In the middle of the night we find Lee asleep.. in his pyjamas.. and.. with nooooo light on!!! Poor Lee he must be scared silly! 
ahem..
Okay, I can hear it now – there’s enough light coming through the window that it didn’t matter! Sorry but I don’t think I’ll ever get on board with Lee being afraid of the dark!
Hmm he seems to be a side sleeper..
What side did he prefer to sleep on in Utopia now?
Lee: I like to sleep on my right.
Hooray!!! continuity!!
More continuity- we saw Lee’s blue pyjamas in If thoughts could kill.. remember?! Am I obsessed with sleeping Lee? Yes I am.. and so what?! 😉 tee hee..
Anyway.. I digress.. Lee’s sleep habits are just so much more interesting than this episode! ahem..
Suddenly, Lee is jolted awake by shouts out in the parking lot.
Surely Lee is dreaming.. baddies wouldn’t be yelling about their evil cunning plan at the top of their lungs in the middle of the night?! right?! [this episode truly is amateur hour!]
Carla (off camera): I don’t care what you think! We’ve gone too far to stop now.
Bendix (off camera): Now be reasonable, we don’t have to actually do it. We could bluff it!
(Lee gets out of bed, grabs his dressing gown and heads to the window to see what’s going on.)
Carla (off camera): No! We’re proceeding exactly as we planned.
(Lee walks toward the window, while putting on his dressing gown.)
Cecil (off camera): But if anything goes wrong, innocent people could be… (muffled)
Carla (off camera): Nothing is gonna go wrong!
We see Lee at the window watching..
This is exciting! Because he’s watching the baddies? 
nahhh because he is no longer wearing the ‘he’ robe from his He/She set!!! Remember it?? Does it mean something?? 
Okay okay.. focus iwsod!
Carla (off camera): I want it ready tomorrow! No delays, no excuses!
Finally we see what’s going on outside.. lame baddies!
Bendix the weasely wimp agrees… Carla bosses Barry around and tells him to come with her as they leave Bendix.
Barry (indistinct): You have something in mind?
I don’t get the Barry character at all.. nor his relationship with Carla.. is she his boss or lover? For me it’s all pretty unconvincing and uninteresting.
Yes.. let’s cut back to Lee in his pyjamas..
There.. that’s better – now I’m interested!
This is all super complicated.. Can Lee work it all out?! Rofl..
The next day, the birds are chirping and we are back at Marvellous Marvin’s HQ – and Yep I think that writing on the curb there says ‘Columbia Pictures’ rofl!
Inside we find Amanda and Marvin having their random breakfast ‘date’.
Ugh.. look at all those creepy burgers!!! That’s enough to turn me off my breakfast!
Amanda: Well, my boys are gonna be very impressed when I tell them that I had breakfast with Marvin Metz.
Marvin: ha haa.. Heck, I do it every morning of my life. [I’m laughing on the inside.. somewhere..]
Amanda: Heh.
Marvin: Nothing special about it.
Amanda: Well… you must be awfully proud of all the things you’ve accomplished.
Marvin: Sure… I, uh, worked most of my life for this. (tsks) And now that I have it, I guess I miss sharing it with… someone.
[lol again, it sounds like a pick up line! Marvin has that knack! Is Amanda wondering if Marvin will make her an offer?! hmm.. maybe not haaa
Amanda: So you’re alone, then, are you?
Marvin: Except for my son, Barry… [in other words, yes I’m alone!] …Some son. Huh. Laziest person I’ve ever known. Thirty years old and he still expects the world to be handed to him on a platter.
[Ouch. Tell us what you really think of Barry?! Is it just me or does this all seem kind of – BAM! Hello nice to meet you, my son is a lazy idiot who is a thirty year old brat with a sense of entitlement?!!!
I have no admiration for Barry based on what I’ve seen- but I’ve gotta say, Marvin talking down his son like this to someone he just met, who is looking at buying into the company, is just poor form. Makes Marvin even less likeable. I’m left with the impression that Barry and Marvin are equally to blame for this big mess! ]
Amanda: Oh, gee… that’s too bad.
Marvin: The kid’s impossible. I have him working here, but it’s… like trying to put a square peg in a round hole. That’s the story of my life, lately.
[And yet you let him work there. Keep him around but criticise him openly to people you don’t know? Hmm not a fan of Marvin, but I’m pretty sure I’m suppose to think this is Amanda’s amazing people skills at work, and I’m suppose to feel sorry for this old, alone man]
Marvin: It was the same with Carla.
Amanda: Carla?
Marvin: Oh, hah… (waves his hand) It’s not like me to be running on like this.
[Yes Amanda has magical powers with people! I guess Marvin was old, lonely, and looking for someone to confide in..sorry I’m such a grouch when it comes to Marvin!]
Amanda: Oh, no—that’s all right. You don’t have to talk if you don’t want to.
Marvin: Actually, it uh… feels pretty good…
…Carla’s my… executive assistant. She and I got 
involved about two years ago. I was lonely, and she was working as my secretary. Same old story, except it meant something to me. I found out that she was cheating on me with one of our regional managers.
[And she’s still working for you??!! How convenient for Marvin to tell Amanda all this.. and for no reason whatsoever.. ahem.. Oh wait. Eddie was a regional manager (they’re some big hamburgers!) .. maybe Eddie was recruited by Carla for her evil cunning plan but he refused to play!]
Amanda: Well, that must have been very difficult for you.
Marvin: Broke my heart. But I…
(Shot zooms in on the flower arrangement on the table.)
… I’m thinking of making some changes around here, anyway.
We cut to another room, where Marvin and Amanda’s conversation is being listened in on.. Uh oh!!! It’s the old bug in the flowers trick- again!!!
It’s Barry and Carla listening in on Marvin’s glowing reports of them! eek!!!
How is it that Barry could start up something with Carla when Carla had been with his dad?! ewwwwwwwww!!!!!
You know for a family show.. this is a bit racy! (and ick!)
I’d more easily believe if Carla was blackmailing Barry.. but as it is.. this is all seriously lame and makes no sense to me.
Marvin (off camera, through the recording device): So, uh, maybe it’s time for this old buzzard to kick Carla and Barry out of the nest and… see if they can fly by themselves…
(Well, one flew over the cuckoo nest.. let’s see if two can!)
… They’ve had plenty of time to learn the business.
(Carla snatches up the portable speaker and throws it across the room. ) Whooo she means business- She threw something!
Is it just me or did the camera jump when she threw the speaker?! Maybe it was an ad-lib! to try to make Carla more interesting as a baddie.. fail!
Carla had enough.. : We’ve gotta move now. We start tightening the noose around that old man’s neck and around the Stemsons’ too. We’ve come too far to let them get in the way now.
Time to put the evil mastermind Carla’s plan into action.. you know.. the one she was yelling about in the middle of the night for everyone to hear?! The scene ends here.. thank goodness.. Let’s start tightening the noose around Carla and Barry’s necks already!
Anything you’d like to share about this post or the ep so far?? Sorry if you love Marvin, but I’m just not connecting with the guy at all.. I suspect it’s because the writing is very clunky. Not even knowing Marvin plays Jerry Seinfeld’s dad is saving it for me! The actors are trying valiantly with this one…but I’m starting to think this ep should have been called Fast Food for very slow thought! What do you think?? byee for now!!
"Just walk with me.." 
So….you get out of bed to go spy on an argument and you waste time putting on your dressing gown. Really?! Am I the only one who just wouldn’t bother unless it was snowing outside…..not sure I would even pack a dressing gown for an overnight stay….that might explain why Lee seemed to have way more bags than Amanda LOL
Marvin…..I suspect you bleat about your waste of space son and cheating ex gf to everyone. Amanda is hardly having to work him and he’s spilling his guts way too easily. When I watched this episode a few times I always saw Marvin as a kindly old fella but actually I am going off him a little. And the whole breakfast in his office/room seems a bit weird…….
LikeLiked by 1 person
How did I miss this post? I guess it must be the hectic, end of the year craziness. For some reason I don’t mind Lee in pajamas. I’m thinking it could be one of his idiosyncrasies that maybe we never got to find out why he wore them. I get the whole wearing them in while traveling and sleeping in hotels idea. I would prefer something about that instead of the whole I have to sleep with a light on gimmick. In my mind (which is stuck in the 30s and 40s) I could envision a time when he and Amanda were undercover and sharing a room and she forgot her flannel nightie and Lee had to give her is pajama top while he slept in the bottoms. So I’m okay with him having pajamas when he travels. However, at home he can loosen it up a little.
I wonder if Carla led Marvin on to get ahead in the company and then dumped him. She seems to have her own specific plan of getting ahead. Maybe when Marvin made a fuss or threatened to get rid of her, she in turn threatened him with sexual harassment or something similar. I know it was at the cusp of becoming more of an issue at that time.
I see Marvin as being pretty eccentric and pretty harmless. His focus on his company may have led to a disconnect with his son. I wonder what happened to Mrs. Marvelous. He mentions being lonely. The situation with Carla and Barry have left him even more so and most likely desperate to connect with someone, probably anyone who will listen and of course, it would be Amanda.
LikeLike
Of course it would be Amanda!! hahaha! Great point about him being eccentric and harmless. I don’t see him as the cheating type, so maybe Mrs. Marvelous was a victim of poor health or accidental mishap? I like the idea that he is lonely and desperate to connect with someone because of Barry and Carla’s behavior. It makes it much easier to see him spilling his guts to Amanda. And apparently he’s a sucker for a pretty, young woman. And Amanda is much prettier than Carla.
LikeLike
OK I like where you are heading with this — I can forgive Lee in his jammies. (Can you imagine the look on Francine’s face? — PRICELESS!)
LikeLike
Lessons I learned from watching SMK:
When I’m not in my own home and having a super-important conversation about some super-secret stuff or things that might give away I’m a spy – toss out the flowers. Flower pots, bouquets, even a single rose. They go OUT. Not taking any chances. lol
LikeLiked by 1 person
Or spray the room liberally with water, because Amanda has taught us that is how you inactivate a bug 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hello Learjet! 🙂
Hope you’re all doing well.. savour Lee in his Pjs.. ahem..
What.. no comment about how Lee is afraid of the dark?! tee hee..
iwsod waves and gets off the net
LikeLike
I never bought into that “afraid of the dark” line either, Iwsod!
LikeLike
Because I like to try for continuity I am tempted to think that there is a lot of light that comes in the window from the parking lot so that it isn’t really dark in his hotel room. My mental gymnastics for the morning. I guess I kind of like the Lee being scared of the dark idea. It could add something to his character and I can imagine some fun scenarios that would include Amanda and dark rooms…
LikeLike
Knell this sounds like a meme.. spy tip number 143! lol… love it!
LikeLike
I think there may be some link between Marvin’s comment about being alone and not being able to share his successes with anyone and Amanda’s comment about once married cured forever. I wonder if after a sleepless night, tossing and turning and thinking about what one Lee Stetson may be up to she is also thinking about being alone in life without a significant other to share her successes with.
See where my mind goes? I never noticed the table cloth or the plates. I do think that atrocious bouquet hiding the listening device is a bit color coordinated with the Marvelous Marvin’s paraphernalia.
LikeLike
This is what I love about this blog.. some of us see the plates and evil hamburger.. and others are taken by a character or a meaning.. we all see different things at different times – and I love it!! Together, we see pretty much everything there is to see and enjoy (and poke fun at) no? 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ll admit to having a soft spot for Marvelous Marvin here. Yeah, he doesn’t hold up well under the scrutiny we’re giving him – everyone makes really good points about his bad points. But I think why I like him, or am sympathetic to him, is because he seems to have a good, kind heart and genuinely seems like a nice person whose made some bad choices in the past and now has to live with them. He seems like a glass half-full kind of guy who thinks the best about people until they knee him in the you know what. In some ways he seems similar to Amanda; maybe that’s why he’s opened up to her so quickly – they recognize similar qualities in each other?
LikeLike
Yeah, BJo, please make room in your boat again. I like Marvin, I feel bad for him. I see him as a bit of a social misfit as a youth, who got his first job at a hamburger joint, and surprised himself by making it something big. In spite of his joking lines about being important, I see that really as ironic self-deprecation and low self-esteem. I picture that his wife died at an early age (no, I don’t think she ran away to escape the burger empire), so that left him with an only child (a “tween”, maybe?) and a burger joint. Marvin threw himself into his work as a source of comfort and solace and familiarity. The child was resentful and lost and grew up with no direction. Now, 20 years later, Marvin’s life is one-dimensional, revolving around his burger empire, and he finds that the empire cannot replace human companionship. I would chastise hms as someone reaping the effect of bad sowing, that we all get bad breaks in life but are responsible for how we rise above them, blah blah blah, but i do sense a kindly and gentle heart in the man, and that he is someone who has tried his best while being under-equipped in the social skills and perhaps even deep-thinking skills department. The fact that he has kept Carla on suggests he tends to blame himself more than others when things go wrong. I picture him giving big bonuses at the holidays, who knows the names of the “minions” working in the burger establishments (my first job, I might add), and remembers when he meets them again a year later that they had a sick cat and remembers to inquire.
There must be something wrong with me. Some people who are stuck in traffic think of Lee in his boxers. Me, i think of Marvin! Sigh. Feel free to jump out of the boat, BJo. I would completely understand!
LikeLike
I like the boat you just described, Raffie. I would like to climb aboard too.
LikeLike
Like all of this, raffie! Very thoughtful and believable about Mr. Marvelous. I can easily see all of what you’re saying. I won’t jump out of the boat, raffie – there’s plenty of room for all sorts of thinkers 😉 I’ll confess that I’m not thinking of Lee or Marvin. My current obsession is Robbie Lewis and Laura Hobson – hence my ever-changing sometimes non-SMK avatar. Someday I’ll have to start a thread at Ned’s on that show, but I just don’t have the time now.
LikeLike
Lee is pyjamas is just wrong. Wrong I tells ya! 😯
His personality, the life he leads – he’s definitely a boxer shorts guy. But when I’m sleeping away anywhere I always put on more clothes to sleep in ’cause you just don’t know how clean the sheets are, y’know? So, I imagine him maybe wearing tracks pants and a t-shirt in this scene.
The robe is superfluous too. No more tacky Hugh Heffner robes for this guy.
The pyjamas and robe in this scene are just so… so…. “square”!
I might have some more profound thoughts later, but I really feel compelled to have a rant whenever Lee’s dignity is imperilled – that includes when they try to turn him into a square.
Barry’s the only “square” here… according to Marvin. 😉
If it wasn’t for the relationship progression this episode would be a total dud. The baddies in the car-park shouting out their evil plan is lame, even for SMK.
I think Amanda has a bit of a social worker/counsellor quality about her, which encourages people to open up to her more than they would to anyone else.
Carla is like another Rita, only not as smart as Rita. She’s impatient, petulant and conniving. Whatever did Marvin see in her? There’s no fool like an old fool I suppose, and I’m sure she put on a great pretence of caring. It’s seems odd that Marvin would keep her on after he found out she was cheating on him, but maybe she’s very good at her job and he rose above his hurt feelings rather than lose her business acumen from the company. Whatever… it’s hard to care really.
LikeLike
As I was trying to get home and was stuck in traffic, I had time to ponder our dear Lee’s bedtime attire. I thought if I couldn’t have him in boxers, I would have much rather him in a snug t-shirt and drawstring pajama pants or track pants. HMMMMMMM. Much better!
LikeLiked by 2 people
hooo haaaa.. what a lovely way to deal with the traffic 🙂 tee hee..
LikeLike
I thought the same thing, kiwismh – Carla definitely reminds me of Rita – vile and ruthless – but not as smart. And yeah, other than the relationship stuff in this episode, it is kind of blah.
LikeLike
your comments had me giggling away like crazy kiwismh!
Loved your gag about Barry being square 🙂
I think Lee can get away with wearing anything in bed.. if yer know what I mean 😉
LikeLike
Several random thoughts
OMH – I never noticed the Marvin tablecloth before. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE hamburgers, but that is going a bit too far!
I always took Lee to be a ‘sleep in my boxer shorts’ kind of guy. And that is how I re-imagine the scene. AHEM.
I don’t mind Amanda’s super powers of listening — it balances out Lee’s super powers of hearing — hey! if he can crack a safe by listening to it and randomly spinning a dial, I can buy Marvin spilling his guts to Amanda. I bet he would have eventually told her his social security number and the combination to the safe.
Barry-Carla-Marvin triangle — ICK, Just ICK!
And finally — “We start tightening the noose around that old man’s neck and around the Stemsons’ too.” Looks like she is not buying the brother-sister act either.
LikeLike
Maybe Lee usually sleeps in his boxers, but he has more modest pajamas for when he’s staying at a hotel in case he has to get up and run around the place in the middle of the night.
I can’t help but notice that Marvin seems to have an obsession with Marvin’s. It’s all he ever talks about, and the tablecloth indicates that he uses promotional merchandise in his daily life. Even when he talks about his son and his former lover, there’s always a connection to his business. Maybe his relationship this his son would have been a lot better if he could get his mind off of hamburgers for awhile. 😛
LikeLike
Oh gosh, I never noticed that tablecloth either! That’s hysterical! It is a bit overkill for the episode, but I’d gladly take one if I could find one since I’ve not been able to find a Lee mug out there yet….
LikeLike
There’s also the Marvin’s plates in the china cupboard behind Amanda. I think they had fun with the promotional merchandise. It’s everywhere! 🙂
LikeLike
OMG – you’re right! I guess that is what they use to serve the new potential menu items to Marvin on for his opinion.
I just did a quick ebay search…no Marvelous Marvin tablecloth to be found. Only boxing stuff.
LikeLike
It’s probably what he and Amanda are using to eat breakfast. See, there’s an empty space where more plates should be! 😀
LikeLike
I don’t think I could keep down my breakfast while looking at little Marvelous Marvins on my plate ;o
LikeLike
So Marvelous Marvin was a famous boxer for years (thanks for the ‘lead’, BJo) and it seems he was at the height of his career at the time this episode aired. I’m struggling to find a link between our hamburger king and the “Undisputed World Middleweight Champion”. There is certainly a difference of many hours of exercise between them….Maybe they are both icons??
LikeLike
Haha – I’m thinking that Marvelous Marvin may be the hamburger king/champion – sort of like McD’s used to be. That plus this version of Marvelous Marvin certainly carries a bit of weight around his middle… 😉
LikeLike
Can’t take credit for the Marvin Hagler lead. I do remember him though; I used to love to watch boxing with my dad when I was a kid. It was valeriejw who first mentioned him on post 9 🙂
LikeLike
Yes props went to town with this episode! Alas.. the script department was on holidays!!!!!
LikeLiked by 1 person