Episode 4: You’re Never Too Young

 

Hello again readers, family and friends. Thank you for joining me to review “You’re Never Too Young”! It is a fun and memorable episode that is light on drama. Many of us likely remember fondly that first experience that introduced us to the notion of romance. In this episode, we get to see Bobby’s introduction to a thing called love. The episode first aired on October 5th, 1973. It includes a guest star who would later be a most recognized face on classic TV. Let us begin reviewing, “You’re Never Too Young”!

The story opens with Bobby outside playing basketball. He encounters Greg and Peter leaving and is not happy they won’t be joining him to shoot some hoops. Both of Bobby’s older brothers have dates. Peter mentions he will be visiting Wendy. I guess he and Kerry Hathaway did not work out after all. Bobby can’t believe his brothers would rather spend time with the opposite sex than shoot baskets. The youngest brother is warned that he too will someday enjoy the company of females. Bobby swears it will never happen. He’d rather kiss a basketball or a catcher’s mitt.

 

Bobby’s “never” lasts only a few more seconds. As soon as Peter and Greg are gone, Cindy’s friend Millicent comes walking up. Bobby initially thinks she is there to visit Cindy, but that is not the case. Millicent is there to thank Bobby for taking up for her when some bullies were giving her trouble. Do you think he did this while serving as safety monitor? Bobby says his taking up for her was nothing, but Millicent assures him it was. She makes the value of his chivalry known with a kiss. With one peck from a pretty young lady, Bobby’s dormant hormones are awakened and he sees skyrockets! As he stands there in a romance induced dazed, Millicent questions if he is okay. Once he is brought back to reality, he asks that Millicent keep their smooch an eternal secret. He is relieved that nobody else witnessed the kids.  However, the worst possible witness spied the romantic encounter. From inside, Cindy stares at the pair with a devilish grin.

As Bobby walks back into the house, the romantic daze has returned. He ignores Alice’s offer of a snack. As he walks into the living the episode’s b-plot is introduced. Mike is trying on his costume for the Roaring 20’s party the family will be attending. Bobby takes little interest in seeing his dad in a raccoon coat. Mike and Carol try to see if something is troubling Bobby and he only replies with “Not really” to each question they ask.

 

Up in Greg’s attic abode, he, Marcia and Jan are looking at old record albums. Greg laughs at the song titled, “Can Red Lips Kiss My Blues Away?” I Googled the song and it appears the song is “Red Lips Kiss My Blues Away”. The songs Marcia and Jan laugh about, “Does The Spearmint Lose Its Flavor On The Bedpost Overnight” and “Yes, We Have No Bananas” are actual song titles. As the trio has a chuckle over the tunes of yesteryear and carelessly toss about borrowed records, Cindy enters. She is at her most annoying as she says, “I’ve got a secret, I’ve got a secret”. What adds to the annoying nature of Cindy’s actions here is that some time must have passed between her seeing Bobby and Millicent kiss and her decision to go around childishly chanting, “I’ve got a secret”. Bobby and Millicent had their moment after Greg had left for a date. He is now back home perusing old albums. It is as though Cindy has sat around for hours gleefully basking in the knowledge of her secret and just now went around sharing her news.

 

Downstairs, Carol visits Mike in his den and he displays his ukulele playing prowess. He and Carol engage in a fun duet of “I Want To Be Loved By You”. Typically, I am not a fan of sitcom actors breaking out in song, but this was a nice little rendition of the tune. Alice soon pokes her head in the door with her own “Boop-Boop-Be-Doop” to close out the fun little music session.

 

Up in his room, Bobby reimagines the romantic encounter experienced earlier. It is a humorous reenactment of the peck Millicent gave him. This time, they are running to one another with their arms outstretched. Upon meeting they join hands and spin around. The daydream ends with another kiss. Bobby then walks over to the mirror to view his pucker and reflect on the moment. Peter enters and asks if Bobby is practicing for an ugly contest. It looks like Peter is still a horse’s rear in season five. Bobbly cleverly says he was practicing for a whistling contest. Just then, round two of the annoying Cindy chant occurs. She lets Bobby and Peter know she has a secret. After leaving, Peter says she has nothing on him and Bobby coolly shares the same sentiment.

 

In a funny and effective scene transition, the next shot opens with Bobby demanding Cindy share with him the secret. Cindy shares it via a pointless round of charades. Bobby is quite distraught that Cindy knows what occurred. Just then, the other Brady siblings enter the room and demand to know the secret. Cindy decides not to share the secret of her smooching brother, claiming she was only chanting about a secret for attention. While she was super annoying earlier, she somewhat redeems herself here.

 

Down in Mike’s den, Carol is modeling her 20’s style dress. She says she got it out of a trunk in the attic. Seeing how the attic was vacated of stuff last season, she must have liked the old dress enough to hang it in her closet until such a time that 1920’s attire was needed. Bobby then enters and asks for a father-son chat with Mike. Bobby and Mike have a nice chat about experiencing a first kiss and being in love. A simple kiss has Bobby’s young mind all ready thinking about love, engagement and marriage. I am sure many a young teenager watching this episode identified well with Bobby’s emotions. Mike says one must be very certain that he or she is in love.

 

Bobby’s efforts to find out if he is in fact in love or not causes him a world of trouble. He visits Millicent’s house and gives her a kiss as soon as she opens the door. Prior to this, there was a nice touch to the scene as Bobby’s was fixing his hair as he approached the door. After kissing her and confirming the reappearance of fireworks, Millicent lets Bobby know he should not have done that. It is possible she has the mumps! It seems the simple raising of an arm or step back would have seen Bobby not being able to lay one on Millicent, but she just stood there while Bobby kissed her.

Do any readers recognize the house used for Millicent’s from another TV show? It sure looks familiar, but I can’t place it.

 

Bobby’s mumps worries are evident as he arrives home. Alice notices his sullen demeanor and the pair discuss mumps symptoms. Alice says it is best a person who might have the mumps stay away from everybody else. In my life, I’ve known of only one personal acquaintance who had the mumps. When I was in the first grade (1983 or 1984), I recall the teacher telling us a classmate had the mumps. My mom had them when she was a kid. Today, vaccinations against measles, mumps and rubella have seen a large decline in the ailment. Readers, if you have any stories of the mumps you’d like to share, please do so.  Bobby’s search for mumps symptoms leads to a second encounter with Peter. Bobby says he was measuring his neck and Peter says it will never be as thick as his head. Dang Peter, why are you such a butt to Bobby? When Peter offers to measure his head, Bobby jumps away from him.

 

Down in the living room, Alice and the Bradys (minus Bobby) practice the Charleston in the living room. They do this in full 1920s attire. I guess they wanted to make certain those aged dresses and clothes could withstand all that dancing and thrashing about. It would be very easy to identify this scene as cheesy, corny or hokey. However, everybody looks to be having such a fantastic time dancing around the living room that it made for a very sweet scene.

Bobby phones Millicent to see if there is an update on her having the mumps. She lets him know that she will know the following morning. The young lady playing Millicent is Melissa Sue Anderson. Fans of classic television will immediately recognize her as Mary Ingalls from the long running western, “Little House On The Prairie”. She was the only cast member for the show to ever be nominated for an Emmy. She continued to act after the show before taking a break to be a stay at home mom. Her most recent acting credit is from 2018 in the film “The Con Is On”. She is also now a Canadian citizen, although I did not find (or really look for) a reason for her changing her citizenship.

 

Carol goes to look in on the youngest boys that night and finds Bobby gone. He made his bed up to look like he was sleeping there. Carol is alarmed and awakens Peter. She, Peter, Greg and Mike go in search of Bobby. They check to see if he might have run away by looking for his bicycle in the garage. In a funny line, Peter suggests Bobby ran away by walking or hitchiking. Upon sharing that Bobby could be in another town, Mike tells him to knock it off. Then they hear music coming from the dog house and find Bobby there. I could not help but notice he was not wearing pajamas. It seems it would have been noticed earlier that Bobby was still in his regular clothes as the evening went on.

 

Bobby shares his dilemma with Mike and Carol. Mike makes a funny comment in that if Bobby does have the mumps, he got them the best way possible. The next morning, Bobby anxiously awaits a phone call from Millicent. Upon hearing it ring, Bobby answers the phone questioning if Millicent has the mumps. He is discouraged to find it is Sam calling to share with Alice a good deal on lamb. As Bobby laments having to wait, the girls find out he is worried about having the mumps because he kissed Millicent. I was surprised they did not all ready know at this point. Why would Bobby be so concerned about a girl having the mumps otherwise? It was stated earlier that Millicent was Cindy’s friend. It seems Cindy would have reason to worry too if it was just casual contact that risked exposure.

Bobby gets the phone call and it is good news. Millicent is mumps-free and declares Bobby a good kisser. With that he is off to pay her a visit. Mike briefly mentions the excitement of young love and the awe a kiss can bring. Carol states it doesn’t necessarily have to be young love to elicit an amazing reaction to a kiss. She lays one on Mike at the breakfast table and he sees skyrockets. It was a cute wrap to a fun episode.

The epilogue wraps up the b-plot. The family arrives home after a night of revisiting the 1920s. Alice and Sam won the Charleston contest, but by less than honest means. Alice put some ice cubes down Sam’s shirt before the contest started.

Thank you for reviewing “You’re Never Too Young” with me! There was little to question or pick apart with the story. It is just a fun and believable tale of a boy’s first kiss and the craziness that romance can bring. I know it had me thinking back to that tumultuous age of thirteen that saw the world changing around me so quickly. Please share any thoughts you would like to share about this episode, the mumps or young love!  Next week, we review “Peter And The Wolf”. Have a great weekend!