Hot Lips Hannigan

Fred tries out a magic act and thinks he makes Wilma and Betty disappear.

An early but very funny episode. Fred and Barney decide to go out to a dance hall when they think Wilma and Betty are gone. The wives follow them to the place in disguise. One of the funniest guest characters is Hot Lips Hannigan, a jazz musician who was an old friend of Fred's. When he speaks into the microphone he has a gravelly, jazz voice saying things like "scoodilee-oo wah wah wah" but off mic he has goofy sounding voice.

This episode stalls most of the way through. There isn't the witty writing as the first episode. No big laughs or funny animal bits with stone age animals being used as tools or helpers that were so hilarious in episode one.

The conversation between the characters was bland. Things did get cuter in the Rockland Music Hall. But not necessarily funnier. The "Hot Lips Hannigan" (Jerry Mann) having a cool jazz guy voice on mic then a common guy regular voice off mic was the highlight of the sputtering episode. Curiously there was a stand-in replacement voice for Alan Reed's singing part. Will be interesting if the quality of writing and humor of the first episode is reached again where it was non-stop big laughs. If I remember right from watching as a kid it will indeed.