Original Air date: October 2, 1969
Writers: Miles Wilder and William Raynor
Director: John Erman
Guest Stars: Irwin Charone as Delbert Peterson
Algae as himself
Rating: Three and a half bells
Synopsis:
Jonathan and Candy are returning from fishing with Scruffy when they find a tired and hungry seal on the beach. On the bluff, they meet Claymore and an armed fisherman, Delbert Peterson, who’s looking for a seal that’s been tearing up his nets. The children decide to bring their new "pet" home. With Scruffy’s assistance in decoying Martha, they sneak the seal in the house, up the stairs, and get him comfortably situated in the upstairs bathtub.
Meanwhile, Carolyn is hard at work writing an article - a naval yarn about a clipper ship crew battling a storm at sea. The Captain appears and urges her to take a break, then not too gently, gives his unsolicited criticism on the finer points of Carolyn’s story. Bristling, Carolyn asks why he’s not supervising the children while they’re fishing so to be sure they don’t repeat their prior escapades of bringing home wayward sea creatures. The Captain laughs out loud recalling a time when Carolyn opened the refrigerator to find an octopus the children brought back from an earlier outing. When the Captain offers to add his personal experiences to help spice up her story, Carolyn declines, saying the article is about men’s struggle with the sea, not with their women in port. "Pity," he dryly retorts and dematerializes.
After dinner, the children try to get in Carolyn’s good graces so she will let them keep their new pet. Before they can ask her the big question, water starts dripping through the living room ceiling, causing Carolyn to run upstairs shouting for Martha to call the plumber. She finds the seal in the bathtub, and while cleaning up the mess caused by the splashing seal, she hears the children tell how the local townspeople are hunting him. She agrees with the Captain’s suggestion that the seal spend the night, and that they release him on a safe strand the next morning.
The next day, Carolyn and the children run into Claymore and Mr. Peterson, who are still hunting the seal. The family decides it is too dangerous to release the seal since he is being hunted up and down the local coast. They return with him to Gull Cottage, where he entertains the family with tricks. The Captain finds a tag on his flipper indicating he is from Aqualand in Florida, two thousand miles away. When Carolyn calls the seal’s owners, she finds out the seal is Algae a recent star attraction of Aqualand, and that this is his third escape attempt. The owners agree he’s earned the right to be free. The family is taken with Algae’s persistent and courageous spirit. The Captain suggests that maybe Algae’s looking for his family, or that he’s looking for someone special, a feeling the Captain says, he knows very well.
While Algae entertains the family , Claymore and Mr. Peterson return to Gull Cottage and looking through the window, see the trained seal’s financial potential as a tourist attraction. Later, while the Captain with Carolyn and the children are walking the beach, Claymore deters Martha and has Algae kidnaped. Algae is to become the newest tourist attraction at Norrie’s Lobster House.
The family is heartsick that Algae is once again in captivity. Each decides to effect a rescue, and that night with the Captain’s help, Carolyn, Martha and the children rescue Algae from his caged tank outside Norries’, depositing Claymore and Mr. Peterson in his place.
Later, Carolyn, the children, and the Captain watch at the pier, as Algae swims off to freedom. Another seal’s bark is heard calling him, and the Captain remarks how he admires the seal for going so far to find the one he loves.
Favorite moments and quotes:
The banter between the Captain and Carolyn regarding her story and the Captain’s role as the children’s surrogate parent.
The not-so-subtle sentiments expressed by the Captain of how he knows very well the feeling of looking for someone special, and how he admires one for going so far to find the one he loves.
Captain: "Might I remind you Madam, I am NOT a blasted babysitter!"
Captain: "Put a cigar in his mouth and he looks like the head of any shipping line."
Least Favorite:
Disappointing are some of the sit-com ghostly gimmicks too common in second season episodes, such as the dunking of Claymore and Mr. Peterson in the seal’s tank. The storyline would be better without it.
Interesting notes:
The scene of the Captain and Carolyn walking the beach is from the first season episode Jonathan Tells It Like It Was.
Guest star Irwin Charone (Delbert Peterson) is a frequently-seen character actor of sitcom television, having appeared in Bewitched and many other popular programs. This was his second appearance in GAMM, his character having been at the town council meeting in Centennial’s first scene.
-- Lynn Murray