Watch . . . and Learn!
Issue #4, April 1990

In the first three issues of this newsletter we've been busily pointing out strange inconsistencies throughout the series.  We felt it was time to stop picking on the writers and take a look at some of their consistencies for a change!  For a television sitcom, there are an amazing amount of things carried over from one show to another!

To start with, Larry's brother, Billy, and his sister, Elaine, were mentioned in episodes prior to their eventual appearances!  Larry first mentioned Billy in the episode The Unnatural, in which Larry explains how his brother was always winning trophies and just once he would like to win one, too.  When Billy showed up the next season, the rivalry was still there, Larry resorting to "Appleton's Snow Job" to show his brother how successful he was.

Likewise, Elaine was mentioned several times before she eventually came for a visit.  She was also briefly mentioned in the baseball episode as "the one who held "Larry" down and cut off all "his" hair.  She was also briefly mentioned in the first Christmas episode, listening in on the extension as Larry talked to his mom.  When she finally arrived, the "hair" incident was explained in detail at last; Elaine had been practicing her role as Delilah on Larry as he slept.  And this season she was brought up again when Larry wanted to raise the money to send her to Juilliard to study music.

When Gina first gave birth to Little Frankie, that could have been it, but they both returned the next full season when Frankie was a little older and Gina was eager to have one weekend alone with her husband, Steve, and left Frankie with the guys to babysit.  Speaking of consistencies, Balki and Larry sang 'The Brady Bunch' theme in that episode, with their signature "da da da da da" art the end of each section, and later sang it again in the "couch potato" episode with the same signature!

Harriette explained to Balki and Larry that her husband was a policeman, and sure enough when Carl Winslow was finally introduced he was indeed a policeman!  In fact, one episode had the Winslow's move into the cousins' building (they mysteriously moved into a house . . . and into a new series . . . shortly after that).  But this season when everyone was trapped in the flooding basement and looking for a drain, Jennifer explained that Mr. Winslow had spilled a bag of cement and sealed it over.  (Pretty messy for just being there a short time, huh?)

When the tenants of Twinkacetti's building got together for a meeting, we saw Mrs. Schlegelmilch for the first and only time.  But she still lives in the building, as we found out in the karate episode when she called to complain about noise going on in the guys' apartment.  Likewise, Susan appeared at the meeting, even though she hadn't been in the show for several episodes.

When Larry's dad came to visit, Jennifer told everyone about the fun she and her father had when she was little, mentioning the fact that he used to take her golfing.  Sure enough, when he made an appearance a few episodes later he was indeed very keen on golfing, which became the focus of the episode!

Myposian characters never seem to get mentioned more than once (Balki's mama excepted) . . . that is, until this season.  Devo the butcher has been the focus of at least two of Balk's Myposian tales this season.  When cousin Bartok was coming to visit, Balki kept telling Larry about how they had dropped water balloons made of sheeps' bladders on top of Devo the butcher, who thought it was a sign from God and lowered his prices.  Devo was also mentioned in the story of Balki's uncle Thriftos, who would dress as a woman to get free soup bones until Devo fell in love with him.

More consistencies in our next issue!!!

Continue on to the next Watch . . . and Learn!