Easily the worst of the entire McDoakes series. Joe's wife Alice and Homer's wife want to go out to a fashion show, and Homer is going out to a poker game. So Joe, who'd rather be asleep at home, is left to baby-sit Homer's child Junior (Billy Gray, five years before his TV stardom on "Father Knows Best").
It figures that Homer would have an anti-social brat for a son, but Junior isn't even a believable brat. He's the kind of kid who exists only in the minds of desperate screenwriters -- overly angelic to his parents, only to turn into an outrageous monster once the parents have exited. Junior pulls every kind of stunt imaginable on Joe, and we're expected to laugh at poor put-upon Joe -- whereas if this was acted out realistically, one of the pair would probably be dead by the end of the short.
Even the short's final "topper" gag is unbelievably lame. A total misfire.
Our rating: (C) 2012, Steve Bailey.
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