0710  -  Death of a Shoe Salesman


Synopsis:  While watching "Western Geezer Theater" on TV, Al recounts on all of the late great actors 
who starred in his favorite movies but is thankful that one of them, Fuzzy McGee is still alive.  
When a news bulletin states that that actor, Fuzzy McGee in fact has just died, Al begins to feel his 
age and begins to make preparations for his eventual death, but does not want to be buried next to 
Peg, which causes Peg to fret.

Thoughts:  Al’s always wanted to die, (I remember in ep 0703 "Every Bundy Has a Birthday" when 
Al fusses about how he lost his birthday to Seven, Peggy rebutting by reminding Al, "You’re always 
saying I wanna die!  I wanna die!  Now you want more Birthdays?")  Al can have such a lousy life 
always ending up in hospital bandages or in huge debt at the end of the episode and he does always say 
that he wants to die (or at the very least ask somebody to shoot him).  So it’s good to see an episode 
with Al finally plan on the blessed event.

	 Naturally with any plans that Al has, Peg (Or anybody for that matter) has to interfere and 
put a damper on Al’s wants.  Al lets Peg down by saying that after death, he’s free to date.  
Peg doesn’t like this and must find a way to have in on Al’s fun or ruin it altogether.  She does 
both and it’s in the climax we see how.  It does put a small downer on the shows end because we 
see that Al will in fact NOT get his wishes when we think he will, but it’s not enough to kill the 
episodes fun and it will be a further reminder of the fact that Al’s life and hence afterlife will 
be hell.

	Marcy and Jefferson in this one here seem to do what they do best, pop in, audience applauds, 
trade insults with Al, leave all in a span of only a few minutes.  There leaving does prompt 
which I must say is one of Al’s better or best barbs back at Peg, which is commented below.

        Something else people should notice is that Seven is for the most part absent (if not 
completely gone.)  I don’t remember as it has been a while since seeing the episode (I have seen 
it several times).  But I do know that in most episodes with the character, Seven's presence can 
ruin the flow of an episode and bring about some unwanted jokes (Prime example is in "It Doesn't Get 
Any Better than this" an early season 7 show).  MWC is one of few shows that can successfully 
integrate new characters into it’s run without much problem.  Shane Sweet’s Seven Character 
however failed.  It’s something that can be chalked up to inexperience on the actor’s part and 
if you ask about 98% of any MWC fan, they’ll tell you that Seven was a nuisance and thankfully put 
away -- and yes I am a part of that 98%.    

	Plot wise there is a lot to like.  Season 7 is a great season that was unfortunately 
tarnished due to the aforementioned Seven who thankfully ended up with less and less to do before 
finally being axed.  This one is like many in the season (without much or any Seven) a highlight.

Rating:  8 shoes out of 10.  Not fantastic, but damn better then a lot of episodes that followed it, 
and preceded it.


Quotable Quotes:

Bud:  (To Al watching Western Geezer Theater) "How bout the white guy playing the Indian? He alive?"

Al:  (Watching Fuzzy McGee on TV) "Look here, he’s going to chaw, then spit!"  
     (On TV)  "HOOOCCCHHH-TOOOEY!!!" 

(Marcy and Jefferson just left the Bundy house with Jefferson to go "rock" Marcy)
Peg:  "How come you never rock me Al?"
Al:  "Cause I’d rather stone you!"

Peg:  "Uh ooh, I feel a whine coming on!!"
Al:  "Oh NO!"

*** By the way, this review was constructed from memory of the show, I apologize if some of 
the quotes are a little off, when I get the chance to see the episode again, I may be able to 
correct some of what might be wrong