New Yorker cover showing everything west of the Hudson as little more than desert is very much how New Yorkers see the U.S.

Bingo! It's one of the virtues of having a smallish cast.

She was also involved in the hilarious bit where Sue steps on her hem to keep Ruth from departing after the regular cheerleaders bring it.

You and your wife are mentally warped deviants.

Yeah. It's you, Vicki. It's always you.

Still not seeing it. McDermott's not twelve years old. Could someone PLEASE tell him to stop shouting his lines?

If you weren't, you couldn't write.

McDermott is bland looking, scrawny, and has beady little eyes and a small face that doesn't show up well on camera. Shave his head and he's got nothing: The quintessential hair actor.

"Mike, however, sucks away most of her good mood as soon as she walks
back in the house, immediately fearing the worst about her enthusiasm."

How much control does Heaton have over the scripts, though? And her character's religiosity is laughed at more often than not. Remember when her pastor was encouraging the congregation to pray for so and so's recovery from throat polyps? The family looks to Frankie, who shakes her head "no."

Great post. I'm going to guess most voters don't get beyond "young actress playing goofy kid." I'll be fascinated to see in what direction Sher's career goes.

It's remarkable, too, how many different reaction shots the actress pulls off. Atticus Shaffer has only a few, but they're quite funny. Charlie McDermott has one, as far as I can tell. Neil Flynn has about half a dozen that he uses to good effect but after a couple of seasons it's clear they're pretty stock.

I think the episode pulled in the series' highest episode rating on imdb, for whatever that's worth.