52 Skidoo!

Last Friday, Nicky and I celebrated my 52nd birthday (which was actually on Saturday) and her upcoming 48th birthday by visiting our favorite Baltimore-area chomping grounds, Woodberry Kitchen.  For the first time, we were seated in the upstairs loft for dinner.  We walked on the wild side -- just a bit -- with our entrees, with Nicky trying the pork tenderloin and me essaying the catfish, chips, and herb salad.  As expected, both were excellent.

For obvious reasons, this birthday is extremely special to me, and it's caused me to reflect on the great gift that my brother gave me this Summer.  Nicky and I are considering making July 21, the date of my kidney transplant surgery, an "unofficial Barat holiday."  At what eating establishment do you think we plan to celebrate it?  You only get one guess.

Where's the Rest of Me?!

I'm three weeks out from my surgery and doing well.  Last Thursday, during my first visit to the post-transplant clinic, my staples were removed.  However, my drain is still installed, no doubt because of all the broken kidney cysts the contents of which still need to be removed from the surgery site.

You can get some idea of the amount of fluid that had been building up inside me prior to the surgery by looking at some before-and-after pictures:

Between July 30 (the day after I came home) and this past weekend, I lost FORTY POUNDS.  I had almost forgotten what my kneecaps and ankles looked like!

Back Home!

I was finally sprung yesterday afternoon and am now ready to start my home recovery.  It wasn't what you would call a "clean" getaway -- I still have a drain attached to the incision site, which makes it a pain to dress, shower, etc. -- but the kidney itself appears to be functioning fine.

Sorry for the lack of updates after Thursday.  Friday and Saturday were fairly uneventful but I then had a setback of sorts on Sunday morning.  After breakfast, I was standing up for Nicky to give me a wipedown (cleaning with hand wipes) when I suddenly felt horribly dizzy.  As I collapsed back into bed, my lower abdomen suddenly swelled almost out of control, and I felt excruciating pain.  Happily, the day nurse had just come on duty and had just stopped by our room.  She was able to get several other people to help her in short order.  I was put back on oxygen while they tried to figure out what had happened to me.  The most likely explanation is gas that had been building up in my system suddenly getting trapped and finding no place to go.  Bottom line, it took me the better part of two days to feel anything like fully recovered.  I found it much harder to walk because some of the muscles in my lower abdomen must have been strained.  When we got home yesterday, the soreness made it hard for me to stand upright as I was showering and getting set for bed.  Thank God, today the soreness seems a lot more manageable.

I now have a very strict regimen of medications to fight organ rejection and protect me from getting sick due to my immunocompromised state.  I'll also have regular visits for blood work and visits to the post-transplant clinic for a while.  The real danger zone in terms of major complications is the first 90 days after surgery, so, from now until the end of October, I'm going to have to be particularly careful about crowds and other potentially infectious situations.  I'm guessing that Stevenson will ask me to sit out the fall term and come back in February (next January will mark the first time that SU is offering a winter term).  As for getting back to blogging, I'm not going to post anything new until at least August 7, the date of my first clinic visit.  You can get in touch with me via email (kimba_1962@verizon.net) or my cell phone (443 929 6013) or home phone (410 902 8450).  Aside from lab and clinic visits, I'm going to be pretty "house-locked" for a while, so I'd love to hear from you if you get the chance.

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While I was in the hospital, Nicky passed along a bit of sad news.  Our longtime favorite local pizza place, New York Pizza Company, has closed.  Some of you have gone there with us and know about the place.  Luckily, another, and potentially even MORE authentic, pizza and sandwich emporium has  just recently opened near the Owings Mills metro stop.  Joe will be happy to know that it is the closest thing to Ray Bari pizza that we have yet encountered in this area.  In all honesty, the quality of NYPC food had dropped in recent days -- I think that losing one or two of their better cooks didn't help -- and they apparently couldn't make enough money in the Summer to make up for the business they did during the SU school year.

Update 2 from Zayed 9

Things continue on an upward trend for me.  My creatinine level was normal this morning for the first time in AT LEAST EIGHT YEARS.  My catheter is out and I was finally able to perform some essential bodily functions without aid.  I also walked a mile around the unit (10 laps).  My sisters Jenny and Sarah were down from Wilmington/Philly to visit.

Looking to get out early next week, if lab numbers are agreeable.

Update from Zayed 9

No, this is not a report to the Federation on yet another newly discovered civilization that has had its development altered by yet another faulty adherence to the Prime Directive.  I'm here in the transplant unit at Johns Hopkins Hospital, in the second day of recover from Monday's surgery.  My brother Andy, the donor, was discharged this morning.

The surgery took longer than expected, about 7 hours, because the surgeons found my kidneys to be so enlarged that they had to remove a number of the cysts to make room for the new kidney.  The immediate consequences were a 102-103 fever that I ran for a brief time on Tuesday morning and a bout of pneumonia that is being treated with antibiotics.  The good news is that the new kidney literally started spewing (their words, not mine) vast amounts of urine right away and continues to do so.  My creatinine level dropped like a stone, from 7.3 to (as of this morning) 1.7.

My incision is still sore and my catheter is still attached, but I am doing OK otherwise.  More updates to follow.

DUCKTALES RETROSPECTIVE: Episode 88, "A Case of Mistaken Secret Identity"

The only second-season title card to be presented in first-season fashion, by which I mean it is written in both upper and lower case. 

It took me a while to learn the name of this episode.  Not that such a state of affairs was unprecedented, mind you.  During DuckTales' first season, I was in graduate school and was expected to attend the weekly Wednesday-afternoon seminar.  The seminar usually ended in time for me to hustle back to the house I was sharing with several other grad students at the time and catch the last few minutes of that day's then-brand-spanking-new DT ep.  I can still remember getting back in time to see Filler Brushbill and Louie laughing together at the end of "Much Ado About Scrooge" and wondering, "What the hell -- did Gladstone grow a mustache for some reason?"  With the combined help of Joe Torcivia and the "staggered" rerun schedule (in which a week's episodes were shifted in broadcast order... and, yes, that included the multi-part story lines!), I was able to catch up with the missed eps before too much time had passed.

Things got easier in the Fall of 1989 when I started my new job at Randolph-Macon College.  By this time, I had my own VCR and, even more remarkably, understood how to program it.  Recording the new episodes was a breeze... except on the fateful day when "A Case of Mistaken Secret Identity" was broadcast.  Through some snafu or other, I only received part of the episode, starting in the middle of Act Three (I think I "came in" when Fenton was going back to the trailer to retrieve the Gizmosuit, only to have it pass him by and knock him over).  My first lengthy exposure to the ep turned out to be strictly auditory, when Joe played me some of the more significant parts over the phone.  (The regular phone, that is -- what is this "cellular" phone you speak of?)

Joe and I both loved "Identity" from the start.  Not only did it seem to provide a fitting bookend to "The Big Flub" in terms of its delving deeply into the drives that animated Fenton Crackshell, but, wonder of wonders, it co-starred Launchpad.  After playing minor supporting roles in "The Land of Trala La" and "Allowance Day," DT's single greatest original creation had dropped off the map, seemingly forsaken in the rush to exploit the series' newest co-stars.  Joe drew a couple of funny cartoons that were meant to symbolize LP's plight:

Now Launchpad was back, and in fine form to boot, "playing dumb" as only he could in a scheme to protect Gizmoduck's secret ID from a prying media, only to stumble his way into "becoming" Gizmoduck in the eyes of the public.  What was there not to like?

Well, in our zeal to praise what appeared to be one of the high points of a somewhat up-and-down second season, it turns out that we missed a fairly large gaffe.  The plot is set in motion by "detective" HD&L's drive to prove their theory that Launchpad is Gizmoduck.  GeoX jumped all over this, noting that the boys "have unambiguously seen Gizmoduck and Launchpad together on several occasions."  Indeed, they have -- in "Money to Burn" (see image below) and "Allowance Day," just to name two.  Not only do HD&L appear to be suffering from a triple brain-cramp here, but then they have to go and make the goof seem worse by acting so overbearingly confident that their theory is correct.

But, you know what?  Despite this horrendous continuity faux pas and a few other logical flaws, I still think that this episode is great.  The plot is fairly bare-bones, but Alan Burnett's script is clever and incisive, with as many memorable and readily quotable lines as any single episode of the series.  I still find myself occasionally using Launchpad's sheepish "Of course, I've been wrong before"...

... and reacting to various untoward events with Fenton/Gizmoduck's bemused "Do you belieeeeve this?".

The episode's satire of the media, and the annoyances that a "real" superhero might have to face in a media- and gossip-driven society, hasn't aged one bit.  Indeed, with the advent of 24-hour TV news, one can imagine the likes of Oprah Webfeet, Geralduck Rivera, and Webra Walters doubling and redoubling their efforts to uncover the truth about Gizmoduck, no matter how shaky that "truth" might be.  The later use of Lawrence Loudmouth in "The Masked Mallard" is more of a drubbing of one specific purveyor of quasi-information; Burnett spreads his net wider, seeking to capture a general attitude rather than rib a particular personality, and all of his shots find their targets.

"Identity" is a natural followup to "The Big Flub" precisely because Fenton's unfulfilled desire to be recognized for his accomplishments as Gizmoduck is just another tributary flowing out of the raging river of his general desire for "status" and "recognition."  Ironically, his bumbling regular existence is the best possible cover for his alter ego; as Scrooge himself admits, "I know you're Gizmoduck, and even I canna believe it."  Launchpad is just as fallible as Fenton (note that one of the Nephews' three reasons for suspecting LP is that "he tends to crash through walls a lot"), yet he is more likely to be mistaken for Gizmoduck, because he already has some credits as a well-known derring-doer.  Scrooge's suggestion that LP play along with the idea that he could be Gizmoduck is relying just as heavily on the public's stereotypical views of who "can" or "cannot" be a hero as it is on LP's famed capacity for "playing dumb."

I'd like to think that Fenton is so heavily tempted to reveal the real truth to HD&L, not just because they are so stubbornly convinced that they already know the truth, but because he wants to be as admirable in their eyes as Launchpad.  From that moment on the shores of Lake Dobegon when Fenton and HD&L first met, Fenton has been operating at a bit of a deficit with the boys insofar as respect is concerned.  (It's hard to forget someone's first reference to you as being a "loony.")  Fenton's squirming, sweating fight with himself over whether to tell is not just funny in and of itself, it's also in character, with Fenton's sense of duty warring with that primal urge to become "somebody." 

The Gizmoduck tribute at the Sports Arena once again points up the power of the media, with the citizens of Duckburg deciding -- apparently on their own, since Scrooge admits that such wasn't the original plan -- to tribute their hero by dressing up as him, and in fully functional Gizmosuits, no less (albeit ones with non-standard features).  Naturally, all the unexpected "competition" irritates the real Gizmoduck no end.

The accident that starts the chain reaction of events that will lead the public to conclude that Launchpad really is Gizmoduck was bowdlerized at some point by Toon Disney.  In the cut version, we never see the worker's cigar fall into the crate of fireworks; instead, they seem to ignite all on their own.  Er, wasn't the POINT of showing the stogie stoking the sparklers to illustrate that one should be careful with flames around explosives?  How would anyone GET the point when all we see is the fireworks "blowing," as if by magic?

Evidently, none of the grateful citizens who fete the "blasted" Launchpad as Gizmoduck saw the real Gizmo leave the premises with the crate of fireworks in tow.  Fair enough, I guess, since we saw the whole group retreating in the opposite direction as Gizmo moved forward to commandeer the crate.  In any event, LP is now the target of snooping journalists, "superhero groupies," and the Beagle Boys, who conclude, somewhat irrationally, that Scrooge's Money Bin will be fair game if they can kidnap Scrooge's supposed "security guard."  As if Scrooge would have gotten rid of all the traps we saw in "Yuppy Ducks" just because Gizmoduck was on duty...

There's really no compelling reason for the Beagle Boys to be in this episode; Burnett could just as easily have had Launchpad sink more deeply into the media morass as the result of his own mistakes and mishaps (as, in fact, he does while being quizzed by Geralduck Rivera).  Perhaps it's just a coincidence, but the Beagles act pretty childish here, even by their somewhat relaxed DuckTales standards.  Even Big Time seems to lose patience with his brethren, mocking Burger's inane replies not once but twice and, more to the point, repeatedly whacking him over the head the second time around.  This was evidently too traumatic for the tender souls at Toon Disney to bear, for they trimmed the scene, eliminating the on-screen carnage and Big Time's "Sit down, pigeon brain!" and only hinting at the violence that Big Time was doling out.

The Beagles' performance doesn't improve after they're trapped inside the carpet.  They later "confess" to the police that Launchpad turned into Gizmoduck, yet they apparently couldn't hear LP and Gizmo conversing right next to them.  Sigh.

With the madding crowd now making Launchpad's life a living hell, Scrooge decides to stage a "public confession" that will end the charade.  But thanks to the auditory intervention of Mrs. Crackshell's TV, the Gizmosuit comes looking for LP and literally turns him into Gizmoduck.  This can't end well, and, in fact, does not, as Duckburg finally succumbs to the "cartoon city is threatened when the nearby dam is broken" trope.  (The good thing about so many cartoon dams busting?  If there are any escaped zoo animals about, they'll be drowned.)

Harkening back to the lesson he learned in "Money to Burn," Fenton saves the doomed and sinking Gizmopad by making use of his own native abilities.  This performance may actually be more impressive, since counting is part of Fenton's job as an accountant, whereas his channeling of Goofy's "perfect cast" from A Goofy Movie (1995) is a physical skill... and one that he didn't have time to practice in advance.

Problematic in places it may be, but "Identity" manages to overcome its flaws because of the potency of the basic idea, the cleverness of the writing, and, last but certainly not least, the strength of the character of Fenton himself.

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Bumper #23: "Baseball"

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"DuckBlurbs" 

(Greg) The nephews claim that [Gizmoduck]'s close to the family as they go to a conveniently placed closet and dress up into detective gear complete with magnifying glass; thus assuring that I'll never be able to tell them apart for a while. Apparently; he's been at the mansion so much he leaves skid marks on the welcome mat. Oooookkkkkaaayyyyy. 

I wonder whether Burnett got the idea to dress HD&L up as Sherlock Holmes-style detectives as a result of remembering the title of the Holmes story "A Case of Identity," another story which dealt with mistaken identity.

(Greg) Okay; here's a big problem with this: Launchpad's beak shape is different than Gizmo Duck's. Height isn't an issue because of the suit and their builds are somewhat similar so it isn't like Double Darkwings; but the beaks...OH the beaks are going to cause problems. What's funny is that the nephews run down all the similaries and Fenton's ego almost blows his cover every time; including showing a picture of their faces and beaks; forcing Scrooge to hook cane him to shut him up. HAHA! Nice to see Alan Burnett notice that one tiny flaw in logic.

Agreed.

(Greg) So we head back to the mansion as Scrooge is using a computer while Fenton is pacing around blowing off the nephews for thinking that he's not Gizmo Duck. I know people are shocked that Scrooge is using a computer; but I'm not. Anyone who is a toughie needs to learn technology at some point. Scrooge prints off something, using green paper. Yes folks; that was what printer paper looked like in ancient Egypt. 

I can't be sure at this remove, but I think that this was the first time I ever saw Scrooge working on a computer.  In a computer would have to wait for a while.  Since Scrooge did not appear to be familiar with computer banking at the start of "Scrooge's Last Adventure," I have to conclude that this first dip into the world of bits, bytes, and microchips was simply to have another means of communicating with his many business associates.

(Greg) Everyone gives Launchpad the football celebration spot and cheer as we pan left to Webra Walters completing her reporting while one of the Gizmo Duck imposters mugs for the camera for my amusement.

Just as Gizmoduck himself did the "hi, Mom" spot when he arrived at the stadium.  Just another example of Burnett joshing the power of the media. 

(Greg) Launchpad introduces his Gizmoettes, and look; Hildagarde from Maid Of The Myth has made a cameo appearance! How about that?!

It would be even more amazing if there actually had been a character named Hildagarde in that episode.  Unfortunately...

(Greg) So we head back to Launchpad's house as Fenton storms in all full of himself of course. Launchpad grabs Fenton and wants him to stop blowing him off because he finally got the ladies. Now wait a second; I thought LP was already a chick magnet?

Well, sometimes he was.  After such a lengthy period of somnolence, I don't blame LP for losing a little bit of his mojo.

(Greg) Launchpad claims that it's about Gizmo Duck and he's going to bare his soul on television. The nephews wonder if you can do that on television.

Another classic line.

(Greg) ...we head back to Scrooge's office as he and Scrooge are reading the newspaper. Fenton is full of himself because he's a hero now and no one believes Launchpad is Gizmo Duck. Scrooge agrees since Gizmo Duck caused so much damage. Wait; considering who Launchpad is; doesn't this prove Launchpad is Gizmo Duck even more?

I assume that everyone concluded that LP couldn't be Gizmoduck because of the scope of the damage he caused.  Crashing a dam is normally above LP's pay grade.

Next: Episode 89, "The Bride Wore Stripes."

Now It Can Be Told

Monday's preop evaluation for my July 21 kidney transplant went well.  I still have to give one final sample of blood for tissue typing on Monday.

Best guess at present is that I will be in the hospital (Johns Hopkins) for about a week and that I will be unable to return to work until late September or early October at the earliest.  I will be taking a lot of anti-rejection medication and will have to avoid crowds and other locations that might harbor infection.  That includes Bronycon in early August, I'm sorry to say.

You may have been wondering about the identity of the donor.  It's my brother Andy, who made the decision to do it a couple of months ago. 

DUCKTALES RETROSPECTIVE: Episode 83, "Metal Attraction"

It's taken a bit longer than expected, but we've finally reached the first true "original classic" of DuckTales' second season.  (I use the qualifier "original," of course, because "The Land of Trala La" was an adaptation of a Barks story, albeit one with a whole lot of new elements.)  This opinion is actually a slight upgrade of my initial assessment of the ep.  I liked it just fine the first time around, but it didn't quite knock my socks off in the manner that such future second-season efforts as "A Case of Mistaken Secret Identity," "The Big Flub," or "The Golden Goose" did.  With the wisdom of hindsight, I have a much greater appreciation for some of the risks that it took, especially in the area of... shall we say... interpersonal relationships.  It's fair to say that in no other DT ep was sexual tension ever planted so definitively front and center as a dominating influence.  At the same time, the script serves up a healthy portion of satire -- some of it surprisingly sharp, considering that one of Disney's greatest sources of pride and joy is one of the main targets -- and it also offers a textbook example of how to deliver a "character learns a lesson" moral without pulling the character in question completely, or even partially, out of character, or even making the character unlikable (even temporarily so) in order to get the point across.  All in all, a nice comeback episode for Ken Koonce and David Weimers following that recent... unpleasantness... though Alan Burnett (who co-wrote) and Cliff MacGillivray (who got a story credit) probably chipped in a large portion of the goodness, and Susan Blu's uber-caffeinated performance as Robotica is the X-factor that helps lift the production from good to great.

The actual debt that "Metal Attraction" owes to the popular thriller that inspired its title is relatively limited in terms of specifics, and particularly in terms of the emotions we feel regarding the characters.  Unlike the Michael Douglas character in Fatal Attraction, who came to regret (and that's putting it mildly) his brief extramarital fling, we sympathize with Fenton when the hyper-emotional robot maid Robotica sets her sensors on Gizmoduck.  Likewise, Robotica can't really be faulted for anything she does in any of her modes, whereas the Glenn Close character... well, can.  That's not to say that the characters don't bring at least some of their troubles upon themselves.  Fenton, after all, wouldn't have been put in the "Duckyland double-date dilemma" that dominates Act Two had he not been overly attentive to Gandra Dee, prompting his girlfriend to set up the outing to show him how other dating couples act.  As an audience, we are placed in the enviable position of enjoying and laughing at Fenton's subsequent discomfiture without feeling all that guilty about it.

There are a pleasing number of call-backs here, starting with the opening scene in which Gyro is inspired to tackle "domestic engineering."  Bang-bang-bang, Gyro refers to past exploits involving time and space travel and even references a goofy throwaway gag from "Super DuckTales" before confessing to Scrooge that he has "no new frontiers to conquer."  Given Gyro's robotic recidivism (which Scrooge not-so-gleefully comments on once he gets his first look at Robotica), perhaps the inventor has a point.

Mrs. Beakley's sudden desire for domestic help seems to come OUT OF NOWHERE and is the one major aspect of the episode that has a contrived feel to it.  We've seen Mrs. B. overworked before -- for example, when she's obliged to decline a chance to play with Webby in "The Good Muddahs" -- but whence cometh this tipping point?  Was it the arrival of Bubba and Tootsie?  Seems logical to me, especially if Mrs. B.'s current list of duties include "scooper detail."

The "overly mechanical" version of Robotica reminds me a bit of the interpretation of the robot maid Irona (oddly enough, voiced by Joan Gerber!) that was presented in the early-80s Hanna-Barbera Richie Rich show.  In her few seconds of screen time, "Robotirona" even performs a classic Irona routine, lifting up a heavy "something" (in this case, a refrigerator) in order to dust underneath it.  I shouldn't go too far with the analogy, though; Irona always had some personality, even in her most robotic forms, and never scared anyone to the extent that our cranium-spinning cyborg does here.

Gyro fixes the "stiffness issue" by impregnating Robotica with a floppy disk (remember those?) that is presumably encoded with the entire gamut of emotions that will soon be on extravagant display.  Which leads me to wonder: If the insertion of the disk caused Robotica to develop a personality, then couldn't the emotions be neutralized simply by removing said disk?  If Fenton had known about that little detail, then perhaps he could have suckered Robotica into a hug, or something, and returned her to her "factory settings."  Too bad that he wasn't privy to this little programming detail.

The emotionally amped Robotica takes zero time to make an impression... and, if Launchpad had made a similar "impression" when he smashed into the wall of Toupay in "The Duck Who Would Be King," then he would probably have gone right through the wall.  Blu's hysterically hamboned delivery doesn't need any amplification, but, for some reason, it gets some when one of Robotica's verbal riffs is accompanied by a ba-dump-tush sound, as if it were some sort of comedy-club punchline.  We'll hear a similar frisson a little later when the Robotica-entrapped Gizmoduck pleads, "Kids are watching!"  Quite frankly, I don't understand why the embellishments were needed.  What, you writers don't think this stuff was funny in and of itself?  What's next, a laugh track?

Fenton's concurrent investment of poor Gandra Dee with all manner of gifts, both inanimate and otherwise -- well, actually, do those singing chocolates guys count as animate or inanimate? -- marks the first time since "Super DuckTales" that we have seen these two characters interact.  It's immediately clear that, while Fenton may have gained in self-confidence thanks to his Gizmoduck alter ego and a newfound appreciation for his own latent abilities, he still has some ways to go to be completely comfortable "in his own feathers."  Burying Gandra with so many material goods indicates a certain level of insecurity in Fenton regarding his ability to hold Gandra's affections on his own merits -- this, despite Gandra's open admission at the end of "Super DuckTales" that she had always wanted to go out with him anyway.  Gandra's deep reservoir of affection for Fenton is probably the only reason WHY she doesn't take GeoX's advice and hit him with a restraining order.  Despite his annoying behavior in these scenes, Fenton doesn't do anything to make himself seriously unlikable; we recognize his behavior here as a logical extension of his personality as a whole.  As is reflected in his "Have I fallen short?" response to Gandra's recitation of his various efforts, he is simply one of those perpetually-on-the-make types who can't be satisfied with things as they are.  The upcoming "The Big Flub" will spin off the same conceit, with Fenton asking Scrooge to give him more business responsibilities so that he can show what he can do (to himself, as well as to Scrooge).

I don't want to let Gandra completely off the hook here.  Yes, all things considered, she does react to Fenton's smothering with disturbing passivity.  She does, however, have several opportunities to confront Fenton directly about what he is doing -- and she never takes them, instead using such indirect criticisms as "Can't you see?" and "You wouldn't understand," or having Fenton go on the double date in order to enlighten him through experience.  I guess that this makes some sense if you buy into the whole "men and women are from different planets and express things differently" theory, but come on -- if you're that discomfited by my actions, then I would certainly appreciate your telling me so.  Of course, if Gandra hadn't waited until the very end to verbalize her feelings (to Gyro, of all people!), then we wouldn't have had much of an ep.  Still, it bothers me to see Fenton get all of the blame here.

Fenton gets to see "how the better half lives" when Gizmoduck reports to Scrooge for repair duty (huh?  Isn't Gizmo kind of overqualified for such mundane tasks, just as he'll be overqualified for various other jobs in "The Unbreakable Bin"?) and sets Robotica's pistons a-popping.  The innuendo here gets fairly serious, especially in the scene at the Money Bin when Robotica wraps the hapless Gizmo up in her extendable arms and forces him to the ground.  Luckily, Blu's acting is so over-the-top that any arousal that might be occasioned here is dissolved in guffaws.

"Over the top," did you say?

The scene at the "Econo-Lube and Perm Boutique" kicks the weirdness factor of the episode up several additional notches.  The obvious parody of the "Madge" Palmolive ads isn't the half, or even the quarter, of it.  For the dual-entity beautification gag to make any sense in the first place, we have to conclude that "Midge" has had patrons like Robotica before, else why would Robotica have bothered to patronize the place?  Does this mean that there are other robots (of necessity, not all of which could have been created by Gyro) walking around Duckburg as a matter of course?  When did we suddenly enter the hyper-advanced Duckburg of Carl Barks' "Island in the Sky"?

In passing, we learn here that Gandra is a "receptionist" at the bean factory.  This is something of a surprise, actually, given that Gandra's first act in "Super DuckTales" was to come out onto the factory floor, files in hand, and pass along the boss' compliment to Fenton.  That's a task that one would normally expect an employee with more authority to perform.  Of course, we'll eventually learn that Gandra's talents extend well beyond looking pretty and taking phone calls, so perhaps the duties of a "receptionist" at the bean factory are more comprehensive than one would think.  Actually, they would almost have to be.

Duckyland, the site of the double date (or is it a threesome?  It's kind of hard to tell), features parodies of Disneyland sites both mundane (the distant shots of a generic Matterhorn-style mountain and castle) and ingenious (the "Teacup Ride," in which patrons literally get to experience a "Tea Party" from the inside).  The Tunnel of Love -- shaped like a giant box of chocolates with a ribbon tied around it, in case you didn't notice -- was probably thrown in just as much to provide a cordon sanitaire between Duckyland and its real-world namesake (which, famously, does not have that cliched carnival conveyance) as to provide a fitting setting for the breakup/breakdown of the Gizmoduck/Robotica relationship.  Even so, it's hard to miss the sting contained in Fenton's description of the park as "this middle-class marketplace of mirth."  It's one thing to riff on park rides and such, quite another to zap Disneyland's stereotypical clientele.

The obligatory "two places at once" shenanigans are carried off rather well.  Fenton does slip a couple of times -- using his own voice when Gizmoduck orders the drinks, forgetting to remove a Gizmo-arm when he comes to join the ladies on the bench -- but, considering that he never thinks to use his established "popping up out of nowhere" routine to make his life easier, he manages to pull off the charade almost as well as Clark Kent did during the woebegone Superman IV.  Being Fenton, however, he can't keep the plot from eventually coming unstuck, with the offended Gandra charging off in a huff.  Nor can he be completely faulted for trying to "turn off" Robotica's affections by telling her the "other woman" story in the Tunnel of Love.  It's the truth, after all -- at least, when the "aluminum siding" is removed -- and how was he to know that his action would result in Robotica going berserk, complete with that unforgettable Susan Blu screech?

The ep stumbles a bit at the start of Act Three, when the crazed Robotica returns to the Mansion to... er, do some dusting?  Granted, it's agitated and overly emotional dusting, but I would think that she would be fixated on finding Gizmoduck at this point.  Instead, we must wait for a glimpse of the family portrait and Scrooge's overheard phone conversation to see her to go on the warpath once more, this time to find the "other woman."

As some of my readers have noted, the existence of the portrait below does, in fact, suggest that Bubba and Gizmoduck have met at some point, even though they never will do so on screen.  There is something contrived about the idea, however, at least as it is presented here.  Bubba's presence in the portrait, I can understand, but since when has Gizmoduck been considered a member of the McDuck household?  Gizmo may have visited enough times that, in the words of a Nephew in "A Case of Mistaken Secret Identity," "the welcome mat has skid marks," but, hey, just because my best friend in childhood came over to play lots of times didn't mean that I considered him to be one of my siblings.

After Fenton's massive marzipan make-good has finally pushed Gandra over the edge -- demurely, of course -- we get some Fatal Attraction-style nastiness as Robotica confronts Gandra with her "treachery."  At least no knives or boiled rabbits were involved (though the rabbit anthros who were on the "Teacup Ride" might beg to differ regarding the latter).  Robotica's attempt to destroy both Gandra and the Money Bin at one blow finally gives Scrooge a tangential reason to care about the outcome, and Fenton, thanks to overhearing Gandra's lament, finally gets the hint that he's been coming on too strong to his lady.  I agree with Greg that this sequence -- in particular, the showdown at the Bin -- whisked by a little bit too quickly to have the impact that it could have had.  A little more threatening of Gandra by Robotica, a more artfully-staged explosion (that missile sure took its sweet time to reach the Bin, didn't it?), and we would really have had something.   

I can certainly see where GeoX is coming from with his comment about the Stepford Wives-esque reprogrammed version of Robotica.  The problem here, I think, stemmed from the fact that Susan Blu, having gone to both extremes in her previous interpretations of the character, apparently couldn't decide  what a "normal" Robotica ought to sound like.  She tried to dial down the emotion while returning some of the "robotic" flavor to the voice, and the end product reflects the uneasy compromise.  Robotica's dialogue itself isn't all that unnatural or off-putting, but the voice makes it seem so.  It's a smudge, but a minor one, on an otherwise top-drawer voicing performance.

If the point weren't already obvious, "Metal Attraction" reinforces, beyond the shadow of a doubt, Fenton's worthiness as a member of the Duck cast.  This is basically his episode -- Scrooge, HD&L, and the rest of the clan play only a minor role -- and he carries off the responsibility without a hitch.  Like Fenton, Koonce and Weimers prove that they, too, can learn a valuable lesson; "Metal Attraction" wears its moral far more lightly than some of the duo's earlier, more heavy-handed efforts to get a "bigger point" across (*cough "Down and Out in Duckburg" *cough*).  The "sitcom era" of DuckTales may have a different feel to it than the first season, but "Attraction" is the first significant indication that the show's somewhat looser approach doesn't mean that storytelling quality will be pitched out the window.  More examples of this will follow... but first, we will be obligated to digest another undeniable stinker.

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Bumper #18: "Cashflow"

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"DuckBlurbs"

Fun fact before we begin:  The official release date of Fatal Attraction was Friday, September 18, 1987 -- the first day that syndicated stations across the country broadcast "Treasure of the Golden Suns."  I wonder how many people saw both Fatal Attraction and "Golden Suns" on that same weekend.  There must have been at least a few, given that DuckTales attracted adult viewers from the start.

(GeoX's correspondent "Christopher") I notice that in one of Robotica's hyper-emotional states she's clearly crying visible tears. What do you think they are– axle grease droplets?
(GeoX) Let's hope so--the idea that Gyro would have included actual bodily fluids in her construction inevitably leads to conclusions that are way too gross and disturbing to dwell on.

How about the fact that Robotica offers Gizmoduck lunch and cafe au lait?  Why would a robot be offering another presumed robot actual food?

(Greg) We begin this one with Scrooge's mansion as we zoom in and head inside the basement as Gyro is standing in piles of dollar bills while Scrooge is doing something with a giant ass pot. He fishes out a jar with tongs as Gyro talks about having nothing left to conquer in the invention field. Scrooge puts the money in the jars as Gyro ponders making a machine to help him with his money canning. Yes; he's canning money. And you thought canned heat was absurd.

"Can" it be possible that this was a reference to the Barks cover of UNCLE $CROOGE #15 (September-November 1956)?  Yes, it certainly "can," even though Scrooge is canning coins, rather than bills, in the Barks version.  Unlike the "cash castle" in "Blue Collar Scrooge," the canning conceit carries through to the very end of the episode, as we see several additional scenes in Scrooge's basement cannery. 

(Greg) Then the door bell rings and Robotica goes to answer it; but not before going into an awesome rant that goes on and on before Scrooge blows her off. 

Scrooge's exasperated reactions are just as funny as Robotica's words here.  I'm not trying to be a spoilsport, but this scene was probably the sole reason why Duckworth was not part of the episode, since he usually handles door duties.

(Greg) Then we head to the teacup ride which Wang Films animates all right (proving me wrong again); although when the bunny furries get dunked; it looks awful. I think that's the only time they used bunny rabbit anthros for this show.

I think it was, too.  Could this have been a reference to the notorious "bunny-boiling" scene in Fatal Attraction?

(Greg) Mrs. Beakly is at the closet and Robotica shows her the [family portrait] as evidence looking mighty pissed off. Beakly claims that she barely likes [Gizmoduck] and has nothing to do with him.

Which would seem to preclude Gizmo being included as part of a family portrait, no?  I'm surprised that Robotica didn't press Mrs. B. harder on this.  Of course, by this point, her powers of reasoning have pretty much malfunctioned...

(Greg) Gizmo unties Gandra and Gandra hopes she's less emotional this time around because she smothers Gizmo Duck like Fenton smothers Gandra. Gizmo Duck realizes why she doesn't like Fenton anymore and thinks Fenton has got it since they are best buddies. I cannot argue with that overwhelming logic there Gizmo Duck. Gizmo asks Gandra for one more chance...

I really like the way Hamilton Camp reads these lines.  He makes it sound as though a humbled Fenton "gets it" without slipping out of character as Gizmoduck. 

No new RETROSPECTIVE this coming week, as I'll be in Kansas City for the AP Statistics Reading.  So you'll have to wait a bit before I "favor" you with that deathless classic: Episode 84, "Bubba's Big Brainstorm."