Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em

- Season 1

(1973)

Since Frank Spencer's mother died and he married Betty, her mother can't decide what's worst: her girl moving out or the one-man walking -rather stumbling- disaster-area staying, as everything he touches is doomed. A salesman job interview demonstrates Frank's inverse Midas-touch on the iron mongery company lift and his social skills being both scary and scared, his mental age embryonic.

Frank and Betty spend a weekend with her brother George Fisher, who is about to show off his gadget-filled 'fool-proof' home with his partner to a building boss, who may pay George's firm a fortune for the concept. Alas a simple lavatory visit from Frank, who was supposed to remain unnoticed, suffices to start a catastrophic chain of 'accidents', which worsens while they try to cover it up.

When Betty's mother comes to Frank's place, sick, Frank gets sent to call the doctor from the neighbor's house. He's a scriptwriter who already mistrusts the noisy klutz, but once Frank has been inside his life turns into the same kind of nightmare as Frank's family's. It's no picnic for Dr. H.S. Smedley or his script companion either.

Frank boards the train for his second honeymoon -the first time he landed in the wrong town. At the hotel, things start go really wrong when he tries to push the single beds together, gradually wrecking the whole room. Looking for replacements, he and Betty raid a neighboring room (funny Kenny's room), causing him to complain to manager Bedford about haunting, presuming it's his late grandpa.

While Betty is in hospital, Frank makes a masterly mess of the kitchen and the shopping. Next he raids the flowers from the reception at the start of a bad hospital visit. Frank is scolded, confused with a depressive patient's neglecting husband, and carries out inappropriate instructions, for too many patients.

When Betty sends Frank to a psychiatrist, the doctor's confident that Frank's problem is a lack of confidence but this slowly crumbles as every routine question unleashes a catalog of bumbling and ineptitude which antagonizes everyone, including Frank's family, even his own late mother.

When the new employment exchange manager Bradshaw insists that everyone can be helped, veteran Hooper gladly passes on the hopeless case of Frank Spencer. Both his serial disaster-record and 'qualification' (25 meter breaststroke, after 'attending' many schools, till age 11, no actual classes) support Hooper's point amply. Yet Frank acts indignant, and Bradshaw insists on trying - betting he'll keep a job for a week. The only way to win is to employ Frank himself, but this proves far more costly and dangerous for everyone and everything.