This is the first entry in The Courtship Of Eddie's Father series to recycle opening footage and thus the reason the theme is not included here. Still, for those with an equally nostalgic fondness for the warmth and charm of Bill Bixby and the cast of the classic series I hope these little flashbacks to The Courtship Of Eddie's Father offer you a brief moment of solace in those complicated and busy lives as they do me.
In The Courtship Of Eddie's Father, Season One, Episode 4, The Littlest Kidnapper, Eddie is feeling particularly sad for Mrs. Livingston and feels she is all alone. Eddie, played by Brandon Cruz, has his father. Tom Corbett, played by Bill Bixby, has Eddie. Eddie suggests his father pollinate Mrs. Livingston like a bee does a flower, but it falls on deaf ears. Thus, Eddie feels action is required.
On the way home from school, Eddie decides to bring an Asian boy home with him. He dubs the little boy, Frank, hoping he'll be Mrs. Livingston's son, and brings him home essentially kidnapping the boy so that Mrs. Livingston will no longer be alone.
Tom does everything to make sure Frank is returned to his parents since the unexpected abduction of Frank by Eddie.
Eddie discovers, through the arrival of Frank's divorced parents, that all is not perfect in Frank's world as his parents argue. Eddie soon discovers that the affections he has toward Mrs. Livingston and through her relationship with he and his father that she is perhaps not as alone as he originally believed. Life is pretty good. As someone affected and surrounded directly and indirectly by the wake of divorced families in the 1970s, this is indeed a very poignant episode and spoke to many of us at a time when the D word seemed so relative, prevalent and damaging.
And speaking of survival, there was so much to love about the way things were once upon a time, such as driving in the front seat. It may not have been politically correct and it may not have been as safe as driving is today for kids, because God knows we've learned a thing or two, but there was something pretty special about sitting next to your Mom or Dad in the front seat sometimes even leaning against the dashboard. You have to love the retro look back at these simpler, but sometimes special times.
Pat Morita [Happy Days] guests as Frank's father.
The Littlest Kidnapper. Writer: Carl Kleinschmitt. Director: James Komack.
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