Original air-date: September 18, 1969
Writers: Dan Beaumont and Joel Kane
Director: Jay Sandrich
Guest Stars: Mason Curry as Deke Tuttle
Betsy Jones-Moreland as Mrs. Post
Treva Frazee as Mrs. Jenkins
Ceil Cabot as Mrs. Vogel
Brenda Bennett, Blanche Bronte,
Laura Mason, Sheila Rodgers and
Bunny Summers as the PTA members
Rating: three (3.0) bells
Synopsis:
Mrs. Post of the PTA telephones Carolyn to ask if she will host Friday’s meeting at Gull Cottage. Carolyn tentatively agrees, but knows she can’t pull it off without the Captain’s cooperation.
When she approaches him about the subject, the Captain roars his disapproval "A swarm of prattling women can wreak more havoc than a school of killer sharks!". He demonstrates how he would scuttle the meeting with ghostly antics, which would include a self-propelled tea pot.. "And if they choose to serve cream puffs with their tea...!", he adds. Carolyn gets the picture, and figures he’s won this battle.
Just then, lightening and thunder and a peer through the telescope signal the Captain that the feared legendary Sea Vulture has sailed into Schooner Bay’s harbor, much to his distress. He refuses to tell Carolyn the legend or meaning of the ship and asks her to promise not to refer to it again. Curious, she refuses and ventures off to the library to do some reading on the subject. The Captain’s ghostly tug-of-war fails to foil Carolyn’s research, although she gets some strange looks at the library while battling the Captain for a certain book.
When she returns to Gull Cottage, the Captain spins the rest of the tale. He tells how the Sea Vulture is a cursed ghost ship piloted by its murdered mad Captain, and when it arrives in a port every seven years, all ghosts of seamen are helpless until the celestial winds blow it out to sea. When Carolyn comprehends that the Captain’s ghostly powers are temporarily diminished for an indefinite period of time, she decides to take advantage of the situation and host the PTA meeting as planned. The Captain thunders his disapproval but can do nothing about it.
Later while in town buying supplies for the meeting, Martha and the children run into Claymore, who asks how the Captain would allow a PTA meeting take place at Gull Cottage. The children explain how the Captain has lost his powers, but don’t have the heart to tell the overjoyed Claymore that it’s only a temporary condition..
At four o’clock on Friday, a group of noisy women arrive at Gull Cottage for the PTA meeting. The Captain can only bluster idle threats while suffering through the invasion, holding his ears and stamping his feet. While the meeting is underway in the living room, Claymore arrives and confronts the powerless pouting Captain upstairs at the telescope. Bravely telling "spookface" that it’s "check-out time", Claymore announces his intention of replacing the Captain’s "sourpuss" portrait with one of his maternal ancestor.
In the midst of Claymore’s taunting, the Captain realizes the celestial winds have blown the Sea Vulture out to sea. The Captain announces the return of his powers by crashing the portrait over Claymore’s head, whisking him down the stairs, out the door, and into his departing car. Hearing the commotion, Carolyn enters the hallway in time to see Claymore being spirited to his car, and she knows the Captain’s powers are back.
Expecting him to scuttle her ongoing PTA meeting, Carolyn with resignation, tells the Captain to get on with it. Realizing how much it means to her and how he regards her and the children as his family, he agrees to allow the meeting to continue without ghostly interference.
Later, the Captain makes Carolyn promise never to take advantage of him again in such a situation, to which she strenuously agrees, all the while crossing her fingers behind her back.
Favorite Moments & Quotes:
Captain: "This meeting means a great deal to you, doesn’t it?"
Carolyn: "A great deal, but you wouldn’t understand. You’ve never been a parent."
Captain: "With a P as in PTA, no Madam. The nearest I’ve ever come to a family is now...... Well, I suppose if you have to put up with these babbling women, I must too."
Carolyn: "You know Captain, at times you become almost human."
Captain: "At times Madam, I wish I were... But be sure they’re out of here by five o’clock!"
Least favorite:
This first episode of the second season was a disappointment for many fans, as it included slap-stick ghostly gimmicks that cheapened the show’s quality - a condition that sadly came to characterize many of the second season episodes. Also, except for the brief scene referred to above, there is a noticeable change in the attitude of the main characters towards each other. Many of their exchanges are rife with tones of belligerency and flippancy, without the warmth and wit that characterized much of their first season banter. To our distress, the powers that be decided in the second season to shift the focus away from the main character’s warm bittersweet relationship in many of its episodes. On another note, Candy knows of the Captain’s ghostly presence without any explanation given on how she came to meet the resident specter.
Contributed by Lynn Murray