Walk 1-6/6 Season One, Episode 19:Fearless Dotty-Scarecrow and Mrs King

We pick up the episode with Keene frantically packing his bags – and then.. there’s  a bang on his back door – you just know he doesn’t want to answer it because it’s not going to be good! teee heee.. This time is better though- it’s Billy! (ok it is a moustache, but this is a good moustache! Billy drinks coffee-not tea! )

Funny! Love how as Billy enters the room Keene starts in with: Ok, well I know my rights. ( this is usually where the baddie says- I want my lawyer! but not Keene!!) he continues: Just tell me where to start? You need my tape recorder?! teee heee! Billy keeps a stern face and just says: Later! tee hee.. you can imagine Billy is trying to not to react to this dill!  

Whooo Billy gets all condescending and intimidating with Keene- I actually find Billy hard to take seriously- LOL! ( too much of Lee ordering Billy around I guess! ) But at least Keene believes him! and he chooses to help the agency and as usual save his own hide… Billy’s disgust at Keene and having to deal with him is soooo evident – I enjoyed that!

How’s this for tough guy dialogue: We know you Keene, you give slime a bad name. [How did Mel Stewart not crack up laughing at having to say that?!!] Keene nervously chuckles and shrugs in response saying ‘ Well ‘ like  it is  a bit of a compliment too!
Billy lays on the disgust pretty thick here: there’s even a chance we may find a human being in you… somewhere! Whoooooo very satisfying!!

Billy: I’ll send in a team to brief you as to what we expect. Billy starts heading for the door but suddenly stops remembering to demand:
Oh, get me a copy of Skychief rides again!  ROFLOL!!! Love the delivery here!!! Billy is so stern, and wants a kid’s book! tee hee..

 

Back to Amanda’s street and the blue sedan with the two baddies (who had previously been following the other two baddies) pulls up at Amanda’s.. (how confusing is it having 2 sets of two baddies?!) Love how they drive past Dotty’s very slowly- not even noting the crew that are parked right out the front! And the crew don’t seem to notice them either! I think everyone in this moment has a case of Dotty syndrome!!

These baddies turn off and park around a corner close by.. at the same time, along comes the Blue Cable Van with the other two baddies..
Whoo finally we find out Carlo’s partner’s name- Ramen or something?? is that like the Japanese noodle dish?! tee hee.. So the other baddies just sit back and watch as usual.. too many baddies..

Great protection! Not!! A cable van pulls up and they don’t even wonder.. a guy in a suit gets out of the Cable Van and rings Dotty’s doorbell- but they let him? How many cable guys wear suits?! LOL.. Ramen is ringing the door bell but Dotty is still in a world of her own – She is in the middle of beating Phillip’s birthday cake with the electric mixer- while watching what sounds like very loud cowboys and indians with extreme concentration on the tv! tee hee.. Random!

Lee and Amanda turn into her street and Lee is immediately concerned about the Cable Van ( gee only a top agent would notice that eh! ) but if I were Lee.. I’d be more worried about that Magic car that suddenly appears beside them in the close up!

It’s kind of creepy!

LOL.. Lee gets something out and talks into it- what is that?? his wallet? LOL!! He radios Bob the builder to tell him the van in the drive is a possible security risk.. Then, and only then, do the agents who are suppose to be protecting Dotty enquire!! Soooo dumb!! this is the agency’s best men??? teee heee….

Too funny! so Bob gets out his big gun and yells ‘ Excuse me Sir, Hold it!’ standing in the middle of the road with no cover.. well what was he expecting? the guy to just say oopsie?? Ramen shoots at the agency guys and of course clueless Dotty is still mixing that cake and watching the noisy indians and shooting cowboys!( this tv show is so realistic sounding!! ) The agency guys shoot back at Ramen, towards the house- one of those bullets could have hit Dotty in the house! And who is going to fix all those bullet holes which would have sprayed the house?! check out this magic Bullet Ramen shot at the agency guys!
Carlo and Ramen take off.. they’re followed by the following baddies ( how confusing is that!)errr this guy:
all the baddies are off followed by Lee’s porsche and the agency guys! So nice to see them fighting each other and making easy work for Lee and Amanda! but.. I don’t understand why the blue car chases Carlo and Ramen- they could see Ramen go to Dotty’s door and get interrupted- so why chase them? they should have stayed behind and gone after Dotty- after all they know Dotty has the book, not Carlo and Ramen, because Keene told them??? help???And they knew Ramen was going there for the book- that’s why moustache baddie said he would let them do all the work. Aie! Looooong car chase.. boring! Ahhh moustache baddie in the sedan crashes and is stopped by the agency guys.. now it’s down to Lee and the blue van..

It’s pretty funny that Carlo looses Ramen out the back of the van!! (he had no moustache: amateur baddie!) Carlo really does turn out to be pretty lame at this baddie stuff! Love the look on Carlo’s face when he realises- like- Hmm! typical! Carlo pulls into a cul-de-sac ( typical!) and turns ready to charge at Lee who is blocking his exit. Hey.. check out how old that set looks behind the van.. got any ideas why that’s the case??
Oh nooo!! the poor Cable guy is still in the back of the van.. poor bloke! He looks terrified!

Carlo makes his move, he drives up along the front lawns of the homes, around Lee’s porsche- Amanda sees this and runs to the hose, turns it on and sprays it onto the windshield – man!! Not only was that clever, but it was also kind of dangerous! I mean Carlo could have hit her!.. but.. Go Amanda! (Although I suspect that is stunt Amanda ) Whoa.. Carlo could have hit Lee too!!! errr although, I suspect that is stunt Lee Ahhh and just look how old and run down those houses are! quite old fashioned wouldn’t you say?! Ohh lookie.. there is our explanation! Check out the street signs behind Lee! I have no idea where they have suddenly teleported to.. but it ain’t washington.. The Route 36 is no where near there!! tee hee.. Jag Junkie Rhonda over on the forum has solved this one I think – she suggested this is filmed on the Warner’s set.. for Dukes of Hazard! teee hee! How funny is that??!!! Yeeee haaaaa Lee! No wonder everything is looking so run down and country! Great Catch Rhonda I think you are on the money! 

Anyway, I’ll come back to that, but to finish out this scene, Lee does his heroic pull the baddie out of the car and slam him up against the van while calling him Pal – Amanda comes running and Lee tells her ‘See, we got him!’ – I’m not sure what he is referring to here.. it’s like a line of dialogue got cut.. but whatever.. oh and the Cable guy gets out of the van to join Lee and Amanda.. Amanda just stands there brushing her hands together like- ha! all done!! But because of Lee’s arm you really can’t see it!  Lee kinda groans and laughs a little at her.. Me? I don’t get it.. (do they do that brushing of hands in Dukes of Hazard???!!!) but hey I love to end a scene with a quirky funny moment as much as the next person and I do love to see Lee reacting to Amanda! oh and I love that you can still see the Dukes of Hazard signs in the background!!
Love Amanda’s buffalo stance here at the end of the scene- it’s like she is saying- no baddie messes with my family and gets away with it!! This victory is particularly sweet for Amanda!! This spotting of the dukes of Hazzard signs got me thinking..[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_36] In Dukes of Hazzard this square is called Hazzard square and apparently is used a lot as the centre of town- ( Set in a fictional town in georgia) any hazzard fans out there who recognise it? I found a virtual tour of this Warner’s lot – it’s called  ‘ Any town USA’ here is the link: http://www2.warnerbros.com/wbsf/virtualtour.html?virtualtour=midweststreet

It lists Gilmore Girls and Growing pains as being filmed there-(I don’t have access to either so can’t go hunting) doesn’t list smk.. Bad Warners! Anyway, it looks different of course, but you can still make out the cul-de-sac that Carlo drives down and the corner where he crashes I hope I can make it to Warners one day for a tour!! It seems to be a pretty random choice for smk- I guess they were low on street locations they could use that day.
Tag time, and Phillip’s party is well underway..

Dotty has a quiet word with Amanda: You know, he was so good about not getting Captain Galaxy, it made me even want to feel worse.
Love the look on Phillip’s face here as he serves up the cake- that must have been a real cake, and the boys really had some.. he is licking his lips and totally loving it!! How did Amanda explain not having it to Dotty?? and what about the book? how did she explain that?
Amanda: Mother, look, they’re all having a good time and that’s all that matters.
Dotty: And Sky Chief? I could have sworn that I put it in that present. I could have sworn!
Amanda: Well —

How is it Dotty can’t see Amanda is lying here?! It’s pretty obvious!! but.. oh well.. it doesn’t matter because whatever Amanda told her to explain it- she is going to have to come up with a new story now Lee has showed up with Captain Galaxy and the book! Gold Stars for Lee!
Amanda: OH!! Captain Galaxy!
Lee: I said I would.
Amanda: Yeah. How’d you do it?
Lee: Well, the manufacturers are in Taiwan, so it was just a matter of getting one of these to the naval air station in Guam, an air force transport brought it to the Bulling Air Base, and the rest was easy. Oh, and, uh. . . .
Both: Sky Chief Rides Again!
Amanda glances back at the party, she needs to be off! : Well, I wish I could ask you in for a piece of cake.
Lee: Well, just save me a piece.
Amanda: I will.
Lee: Oh! I didn’t mention it before, but you know that bit with the sprinkler and the hose?
Amanda: Yes.
Lee: That was all right.
Amanda: It was?
Lee: Yeah, your reaction time was pretty good, you thought right on your feet there.

Amanda: You were glad I was there.
Lee: Well, I. . . .
Amanda: I was glad I was there.
 Lee: Yeah.

Amanda: I gotta go.
Lee: Yeah.
Amanda: Thanks a lot.

Lee looks so happy to have kept his promise- like he is thinking: it is hard to catch all the bad guys, and the people who replace the ones you caught already – but this whole keeping a promise for a kid and making it the best birthday ever? This I can do!! Family has it’s rewards Lee! He looks like he wishes he could come in for cake doesn’t he!!

Lee compliments her???!!! whooo hooo!! he liked the water hose trick!! nice smile from Lee at the end too!!! He looks kinda sad she has to go!!! Yippeeeee!! A milestone ending that one.. Lee going out of his way to compliment Amanda’s work!!  

So, did anyone have any ideas about what the title Fearless Dotty is referring to?? It does seem a bit out in left field.. Dotty was more clueless than fearless.. which made me suspect it was another one of those play on words smk loves to do with it’s titles.. I suspected it might have something to do with a spy comic strip called fearless harry –from the comic strip ‘hairbreadth harry’ but I think it’s too obscure and doesn’t have the clueless element needed I think… But! Swissmiss over on the forum has, I think, has come up with the answer! Well done swiss miss!! SwissMiss discovered ‘Fearless Fosdick’! Here is what swissmiss wrote about it:

“Ok…. I think I found the origin of the title ‘Fearless Dotty.’ There was a comic strip within a comic strip” in Al Capp’s ‘Lil Abner.’ And the main character of that was Fearless Fosdick. The main premise of this character was that he was a detective who was oblivious to all the implications, etc that were involved when he was trying to solve a crime. Wikipedia says, ‘Fosdick has notoriously bad aim and even worse judgment. Oblivious to more obvious felonies being committed in broad daylight in the background (such as murders, assaults and bank robberies), Fosdick would bypass them to shoot someone who walked on the grass, or sold balloons without a license.’ You can read the whole deal from Wikipedia here (It’s long and pretty interesting if you like these kind of stuff): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fearless_Fosdick
Dotty is definitely oblivious to the fact that she is significantly involved in a crime and doesn’t notice any of the events related to that crime going on around her.”

Thanks Swissmiss..that was driving me nuts!!  I think you are on the money!! but if anyone else has any theories I would love to hear them! I have always thought Dotty was like Mr Magoo in this episode.. without the visual impairment.. but the Fosdick reference ties in the whole idea of being oblivious to the crime around them.. – this also ties in with Lee’s whole conversation with Amanda about DC being full of spies and all kinds of agents.. which the public most of the time is unaware of..

I think the ending was really lovely.. I suggest you don’t skip people’s comments in response to posts- some give some fantastic insights which really add to the discussion. I wanted to mention Paula’s fabulous insights into Lee’s comments on it being a cleaner battlefield in the 5th post on this episode – Paula gives a great insight (IMO) on where Lee is at.. and for me, this makes the ending even more touching- Lee’s happiness at coming through with Captain Galaxy, and his wistful acceptance that he can’t come in, join the party and have his cake- is even more meaningful when we think of the struggles Lee faces in the life he lives, and that maybe we see a glimpse here of Lee wishing for a more ‘normal’ life.. awh Lee!! Don’t worry – in 3 seasons you will be invited to the party  

As always, I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to hear any thoughts you would like to share – and I am sure other readers would like to too!! Bye and thanks for reading!! this has overall been a pretty touching, but funny episode- I’m surprised at the depth that was shown in this episode.. and well I am so glad to see the back of Keene!! ( sorry those who enjoyed him!! ) Byeeee!

eta: more detail on route 36 🙂 yeee haaaa

One more addition: Julia has pointed out ‘Amanda gets thirsty’ on her way out to see Lee in the final scene!! Magic Lemonade eh! 🙂 It does look slightly lower doesn’t it!! good catch Julia!! 🙂