Polly's Dad - What a Jack Ass!

Unfortunately I haven't seen these episodes in YEARS. It is a shame that we can't see the early "Bub and Mike" years, as well as the Chip and Polly years.

Ever heard of Netflix? Right now those early episodes are the only ones you can see on there.

I love when Uncle Charlie tells "Williams" off...you wanna punch the guy, and also like to shake the actor's hand for his brilliance in the role.

I've been watching the Chip & Polly story from season 11, and it's Tom Williams [Norman Alden] that always gets my interest. It was a brilliant job of acting in that he is definitely the doting father who becomes a "control freak" when he feels his daughter may choose another man in her life; yet he has enough compassion that we don't go all the way to hating him, for we can see that Polly, who gets our sympathy quickly, does love him in spite of his possessiveness. And Margaret, with whom we also are affected in a positive way, defends him as being a good man-- supposedly a good provider, and all that, without being violent-- even though she also has felt his controlling nature, and knows the time is 'ripe' for something to be done.

In the color episodes, each season begins with a multi-part story that culminates in a 'big event' of some type after 7 to 10 episodes. I was about 11 when these eps were in first run, and I don't think I knew the word "elope" before this. But it's used to the extent that I knew that sooner or later Chip and Polly were going to do that. But I don't remember thinking Tom was out of the ordinary as far as the father of a daughter who didn't want her to get too 'serious' with a boyfriend. As I got older and saw these eps 2 or 3 times a year in syndication (in the 70's and early 80's, before we could record our own favorite shows), I drifted more to disliking Tom or anyone I could compare him to. But as time has gone one, I've become a little more sympathetic to how he would have felt-- but not, of course, condoning some of the things he did and said. He probably saw Chip and Polly's relationship through the window of his own late teen years, and it's easy to speculate that he took any chance to get close, physically and otherwise, to a few girls, so the thought of any 'kid' doing that with his own-- and only-- daughter was not easy to bear. Thus, his being so suspicious is quite expected, and indeed he was proved right when he thought they considered themselves engaged, while Steve did not think so. But what he appeared unable to see, or imagine, was that it was Polly, not Chip, who was the real instigator of it all. And we obviously agree with Steve, who knew this truth, but could not blame Polly for this, considering what a controller her father is.

So then it all seems to come down to a bitter irony... that in trying so hard to hold on to his daughter, he pushes her away from him. But in the end of this 'subseries,' it's still a comedy show, so there does have to be a reconciliation, which after the elopement is the closest thing possible to a "return to normalcy," which is the mark of a domestic comedy. This happens when Chip and Polly return from their honeymoon and move into their dorm room. At first, Tom still will not see Polly, and when Chip comes to try to persuade him, he declares emphatically that both she and Chip hurt him deeply. At this point, I do empathize a bit with Tom; for Chip and Polly knew their elopement would hurt him, as he would know clearly that they did it because of him. I'm not sure how they expect him to suddenly accept what has happened. If you've had a break-up of some sort, even knowing you share the blame, did you just buddy-up with the one who hurt you after the separation was decided? Nevertheless, it happened quickly in the domcom world here. Tom went to visit them on a pretense and ended up hugging Polly, telling her he missed her, and asking Chip to call him something besides the now-too-formal "Mr. Williams."

I've always believe, though, with Polly's conniving to go to that next step-- in this case, to get married-- she would probably do the same things again; such as, after a year or 2, she would start pressuring Chip that she now wants children. When he says they need to wait for that at least till they graduate and/or can well provide for themselves, she would remind him of getting married under such precocious circumstances. And then she may want to buy that dream house they can't yet afford, and so on. But all this we will never know.