"SOLID GOLD MOTHER IN LAW "


Feigning repentence after having turned Darrin into a pony, Endora gleefully promises Samantha that she'll try to do something "very, very nice" to make peace with him. What she ends up doing is very, very funny when she tries hoodwinking Darrin's latest client and the Tates into believing that no mother and son-in-law is, quote, "... as cuddly as "Dar-Dar and I are!"

Batting her eyelashes while oozing insincerity out of every pore, Endora's like a kitten with yarn toying with Darrin, the Tates and Mr. Gregson in this well written episode (by R.R. Crutcher) that owes a lot to its witty repartee and divinely smug performance by Agnes Moorehead. Always in control of finding interesting and surprising ways to play her part, Miss Moorehead is perfection here as we see Endora in an almost peaceful rapture knowing she's responsible for a another minor massacre among the mortals. Whether trying to keep a dinner party conversation "on a domestic level" (meanwhile altering her voice into a tone that could produce diabetic comas) or simply pulling her face at Darrin in one of her many "portrait sittings", Moorehead is a total gas while still being absolutely classy!

Highlights include: Darrin waiting by the furnace with a shovel, ready to clobber Endora's Kodak Moment; Lizzie looking ravishing in her dinner party frock; Top-notch dialogue with some laugh-out-loud quotes (Endora innocently explaining how she turned Darrin into a pony after she made "a few witty remarks about his stupidity!"); Endora's new pet name for Darrin, "Dar-Dar" (how she said THAT with a straight face I'll never know!); And last but not least, the pony -- I wonder if HoHo knows it's missing?!

FAVE QUOTE: ENDORA: (explaining as to why Darrin has a picture of her on his desk): "I would never have been so egotistical as to have given it to him...he-must-have-STOLEN-it!"

ENDORA (presenting the pony as a gift): "The pony is on me!"
DARRIN: "That I'd like to see!"

DIANE WATCH: In the final scene, Diane's atop the pretty pony and then carried to the chair by Samantha. But once we cut to Tabitha sitting on the chair again, it's Erin all the way home.

OOPS!: The character of Mr. Gregson is credited as "Mr. Hudson" in the final credits.

LOOK FOR: The pretty pony looking like a frightened pony when the smoke bombs go off...who can blame him?

© Review Copyright 1999 by SCOTT VIETS

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