Eerie, Indiana - The Retainer

Since your teeth refuse to behave, I have designed for you something verrrrrry special.

Come on…TO THE POUND.

You don’t suppose it’s…MR. DITHERS!

Well, this episode of Eerie, Indiana, certainly had me laughing out loud on several occasions. I think already you could see the show was in full control of how to tell its wonderfully weird stories. Vincent Schiavelli has one significant scene and a smaller scene at the end but he absolutely leaves an impression (as he always did, may he rest in peace) as the creepy dentist who has perfected a rather over-the-top retainer that takes up half the face (it is quite an outrageous contraption) of a kid named Steve (Patrick LaBrecque). While eating this big hoagie, Steve is hanging out in the yard of Marshall, with Simon also visiting, when he actually hears a dog’s thoughts concerning hunger for meat from the sandwich! It turns out Steve’s retainer can read the thoughts of canines, allowing him to hear what their minds project! Marshall and Simon are excited about the monetary possibilities of this, equipping themselves with a radio connected to the retainer so they can also hear what the neighborhood pets are thinking, soon overhearing their plans to help captured dogs in the local pound revolt. The dogcatcher isn’t aware of this as “Fluffy” pounces on him. When the boys arrive at the pound, they find a leg bone, realizing that perhaps the dogcatcher was lunch! The first inclination that the dogs might be a major threat is when Fluffy is thinking about eating Simon who believes he just wants to play on the house floor! “Them bones, them bones” is a song a few of the dogs gleefully sing which had me in ribbons for whatever reason while the trio are doing a walkabout. The show had the “what is the next weird situation Marshall and Simon encounter this week” theme. The embarrassing viewership has built its own joke for the show, with Eerie, Indiana, listed among the lowest audience shows on television during its only season. I don’t know if it was timing, or its position on NBC, but this show never did find its audience. I guess this could be a fact I continue to reflect on as I revisit the show this year on Sunday nights, but there is such smarts and inventive storytelling I’m at a loss as to why it never did capture enough attention to keep it from languishing in the dead zone of television viewership. I guess my uncle was one of the few who actually just love it. My memories of him just begging me to watch it—to give it a shot—are as present in my mind right now as they were in the 90s. He recorded the episodes on VHS and kept watching them long after the show was a distant memory. I still hope the show finds a new audience…probably something I’ll take after him, using this blog as the means to do so. Joe Dante's considerable skill is quite active in this episode. His set up of Schiavelli, the way he frames him as this mad doctor, is colorful as is the shot from inside of Steve's mouth as Schiavelli looks in. Dante's creative presence on the show was extensive which is why its style remains such an asset.