212 Animal Frat

Animal Frat


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alsplacebartender

Al's Place Bartender
Staff member
Animal Frat
October 19, 1967


Meeks College, California


Sam finds himself in a fraternity with the name "Wild Thing" and is informed by Al that he is there to prevent a girl from setting an explosion that kills someone on campus in protest of the Vietnam War.


Written by: Chris Ruppenthal
Directed by: Gilbert Shilton


Rate and comment on this episode!
 
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This is one of the few I watch just for the backgound characters!

The fraternity brothers are absolutely hilarious!!!!!!! The scenes of Sam just being part of college life were really fun (from the studying for the chemistry exam scene through the exploding toilets), especially given Sam's "goody-goody" character in general. And the end, when he's the "God of the Luau."
 
Another good script by Chris Ruppenthal.
One thing i want to say is thanks god i never been in/was a part of a frat house...:)
 
This is not one of my top fav episodes but I love the concept and possibly my favorite line in the whole thing is:
"I lost a brother in Vietnam so don't tell me I don't care!"
Poor Sam, its like at that moment I wish they could know who they are really talking to and even in Kewt's case that guy Duck judged him way too quickly, everyone seems to. Even someone by the nickname 'Wild Thing' can have a soft side.
 
Sam Beckett Fan said:
"I lost a brother in Vietnam so don't tell me I don't care!"
Poor Sam, its like at that moment I wish they could know who they are really talking to and even in Kewt's case that guy Duck judged him way too quickly, everyone seems to. Even someone by the nickname 'Wild Thing' can have a soft side.

I agree. I'm glad Sam managed to save Tom from being killed in Vietnam.
 
And the review goes on.

Another great episode from Chris. My favorite characters are definitely Guna and the rest of the guys. I didn't like Elizabeth at times. She seemed to want to make almost everything her problem, but I could understood where she was coming from. Times like those were both very depressing and stupid, and Chris knew how to portray them very well in this teleplay.

Raphael Sbarge is a favorite actor of mine, and the character of Scooter (played by Robert Petkoff) was always very hilarious. Very entertaining episode that deals with a very serious topic. Masterfully crafted.

The last episode to feature the Sam voice-over at the beginning of each episode's teaser, which was a shame because I loved that style!!

My rating: Excellent. Classic. The "frat house" episode!
 
I realised something watching this episode recently - Sam leaps in during the party, in the middle of a chugging session, and has two sexy ladies waiting for him in his bed. GTFW leapt him in at that stage just so that Sam could have a break and have some fun before his next mission :)
 
This was a heavy subject matter episode which had triggered very strong personal feelings within Sam, overshadowing the role. So he took a character known for seemingly caring about nothing but women and getting drunk and turned him into an effective anti-war activist. You have to wonder what that did to the guy after Sam leaped out since at least some folks came to expect more out of him that he actually delivers.

The character of Duck was very well done, he came across to me anyway as quite infuriating especially when responding to Sam's powerful line:
"My brother was killed in Vietnam so don't tell me I don't care!"


War or not he was quite out of line to disrespect the dead.

One of the more recent times I watched this episode I caught something that cracked me up. In the beginning Sam retreats to his dorm to change because a frat partier had puked on him and not yet realizing that there were two women in Wild Thing's bed he strips his pants. He's wearing the exact same hearts and bears boxer shorts Al makes fun of in season 4's Temptation Eyes. Interesting choice for Wild Thing. XD

I realised something watching this episode recently - Sam leaps in during the party, in the middle of a chugging session, and has two sexy ladies waiting for him in his bed. GTFW leapt him in at that stage just so that Sam could have a break and have some fun before his next mission :)

I'm not so convinced, considering Wild Thing's lifestyle there was probably seldom a moment NOT like that outside of his attending classes.
 
This was a heavy subject matter episode which had triggered very strong personal feelings within Sam, overshadowing the role. So he took a character known for seemingly caring about nothing but women and getting drunk and turned him into an effective anti-war activist. You have to wonder what that did to the guy after Sam leaped out since at least some folks came to expect more out of him that he actually delivers.

The character of Duck was very well done, he came across to me anyway as quite infuriating especially when responding to Sam's powerful line:
"My brother was killed in Vietnam so don't tell me I don't care!"


War or not he was quite out of line to disrespect the dead.

One of the more recent times I watched this episode I caught something that cracked me up. In the beginning Sam retreats to his dorm to change because a frat partier had puked on him and not yet realizing that there were two women in Wild Thing's bed he strips his pants. He's wearing the exact same hearts and bears boxer shorts Al makes fun of in season 4's Temptation Eyes. Interesting choice for Wild Thing. XD



I'm not so convinced, considering Wild Thing's lifestyle there was probably seldom a moment NOT like that outside of his attending classes.

What I meant was that there really was no reason that Sam couldn't leap to say when the frat boys are in the Chemistry building hurling water balloons, as that's when Al tells him about his mission to help Elizabeth, whom he hadn't even met yet. The first part of the leap was essentially pointless. OR WAS IT?!?!
 
Perhaps, I see your point as I'm reminded of another season two episode Good Morning Peoria when he straight up tells Al that he felt like he'd been given "a license to play". This essentially was the first time Sam had ever learned to have fun while in a leap and I do feel that that was intentional.

It fits with my theory that part of the mission is some leaps is for Sam himself to learn something or even Al. But I'm getting off topic now so I'll stop right there.
 
Despite the over-the-top silliness of the frat boys, I really enjoyed this episode. It comedically dealt with a very serious topic. I like how the water balloon launching foreshadowed the bomb launching toward the end.

Though I have one irk: If they put the cherry bomb fuses together using bubble gum, the first fuse would burn down to the gum and then just go out, as wet gum is not flammable. They'd have done better to square knot the fuses together (voice of experience here).

Fun times, serious topic. An Excellent episode.
 
Hmm...not the best offering this one. Season 2 has been excellent thus far, but this is a stumble for me. The plot itself just doesn't grab me at all. I get what they were going for in this episode and the conversation it attempts to spark, but ultimately I found myself feeling less and less engaged as the episode progressed.

The best part of this episode has to be when Sam and his host's chums go and bomb the girls toilets. It's a very funny moment. For the most part, though, these characters did annoy me. In fact, I think that was the problem. I didn't really like any of the characters. I never want to college but the whole campus thing looks like it would be a nightmare for me. Haha.

There's one extremely weird part about this episode that I'm hoping another poster on here can help me out on. And that's when Sam is listening to someone speak (I believe it's Duck), when Al waltzes in and sits down in a chair right behind Sam. How did Al, as a hologram, sit down in that chair? Yes, I know sometimes it appears like Al is sitting (like when he's next to Sam in a car), but I thought he was really just standing and it appeared as though he was sitting. I know he can sit down on the imaging chamber floor, because he does so in Freedom. But how did he sit in the chair in this episode? I guess a chair was in the imagining chamber. But how could Al see it? How could the chair in the hologram that Al was seeing (of Sam and his surroundings) be in the exact place it should be in the imaging chamber? Gah. This is making my head hurt. Lol. It probably was just a big mistake. But it is jarring to see.

My rating. Fair. One of the worst offerings of season 2.