1982
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Eyes
Jodie is adjusting a big poster with two large eyes painted on it when Jeff comes in. He shows her a picture in the newspaper. It's an ad for the store. There's a picture of one Jeff's fellow mannequins. She is wearing glasses and the ad says, "Today's Special is Eyes." Jeff wants to know what it means.
"It means that Today's Special is eyes," Jodie tells him.
"They're selling EYES?" Jeff asks.
"No, Jeff, they're not selling eyes -- they're selling things that have to do with the eyes." She points out the display she's working on, the big picture of eyes, and the glasses the mannequin is wearing in the picture.
"Well, I can see that with my own two eyes!" says Jeff.
"And you read this with your own two eyes." Jodie says to him. Turning to us, she says, "And you're watching us with your own two eyes."
Jeff says he sure is glad he can see Jodie, the newspaper, the display and us. Together they sing, "I'm so glad to see you!"
Later, Jodie has left Jeff to finish the poster of the two eyes. He has to put an eyebrow, an eyelid, and an eyelash on the eye on the left. He asks our help, because he doesn't know the difference between the three. He holds up each one in turn, and puts them in the right place on the picture as we tell him where it goes. He does quite well, except he puts the eyebrow on upside down. After we tell him what's wrong, the eyebrow magically flips over. Happy, Jeff winks at us. Then picture winks too!
In Sam's room, it's snack time. He has a plate of donuts and he's calling for Muffy to join him.
"Really, Mr. Crenshaw," TXL scolds, "donuts are not a nutritious snack. Carrots or an apple would be much better for you . . . And you're eating far too many."
"Well, they're not all for me, TXL," he says. Then he invites us to help him count them. There are four, two for him, and two for Muffy. Changing the subject, he says, "Boy, you should see the eye display that Jodie is putting together!"
"I am not a boy, I'm a TXL Series 4 computer. And if you press my "E" button, I'll show you an eye display!"
Sam pushes it, or so he thinks, but he accidentally pushes "h" instead, and horses appear on the screen.
"I guess my eyes are tired." Sam says.
She shows him human eyes of many shapes and sizes, but Sam interrupts her when he discovers that one of his donuts is missing. He suspects Muffy took one, but he doesn't see her anywhere. So TXL continues by showing him different animals' eyes.
"STOP RIGHT THERE!" cries Sam. A donut is moving off the plate and up TXL's screen. "I can't believe my eyes!" says Sam. A giggle reveals the source. It's Muffy, on top of TXL's monitor, reeling the donut up with a fishing line. When she comes down, Sam asks what happened to the other donut.
"It's in my tummy, and it was yummy!" says Muffy
"She's sure no dummy!" TXL adds.
Muffy laughs. "The eyes you showed looked very nice," she tells TXL, "but how come none belonged to mice?"
"I was trying to show only pretty animal eyes," TXL answers.
"Well, I like that! Thanks a lot! What makes you think you're so hot?" Muffy says, and off she goes.
Sam tries to remind her to take her donut, but she's gone. So he decides to see if Jodie needs any help. He takes a nibble on Muffy's donut, and then pushes the computer keys to give us a quiz while he's gone.
The quiz shows four faces. Which face is different from the rest? What doesn't it have? The face that is different has no eyebrows. TXL says, "Now I'll make all the faces the same." Instead of giving the one face eyebrows, she takes the eyebrows off the other three faces. "Surprise!" she cries. Then she gives all the faces eyebrows. "That's better!"
In the children's department, Sam comes in carrying a box. He plunks it down on the counter, and Jodie tells him to be careful because there are glasses in it. He hands her another box and notices that this one has a sticker on it. "What language is that in?" he asks.
"It's in English," Jodie says, and flips the box over. "It says 'other end up.'" Sam says he couldn't read it because the light was bad. But when Jodie turns away, Sam picks up a pair of glasses lying on the counter, and walks off with them. When Jodie turns and reaches for the glasses, they're gone.
"I wonder where they went to," she says, but she's not too worried. "Oh, well!" she says and goes on her way.
Meanwhile, Sam is walking down the hallway, humming, apparently doing his rounds. Suddenly he turns this way and that, making sure no one else is around. Then he pulls out the glasses he took from Jodie, puts them on, and peers into a mirror. Showing them to us, he shakes his head. "Nope, nope, nope." he mumbles, and takes them off.
Meanwhile, Muffy is in her home, studying her eyes in the mirror. "I don't agree with that computer, how could these two eyes be cuter? She says mouse eyes can't be pretty. I don't need her programmed pity. Why should I take all the blame because all eyes don't look the same. How they sparkle, how they shine, I'm so proud my eyes are mine. Computers may not think they're nice, but they look great to other mice! That TXL should realize, everyone has lovely eyes. She made a big mistake and how! I'm going to tell her that right now!"
Now Jeff is in the children's department, looking at all the glasses in the display. "They're glasses for work and glasses for play!" Jodie tells him. She has three mannequins with her, and she's getting them ready to set up in the front window next to Jeff.
Sam comes in and comments, "Certainly are a lot of glasses!" Then he waits for Jeff and Jodie to turn away, puts the pair he had down and picks up another. When she turns around, Jodie is surprised to see the glasses she thought were missing back on the counter, while Jeff is puzzled that the sunglasses he had just put on the counter are now missing.
They both suspect Muffy might be playing a trick. Jodie calls her, and Muffy pops up and denies that she has been playing any tricks. "Hand over the sunglasses!" Jodie says, "or I'll search you! Tickle, tickle, tickle!"
"From top to bottom, I haven't got 'em!" Muffy insists. Jeff suspects she's hidden them somewhere but she denies it. She explains that she is on her way to show TXL that she's wrong about mouse eyes, she considers it her "mousely duty to make her see their natural beauty!"
Sam is now back in the hallway, this time trying on the sunglasses. He likes the way they look on him. "Real nice. Sharp!" he says.
Upstairs, Jeff is still looking for the sunglasses. Jodie tells him they'll probably turn up like the other ones did. She tries on the other pair and asks him how they look on her. Jeff likes them.
Jodie sings, "My glasses make me feel so fine, feel so fine 'cause they are mine, my glasses make me feel so fine, I really like my glasses!" While she's singing, Sam somes in, grabs another pair of glasses, puts the sunglasses down and ducks under the counter.
Jeff is surprised to see that the sunglasses are back! Jodie assumes they've been there all along, and turns her attention to her display. She suggests that we can help them set it up by listening to the songs they will sing about each pair of glasses, and then telling them which of the three mannequins (a sunbather, a carpenter, and an underwater diver), will wear each pair.
When the singing is done, the sunbather is wearing the sunglasses, the carpenter is wearing protective glasses, and the underwater diver is wearing goggles. The whole time they're doing this, Sam is trying on different glasses behind them.
When they're done, Jodie wonders how Muffy is doing with TXL.
We soon see. Muffy is giving TXL a lecture about her hasty judgment of mouse eyes. "Horse, cow, dog, fish, bird or kitty, everybody's eyes are pretty." She invites the computer to take another look.
"Muffy, you're absolutely right, and your eyes are as beautiful as anyone's." TXL offers to make up for it by showing her a story. It's a picture story, and TXL isn't programmed to tell the story but simply to show the pictures. Muffy suggests that we tell the story. TXL shows a story about a man who is a waiter, but not a good one. One day when he drops an entire platter of food, he is fired. As he walks dejectedly down the street, he spots a sign on a pole saying, "Clowns Wanted." He imagines himself as a clown and decides to try out. Soon he gets the job, paints his face, and carries a big platter of food out into the circus ring. Crash! He drops the platter! But this time, it's a good thing. The audience laughs and applauds.
TXL hopes the story makes up for what she said about Muffy's eyes. Muffy says, "Perhaps I also should remark, my eyes can see things in the dark."
"Many animals can see in the dark," TXL says, and shows some pictures. "Owls, foxes, cats..."
"Hey! That's not nice, they all eat mice!"
"Oops!" Says TXL. "Sorry."
Sam is still in the children's department trying on glasses when Jodie and Jeff walk in and see him holding a pair. Jodie wonders what he is doing.
Sam tries to make something up. "I came in, and the display was just kind of messy I thought, so I was putting it back together." He doesn't sound very convincing.
Jodie doesn't believe it. "Every time you've been around something funny has happened with the glasses." she says. "What's going on?"
"Come on," Jeff urges, "tell us. We're your friends."
Sam tells Jodie it all started when he went with her to see the ophthalmologist.
"What's an ophthalmologist?" asks Jeff. Jodie explains that he's a doctor who looks after your eyes. Sam says he'll show us what happened. "And I'll show you, too," he says to us.
So we see what happened when Jodie went to see the ophthalmologist because her eyes were watering and itching. His name is Dr. Herwitz, and when they go into the office, he has Jodie put a paddle over one eye and then read an eye chart with the other, when's she done, she puts the paddle over the other eye and reads another line. She gets all of the letters right, but Sam, looking on, makes mistakes on some of the letters. Next Dr. Herwitz examines her eyes with a microscope.
"I'll bet you can see my deepest thoughts!" Jodie says.
"I sure can!" Dr. Herwitz answers.
Dr. Herwitz asks Sam if he has had his eyes checked lately. Sam insists he has eyes "like an eagle." The doctor acts him to read the chart, but it looks pretty blurry to Sam and he can't read it well, though Jodie can see it very clearly.
The doctor explains that her vision is fine. Her eyes are watering and itching because she has allergies involving her eyes. He will give her a prescription for some drops that should help the problem. But, turning to Sam, he recommends that he get a checkup. Sam resists, and then finally says "Next Monday at 10 o'clock in the morning but I can only stay for 5 minutes!" The doctor will be operating then, but he says he'll try to fit Sam in.
Sam tells Jeff and Jodie that he kept his appointment, and it turns out he needs glasses. He has been taking the glasses and trying them on to see what kind of style he'd like. He says he didn't want to tell them because he was afraid they'd laugh.
"You don't have to feel silly about wearing glasses!" Jodie says, "Well, I've got a pair that I wear for reading when my eyes are tired." She shows them to Sam. Sam says he hopes he can find some as nice as those.
Muffy pops up from under the counter. "If you want a pair that's new, I have got the one for you." She grabs Sam and pulls him under the counter. When he returns, he has on a plastic funny nose and glasses.
"Are you sure this is really me?" he asks. Everyone laughs. Then Sam begins to sing, "My glasses make me feel so fine, feel so fine 'cause they are mine," and the rest join in, "my glasses make me feel so fine, I really like my glasses."
"You'll like your glasses, I know you'll get a thrill! You'll like your glasses I know you really will," sings Jeff.
Quizzes:
- I spy with my little eye, something that says, "Who?" (It is an owl in a tree).
- Which face is different? (see summary)
- I spy with my little eye, something that says, "Moo!"
Nursery Rhyme:
Notes:
- In 1981 and 1982, Jodie often remarked about Muffy, "Boy, she is one of a kind!" She does so in this episode. Perhaps they were trying to help the youngsters realize that talking mice are not commonplace.
- This is also one of the later uses of the phrase, "We'll show you, and we'll show you too," to introduce a film clip.
- Jodie gets somewhat flirtatious with Dr. Herwitz, especially when she breathes, "I bet you can see my deepest thoughts!"
- The credits seem to confirm that Dr. Herwitz is a real-life ophthalmologist.
- I don't know why they said at the end that Jodie wears glasses when her eyes are tired, since Dr. Herwitz said her eyesight is just fine. I think they just wanted to have someone else wearing glasses to make Sam feel better. Obviously, Jeff and Muffy don't wear glasses, so it had to be Jodie.
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