037: The Girl From Italy
The brief synopsis of this one as featured in Wikipedia's episode guide is "Bilko attempts to make a newly arrived immigrant girl look presentable". Just imagine pitching that as a script idea to the BBC in the present day.
Bilko finagles tickets to My Fair Lady - featuring Julie Andrews, I didn't know she was a thing in the '50s - for himself, Rocco and Henshaw while they're visiting New York. Meanwhile, Rocco learns that his brother has called off his wedding with an Italian girl who's just arrived off a boat, after meeting her for the first time. Apparently arranged marriages were a thing in the Italian immigrant community back then.
The Italian national stereotype is really laid on thick here - Rocco's big momma pleading "she's-a nice-a girl" to his brother, for example and bursting into overwrought tears with all the Italian hand-wringing going on. And there's an elderly Italian gentleman who only ever says "hello Joe!".
But I think the actors used probably are at least Italian American, and (hey) it's a sitcom after all.
Of course they did their best to make the lowly immigrant girl look unsophisticated and peasant-like to start off with, but actually from the moment we see her it's obvious she's a babe - albeit swathed in black peasant dress with pigtails. Then again I suppose I'm a connoisseur.
The whole story is, of course, a sort of affectionate pastiche of My Fair Lady.
Sinatra gets a mention. There's something slightly melancholy, I find, about hearing these references to people who would continue to be household names in the '60s and '70s, from way back when.
Not a bad one.
The brief synopsis of this one as featured in Wikipedia's episode guide is "Bilko attempts to make a newly arrived immigrant girl look presentable". Just imagine pitching that as a script idea to the BBC in the present day.
Bilko finagles tickets to My Fair Lady - featuring Julie Andrews, I didn't know she was a thing in the '50s - for himself, Rocco and Henshaw while they're visiting New York. Meanwhile, Rocco learns that his brother has called off his wedding with an Italian girl who's just arrived off a boat, after meeting her for the first time. Apparently arranged marriages were a thing in the Italian immigrant community back then.
The Italian national stereotype is really laid on thick here - Rocco's big momma pleading "she's-a nice-a girl" to his brother, for example and bursting into overwrought tears with all the Italian hand-wringing going on. And there's an elderly Italian gentleman who only ever says "hello Joe!".
But I think the actors used probably are at least Italian American, and (hey) it's a sitcom after all.
Of course they did their best to make the lowly immigrant girl look unsophisticated and peasant-like to start off with, but actually from the moment we see her it's obvious she's a babe - albeit swathed in black peasant dress with pigtails. Then again I suppose I'm a connoisseur.
The whole story is, of course, a sort of affectionate pastiche of My Fair Lady.
Sinatra gets a mention. There's something slightly melancholy, I find, about hearing these references to people who would continue to be household names in the '60s and '70s, from way back when.
Not a bad one.